Love At First Sight...Etoshe National Park

We’re in Namibia , South Western Africa. It’s a desert with natural water holes. The animals have to drink, so all you have to do is rent a car and go wait by various sights. The grazers come by the hundreds, ten or so elephants, a dozen giraffes, rhinos, elands, you name it. It looks like the contents of a new Ark on a field trip! There are three old German forts now wonderful hotels where the spots are lighted at night. And that’s what this is all about. But first there’s a short tale about a lion. Oh yeah, you get bored watching lions here! And another thing, the rent at the forts is very good $44.00 a double. Dinner is AN $11:00 ALL YOU CAN EAT DELIGHT.

So we’re over a water hole and fifty yards away we see the head of a lioness in tall brush. She’s still so long, we leave. But out on the main road we spot a pride of five females making for the hole so we double back. In they come, squatting in a single well spaced line to drink. We’re forty feet or less away! Rolls or film! My wife is . . . so it goes. Then the other lioness comes forth and we see why she has been still. She has a broken back leg and is slowly starving to death. She limps over and is about to drink, playing for mercy so she can join the pride and get left overs, but they drive her off. Isn’t that how lots of us treat those in need of help, not charity? We take three rolls of film, but that’s not the ones which stay with us.

Now, it’s night and we’re at the lighted watering hole. The elephants are there. They’re real bullies. They drink only the cleanest water and then they muddy it up for all the others. But they also bring safety from the cats. None of them dare come in when the elephants are bathing and drinking. We see a baby rhino, a pack of elders, hordes of zebra, and after awhile, the elephants wander off. Blink and in come the lions, cheetahs, and lo and behold a leopard! These are the most difficult animals to photograph since they are totally nocturnal.

The hole has a ten foot high stone wall. In front of it is a barb wire net and there are very bright spot lights which sort of blind the animals to our viewing. There’s couple hundred cameras clicking away. But over where the leopard is getting his drink, the wire has ceased and the lights aren’t that effective. Marilyn has to shot this beast. So she slips over onto the rocks and begins snapping away. I remain about a hundred feet away, protecting our prime seating. But I’m watching that cat! This is not Disney World. These are wild, usually hungry, beasts. Remember, ‘People from California and Germany do not listen so our lions and leopards eat them!’

After a few minutes the Leopard glances away from the water and spies Marilyn crouched about twenty feet above him, and only a big leap away. It moves further up to where the wall ends and gracefully leaps about fifteen feet in the air and lands on a nice round rock. Marilyn is already blowing out of there as I jump up and yell to her. Then I notice lots of other folks are vacating their perches and heading back to the compound. The leopard seems to settle in on his rock, laughing at the Exodus.

We are in the campground, which is not fenced but inside the fort grounds, which is. We sleep on top our truck in a very roomy tent. Six feet isn’t any real feat for cats, but they don’t bother you if you say in your dens. All is quiet. Oh, there are also nice stone huts for rent. Each has it’s own out door fire place, and patio, kitchen and screened in veranda. Next morning we hear that the boy is found sitting on one of the fireplaces waiting for some one to become it’s supper.