We wake up early so we are able to get to our destination, Twyfelfontein, during daylight as well as exit Etosha before 10 AM after which we have to pay an additional day in fees. Outside the dawn is breaking with only Venus and Jupiter still visible. Whenever we take a break from packing we go to the patio to see the sunrise and examine a close by tree full of guinea fowl and their behavior as they start leaving.
After some time we notice the source of the sounds the previous evening, a giraffe, which after examining us for some time finally decides to leave and goes towards the waterhole. The sunrise is however a sight to behold and we can barely keep our eyes away as we continue packing.
One of the interesting things we received with the room, besides the bug spray is a sound horn. That is to scare any lions away, unfortunately we do not see any lions nearby during our visit.
We walk to the restaurant for breakfast on the interesting boardwalks that connect our cabin with the paved golf cart trail. One reason that we didn’t go for dinner was that you had to call for someone to escort you to the restaurant at night and that would have taken likely quite some time.
The views all around are great as we walk to the restaurant and we enjoy the fresh air as long as the diesel powered golf cart is not passing us by.
The restaurant is unusual as the kitchen is in a different location and it doesn’t even have electricity which means that even coffee and tea has to be brought in. All of this takes time and while we are relaxed we can hear the German tourists at a nearby table starting to argue with the staff regarding how long it takes.
After breakfast (again eggs this time poached for us) we check out and ride the golf cart down to the parking spot. It is now time for our last hours in beautiful Etosha, we are sad we have to leave but we still have a lot to see on our trip.
While we have to exit Etosha before 10AM we still want to see the few remaining waterholes until the exit starting with the Dolomite waterhole which is right next to the Camp. There is a herd of plain zebras at the waterhole and we decide to wait for a few minutes to see if something else appears.
First we see the wildebeest coming in from the savannah, they really do not care about our car. There are also a few giraffes in the distance coming in and quite a few birds as usual. Between them there is a special bird, the Namaqua sandgrouse, it is quite a beautiful and unusual looking one.
The road is in a better state than the day before and the going is fast. Still of course we want to see every waterhole on the way if possible while keeping an eye on the clock.
There are guinea fowl crossing the road and springbok as usual but then as we veer off towards a waterhole we see our first kudu who doesn’t seem excited to be seen and first hides and then runs away.
As we visit the remaining two waterholes we observe that the mix of animals has changed from the waterholes in eastern Etosha, as we see more oryx and wildebeest and also the zebra are the rarer mountain zebras and not plain zebras. And also we see our first and only red headed finches, a huge group of them actually.
We spend the rest of the time enjoying the many animals at the waterholes and then it is time to speed towards the exit, will we make it in time?
At exactly 10 AM we exit Etosha. unfortunately all good things have to come to an end, and we go through the check out process where the guard is examining our papers and enters the information in his register. We had a great time in Etosha and almost immediately start making plans to visit again sometime in the future not Etosha necessarily but any of the other big national parks in the area.
