Our next destination is Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia. Everybody on the truck is extremely excited about seeing some animals, because after all this is Africa! We get there in time for a game drive before sunset. The park, in particular this time of year, is an enormous dry plane, with little vegetation and little water. The main attractions of the park are its water holes. The first one we see is still quiet, only an old elephant there trying to cool down by spraying mud and water over himself.

We need to be back at the campsite before darkness as it is inside the park the gates need to be closed to avoid animals getting through the site. Just few steps from our tents there is a water hole where different animals come also during the night to refresh their bodies and drink. In the distance the sun is setting and the jackals are walking around looking for mice and small rodents. Some giraffes can be spotted towards the horizon, with their long necks, slowly coming closer to the water, but always double checking who is around. This view is stunning! Juliana prepares an amazing dinner for us, a powerful taste of South African flavors. We always go to sleep happy (and stuffed)! During the night and in the early morning we hear the jackals walking around, and in the distance a lion’s roar. In the small tent you do feel safe, but the sound of the king of all animals is breaking through your ears and you know you are nobody. It’s the ultimate feeling of being part of this world, a piece of it, like everybody else. There is nothing so shaking! Time to get up and be ready for one more game drive. We can really all feel the expectation in the air. Any moment there could be something you haven’t seen before coming out of a hole, or out from behind a bush. You could see a lion in the grass or a baby elephant, it could be an ostrich or an oryx (or gemsbok). I’d love to see any of them. The oryx is a very common antelope in Namibia, with its long horns and the elegant profile emerging from the desert background. But here at the water hole we experience an amazing moment. A migration of hundreds of animals from the dry planes to the water hole: antelopes fighting with each other, zebras drinking, ostriches dancing around, thousand of birds in the air. We don’t know where to look anymore, it is absolutely overwhelming!   We just stare at this show for as much as we can and then continue our drive looking for something else. As we are driving slowly nothing seems to be around, maybe it is too hot, or maybe they are just taking it easy, but all of a sudden in front of us a few cars standing beside road, a sign that there is something interesting to see: three young lionesses just few meter from us! They do not care about anything, they are just having a relaxing nap! They sure are beautiful, and their paws are huge! After two days in Etosha it is time to move to the Namibian capital of Windhoek for a night out and to say goodbye to the Swiss group who are leaving. Out at the restaurant we get the chance to order all sorts of meat, and Andreas goes for zebra (see food section), which honestly doesn’t taste much different than a regular beef steak! But good we tried that too… Tomorrow we are leaving Namibia to enter Botswana, We are told that it gets tougher as we go North, both the conditions of the road and the quality of life. But I’m sure there’ll be lots of beautiful stuff to see, and I know it is going to be great!