From Spitzkoppe, we drove back to the coast to Henties Bay and a bit further South, where we had a look at the shipwreck Zeila. The Skeleton Coast is scattered with many shipwrecks and seeing the typical weather here at the coast (gloomy fog), one can imagine how these wrecks came to happen.

We then headed North to Cape Cross Seal Reserve – a massive seal colony of about 100.000 seals. It was crazy!! They already greeted us at the parking lot, laying anywhere and everywhere. The noise is fascinating! They all seem to „talk“ in very different tones and constantly. There’s so much movement in the colony, you never get bored watching!

And have I mentioned how MANY seals there were!?? I have seen quite some seals in my life, but this was by far the biggest amount I have seen in one place, ever. Such a cool experience! They even lay on the board walks and viewing platforms or old picnic places. Haha, seals taking over anything human-built! If you ever need to be cheered up, this is the place to come.

After a while, we managed to leave and make our way further up the coast and inland again – direction Brandberg. Brandberg seemed a bit far though, so we found a camping near the old abandoned Brandberg Mine – the Ugab Rest Camp, run by the Save The Rhino Trust. The cost of camping is a donation to the trust and sometimes there’s wild elephants or lions around. Did I mention the camp is unfenced!? Bit scary if you ask me and I was not as relaxed chilling at the fire later, but rather turning around a lot and checking for any hidden predators.

At the camping, we had seen a sign pointing to Twyfelfontein, our next intended destination – but this was a 4×4 track we hadn’t known about. Much shorter in distance than going around the normal route, but of course also much more adventurous. We were sold! There is also a chance to spot elephants, rhinos or lions along the way – but we had no luck. Instead, we enjoyed the nice track, which was sometimes really tough but overall a good adventure with nice views.

It took 4.5 h in total until we reached the (uninteresting) Burnt Mountain and the (also not that amazing) Organ Pipes in Twyfelfontein.

After, we decided to drive another little 4×4 track in the hope to finally see some elephants – nothing. Finding a spot to sleep proved a bit tricky: we wanted to wild camp again but avoid open areas where elephants might pass through or riverbeds where flash flooding might occur (it looked like it might rain). We finally found a spot, but I didn’t feel very comfy there. Clearly, we were out in the wild, with lots of animals around us. I just don’t know how a lion would react to suddenly standing face to face to me!? Guess I’d rather not find out.

Next morning I was more than happy to move on to Palmwag and Grootberg, safely in the car on animal lookout again. It’s a good place to spot black rhinos and elephants, but we were again not lucky. We did see some nice views though!

In Kamanjab we stocked up on food, drinks and fuel again. It was not a nice place, lots of weird people hanging around, lots of hassly sellers etc. At least we got to see some Himba women though, without going into one of those touristy villages. Couldn’t take a photo though of course. Along the way to Etosha, we then spotted our first giraffes of the trip, yay! And at our camping just in front of Galton Gate, zebras, baboons, an eland and a giraffe greeted us at the waterhole. Nice start!

Again, it was an unfenced camping and the caretaker told us that, yes, lions sometimes pass through the camp. Oh man, why don’t people build fences!? Seriously, I was looking forward to some nights behind fences in Etosha NP after these 3 rather nerve-wracking nights. Apparently during our night there, a big group of elephants and some lions did come visit. Good we were asleep and my bladder control is getting better…

We then spent 3 full days and a short morning in Etosha national park, driving from Galton Gate in the West all the way to the East. Every night we stayed at a different place: Okaukuejo, Halali and Namutomi whereas we liked Halali best. Each of the campsites has a waterhole, where we could watch some action especially in the evening hours. Too bad it’s so hard to take photos in that light, because we got to see quite some rhinos – at Halali 5 at the same time!! Also at Halali, while it was still a bit light, a big herd of elephants trudged in and had some waterhole fun. Really nice to watch! Later that night, we watched a stare-down between a rhino that had already been at the waterhole and an elephant that just arrived. It was quite for a moment, then the rhino quickly turned around and ran away. Hahaha, it was hilarious! Scary lary.

Our days in Etosha were long since distances are large and we always relocated to another campsite. Sometimes we got a bit frustrated with staring into the empty bushes, but overall we really saw quite a lot! Many giraffes, zebras, different kind of antelopes were a given but still always nice to see.

Elephants were plentiful and always came as kind of a surprise out of nowhere. We also had two rhino encounters at day time: a grazing lone rhino and a happy rhino family with the cutest baby rhino running around playfully, nudging his parents with his tiny horn. Sooo cute!!

As in cats, we didn’t see any leopard or cheetah unfortunately but we did see 5 lions each on day 1 and day 2. On day 1, we had barely started our drive in the park when suddenly there was a lioness just next to Mathijs on the road. She stayed with us for a bit and we followed her as long as we could. A great start!

Later, two Germans were nice enough to tell us about 3 lions they had discovered under a tree: one male and two females. At first, they weren’t doing much but dozing…but we kept watching them.

Then Mathijs moved the car to take different photos and suddenly one lioness had a view on something that had been hidden by our car before… a different lioness who was in hunting mode! It was fascinating how her facial expression went from lazy/tired to „the hunter“ that made the blood freeze in your veins. She then walked over to the 3rd lioness who proceeded in her hunting position towards the waterhole. She made for a group of zebras but they were alert, so the hunt was unproductive. Wow, but how cool to see a hunt, and in the middle of the day even!!

On day 2, we had a pack of 4 female lions and 1 male one so close to the road we drove on that they really shocked from our car! Unfortunately that meant they didn’t stay too long – but it was still great to see so many lions at once in one place!

As mentioned, we didn’t get to see any other cats, and there are no hippos or buffaloes in Etosha. Wild dogs are always a really lucky find, and not for us this time. But – on our last morning, we still got treated to something special: we arrived at a waterhole to find a pack of hyenas tearing apart some rotten meat, laughing hysterically while doing so, fighting with each other over it and going for a bath in between. Really fun, ugly creatures!

And that was our time in Etosha! From here, we took a short drive to Tsumeb where we spent a day organising ourselves a bit: laundry, groceries and a bit of a clean up, before we were headed into the Caprivi strip.