Etosha National Park

For many of us, the highlight of our trip to the north was Etosha Game Park. We left at 6AM Sunday morning and for some reason when we got there, a man who works at the park offered to go with us as a guide for free, which was pretty incredible, particularly since he offered to take us places that are “staff only”.
It was AMAZING getting to just drive around and see animals in their natural habitat. It is so in the middle of the wild that you can’t get out of your cars anywhere in the park except the fenced in camp sites because you might get mauled. AWESOME. And we saw lots of animals: many many giraffes and zebras, wildebeests, a hyena eating a giraffe’s carcass was incredible to get to watch, all sorts of birds (including the kind that zazu from the lion king is modeled after), buzzards, kudu, dikdiks (which are like miniature antelope- the most adorable thing ever!), and oricks. I particularly liked the oricks, since they look like they’ve been painted and are gorgeous. We also saw them standing in front of the salt pan, so it looked just like some national geographic video and the guides got a kick out of my exclaiming, “Oh my gosh! Look at that, we’re in Africa!” Oh- and a zebra winked at me. No big deal. Also, I just want to go on the record saying that hyenas are huge. And terrifying. Disney has mislead me for many years.
Anyway so now we’re back in Windhoek for our last week before our sites, teasers for this week: we’re doing a driving tour of the capital, language lessons, and dinner at a nice, traditional restaurant. Hope you’re excited, I know I am!