For the past three weeks, I have been asking for Burgandi and I to have they same day off so that we may go to town together or go see some interesting things in Namibia. This week, we were told that this would not happen because of how many counts and events there are in March and how few people we have as well. To lift my spirits, Mark, a Davidson professor conducting research here at the facility, offered to do a day trip on Wednesday, which is my normal day off. All I had to do was ask a staff member.

During the intern meeting that we have every week on Mondays, I was told that my off day was going to be switched from Wednesday to Tuesday. Immediately I panicked because I had already made plans for Wednesday. I quickly texted Mark to see if we could go on Tuesday (the following day!), and he said that it was fine. Due to excitement, I accidentally interrupted the meeting to ask if I could go to Etosha tomorrow for a day trip. My supervisor thought I was kidding but did not tell me no when she realized that I was being serious.

The last time that it rained at CCF (a good, steady rain) was within my first month of being here. We had gone nearly a month and a half without any sign of rain, except when it wrapped around CCF and passed us numerous times. That night though, it started pouring as soon as I took my clothes out of the washing machine, but that would not stop me. I hung my clothes in my room and packed.

The next morning, I was a bit scared because it was STILL RAINING! I had to wake up at 5AM so that we could leave by 6AM, and I was not going to let my early rise go to waste. It had rained all throughout the night and had made the ground extremely wet, but I was still determined to go if Mark was willing to drive. The problem though is that when it rains, it is much harder to see animals because they stay in the bush around puddles, and most people who visit Etosha find the animals at watering holes. We would not and did not because it was raining the entire two-and-a-half-hour drive to Etosha National Park.

When we got to the gate, I was very excited. I had two Monsters and a small coffee on hand to stay awake. I did not want to miss anything! The guards thought we were crazy to go on a rainy day, but we had no other choice. We had to take the opportunity when we had it! Mark even asked if anyone had seen any interesting sightings yet, and they said no. We were through the gate at about 9AM, and within 6 minutes, Mark almost hit a baby giraffe! It came out of nowhere and ran across the road!

The rest of the morning, we tried to wait at two watering holes, and we only saw waterfowl. We saw many springbok and zebra, but I had already seen these animals before. We were a little bit deterred, so we decided to head to Halali for lunch. On the way though, we saw many interesting birds, including a falcon that was eating off the ground, and as I was taking a picture, Stella spotted two lions! We got amazing pictures, and we were the only car that had seen the lions stand! My heart stopped, and the Monster had immediately hit me: I had to pee.

Before lunch, we had spotted a gray horned-bill, which were of interest to Mark, and gray horned-bills are very rare to find. I found the nesting cavity, and then I realized that our luck had begun to change because of birds.

After lunch, we were heading back on our way to the gate, and we had spotted an eagle that I had wanted to take a picture of. Sadly, I could only get its feet as it jumped off the branch to fly away. But because of that bird (and many others), we had spotted a rhino in the brush! Such a rare spotting, but again I was speechless. I tried desperately to get a good picture of it, but the camera only wanted to focus on the bushes in front of it. At least I got to see the gorgeous animal with my own eyes.

At that point, I felt lucky enough to see so many incredible animals that I was ready to head back to CCF, but Mark wanted to take another path. We had turned down a road filled with puddles, and we almost turned around, but I had spotted what I thought was an ostrich. I wanted a picture of a female, but when I looked through the camera, I had noticed that THERE WERE EARS! After a minute, I saw the baby elephant rise, and about ten others had followed it. They were hiding in the grass and the trees! We had found elephant poop all day, and now we had finally spotted the elephants!

We continued to watch as they approached closer and closer, and we became very scared when the baby began to explore our car with her trunk. We thought that she would flip us! But she did not. She did almost give Stella a kiss in the back seat though because the elephant had poked her trunk in through the back window. Then, later up the road, we found more elephants with babies playing in a puddle. Another group of rare birds led us to my picture of an ELEPHANT SHREW!

Finally, we were done and ready for dinner. We ventured back, went grocery shopping, and ate dinner at a restaurant that was a country ranch theme. I had an amazing oryx burger and cocktail, and we hit the road again. On the dirt path back to CCF, we had found a python on the road, and Mark was determined to hold it. He got bit in the process, but he eventually brought it over to the car for a closer look. We also saw many hares, kudu, AND IMPALA! This is one of the best days and experiences that I have ever had!

Here is a list of other animals that I saw during the day and throughout my stay here at CCF:

Ground Squirrel Fat-tailed squirrel

Slender mongoose Yellow mongoose

Striped mongoose Bat-eared fox

Kudu Oryx

Black-backed jackal Elephant

Impala Rhino

Giraffe Zebra

Eland Springbok

Duiker Steenbok

Ostrich Secretary Bird

Kory bustard European Bird Eater

Spotted Genet Red Hartebeest

Cheetah Horned Bill

Go away bird Malibu stork

Honey Badger Scrub Hare

Warthog Impala

Elephant shrew Leopard Tortoise

Lanner Falcon Blue crane

Abdims stork Pale chanting goshawk

Baboon Python

Guinea fowl Lion

Wildebeest Sheep

Dog Goat

Cow Leopard

Barn Owl African Wild Cat

Chameleon

If you would like to see pictures of my amazing adventure, please visit my photos here on my page under Etosha Adventure. Also, there are some pictures in the Game Counts folder.