Days 254 & 255 – Namibia

June 16 & 17, 2010 – Etosha National Park to Tsumeb to Etosha National Park to Outjo, Namibia

Since Eric and I had a successful yesterday at Etosha, we decide to have a day off from game viewing and instead drive to Tsumeb, which is on the east side of Etosha, in preparation for our tomorrow.

But before we hit the road we have a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs with Adri and Hanel.


After breakfast, I say good-bye to their pet kudu “Liza”…

Actually, they just call her “Kudu” – I’m the one who named her “Liza”.

… and Eric says good-bye to the biltong.

Biltong is like a South African jerky and Adri’s is amazing.

Since we have to pass through Outjo, we make a quick stop at the Outjo Bakeri – it just wouldn’t be right for us to not say “hello”.

We arrive in Tsumeb mid-afternoon and Eric and I are ready to go for a nice walk around town, as well as have some quality “Skip-Bo Time”. Unfortunately, this isn’t in the cards for us… no pun intended. The search for a place to stay doesn’t turn out to be as easy as usual – every place we look at is either under construction, over-priced or it doesn’t have a kitchen. So, not finding anything that suits us, we drive towards Etosha’s Namutoni Gate with hopes of finding a campground.

As luck would have it, we’re passed on the highway by a truck with South African plates, towing a camping trailer. So we follow them to a campground located about 15kms from the gate.

Our second day in Etosha turns out to be just as successful as the first. We start the day watching a giraffe drinking from a watering hole.


We have a couple of first-time sightings, including a red hartebeest…


…and a secretary bird.


Just after lunch, Eric and I drive out into the Etosha pan, which is unbelieveable.


We catch a glimpse of a yellow mongoose darting across the road.


And the highlight of the day is watching a lion and a lioness prowling near a herd of springbok.


We can’t believe our luck seeing lions both days in Etosha, but today is the piece de la resistance because this time the lion is actually moving.

At the end of the day we find ourselves back at the Andersson Gate, so decide to return to Outjo and stay at Kai-Oms… only this time we’re going to sleep inside – have I mentioned it’s winter here?