Okakuejo Waterhole, in a word, is incredible. After spending our day driving across Etosha National Park, we set up our campsite in the late afternoon light and headed over to the waterhole to see if there would be any wildlife to be found, literally just a two minute walk from our tents. We passed through a small site of luxury chalets encircling the place before getting our first glimpse at the place, set up as a semicircular sidewalk with benches and a small stone wall (along with a small protective fence on the other side) overlooking a circular waterhole, about a third the size of a football field, situated around 25 yards from the wall of visitors. Though there were other people around, the wide viewing area allows almost every one to get an up close view, and our first impressions were amazing. Just as the sun set for the evening, a group of around 30 elephants were dominating the waterhole, a few wading in the shallow water and bathing while others bathed themselves in the dust of the dry plain, scattered with a few large rocks and the odd tree overlooking the animals below. Elephants of all sizes scatted about, including small adolescents staying close to the protection of their mothers, drinking, pushing and even trumpeting while a few other herds of zebra and springbok waited patiently outside the water hole for their turn. In the low light, the dust kicked up by the elephants created a magical, dreamlike effect for the whole area, and I didn't want to leave for dinner. Fortunately, after a quick dinner, many of us returned to the pool, lit up by dim floodlights that create another beautiful spectacle, finding the huge herd of elephants to have been replaced by a select few, drinking and posing for us as we watched in delight.
As we sat around the waterhole, the hours passed and the remaining visitors thinned out, leaving behind empty benches and a few awed visitors. Later, around 10 in the evening, a rhino appeared out of the blackness surrounding the hole, first taking a drink and then confronting the elephant nearby. After a few false charges, the elephant backed away and let the feisty rhino have his time around the water. Soon after, three other rhinos appeared, giving us two white rhinos and two black rhinos right in front of us. Two of the rhino stood off against each other, pacing and charging to fight the other one off, grunting and tooting in a sound described by some to be like a train. We watched as they interacted for a while before finally heading back into the darkness and fading away. After they had left, a group of three giraffe appeared, hesitantly making their way to the water while looking around for any potential predators. Once satisfied, they spread their legs wide and craned their necks downwards, barely reaching the water below, popping up every few seconds to survey their surroundings. I looked down again and noticed that I had now spent over three hours at the site, though it felt like just a few minutes. The dark waterhole was simply magic at night, and I couldn't wait to see it again in the morning.
We started the morning with another peek at the waterhole, finding large groups of springbok, zebra and occasional kudu coming down to the water to drink, coming in waves and then walking off into the distance. After breakfast, we embarked upon another game drive, with frequent wildlife spottings again ranging from zebras, oryx, kudu, springbok, and many more, though we were in search of felines, hoping for another lion or leopard spotting. We scanned the trees and shade for the large predators, hallucinating at times when a bump in a tree looked quite like a lounging lion or leopard. When trying so hard to find animals, there were also a few incorrect spottings, one claiming the grey fur of a kudu was a hidden rhino and another common ground squirrel being mistaken for a meerkat, though in the heat of the day, any spotting is a good one (other than herds of springbok that can be found everywhere). At one point, we headed off on a spur towards a dried-up waterhole, finding a brilliant crimson-breasted thrike (small bird) that caught everyone's attention and just after finding an African wild cat hidden below a dry bush. The wild cat looked almost exactly like a house cat lost in the middle of nowhere, peering out at us in relative calm, though it was expertly hidden in the grey mass of the shrubs, so Simon's spotting of it was another great find. We had also seen one of these running along the road the day before from a distance, even though these are pretty hard to find in the wild, particularly because of their size in the tall grasslands. Though we saw a lot of animals during the day, you almost become a bit jaded to it all given the abundance of animals, sometimes barely looking up at a herd of passing zebra or antelope, and we were all excited to head back to the waterhole.
Just as the day before, we found the waterhole full of elephants in the late afternoon, drinking and playing while we all looked on. Again the time passed quickly as we watched the animals, like a scene from a nature documentary right in front of us. After dinner, another few hours were spent gazing at the animals, with some of the same spottings as before with a few interesting twists. As before, a rhino showed up later in the evening, just as our driver claimed it does every night between 8 and 8:30, but this time his charges and huffs didn't scare off the elephant, so the rhino finally gave up against the much larger foe, trotting off in the distance over the rocks before coming back for a less-aggressive meeting and a drink. While there, another silhouette slinked into the picture, gracefully coming down to the water in front of us. This was what everyone was waiting for, a lion. The lion looked around for a while before crouching down for a long drink, lounging in the area for a bit before heading off again. Seeing a lion, rhino and elephant around the water within about a 20 minute period, I figured it couldn't get much better than that, so I opted to head in for the night, wandering back to my tent in the dark of the late evening, having spent another two or three hours at the water.
