Etosha – Heaven and Hell
Etosha National Park consists of the huge Etosha Pan and the bushland that surrounds it. It really is a hellish place, from the dry pan to the sparse grasslands, scrub and stunted forests, it looks like it should be devoid of life. By the time we arrived in the middle of December there had been some rain and parts of the park were turning quite green. Sadly, this tends to mean that the game is encouraged to leave the few pump-fed waterholes in the vicinity of the lodges and move farther afield. They can find thousands of small water sources in the depths of the park and avoid the visitors altogether. Still, we hoped to make up for this quantity with a few quality sightings and the Elephants on the way in were encouraging.
We put Fred in charge of driving in the park – he has the experience of the most safaris and has self-driven inside parks before. Also, he had been in Etosha before and had an idea of the layout and some of the waterholes to visit.
Our first morning was quite productive, if a little uneventful. There were quite a few animals around the waterholes and also a good number of Wildebeest, Zebra and Springbok out on the plains – clearly all eating the newly sprouted grasses. We also saw Giraffes, Oryx and a few Elephants at one of the larger waterholes. We made sure we were back in camp before the extreme heat of the day as daytime temperatures were soaring into the mid-40s.
I spot something moving in the distance, and as we have already seen a couple of Jackal, I call for another, but Fred stops anyway. It’s a Honey Badger with her cub, playing in the sand. They are a good distance away and start to move off as soon as they become aware of us, but we get some fairly good photos of them anyway.
By evening, things are a lot quieter, there are still a few mammals around the water holes, but they are fewer in number and all seem to have been subdued by the heat. As we are heading back, we approach one of the waterholes to see that there are several vehicles in the car park. Fred and I spot the Rhino at more or less the same instant and we turn into the car park to get a good view of him. I’ve never been lucky with getting Rhino photos, but maybe this is a good chance, and with a Black Rhino as a bonus.
We settle down and take a lot of phots as he moves to the waterhole and has a drink. He does seem to be agitated by all the attention though and soon he is moving off from the water towards the shelter of the nearby woodland. Fred reacts instantly, starting the car and heading back to the main road and off in the direction the Rhino is travelling. This is where experience tells, as Fred positions us perfectly for the oncoming Rhino. Our plan is nearly ruined by a couple of other safari drivers, but they choose to go past us and the Rhino crosses the road behind them but just in front of us – maybe 20m in front, coming in from an angle.
The first day ends on this high point. I’ve got my Rhino photos and we’ve seen plenty. Fred seems to think it’s a bit quiet, but I, at least, am happy with the day.
The next morning brings us out early again, with a different route plan that also seems to be different from everybody else. We head back the way we came into the park, to do a big loop to a couple of the waterholes near the edge of the pan. We pass the road-grading machine on his way to work – perhaps he is going to fix the terrible bits we came in on. Just a kilometre or so further on and we meet a big bull Elephant drinking from a rainwater pool at the side of the road. He lets us past, but has no intention of being as considerate for the other couple of cars some distance behind us. In fact, he only moves when the grader arrives and makes a bit more noise.
We head off around our loop. The previous day, we had a glimpse of a couple of lions under a tree at this waterhole and we stop to see if they are still in place. They’ve moved, but apparently not very far as we meet them walking towards us just a few kilometres down the track. They seem to be walking slowly, but with some goal in site. I stop taking distant phots of them and take a good look around. 300m ahead of us, on the other side of the road to the lions, there is a large tree and some smaller shrubs. “They’re going for the shade” I suggest to Fred.
He agrees and once again we position ourselves for them to have to make a close pass in front of us. They’re coming from my side so I get really good close-up shots as the approach and pass in front of us. The rest of the morning is a bit slower. There are fewer animals at the waterholes and we don’t see any more Elephants all day. It has been raining and the wildlife just doesn't have the need to come to fixed locations for water at this time of the year.
Still, Etosha is turning out to be heaven for the photographer at the moment.
The afternoon game drive is ferry flat. We visit a few waterholes and there is basically nothing to see. There aren’t even many birds to be found. It is our final night at Okaukuejo and it looks like it is going to rain so we start back in good time for dinner. We take a short detour to see some other vehicles looking sat a lion sleeping under a tree but that’s not really very exciting and we turn to head for home.
Just a few hundred metres down the road there is a loud bang from the back of the car. Elizabeth and I who are in the back call for Fred to stop straight away, but before he can come to a halt the back of the vehicle drops suddenly and we lurch to a halt. Chris in the front has the almost legendary sight of the wheel coming past him before it falls in front of the now stationary vehicle.
With hindsight, it is easy to say that we should have seen this coming or done something more proactive, but it was a hired vehicle and we were not used to the sounds and rattles that it inevitably makes. Fred and Elizabeth had both thought they heard a strange noise, but I’d not been able to latch onto it. Indeed, I’d decided to have a good look at the wheels and suspension when we got back to camp.
Park rules are simple – don’t get out of your vehicle. Of course, when you have a puncture or something then you have no choice and this was our situation now. I was first out, initially unaware that we’d lost a wheel. The problem was on my side anyway, but I’m the youngest of the group, so it usually falls to me to do this sort of stuff. One quick look tells me all I need to know. The last stud, holding the one remaining wheel nut that kept the wheel on the axle has sheared under the strain. Where the other five nuts have gone is anyone’s guess.
I move everything about to get at the jack and realize that it won’t fit under the axle. I send others to find a couple of big rocks and jack the brake drum off the ground by placing the jack under the leaf-spring. As I’m doing this, I can’t help but be conscious of the fact that there are lions just a short distance away and its getting dark. Never mind, the others will tell us if the lions are coming.
