We arrived here around 3:30 PM when the animals are all sleeping or hiding in the shade. Our flight was another one of those small Cesnas and our pilot, Hannes (like the middle of Johannesburg, he told us, just drop the Jo and the burg) was a bit older and more authoritative than Robert, the barely legal pilot. In fact, Hannes was the opposite of that. Very by the book, uniform all pressed, serious about the safety briefing and the rules. He was quite obviously left behind here when the Germans departed after WWI. He warned us the flight would be hot and bumpy, given it was mid-day. Moira had the pleasure of riding in the back with the luggage so she felt it the most. I sat in the front and was petrified to even look at Hannes for fear I would be violating of the safety violations.
As per usual (shout out to any Justified fans reading this), a guide was there waiting for us. His name is Willem and he not only has a gold capped tooth but he has a gold star on one of his teeth. Maybe he got them from being a good brusher? He promised us an 8 minute ride to the lodge - Ongava Lodge to be precise - and that was pretty accurate. Ongava is on its own private reserve. The lodge is built into the side of a hill. You walk up and then down steps to get to the main area, which is open in the back and looks out onto the reserve and the lodge's two watering holes. Our room, or hut really, has the same view. You can sit on the porch and watch animals come in. It's like being at Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney. Or is Disney like being here? The hut is bigger than our apartments probably when you take into account the back porch with the outdoor shower.
Willem suggested we head out right away on our first drive, which would be in the reserve. Ann, the British woman who lives in Canada, was also here and assigned to Willem, as was another single man, Mark from Belgium. Willem asked if we had any wishes of what we wanted to see. I said cheetah or leopard as we still have never seen them. Moira agreed. Mark said rhino.
The first thing that struck us, other than not seeing many signs of animal life this time of day, was that there is a lot more green here and not as many wide open spaces as the other places we have visited. It is still very hot and dry but it isn't as easy to spot animals as they have more places to hide. And did I mention this is the hottest place we have been? Well, it is. As it was still so hot so late, we didn't see much to start out...a big vulture was our first sighting. We started to see the regular Namibian suspects: Springboek, oryx, guinea fowl, zebras, some giraffe. Then boom...a white rhino! These are the more common of the rhino and also the less aggressive so you can get much closer. Mark was thrilled. Or as thrilled as a very stoic Belgian gets, meaning he may possibly have smiled. Once we saw the first one it was a bit like the floodgates opened up. We saw two more, then one more, the another...and finally we came upon two, and seeing rhino groups isn't that common as rhino aren't group animals. These guys were still young though and hanging together. Their names were James and Zach. It cracks is up that the rhinos have names that are names of people we know for the most part. And right at this place, less than 25 meters from the rhino (again the damn metric system...that is about 30 yards) is where Willem decided to set up our sundowner. We actually missed stopping to see the actual sunset as the rhino viewing was so good but it was still nice to have a cold beer (Windhoeck beer, our local favorite) and watch the gorgeous sky while our rhino pals ate behind us. Another difference here is that it doesn't cool off as much when the sun sets. We ate outside and didn't even have to wear jackets or other layers.
In the morning, with Ann but minus Mark the Belgian, we headed over to Etosha National Park which is right next to Ongava. Etosha is known for its game viewing and is in the 1,000 Places to go Before You Die book (as is Sossusvlei). It is about a 20 minute drive from Ongava. In fact, the two properties have fences next to one another and some animals go back and forth. As people can drive into Etosha on their own, and register their cars or take a tour, it was more crowded than we are used to in Namibia. We can't go off the road here but it is known for its game viewing and didn't disappoint. We saw giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, kudu (a new one for us), elephants and lions. Yes, more lions. As we saw these mid -day, they were just hanging in the shade, with their eyes barely open. It is amazing how they can just blend into the colors of the background. But a good guide like Willem can spot them. And nothing can beat a morning coffee break by the waterhole. Next week when we are back at work, we are going to try to find a place mid-morning that makes us feel as relaxed as this. Might be tough.
The other thing that will be tough is not having sundowners every night a little before 7 PM. Our final sundowner was a mobile one. We spotted so many lion and rhino on our evening game drive around Ongava that we missed the actual sunset. No matter. Willem popped open our beers in the jeep for us and did his best to drive slowly over the somewhat bumpy roads.
As our flight to Windhoek wasn't until 1 PM, we got a bonus drive in Ethosha on our last day. The sightings were basically the same, although we saw a lot of giraffes (so graceful) and some baby ostriches. And then it is 4 flights and about 30 hours to get home. But it was all worth it.
Things we learned:
- Etosha is 22,270 square km (8,600 sq miles). Its size is actually shrinking.
- The Ongava game reserve land used to be used for cattle farming. There are three Ongava properties - Little Ongava (premium with only 3 tents), Ongava Lodge (I think they said there are 24 huts here, so it is the biggest non-hotel we have stayed at) and Ongava Tented Camp.
- Every year, they do a census of the animals. They don't do it during rainy season as animals don't need the watering holes then so they are harder to track down.
- Ostrich males and females share parenting duties. The females sit on the eggs during the day while the men take over at night. They have up to 20 eggs. But the ostriches have really small brains, smaller than their eyes. An animal can steal one of their eggs and they will forget within minutes.
- Different animal groups help one another out. For instance, the zebras and the wildebeest help one another out. Zebra don't see well but can't hear well. The wildebeest can see well but can't hear well. When they work together, they protect each other.
- Zebras in this area have not just black and white stripes, but also brown ones. It is called a shadow stripe .That was a new one for us.
- Etosha apparently has one of the largest rhino populations in Africa. Hmm. We thought that Desert Rhino Camp did. Maybe Etosha has the largest of a national park? We didn't see any rhino, black or white, there.
- The white rhino isn't white and the black rhino isn't black. The white rhino is called that as it had a wide mouth and it got changed to white. And then someone heard that it was called a white rhino and said, well, then I am going to call the other rhino the black rhino.
- The people at the camp call watching the watering hole watching African TV.
Random things at the end of our trip
- People really don't smoke here. Which is nice.
- We love how when we say "thank you" people respond with "Pleasure" as in my pleasure. It is so much nicer than the now standard US reply of "No problem" instead of "You're welcome."
- Every camp we stayed in would do your laundry for free. While we tried not to take advantage of this given the whole country's lack of water, it was very nice to get our dusty or muddy clothes cleaned. It made us a little less sick of them by the end of the trip.
- The people who we met all loved their jobs so much. They would tell us that. It was so nice to hear.
- Our trip included 12 flights and with our various stops, 30 total take offs and landings. That is a lot of air travel.
 |
| White rhino sighting up close! James and Zach |
 |
| Not a great photo...but sundowner with the rhino right behind us! No zoom needed here. |
 |
An Ongava lion (male about 3 years old) in the late afternoon |
No comments:
Post a Comment