Etosha Dolomite Camp 7th July

After a cold night, we were up reasonably early to head off to Etosha the main game park of Namibia. It is primarily a huge pan which is dry during the winter months making game viewing very easy as they are forced to the water holes. After going into to town to the mechanics again, where Liam loosened koff the brakes to hopefully stop the extreme temperatures they seemed to be reaching, we headed south. We took a back road passing a number of herero tribes which we gave some of our excess meat. You can imagine we were mighty impressed when we reached a checkpoint just outside Etosha where they told us all our raw meat had to be handed over due to foot and mouth disease. All my hard work to get good meat and vacuum packed, gone. We stressed it needed to be handed out to the locals not thrown away... Shortly after we entered etosha where we went through all the paperwork to get permits. Africans love paperwork. It was 30 km to the government camp we were staying at but it wasn't long before we spotted Elephant and Giraffe. Despite being a government camp it was very luxurious. You can only enter this side of the park by staying overnight here in one of the luxurious tented huts. The boys were thrilled. The camp is set up high so you have a good view over the plain and from our verandah we could see Oryx, Elephant, springbok and Zebra. With the last few hours of sunshine we decided to visit some of the waterholes. We were very lucky in that the one right next to our camp had a huge herd of elephants arriving just as we came in, including some very young babies. Zebra, Oryx and springbok waited paitently for them to finish before moving in. They waved their ears at us a couple of times but didn't seem to fussed. We headed off to another waterhole arriving just as a rhino was leaving. At the last waterhole there wasn't much except for giraffes in the distance, some jackals, a hartebeest and spingbok. It was Sundown when we got back. As the camp is not fenced you cannot walk around with out an escort, so after the best shower ever in Chris' words we waited for our escort. The dining room was in a massive luxurious tent, but still a tent so getting cold. Kudu was on the menu but the boys opted for the safe route with chicken. Being very cold we headed back to what is in my mind the best beds ever for a very good warm nights sleep.