Etosha, more wildlife and an iPad!
Added on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Etosha, more wildlife and an iPad!
Onward and upward, further into the Namibian hinterland we arrived into Etosha – the jewel of national parks. If I’ve got my facts right, it’s over 22,000 square kilometres and hosts the big Four – Lion, Rhino,(both black & white) Leopard and Elephant. Mokuti Lodge is right on the perimeter and even as we arrived, there were springbok grazing on the lawn. We were all getting into the ‘safari’ mode and later in the afternoon we headed out into the park with our local guide for an awesome safari experience.
At the beginning of the 3 hour expedition a Jackal stopped in front of our truck and had a cheeky pee – whereupon our guide exclaimed that this is a good omen!!! And right enough, we spotted leopard, elephant and black rhino – three of the big four. The guide was very entertaining and had a cooler box full of iced beer – so we were all quite content! :)
Ross decided to start playing animal noises from his iPad – now think about this, nobody knew he has this in his bag, especially the poor guide, who started to get rather anxious when Ross played the ‘lion roar’ in a place that the guide assured us there were no lions! This went on till Billy looked like he’d wet himself and then Ross played Chimp noises along with a cow mooing! We had such a laugh that day – and to top it all we caught up with some lions and more elephants – so we’d seen it all. A great day.
Like many of the lodges, there is a large camp fire set up with some nice logs and chairs around it. We met some other travellers and had a late night chatting around the fire under the stars with a few drinks. The other travellers were just amazed to meet us all and couldn’t believe we were on such a bike ride right up to Victoria. They were of course on a ‘normal’ holiday – with people arranging every step of their safari. But it was nice to see their reaction. I think it made us all realise how lucky we were – and it did make us feel a bit special.
With the hotel WiFi, some riders were using their iPhones on FaceTime to video chat home to loved ones – amazing to be able to use the technology like that. It worked perfectly. We all went to bed feeling ‘lucky’ to be alive again. Tomorrow we’re back onto the tracks heading to Angola I believe! It’s not in the itinerary, but apparently that’s where we’re heading!
In šhā Allāh
