Namibia: 2021 – Etosha Pan – Halali to Namutoni Camp

Namutoni is a restcamp on the edge of Etosha pan in the Oshikoto Region in northern Namibia. It is one of the entrance gates to Etosha National Park. The most prominent structure at Namutoni is Fort Namutoni, built in 1896.

🙂 Leopards. Black rhino.

🙁 Torrential rain!

Friday, 8th January 2021: Etosha Pan, HalaliNamutoni (70Kms) 30C

Tried to sleep in but alarms all went off at 07h00 so we were up and headed off after breakfast and a quick shop buying a shirt for our little godson.

First sighting was a tagged blue crane.

Mangy little Cape Fox

Seriously injured hyena at Gaus waterhole resting in the water.

Lions chilling…

Arrived at Namutoni and enjoyed lunch. Lovely camp.

When we checked in we bumped into the Frenchies and Swiss couples who told us there was a leopard in a tree with a baby wildebeest kill back near Gaus waterhole, 46Kms away. After deliberating whether it would be worth taking the chance to go that far back we decided in favour of this choice as it was likely the leopard would still be on a fresh kill… we headed off back in that direction filled with eager anticipation! We were rewarded with two hyenas waiting hopefully under the tree to scavenge any bits that fell and spotted a large male with his kill balancing in the branches.

We decided to drive down the road to turn around in hope of a better view when we saw this little angel right next to the side of the road as relaxed as can be!

Spent over an hour and a half enjoying this wonderful sighting all on our own. Looked like a male leopard in the tree and this was definitely a young female on the side of the road. We suspected that her Momma had caught the baby wildebeest and that this big male must think that he is her Father and had therefore not done any more harm other than to chase them both off the kill to take it for himself … the young female kept looking around expectantly as though looking for her Mother. We were very happy with this sighting!

Headed back: Vicious zebra squabbles. Springbok spronking (always miss the pic) and nursery, hyena, ostriches doing dilly dancing. 2 black rhino. Giraffe. Just marvellous!

Enjoyed our braai – arrived after sunset and chaps next door kindly gave us their embers to get our fire started. Checked out the water hole which was swamped with billions of insects and massive dung beetles. Torrential rain soon drove us into the dry warmth of our camper where we soon fell asleep to the sound of hyena calling!

Go Back to: Halali

Go To: Onkoshi

Leave a Reply

Continue Exploring

Namibia
Namibia
Namibia