We took it easy and spent the day on the vast Etosha plains. First, when we changed camps to Halali, 75KM away, which sits in between the Okaukeujo and Namatoni. On our way, we saw a bunch of blue wildebeests grazing on the grass and not giving a toot about our existence, and groups of male and female impalas.

We hung around Halali until our 3pm game drive. For the next 3 hours, we drove through the park and saw nothing but impalas (uhh not again), ONE ostrich and a group of springboks by the pan (too far away). At one point, our guide stopped the car abruptly to show us a worm curled up on the side of the road. For real. We learned it was the famous shongololo.

There were a couple of indigenous birds flying around and chirping away. For the most part, it was just us. No car or animal in sight, but blowing wind. Was this even Etosha? Kidding. The driver apologized for the lack of animals. It wasn’t his fault. It was awkward though, because you spend three hours expecting a cat or a hyena to rock up. At the same time the guide feels like he didn’t do his job. So, it gets weird.

Impalas and an ostrich here and there are no biggies. Nature doesn’t make promises, and safari guides don’t have special powers. Besides, shongololo was definitely not on our check list nor menu. So, this was a total #gamedrivefail

For dinner, it was Springbok steak. Dang good, but Eland tops the list. They served Eland too. Guess who ate all the Eland?

From and To: Okaukeujo Camp to Halali Camp, Etosha National Park

Distance: 75km

Time: 1 hour