Dear Readers, as we came towards the end of our  holiday we had a full day drive across Etosha National Park. What a joy it was! The recent storms meant that everything was greening up, and there was water for anyone who wanted it. I have never seen so many giraffes in one place. At one point we counted twelve, and more were popping up all the time.

We had the chance to sit and watch another bull elephant peacefully munching on the acacia leaves.

And here was Namibia’s National Antelope again, the Gemsbok or Oryx.

Gemsbok/Oryx

But often it’s the drama around the smaller animals that is interesting. This Pale Chanting Goshawk had found something to eat under a ball of elephant dung, maybe a lizard, but whatever it was was hanging on for grim death (as well it might). In the end the bird flew off in frustration, and whatever was under the dung lived for another day.

But then, we saw this….

Vultures were circling, which usually means something has died, and often means there’s a predator about.

A group of vultures were on the ground, their numbers swelling every minute. They were all looking to the right.

It looked as if a cheetah had killed something, probably one of the many Springbok lambs.

Cheetahs have an extremely hard life – they are not big enough to defend their prey from bigger animals, such as leopards or hyenas, and even vultures can drive them off of their kill when there are enough of them. At the moment it was a stand off, but not, I suspect, for long. I just hope that the cheetah had eaten enough for its purposes.

And finally, look at this! These plants were starting into bloom all over Etosha and are members of the Amaryllis family – this particular species is known as the Karoo Lily. Ammocharis means ‘delight of the sandy plains’ and so it is. Namibia is full of surprises!

Probably Ammocharis coranica, the Karoo Lily