Desperately Seeking Elephants at Etosha National Park


Etosha National Park

A clap of thunder crackled across the sky and down my spine.

“That’s… not great,” I muttered to Dave.

Ahead of us, the sky was rapidly darkening; rain splattering like tiny water bombs on our windscreen. I looked around us in dismay.

We had just arrived in Etosha National Park: the one place in Namibia where we really didn’t want to encounter rain.

Storm clouds in Etosha National Park

Here’s what you need to know about the wet season in Etosha: when it rains, it essentially ruins your chance of seeing any animals beyond the common antelopes and zebra.

Etosha is the largest salt pan in Africa: a dry, arid part of a dry, arid country, and that’s why practically all of the animal action takes place at its waterholes.

It makes sense: when it doesn’t rain for months on end, these waterholes are the sole sources of water for animals; when it’s wet, water gathers in puddles all over the park, so there’s no reason for animals to risk their lives and head out in the open.

The rains also act to transform the landscapes from a white, dusty plain into a lush, green oasis, full of tall grasses and dense vegetation. This makes spotting animals particularly tough.

On top of that, there are very few roads in Etosha — just a couple of them stretching from east to west — so if the animals are away from the waterholes and away the roads, you’ll struggle to see anything beyond the bushes.

In short: arriving in Etosha to the sound of thunder was the worst possible greeting we could have imagined.

But before you think it’s all doom and gloom, there are several advantages to hitting up Etosha when there’s a high chance of rain: accommodation is heavily discounted; very few tourists visit, so you’ll only see a handful of other people or cars each day; and there are animal babies everywhere! I’ve always dreamed of spotting a baby giraffe in the wild and this would be one of the best opportunities I’d have to do so.

As we made our way to our accommodation for the night, multiple strikes of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the deserted plains, and I started to worry we’d be spending the next two days desperately peering into bushes from our car window.

Giraffes in Etosha National Park Namibia
This is why you need a zoom lens if you’re going to be game driving in Africa! Almost all of my photos came out like this

Our destination for the night was Halali, one of the park’s lodges, that’s located smack bang in the centre of the national park. Thanks to the perks of low season travel, I’d managed to bag a room in their honeymoon suite for just $68 a night, one of the cheapest spots of our entire trip. Our room even had a hot tub in the garden, although it was full of swimming spiders when we attempted to use it one night.

We checked in, dropped our bags, and made our way straight to Halali’s waterhole.

One of the huge benefits to staying within Etosha is that the accommodation usually has its own waterhole, which makes animal sightings possible even after dark. At Halali, there was a wooden viewing platform overlooking a small floodlit pool of water.

That afternoon, we sat there for several hours with our Kindles, but there was nothing to be seen; not even a bird. As we wandered off for our buffet dinner, I crossed my fingers and hoped this wasn’t a sign of what was to come.

Halali waterhole Namibia at Sunset

Animals are more active when the temperatures are cooler, so we were up at 6 a.m. the following morning, shovelling down breakfast and waiting for the gates to open at sunrise.

You can’t fault our enthusiasm: we were first outside of Halali’s gates and crunching over the gravel in search of any animals that might still be roaming beside the roads.

We had two full days in Etosha, so we formulated a plan of attack as we drove. Our first day was to be spent exploring everything from Halali to the east, and then we’d spend our second day out west. You’re not allowed to drive in the park between sunset and sunrise, so this would give us around twelve hours each day to see as many animals as possible. We figured we’d waterhole hop our way around the park, as the waterholes were most likely going to give us our greatest chance of seeing anything.

So in dry season, the waterholes look like this:

Congregating around a waterhole in Etosha National Park. Photo credit: R.M. Nunes/Shutterstock

But in rainy season? Well…

Watering Hole in Etosha

Um…

Namibia Waterhole

So…

Etosha Watering hole, Namibia

Spoiler alert: we went to 32 different waterholes in Etosha over our two days in the park, and saw nothing at any of them. Literally! We didn’t even see a single bird.

By this point, we’d been driving over for three hours straight, hit up half a dozen waterholes, and seen zero animals.

I was just about to throw my arms in the air and declare Etosha a bust when one of the most magical moments of my life began to take place.

We were pulled over to the side of the road and I was scouring the (super-useful) Bradt Namibia guidebook for recommendations for wet season animal-spotting when Dave let out a gasp.

“Look up! Look up! Look up!” he whispered urgently.

In front of us were three enormous giraffes in the middle of the road, no more than ten metres from our car.

Giraffes at Etosha National Park

“Holy shit!” I hissed, coming out of my paralysis to dive for my camera.

