The next day we left around 10am to Okonjima after a leisurely morning. We had much shorter drives now that we were into Namibia. We had a picnic lunch at Okonjima. We got very lucky and were upgraded to some very nice chalets with a view over the plains. There were very few people staying there so we had most of the place to ourselves. This was to be a common theme everywhere we went. We went swimming in the afternoon and watched the animals out on the plains. After dinner we went on a night drive in the reserve. We saw brown hyaenas, a new animal for us, and stopped. The driver left the lights on and the battery died while we were stopped. While we were waiting for another truck to come, we were surrounded by jackal and hyaena and a random warthog. It got a little tense there for a while because the hyaena came very close, but it was all fine in the end. We saw a genet and some impala, but no big cats.

We left the next day around 9:30 to head for Etosha National Park. We had another picnic for lunch on the way. We got to Onguma Leadwood Camp around 4:00 and set up camp. The camp had a restaurant and bar in front of a waterhole so went and had happy hour while we watched the animals. Steak & broccoli mac and cheese for dinner was excellent. We heard lions all night and into the next morning. It rained almost all day, but cleared up so we could make dinner – but started again right when we finished and then rained all night. We had some great sightings in the park!

We woke at 5 with the birds being very loud and lions roaring. It was a beautiful day. We left camp at 6:20 and went to the park. Great day for sightings! We saw five rhino, four hyaena, three elephants, jackals (side striped and black backed), secretary bird, owls, kori bustards, and all the other usual animals. We had another yummy dinner in camp, but then it stormed again all evening and into the night.

Part 3 coming soon!