It's been a long long time... And believe me, I should be studying right now but I so much don't want to! So I decided to enlighten my day (and hopefully yours too :)) with a story of the day 10 of our African tour. This is the first day (out of three) we spent in Etosha (still in Namibia). Etosha means "Great White Place" and the area is what used to be a lake. Now it's just dry, sandy, large pan.
Entering the park started our first game drive. And I guess that all of us who had never been to a game drive before were really excited. First waterhole = first stop. There were plenty of springboks and zebras, some ostriches... What is a waterhole, by the way? Waterhole is a place with water (I know - what a surprise! :)), either natural, or man-made, where animals come to drink and do stuff they do when they're close to water... And of course, it's also a place where all the tourists go because the chance of seeing animals is much higher close to the waterholes...
Jan told us a lot of interesting information about everything we saw (I can't remember it all, of course), explained to us why zebras have black and white stripes, told us that the ostriches are good runners and also pretty dangerous animals (which I remembered later on the way back to Jo'burg when we stopped at a gas station and had to pass one just standing in the middle of the parking lot... there was pretty much no way to avoid it...). And after we saw all the springboks we could (and wanted) to see, we got to the campsite, our base for the night, called Okaukuejo.
That campsite was really nice, especially the cabins in which we weren't staying but inside of which we could see and be jealous. :) Also, there was a wonderful waterhole which I liked and didn't like at the same time. It was like a movie-theater... There were plenty of benches around so that you could sit there the whole day and night and watch who's coming to "get a drink". Also, there were lamps so the waterhole was like a stage where the top stars come to show themselves. Only that the stars are animals who'd be probably happier if people didn't bother them. But seriously - I was there and had to see it too... Although I didn't like the idea much.
After lunch and some relax time, we left for another game drive which lasted until sunset. Now we saw some elephants and giraffes, too. I think I told you already how some animals "lose" their magic when you see them for the 100th time, but elephants do not. They're always amazing. Especially when they're really close to you and you see how huge they are and although you're sitting in a truck (with windows open, though), you don't feel completely safe. I didn't. But nothing happened. :) Talking about elephants - Jan stopped at one point to grab an elephant "poo" and bring it to the truck to show us what it looks like and what it smells like when it's burning. It smells kinda good - the local people, Jan said, use it as a cure for headaches. And don't be disgusted, elephant dung is completely dry... It goes out looking pretty much the same as it did when it got in... :) (But this... Jan standing in the truck with the dung in his hand and passing it around and giving us all the information... that's the real meaning of the phrase "talking shit", isn't it? :))
Ok, and a little secret about game drives. They're exciting only to some point... You're excited and you want to see the animals and stuff, so you're staring outside the windows and waiting and waiting and waiting... And then the waiting gets to long and you get tired and fall asleep. The fact is: game drives are fun when there's something going on all the time, or when they aren't too long. Or when you're driving yourself.
Then we got back to the campsite which was pretty much the highlight of the day as there was a rhino by the waterhole! And after dinner, we took our blankets, sleeping bags, cups of tea and went to spend some time at the waterhole... You could actually sleep there! (But I wouldn't - I went to the toilet during the night and the campsite was full of jackals... which wasn't pleasant... not that I'd be afraid of them but they're like pigeons with four legs! They go into all of the trashcans around, they's steal everything you'd leave outside the tent and they're very noisy too. Just imagining that something like walks over my face while I'm asleep... :)))
So the waterhole... There were two or three of the rhinos... But they left the best spot as soon as the elephants came. And then the giraffes came, that didn't drive off anybody, who are really funny-looking when they're drinking. Oh, and we forgot to charge our batteries so we didn't take any pictures. :) Our original plan - to stay out the whole night (what if a lion comes!!!) didn't work out as it was really cold. Jirka left first and then me and Jill gave up too.
