Namibia - Etosha National Park

Our first night in Etosha we headed to Halali, one of the campsites situated in the middle of the National Park. Driving through the National Park on the way to camp we were lucky enough to see a couple of lions having a good old shag at one of the watering holes. Really does sound more exciting than it actually was given that the whole ordeal was over in around 2.5 seconds. No kidding. We also saw a massive family of elephants from large to tiny - the tiny ones playing and swimming in a watering hole. Etosha has watering holes everywhere which makes for excellent game viewing as you can see around 10 different types of game, all at the same time. Our campsite was awesome, with fantastic HOT showers, sinks and tables to use for dinner, and most cool, at the edge of the campsite, a rock viewing platform that sits above one of the National Park's watering holes lit by a dim spotlight. You can sit at the watering hole all day and night and watch the game as it comes to drink. We spent a couple of hours at the hole and saw 4 black rhino, a couple of hyena and a large number of jackel (they are all over the campsite too). It was very cool. Next day, we were off to Okaukuejo, a five star resort and campsite in the park, complete with swimming pool, hot showers and another watering hole at the edge of the campsite. During the day, the watering hole was full with elephants, kutu, antelope, rhino, zebra and more. At night, as we slept, we could hear the giggles of the hyenas in the National Park all around the edge of the campsite. The jackals also came at night, running around our tents and scrounging for food. On one of our sunrise game drives we saw a large pride of lions, 16 in all, playing and climbing a tree. There were a number of cubs that kept jumping on each other and two male lions (clearly not both from the pride) that strutted around each other and pee-ed continuously in an effort to mark their territory. For a while it seemed as though they might fight over one of the females but we were not lucky enough to see it. We had a fantastic few days in Etosha and think it is a fantastic game park. It definately gives the Serengeti a run for its money.