Onguma Bush Camp Etosha National Park

... t hear me and so once again I lay awake listening. At 4:30am the alarm went off and I bolted upright as if I&#8217;d been waiting for it all night. <br><br>But Gabe sleepily rolled back over and once again the thought of dressing and walking out to the waterhole in the dead of night alone wasn&#8217;t all that appealing. This time though I couldn&#8217;t shake off the desire to go down, and so I ...

... their fear as they peer around wondering if there is a lion in wait for them. This makes it feel less like a zoo and more like you have a front row seat on Mother Nature.<br><br>We got there as the sun set and were treated to a lucky view of a large elephant making its way down to the waterhole. It stood silently on the other side before slowly making coming nearer to us. Then another one loomed on the horizon ...

... come for a drink as we sat quietly on benches. The night drive offered by the park( too expensive for us) was taken by 3 girls and they enjoyed seeing a lion chase a zebra into the bush and heard it being attacked and killed. During the night in our tent we heard lions roaring nearby (apparently a lion roar can be heard from 4 km away!) and we also heard hyenas as well.

... waiting for 3 other lions in the distance to decide what to do. We were so close we could see the blood on his legs and mouth from his breakfast!!<br><br>Then there were zebras - there were hundreds and thousands of them, which made me happy as I find them facinated (and took hundreds and thousands of photos of them!!). At one water hole there was a massive rendevous of the different zebra families, we saw a large herd heading there so followed them and over ...

... along the way and saw so many animals. Just after Salvadora and Sueda waterholes, which are always busy, I saw something walking which I thought was a wildebeest, Dave saw it as well and stopped. It turned out to be a very big stalking lioness! She was a little way from us and after a few steps she crouched on the ground. There must have been more around as it looked like she was hunting but we could only see the one. We ...

... raised. They were so close you could hear them breathing and as they knocked against each other you could hear the rubbing of their rough skin. The sound of their clashing horns was amazing and with some of the clashes they also ******!<br><br>These creatures look like they should have dies out with the dinosaurs and in the strange light of the waterhole they looked even more unreal. This was the most special event so far &#8211; how lucky were we to see not one, but six black rhino!?

... Springbok, Oryx, Impala and Zebra drinking. We all got to observe a Giraffe coming in to drink, which was interesting. Also we saw our first group of Kudu and Helmeted Guineafowl amongst the jackals. Also to come to the waterhole were 2 warthogs (1 adult and 1 youngster), 2 Tawny eagles (we think) and countless birds. All in all nearly 100 animals were there at once.<br><br>Went back to the campsite to get out of the sun till 3pm, when most animals would be out ...

... br><br>The second evening I was back to the watering hole again watching the sun set and then seeing the elephants and rhinos come. I was leaving after 10 pm when I saw something in the distance a big bigger than a jackel and a different shape wander down to the water. Yes, it was my lion (an old male lion like my Big Leo at home). Not many tourists were left now (cold?) and those who were there were blessed ...

... which I think Kristy may also have hooked up with but not sure. Interesting. <br><br>I left Jamie getting up close and personal with one of the girls from the green bus. I assured her that if she stayed over I would have her up and on her truck by 7am. Yeah right... like that was ever going to happen. Didn't seem to deter her though cause not 5 minutes after I had made it back to the tent I heard them both arrive, open the tent locker and pull out a spare. How they ...

2nd Jan - Namutoni Campsite, Etosha National Park, Namibia, 18.805S 16.9422E Alt 1122.5m Seeing spots!!! Keywords - 600km Drive, Night Game Drive, Leopard, Dung beetles, How flat is Africa? Night of the Jackal. Another 6am start sees us breaking camp to begin the drive to Etosha National Park ... it is a long drive of 600KM typical of my earlier truck life blog ... at lunch we did have a play with a massive dung beetle as he toiled to wheel a rather large ...