Days 16 & 17 2nd & 3rd October
We left after breakfast for the short flight to Okutala
Lodge, but took a few extra minutes to fly over the park and part of the Etosha
Salt Pan.
Etosha Salt Pan
Okutala is a resort popular with self-drivers from SA and
can host around 60 guests, so very different to the lodges we had stayed
at. It is a 24,000 hectare farm with
wild animals, but with a fenced area for rescued animals, an animal clinic and
a resident vet. We did a tour in the
afternoon to watch the feeding of the elephants that will hopefully be returned
to the wild one day and then to watch the feeding of the cheetahs and the
leopards, and observe the white rhinos munching on a pile of grass. 3 young cheetah brothers will hopefully
return to the wild, whilst 3 older ones are too old to go free and too dependent
on being fed. Same with the leopards and
a couple of hyenas. Beautiful animals
though, and a joy to watch and they had large enclosures in which to roam. We sat up late after dinner with the manager,
swapping flying stories!
This morning we waited till 10 am to leave, giving time for
the fog to clear at Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast. We flew past a well-known mountain called
Mount Brandberg, then got our first taste of the desert and the Skeleton Coast. Very different area – and weather. Drop in temperature to around 16 degrees!
Brrrr!
Mount Brandberg
The Skeleton Coast - note the band of fog rolling back.
Off to do a catamaran trip from Walvis Bay to see seals and
dolphins tomorrow morning, weather permitting….
No comments:
Post a Comment