As I made every effort to capture the beautiful animals in front of me with my shaking hands, I was completely oblivious to the fact that four more giraffes had materialised from behind the trees and were currently stood metres away from the back of my car.

The moment when I discovered we were encircled by a group of giraffes was one of the most thrilling of my life.

I let out the breath I hadn’t realised I was holding, then almost passed out when a baby giraffe came wobbling out of the trees.

“This is it,” I announced to Dave. “My life is now complete. I can now die happy.”

Little did I know, just several minutes later, I would come face to face with a zebra and his enormous erection.

Zebra with an erection

Best. Day. Ever.

Zebra face up close in Namibia

Within minutes, our luck had transformed, and we were suddenly surrounded by more animals than we knew how to take photos of.

Dozens of zebra crowded around our car; scraggly wildebeest stared grumpily up at us; a hundred springbok pronked across the road ahead of us; half a dozen ostriches jogged alongside our car; and even more giraffes came wandering out from the trees to say hello.

I felt like I was in the Lion King, except, well, there were no lions.

Or elephants.

Yet.

Etosha National Park

Allow me to take a step back and talk for a minute about impalas, though, because goddamnit, I’ve fallen in love with them.

Which is something Dave found hilarious because most people who safari their way around Africa grow tired of most types of antelopes. Impalas are everywhere. In Etosha, we could go hours seeing nothing but impalas, but man alive, I would make Dave stop the car for each and every one of them.

“I love youuuuuu,” I would coo out my window at them.

I want to paint one of the rooms in my apartment a perfect shade of impala orange.

Swoon! They’re so beautiful.

Impala at Etosha National Park

As the sun began to set, we turned our car around and raced for Halali.

It had been a successful day of driving. We’d learned that animals in Etosha were anywhere but the waterholes. That patience is most definitely a virtue. And that we were never going to see scenes like the ones that had led us to visit.

But that was okay, because we’d been lucky to see as much as we had. We’d even managed to spot a rare black rhino crashing through the grasses just before sunset.

Impala in Etosha
I LOVE YOU.

That evening, I grabbed a cold Savannah cider and wandered down to Halali’s waterhole in the vague hopes of seeing something. Anything. An elephant?

We sat for an hour in tense silence with a dozen other people, crossing our fingers and praying for something to materialise. And, once more, it was just as we were gathering our things to head back to our room that we heard a crunch.

And then another.

Then another.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when a rhino lumbered out of the grass and into full view of the floodlights. All you could hear was the buzz of crickets and the frantic click of camera shutters as it lapped at the water, took a dump, then plodded back into the darkness.

It was one of the highlights of my life.

Rhino at night Etosha

“The stars,” I squeaked as we wandered back to our room.

Gazing skywards I felt as though I was staring at a photo. There were thousands of twinkling stars blanketing every square inch of the night sky.

Why isn’t Dave freaking out about the stars? I wondered before realising he grew up in New Zealand, not London. This was normal for him.

I stared at him instead, filled with wonder.

And then I stared back at the stars, because let’s face it: they were far more exciting to look at.

milky way in namibia

The following morning, Dave and I were first out of the Halali gates once more, inching over the roads and shivering in the cold morning air.

“Okay,” I said. “We’ve seen giraffes, zebras, a thousand antelopes, ostriches, a rhino, and some wildebeest. What we haven’t seen are elephants, leopards, cheetahs, lions–“

“We should at least see an elephant, right?”

“Yep. For sure. Etosha is meant to have one of the largest elephant populations in the world.”

As I began scanning our surroundings for anything huge and grey, I had no idea what was lying just around the corner.

“Oh my god!” I hissed, flailing my arms around in excitement.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Black rhino in Etosha National Park

This easily was one of the most breathtaking moments of my life.

A black rhino: the third we’d seen in twelve hours, and it was just fifteen feet from our car.

I gained control of my limbs and froze, suddenly too afraid to move in case it disappeared again. Making eye contact, holding my breath, praying for it to stay just a while longer.

It didn’t hang around for long. Twenty seconds, no more than that. Just long enough for me to snap one kickass photo, and then it was off, lumbering back into the bush.

We waited for any sign of it returning — maybe with an elephant friend in tow? — but it was just me and Dave for now.

Etosha scenery

Buoyed by such a beautiful moment just minutes after leaving our accommodation, we promised each other that today was going to be even better for sightings than yesterday.

We would see elephants, for sure.

We had a full twelve hours to explore the park, and we’d already seen one of the most critically endangered animals on the planet. Three of them, even. Or maybe the same one three times.

