Etosha pan morning

Etosha is different from the East African parks. The white pan dominates everything. The wildlife concentrates around the perimeter at a few waterholes, and our morning at Okaukuejo waterhole was an education in how simple good safari photography can be when you pick your spot and wait.

The first thirty minutes was giraffes. They came to drink, one at a time, splay-legging in that awkward posture that always looks like it shouldn’t work. I shot them for the whole half hour. Good enough light.

Then came a herd of elephants — maybe twenty animals — who took over the waterhole and pushed everything else off. The matriarch was enormous. Young ones played at the edges. Gemsbok waited on a ridge until the elephants left and then came down together like they’d agreed beforehand.

Big cats were a story later: we drove north and found a female Lion and two nearly-grown cubs sleeping under a small bush. We watched for twenty minutes without any motion at all, which is correct lion behavior for 11:00 AM.

Smaller things: an African Hoopoe next to our vehicle at lunch. A Pale Chanting Goshawk on a fence post. Kori Bustards walking around like they owned the place. A single Black-backed Jackal that trotted past the water and made the zebras nervous.