The park taught me the beauty of the nature. I always have appreciated the nature but never as much as I do now. The life in Africa is tough on animals and humans. The park is a desert so the weather is so hot during daytime but so cold during nighttime. My skin is dry and cracked even though my skin does get dry during winter but never this cracked dry. I drink three to five liters of water everyday. My thick hair takes forever (seriously, forever) to air dry back at home, but it takes less than an hour here to dry my hair. 

Because of the tough living animals have to endure to live here, I started to notice things that I take for granted become things I consider vulnerable. Things such as shade and water. I avoid shade back at home because I don’t get enough of the sun there but I have too much of sun here and I desperately want a shade. I love shade here, I get excited when I found there is a nice spot of shade where I can stay for a while. I become so desperate for shade that I will curl up in odd places to get some of the shade, and I would twist around in my car seat to avoid the sun. 

Attempting hide myself from the sun in the bakkie.
Water is always important but I never realized how important it is to have some when you’re living in a desert. I mean, I know water is the bringer of life but I never saw it's miracle. I was lucky enough to see some rain here and then I saw some huge change! Trees were bleak but they turned bright green after a short downpour. 

Before rain.

After rain.
 Time here is much slower than back at home. The day trickle by, and we have a whole day to enjoy the time. Back at home, everything is rushed, must be done before time is up. Hurry. Hurry. At the end of the day, I’ll be like ‘Where did my time go?’. So much things to be done in a few hours, I became accustomed to being busy and rushing against the time.

Here, time is slow. I have all the day. Even though there are so much things to be done in short time, we are not rushed. At first, I felt uncomfortable. I felt that I had crashed into a wall and was forced to a screeching stop. I felt the need to move and be busy and I felt the time ticking by. I swear I can feel time here. It bothered me because I am used to not feeling time and finding out that time had gone for the day without me knowing. I am not used to watching them going. Eventually, I found a comfort in slow time. I started to enjoy the time more, watching things happening over the time. 

I have time here to watch sunrises and sunsets and they're beautiful. It is a such a shame that I always miss the sunrise and sunset at home because I never have a time to sit and watch.

One of many sunrises.

One of many sunsets.




I never left the park in a whole of my two months stay here and I never felt trapped. There are so much to see and I don't have enough time to see everything I want to see in this park. I am leaving the park tomorrow morning to have a six hour drive to the airport where I'll be leaving for Hong Kong (which I am really excited for). 

 The appreciation of the beauty of nature makes me want to live my life to the fullest. I already told people that I am living my life to the fullest but then I realized that I never really lived my life to the fullest. Especially after my several close encounters with wild animals and desperately needing water and shade. It takes much more to live the life to the fullest. It reminds me of this quote I heard somewhere: "You will never know a true joy until you experienced a deep sorrow".

 I never knew what it takes to live the life to the fullest until I came here. Time won't stop for you and there are many things that can go against you and your plans. Nothing is consistent but it can be if you're flexible and willing to accept changes as you go. The nature showed me what to mean to live the life to the fullest. I am still discovering what it takes to live my life to the fullest like there is no tomorrow.
Yours truly on the tower with Etosha National Park behind.