When too much wildlife is never enough
As they travel around the world with their young family, the Cagols have discovered there is one thing their kids never get tired of – spotting wildlife
The kids had enjoyed Kruger National Park in South Africa so much, we decided that a visit to Etosha in Namibia was an absolute must. From all accounts there was even more wildlife here and more easily spotted. We completed our formalities at the entrance gate and started along the corrugated road towards our camp. Within 30 minutes we had spotted zebra, giraffe, warthog and ostrich. Things were looking good.
Etosha is dominated by a large mineral pan. It is dry and short on water and wildlife congregates around water holes, both natural and man-made. At the first two waterholes we spot giraffe, zebra, springbok, ostrich, warthog and oryx, all mixing together beside the waterhole.
At the third waterhole there was a large herd of elephant, zebra and giraffe as well as warthogs, ostrich and springbok. The kids were buzzing from seeing do many animals around one waterhole. We parked the car, switched off our engine and just watched one of Africa’s best wildlife spectacles.
We were spending the night in Olifantsrus. In the 80’s Olifantsrus had been an elephant abattoir. Scientists were convinced that elephant numbers were growing at an unsustainable rate and slaughtered 500 elephants. The meat was tinned and sold alongside the tinned corn beef in the supermarkets. The crane and apparatus can still be seen in camp and give a chilling reminder of the slaughter.
The scientists were wrong, of course. A few years later they discovered that elephants only have an impact on the vegetation a radius of 200 metres around a waterhole. Now Olifantsrus is all about conserving animals. It has a hide, which is lit up at night, and after dinner the kids and I used it to watch a white rhino drinking from the waterhole, only five meters away.
