It is indeed so. The waterhole is like a huge stage where the animals would take turns to make their stage appearance before you. One moment you get to see only the elephants while springboks the next. And there are times of grand finale when all sorts of animals will appear before you. When there are no animals, it is recess time for you to take a pee break. And I was watching all these sitting comfortably on a sheltered mini grandstand within the campsite compound.

It is fun to observe the behaviors of the animals. The giraffes will take hours appraising the situation, moving slowly towards the waterhole before they, in their most vulnerable position, spread their legs and lower their long neck to drink. The elephants usually move in herds in an orderly single-file manner towards the waterhole. The herds of zebra would wait for one to take the lead before the whole group dares to move in to drink.

And there are some kind of hierarchies among these groups of animals according to size. The hyena gives way to the rhino to drink first while the rhino in turn gives way to the elephants. Once I saw a rhino breaking the rules, a young elephant actually gave it a kick and chased it away. And during those moment of confrontation, bigger members of the elephant family were keeping an eye on the situation, ready to join in should the young elephant failed to handle the rhino.

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The first time I saw Michael Schenkel, he was hand holding a Canon 300mm F4. This guy is a photographer, so I thought.

When I saw him the next day with 2 Leica HUGE lens and a Canon 600mm, all mounted on solid tripods, this guy is a very very serious photographer! And these were not all his arsenals! He had brought along 8 bodies, including a recent Contaxt Aria, several other lenses and 200 rolls of films!

Michael was a serious photographer with great love for the wildlife and had been to Etosha several times. He generously offered me to try out his 600mm with a 1.4X extender. I was totally impressed by the picture quality when compared to my poorman’s 70-200 + 2X.

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Okaukuejo was a fabulous place for wildlife watching, especially during the dry months when the animals congregate around the waterhole just next to the campsite. It was clean, well facilitated and there was even a photogenic tree beside the waterhole that all photographers loved. However, the campsite was very dusty and we had a bad experience with a sandstorm during our first night.

We moved camp to Halali on the 3^rd day. It had a nicer campsite though the jackals disturbed us during the night. Lonely Planet had warned us and we obediently kept our sandals inside our zipped tent and didn’t suffer any damage when the jackals raided the area.