(23 June)
When we arrived at the Okakuejo waterhole in the late afternoon, there was an elephant drinking, and also quite a few antelopes.
As the elephant had quenched his/her thirst, he/she wandered away slowly. Two giraffes came wandering slowly from the opposite side, stopping often, standing still, listening, and looking around. Atelope skipped and hooped to the waterhole to drink in small groups.
We were hoping the giraffes would drink, a few times they were almost by the water. They took their time, stopping, scouting around them. We saw zebras approached from the left, they came in a long row. They walked towards the waterhole in a semi-circle. The giraffes backed away a bit from the water, and let the zebras drink. After the zebras were finished they walked away, in a row, straight away from us. Our two giraffe friends kept listening, and looking around. Four oryx then approached from the direction where the zebras had headed off towards. A third giraffe approached from the right.
Clearly the different animals took turns drinking at the waterhole, all the while the giraffes were keeping watch to keep them safe.
After the oryx had skipped away, in the same direction they had come from, the giraffes finally walked all the way to the water’s edge.
Eventually they all three bent down to drink. A sight well worth the wait.