Namibia – Tis the season for the rhinos

December 24-26

Fa-la-la-la-la, oh and lions.

Black rhino

Leo (NB: may not be his real name)

And these…

Elephant

Zebra

Cheetahs

As well as these…

Ostriches

A herd of springbok

Oryx

Not forgetting these…

Giraffe

Terrapins

Impala

All of these – and many, many more – can be found in Namibia’s pride and joy: Etosha National Park. 117 different mammals, in fact. Situated in the north of the country, Etosha covers a little over 22,000 sq km of wildly changing landscape. It used to cover 105,000 sq km but boundary changes throughout the twentieth century gradually limited its area.

A family of giraffes in Etosha National Park

This is roughly the current size of the park on a
map of Namibia

The main non-moving feature of Etosha is its pan. The land surface, a dull and uninviting grey without sunlight, used to house a large lake, which was possibly the largest inland lake in the world at the time. About 12 million years ago, a tectonic shift rerouted the inflowing rivers towards the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in Etosha’s lake evaporating into the air. The salt remained, giving much of the national park a lunar-like look. Apparently it can be seen from space!

A journey of giraffes (yes, that is the collective noun for
giraffes) crossing the pan at Etosha

The changing weather makes for some spectacular vistas, too…

A lion enjoying the sunset near Namutoni in eastern Etosha

A dark sky, often pierced with bright forks of lightning,
near Okaukuejo in western Etosha

The fact that the land is so bare makes the abundance of wildlife even more startling. Their survival is due to Etosha having several waterholes dotted around its vast space. The animals, needing to drink to survive, are often found at these sites.

Giraffes contorting their bodies to drink from water holes
is an amazing sight

A dazzle of zebras (Google it if you don't believe me) drinking
simultaneously from the water hole at Okaukuejo's campsite

The campsites in the national park are situated next to some of the major watering holes, allowing visitors to sit back, relax and watch the different creatures wander in to drink. We actually didn’t see many animals at these sites, though it was pretty special when we did…

The water hole at Okaukuejo at night, where we saw a
mother and baby rhino drink

This lack of action can possibly be explained by our group using up all of our luck on our drives around the park. Mere minutes after leaving our first campsite, we came across an animal I’ve never seen in the wild before: the black rhino.

A rhino being 'black' or 'white' is nothing to do with skin colour -
the main difference is their lips, showing their respective
eating habits.

You may notice that the feature most synonymous with the rhino, its horn, is missing. This, we were told, is for its own protection. Poachers desire the horn for a variety of purposes (our guide said alternative medicine is the main reason) but kill the rhino in order to obtain it. When young, the rhino is thus tranquillised and has its horn removed by park conservationists. If the horn isn’t present, the poachers won’t kill it. One hopes…

Black rhinos can weigh up to 1,400 kilograms - I'm about 60...

Black rhinos have a pointed lip to pick fruit and leaves from branches

Another animal I saw in the wild for the first time was the ostrich, with its bizarre neck often shaped like an S as it strutted around the plains. We got close to them but were even closer to a scorpion which we found scuttling around at breakfast one morning.

Ostriches here can move at 50 km/h -
elsewhere they are even faster!

There are apparently 59 species of scorpion in Namibia - I
have no idea which one this is

Rhinos are big beasts but Etosha is home to even larger animals. We saw seven elephants, including one calf. All of the elephants we saw were eating, which is unsurprising given that an adult has to consume 240 KILOGRAMS of food every day. This is because it only digests up to 60% of that amount.

The ears of an African elephant are larger than those of
its Indian counterpart

I was taking pictures and videos on my phone - the quality
pictures on this blog are from Sami and Thomas from my tour group!

Our most interesting elephant encounter was with the second one we saw. It seemed…annoyed. Our guide described what we see in the video below as ‘redirected aggression’ – it was angry at us so took out its ire on the poor tree…

Dumbo - angry!

I never get tired of seeing these animals as there’s always something different happening. From the giraffe starting to do the splits in order to drink to the mother cheetah swivelling her neck whilst her cubs lay lazily in the shadows, there were an incredible number of incredible moments.

Giraffe doing the splits: priceless

A cornucopia of cheetahs (OK you got me - it's a
COALITION OF CHEETAHS!!) watching potential prey

And I haven’t even got to the most heart-stopping encounter yet. On our first game drive, we decided to try one more water hole before sunset. We rocked up to the water hole with nothing visible on its edges. Our guide then spoke. Just one word.

“Lion.” Through the window we peeked. A male lion, lying in the middle of the road, less than ten metres in front of us.

Male lions are notoriously lazy - still, you wouldn't mess with him...

Then he got up. You aren’t allowed to leave your vehicle in Etosha so I’d spent much of my afternoon hanging out of the window getting pictures. As the lion began to stalk around our bus, I opted to keep my arms and legs firmly inside the vehicle. Most of the time…

I often resorted to hanging out of the bus, holding onto the
roof with only legs inside. Not with the lions about...

It got better. We soon spotted that there was an animal at the watering hole after all. Another lion. He decided to come and join us.

A lion's roar can be heard up to 8 km away

It then got really interesting. Both lions seemed to be marking their territory, scuffing their feet in the dusty ground and staring intently at each other. Unfortunately we had to leave at this point as the campsite gates closed at sunset. If we’d stayed a little bit longer, we would have seen the next instalment – we also would have spent our whole night with them, which was less desirable.

