One of my favorite travel moments from Africa was a self drive safari in Etosha National Park in Namibia with my girlfriend, Eleyce. At that time we had been traveling around Southern Africa in “public” overstuffed minibuses for several weeks, so we decided that we deserved our own car for the safari. I still remember the fat smiles on our faces as we sat down in our rented Toyota Yaris. Not exactly a Land Rover like most of the other tourists, but to us the Yaris was a highly appreciated luxury!
Since we had no guides, and had not done much research either, we did not really know what to expect. So the first couple of hours as we were driving into the park, we were literally stopping at every single animal we saw. This included a cow (or bull I guess), warthogs, turtles and of course giraffes. Not exactly the most amazing safari animals, but very entertaining for our untrained safari minds.
The first giraffe Eleyce spotted on our way to the park resulted in me hammering the brakes emergency style, and then countless pictures of us and this tall animal. Naturally, this initial excitement didn’t last through the whole safari, which is good. We would never even make it half way into the park if we were to stop and pose with every single animal we encountered.
After entering through the gates we saw everything from Elephants, Giraffes, Kudu, Gemsbok, Zebras, Warthogs, Springboks, other kinds of “boks”, and of course the mighty lion. And not just one lion, but a whole lot of them. The first lion we encountered was a female, which walked all the way up to our little Yaris, and just hung around there for a good while. We witnessed the same lioness (or another lioness for all I know) performing some serious baby-making with a male lion who were chilling out by a waterhole. This action lasted for a few seconds at the time, but was repeated at least once every second minute for as long as we cared to watch them.
Our one night in Etosha National Park was spent trying to sleep in our car. Not a very easy task, especially when you lay curled up in a Yaris, envying the luxury of the huge bungalows and safari tents that are surrounding you. But we made it through the night, and woke up to the roars of lions hanging out by the nearby waterhole.
I might aadd that with a skilled safari guide we would probably also have seen the rhinos that the park is famous for. But since Etosha National Park is small enough for us normal people to find our way around, I did never regret that we went without a professional guide. However, if I was going to a larger park like Kruger or Serengeti I would definitely choose to go with a guided group.
Photo Gallery from our Safari in Etosha National Park
[...] Car: What car to choose for a self drive safari? Contrary to the norm in Africa’s national parks, you don’t really need a huge 4×4 Land Rover to get around. A cheaper alternative like the smaller 4×4 Subarus or Toyotas are perfectly fine. In most parks you won’t even need a 4×4 at all, especially during dry season you should be all right with a regular 2WD sedan. You are not allowed do drive off the roads anyways, so a 4WD will just make that temptation even harder to resist! Personally I drove through all of Etosha in a tiny Toyota Yaris and never had any issues with that! [...]
[...] After our stay in Zimbabwe and Zambia we moved on to go on a self drive safari in Namibia. Too see the pictures go visit the Photo Diary from our Safari in Etosha, Namibia. [...]