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Namibia - A Midsummer Tourist's Dream


Fischwife

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The_Norwegian

very good, then i hope for many small lions in november ? enjoyable report! no leopards? 

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5 hours ago, The_Norwegian said:

very good, then i hope for many small lions in november ? enjoyable report! no leopards? 

No leopards.

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I'm a little bit slow in putting together the last installment. I have a lot of pics to sort through, and I have a new kitten I'm trying to integrate with my other pets. :)

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6 hours ago, Fischwife said:

I'm a little bit slow in putting together the last installment. I have a lot of pics to sort through, and I have a new kitten I'm trying to integrate with my other pets. :)

 

Don't worry, @Fischwife, we will wait patiently!

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June 20

After breakfast, we left Taleni Etosha Village and were stopped with their vehicle. They needed to take a piece of equipment to Outjo for repair. Francois asked if we minded one of them riding with us, and of course we didn’t, especially after learning he’d been trying to get a ride for 2 hours.

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A sign in Outjo. Seems like a very versatile establishment. :)
 
After Outjo, we saw some lovely scenery but no wildlife, although we did see cattle and a donkey on the road, heading for a new pasture.

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As we drove on, I noticed that the termite mounds were taller and pointier here, so we stopped by one to take photos.  Apparently, this one was an occupied one, since it wasn’t full of holes.

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We went through the Erindi gates and were heading for Old Trader’s Lodge when, suddenly, Francois cried, “Rhino! Rhino!” and braked. He backed up, and there, on the left side of the road, was a young, female black rhino.  She wasn’t too far from us to start with, and we were keeping quiet and snapping photos.  Then she took a few steps towards us, and then a few more. We held our breaths. Suddenly, she decided to run the other way. She trotted around a tree and came back out the other side and walked toward us again. Again, she kept hesitantly coming closer.  We decided to leave, because she probably wanted to cross the road.  When Francois started the vehicle, she ran off, so I'm not sure if she ever did cross the road.

 

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Sometimes I intentionally included a bit of the vehicle in the shot so I could remember how close the animal was. We could hear her ears flapping.
 

Edited by Fischwife
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We also saw a female warthog with a couple of young ones on the road, and a couple of steenbok beside the road. We had seen steenbok before, but they were too fast for us to get pics. These ones were keeping still.

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We arrived at the lodge and checked in.  Our room was very large here, with lots of storage and a fridge.  It had a private patio overlooking a small waterhole.  There was a bull elephant at that waterhole.

 

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After getting settled, we headed for the main building that has a restaurant and a deck overlooking a larger waterhole.  We found seats on the deck and ordered rock shandies. There were crocodiles and hippos in this waterhole, including two baby hippos.

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We were busy taking pictures of the crocs and hippos when, suddenly, we heard a big commotion.  A herd of elephants was running toward the waterhole, kicking up dust and trumpeting as they ran.  There were at least 16 elephants in this herd, including some young ones and a small baby. They all drank, and the baby had trouble using its trunk to get the water to its mouth, so it eventually gave up and leaned down to drink directly with its mouth.

 

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Edited by Fischwife
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Then the elephants had a dirt/mud bath, showering dirt on themselves and rolling around in it.  They went back to the water for another drink before they left. 

 

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A pair of young ones stayed behind to play for a while. 

 

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We watched the waterhole until after dark. At sundown, the birds in the trees are amazing: they swoop around in large flocks, so many of them that their wings make a loud whooshing sound.

 

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We had a great buffet dinner and went to bed. We had a game drive booked for the next morning.

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June 21

We woke up at 5:15 because we heard lions roaring. We got ready for the game drive and went to the big water hole to see if there was anything. We had coffee then went to the meeting point for the game drive. We were in an open-sided vehicle that had 7 passengers plus the driver. The first part of the ride was fairly uneventful. We saw a male water buck and then, not far away, a female and a baby. 

 

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We saw a fish eagle, and a lappet faced vulture. The vulture was on the other side of the vehicle in a tree, so I didn’t get a good look, unfortunately.  We drove around looking for leopard but had no luck there, but we saw some baboons on the rocks. At one waterhole, we saw impala and springboks. Some of the springboks were pronking—so funny.