Oryx in Etosha

And we. saw. nothing.

Next to nothing.

A dozen impalas, a few oryx, a bird or two; a lone wildebeest.

It was almost as if every single animal in Etosha could sense we were coming and immediately did this:

Ostrich at Etosha

We returned to our accommodation that evening empty handed, having had a magical minute at the start of the day, followed by 11 hours of disappointment.

“Do you wish we had longer here?” I asked Dave as we drove through the lodge’s gates. It was a question I’d been grappling with over the course of the day.

He thought about it for a second. “I think I’d be happy with one more day here.”

“Even if it meant driving for 12 hours straight and potentially seeing nothing?”

“Well, I’m the eternal optimist, aren’t I?” he said with a chuckle.

“Same,” I lied.

Part of me wished we’d given ourselves an extra day in Etosha, because surely we’d see an elephant then? Surely the plains were starting to dry up? Surely it was just a matter of time?

And yet, at the same time, I would have been frustrated as hell if we’d given ourselves a third day in Etosha and ended up spending it driving around for 12 hours, seeing nothing but grass.

weird bird at etosha
A REALLY WEIRD BIRD.

Despite Dave’s claims to the contrary, on our final morning in Etosha, we both awoke full of pessimism.

Should we even bother going for an early morning drive after the previous day’s search had been so unsuccessful?

Our desperate desire to see an elephant outweighed our longing for a lie-in, though, so we opted to spend two final hours driving around the park in the hope that an elephant would show its face for a few seconds.

I knew I’d end up wondering about what might have been if I didn’t give it one final shot.

Thirty minutes of driving: nothing.

An hour: nothing.

Ninety minutes: nothing.

Two hours: nothing.

With a resigned sigh, we turned our car around and made our way towards the exit.

And there it was.

Black Rhino Etosha National Park

Nope, not an elephant.

Another freaking black rhino! 

There are only 5,000 black rhinos left in the world, so the odds of seeing so many of them over the past few days had been so low.

We had been lucky.

As we slowly inched our way towards the rhino, it edged closer and closer towards us, until it was crossing the road in front of us, until it was mere metres away from us, until it was walking away again.

Once more, Etosha had given us just enough for us to not feel as though we’d not wasted our time, but teased us with a preview of what our trip would have been like if we’d visited just a few months later.

We took one final glimpse, high fived for yet another successful animal sighting, then left Etosha National Park.

Black rhino in Etosha

Etosha National Park: Sort of Disappointing, Sort of Amazing

As I come to the conclusion of my post, I’m conflicted over how I feel about my time in Etosha.

Because after experiencing so many incredible moments, it feels like such a whingebag thing to do to say I felt disappointed.

It’s weird, right? I had some of the most breathtaking experiences of my life there, but there was also a part of me that knew it could have been so much more.

Reports online gush about sitting at a waterhole for four hours straight because there was so much to see. Whereas we drove for 24 hours over two days and only encountered an hour of magic with the rest of our time spent bouncing over gravel, staring at bushes, and seeing very little.

To not see elephants in one of the places where it’s supposed to be easiest was disappointing; but in contrast, we saw so many black rhinos that it was almost bizarre.

So it was a little disappointing, but it was a whole lot of amazing at the same time.

And Etosha gave us such a tantalising taste of dry season travel that if another set of cheap flights show up to Namibia, Dave and I would totally pounce on them and drive straight to Etosha National Park.

Surely we’d have to see elephants then?

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About the author

Lauren Juliff

Lauren Juliff is a published author and travel expert who founded Never Ending Footsteps in 2011. She has spent over 12 years travelling the world, sharing in-depth advice from more than 100 countries across six continents.

Lauren's travel advice has been featured in publications like the BBC, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Cosmopolitan, and her work is read by 200,000 readers each month. Her travel memoir can be found in bookstores across the planet.

50 Comments

  1. May 25, 2017
    Reply

    It is such a bummer that you guys missed out on the waterhole viewing! I’ve been lucky enough to be there during the dry season, and it is definitely as good as advertised. Hopefully you guys will be able to get back; between Namibia and Botswana, those are my two favorite spots in Africa.

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Ah, I bet it was amazing, Henry! Definitely hoping to get back there for some dry season exploring sometime soon :-)

  2. Aisling
    May 25, 2017
    Reply

    When I was in South Africa, I visited loads of safari parks and drove for HOURS trying to see an elephant (who would have thought one of the biggest animals in the world is the hardest to find in the wild).

