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Today would be our second and final day in Etosha National Park. Alas, we must go on! Of course we hope to get the maximum out of the time we have left, so we’re waiting early at the gates again. We’re all still sleepy from yesterday. About one hundred meters after entering we’re wide awake: a lioness is stalking a prey!
Lion
The prey turns out to be a Springbok. Sadly the stalking takes a long time and because of the dense bushes we lose sight of the animals after a while. So we move on. In the morning we see pretty much all the animals we’ve seen already. Just like yesterday we go swimming in Halali. Completely freshened up we have another go in the afternoon. The plan is to drive slowly out of the park while looking for animals.
We’ve been on the road for only a short while when we see a car standing still. We also stop and check what’s about. Perhaps he’s just look at a Giraffe or something. Then I see a big cat sitting under a tree: a Cheetah! I’m very glad because this means a new cat species! Sadly the Cheetah is pretty far away, but we’re very glad to have seen it at least. Five minutes after our arrival it lies down and it cannot be seen anymore because of the thick grass. Although the pictures are very bad, it’s still very great to have spotted the fastest animal on land in the last hours in the park!
Cheetah
In high spirits we move on. We’re driving via Olifantsbad, where yesterday we had such tense moments with the Elephants. Now we are passing an area with quite a lot of trees and that is good for another cat species: Leopard! Yesterday we also checked this area but didn’t find anything. Now we see suddenly a couple of cars standing still. In this area that can only mean one thing: there is a Leopard in a tree! Soon we spot it in the tree, that is not so easy though, because it’s protective colour makes it hard to distinguish from the tree. When we’ve finally found him, it turns out we can actually see him rather well. Slowly we are able to move the car close until we finally stand under the tree. Then we’re about 15 meters separated from the leopard. Awesome! I keep shooting, but sadly also here we have to move on after a while. It is my finest moment in Africa!
For more from my Africa trip see the links below:
How about another very nice savannah experience involving a lion, jackals, vultures and Secretarybirds!
I also wrote some posts about the specific birds of Africa: birds of the African swamp, birds of the African garden, birds of the savannah and a hornbill special.
And also some posts about other iconic mammals of Africa: elephants, several ungulates and the mammals of the Okavango Delta.
We also enjoyed amazing landscapes like the Okavango, Sossusvlei and Spitzkoppe.
