Ethosha Game Park and The Naukluft Mountains

Lindsey and I just got back from our two week long vacation. It was amazing, adventurous, and extremely tiring, so we are happy to be back in our hut and sleeping in an actual bed.

Etosha Game Park

The first rhino we stumbled across

Etosha is the biggest game park in Namibia and is claimed to be one of the best parks to see animals in the entire world. Also, viewing game is better in the dry season (which it is now) because animals have to congregate at the few remaining waterholes, and Namibia happens to be right in the middle of the worst drought to hit the country in 30 years. So, it was really dry out there.  

A group of four of us rented a car from a nearby town called Tsumeb, and drove ourselves around on the dirt roads inside the park. We saw and got autographs from the entire cast of The Lion King and pretty much every other animal you could think of. We were really hoping to see at least one rhino in the park (especially since they are endangered and actually extinct in a lot of African countries because of poaching) and we certainly got lucky - at the very first waterhole that we went to, a rhino walked up within 30 seconds and was followed by another rhino about a minute later. In fact, we saw so many rhinos throughout the few days that we were there, it got to the point where we would just point out the window and say, “rhino” as we drove by, not even slowing down to get a closer look. Jealous? You should be :)

We camped at this lodge called Halali, which is in the center of the park and has a pretty decent waterhole. There are just three lodges inside the park that all have either real or artificial waterholes situated just outside the lodge to attract the animals at all times of the day. You are allowed to walk to the waterholes (just the ones that are on the lodge grounds - everywhere outside the lodge you are supposed to stay in your car) and you can sit and watch for as long as you want as animals come and go as they please. The viewing area of the waterhole at Halali was up on rocks and fenced in to protect you from the animals, so it is not like you are just standing nearby, “hiding” behind a tree. 

Elephants, elephants, elephants - I never thought I would see so many elephants. There was one waterhole where we literally saw over 50 elephants at the same time. They are by far the most fun animals to watch. They roll around in the water, spray water all over themselves, and then throw dirt on their wet skin to help cool them off. The waterholes for them are multipurpose - they serve as drinking fountains, baths, and toilets, all in one convenient location. An interesting combination if you ask me.

There were about 50 elephants at this waterhole.

Elephants throwing dirt on themselves after rolling around in the waterhole.

In the middle of the park is The Etosha Pan - an immense salt pan that has been dry for centuries but was once an ancient lake. It apparently turns into a shallow lagoon for a few weeks every year during rainy season, but when we were there is was just dried, cracked clay for miles in every direction. If you ever wanted to know what “nothing” looks like, you should go there. It is hard to tell where the ground ends and where the sky begins since they both have a whitish, grey tint to them.

This is what "nothing" looks like on the Etosha Pan.

On our last day in the park, we came around a turn and spotted a hyena running down the center of the road - straight at us. We honestly thought it was a lion at first because it was so big. I had no idea how big hyenas are, but when you see one up close - man, those things are not to be trifled with. He ran right up in front of our car, posed for a few photos, and continued running past us on whatever mission he was on. We only saw one pride of lions that were walking through a field in the distance, but unfortunately we didn’t see any males. Maybe next time.

Hyenas looks like demon-faced dogs. And why is he smiling at us?

These are some of the lions we spotted walking in the distance.

The Naukluft Mountains

The second part of our journey was an 8 day hike through the Naukluft Mountains. The hike is apparently one of the hardest in Africa, and some of the people we met along the way were even claiming it was the “hardest hike in the southern hemisphere of the world.” I have no idea if that is true or not, but hey, I’ll believe them for now I guess.

Our group before we started the hike. 

There were 8 Peace Corps Volunteers on the trek, including Lindsey and I, and we all carried all of our own food, clothes, and gear for the whole trip. Our meals consisted of instant porridge (it is kind of like cream of wheat that you just mix with water) for breakfast and dinner, and tuna in a tortilla for lunch. And lots of peanut butter. Too much peanut butter. 

Each day we walked, climbed, ascended, and descended around 10 miles of pretty rugged terrain and everyone’s feet were definitely hurting from the daily abuse. Our feet actually faired better than almost everyone else because Lindsey and I wore running shoes as opposed to hiking boots. We didn’t have a single blister until the end of day 5, and everyone else’s feet were mangled with blisters after the first day. One of the guys even elected to wear he sandals for the rest of the trip to avoid more blisters. So I ask - what is the point of hiking boots besides being heavy and giving your blisters? 

Lindsey and I on our way up one of the chains.

Lindsey nearly had a panic attack up this set of chains. She climbed up like a champion though.

Oh hey Rob.

Each night we stayed in “shelters”, which more or less consisted of a metal roof with a 4 foot high stone wall around it and a dirt floor. There were different water pumps at each shelter everyday that were pretty old school. Some examples include - pumping out the water by aggressively turning a giant wheel for about 2 minutes just to get any water to come out, lowering a bucket down into an actual well, and several hand pumps that took two people to operate. It was all great fun though. Well, it was all fun until it came time to sleep. 

Playing cards after a long days hike. That is also what our typical shelter looked like.

This was the first actual backpacking excursion that we had ever been on so we didn’t really know what to expect, which is where we made a fatal flaw - we did not bring (mainly because we don’t have) sleeping mats. We slept on the ground the entire time in Etosha and Naukluft. Needless to say, we didn’t get the best sleep at night for the entire 2 weeks we were gone, which made it hard to get up every morning. If we ever do another hike like this one, sleeping mats will be packed before anything else. Also, the nights were literally freezing at Naukluft. During the day, the weather was absolutely beautiful. The temperature hovered around 75 degrees during the day with a slight breeze - it was great. But the second the sun drifted behind the surrounding mountains, the temperature would plummet. We brought some warm clothes, but I never expected it to be that cold out there at night. There were two nights in particular that the wind was blowing so hard that the noise alone made it difficult to sleep, not to mention the cold. The hike was awesome. The sleeping was not.

The rhino with anger issues.

More rhinos? Yes, we did run into a rhino. It is more accurate to say the rhino almost ran into us. So, I spent weeks prior to the trip convincing my mom not be worried about this hike because there were no wild animals inside the Naukluft Park - well, I was wrong. There are plenty of leopards, rhinos, baboons, and every hoofed animal in Namibia inside that park. Oops. We came across a rhino that was standing on the side of the slope next to us on the fourth day of our hike - maybe 300 feet away. We all freaked out and grabbed our cameras, amazed that we actually stumbled across a wild rhino while we were simply walking by. However, about thirty seconds later we all freaked out again, this time much more openly and for a different reason, as he began running down the side of the mountain straight for us. Our first instinct was to run, but we happened to be with another group doing the hike that day from South Africa (I suppose they knew what they were talking about), and they immediately yelled at us to “FREEZE!” We all stopped in our tracks, and the rhino suddenly turned 90 degrees and ran off into the distance. Talk about having a jacked heart rate after that - it was simply terrifying. Everything was good with the wildlife after that. Part of the group spotted a leopard one day but the guy that saw it first yelled, “Tim!” (because he knew that I was hoping to see one) and promptly scared it away before I got a look at it. All 8 of us on the trek finished with nothing more than a few scrapes, bruises, and blisters on our feet.

School Starting

The third and final term of school this year started last Tuesday for the students. Lindsey and I are back to the usual routine of school and teaching and everything is going great so far.