ETOSHA
The night before we arrived in Etosha they had a massive downpour of rain. The next day it was touch and go as to whether they could land on the airstrip what with the clouds but fortunately they could so we were spared a long drive to the camp from another airfield.
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A video still
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This camp was the furthest north with much more rainfall so the scenery was completely different. Lush green with lots of vegetation. Normally this would be the place to see lots of wildlife but with the massive 70mm overnight, there was no longer any need for the animals to come to the water hole right in front of the camp and it was deserted. We didn’t see many of the big 5 here and most people would have been sorely disappointed but the bird life was prolific and with such an excellent guide who totally knew his birds we were in our element. Tom got some awesome shots of birds with his DSLR and me watching with my bins and recording them all on a scrap of paper. Over 70 in the end. I didn’t quite get the names of a couple and didn’t record a few if I felt I didn’t get a good enough sighting. Just missed getting a good look at a little owl.
Under the clouds approaching the airstrip
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The camp was in it’s own private game reserve but it is just on the edge of the Etosha game reserve run by the government so we took trips into the main game reserve on the second day. However, we saw most of the birds in our own game reserve.
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Springbok
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Jackal
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This tame Monteiro’s Hornbill sits on shop window sill and taps on the window making a hellova racket. Taken from a video still. We saw four species of hornbill. Swoon.
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