Namibia - Etosha National Park/Onguma Bush Camp

 Etosha National Park is one of the largest national parks in Africa, spanning 8,600 square miles and supposedly has four of the "Big Five".  We drove from the west entrance of the park to the east entrance in a full day drive, saw many springboks, zebras and elephants but didn't see any lions, leopards or rhinoceros.  No off road driving is allowed so we were dependent on the animals appearing beside the road or at the waterholes.  But we were lucky to see many young animals - guess it's the time of year that the babies are decent sizes and are easily visible.  

We exited the Park and spent two nights at Onguma Bush Camp, a conservancy not far from the east entrance of the Park.  We were fortunate enough to see a lion on a sundowner drive at this camp but no black rhinos or leopards.  That will have to wait for Kenya.  What was different at Onguma was that we spent a morning at a hide.  This is quite an elaborate setup as you can see from the photos below.  It is a new experience to be able to see wildlife so close without disturbing them although I think they are aware that we are watching them.  We saw lots of birds and of course each one we saw is a lifer since they are unique to the continent.

Zebra and foal

Foal nursing

Giraffe and young

Almost comical!

Foreplay

Yellow-billed Hornbill - one of the first birds I saw at the lodge

 

An Oryx - the only one we saw

First sighting of ostriches

Springboks locking horns seem to be a common sight.  

A lone acacia tree is also a common sight on the grasslands, both here and in Kenya.  This one has a weaver's nest.

Pale-chanting goshawk, one of many goshawks we saw.  
Always easy to spot as they like to perch on tree tops.

Kori Bustard

First wildebeest sighting

The fenced path to the hide

Inside the hide

The hide on the outside

The hide gave us an unusual viewpoint, basically we were below ground and shooting at ground level.   The photos below were taken from the hide.  You can see it is like having the camera on the ground in front of the elephants.  

This Southern Cordonbleu was right in front of our window

Warthog came for a drink

Eastern Paradise-Whydah  
Birds are a bit harder from below ground but at least we didn't scare them away.  



This White-backed vulture was picking branches from a bush in front of the hide to build its nest.

In the afternoon, we went for a sundowner drive on the property.  There was a big effort to look for rhinos, but to no avail. However there were lots to see.  We encountered this exceptionally spectacular bird, the Lilac-breasted roller, Namibia's national bird, beautifully lit in the golden hour.

 

This is how it got its name - it rolls when in flight.  I was lucky to catch the roll.

We were headed towards the sunset spot when our road was blocked by a couple of elephants in some kind of conflict - not sure what they were doing but the situation was a little tense, with them not budging and then turning around.  The guide did not want to risk an encounter so we backed off and found another route.  

We lucked out - a lion was sitting in the middle of this alternate route!  

We waited and it decided to walk away.

Our first lion

On the way back to the camp, we saw this elusive dik-dik, the smallest antelope

The dining room at the camp overlooks a pond that actually serves as a watering hole for the animals.  So we always took our cameras with us at meals because there was always something to photograph.  Below is a male kudu - our first sighting of a live kudu even though we had been trying its meat at various stops on our route.  It is quite delicious.  

Red-veined Dropwing dragonfly

Even an elephant dropped by in the blue hour

We enjoyed this beautiful sunset before we left Namibia.  We drove to Windhoek to catch our flight to Kenya via Johannesburg.  It was a six hour drive but thankfully on paved highway most of the time.  Farewell Namibia!  

Namibia - Twyfelfontein

 From Swakopmund, we travelled north to Twyfelfontein, which has Nambia's first UNESCO World Heritage site.  I think it may be helpful at this point to share a map of our journey.

We drove along the coast for a bit before turning inland at Henties Bay.  This shipwreck of the fishing trawler Zeila (m 2008) and the ocean provided a photo break before we continued inland through the desert.   

The flat barren landscape along the way changed to red rocks as we approached Twyfelfontein.  Someone commented that the red boulders look like the ones at Joshua Tree National Park in California, another place I would like to visit.  

We arrived at the lodge during the golden hour and the colour of the rocks were almost surreal.

We were welcomed by a pair of Namib Rock agamas - the male with the bright red head and tail and the female in more subtle colours.

 

Armoured ground cricket

African-red-eyed bulbul - first of many lifers on this trip

Namib Day gecko

We had our first game drive in the morning.  It was a long trek down a dried up river bed looking for recent footprints and signs of the elephants.  What a pleasant surprise to see one finally strolling towards us.  It was our first elephant sighting in Africa!  

First giraffe sighting

Then along came a bull in heat - the guide quickly backed off and drove away from the river bed.  

There are often circular bare patches on the grassland - nothing grew there and research has been done to try and find out why.  These are known as "fairy circles" - most prevalent in the Namib desert.  

This is the seedpod from the white acacia tree, also known as apple-ring Acacia - one of the he elephants' favourite foods.

We visited the Damara Living Museum - a community project to provide a cultural experience of the Damara people, the oldest ethnic group in Namibia.  We were warmly welcomed by the community with song and dance and demonstrations of their native arts, crafts and medicine.  Their friendliness was heartwarming.

The Museum entrance

Welcome song and dance - a joyful crowd

Before we head to Etosha National Park the following morning, we visited the UNESCO heritage site and did a short hike to see the petroglyphs.  This is a view of the surrounding red rock cliffs from the trail.  I would not call it an easy hike because there is some clambering up and down rocks at some point, but it is doable for the majority of our group because it is thankfully short and there were interesting petroglyphs along the trail.

Lion Man rock - represented by the lion with a man's foot at the end of its tail.

This is supposed to be a water map, showing where water can be found

Giraffes with four heads are supposed to indicate movement

We also stopped by the Petrified Forest National Park just before Khorixas - it has some very large fossilized tree trunks some said to be 280 million years old.  The photo below shows one of the largest pieces.  The park also has some excellent examples of the Namibia national flower, the Welwitschia mirabilis, known to be one of the longest living plants in the world.  

Welwitschia mirabilis female

Welwitschia mirabilis male - The plant has only two leaves that grow out of a large woody stem, known as a crown, and continue to grow throughout the plant's life. Welwitschia is one of the longest-living plants on Earth, with some individuals being thousands of years old. (Wikipaedia)

This lark-like bunting was singing atop a bush

We arrived at the lodge just outside of Etosha National Park just in time for sunset.