For our last morning, we were scheduled to leave fairly early, but many of us wanted more time along the waterhole. Once we got to the water that morning, we could also tell that there was something strange going on. The few animals around seemed a bit skittish, and I noticed that on the far end, there was a grey lump too big to be a rock. I looked closer and could see that it was a young elephant, lifeless on the edge of the water as a few jackals moved in, trying to rip away at its tough skin. There was speculation and a bit of excitement over what may have happened, people speculating that there may have been a dramatic kill early that morning. I talked to another onlooker who told me that apparently around 3 or 4 in the morning, this young elephant had come down to the water, took a small drink and then fell over, staggering to get up once or twice before giving up, so it may have been more the result of a sickness than predation. Even so, that meant that other animals would soon be around to pick up the pieces, and we didn't want to miss that. We rescheduled our time to get another few hours at the waterhole, watching as other herbivores came up for a drink, though they seemed extra attentive and aware that something was amiss. We hoped to see hyena and/or lions coming down to pick up the easy meal, though they never appeared. A group of workers did come on to the sight, clearing out the animals with the sound of their truck and quickly dragging the dead elephant up along the rocks a bit with their 4x4 and a rope to get the animal out of the water supply, though leaving it for the predators and for nature to take its course.
The waterhole soon filled again with huge numbers of zebra and springbok, along with smaller groups of wildebeast and oryx, almost completely filling up the small waterhole at times. Eventually we had to leave, a bit disappointed that we wouldn't be able to see the predators come out and feed in the slightly somber atmosphere, though we couldn't complain much, as the Okakuejo Waterhole was thoroughly spectacular. We soon left the park out the South end, making a quick stop in Outjo for some supplies (and a nice piece of cake from the bakery). We then headed off towards a small town called Kamanjab, in a quiet part of the desolate, beautiful country to a farm with some cheetah encounters.
(The rowdy group of about 30 elephants was our first sight upon arriving at Okakuejo Waterhole, just a minute or two away from our campsite.)
(Around the waterhole are some nice benches and a small protective wall. Apparently one tourist once fell asleep on the bench and was killed by an aggressive, hungry lion early the next morning, before the barriers were improved.)
(After a good day of wildlife driving, the waterhole was even better, an incredible spot for us to just sit in the dry desert park and just wait for the animals to come to us.)
(This fiesty rhino came up later in the evening, and according to our driver, it literally comes every evening between 8 and 9 pm. He chased away a few of the elephants to get some water. This guy is one of the endangered black rhino that are found in the park, later followed by a few white rhino.)
(After the rhino left, another few elephants came back to the waterhole, making for some incredible night shots with the dim floodlights illuminating the area. I stayed on the bench for about three hours just staring at the wonderful, magical area.)
(One solitary elephant and the acacia tree wasn't enough, so the second guy decided to join my picture.)
(After the other animals cleared out, the skittish giraffe finally came down for a drink, though they kept popping their heads up and looking around for predators lurking in the darkness.)
(On the road in the park, we came to a few smaller waterholes, this one filled with oryx, ostriches and springbok. We hoped to find a lion here, though we only saw one laying way off in the distance at one point.)
(Our entire group, along with our truck, Malaika. Lower level, L to R: Richard, Will (driver), Simon, Gursheen, Bruce, Stuart, Johannes (cook), and Jo (guide). Upper level, L to R: Tony, Jenny, Lisa, Slavek, David, Jennifer, and me. Not a bad group...)
(Our day of driving was nice, but we were all excited to get back to the incredible waterhole at Okakuejo. Here the kudu on the right and springbok on the left are fleeing from the oncoming elephants.)
(Elephants mostly dominated the waterhole when they made their way down there, particularly around dusk.)
(The results of a brief beard-growing competition between myself, Will and Simon. We are ordered from least beard to most, with Simon being the winner.)
(Some of the sparse vegetation and a solitary acacia tree; a classic African scene in this dry national park.)
(Elephants kicking up dust at the waterhole. As you can tell, I loved this place.)
(The African sun setting over the waterhole. Makes sense that it's African, as Etosha is in Africa.)
(Around 9 in the morning, the zebra herds take over, coming by the hundreds and almost filling up the shallow waterhole.)
(Along with tons of zebras, there were wildebeast in the back right, oryx in the back left and a few jackals patrolling the area in the front left. This waterhole really is like a National Geographic special happening right before your eyes.)
(One of the zebras coming up for a look around before getting back to getting some water from the waterhole, one of the few spots with water in the arid park.)
(A lone wildebeast hanging out with the zebra. Such a loner.)
(Me on the bench, observing one of the quieter moments at the incredible spot.)
(One last shot of the waterhole. We were all sad to leave the place, especially since a dead baby elephant was found in the waterhole on the last morning, and we wanted to be around to see the lions and hyenas fight over it, though we had to leave. The park rangers dragged the elephant out of the water to keep from contaminating it, but they left it for the predators to clean up.)
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