Day Fifty Three to Fifty Five – Etosha Again

Not to speak hereto a point of boredom but we had another exceptional few days, more cheetah and cubs, jackal pups, hyena finishing off elephant bones of the carcass we’d seen one month previously, lion, fighting giraffes, with their swinging heads acting like medieval maces. A head that heavy and at the end of a neck that long, swung with ferocity, each male exchanging blows to submission; it was fantastic stuff, a rare sight and straight from the animal behaviour book.

The waterhole by night was stocked well with elephants and rhino and Somers managed to stay there until the wee small hours unable to draw her eyes from the performance. And Somers gave rise to one particular highlight of the trip. Whilst watching a bull elephant alone at a watering hole, Lauras’ mind once more turned to that of watering herself. ” I’m just going to have a wee,” she said cheekily jumping out of the car. As I turned back to the elephant, a commotion ensued behind me, “Oh my holy crap,” said Somers, jumping back into the car and simultaneously closing the door in one fluid movement. So enthralled had we been at our elephant, we hadn’t seen the second elephant two metres behind Redvers; the one Somers had almost just run underneath whilst unbuttoning her shorts.

As we fell asleep at Namutoni Camp on our last night in Etosha, there was a storm in the east. Flashes of lightning strobed the night sky and the thunder that arrived so long after the flashes kept me awake. The rainy season had come and we were heading into it.