I’m still jacking when the heavens well and truly open. It’s so bad that I retreat to the car for a couple of minutes until the worst of it passes. That’s just great! Now the ground is soaking wet gravel and I’ve still got to get the car high enough to prop the drum with a rock so I can get it high enough to jack up again for the wheel. I suppose I should be grateful that the jack was actually working. I’ve soon got the jack properly positioned and the wheel hub is high enough, but it looks a bit sorry for itself. The drum is a bit crooked but we can do nothing more than use a couple of wheel nuts to force it back into position so the wheel will go on.
Whilst all this has been going on, Fred has removed a nut from each of the other wheels, two form one of them in fact, to give us enough to put the lost one back on. A couple of vehicles have driven past, but it’s only now that a nice South African couple – who it turns out run a safari business – stop to lend a hand. He and I now get the wheel in place and tightened up. Good enough to get us back to camp, we set off with our kind helpers following along behind just in case.
For all that I’m prepared to accept that we should have checked, I’ve never, ever, lost a wheel nut in more than 25 years of driving. They are – or at least they should be – tightened and torque-wrench set when the vehicle is serviced or the tires are changed. In any event, the car hire company is responsible for such a lapse in safety and it’s not our fault if a wheel falls off.
There are no photos. No-one actually thought to take pictures of me struggling with jacks, rocks, tires and the wheel-brace. With hindsight, we probably should have taken some but I fear that, at the time, I would have been more than a little aggressive with anyone brave enough to reach for the camera and point it in my direction.
The next morning, we organise a sim-card for my phone and call the hire company. After several more calls they direct us to the maintenance department at the camp who supply a few spare wheel nuts to get us back on four wheels. Even this is not without incident. They manage to use at least one wrong nut, stripping the thread on another stud – this time on the opposite rear wheel. It’s a good job that they are six-nut wheels, I’d not feel so safe if they were only four or five to start with. Finally, well after 10am, we set of for our next stop in the park at Halali.
Etosha Part II – Back to Heaven
The original plan had been to take a leisurely drive from Okaukuejo to Halali, stopping at the waterholes along the way and driving along the edge of the pan, looking for game. To a degree, we still did this, but a little quicker than we would otherwise have done and with one ear always on any strange noise from the car. Still we were later than we had planned, it was getting too hot and there was nothing to be seen.
We headed back to the main road and off towards Halali. As we rounded a corner in a wooded section of the road, we were blocked by a couple of vehicles stopped by the roadside, obviously looking at something. Chris is the first to spot what he initially thinks is a Cheetah coming towards the small waterhole where the cars have stopped. We soon realize that it is in fact a Leopard and she is coming down for a drink.
I get a few shots as she approaches the water, but she disappears into the bushes to actually get to the water’s edge. My first thought is that that will be the last we will see of her, but after a couple of minutes she comes back out and walks towards us and the road. I get the best photos I have ever had of her as she moves to the road. Just as she is about to cross in front of us, a vehicle comes the other way and spooks her a bit. She disappears from view behind this vehicle, then it moves on and we spot her, trying to get comfortable in a large tree on the other side of the road.
This is now the far side of the car from me, in the front passenger seat. I try without much success to get some photos through the windscreen, but Fred gets excellent ones from the driver’s side. After several minutes, I give this plan up and climb out to sit on the window sill with my head and shoulders now able to look over the roof of the car. This gets me the nice tree shots that I require to make a slow morning into a great one.
There isn’t really much to say about the next day. We are out for game drives morning and afternoon, but there is very little to see at any of the waterholes. We get a few birds to add to the list, but nothing else stands out or makes for the effort of a set of photos. Fred had always been told that December was a bad month to go to Etosha, but he had always been lucky to see plenty on previous visits at the same time of year.
For our last full day in Etosha, we head out again on the same basic morning route as we had taken the day before. Driving round one of the northern loops towards the pan, we see movement along a stand of trees just north of the road. This turns out to be a single lioness, walking from east to west, calling as she goes and seemingly with a destination in mind. Fred is driving and I’m in the other front seat. We take a look at the GPS and our map of the park and work out a way to maybe get in front of her. Of course, this will only work if we assume she’ll walk in a straight line, but so far this seems to be the case as she ignores herds of Springbok and continues to call regularly.
A couple of other vehicles ask us what we are looking at and we point out the lion in the distance and move on, trying to keep her in sight as we move from one track to another and eventually onto the main road. Another driver tells us there are several lions further up the road, but that they have moved away towards the east. We decide to stick with our solitary lioness, satisfied that we have tracked her for more than an hour and keen to stick with her as her story unfolds. From our chosen position, we even get to see the other lions in the distance, but our lioness doesn’t seem to be heading towards them, nor they to her.
Our lioness comes into view from the main road and she is walking more or less directly towards where we have stopped. In the foreground, we can see a couple of Black-backed Jackals, near to what appears to be their den. As the lion approaches they become quite agitated and vocal. It soon becomes apparent why when we spot a young cub with them and another adult. They seem quite determined to change the path of the lioness, but suddenly she turn on the jackals. In a few short bounds, she is within striking distance of the slower and less alert cub and it’s all over.
Big predators, particularly lions, regularly kill other predators but I never thought I’d witness such an attack myself. The lioness stays on her victim for a few minutes as we watch the co-ordinated and quite persistent attempts by the family of jackals to drive her away. Eventually they succeed in making her chase one of them far enough away from the body of the cub for another jackal to retrieve it. The lioness resumes her journey in our direction and crosses the road less than 5m behind our car. She stops by a pool next to the roadside and takes a long drink. She then settles down in the long grass and we leave her in the company of several other vehicles.