Etosha 2006

We set off Thursay morning to the northern reaches of Namibia. I was invited to Oshakati by Cyrlene and we were accompanied by her sister Shakira visiting from London and her son Jose. As we drove the landscape changed with and we saw increasing pastures and grazing space for cattle. It has rained a lot in Namibia this year. Throughout the beginning of January it rained almost daily for an hour or two before returning to sunshine. For this reason much of the landscape is green and blossoming. This may be a result of !Frank the rain god’s blessing on new years eve.

It did not take us long to get up to Etosha National Park. On the way we passed through Okahandja , Otjiwarongo, and Outjo. These are all very small townships as compared to Windhoek and the small town feel is quite captivating.

Etosha is a massive flat plain. It almost looks like the seashore if you approach it at the right angle. It appears as a beach leading out to the ocean but it’s really more of a desert plain. Around the pan is lush vegetation just right for the many animals that live here.

From Wikipedia:
The area exhibits a characteristic white and greenish surface, which spreads over hundreds of kilometers. The pan developed through tectonic plate activity over 10 million years. In prehistoric times water collected itself there and formed a lake. It is assumed that today’s Kunene River fed the lake at that time but over time plate movements caused a change in river direction causing the lake to run dry and leave a salt pan. The year-round meager vegetation lends gives the Etosha its characteristic green colouring. In particularly rainy years the Etosha pan becomes a lake approximately 10cm in depth and becomes a breeding ground for Flamingos, which arrive in their thousands.

The Etosha Pan as seen from space

As I said it has been really wet in Namibia and even more so in the northern reaches. Etosha was flooded. This proved poor conditions for animal viewing as the animals usually congregate around the water holes to get a drink. Under these conditions the animals could literally drink anywhere they wanted. For this reason most of the sightings were made on the way to the water holes and not at the water holes themselves. You are supposed to be able to sit at the water holes for hours as the animals come and go. We found the holes deserted and animals drinking from puddles along the roadside.

I had the pleasure of driving quite a bit though Etosha. I have become quite comfortable with a standard car and the only real issue is getting out of first gear. Once up to speed I can easily upshift and downshift. So, I was moving pretty quickly through the park as we traveled along dirt roads. I felt one of those off road endurance racers cruising through the outback. I got too comfortable and hit a pothole with quite a smack. We could hear something dragging after this point. I had torn part of the under paneling off of the bottom of the car and it was wrapped around dragging with quite a bit of force. Boy did I feel terrible; luckily Cyrlene is great and did not let me feel too badly about it. We actually started to have quite a laugh about the whole scenario. Jose was bored so we head towards our stop for the night the Halali Rest Camp.

Upon stopping the car at Halali we noticed that somewhere in Etosha we had lost a hubcap. The car had suffered another blemish and I felt worse about the whole thing!

Halali is a great place to stay. Of the three places to stay in the park it is right in the middle. Also a great value at $100 CAN we had two bedrooms, four beds, a full kitchen, and bbq. We had a nice bbq diner and sat out drinking wine and listening to the nothingness.

We woke up to rain on Friday morning. We were eager to find elephants this day so we made tracks early in the morning. After passing numerous vacant waterholes and many giraffes and buck along the road we were starting to get anxious. The rain had gathered quite a bit after raining all night. There were times that the car was immersed up to the doors while passing through a puddle. It was really hard to tell just how deep they would be before entering.

We were headed towards what was to be one of the best watering holes in the park. We tried to take a puddle at a diagonal. Next thing you know were stuck in the mud and muck. We tried to push it out but we had no luck. We were in deep.

Some sort of park ranger stopped and gave us hell for being outside of our car. “The lions are right there!” he yelled and pointed behind us giving me quite a start. We tried to find the tow hitch on the car.

Cyrlene drives a Megane Renault which has a lot of strength but is strictly a city car. The thing is quite low to the ground and far from a four wheel drive. By the way the Megane car is made in France and very dainty.

The tow hitch screwed into the axle for just such a situation unfortunately we could not find the tow hitch. Our park ranger left us to our own devices. Alone again we tried to pile rocks under the wheels to get it moving. I kept scanning the horizon for predators.

Along came some Germans who offered to give us a hand. They were seasoned outdoorsman with vests and safari hats. We attempted to tow via the back of the car between the rear door and the trunk causing quite a bit of damage to this part of the car.

We took everything out of the trunk for the third time and discovered the tow hitch hiding within the car jack. They had us out in a second. We thanked our saviors and exchanged pleasantries wishing them a happy day.

We were all filthy. We had been wading around in mud and pond water while getting rained on. I had almost lost a shoe to the sinking muck.

Back on track we thought it best to get our car out of the park. When we stopped, we surveyed the damage; one lost hubcap, torn under paneling, a dented and scratched panel, layers and layers of mud both inside and out, and four very dirty people. We cleaned up and had lunch at Namatomi before heading northbound away from the park.