Overlanding and Etosha National Park

So we've completed about 2 out of 3 weeks of our overlanding trip! It has been quite an adventure so far. I think it's a great way to see the continent where everything is already organized for you and all you have to do is ride in the truck (it gets very long and boring sometimes) and go to the activities. The only down side is that you have to camp every night. That gets kind of old after a while. Although I guess we can't really complain as some people on our trip started in Nairobi and are doing a 56 day tour! The truck is pretty comfortable to travel in. Here's a pic with Dominika sticking her head out of the window over our rolling home and another with Justin enroute, amazed by how little there is to do on an overland truck. Though you might not think so by Justin's face, I would recommend this type of trip for anyone who has some time and wants to see the African countryside.

Our first stop into Namibia was Etosha National Park. We stayed in a campsite inside the park for 2 nights (only one of those nights was planned, I'll get to that in a minute). Inside Etosha we saw tremendous number of game, including a species of zebra that is squatter than that seen in the north. In addition, these zebra have a combination of black and tan stripes. It was pretty cool. We also saw tons of giraffe, springbok, birds, oryx and a whole pride of lions. We rolled up to a spot and saw one female lion drinking from a small puddle just off the road. Once she was done drinking, she wandered over to the other side of the rode and we saw about 8 other lionesses resting in the shade of 2 trees.

The next morning as we were heading out of the park we saw what we think was the same pride of lionesses lounging close the same area as the day before. It's amazing to see the muscular definition in their legs, truly amazing creatures.

So as I said, after spending one night in Etosha Park, then next morning, we began to do another game drive as we headed out of the park. At first, we saw lots of animals but then after lunch things got a bit slow. We were all laying around the truck sleeping, playing cards, listening to music when all of a sudden we feel the driver slam on the breaks and then hear a CRUNCH. Our poor tour leader who was sleeping actually feel out of her seat and onto the floor. We look outside of the truck and there is a Toyota Land Cruiser with a completely crushed hood! Luckily everyone both in our truck and the other truck were fine! Because the roads in the park have pot holes and water holes all over them, no one ever drives on their side of the road because you have to constantly go around these obstacles. So what happened was that we were on the right side of the road (the wrong side in Namibia) to clear a water hole, this car came around a corner, saw us on the wrong side of the road, panicked, swerved to its right just as we returned to the left side of the road. It was basically a head on collision.

So there we are in the middle of a game park, no one had cell phone signal and we hadn't passed another car for a while. Our truck, given that it weighs over 17 tons, was fine, just a broken head light and a dented bumper. As we didn't feel like sticking around waiting for some wild animals to show up, we decided to take the passengers from the car with all of their gear, load them up on our truck and head for the nearest exit. It took a while to get things loaded and convince the others to leave their car behind, but finally we managed to do that. After about 1 hour, we finally arrived at another campsite, aquired a cell phone signal and called the National Park police. Thus, instead of heading on to the next campsite, we stayed at another campsite in Etosha for another night. It was actually nice for the passengers as the campsite was beautiful, stone tiled floors, hot showers with lots of water pressure and working electricity! Luxuries we haven't often gotten at campsites!