Our next camp was Halali, set in an area of dolomite outcrops and with it’s own floodlit waterhole. It was dustier and more spread out than Namutoni, and our site made for some rather large lumps under the tent.
Etosha’s wildlife was again truly remarkable. The park is much smaller than it was originally, but Lonley Planet still lists 114 mammal, 340 bird, 16 reptile and lots of amphibian and fish species that make it their home. The highlight of our first morning’s game drive was a leopard, expertly spotted for us by Emma! The elusive hunter was creeping along in the brush, probably with his eye on some nearby springbok, waiting for the right moment to pounce. After watching him for a while we moved on to see hornbills and weaver’s nests hanging from trees like purses left by girls excited to get out on the dance floor.
On the afternoon game drive we were surprised and thrilled to see the final member of The Big 5, a rhino! Etosha is known as one of the last wild places to find the endangered black rhino, and we were lucky enough to spot one. He was huge, and seemed pretty uninterested in us ogling him from the truck.
We made the most of Etosha’s extensive network of roads that links the campsites with over 30 water holes in the central and eastern region. Each water hole had something new…giraffe bending down to drink, mating jackals, wandering zebra, too much to possibly list or remember.
In the evening, the floodlit water hole at Halali was noisy enough with coughing, whispering, beeping farting tourists, that we didn’t spend much time there. We were lucky a couple of hyena were bold enough to stop for a drink before we left.
