March 19th 2015, Okaukuejo, Etosha

It was a short night for sure, but I slept very well. Myriam was not as lucky, and having gotten up in the middle of the night got to see an elephant come and have a drink at the lit waterhole in front of our cabin. But this did not stop us from getting up as usual in order to be out of the gate as early as possible.

We decided to go back to the place we had seen the lions the previous night. Chances were obviously very small that they would still remain around the same spot, but you never know. Turns out we didn’t get lucky again as there was absolutely no trace of them this morning.

Nearby there was a waterhole that we went to check out just in case there was something. But, after carefully looking around, there really were no animals there at all. So, we decided to head off in another direction. There was a car coming the other way, and I slowed so as to see if they had spotted anything. The guide told us that there was a hyena heading in our direction, and that it should appear soon by the waterhole we just left. So, we headed back and shortly after a lone hyena appeared. She looked very thirsty, but there was not really any water to be had, so she was soon on her way again looking for water elsewhere.

We decided to head in the direction of the camp as it was not far away so as to benefit from the toilets before going back out. Just before arriving at camp, we saw the black rhino again that had been at the waterhole the night before! So, this time we were able to get some good daylight pictures.

Heading back out, we took a new route heading further east. The landscape was getting increasingly dry and barren, making it fairly easy to spot animals. The problem was that there were not many to spot!

We pulled in at a small waterhole at one point, and there was a huge white rhino sleeping there! Just next to the rhino, there were also two blue cranes, and since we had seen a poster back at camp that these were very rare, we took some pictures as proof of having seen them. That was pretty much all, and as we were pretty tired, we decided to go back to camp for lunch and a nap.

Awaking from the nap, the first thing was obviously to check the waterhole again. This time there had been an elephant invasion! They were everywhere, and after having all had a drink, they began heading back out again. I tried counting them, and got to 28, but there were probably a few more. An amazing spectacle for sure!

This excitement had the adrenaline flowing again, and we got back in our car for an afternoon drive. Unfortunately the excitement began to wear off as there really was not much to see. The only real noteworthy spotting was a beautiful yellow billed hornbill.

It certainly was nice then to get to bed at a reasonable hour having arranged our stuff for the following morning as we would be changing camp yet again.