Namibia travelers hope for wild animals – nature parks like Ethosha offer such observations from safe safari vehicles. Also we had planned an Ethosha stay for animal observations.

However, we have been unprepared for the close encounter with small or giant desert animals in the wild outside of the nature parks. Nice to watching are the cute earth males putting up in rank and file at the roadside looking for an opportunity to cross the road safely. Also the unexpected encounter with a little bird amid the desert, which feeds from my hand, was still easy to bear.

A complete different feeling was flushing into us when on a camping site giant desert elephants were standing directly infront of our sleeping place. This situation demanded a great deal of our courage to stay controlled.

The elegant marching ostriches, that were flying in front of our car, the wild ape crowds, usually faster disappearing than we were able to take pictures of them, or giraffes, herds of zebra and springboks, all browsing in the hills close to our car – those have been exciting encounters we haven’t had on our screen while planning our travel.

And after these entire encounters one could assign our courage to a rafting route on the Crocodile River Kunene under the heading, human beings are growing with the requirements...