Etosha - Okakeujo

A lovely waterhole, birds everywhere and a great chalet.

The morning was spent around the Hobatere Lodge  but we were unable to walk in the hills due to the presence of Lions so we did not see Hartlaub’s Francolin. We then drove to Okaukuejo from 1100am arriving at Andersson Gate at 1810 via some D-roads. A pre-dinner look at the waterhole and then again after dinner.

Hobatere
Breakfast at the lodge was served in an open fronted verandah area with a briliant feeding station and water feature just yards from the steps. A very bold hornbill hopped among the dirty dishes taking advantage of any leftovers. Two Ruppell’s Parrot flew in and came down to dring amog the Bare-faced Babblers, finches and Vape Glossy Starlings. A Congo Rope Squirrel worked it's way along a branch to some seeds in a feeding bowl.

We took a walk round the grounds of the lodge before leaving, bumping into a party of Orange River Francolin, some very tame Bare-faced Babblers, a Pearl-spotted Owlet, a Cardinal Woodpecker, Ashy Tit, lots of Dusky Sunbird, Southern White-tailed Shrike and Black-throated Canary and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting. Large numbers of Namaqua Sandgrouse came in to drink at the waterhole along with Red-headed Finch, large numbers of Quelea and Lark-like Buntings at the waterhole.

We were delighted to see two Lions walkinh along the back of the waterhole and parties of Eland, Oryx and Giraffe were seen in the distance while parties of Kudu and Springbok came in to drink.

More Striped Tree (Congo Rope) Squirrels were seen in the grounds and the colourful Namibian Rock Agama and Flap-necked Chameleon were a good start to our reptile list.

We drove slowly out of the lodge stopping for two parties of White-tailed Shrikes along with Cape Vulture, Black-chested Snake-eagle, Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Crombec, a party of White Helmet shrike and more, closer views of several Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra.

We left around 11.am to drive quickly to Etosha but several stops, including one between Kamanjab and Outjo which produced Common Scimitar-bill and another party of White-tailed Shrikes, meant that the time just trickled away. We decided to take a short cut along gravel roads which was very hot, limiting the bird activity, although we saw plenty of Sabota Lark and Scaly-fronted Weaver. We also saw some large termite mounds, mostly built up against a tree trunk.

As we entered Etosha we had Kori Bustard and a very close Red-crested Koorhan and we started to see Springboks and Zebras in the large numbers we were going to become used to. Southern Ground Squirrel also began to appear.

The evening visits to Okaukuejo waterhole produced our first Elephants and three Black Rhinoceros along with Giraffe and Black-backed Jackal. Sociable Weavers were nesting around the viewing area,