Garden of Eden

The Etosha Pan in northern Namibia has long held the reputation of being rich in animal life. The past few days have been a very joyful experience filled with exciting sightings of all kinds of animals, some for the first time ever for me.

Yesterday morning I came across a pride of 10 lions, including 3 little cubs. I learned later that the cubs had been left together in the open by the waterhole as the pride went hunting, making them extremely vulnerable to predators. This is how it is in the lion world. Pregnancy is very short, just 3.5 months and the mother gets the cubs through that most vulnerable phase. Submissive males in the pride are involved in caring for the cubs later. When the power structure changes, all cubs in the pride are killed. This vicious and fragile power structure seems to be partially responsible for a shocking decline in lion numbers in the world.

Bird life in the eastern side of the park is extraordinary. It would be worth a visit here just to do birding.

Today we head north into the Caprivi Strip and tomorrow another dream comes true, a visit to the Okavango Delta and a voyage by mokoro, the traditional dugout canoe.