Day 63: Etosha Safari

We rush to breakfast, a slight oversleep means it’s close to make the truck, but we do, and we’re off We’re hoping for a lion today, but it’s not a good start. The park seems quiet, there isn’t much around. The initial excitement from jumping on the truck has subsided to a slight nervousness. Will we see anything? Is this just going to be an expensive ride in a Land Cruiser...

About an hour in to the trip, and Jason (the SA biker) exclaims “Rhino, rhino rhino” WOW! There’s a cool rhino about 50 meters away, just chilling. Brilliant, it is a stunner! My expectation of seeing the lion has pretty much evaporated, but this is pretty special. Half an hour later, Jason’s at it again. This time the rhino is at full pelt, running through the bush. David (our driver) floors it, we’re catching the rhino and trying to block it from crossing the road. It’s surreal to be driving next to a rhino at full speed, unbelievable.

But, things are about to get better. About 250 meters off the track, Jason spots a lion, whoah!  David stops, backs up and heads off road to get closer. Alex (the lion) is sitting under a tree, resting. He’s a pretty big male, and turns to check us out. The nervousness has dissipated and there are grins all over the truck. This is such a special day.

At lunch, Natalie requests we see a leopard. David grins “They are like gold, we will never see one”. We’re still grinning from Alex though J

Neatly rounding things off on the return trip, a bull elephant. Perhaps five or six tons, he’s a big chap. Just relaxing down by the watering hole. Three of the big five in one day, awesome!

Still heading back, poor Natalie. I’ve entered into bike talk with the three bikers. We’re not talking about travel tales really, just pure bike talk. It’s always enjoyable, but  not too great from Natalie. Mid chat though, David slams the brakes on hard. What the!? There’s dust everywhere and he slams it in reverse. “Leopard leopard leopard!!!”. It’s quite magnificent, and not worried by us at all. There’s clambering to see it, it’s interested in some mongoose. The dream!

It’s been a pretty special morning, and I’ll happily take four of the big five, esp if the one we’ve missed is buffalo.

After all the excitement, we just need to hang by the pool all afternoon....