Mon Aug 03 2026
Our first game drives in Etosha
Looking for animals on safari.
An early start to get the roof top tents packed up and ready for a departure as close to sunrise as possible (the gates to our camp only opened at sunrise).
We headed North/North West for the morning drive, as we expected this to be an area we wouldn’t re-visit, but we didn’t have much of a plan. Our guide book recommended various waterholes for different animals at different times of day, but we were really at the mercy of luck over advice or skill.
The morning drive was fruitful if not spectacular, but we were starting from a clean slate, with the girls never having been on safari and we hadn’t really seen much other than the wild giraffe and the animals at the waterhole.
We saw plenty of boks, zebras, wildebeast etc., and lots of birds.
We got back to camp, happy having seen the grazing animals but still no day time elephants or rhino, and decided to pop by the waterhole. There were three elephants there in broad daylight, just drinking and chilling.
We had some lunch then headed out in the direction of Halali Camp to so what we could see in the afternoon. It wasn’t fruitful until we stumbled across some stopped safari vehicles then Isla spotted a cheetah! Actually, it turned out there were two (we later found out they were probably two brothers) and we were able to track them alongside the road for a good 15 minutes. Unfortunately I had been downloading photos to my laptop and stupidly forgot to put the memory card back into the camera, so I clicked away to no avail!!! Typical, and an important lesson in photography, where a spectacular opportunity may arise at any moment! I had missed my chance to photograph a truly wild cheetah!
Luckily, the iPhone save the day and I was able to capture some shots and some video, so all was not lost!
We headed back to the camp, had some food then headed to the water hole for some night time viewing and amazingly saw seven white rhinos! It all felt a bit fake under the lights, and the photos didn’t really do it justice, but all in all, a very successful day of safari!