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Hi!
Thursday morning I started the long drive from Okaukuejo to Namutoni, another camp in Etosha. Gottfriedt was already there, working. He and a team were starting a bush fire on a grass field. The grass was poorly graced by game, and it hadn't been a natural fire in that area for many years, so the nature conservationists thought it would be a good thing to have a controlled bush fire there. Then new grass can grow when the rainy season come to Namibia.
On my way to Namutoni I was lucky enough to see a whole herd of 12 elephants, eating next to the road. The herd had small baby elephants too, and that is the most dangerous elephant herds you can meet. An elephant mother can be very aggressive if she feels her and her baby is threaten. Luckily for me, the elephants didn't seem to notice I was there, and they just continued eating. It was a really nice experience to see so many elephants at once!
Further on the road I came to a spot where there were three cars standing on the road, in weird positions. In Africa and in parks with animals that only means lions! So I drove closer and looked to my left, there on the sand, a big male lion was sleeping. His belly was huge and he was lying straight out on the ground. He was so beautiful. One of the cars that was standing there with me, left, so I changed the position of my car and then I saw more lions. There were two lionesses sleeping next to each other, and a lion cub was sleeping alone. They were so peaceful and beautiful! I sat there filming and taking pictures for some time, before I continued the long drive.
When I came to Namutoni, I met up with Gottfriedt and we drove together to the place they were burning. When we got closer I could see a big cloud of smoke on the sky. The grass was burning and the fire was quickly spreading. We drove to the camp site, which was close to King Nehale Lya Npingana gate, and went up to a tower there to see the fire better. There I met two other conservationists, Martin and Erastus. We took pictures, filmed and witnessed this cool thing. They had made these fire breaks on the roads, circulating the area they were burning, so when the fire came to the road, it just stopped.
In the morning, Gottfriedt and the others wanted to burn another area too. And I got to join this time. So we went out at 6 am and started the fire. It was really cool to see how quickly it grew bigger and bigger. In all, it was a very successful bush fire. As we know, no animal had died in the fire and the fire had burned as it should on all the areas.
Gottfriedt and I packed our things, and started the drive back to Okaukuejo. When we passed the burned plains, a lot of small birds were there to catch the flies that were escaping the heat, and a secretary bird was there to eat the snakes. It was really cool to see that no matter what happen in nature, someone will benefit from it.
On our way we saw a herd of 20 elephants with youngsters. And I thought 12 was a lot! They were spread on an area, eating from the bushes. It was cool to see elephants in all sizes. Later on the trip we wanted to check out a waterhole that a tourist had told us he had seen lions at the day before. And when we came there, it was really our lucky day. In the grass, two lionesses were relaxing and cleaning them self. They were so beautiful. And later down the road we found four other lions, three males and one female, sleeping next to the road. It was really magnificent to see these amazing animals up close. A perfect ending to a day!
Karianne <3
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