Etosha National Park

Etosha is Namibia's flagship park, built around a salt pan so large it is visible from space, with waterholes strung along its southern edge where the wildlife comes to drink in the dry season, from about May to October. It is the easiest self-drive safari in southern Africa after Kruger: gravel roads, rest camps at Okaukuejo, Halali and Namutoni with floodlit waterholes, and elephant, black rhino, lion, giraffe and the dry-country antelope walking in to water within sight of the camp. There are no buffalo, so it is not Big Five. The western section near Dolomite is newer and quieter. It is a low-malaria area in the dry season.