Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Author Tips
If you're self-catering - and you really should be, as the food at the camp restaurants inside the park is generally
pretty ordinary - bring your own supplies into the park, as the food selection in the shops is abysmal.
At the camps, try hanging around the floodlit waterholes late, after most folk have gone to bed. We did just that
at Halali and had one of the best wildlife encounters - watching black rhinos - we have had in Africa.
Activities
Wildlife Watching
Etosha's most widespread vegetation type is mopane woodland, which fringes the pan and
constitutes about 80% of the vegetation. The park also has umbrella-thorn acacias and
other trees that are favoured by browsing animals, and from December to March this
sparse bush country has a pleasant green hue.
Depending on the season, you may observe elephants, giraffes, Burchell's zebras,
springboks, red hartebeest, blue wildebeests, gemsboks, eland, kudu, roans, ostriches,
jackals, hyenas, lions, and even cheetahs and leopards. Among the endangered animal
species are the black-faced impala and the black rhinoceros.
The park's wildlife density varies with the local ecology. As its Afrikaans name would
suggest, Oliphantsbad (near Okaukuejo) is attractive to elephants, but for rhinos you
couldn't do better than the floodlit waterhole at Okaukuejo. In general, the further east
you go in the park, the more wildebeest, kudu and impalas join the springboks and gems-
boks. The area around Namutoni, which averages 443mm of rain annually (compared
with 412mm at Okaukuejo), is the best place to see the black-faced impala and the
Damara dik-dik, Africa's smallest antelope. Etosha is also home to numerous smaller spe-
cies, including both yellow and slender mongooses, honey badgers and
leguaans
(water-
monitor lizards).
In the dry winter season wildlife clusters around waterholes, while in the hot, wet sum-
mer months animals disperse and spend the days sheltering in the bush. In the afternoon,
even in the dry season, look carefully for animals resting beneath the trees, especially
prides of lions lazing about. Summer temperatures can reach 44°C, which isn't fun when
you're confined to a vehicle, but this is the calving season and you may catch a glimpse of
tiny zebra foals and fragile newborn springboks.
Birdlife is also profuse. Yellow-billed hornbills are common, and on the ground you
should look for the huge kori bustard, which weighs 15kg and seldom flies. You might
