Namibia Day 12 - Etosha NP to Waterberg NP

Everyone in the camp was up early at about 5.45 am which woke us up so we got ourselves packed up and were on the road by 7.30am. We still wanted to explore some more of Etosha before we left so headed to the Fisher Pan a vast salt lake stretching miles and miles.

We saw warthogs, ostrich, zebra, springbok and wildebeest before we headed back to Namutoni for a final time.

As we left Namutoni were were told a rhino was just down the road from the gate hiding in the bush. We did manage to see it but not clearly enough for a photo which was a shame.

For the drive down to Waterberg NP we decided to stay on the gravel side roads and avoid the boring tar roads believing we would have more chances of seeing other animals.

This was proved correct when as soon as we drove off the tar roads we spotted 3 warthogs running beside the road. The route was more agricultural with lots of gates to pass through where children would run out to open them and close them. Sometimes we gave out small coins or sweets all of which were excitedly accepted.

We arrived at Waterberg about 1.30pm but having been spoiled by the campsites we had visited up to now this campsite proved to be a bit of a disappointment.

Clearly at some point a lot of rain and water had run though the camp ground washing away bbq areas, cutting deep channels in the roads and making it very difficult to find an intact pitch that was also flat. We parked up set up camp and enjoyed a cold beer and some lunch.

After our lunch and cold beer we decided to take a walk and check out the campsite, restaurant and some of the little signposted walks around the grounds. Outside the restaurant a family of warthogs were grazing in the restaurant gardens.Dave went closer to get a photo but all the while aware of the damage the tusks can do and waiting for the adult to charge him. Angela meanwhile was looking in which directions she could run if it did charge.

We spotted a tiny dik dik sitting at the side of the road a lovely little thing with a strange face that made an odd whistling call.

At Waterberg Campsite is a German graveyard.

The Battle of Waterberg took place on August 11, 1904 at the Waterberg, German South West Africa (modern day Namibia), and was the decisive battle in the German campaign against the Herero.

As we did not bring our bigger cameras we decided we would return tomorrow and take some pictures and pay our respects properly.

There are signs at the camp and in the guidebooks saying that baboons can be a problem at this campsite but so far we had not seen any except at the gate.

Little did we know the entertainment they would give us at a later time.

Cooking tea we were trying to use up what we had left so fried rice, onion, curry sauce and sausages. All washed down with some more beer.