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A quick movement makes us notice a lizard, but where did it go? Even staring right at it, it can be hard to spot it. With its brown and grey mottled skin it blends in perfectly with the surrounding rocks, pebbles and shadows. It sits still long enough for us to see that it looks like a mini-dinosaur, as old as the hills. I am impressed that our guide, Mike Scott, knows the name of this little guy and can tell us that the male and female look different from each other. We are, in fact, lucky to spot one of each sex, but I have not listened properly and have already forgotten what they are called. Spiny agama? Ground agama?
Many of the other animals we spot are also able to don a cloak of invisibility. Their colours are the perfect camouflage for the environment in which they live, whether it is sandy expanses, rocky hills, rustling savannah or shadowed woods.
The photos accompanying this article show the tiny, sandy-coloured dik-dik, a black-backed jackal in stalking mode, the elusive (agama?) lizard, a long-necked giraffe, a self-important kori bustard, a francolin with gangly yellow legs, and the elusive (agama?) lizard, all trying to keep invisible in each their way
After the sand and the sea and the rock paintings we drive northeast to the famous Etosha National Park, where wildlife abounds. On the way we get a foretaste of it and spot steenbok, springbok, warthogs and ostriches but once in the park the wildlife is overwhelming.
Zebra, elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, gemsbok, springbok, hartebeest, dikdik, blue wildebeest, black-faced impala, yellow mongoose, greater kudu, bats, honey badger, black-backed jackal, double-banded sand grouse, golden-breasted bunting, helmeted guinea fowl, red-billed quelea, black-chested snake eagle, and much more, all in one day and night. So much life!
