Epacha Game Lodge

 We left Etosha on 25th June & drove via Kamanjab on an endless dirt road to Epacha Game Lodge. We found this place on the internet & it looked good, so we booked & arrived. Both of us fancied a little bit of relaxation in luxury, after the bitterly cold nights camping at Olifantrus.

Rosy-faced Lovebird

Regular at the feeders at this lodge in Kamanjab.

Always a delight to see.

The lodge looks across a valley with plenty of hills.

The lodge blends in well with its surroundings.

Rock Hyrax.

The chalets are on top of a koppie, so we hoped we might find Hartlaub's Spurfowl, but it was not to to be. The game reserve covers around 13,000 hectares of bushveld, which is a combination of flat plains & rocky hills. It has a good range of game & apparently some good bird species. 

Yellow bellied Eremomela

Chestnut Weaver in non breeding plumage.

However we were blessed with bad weather here, high winds & dust storms being the norm! This affected what we could do & we failed to find the Hartlaub's, not even a call at dawn or dusk.

The entrance to the lodge.

Our chalet.

Quite wooded around the back of the chalet.

It was a short stay & we would both like to return again, hopefully experiencing better weather. It was a lovely place to visit but we didn't get the best out of it.

Etosha National Park: Namibia

We left the bush camp early morning on 17th June & briefly met up with Markus & Erica in Namatoni Camp. It was great to see them both again. We then drove slowly westwards through the park & spent two nights in Halali Camp.

The park was in great condition 

after all the late rains.

A mud encrusted Elephant

A typical Etosha scene.

Gemsbok, possibly the unofficial emblem 

of the park

Plains Zebra

Blue Wildebeest

Black-faced Impala

Black backed Jackal

Common inside this park

Nice to get some quality photos in great light.

White quilled Bustard.

Swarms of Red billed Queleas 

were at the waterholes

Damara Red billed Hornbill

Violet Woodhoopoe

Bare cheeked Babbler

Young bird.

 

Halali Camp is a great place to go birding, as it is well watered & vegetated. It is also one of the best spots to see three near endemic species: Damara Red billed Hornbill; Violet Woodhoopoe & Bare-cheeked Babbler.

Black Rhinoceros

Pale Chanting Goshawk

Double banded Courser

Red capped Lark

Blue Wildebeest drinking.

Red Hartebeest

Springbok

Etosha is vast!

Male Ostrich

Sociable Weavers drinking.

A few Sociable Weavers were building nests 

on man-made structures.

Kalahari Scrub Robin.

Elephant Shrew

Black backed Jackal hunting Doves 

coming to drink.

Black headed Heron

This bird had caught a Namaqua Dove!

It eventually ate it whole!

Red necked Falcon

Many waterholes have a pair of these Falcons

 hunting birds coming to drink.