The great white place of dry water

That’s how they describe Etosha Pan in the local vernacular. It is a huge expanse of dry sand, clay, and minerals that makes up most of Etosha National Park in central Namibia. It was probably once a huge lake that ran dry because of shifting plates. It’s a shallow depression that now partly fills with water during the rainy season, but the water never lasts long enough to run into a river. It evaporates in the hot sun, leaving a white, salty residue like a huge desert. When water does come, animals come from the whole region to drink. Thousands of flamingos stop by every year to breed in the sand below the shallow waters. We were lucky enough to see them, but unfortunately could not drive close to where they were. They formed a bright pink line through the sand close to the horizon.

We had thought Etosha would not live up to all the things we saw in Moremi and Chobe and planned to drive through and stay somewhere outside the park. We ended up camping here for 3 nights because we didn’t want to leave. The campsites here are fenced to keep out large animals, so we can actually walk around inside the main area, which is a treat after so much car time. (You can’t get out of the car during game drives, or while driving on the roads of any of the parks and reserves we’ve been in, on account of the lions and elephants and such.) Some of the highlights:

• Lots of kori bustard, the world’s heaviest flying bird. Huge!
• The flamingos, of course.
• Seeing black and white rhinoceros. There were 2 black rhinos drinking from a waterhole just below us near a campsite. We nearly hit a white rhino yesterday while rushing down the main road through the park. Thankfully, we stopped in time to avoid both hitting him and pissing him off enough to instigate a charge.
• Driving out into Etosha Pan on a lookout road. It’s like being on a huge, empty desert planet.
• Seeing herds of antelope, giraffe, and zebra come to the artesian water holes near Etosha Pan to drink.
• Watching giraffes drink. (Their necks aren’t long enough to reach the water, so they have to splay their front legs and bend at the hips and knees to get their mouths to the water.)

The weather here has turned noticeably drier, which is a nice change from hot and humid with intermittent electrical storms. That said, we’ve been very lucky with weather while in the parks. It’s been mostly sunny. Etosha has been hot, dry, and clear. Because we’re almost always in the truck, I’m getting a spectacular driving tan on the left side of my body.