Etosha National Park, Namibia
An enormous dried out and salt-crusted lake bed gives Etosha National Park its name, with etosha translating roughly as ‘great white place’. This fabulous park in the north of Namibia supports 144 species of mammal, including lion, cheetah, elephant, black and white rhinos and plenty of kudu, impala and zebra. There are endangered species, too, including Hartmann's mountain zebra, black-faced impala, roan antelope and the tiny Damara dik-dik.
Don’t forget the birdlife, either – the park hosts some 340 species of bird, a third of which are migratory. The summer rains turn some of the pans into seasonal lakes, which attract migratory and wetland species, including flamingos, while up in the trees is an avian supporting cast, including hornbills, lilac breasted rollers and Rüppel’s parrots.
Seeing wildlife in Etosha is relatively easy and, although the bushland can be dense, there are plenty of pans, clearings and waterholes where animals cluster. Most Cape Town to Victoria Falls tours spend three nights here, so you have two full days for game drives and wildlife watching. Some tours stay in a camp overlooking a floodlit, manmade waterhole, so you can watch animals late into the night, without even leaving your chair.