As far as the great African game reserves go, Etosha stands out for the incredible concentration of animals you can see at watering holes throughout the park.
In this map it looks like there’s a giant lake in Etosha – but that is only seasonal. It’s called the Etosha Pan and is dry most of the year. Animals flock to several watering holes throughout the park during the dry season, making Etosha famous for the concentrations of wildlife one can see on a visit.
Our drive from Uis to Etosha takes about four hours – we head north to Korixas and then cut east to Outjo. The views along the roads are expansive.
We stop in a small town to visit a Herero women’s craft market along the road to buy a few gifts and mementos. Herero women are famous for their handmade Victorian-style dresses and amazing headpieces.
The colonial-era dress was initially forced upon them by Germans, but was adopted by the Herero as a way to claim the power of the aggressors. The style is alive and well today, valued as a long-standing cultural tradition.
In Outjo we pick up groceries and fill our gas tank before covering the last 100 kilometers. We arrive in the Etosha area around 3 pm.
Our plan is to enter the park via the Anderson gate and do a late afternoon game drive before returning to our lodge for the night. The following morning we’ll enter the park as soon as it opens and do as much exploring as we can before spending the night at Halali Camp. On our final day, we’ll explore as we make our way east, eventually passing through Namutoni Camp and exiting via the Namutoni Gate.
I tried for months to get a room at Okaukuejo Resort inside the park for our first night, but I didn’t have any luck there. The benefit of staying at this resort is 24 hour access to the busy watering hole there, which is floodlit at night. This is your best chance to see nocturnal animals in the park.
Since we couldn’t stay inside the park, we settled on a private chalet at Etosha Safari Camp for one night, which was just 10 minutes down the road from the Anderson park gate.
Like Namib-Naukluft National Park, Etosha’s hours vary depending on sunrise and sunset times. The park opens at sunrise, and you must exit by sunset. They’ll have these times posted on the gates when you enter, as well as at each camp inside the park. Check TimeandDate.com to determine your schedule.
When you arrive at a park gate, you’ll need to tell the staff how long you plan on spending inside the park so they can issue you a permit for the appropriate number of days. Then you’ll need to take the permit to the ticket office at the first camp you come to in the park and pay your fees there.
It’s after 4 by the time we get our fees paid at Okaukuejo. There’s still time before the sun gets low so we head out of the resort gates to get a feel for the park. I’m not expecting too much but just 10 minutes up the road, we see a group of vehicles in a pull-out, and a lone lion walking behind them.
She slowly saunters through the grass and we continue toward the group of vehicles to see where she’s going.
It’s a little watering hole where another female from her pride is already drinking.
We stay here and watch, and slowly start to notice several other females in the vicinity.
They’re so relaxed and so close!
I’m wowed by our luck. We watch them for 45 minutes until we need to turn around to catch the sunset at the Oakaukuejo watering hole.
We park near the watering hole and walk out where, again, I can’t believe our luck! Or maybe it’s just this place. Elephants, my favorite animals, are playing, drinking and bathing in the water.
When the elephants finally move off, the giraffes take the opportunity to move in.
We can’t stay for too long because we must exit the park before they lock the gates. We head back to our lodge and have dinner. In the morning, we line up at the park gates waiting for them to open. At sunrise, we were among the first 10 vehicles there. By the time the gates opened, there were probably about 25 cars waiting.
Our first stop is the Okaukuejo watering hole again. This time, zebras and an oryx.
When we leave Okaukuejo, the roads are nearly empty. We spend the day exploring all of the nooks and crannies of the park we can, slowly inching our way toward Halali Camp in the afternoon.
The opportunity to drive yourself around one of the best game reserves in Africa is a true adventure. Bring your own lunch so you have the freedom to eat when and where you want. If you are staying inside the park, you can either bring your own dinner to cook on a braai, or you can eat at the camp’s restaurant.
Even during the heat of the day, we saw some incredible wildlife:
Some watering holes were absolutely mobbed.
We see our only male lion, napping through the heat of the day.
And more elephants!
In the late afternoon we check in at Halali Camp and walk out to their watering hole, but it was surprisingly empty when we were there. Just a ton of guinea fowl.
We had dinner at the camp restaurant and turned in early. In the morning, we set out as the sun was rising. The first animals we came across were a herd of hartbeast.
And then a black rhino with the sweetest face!
A little further down the road, another rhino, but this one was much bigger and less sweet looking.
Finally, a handsome hornbill in a camel thorn tree.
When we exit through the Namutoni gate late in the morning, our trip is all but over.
Tomorrow we’ll be flying home. It’s about 6 hours back to Windhoek and we break up the drive in Okahandja where there is a popular crafts market.
There’s so much to look at and we find some treasures like a beautiful wooden bowl, some hand-woven baskets, and fabric. But the best thing we find is a scavenged warthog skull. It’s resting on a table, dirty as hell. They want 30 USD for it, which is a steal in my opinion.
I’m worried though – what if we can’t bring it in to the US? Will we get stopped at customs? I decide that we have to try – this is too good to pass up, and it’s only $30 if it gets confiscated.
When we check in to our hotel that night, the Immanuel Wilderness Lodge just north of Windhoek, we stage a photo shoot so we can always remember our warthog skull if it gets taken away.
The Immanuel lodge is perfect for our last night – beautiful and relaxing, with adorable dogs and cats roaming around. Dinner is delicious – hartebeest steak with vegetables.
In the morning, we pack up and drive the hour to Namvic Tours & Safaris where we drop off our truck. They check us out quickly and drive us to the airport where we sail through with Ward the Warthog.
In Qatar we make it through both Qatari security and US security, but in New York when I declare my skull, they send me to the manager where they look on the computer and confer with each other until they decide I can’t keep Ward. Animal skulls are supposed to be clean and Ward was too dirty, they said.
I’m sad but I knew it was a possibility. I ask about contacting Fish & Game to see if I could petition to get it back and they tell me to wait for their supervisor. When he eventually shows up, he blows us off and then ignores us. So we head home.
Three weeks later, I receive an email with the subject “Warthog Skull” from a wildlife inspector with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. I can’t believe it, he’s writing to tell me that he’s shipping the skull to me with a pamphlet on how to properly import animal products from abroad. Yes!
Best possible outcome, and now Ward hangs on a hook above my desk where I am currently writing this blog.
I hope you found some value in reading about my trip to Namibia. Please comment if you have any questions and I’ll be more than happy to answer them!
I am really enjoying your blog, and it has a ton of useful information for us. My friend and I are spending 3 weeks in Africa, including a 10 day self-driving trip through Namibia beginning in early July 2019. We start in Windhoek and drive to Etosha and then back to Windhoek. My friend and I are both 60 something photographers so I am very impressed with the photos. The landscape and animal life are two reasons I was so interested in going to Namibia. This will be my third time to Africa. My first visit was to West Africa in the 70’s while I was in college, my second was to South Africa and Zimbabwe ten years ago with my husband, and finally to Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia with a friend. After seeing your blog we are both very excited. Thank you for the entertaining reading and the wealth of information!! It is greatly appreciated!!
Wow, thank you so much Laurie! I hope you have a fantastic trip in Namibia – as photographers you are going to absolutely love it. I’d love to go back to Namibia some day with a better camera. 🙂