Hi again.
I returned from Etosha National Park in Namibian energized and WOW'd as always. I have been there so many times, but still it never ceases to take my breath away. Nothing is ever the same in a huge National Park like Etosha.
If you come to Namibia on Holiday you can see for yourself.
I was a part of a wonderful team hosting one of the site inspectors from the Adventure Travel Tourism Association ATTA). Our Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) along with the Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) staff showed their stuff! The Rangers and scientific students and staff in the Park are amazing! They did a good hosting job. ATTA is considering Namibia as a host of their World Summit in 2013. Namibia is shortlisted (top three finalists!) and they came to check us out!
We took one of the site inspectors to Etosha to show that part of what Namibia will offer to the delegates once they arrive and do pre-post trips or their two days of adventure during the Summit.
We did a lot of stuff in Etosha. We did a sunrise game drive, sundowners on the pan on top of a pad of SALT! Yep... we bent down to touch the white crunchy 'sand' below us and it was all SALT. I tasted it. In my husband's culture (Oshikwambi) way back, the young men used to have to walk to Etosha just to get a bag of thsi salt for their mothers. This was a manhood passage rite. Imagine scared 14-18 year olds trekking 100 kilometers or more from the North into the Pan with only traditional weapons for protection, (lions, snakes, rhinos, elephants, leopards and all!) to get this salt and bring it back. Wow.
This is me with our ATTA guest outside of the Ecological Institute inside Etosha National Park on the grounds of the Okaukuejo Resort of the Namibian Wildlife Resorts. We are posing next to a elephant skull that has been there for decades. In that Institute they do fantastic research about all the different animals in the park and the diverse flora, migration patterns, wildfire threats, health issues for the animals, predation statistics, and other amazing and informative things.
We got a rare opportunity to walk on the rim of the Etosha Pan. This is what Namibia will offer to the ATTA guests if they choose us as the venue. Look at the fabulous blue of the sky and the white, chalk of the pan itself. Distance is a trick on such a flat landscape. We walked only 20 minutes away from our vehicles out onto the flat pan and looking back, our cars were barely visible! Just specks on the horizon.
In the rainy season, where we are standing is under water and the bottom is a sticky clay. Many animals have tried to cross at the wrong time and gotten stuck.. sometimes fatally so. The sun was so bright that day and all was so 'right' with the world. Seeing such beauty, just calms the soul.
Thanks to NWR, we had a wonderful lunch right on the Pan. The food was great! I particularly liked the gemsbok filet wrapped in bacon, but veggie spring rolls and the tossed salad with fresh Namibian asparagus, various salad greens, walnuts, apple bits and thinly sliced carots was the bomb! Yummy.
If the ATTA chooses Namibia for the Summit, these are the things the delegates can enjoy too, courtesy of NWR and MET!
Of course, we aren't the only folk in the Park to cross the Pan. We saw bones of various animals that contributed to the eco system of the Park. I didn't get a photo, but we saw the bones of a giraffe in a pile, white and picked clean. The remants of a bit of hide with the giraffe brown spotted colors was all that was left. Amazing. Come to Namibia. But, stay in your car inside the wild areas. There be lions here....
On our final day in the Park, we went out in the early morning to another waterhole to see what was up. We found this young man catching the sunrise rays. He was a bit annoyed at our arrival, but he soon slumped down, dangerously blending into the brush around him (he is the same color!) and went to sleep. He totally chilled out. I imagined him wiping his mouth with is paw after having a nice Tafel Lager (Namibian Beer!) and giving a loud belch as he slipped away into slumber.
We saw tons of birds in Etosha. The one we laughed about the most was called a COREY BUSTER. I kept saying COREY 'BASTARD' becuase I didn't hear the guide very well over the roar of the game vehcile's engine. Sorry.. I didn't get a photo of the Corey B bird, but he is a big sucker! I would guess he is the size of a medium brown dog... yet, he still flies... awkwardly... but he runs for take-off and flies.
Yet, still, I prefer the delicate birds. The colorful and beautiful ones are my choice. My all time favorite is the lilac breasted roller below:
When he spreads his wings he shows the most lovely blues, turquoise, teal, lilac, green and touches of lavender. He sits in the top branches like this and checks out the world. The blue of the Namibian sky go so well with his feather colors!
Come to Namibia on holiday and you will see these sights too!
Tell 'em Jackie Sent you.
Until next time....
Jackie
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