Etosha National Park, Namibia

Etosha, in northern Namibia, is a place you'll see on the Discovery Channel or a National Geographic special. The park's centerpiece is the Etosha Pan, which, until 12 million years ago, was a huge lake covering about 3000 square miles. These days it's dry, except for the rainy season. Residual waterholes around the pan attract scores of animals. We were stunned by all the animals we saw. Lots of photos here, so we've divided them into elephants, lions, giraffes, hyenas, grazing animals, birds, assorted animals and the pan itself. Don't miss the photos at the end of the world's largest meteorite....and Tim's short-lived fantasy of being a NASCAR driver.

We sat mesmerized one afternoon at the Goas waterhole as a herd of about 75 elephants trekked in for a good, long drink.

Some of the younger guys wrestled...

....while some of the others, like good Republicans everywhere, wallowed in the mud (hey, Log Cabiners, can you tell Tim's writing here?).

And then they all left.

By the time we left the park, we were sick of seeing so many lions. We counted a total of 52, sighted at different times and places. These next three shots were taken at the Chudop waterhole late one afternoon, just before the very first rains of the season began.

Relaxing after their drink and under threatening skies.

Cute, eh? These cubs weren't too bothered by the considerable human audience they attracted.

Near the park's extreme northeast corner, in the middle of a plain. Tim had just a few minutes earlier convinced Paul not to get out of the car. We then spotted this big guy, not 30 yards from where we'd parked.

Cats never really do let much bother them, do they? This pride was still enjoying the calm of an early morning when we and the van came along.

Did they move? Heck no...so we didn't either.

Well, after an hour or so they managed to let us squeeze by. The humans checked out the lions checking out the humans (yum, yum) at close range.

Yet another pride, making the most of water that had collected in the road after the previous night's inaugural rains.After drinking, they started stalking zebras a short distance away.

Too busy watching the other lions stalk zebras, we didn't EVEN notice what had sneaked up beside our car!! She was about five feet away.

Anyone for a little scratch under the chin?

I tawt I taw a puddy tat!! From time to time, this big girl (the cat, that is) would look at us intently, kinda like a housecat eyes goldfish in a bowl. We froze and became very nervous.

There were dozens of giraffes. Mike Ferens, you woulda loved it!

Sunset, October 24, 2002, at the Okaukuejo waterhole.

Not a bad way to end the day, huh?.....

...and not a bad way to start the next day. The Etosha Pan forms the backdrop. The pan can be a perfect mirage. Despite what you may think, there's not a single drop of water on the other side of these giraffes and ostriches.

Ya know, why is it that the wildebeest seem to always come out on the losing end of things? A question that these hyenas and jackals probably didn't bother asking first.

After a good fill of wildebeest, shall we retire to the smoking lounge under that shrub up there?

This girl was spotted elsewhere in the park and gave us a nice pose. Close inspection might reveal why it's sometimes very difficult to distinguish female from male hyenas.

Another day at the Chudop waterhole, sans lions.

This shows only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of zebras that jockeyed for territory as they and some wildebeest trekked in for a drink at the Okerfontein waterhole on the pan's edge.

A group of springboks (yes, as in South African rugby) enduring the final days of the hot, dry, sandblasting winds

A decidedly unintimidated gemsbok. These are incredible creatures whose lowered metabolism allows them to thrive in dry climates. They can survive indefinitely without water and have been known, unsurprisingly, to impale lions with those horns.

Gemsbok Island?

Nervous kudu antelopes (and a springbok and a couple of black-faced impala) at Chudop.

A tawny eagle.

A goshawk.

A kori bustard, aka in Dionne-ese as "Dinobird". Believe it or not, this huge bird can fly.

Guinea fowl.

A southern yellow-billed hornbill.

And did we mention that the park had some really big insects? Is there any wonder why under these circumstances Tim forsook all sense of fashion?

The ground squirrels in Etosha are even tamer than their relatives at Dupont Circle!

We actually saw quite a few rhinos, but this was the only one we spotted during the day.

"I want to walk with you, on a cloudy day, in fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high". (Any Norah Jones fans out there?) Yeah, Norah, we'd do that if it weren't for those big cats that lurk in your yellow grass.

Again, that ain't a real lake out there.....

....see, you can even sit on it without getting wet!....

...well, at least until the rains come. Even one night of heavy rain resulted in large sections being under a thin layer of water. By the end of the rainy season, this place will be filled with nesting flamingos.

With the pan in the background. This shot was made at Namutoni, on the park's eastern edge, atop a fort built by the Germans in 1906.

After we left the park, we set out to see the nearby Hoba Meteorite, the world's largest. Clearly, this is a huge tourist draw. Just look at all the action in the site's entrance!

There you have all the details. We're really geeks, aren't we?

One big chunk of metal with one doofus on top. (Larry, see the free advertising this Republican is giving WWF?)

Okay, Tim was so excited about seeing the meteorite that he, well, thought he'd take a stab at being a NASCAR driver or sumthin. Yeah, we kinda had a wee accident right after we saw the World's Largest Meteorite and its attendant chickens.

Don't try this at home...or on loose-gravelled roads in rural Namibia. We suffered not a scratch, except when we managed to climb out of the car and realized that we'd landed partially in a thorn patch.

Michael Riggs' suggested caption for this one: "We CAN fix this!" Well, we couldn't, but thank God for kind German tourists who come along at the right time and for the hospitality of the folks at the Meteor Travel Inn in Grootfontein, Namibia, where we were standed for most of a Sunday afternoon. Tim felt at home, though: There was an all-you-can-eat Sunday buffet with Dolly Parton playing in the background.