    But I did finally get to see one! One elephant was constantly escaping from this safari park so they had to move it to another park. On the way out of the safari park, I finally got to see my elephant….it was knocked out, upside down and getting lifted by a crane onto the back of a truck!

    I don’t mind though, we got to go up and nearly touch the elephant and got some funny looking pictures to go along with it!

    Despite the lack of animals, you got some fab photos! Those Rhinos!!!!

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Oh my god, haha! That’s amazing.

      And I agree with you — I really thought elephants would be the easiest animals to spot, but not while we were there!

  3. May 25, 2017
    Reply

    It sounds so lovely! I do understand why you also felt some disappointment. Your expectation/hope was to have hours and hours of viewing, instead of hours and hours of driving and not seeing much.

    The swimming spiders have me huge shivers, but I’m vulnerable right now – I’ve seen two scorpions in my house over 3 days and it turns out that I’m terrified of them. I’m trying to convince my husband to fumigate the house and yard RIGHT NOW. ?

    • June 10, 2017
      Reply

      Oh man, I was so excited for a romantic hot tub adventure beneath the stars, but there were spiders everywhere! And, um, I had no idea that hot tubs take like, half a day to warm up the water, so turning it on half an hour before we wanted to get in was not the best tactic.

  4. May 26, 2017
    Reply

    This was written so eloquently! I almost felt as though I was really there – you have a real talent.

    There’s something undeniably beautiful about watering holes during the wet season, but I can understand your frustration at not seeing any animals there! So glad they appeared at the end of the trip though. Lovely photos!

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Thank you, Dani! That means a lot :-)

  5. Beautiful photos!!! You know, now that you mention it impalas actually have a gorgeous orange colour! I was one of the people who grew super tired of them when I was on safari in South Africa, but on your photos they actually look gorgeous! Now I hope I’ll see impalas again, on my next safari!

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      I think I’m the only person who wasn’t tired of them in all of Africa, haha! :-D

  6. Tom
    May 27, 2017
    Reply

    HA! Love the shot of the zebra!!

    • June 4, 2017
      Reply

      I didn’t even realise until after I got back to my room and was looking through my photos!

  7. Shan
    May 29, 2017
    Reply

    A real shame that you didn’t get to see any elephants in Etosha but what a treat to see rhinos in their natural habitat. Hopefully you can return in the summer months and see more animals.

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be fortunate to return to Namibia. It seems like my Etosha experience would have been the exact opposite had I visited in June.

  8. Sri Siren
    May 29, 2017
    Reply

    I wonder if you would have felt the same if you’d gone into your safari with no expectations? I suspect you’d have been more impressed with what you did see, rather than disappointed by what you hadn’t. Either way, what fabulous photos of the rhinos!

    • June 4, 2017
      Reply

      I agree. It’s one of the reason why I try not to research much before arriving in a place because I like to keep my expectations low.

  9. Ella
    May 29, 2017
    Reply

    Wow, your pictures are beautiful! I also absolutely love your writing style. I’ve just stumbled across your blog and I’m so glad I did. I can’t wait to read more posts from your Namibia trip. I’ve actually been to Namibia myself and it was without a doubt, one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been to.

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Thank you for the amazing comment, Ella! I completely agree with you — Namibia is an amazing country!

  10. Elsie
    May 30, 2017
    Reply

    Brilliant! I have to ask, were there options for seeing the park other than driving yourself around? Would you have had a better chance of seeing animals if you had/had you been able to take a tour or game drive with some experts?

    • June 9, 2017
      Reply

      Yep! You could take a game drive from any of the lodges inside the park. One thing we did while we were driving around was to just slowly follow the park vehicles and stop whenever they did! That way, we got to see all of the animals they were spotting, but didn’t have to pay for the drive. Although, I have to say they spent a lot of time driving around aimlessly, so the experts seemed to be just as stuck as we were!

  11. Annie
    May 31, 2017
    Reply

    I have been DREAMING of visiting Etosha for years. Thank you for the insight into what its like to visit in wet season.

    • June 9, 2017
      Reply

      No problem! I hope you make it there soon :-)

  12. Mikaela
    June 1, 2017
    Reply

    Hilarious! We haven’t been to the African continent, but I guess that spotting the classic creatures should be on our list when heading to any of the countries with the possibilities of seeing them!

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Right at the top of it! There’s nothing quite like seeing these animals outside of a zoo environment :-)

  13. Sam
    June 1, 2017
    Reply

    Looks amazing, Lauren. Do you think there is any way you could go to Namibia in the shoulder season to get the cheaper prices but not struggle to see the animals like you did?

