Today we get up again shortly after five in the morning so that we can check out on time after breakfast at six and go on a game drive. This time the route does not lead us west, but east, because we are changing quarters and moving to Halali. On the way we also visit the impressive salt/clay pan, a wide, flat plain of around 5000 km² in size. During most of the year this white salt and lime mud shimmers in the sun; hence the translation of Etosha: "the great white place of dry water".
We no longer stop for springboks or oryx antelopes, and only stop for zebras and giraffes if they are right next to the road. However, the yield is initially poor and we are happy about a few "new arrivals" such as a few dik-diks, black-faced antelopes and a Cape ground squirrel, the South African version of a squirrel. Even on the "Rhino Drive" we do not find any big or small sensations.
We were almost ready to give up in frustration and head for the camp when it happened: In the sparse forest, only one elephant was visible at first, but then it turned out to be a family of bulls, a cow and two calves. They came out of cover and slowly moved towards our car. What initially looked like a lucky coincidence soon became threatening as the animals headed straight for us. The bull and the half-grown bull calf had tears under their eyes, which we knew was a sign of the so-called musth, a time when the animals are particularly sexually active and therefore aggressive. Directly in front of us, perhaps 10 m in front of the hood, the group stepped onto the road and the bull turned towards us. With his ears spread out, he made it very clear what he thought of our presence, but then turned around and trotted after his family. Comment from the driver's seat: "Now I need a cognac".
Our friends probably meet this group again when they watch a herd of over 50 elephants at the waterhole near Rietfontein. At this point we are at the Etosha Lookout and admire the seemingly endless expanse of the dry pan. It seems as if the white-brown sand stretches on forever and the presence of some large locusts gives the scene a surreal feel.
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