NAMIBIA: ETOSHA NATIONAL PARK, DAY 1, OKAUKUEJO CAMP

We paid our fee of 80 NAD/person/day (about $5.50 each/day), and drove into the park. Within a minute we found ourselves staring at a HUGE parade of elephants, 30 or more, grazing in the trees alongside the road, even crossing the road in front of us and the other 3-4 vehicles stopped there. It was the closest we had ever been to such a large herd. The herd included several babies--big babies, not newborns.

We were so close that it was difficult to get a photo with more than two or three elephants in it, making it hard to communicate the experience of being surrounded by these massive, ponderous beasts.

The bus in front of us gives perspective on how close we were to the herd:

Next time I complain about by multiplying wrinkles, someone remind me of this photo:

 It was fun to watch them eat. I don't know how there can be any vegetation left below about eight feet after they swoop through an area:

This elephant appears to have a gash along its cheek, possibly caused by fighting?  Also, he/she needs some dental work:

But there is a similar gash on the other side of the face (assuming this is the same elephant).  And look! She has a baby behind her! Mama had been shielding her from our gaze up until now. By the way, both male and female African elephants have tusks.

We watched this herd for quite a while, but eventually we had to move on.

Not too much further down the dirt road we met up with a dazzle of mountain zebras, one of the three species of zebras.  They are distinguished by their dewlap, or a flap of skin at the bottom of the neck (not really visible here), and by the grey or brown stripe that can be seen in between the black stripes on the rump:

Rush hour traffic in Namibia:

I love the way the neck stripe continues into the mane:

Mothers and babies are cute no matter what animal kingdom they are from:

Like people, no two zebras are exactly alike. Can you spot the differences between these two? They look like identical twins to me!

 All the stripes make my head ache:

We finally got out of that traffic jam and moved on. I wish we had the view that this guy has so that we would know what's coming up next:

We saw lots of springboks, which are a species of medium-sized antelopes:

Again, it's amazing that there is any vegetation left after these guys come through:

It was while we were watching the springboks that we witnessed something that at the time we had no words to describe, but which I caught a tiny bit of with my cell phone camera. When we came home, we learned that this stiff-legged, hunch-backed bounce in which springboks lift all four legs off the ground simultaneously is called "pronking." This isn't a great video, but I felt very fortunate to capture this at all. Watch the animal crossing the road ahead of us:

Further down the road we saw at least one impala:

. . . and a few wildebeests, the bad boys of the range with their mohawks and unwashed and disheveled appearance:

It turned out there were quite a few of them. A group of wildebeest is called a "confusion.: 

I wouldn't want this guy for a roommate, would you?

Surprisingly, other animals don't mind hanging out with them. Here's a wildebeest with a springbok (foreground) and a couple of gemsbok (background):

Maybe if you stay upwind, it's not so bad: 

On the other end of the class spectrum is the Kori Bustard--tidy, precise, and elegant:

Two more classy bird specieis, the northern black korhaan and the crowned plover

We visited Okondeka watering hole before making our way to camp. We hit the jackpot with a wide variety of animals enjoying some refreshment: a giraffe, two zebra, an ostrich, a "wake" of buzzards (such a great group name) in the foreground, and what I think is a confusion of wildebeest along the horizon line. Maybe they are confused about where the party is:

Stripes AND polka dots. 

 We dutifully heeded the warning to "STAY IN YOUR CAR."  The last tourist who didn't might be the reason for that wake of buzzards.

All of this before we even checked in at Okaukuejo Camp, a former military outpost that has been remodeled to create a series of tourist cabins and a nice lodge:

Our room was pretty impressive for a national park:

 The grounds were also nicely landscaped and very well-kept:

Dusk was on its way, and we enjoyed that magical time in Africa when the light is waning and the colors intensify:

After eating our dinner in the lodge, we made our way to the place that the camp is famous for, a floodlit watering hole that is supposed to be the best place in all of Africa to see the endangered, reclusive black rhino:

And we did indeed some some black rhinos! After waiting for about 45 minutes, a rhino suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the far side of the water. Then a few minutes later, a large bull elephant appeared inside the glowing circle created by low wattage overhead lights.

Bob captured these photos of the rhino with giraffes and zebra keeping their distance:

Bob's photos of the rhinos are tons better than mine, but I am quite proud of my picture of an elephant. We watched this elephant dip his huge hose-like trunk into the water and then curl it under to funnel the water he had sucked up into his mouth. He stayed there drinking for quite some time.

Meanwhle, a different rhino had approached another part of the water hole. I eventually left and went back to the room, but Bob, so much more patient than I when it comes to animals, stuck around. Lucky him, he saw FOUR rhinos, two at the far side of the pond and two at the near side.

These photos are a little fuzzy (Bob shot took them without a tripod), but note the reflection of the rear rhino in the water:

The black rhino is a critically endangered species. Namibia has a rhino population of 1,750, which is about one-third of the world's total population, and most of them live in Etosha National Park. These weren't the last rhinos we saw in Namibia, but for Bob, seeing four at once was certainly one of the highlights of our visit to Etosha National Park.

Next up: Day 2 in Etosha National Park