October 7th was relatively calm. We got up late. The program of the day consisted of two parts. Before lunch, there was a visit to a place called Mowe Bay. On the way, we watched the changing landscape of the desert and met a colony of sea lions on the shore. After lunch, we returned back and rode along the sand dunes.
Then we started heading deeper into Africa, going east. As soon as we drove a bit away from the coast, the sun came out, and the temperature jumped from 15 to 31 degrees in just 30 minutes. The landscape changed completely. Along the way, we saw an elephant and a giraffe in their natural habitat. Not far from a gas station, we stopped at an open-air “local history museum,” which was like an aboriginal village—basically a fake village made for tourists. We spent most of the day on the road, mainly on dirt paths. By the way, this was our first clear night in Africa. It’s interesting how different the starry sky looks here.
On October 9th, we visited Etosha National Park. According to Wikipedia, there are 144 species of mammals living there. Right at the entrance, we saw ostriches mating, and then we spotted Thompson’s gazelles. We drove up to a watering hole, where there was already a crowd: zebras, wildebeests, elephants, kudu, and more Thompson’s gazelles. Our guide even spotted lions through binoculars—just like in Kipling’s stories!
We stopped by the shore of a dried-up salt lake. It was our first time seeing such a vast salt flat; it looked like a white sea. The temperature was +37°C, with mirages shimmering on the horizon. Just before leaving the park, we stopped at an artificial watering hole. There, for the first time today, we saw a family of warthogs and two families of elephants. At 4 PM, the temperature outside reached +40°C. We spent the night in the city of Oshakati, which has a population of 40,000.
Then we started heading deeper into Africa, going east. As soon as we drove a bit away from the coast, the sun came out, and the temperature jumped from 15 to 31 degrees in just 30 minutes. The landscape changed completely. Along the way, we saw an elephant and a giraffe in their natural habitat. Not far from a gas station, we stopped at an open-air “local history museum,” which was like an aboriginal village—basically a fake village made for tourists. We spent most of the day on the road, mainly on dirt paths. By the way, this was our first clear night in Africa. It’s interesting how different the starry sky looks here.
On October 9th, we visited Etosha National Park. According to Wikipedia, there are 144 species of mammals living there. Right at the entrance, we saw ostriches mating, and then we spotted Thompson’s gazelles. We drove up to a watering hole, where there was already a crowd: zebras, wildebeests, elephants, kudu, and more Thompson’s gazelles. Our guide even spotted lions through binoculars—just like in Kipling’s stories!
We stopped by the shore of a dried-up salt lake. It was our first time seeing such a vast salt flat; it looked like a white sea. The temperature was +37°C, with mirages shimmering on the horizon. Just before leaving the park, we stopped at an artificial watering hole. There, for the first time today, we saw a family of warthogs and two families of elephants. At 4 PM, the temperature outside reached +40°C. We spent the night in the city of Oshakati, which has a population of 40,000.
