Safari Adventure: Day 1

The first day was amazing. Once inside the park, all we had to do was drive a few kilometers through a flat grassland area and instantly we found a whole bunch of springbok, gemsbok, blue wildebeest, warthogs, giraffe, zebra, and even a grey elephant! All the animals were grazing right by the road!
 

 

 The entrance gate to Etosha National Park.

The zebra were so close to our car I didn't even need zoom

 

 The giraffe above reminds me of the British soldiers in London!

 

 

The first hotel we stayed at was the Namutoni Rest Camp, which was previously a German fort before Etosha became a national park. So, I got a quick history lesson at the museum: It was used during the Battle of Namutoni, on January 28, 1904, during which 500 of King Nehale Lya Mpingana of Ondonga's warriors attacked the fort, which was destroyed the next day. Try saying that five times fast.The museum had a lot of artifacts from the battle as well.

 

Turns out the park itself was actually called Etotha by the natives, which meant 'the place where no plants grow,' but early European traders couldn't pronounce it, so they called it 'Etosha' instead. The fort name was a European adaption of the Oshindonga spelling Onamutune, which meant 'a place we can see from far away' because the fort is higher than the flat land around it.

 

Besides being a pretty cool German fort, the hotel had a really good buffet and dining area. In the center of the outdoor eating area is a giant bonfire that is lit every night. It also had its own private watering hole, a resting hut, and outdoor showers with the rooms, which were made with a native influence. 

 

I woke up at five and found this herd of zebra at the watering hole.

 

 This was the outdoor shower for each room, if you couldn't tell what the metal square sticking out from the tree was.