Day three in Etosha and we treated ourselves to breakfast at the restaurant! This meant tea, coffee and no washing up! 🙂 Bliss!  We weren’t in a rush to leave; the next site was only an hour away. The big two made friends with some kids whilst we chilled out making the most of the buffet breakfast! We are on holiday after all!

Middle man was desperate to see some lions. We had explained that they are hard to see and we probably wouldn’t find any but promised to try. So when we saw some vehicles about 50m off the road parked up next to a clump of trees we decided to investigate. It was a pack of sleeping lions! Middle man was ecstatic trying to climb out the sunroof to see! My mummy safety officer role kicked in, I managed to persuade him off the roof by promising we could get closer if we shut the windows. Windows shut we move the car to less than 5m from the sleeping giants! I didn’t need to tell the boys to be quite as they were as awed by the king of Africa as we were! (It’s for experiences like this that we take the kids traveling) Middle Man practicality wet himself with excitement when one of the lady lions lifted its head and yawned at us.

On arrival at the next campsite we continued our lazy day! Buying lunch from the shop and spending the whole day at the pool! The boys were in there element!

My hope was that evening we would master the waterhole viewing and share the experience as a family! The boys had their tablets and Baby Blue was in the Manduca (which is probably the best baby purchase I have ever made!). The plan was to walk baby blue around till he slept!

It worked! We spent 2 hours watching the light fade and the animals come and go. The boys liked the elephants the most and I got to tick an item off my bucket list! I have always wanted to see a giraffe drink… (I know I have a strange bucket list) it was curious sight watching creatures that have evolved to reach so high up try and drink from the ground.

(Not a great photo of giraffes drinking as the sun had set… but hey)

With Baby blue fast off and middle man dozing on Daddy we decided to head back to the tent. On the way back we saw a couple of jackals. We had been warned that jackals roam the campsite and although unlikely to attack a human that we should keep the boys close if we saw one. Lego Boy obediently held Husbands hand the rest of the way back.

On return to the tent Lego Boy points and in a panicked tone announces … ‘Mummy there is a jacket in our tent!’ Husband and I struggled to reassure him it was ok, through our giggles. It was a jackal which made a run for it as Husband opened the zip. Annoyingly it had ripped the tent on its way in.

I got the boys into bed and continually assuring Lego Boy that the ‘jacket’ won’t come back. While husband emptied the porch of anything smelly that might attract creatures. It appears the jacket (which jackals are now called in our family) had smelt some garlic which had been accidently put in with the pans, another lesson learnt!

The next day was spent pretty much the same as the previous one. Chilling round the pool, eating ice cream, dinner out, and followed by another enjoyable evening at the waterhole! Husband and I even got to have a rum whilst watching the animals drink.

Our boys had been perfectly behaved in Ethosa and we hoped it would continue! If your looking for a family friendly way to experience African animals I would recommend Ethosa! Yes they need to be quite as with any wild animal viewing but the setup of the campsites and waterholes worked for us.

We knew the next day was going to be a test for the kids as it was a long drive and the stops on our list weren’t the usual kid friendly stops.