The 22,000 km² Etosha National Park sin the north of Namibia offers some of the finest wildlife viewing in Africa, and is one of the undisputed highlights of any visit to the country.
The Park is home to 114 different mammal species, including 4 of the Big 5 - leopard, lion, elephant and rhino (both black and white), and has recorded nearly 400 species of bird, and over 110 species of reptile.
Etosha is also home to 3 uncommon antelope species - the beautiful black-faced impala, the roan antelope, and Southern Africa's smallest antelope, the Damara dik-dik, which stands only 40cm to the shoulder as a fully grown male adult.
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The Etosha Pan
The park is centred around the Etosha Pan, a vast white salt pan covering over 20% of the Park - a total of 5,000 km² - and is an amazing 130 km long and 72 km wide.
Unsurprisingly, Etosha means 'huge white area' or 'place of dry water' in Owambo, and this is how the Pan and the Park got its name.
Over 12 million years ago it was a shallow lake fed by the Kunene River, but the lake dried up as the river found a new course due to tectonic movement in the earth's crust.
A San legend says that the Pan was formed by a young woman, whose only child was killed by brutal hunters.
The woman cried so much, her tears formed a great lake. When the sun came out, it dried up her tears, but left the ground covered in salt.
It is true that the Pan does have a high alkaline content, which attracts the wildlife, who require salt in their diet.
If there is exceptionally heavy rainfall, the Pan is transformed into a sludgy lake, albeit only about 1 metre deep, and it becomes a feeding ground for literally thousands of wading birds including large flocks of pink flamingos.
Vegetation in the Park
The vegetation in the Park is mainly grass and bush savanna, and is also home to the striking and certainly odd-looking moringa tree, which looks as if it has been planted upside down and its roots are where its leaves and branches should be.
Legend has it that the Creator became very annoyed one day with the animals on Earth, and picked up a tree and flung it down to Earth.
Luckily it missed the animals, but landed upside down and there it stayed as a reminder to the animals not to annoy the Creator.