 

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We also saw mountain zebras, oryx, and a crocodile.

 

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I spotted a lilac breasted roller and asked the driver to stop. This one didn’t fly off too quickly, so I managed to get a picture of it sitting in the tree but not flying.

 

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A little while later, I saw a movement and saw what I thought could be the grey back of a rhino moving in the bush. Another passenger saw it, too. The driver tried to follow a little way but then got a radio message about the location of a cheetah.

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We drove into the bush and found the tracking vehicle with the cheetah, a ten-year-old male. The cheetah was radio collared, so that was how they found him. We stayed there for a while to ensure that another group found the spot.  Sir Spot was kind enough to pose nicely for us for quite a while before he got fed up and moved away.

 

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Great pic's Fischwife, love the shots of the blackie and the little ellie trying to drink is well captured .

The scenery and wildlife is more diverse there, am enjoying your journey , thanks Colbol.

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We were supposed to stop for a coffee break, but when Christophe and asked us whether we wanted coffee, we all declined.  Shortly afterward, we saw an ostrich. This one was closer than any ostriches John and I had seen previously.

 

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Heading back toward the lodge, we saw white rhinos. There were three. We drove up to two, a mother with a young male.

 

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We drove on and saw a kori bustard in flight.

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We caught a quick glimpse of a dik dik running into the brush. We also glimpsed some hartebeest, but by this time, the driver was in a hurry to get us back for breakfast, so we didn’t stop. When we were almost back at the lodge, we came upon giraffes- a mother and a young one, about 3 months old. It's hard to tell how small he is from the photos, because the mother was a little bit too far away from him to get them both in the photos together for perspective.

 

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We returned to the lodge for breakfast and learned that our group had the most sightings of any group that morning. Nobody else saw a leopard, either, and we were the only ones to see rhinos, although another group had seen the wild dogs for which Erindi is known.

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We went to wash up, and then Francois came to tell us that there were elephants at the waterhole. So, we returned to watch the elephants; the same group as the day before. On the way, I saw a crimson breasted shrike.

 

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I couldn't get enough of these little fellows playing.

 

Shortly afterward a group of giraffes and zebra came in for a drink.

 

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Three warthogs also arrived.

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The mother and baby hippo came out of the water.

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A heron hung out at the waterhole, fishing.

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We stayed on the deck watching the waterhole for the rest of the day. There was an hour of two when little happened until the elephants came back. This time, the baby was very curious about a crocodile. It was a real Rudyard Kipling moment. I think the baby had a little scare, because, right afterward, he decided to nurse for a minute.

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When I left to check in for our flight, John saw a blue-green shiny bird with a red eye and some bright green birds with yellow breasts. 


At sunset, the crocodiles were busy eating a wildebeest they had dragged into the water.

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We were just saying that we probably wouldn’t see wild dogs when five wild dogs came for a quick drink. They then ran to a clearing on the other side of the hill, where they may have had a kill. John and I went around the path to the other side of the waterhole, and we could look down and catch glimpses of them jumping around.

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Once again, we stayed at the waterhole until after dark, and then we had our last supper in Africa before going to bed.

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June 22

We checked out of the lodge at 8 am and drove slowly out of Erindi, looking for animals. We saw a martial eagle, a tawny eagle, and another steenbok.

 

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We saw a warthogs a couple of times not far from Erindi. We drove to Windhoek and went to a craft market. We bought an angel ornament and then, on the way to the airport, saw some baboons by the side of the road.

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Our flight was on time, and we left Namibia, sad to leave and to say good-bye to Francois, who felt like an old friend by this time.  However, we felt like we’d had a trip of a lifetime that exceeded all our expectations.  What more could we ask for?

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Summary

 

Distance travelled: Over 3000 km by land. (Distance travelled by sea and by air not included.)