We saw another lion the following afternoon. It was protecting a kill, what seemed to be a gnu or blue wildebeest. The lioness then started to wander off, only to return when a jackal circled around to try and scavenge some extra lunch.

The Day of the Jackal? Not quite...

It is captivating simply watching all of these special animals simply going about their daily routines. With a backdrop so diverse it seems other-worldly, Etosha National Park is a stunning place to see your Christmas wishes come true.

Love you all

Matt 

Namibia – Cat fight

December 23

Hello everyone!

Why shouldn’t you play cards in Namibia? Because there are loads of cheetahs!

This isn't a cheetah

These are...

Well not loads. There aren’t loads of big cats in the world anymore, after all. This is for many reasons, most of which are down to the species you and I belong to. Day one of my northern Namibia adventure, which dramatically changed from a scorching morning with clear blue skies to a wild, wet and windy late afternoon, was spent learning about two of the rarer big cats who call Africa home: the cheetah and the leopard.

It's the beginning of Namibia's rainy season - I wasn't prepared
for that so got wet

To see these secretive animals in action, my tour group (no car to do the self-drive dream, remember) zoomed out north from Windhoek, travelling about 170 km via a wood market in Okhandja. The crafts were nice but many aren’t exclusive to Namibia – a lot of their products are available in similar stalls in Lilongwe.

Okhandja market

The curios on sale here can be found in Malawi as well

In the early afternoon we arrived at Okonjima, home of the AfriCat charity and 22,000 sq/km of flat bush, with trees of no great stature adding vibrancy to the land.

The hike to the top was a bit precarious in flip-flops

That land isn’t just home to cats. Whilst driving around and without specifically trying to find them, we saw all of these…

Kudu

Giraffe

Oryx

Warthog

Jackal

AfriCat specialises in big cat conservation and protection. They look after cubs whose parents have been killed – accidentally or otherwise – by farmers, as well as saving those who are situated in unacceptable conditions. 36 leopards and 5 cheetahs lie within the boundaries of their park.

One of them, called Wahu, cannot be released back into the wild as he has lost his fear of humans. One result of this is that he is used by the charity as an ‘ambassador’, as they put it, to show visitors these reclusive and solitary cats up close.

Wahu

We entered a small chamber, with water and an electrified fence (in hindsight, an interesting combination) separating us from the ground where the sleek, rose-spotted leopard was soon to emerge.

Leopards are incredibly graceful movers. Wahu’s slow, controlled movements and effortless leaps onto tree trunks to collect his meat wouldn’t look out of place in an Olympic gymnastics event. He weighs the same as me, about 60 kg, but springs majestically and silently. Unlike me.

Wahu enjoying one of three hunks of meat left for him

Watching the leopard seemingly cradle the hunk of meat with its super-sized paws whilst gnawing away at the flesh was a mesmeric experience. The most interesting thing I learnt about them is that these paws have retractable claws.

I could have watched and marvelled at the leopard for a lot longer but we were soon whisked away to learn more about the charity’s work and history. Wahu himself has an interesting story. He was cared for – and even lived with – one of the creators of AfriCat when he was young. One day the man returned to find a trail of blood at the front door. Rushing in, he found that Wahu had killed and dragged a warthog into the house to eat. Alas, he didn’t last in the house any longer. It’s a valuable reminder that leopards can’t be tamed. We were told they are the only cats who can’t be.

Our guide explaining how AfriCat works

One of the stranger items we were shown in the clinic was a jar containing four lion embryos. These were retrieved from a female lion who had been killed by a farmer. It may seem a little bit unethical to keep these embryos; our guide told us they are a visual demonstration that someone may not be killing just one animal.

Lion embryos

From here we drove into a fortified enclosure which was reminiscent of a part of Jurassic Park. The mission was to find the fastest land animal on the planet. Faster even than my beloved Usain Bolt.

The gate for the cheetah reserve

Well not then, admittedly. Cheetahs are supposedly less of a threat than leopards, meaning our open vehicle could drive quite close to them. Their behaviour was fascinating. We were in one section which housed two brothers. The next section, separated by the wire fence, contained three cheetahs from a different family. It quickly became clear that they don’t like each other…

Cheetah

The cheetahs would hit the fence with their paws, wanting to have the chance to fight their rivals on the other side. Later, they started running along the dividing wire, desperately trying to find a gap through which they could spar to the death.

The five cheetahs in a tense stand-off

Unlike the solitary leopards, cheetahs stick together as a family. They look very similar but there are differences, some of which are the product of adaptation. A great example are the black teardrops under a cheetah’s eyes. These help deflect the sun when a cheetah is running at full pelt – a speed which can reach a scary 120 km/h – allowing it to lock eyes on its target.

You can argue that I didn’t truly see leopards or cheetahs in the ‘wild’. Unfortunately for these animals, they can’t be released back into the national parks. What they are offered in the AfriCat reserve is a lot of space to live as naturally and safely as possible. What we are offered in return is the opportunity to see these graceful creatures up close. I can only hope their populations aren’t depleted any further so that future generations can enjoy them with their own eyes.

Love you all

Matt