Description: Our original plan for our trip to Southern Africa was to do a safari in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. However, when our friend who was living in Namibia got wind of that, he advised, "Yeah, Kruger is great, but it’s huge, and not really that unique. You should spend more time in Namibia and go to Etosha instead." So we did, and he was right.

In some ways, Etosha is a hidden gem among the big African game parks. Namibia does not get nearly the number of tourists that South Africa does, and Etosha is often overlooked by tourists who are headed to one of the really well known game parks, such as Kruger, Serengeti, Chobe, or Masai Mara. But, for travelers who seek a somewhat less crowded safari experience, set against a landscape like no other, Etosha is an excellent choice. The park’s vast open spaces, including the Etosha Pan, combined with Namibia’s general lack of vegetation, make seeing wildlife very easy, and we felt like we missed nothing by going to Etosha instead of Kruger except the crowds.

Etosha is close to a big international airport, so getting there takes a bit more time and work. But, while Windhoek takes a bit more effort to fly to, especially from North America, once you are there, renting a car and driving up to Etosha is really quite easy, with paved, well maintained highways and good signs covering the roughly 400 km between the city and park entrance. When selecting a car rental, keep in mind that while the drive to the park from Windhoek is fully paved and the roads are quite good, once inside the park, the roads are unpaved, and conditions vary from good to rather bumpy. It’s also a very good idea to reserve a car rental in advance, as rental fleets in Windhoek are a bit limited, and there may not be availability for travelers who just show up without a reservation. We ended up with a nicely equipped Hyundai Sonata with automatic transmission, which was perfect for the paved highways, but left something to be desired on the unpaved roads in the park. It was not an awful choice by any means, and did not limit where we went in the park, but it did mean we had to take some rough spots on the gravel park roads very slowly. A SUV, while more expensive, would have provided for easier riding on the worst of the unpaved roads.

Etosha is home to a large number of species, including almost all of the large wildlife that most visitors aim to see while on a safari. Approximately 50 waterholes exist in the park. A number of these are naturally occurring springs, while the rest have been constructed by the Namibian park service. Due to the exceptionally dry conditions and lack of rain in the region, animals gravitate toward the waterholes, most of which are designed to be easily accessed by park visitors. In the drier areas of the park, where there is much less vegetation, it is often possible spot animals from some distance as they approach. Each of the park’s overnight rest camps also has a waterhole that is illuminated at night, allowing for comfortable nighttime viewing of the animals all night long, when they are often most active, from only a few feet away. During our trips to various waterholes, we saw dozens of elephants, giraffes, and zebra; more springbok and impala than we could ever begin to count; water buffalo, oryx, wart hogs, lions, rhinoceros, and a leopard. If you enjoy bird watching, the waterholes also attract a very large variety of birds, too.

While it is possible to see much of this vast park on a guided tour, and day tours into the park do exist, I highly suggest driving yourself, and staying at least one night in the park. The park’s roads are closed to the general public and private vehicles from dusk until dawn each night. This is for the safety of the park’s visitors, as large animals are frequently roaming the park and more likely to be on the roads in the park during the nighttime hours. However, if you are a registered overnight guest, you can stay in the park inside one of the rest camps. These provide clean, very modern accommodations, a variety of dining options, groceries, and gasoline. Guests of the rest camps can also take advantage of nighttime animal viewing at their rest camp’s illuminated waterhole, as well as register for nighttime game drives that the park operates, allowing visitors to see the big cats as they hunt at night. Unfortunately we did not have the time to do one of these nighttime drives, and I regret that, but we did have some incredible experiences at the waterhole at our rest camp in the evenings.

While Etosha is smaller than some parks, such as Kruger, it is still very large. I would recommend spending at least two nights there, with at least one full day to drive the park. That way you can experience most, if not all, of the different landscapes that the park offers, varying from open grasslands to large rock formations to the Etosha Pan, the salt flat that gives the park its name. On the day we drove up to Etosha from Windhoek, we left Windhoek around 9:30 AM, and made a few stops along the drive, enjoying lunch at a German restaurant in Outjo, and finally arriving at the entrance gate and Okaukuejo rest camp in Etosha in the early afternoon. After exploring the rest camp there, and enjoying the wildlife viewing at the camp’s waterhole, we headed toward the rest camp we were staying in, Halali, located approximately halfway along the park’s main road. Along the way we stopped at a variety of waterholes, seeing elephants, zebra, giraffes, ostrich, springbok, oryx, and impala. Once checked into Halali for the evening, we enjoyed wildlife viewing at the Moringa waterhole, including watching a herd of more than a dozen elephants, including several babies, as they bathed and played in the water.

Our second day in Etosha was spent with a full day of driving throughout the eastern half of the park. Our route took us east from Halali toward Springbokfontein, along the edge of the Etosha Pan toward Okerfontein, and on to a rest stop at Namutoni. Park visitors are strictly prohibited from exiting their vehicles except in the park’s designated rest camps and at a few restroom facilities off the main road. We made it to Namutoni approximately 3.5 hours after departing Halali, so it felt great to spend an hour walking around the former German fort turned into a wilderness lodge there. After stretching our legs, and obtaining a light lunch, we headed to Tsumcor, before turning back to Twee Palms, and then back toward our base camp at Halali, where we arrived with about half an hour to spare before the gates closed for the evening. After a brief rest and dinner, we returned to the overlook at the Moringa waterhole for the evening show of elephants, rhinos, and even a couple of big cats – a leopard and later, a lioness, who came for a drink.

Despite all of the amazing wildlife we had seen, we awoke to our last day at Etosha still not having seen much in the way of cats. Sure, there was the leopard and lioness the previous evening, but it was dark, and they did not photograph well. Our agenda for that day was to head west back to Okaukuejo, leave the park, and make the drive to Swakopmund, on the Namibian coast. However, we opted to stop at several waterholes on our way out of the park. First up was Salvadora, where we spotted a large animal slowly walking toward the waterhole. It was soon apparent that this was a cat; he was still at least a kilometer away, but his catlike gait was unmistakable. A few minutes later, he arrived at the waterhole, where he drank, and then settled in for a nap. We finally had our big cat experience! But, little did we know, it was only the beginning. After continuing on, we elected to pull off the main road at Homob, a large waterhole we had skipped two days earlier on our way in. There we were rewarded with several hundred zebra, and four lions, two male, two female, lounging right on the edge of the parking lot! We spent nearly an hour just taking it all in, watching the lions acting like just bigger versions of house cats, basking in the sunshine and not worrying at all about the tourists in their cars and safari buses just a few feet away. It was a fitting end to our 48 hours in Etosha, and an experience I will never forget.
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