Into the Wild — The Unicorn of the Great White Place | The Story

Some places seem to carry stories far older than the people who pass through them.

I was watching nine Oryx at the edge of Etosha Pan, slowly making their way away from a waterhole towards the red dunes. They had stopped to graze on the sparse vegetation, moving across the enormous white expanse as the heat shimmered above the pan.

One Oryx stood slightly apart.

It turned towards me, its long, sharply pointed horns rising against the shimmering horizon. For a moment, the heat haze seemed to dissolve the landscape around it, and the animal looked almost mythical.

It brought to mind the old stories of the one-horned creatures of southern Africa, and the extraordinary history of this place.

Etosha is often described simply as a vast salt pan, but to the Hai||om San people who lived here for generations, the landscape carried a much deeper meaning. One oral tradition tells of a mother whose grief over the loss of her child was so great that her tears formed a great lake. When the water disappeared, the salt remained, creating the great white pan.

Even the name Etosha has a history. It comes from the Oshindonga word Etotha, meaning "the place where no plants grow."

Standing there, these stories felt strangely present.

The Oryx had just left the waterhole, following the ancient rhythm of life in one of Africa's harshest landscapes. Water here means survival. The white pan stretches endlessly towards the horizon, shimmering in the heat, while the red dunes wait beyond it.

And then there was this one animal, standing apart from the others, those extraordinary horns rising from the white earth.

For generations, travellers and researchers have wondered about the mysterious one-horned creatures found in southern African rock art. Some were thought to be Oryx viewed from the side, their two horns overlapping to appear as one. But research has shown that some of these figures were deliberately depicted as one-horned beings, connected to indigenous beliefs surrounding rain, water and powerful spiritual creatures.

Looking at this Oryx through the shimmering heat, I understood how easily an animal can become something more than an animal in the imagination.

I pressed the shutter.

And called it The Unicorn of the Great White Place.

Sometimes, a place gives an animal a story of its own.