Today was a travel day. We drove from our lodge on the north side of Etosha down toward Winhoek in central Namibia. We arrived at the Erindi Game Reserve in time for a late lunch and a little down time before sundowners and dinner. Erindi is a very large private game reserve – one of the larger ones in Africa. It is a much different terrain than Etosha, with much greener vegetation and some mountainous areas inside the reserve. The lodge also felt more polished with manicured grounds and a pool.
One nice thing about the lodge was it was inside the reserve rather than outside the park as we had at Etosha. The dining and bar area overlooks a large watering hole and our rooms backed up to another watering hole and both were lit up a night so you could see the animals come and go either from your room or the open air dinner table. Even though it was hot in the middle of the day, the humidity is low and the evenings are very comfortable. They also had some nice couches right up against the railing on the observation deck so you could watch hippos, giraffes, and crocodiles while enjoying your sundowner.
The next morning, we got up early for a game drive with wildlife sitings of elephants, giraffes, ostrich and a black rhino (good spot Bob).
Several great photos below were taken by one of our travel mates, Chris Stewart.
Back at the lodge for lunch and a bit of rest….
On our afternoon game drive, the last of the trip, we were focused on trying to see a large cat (other than a lion since we saw lots of those in Etosha)
One of the other game vehicles had a tracking antenna and mid afternoon picked up the signal from a cheetah. It allowed us to get in the general vicinity but not an exact location. After a lot of searching and as the sun was setting, we spotted him in the thickets Here is a cool video as he sees something of interest and starts stalking it.
We watched as he headed across an open field to a watering hole and could see the baboons on the nearby hill as the sun set. Quite the finish to our Safari. We enjoyed sundowners in the field watching the cheetah, baboons, and other animals while the guards stood by with their elephant guns just in case. Tomorrow we head to Sossusvlei, a desert area with huge sand dunes for our last real stop of the trip.
Tampaskis Travel 