Many Native American cultures believe that birds are the messengers between the heavens and earth. This seems about right to me too. And when I see these birds in Etosha National Park, it seems to me that they are the true kings of the savannah, soaring over and seeing all there is to see.
Magic 156/365, The Messengers, Etosha National Park, Namibia, December 2017
I took this photo from the porch of our tent high atop the hill where Dolomite camp is placed overlooking these vast plains in Etosha National Park. It was Christmas eve and we were watching the sunset and enjoying this beautiful view when suddenly we saw these two lumbering across the savannah on their way to the watering hole on the other side of the camp. We were blown away. We were told that these were some of the rarest animals to see in the park. And we didn’t even have to drive around in the bush for hours to see them. We saw them from our amazing little tent at Dolomite. And the fact that it was a mother and her baby made it even more special for me because I was seven months pregnant.
As much as I enjoyed this moment it brought a feeling of melancholy over me, knowing that this species was hunted to near extinction in the mid 20th century. According to WWF, the population dropped by 98% to just 2500. Poaching is still a huge problem because some Chinese believe that the horns are an all natural viagra. It is a shame that some are willing to delete an entire species just for a hard-on. So it made me sad seeing this mother and her little one all alone in this huge place, trying to make it to the watering hole before the sunset, the fate of their species resting on a few vigilant conservation organizations doing their best to protect them (see below).
Thankfully these organizations have made progress. The population has made a comeback and has doubled to over 5,000 since its low 20 years ago. I hope they keep up the good work so that I can one day bring my son to this very mountaintop and see this cub all grown up and healthy, perhaps with its own little one following it into the sunset.
Magic 155/365, Black Rhino – Mother and Cub, Dolomite Camp, Etosha National Park, Namibia, Christmas Eve, 2017
Just a few of the awesome organizations working to protect this amazing species:
Rhinos without Borders (see video below)
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center (breeding conservation in Texas!)
Save the Rhino Trust (Namibia)
To learn more check out this fascinating documentary on the work being done to protect rhinos.
When you meet someone new at camp while on safari one of the first things you do is list all the animals you’ve seen so far. So when we met a nice South African couple by the pool at Dolomite camp in Etosha National Park, we immediately went through our list of animals. When we mentioned that we saw a leopard their jaws dropped.
“I grew up in the bush my entire life and I have NEVER seen a leopard,” the friendly South African told us.
We had no idea how lucky we were. I was only able to get a few photos before the elusive cat slipped off into the bush. Take a look at the second photo in the gallery to see what the original perspective was completely zoomed in. This cat was very well hidden. We were only able to catch her/him because we came upon another pair of safari goers staring hard into the bush. When we slowly approached the spot they gave a gentle nod and pointed to this shady spot underneath a tree. We looked through our binoculars and could barely see it. So I pulled out my 70-200mm and snapped this photo, then cropped it even further and VOILA. There is the leopard panting in the shade of a tree under the white-hot noonday sun.
Wildlife photography is so incredibly difficult. Animals present themselves when they very well please, not when the light is perfect and reflecting beautiful colors off of the trees. Wildlife photography takes a huge amount of time and patience to get a perfect photo. Unfortunately, five days in Etosha was not enough time to get a good photo of a leopard, but lucky for us, it was at least enough time to catch a fleeting glimpse of this beautiful animal.
Magic 154/365, A Rare Leopard, Etosha National Park, Namibia, December 22, 2017
Giraffes are HILARIOUS. And they are another favorite of mine. They are the shyest of all the animals we encountered in Etosha National Park. They are even shy around other animals. When they approach a watering hole they will wait for all of the other animals that are currently partaking to leave the watering hole before making their final approach. They just sit there, thirsty and prancing, looking longingly at the water that is so close yet so far away.
Magic 152/365, The Goofy Sort, Etosha National Park, Namibia, December 2017
Animal Speak 2/10
“Humanity has lost that instinctive tie to the rhythms and patterns of Nature, and with that loss has come a loss of the reality of magic. Nature tries to show us every day that all forms of life can teach us.”
