When the lion almost destroyed my camera - Etosha National Park

The Absolute Safari - September 24-27 - Namibia

Throughout my African journeys, I've had an opportunity to visit and interact with several villages. Remnants of the original hunter gather societies still moored in the old ways. The Masai in Kenya and Tanzania, the women of Rwandan cultural centers, the village around lake Malawi and finally the Sans people (Bushmen) of Botswana and Namibia.

The Bushmen are an indigenous semi nomadic group of people from southern Africa and the last descendants of the oldest genetic group. Genetic evidence suggests that the Sans people branched off from the Neanderthals and date back 20,000 years. We visited one of their villages learning how they stalked prey, used plants as medicine and made simple crafts. https://study.com/academy/lesson/san-people-history-tribe-facts.html

As we made our way through Namibia, we stopped off to visit the Hoba meteorite, the largest intact meteorite on earth weighing about 60 tons. When standing on the meteorite your voice echos around the field.

Finally made it to Etosha National Park which hosts the largest concentration of wildlife in the world. Etosha lies at the edge of the Kalahari Desert. During the rainy season, mini watering holes are created that attract wildlife. We stayed at one of the 3 hotel/camping areas. These facilities place floodlights around the watering holes to illuminate the wildlife at night.

We arrived at camp and went on an evening game drive. As we spotted lions in the distance my camera slipped and fell .... Right on the edge of the lens into the jeep floor. What's even worse the camera would no longer focus, and the shutter stopped working. Just when we had amazing views of lions ..

The next day was spent on an all-day game adventure. We spotted lions, leopards and the elusive cheetahs. The wildlife was amazing enough to forget about my broken camera. Little did I know that cheetahs would become a staple of my time in South Africa.