KATJA NOHLUND, WALVIS BAY
My husband John and I travel at least once a month to somewhere in Namibia. Late in March, we visited Etosha National Park. It was a big relief to find almost the entire park covered in lush green. When we’d travelled to Etosha during the long drought in recent years, I always felt so sorry for the animals. This time, the fine, flour-like dust that normally covers every shrub and tree had been rinsed off by all the heavy rains – the park looked like it had been spring-cleaned!
Our trip started in Okaukuejo rest camp (unfortunately the accommodation at this NWR resort was not up to scratch) and then we headed east to Onkoshi (it was great!).
From Onkoshi we could see flamingos in the distance, standing in the lake. Opposite our house in Walvis Bay, on the lagoon, there are normally lots of flamingos. When the rains came, they left Walvis Bay so we knew that some of the birds we were looking at might have been from Walvis.
Driving from Onkoshi to Namutoni, the road crosses Fischer’s Pan and sometimes we had to drive through knee-deep water. We had never seen it like this before – there were so many birds, including pelicans and several species of herons, in large numbers.
From Onkoshi we went back to Okaukuejo for another night and then on to our favourite camp, Dolomite, in the far west of the park. Thunderstorms seemed to be raging all around us, but not a single drop fell in the camp during our stay. We had the loveliest vistas from the deck – that’s where I took this photo.