So that's the Day 10 - the first day of official game-driving. Now we're in the middle of the tour and I have no idea when the next post is going to come... I have the state exams next week, I should be studying, you know! :)
Entering the park started our first game drive. And I guess that all of us who had never been to a game drive before were really excited. First waterhole = first stop. There were plenty of springboks and zebras, some ostriches... What is a waterhole, by the way? Waterhole is a place with water (I know - what a surprise! :)), either natural, or man-made, where animals come to drink and do stuff they do when they're close to water... And of course, it's also a place where all the tourists go because the chance of seeing animals is much higher close to the waterholes...
Jan told us a lot of interesting information about everything we saw (I can't remember it all, of course), explained to us why zebras have black and white stripes, told us that the ostriches are good runners and also pretty dangerous animals (which I remembered later on the way back to Jo'burg when we stopped at a gas station and had to pass one just standing in the middle of the parking lot... there was pretty much no way to avoid it...). And after we saw all the springboks we could (and wanted) to see, we got to the campsite, our base for the night, called Okaukuejo.
That campsite was really nice, especially the cabins in which we weren't staying but inside of which we could see and be jealous. :) Also, there was a wonderful waterhole which I liked and didn't like at the same time. It was like a movie-theater... There were plenty of benches around so that you could sit there the whole day and night and watch who's coming to "get a drink". Also, there were lamps so the waterhole was like a stage where the top stars come to show themselves. Only that the stars are animals who'd be probably happier if people didn't bother them. But seriously - I was there and had to see it too... Although I didn't like the idea much.
After lunch and some relax time, we left for another game drive which lasted until sunset. Now we saw some elephants and giraffes, too. I think I told you already how some animals "lose" their magic when you see them for the 100th time, but elephants do not. They're always amazing. Especially when they're really close to you and you see how huge they are and although you're sitting in a truck (with windows open, though), you don't feel completely safe. I didn't. But nothing happened. :) Talking about elephants - Jan stopped at one point to grab an elephant "poo" and bring it to the truck to show us what it looks like and what it smells like when it's burning. It smells kinda good - the local people, Jan said, use it as a cure for headaches. And don't be disgusted, elephant dung is completely dry... It goes out looking pretty much the same as it did when it got in... :) (But this... Jan standing in the truck with the dung in his hand and passing it around and giving us all the information... that's the real meaning of the phrase "talking shit", isn't it? :))
Ok, and a little secret about game drives. They're exciting only to some point... You're excited and you want to see the animals and stuff, so you're staring outside the windows and waiting and waiting and waiting... And then the waiting gets to long and you get tired and fall asleep. The fact is: game drives are fun when there's something going on all the time, or when they aren't too long. Or when you're driving yourself.
Then we got back to the campsite which was pretty much the highlight of the day as there was a rhino by the waterhole! And after dinner, we took our blankets, sleeping bags, cups of tea and went to spend some time at the waterhole... You could actually sleep there! (But I wouldn't - I went to the toilet during the night and the campsite was full of jackals... which wasn't pleasant... not that I'd be afraid of them but they're like pigeons with four legs! They go into all of the trashcans around, they's steal everything you'd leave outside the tent and they're very noisy too. Just imagining that something like walks over my face while I'm asleep... :)))
So the waterhole... There were two or three of the rhinos... But they left the best spot as soon as the elephants came. And then the giraffes came, that didn't drive off anybody, who are really funny-looking when they're drinking. Oh, and we forgot to charge our batteries so we didn't take any pictures. :) Our original plan - to stay out the whole night (what if a lion comes!!!) didn't work out as it was really cold. Jirka left first and then me and Jill gave up too.
So that's the Day 10 - the first day of official game-driving. Now we're in the middle of the tour and I have no idea when the next post is going to come... I have the state exams next week, I should be studying, you know! :)
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We tried to stay at the waterhole to watch lions too. It was cold, so we tried drinking brandy and coke but that only made me sleepy and ultimately I failed. Only one guy in our group stayed up for lions and he said they didn't come for several hours after we'd all gone to bed. Their tricky, lions.
-Susan
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