Animal Speak by Ted Andrews
I am reading this book about animal totems and it is reminding me of a connection to nature that I once had and am working to restore. My time in Etosha National Park sparked this quest to reconnect. It was also a reminder of how wonderful it is to just sit and be and look at what is around you because most times what was around you was fascinating. Like these zebras.
I took 1,234 photos in Etosha. It has been a little overwhelming even to think about processing this collection of photos, so, once again, here comes my push. Ten days of animal photos.
Magic 151/365, Zebras at Etosha, Etosha National Park, Namibia
Animal Speak 1/10
When I first booked our trip to Etosha National Park, I thought five days might be too many. I was wrong. I could have spent months driving around this park photographing wildlife. In fact, I daydream regularly about returning to Namibia and also exploring the many other wildlife parks in Botswana, Tanzania, Kenya, etc. There …
There are so many zebras in Etosha National Park. Everywhere you go they are there and I love them. I could spend months in that park. This is a photo I took at sunset one evening. Magic 126/365, Zebra, Etosha National Park, Namibia
This is a photo of Deadvlei, the cousin of the famous Sossusvlei. I took 954 photos in this one small valley alone during my trip to Namibia. Granted, these were mostly HDR photos so divide that by three. But still, that’s a lot of photos. That’s the reason that I haven’t developed them yet. One …
I made a new year’s resolution to post a photo a day this year and today is my 108th post. I am celebrating this because 108 is a sacred number in Hinduism and Buddhism, there are 108 beads on a mala, and the distance of the earth from the sun is about 108 times the …
We left Etosha National Park early that morning and traveled to the Skeleton Coast, making it to the gate 20 minutes before it closed. Multiple times that day I asked Antonio if we had enough cash to pay the park entry fee. Each time he answered with a confident yes. After our gas stop, a confident yes. After our spontaneous visit to the Damaraland living museum, a spontaneous yes. After purchasing the hand-carved mobile of birds for our unborn child from the “tour guide” wearing a loincloth at Damaraland, a confident yes. So when we reached the gate, I was confident we had enough. We didn’t.
He ran to the car and scrounged for change in every nook and cranny while I made small talk with the very bored lady who ran the gate. He came up with just enough of a mix of South African Rand, Namibian Dollars, and the good ole USD, which is not something Namibians usually accept.
She looked at it confused and asked “How much is this worth?”
“It’s worth about $20 Namibian Dollars.”
“I don’t know what we will do with this but I will take it,” She said. We were oh so grateful.
Until we reached our truck.
And saw the flat tire there.
Where did that come from in the past 20 minutes that we had been scrounging and haggling?
As one can imagine, the gate to the Skeleton Coast is not a highly populated tourist destination. Fortunately for us, there was ONE man there. ONE man aside from the judgemental security guard at the gate who watched us struggle and offered ZERO help. But there was ONE nice Namibian man who showed up suddenly out of nowhere and sauntered over, smiling from ear to ear as he watched Antonio struggling to release the spare from underneath our rented Fortuner and me staring worriedly, unable to help because I was six months pregnant. If Iwase to lay on the ground I probably wouldn’t be getting back up any time soon.
This ONE nice man came to the rescue. Within minutes he and Antonio had loosened the jammed spare and replaced the flat with it and we were off, just as the lonely, judgemental security guard was closing up for the night. We made it to the coast in an hour or so and then headed north for our final destination: Terrace Bay. Its the furthest north one can go in the park without a plane and we had booked a room for the night at the simple fishing lodge located there. We made it just in time for this beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, Antonio missed most of it because after dropping me off he went to the ONE gas station located in this region to see if they could fix our flat tire. They couldn’t.
But I was lucky enough to catch this light at the end of the Skeleton Coast road. A barren land but a beautiful sunset.
Magic 100/365, The Light at the End of the Road, Terrace Bay, Skeleton Coast, Namibia, December 26, 2017