Going "Wild"

As per usual, I’ve had a very interesting past couple of days. In my curriculum in college, we always discussed the negatives of safaris in Africa. The first question people ask you when you say you are going to Africa is, “Are you going to see the animals?” In all reality, in the cities and the villages, there are no free roaming animals, at least not the majestic beasts people think of when they think of Africa. Africa, as a continent, is much more than lions, zebras, and elephants. Often times, people visit Africa to go on a safari to see these animals in their natural habitats and are afterwards shown the more regale aspects of the continent like nice hotels, five course meals, and a waitstaff. These tourists never truly see the “real” Africa. That being said, I had mixed feelings about our group trip to Etosha National Park on Sunday. Etosha is a Namibian Game Reserve which houses 114 mammal species among its birds and reptiles. Soon upon our arrival, we saw a group of gigantic giraffes. I do have to admit, seeing the giraffes in the wild, right out your window, is a once in a lifetime feeling. They were extremely tall and their patterns were unreal. We all freaked out when we saw the first giraffe, but soon found out that the giraffes are very commonplace in the park. They were very natural to us by the time of our departure. The next animals we saw were the zebras! I have a soft spot for zebras, so seeing them was really cool. Every depiction of the zebra print I often see is black and white, but really all the zebras I saw were black and a faint gray. They looked even better in person and in packs. When a normal tourist goes to these types of parks, it’s either a hit or a miss to see a lion or an elephant. Well, we must have been a lucky group because we saw both! First, we saw the lion, which honestly I think was my favorite animal to see. He was stalking solo and through my binoculars (yes, Im a dork and brought binoculars) you could see the definition of his muscles. It kind of gave me the chills. Mind you, I should have warned you about this earlier, but these animals are not afraid of humans. All the animals, especially the elephants, are notorious for coming right up to cars. We had to be very quiet and not attract attention to ourselves. In the case of the elephants, they tend to sit on peoples’ cars and crush them. Kind of scary.
The next part of the adventure makes me chuckle thinking about... Springboks are a type of deer found in Southern Africa. They are the national animal of South Africa and while I was in South Africa I ate springbok. It was very good and tasty. Well, we witnessed the birth of a baby springbok. We drove past it and our driver Camberona (who is crazy, but in a good way) told us the baby was dead. So we drove away and everyone in the van was upset, because the mother was visibly pushing to get the baby out and we thought it was a defeated effort. Welp Camberona was wrong. We drove around for a bit and when we came back, the baby Springbok was born. Here is the kicker of the story, we watched the entire scene to the soundtrack of “Circle of Life” from the Lion King. If my college professors only saw me now, they would kill me. The entire situation is very stereotypical, but whatever. It was kind of funny, I could not stop laughing. Needless to say mother and baby springbok were alive and healthy. When we drove away after Camberona got impatient, baby springbok was taking it’s first steps of life. Just as we were about to leave the park, we finally saw an elephant!! The best way to follow an elephant trail is to follow the large mounds of dung that are on the paths. We had people sticking their heads out the window to smell it and see if the poo was fresh. We found him in an open field by himself, meaning he must be a male, because males are kicked out of the pack. The animal was indescribably majestic. Elephants are beasts of an animal. I am very happy that I got to see one in the end. Therefore, although I probably disgraced my degree and my college professors, I felt that seeing the animals was a must. Now I’ve gotten it out of my system and do not need to do it again. I do not think I would have gone out of my way to go on a mini safari myself, but it was all part of my orientation experience. I do admit, it was pretty amazing :)