Etosha covers 22,270 square kilometres in northern Namibia and is built around a salt pan that fills only in exceptional rains. For most of the year it is a blinding white expanse of cracked clay, and the wildlife concentrates on a ring of springs and boreholes along its southern edge. That geography makes Etosha the easiest big park in Africa to watch animals in: you park at a waterhole and wait.
Waterholes
In the dry season, a single afternoon at a good waterhole can produce elephant, giraffe, zebra, oryx, springbok, kudu and black rhino in sequence. Etosha holds one of the largest black rhino populations in the world and they come to drink after dark, which is why the floodlit waterholes at the camps are the park signature experience.
The camps
Okaukuejo has the most famous floodlit waterhole and is the busiest; Halali sits halfway along and has the quieter and, many argue, better one; Namutoni occupies a white German fort from 1903 at the eastern end. Onkoshi and Dolomite are smaller and more remote. All have fuel, shops and restaurants. Booking through Namibia Wildlife Resorts opens eleven months ahead and the peak months go quickly.
Self-drive
Roads are gravel and graded, and a normal car copes outside the rainy season. You may not leave your vehicle except at marked picnic sites and camps, and gates open at sunrise and close at sunset with fines for lateness. Drive slowly: 40 km/h reveals far more than 60, and the dust plume behind a fast car ruins the sighting for everyone behind.
What lives there
Around 114 mammal species, including lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena, elephant with unusually long legs adapted to the terrain, and the endemic black-faced impala. Damara dik-dik occupy the thicker bush near Namutoni. More than 340 bird species, with flamingos on the pan in a good rainy season.
Season
May to October is the dry season and the reliable time: vegetation thins, water is scarce and animals gather. September and October are hottest and best for sightings. The wet season from December to March brings green landscape, newborn antelope and migrant birds, but animals disperse and some roads become impassable.
Practicalities
Etosha lies four to five hours north of Windhoek. The southern Andersson Gate and eastern Von Lindequist Gate are the main entries; Galton Gate in the west opened to general traffic more recently and gives access to the quieter side. Malaria risk exists in the wet season in the north.