ETOSHA IN 2 DAYS

Etosha is the ultimate biggest animal conservation park of Namibia The park is delimited around a huge white clay pan. 
Queue in the morning register your car, drive through and stop to pay your entrance fee before the gate. 

They will notify you at what time you need to be out of the Park.
If you sleep in the park you can have your pass for 2 days and +
If you sleep outside the park you will have to register again when you come back the next day

• VISIT THE WEST PART OF THE PARK
• VISIT THE EAST PART OF THE PARK
• PICK YOUR SEASON TO VISIT
• MY TIPS TO ENJOY YOUR SAFARI

🧭 VISIT THE WEST PART

🌵The wester part of the park was closed for a long time to public. It used to be a very restricted area to visit.
On the western part of the park you will find that the soil is red
There are a lot of waterholes attracting elephant, rhino, leopard, lion, and a lot of water bucks.
There are two very rare and unique animals to spot in this region of the park :

• Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra
• Black-faced impala.

Enjoy the warm colors and the undulations of the land, and the animals that you get to see.

🧭 VISIT THE EAST PART

🌵 The east part of Etosha is a wide flat clay pan. You get to drive along it and sometimes you can even get super close to the pan, but we never saw any animal on the pan it was just too dry.
The pan expends on the whole east part of the park giving this white dusty look on everything you look at.
Especially in dry season you can observe these mini white dust tornados turning in the middle of the pan, the trees and all white and grey because every leaf gets coated with this white dust. The leaving conditions are extreme.
That atmosphere is something I have never seen in any other African parks !
It simply feels like you arrive on another planet.

• 🐾Check the HALKHAUEL loop, I researched for an area with Lions and this loop kept coming back on my research. So we drove to see. We didn’t found Lions but we encountered this beautiful Rhino with no one else around ! 
And before leaving at the end of the loop we saw a Leopard pretty up close. 
I can’t promise you will see something but it’s worth to try ! 

🍃 PICK YOUR SEASON TO VISIT

• 💧AUSTRAL SUMMER :

The Whole park gets green, rain falls often and everything becomes lush and alive. You will find countless of birds everywhere and mostly see them migrate to the pan that gets filled up with water
There are plenty of flamingos and the scenery is quite amazing
On the other hand it’s much harder to see the other animals. They are not so thirsty to visit the water holes and the abundant vegetation hides them well.

 

• ☀️AUSTRAL WINTER :

Winter is extremely dry ! The temperatures are cooler, and it is definitely dusty.
You get to see so much more animals as the bushes have less leaves and the water it rare : you can spot a lot of animals sharing the waterholes.
The downside is that this season is more touristic and as the road is dusty you can end up queuing behind someone in a thick dust cloud. So try to keep up with a consistent driving rhythm that will spare you the other persons around. If you constantly stops when the person ahead stops : you will spend your whole day in the dust ;)

 

💡MY TIPS TO ENJOY YOUR SAFARI

• ⏰ Wake up early and start driving right after sunrise when the park opens
• It gets hot fast and animals still enjoy the fresh morning weather this is the time where you will see them the most

• 👒 Take a hat and stock on a lot of water ! You are most likely to drive windows open and the car will roast you. 
Prevent heatstroke. + Take sunglasses the light reflection is strong

• ⏸ It’s a long day:  take regular breaks, this pan gets really hot, take breaks in your day in rest the areas ideally around 
10am - 12pm - 2pm. Walk, relax your eyes it can get intense looking for animals

• 💧During the day check the waterhole points. Animals are usually thirsty during the day especially in dry season (austral winter)

• 🚦My personal safari experience brought me to the conclusion that you often think that animals are hiding on gravel narrow isolated path, well most of the time they don’t …I think they actually enjoy the main large road : it’s easy to walk on
  Don’t waste hours on the little roads get a balance of 80% main road - 20% tiny gravel roads / loops