Going to Etosha NP

We have a long day ahead of us, and it is not one I particularly looked forward to. As we don’t have a spare tire, we have to go 270kms without one to the nearest (!) location where we can get a fresh tire. Wow. Oh, and as its Namibia, we probably don’t have cellphone reception everywhere.

The latter actually didn’t prove to be right, as we had great reception during the drive, so that was a good thing. The not so good thing was that the first 120km were not the best of roads, and progress was slow. But it was steady, and we made it through arriving at Kamanjab to find the tarred road. As promised by the maps. From here on, it was only 150km on a fairly new and very straight black two lane road where the speed limit was a whopping 120km/h, so progress was good there!

Around 11:30 we found the place selling tires, and Jan made sure that our new tire was fitted in a flash. The spare tire which had gotten rather dirty on the gravel roads even was meticulously cleaned by his guys and looked brand new when it was put back in the trunk. So, 2250 Namib Dollars poorer but a new tire richer, we were confident that the rest of our day would go swimmingly. And so it did!

We drove the last 120km to Andersons Gate of Etosha National Park and have spent the remainder of our day in the park. Straight off the bat, we’ve seen Giraffe, Elephant, Springbok, Zebras and Black Faced Impala, so we were off to a great start. And right at the end, when we were driving back to the gate as it closed at 17:30, we found ourselves a Black Rhino! So cool!

On the weird list, we also ticked off the Cory Bustard, the Northern Black Korhaan and the Spotted Thick-knee. I’m a happy camper right now!