Etosha, Namibia

Today was big cat day! We were hoping to see the big cats today in Etosha NP: lions, cheetahs, and leopards.

We had an excellent breakfast as we watched dawn break and listened to the birds and other creatures wake up the day.

At 6:30am we met our guide (we never caught her name) and were off, just the three of us in the back.

We retraced our route from yesterday for the first hour, until we cut off from the C38 in the park. Along the way in we saw a Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl, a type of owl. Either our guide spotted it, or more likely knew its favourite spot; both boded well for the safari :)

We saw a clan of spotted hyenas, including a very young one. Watched them play around for a few minutes. Our guide was in contact over the radio with her colleagues to find out where game had been spotted. They used a numbered code to identify animals, by size. We were most interested in the 3s (lion), 4s (leopard) and 5s (cheetah).

We got word of some 5s beside some road. Our guide checked with us if we were okay with doing 60km/h (the speed limit, although in an open air safari vehicle on dirt roads, it was dusty), and then took off like a bat out of hell, at 80km/h. She was quite the character, we really liked her as a guide.

We saw the two cheetahs at a distance, not really worth a pic yet. Our guide said they might come towards the road, so we waited. She had a tea in the meantime. Then her radio called out about a 4, in action, and she quickly turned, said ‘Hold my tea’ and we took off at 80km/h again.

It was a leopard stalking a baby zebra! I think every guided safari in the park was at the location, at least a dozen vehicles (one disadvantage of national parks vs private reserves). Marissa wasn’t comfortable with watching a kill, so we took some pics and then went back to the cheetahs.

The cheetahs had since made their way to the road! And were drinking from a small puddle at the side of the road. We took lots of pics. Our guide got on the radio excitedly to her colleagues ‘5 on the road! You must push!’ (meaning go fast). We found her hilarious.

Drove around some more, and saw another pair of cheetahs, and then a leopard in a tree! Our guide was very surprised at the volume of cats - normally these are very difficult to spot in rainy season.

We returned back to the lodge around noon, a very enjoyable game drive thanks to our guide.

The afternoon game drive was at 3pm, which didn’t leave much down time. Instead, Heather and I opted out, and were planning to do some birdwatching on the property. Marissa went on the drive, joined by some other random guests. The guide saved her the full front row though :)

Our bird watching didn’t pan out as it absolutely poured rain all afternoon. We actually enjoyed relaxing in our tent with the rain coming down, so it all worked out :)

We chatted with some of the other guests in the main lodge. Everyone had done the same circuit (it’s really just a choice of clockwise or counterclockwise) and in fact we had mostly stayed at the same places (also not a surprise, as there’s not many options at each price point).

Marissa arrived after her game drive and we sat down for dinner. It was at a communal table, so we chatted some more with the other guests. Marissa had seen a lion, We had grilled beef with a pepper sauce, it was the yummiest yet. The kitchen here at Mushara Outpost is excellent.