Today was our last day in Etosha as we are leaving tomorrow am as we slowly start to make our way home. We are currently 1926 kms from our home in Cape Town so a long way to drive over the next few days.
We went out again this morning heading west and repeated our route from the first day we were here. We probably saw less game but have added some more birds to the trip list. I am at 187 birds now and H at 192. Seems like at least one of us might make the 200 before we get home. Still haven’t managed to catch up the missing birds that H saw earlier in the trip unfortunately but still a few days to do that.
We have been relatively disappointed in the game in Etosha. H said today that we would recommend this time of the year if you are a birder but otherwise I would suggest you come in winter rather. It is just so green and the game is very sparse. We have seen no elephants at all during our time here and we have only seen one lion, one rhino (though H saw another one today while I was starting the fire tonight), two hyena and a few jackal (besides the normal giraffe, zebra, wildebees, impala, springbok, gemsbok etc). If we weren’t birding it would have been very disappointing.
The other thing is that the service in Etosha (and to be fair was also like this in the Waterberg) has been very slow. H said she thought South Africa could be slow sometimes in the rural areas but Namibia is even slower. They could also do SO much to improve the general tourist experience. The shop is poorly done (especially when you compare it to the Kruger Park shops) and their systems are terrible. At one point when I wanted to pay the lady just said ‘tap the credit card machine’. I did but thought to myself ‘surely you need to put in how much I am paying first’. She just kept telling me to tap it and then took the card and inserted it and said ‘tap isn’t working’. When the insertion didn’t work either I ventured to suggest that maybe she needs to put the amount in. No apology or embarrassment or thanks – she just did it and said ‘tap’. That is just a microcosm of every interaction. Checking in on arrival was three paper forms asking the same information and handing them to two separate people (but must be done in the right order).
It feels to us that the people working here are doing so because they have been told they must and not because they want to in any way at all. They are not unpleasant – they are just slow and seemingly unmotivated. Somebody ought to tell them that if you want to attract tourists you actually would do so by being friendly and helpful.
We are also surprised by the lack of local SADC people in Etosha. We think that besides us, everyone else is from Europe with about 95% of those from Germany. It seems German’s favour Etosha and Namibia.
That all being said, it has been a relaxing and enjoyable 4 days here and we have enjoyed the birding particularly. We have become experts at identifying larks and pipits (for those of you who don’t know – they are what we call lbj’s – little brown jobs). When you’re in Etosha and everything is grey and brown then you have to become good at identifying lbj’s!
This evening after dinner we went to the waterhole for the last time and managed to spot a Marsh Owl hunting in the lights and also identified a square tailed nightjar (nightjars are very hard to identify as they basically all look the same – you ID them by the call and look usually – and mainly the call). The Marsh Owl was a lifer and earlier in the day we saw an Ashy Tit right outside our chalet in the tree so now up to 17 lifers for the trip.
It’s late and so now heading to bed!
Until tomorrow ..
P & H
