Fri. 31st May ‘24
It’s cloudy when we wake up. I’d make a joke about seeing strange grey things in the sky, but it’s a 6am alarm for 6:30 breakfast and a 7am departure for our game drive – so it’s still dark and we can’t really see anything in the sky. It is cold though and there’s a wind blowing which increases the chill. As we load into Linus’ Land Cruiser, I’m in long sleeved shirt and two fleeces – though, in hindsight, the shorts were a strategic mistake.
It’s just the two of us with Linus – obvious as the other couple in camp are checking out today – but I think even if the camp was full, it would still be the same arrangement. It’s that sort of place! The plan for today is, providing nothing at the waterhole persuade Linus to change his mind, is to go down into the riverbed and to continue on west toward the sea. Linus is confident that there will be a group of elephants down that way. This confidence is boosted when he spots both elephant footprints, and elephant droppings. “Quite fresh!” he announces, “let’s follow the fresh stuff!”
Even though the riverbed is quite dry, it’s obvious that there is water not too far from the surface, there’s a lot of greenery – not just Ana trees growing tall, with clumps of branches and detritus washed against the upstream side, but also clumpy bushes and shrubs in a bright verdant green. It’s cold, cold, cold especially as we drive along and we’re both glad of the quilted poncho Linus has provided. We are distracted though by an Augur Buzzard that hops from treetop to treetop just in front of us.
“Yes, this way” Linus keeps saying “this stuff is getting fresher”. You don’t quite realise how prodigious elephants are until you start tracking them by their droppings. Up ahead, we see another vehicle (what, we don’t have the entire place to ourselves??) that has clearly stopped to look at something before moving on. As we drive up we see that it is a dead Springbok. By the look of the blood spatters nearby freshly killed. Linus jumps out and starts looking for footprints and then points out both incoming and outgoing cheetah tracks. We later learn that the other group had a very brief glimpse of cheetah before it ran off.
After satisfying ourselves (well, Linus) that the cheetah has moved away, we continue our way downriver following the trail that is in front of us. At last we catch up with the group. We count 11 elephants in total – an old bull (Oliver), a matriarch, a couple of bulls newly added to the herd, some younger elephants and a couple of babies including one just 4 months old. They are munching on the vegetation and slowly working their way down towards the sea (the Skeleton Coast) some 40-odd km away.
We hop in front of them and let them come past us, and then move on again to repeat it once more. They are totally unbothered by us – a sign that there are no poachers in the area – at one point walking within 6 feet of the Land Cruiser. The matriarch leads the way (or at least tries to) and Oliver generally brings up the rear. They go from bush to bush sometimes walking straight through the middle of it, sometimes just grazing on the outside. But just eating and eating. If you are going to eat 250-300kg a day, you can’t stop and pose for photos!
Alongside the elephants are a pair of giraffes, also eating but not really competing at the same height as the elephants. They must wonder what they did to upset us as we almost totally ignored them as we concentrated on the elephants. Linus explains that they are Angolan Giraffes – like most of the giraffes in Namibia – but, like the elephants, they are adapted to the desert conditions found here and both are much smaller than their brethren found elsewhere. Beyond the banks of the riverbed, there is very little in the way of vegetation and less in the way of water. Non-adapted animals could not survive here.
Once we’ve (eventually) had our fill of elephant (and giraffe) photos, and its time to head back for lunch. Linus doesn’t seem to be in any sort of a rush – he’d really like to find the 3 lions that have made the Hoanib river valley their home. He’s quite worried about them as they are the only lions that are desert adapted and they have a habit of wandering outside of the concession area and into nearby farms where they find the goats are easy prey (but the farmers can be deadly). Anyway, just as we think we’re going to be late back for lunch, we spot a table set up on a flat part of the riverbank with staff from the lodge ready to serve us lunch. Definitely being spoiled here!
After the morning’s excitement, we’re happy just to chill and relax in the afternoon. Linus stops by to tell us a little about the conservation work by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, so we now know a little more about the 2 types of giraffe found in Namibia (in Etosha we’ll see South African giraffe). We have, however, signed up for the sundowner drive (well, it would be rude not to) and once again Linus takes us off, this time in a northerly direction, away from the river bed.
The landscape truly is desolate, there’s a very occasional (Shephard) tree growing on a hillside but otherwise it is just rocks, rocks, rocks. The only animals we see are a nuclear family of oryx whom we first saw at the waterhole by the lodge but seem to be following us across this barren place. Of course, there is a geology lesson in the rocks as the sedimentary layers are not only easily visible, but they are also canted up at a steep angle showing how the whole area was uplifted through tectonic forces. The wind then got to work on eroding the rocks and we have to stop by a natural window whilst Linus gets us to pose for the obvious photo.
On our last sundowner drive at Etendeka, Erwin had our drinks in a cold box and had a little flip up table on the front of his battered Land Rover. That’s not the case here as once again, we spy a table with a white cloth set up on a plain above us – we wondered what that other Natural Selection car was doing as it passed us going the other way. The table is all laid out with drinks and nibbles for us, and on the ground, white quartz stones spell out “Enjoy”. Oh well, if we really have to.