 

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Animals seen:

  • African Fish Eagle
  • Black backed jackal
  • Black rhino
  • Blue wildebeest (gnu)
  • Brown Hyena
  • Burchell's Zebra
  • Camel (near Swakopmund--not native to Namibia)
  • Cape Cormorant
  • Cape fur seal
  • Cape Stirling - the turquoise blue one 
  • Cheetah
  • Corn Cricket
  • Crimson breasted shrike
  • Crocodile
  • Desert Adapted Elephant
  • Dik dik
  • Dolphin (heavy sides)
  • Egyptian Goose
  • Eland
  • Elephant
  • Forked tailed drongo
  • Frankolin 
  • Gabar goshawk
  • Gecko
  • Giraffe
  • Goshawk
  • Greater flamingo
  • Green Tree Snake (on the road)
  • Grey go-away-bird
  • Grey Heron
  • Ground squirrel
  • Guinea Fowl
  • Hartebeest
  • Hippo
  • Kori Bustard
  • Kudu
  • Lappet faced vulture
  • Lilac Breasted Roller
  • Lion
  • Little Bee-eater
  • Martial eagle
  • Mongoose
  • Mountain Zebra
  • Namaqua dove
  • Namaqua sand grouse
  • Northern black korhaan
  • Oryx
  • Ostrich
  • Pelican
  • Red-faced love bird
  • Rock agama
  • Rock Hyrax
  • Ruppell's Korhaan 
  • Secretary Bird
  • Shovelnose lizard
  • Skink
  • Snake Eagle
  • Sociable Weaver
  • Springbok
  • Spur-winged goose
  • Steenbok
  • Tawny eagle
  • Toktoki beetle
  • Two types of Crow- pied and cape
  • Warthog
  • Waterbuck
  • Whip snake
  • White rhino
  • Wild dog

 

Animals Eaten

  • Blue Wildebeest
  • Crocodile
  • Eland
  • Hartebeest
  • Impala
  • Kingklip
  • Kudu
  • Oryx
  • Ostrich
  • Oysters
  • Springbok
  • Warthog
  • Zebra

 

Good Times Had:

Too numerous to count.

 

 

Edited by Fischwife
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Grrr. Post # 56 should read:

June 20

 

 

After breakfast, we left Taleni Etosha Village and headed back toward Outjo on our way to Erindi. After a few minutes on the road, Francois pulled over because two guides were stopped with their vehicle.

[I hate not being able to edit after an hour.]

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I can't get over that first cheetah shot...its face is cracking me up!
Great elephant shots throughout!

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Erindi showed you a huge variety of animals; the whole trip report was amazing to read, it must have been even more amazing to live! Thanks for sharing !

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I understand that Erindi may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm glad we went. At the airport in Windhoek, I met two women from Australia who were on there way there for their 4th visit.

One of the main reasons Francois chose it was to maximize our time in Namibia. It's close enough to Windhoek to spend the night there before a flight, provided the flight is not too early in the day. So, we did not spend any nights in Windhoek. Every minute we spent in Namibia was part of our safari.

Also, it gave us a great "sit at the waterhole" experience.  He was unable to book us into Okaukuejo, as he'd hoped to, so this gave us a lodge where we could sit and watch a waterhole when we weren't game driving. I loved it.

Edited by Fischwife
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Many thanks for showing us around Namibia Fischwife, your time at Erindi certainly was eventful, the wild dogs  were worth waiting for.

The animals" eaten" menu is impressive.:lol: 

Animals" seen " list is very comprehensive. Well done.

Cheers Colbol   :D

 

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The_Norwegian

very nice :-) Your Erindi-installment takes me back :-) Can`t wait until november :-) 

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However, we felt like we’d had a trip of a lifetime that exceeded all our expectations.  What more could we ask for?

 

It's wonderful to have this feeling at the end of the trip.  The animals just kept parading through at Erindi.  Thanks for the info on this intriguing place.

 

Is Sir Spot your creation or is that what the cheetah was called?  Isn't it exciting when the eles come thundering in to a waterhole?!

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13 minutes ago, Atravelynn said:

However, we felt like we’d had a trip of a lifetime that exceeded all our expectations.  What more could we ask for?

 

It's wonderful to have this feeling at the end of the trip.  The animals just kept parading through at Erindi.  Thanks for the info on this intriguing place.

 

Is Sir Spot your creation or is that what the cheetah was called?  Isn't it exciting when the eles come thundering in to a waterhole?!

Sir Spot was my creation, as I was writing the report. 

Oh, yes! The eles coming to the waterhole was so exciting and funny!

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