A third visit to Etosha National Park
So I did my third trip into Etosha this past June (2009). It was memorable for a few things. It was the first time that I've actually camped in Etosha (we stayed at the Namutoni campground. The campgrounds are very plain, designed more for volume than experience.
Of course the campground are completely infested with jackals at night and mongoose(s) during. The jackals keep their distance, the mongoose, not so much. Oddly, a sign noted that there's been reports of rabies among jackals and we were to report any suspicious actions, including "depression." How we're supposed to know if a jackal is depressed, I don't know.
Here's a mongoose or two...
This is the first time that I've been to the park and not seen a lion. The two rhinos that we saw made up for it - one in the day at a watering hole and another at night at a different hole.
Other things that we saw of interest included elephants fighting...
... the remains of someone's lunch...
... zebras giving a demonsttration on how their camoflage works (how many do you see?)...
...a dikdik hiding (if ever there was a "jackalope" this is it)...
... and this grand-daddy of elephants wandering around by himself.
Look at this face. The stories it tells.
