While we had seen a lot of animals throughout the trip so far, this day was about to totally blow our minds. As you can see in the pictures below, the Etosha National Park was brimming over with wildlife.

A sad side affect of the COVID pandemic is that Namibia tourism had practically stopped for a few years. But the upside of that was, with so few people, the animals were everywhere. Our guide said that in his entire life he had not seen this many animals in one day!

If you visit this area, may I recommend either a good guide like we had or, at a minimum, getting a map of the watering holes. Being a relatively dry area, the wildlife naturally gathered around the watering holes, both natural and the few man made ones). When we arrived at our first watering hole there wasn’t anything happening. Then suddenly, from all directions, in came groups of different animals. It felt like a big social gathering/party. While most of the types of wildlife stayed in their own groups, they drank near other types of animals with no problems. It was amazing seeing them all arrive as they did and then just hanging out drinking away.

For some background on Etosha National Park, it was founded as a game reserve in 1907 primarily to preserve the wildlife for hunting. In 1958 the reserve was designated as Wildschutzgebiet (Wildlife Preserve) and then elevated to the status of a national park in 1967.

The park is large - covering 22,270 sq kms (8,600 sq mi). Its biggest feature is the Etosha pan which covers 23% of the park.

The Etosha pan is a salt pan like the ones we saw in the dunes in the Namibia desert but so much larger. The pan is mostly dry and very little can live on it during those times. However for a brief time in summer it fills with a shallow layer of water attracting many animals. Of special note are the pelicans and flamingos that come when the pan is a lake.

After a very long and endless day of wildlife viewing (I say that with reverence), we arrived at our next lodge where we would stay for two nights. Once again, a beautiful and comfortable place. Of special note, our local guide was able to arrange for an outdoors dinner for our small group - what a nice treat and of course delicious!