On our first morning, I started a list in my notebook with the intention of counting how many of each animal we saw to then provide the final tallies on this blog. However, I realized that would be impossible after seeing our first herd of zebra (I’d guess about 150 of them) and then losing count of giraffes because on some roads, it seems they’re everywhere you look.

Our top three moments from Etosha:

1. Visiting the Moringa waterhole at night and seeing 60+ elephants (including babies!) drinking. As if that wasn’t awesome enough, then four rhinos came out - our first time seeing them thus far.

2. When we pulled over to snap a few photos of a giraffe next to the car and then realized there was a leopard standing directly next to the car on the other side. Seeing leopards is apparently very rare, so we got lucky!

3. One afternoon, we encountered a cluster of cars pulled over - a telltale signal that something good is nearby. Sure enough, it was a small group of lions lounging under a few trees. The main attraction was two male lions laying in the shade between two trees. We were looking at the larger of the two - he was panting heavily and his eyes were droopy - for a minute before realizing that right next to him was a carcass. Taking a closer look, it was clearly the ribcage of a zebra - his head with striped fur still intact was a dead giveaway.