A rhino and joke

August 24, 2024

Today we headed out at 730. The group ended up splitting up, seven of us in an open 4×4 and the other nine were staying in the bus. I went on the 4×4, because today is an all day game drive through Etosha Park. After yesterday’s half day game drive in the van, I couldn’t imagine staying in for eight hours. 

So the Danes and Oregonians and I hopped on the 4×4. We were much more comfortable in the truck, even with bumpy roads it somehow didn’t hurt as much. 

We saw many elephants, giraffe, tons of deer/antelope, zebra, and hundreds of birds. But the most exciting part of the day was the RHINO!! We saw the white rhino (he’s not really white, but he is very lightly colored gray). He was maybe 150 meters from our truck and we sat and watched until he disappeared behind the bushes. 

We stopped at the midway camp for lunch. I got a grilled cheese and chips (fries) and a sprite. We had almost two hours at the camp to not be on the truck and that was wonderful. We got ice cream and some snacks. Maria and I are snack people, so we stocked up!

After lunch we headed back out. We really wanted to see the big cats. Sadly, we never saw one. Which means, the first game drive on the third day of this trip was the peak of lion sighting. We were very lucky that day. The only thing we really saw after lunch was zebra, deer/antelope and a couple ostrich.

We found out that the other group saw a second rhino before they left the park, they were so lucky! They also stopped at the salt flats to get some super cool pictures. While I’m jealous, I’m glad I was in the truck and not the van. 

I got our truck to play a truck on the van. They ended up behind us for a bit on the drive and I said we should stop the truck and all point and take our cameras out and then when they get close to us, have our driver (Jona) speed away. We laughed SO HARD!! They then said that they saw a rhino where we had pointed, it was a joke back to us. I’m so glad we can all make each other laugh. 

We met back up with the van right outside the park. Thankfully we only had a 10 minute drive to camp tonight. It was a newer looking camp site with an above ground pool, nicer bathrooms and a trading post. I hooked up to wifi for a few minutes then went back camp.

I decided to take a body shower because we were so dusty from being on the 4×4 all day.  Dinner should have been at 730, but Promise was running a bit behind so dinner was at 8pm instead. 

The Italian girls taught me some fun songs/hand games and we played a couple rounds of Pablo (card game). Promise always comes up with great meals and I’m appreciating the pop (polenta) that is the starch for the evening. He made like a lamb stew for everyone and replaced the lamb with butter beans. I am officially a butterfly bean fan now.

After dinner I decided to take a real shower. I was going to do it in the morning but I don’t want my towel sitting wet in my bag all day. BUT, the camp we are at tomorrow does not have running water – so drop toilets and no showers. I will survive, but I’m sure I will be extremely dirty by the time we get to our next stop.

The girls, Noel and I played a couple rounds of Pablo before we all called it a night. Apparently sitting all day is exhausting.