There are many ways to introduce this newest adventure -- living in Africa -- but the best way seemed to be the the way that you would most probably be wanting to see: the animals.
So, twelve days into this grand adventure, we went to Etosha National Park, the second largest wildlife preserve in all of Africa (and make no mistake, Africa is a continent, a damned big continent).
Even though we were staying at the Educational Centre at the east gate, we chose to enter the park through the north gate. What a great idea that turned out to be. Almost immediately we found ourselves in the midst of a large herd of zebra. They were all standing around, and appeared to be staring for the most part in one direction. Of course they were. They were watching the lion that was lazily guarding the watering hole.
On the remainder of the journey down to the education centre, we saw (or almost ran over) two giraffe, an elephant, an ostrich, and a steenbok. Understand that at this point, we haven't officially started our stay yet. We saw a jackal and any number of springbok.
It amazed me just how fast you get tired of certain animals. Springbok? Yawn. Zebra? Yeah, so? Wildebeest? Only interested if there are a few babies to be seen.
The next day I don't think that we actually saw any new species, but we saw a variety of very photogenic animals around a few different watering holes.
We saw some wildebeest appear to get territorial on a group of zebras. Apparently one of the groups didn't want the other at the watering hole. The rainy season is months late this year, so perhaps tensions are high.
The adrenaline highlight was probably when we found a very sedate male lion near one of the watering holes. He really didn't care that we were there (which actually took the edge off the encounter - it made it feel a little like going to a zoo). But, his indifference meant that we got many long, slow photo opportunities.
The emotional highlight was probably when we came across a couple of elephants at a watering hole. They seemed to be keeping vigil over a dead comrade. The vultures were buzzing everywhere. One of the elephants walked over and "shooed" a bunch of vultures away but apparently gave up hope.
Shortly after that, the two elephants gave out a loud sound (a trumpeting?) and then slowly, with many backward glances, left the scene. Interestingly, the kudu, zebra and springbok left at the same time. Perhaps the elephants' presence was keeping some of the larger predators at bay. Sadly, it didn't stop the tourists from gawking at the corpse.