    • June 9, 2017
      Reply

      I think you’d probably have to make a last minute trip in order for it to work, as it’s so weather-dependent. For example, if the rains were due to arrive later than usual one year, you could turn up at the start of the low season, take advantage of the cheap prices, then potentially spot a ton of animals, as it wouldn’t have rained yet. It’s so hard to predict what will happen each year, though.

  14. Ian
    June 1, 2017
    Reply

    Impalas? Really?

  15. Alex
    June 1, 2017
    Reply

    Wow! loved the pictures. It’s a shame you didn’t get to see as much as you hoped for, but what you did see looks incredible. I must get to Africa soon, as I can tell I’ve been missing out.

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      I’ve been loving my travels in Africa, Alex, and highly recommend checking out some of the continent if you have a chance. It’s so diverse. though, that you’d probably want to give yourself a decade to see it all! :-)

  16. Amazonian
    June 2, 2017
    Reply

    Loved this post Lauren! I’m toying with the idea of going to Namibia next year in the spring so this has given me plenty to think about. Do you think going in April rather than May would have made any difference to your animal viewing chances?

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Hi! I assume you meant March in your comment? Because that’s when I visited. In comparison to March, I think you’d have a much better chance of seeing animals in April. And an even, even better chance in May. The downside to those months are that you’ll most likely have to pay more to travel around the country, but it would probably be worth it to see more animals in the dry season. Either that or aim to spend four or five days in Etosha and accept that while you’ll see not very much each day, you’ll most likely end up seeing quite a bit overall.

  17. Ronnie Walter
    June 2, 2017
    Reply

    Loved the way you jotted down your experiences, seemed like a trip of my own…hahaha….thanks for sharing.
    The captures are amazing.

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Thanks for the huge compliment, Ronnie! Glad you enjoyed the post.

  18. June 3, 2017
    Reply

    Hello Lauren, WOW your trip looks very exciting. I haven’t read it all but the few one I did, tells a big adventure. What is your next stop? If you ever pass by Spain, let us know. We have a very nice eco retreat. We will be off for the all winter in South Asia for new adventures, back in Spring in Barcelona.

    • June 3, 2017
      Reply

      Thank you so much! :-) Next up is Tanzania!

      • Amarante
        June 12, 2017
        Reply

        Hello Lauren, Tanzania seems to be nice. Africa is not my specialty but seems a great destination. Do you collaborate with Travel agencies?

      • June 13, 2017
        Reply

        Enjoy Tanzania. Hope you’ll meet the big 5’s.

  19. June 6, 2017
    Reply

    You got lucky with the rhinos! I was there around the same time — early April — and we only got one glimpse of a rhino for about 30 seconds. It took us 4 hours of searching around one area way out by Namutoni to find the elephants. Great post!

    • June 9, 2017
      Reply

      Ah man, it’s so frustrating when you visit at that time of year, isn’t it?! It requires so much more effort to see anything at all.

  20. David
    July 3, 2017
    Reply

    Those rhino photos are amazing, like the animal was just posing there waiting for your shot. Sorry you didn’t find an elephant though.

  21. Andrew Darwitan
    August 9, 2017
    Reply

    I’d really love to visit Etosha. I’ve heard the desert landscape really helps to gather the animals around waterhole so sightings tend to be more spectacular during the dry season!

  22. Innder
    December 22, 2018
    Reply

    We had an awesome drive around the park today. Saw Zebra, giraffes, buck, kudu, what looked like ostrich, and many other birds I can’t identify… had a very good showing from the wildlife. Thoroughly enjoyed!

    • January 7, 2019
      Reply

      Oh, sweet! Glad you enjoyed your time in Etosha :-)

  23. Andreas Kitzing
    January 22, 2019
    Reply

    Really sorry to read that you didn’t see any elephants at Etosha. I think it indeed makes a difference if you visit during dry vs. wet season, as you mentioned in your post.
    Good that you still had a good time!

  24. March 9, 2019
    Reply

    We have based our trip around the new moon to get some star shots and the dry season (July/August for 4 weeks) for the animals in Etosha, it will cost a lot more but I’m sure it will be worth it. We have had the same issue as you while trying to photograph grizzly bears, where are they hiding? – it’s soooo disappointing.

  25. October 7, 2021
    Reply

    Great post. The “really weird bird’ in your picture is a Kori Bustard, the heaviest flying bird in the world, so pretty cool.
    We are heading to Namibia for the first time next month (COVID permitting) and I appreciate your insights as a guide.
    Thanks,
    Luke

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