Etosha National Park, Namibia

Namibia is a safari with a difference; it offers more than just your ‘normal’ safari with animals around every corner at every destination you visit.   Namibia’s signature destination is the Namib Desert which offers some amazingly different, contrasting landscapes from towering dunes in the South-West to ancient volcanic and metamorphic mountain ranges in the North-West.

If animals are your priority, where can you go in Namibia to see herds of herbivores moving acrosss the plains shadowed by the ever present threat of Africa’s charismatic cats, Lion, Leopard & Cheetah?   The Etosha National park is Namibia’s answer to Kenya’s Masai Mara, Tanzania’s Serengeti, Botswana’s Okavango Delta and the Kruger Park of South Africa.    But how does Etosha differ from these other wonderful parks in Africa?

It is highly unlikely that you will see as many Lions in Etosha as you will in the Masai Mara, nor as many Elephants as in Northern Botswana; and Etosha certainly cannot boast as high a number of Leopard sightings as the kruger Park in South Africa.   Having said this, four of the Big 5 can be seen here, Buffalo being the only absentee from the list.   With the exception of the Black-Faced Impala there are no animals that you cannot see elsewhere on the continent; Zebra, Wildebeest, Giraffe, Oryx, Springbok, Hartebeest, Warthog are ever present throughout the year.   But what Etosha gives you that nowhere else can is the dense concentrations of these animals.   The main spectacle of Etosha happens between May and November when the surrounding plains dry up and animals are forced en-masse to gather at the natural and man-made waterholes of the park; it is not uncommon to witness 200 - 300 animals of differing species at a single waterhole at any one time!   Countless hours can be spent observing the drama play out before your eyes from the comfort of your own vehicle without the nessesity of having to drive around for hours in search of these animals.