While I spent around 7 hours in the car on Wednesday and about 8 hours in the car today, the 9 hours today were definitely the best, because that’s how long we were on game drives! It was an early start as we were out of the campsite by 5:45 to head into the game park. This time we were joined by P, a Swedish man living in Japan and working in Zambia teaching technology to the villagers and making paper from banana leaves. That being said, we heard some interesting stories from him! Since it’s the wet season and animals are not as easily seen, the morning drives turn into more of bird watching events, but it was still really neat because the storks and hornbills and spar winged geese and Egyptian geese and hamerkop and lilac breasted rollers are all beautiful. That doesn’t mean we didn’t see big game though! All the animals were very close today; most were less than thirty feet away! A large herd of impala, a big group of baboons, and giraffes were seen before we even got to the park! On this drive we saw: impala, baboons, giraffe, puku, a herd of about 10 zebra up close, lots of elephants, vervet monkeys, bushbuck, and waterbuck.
This ride was different from the first as we saw a herd of over 100 cape horn buffalo from far away and a herd of about 40 or 50 up close. Also, on one of the roads, a few elephants decided to step out and block our way for a few minutes, so we got to watch the two big ones and the baby for a bit. J There was another elephant sighting up close on the drive back to Wildlife camp, as well as a hippo sighting (they’re not usually out of the water in the daytime because of their skin), and I spotted a monitor lizard 5 feet from our chalet porch.
BJ was again our driver. Today’s jokes included: “There’s the largest snake in the park! An anaconda!” while talking about a hose that goes across the bridge. Also, why does the waterbuck have the white ring on his backside? Because when all the animals were on the ark, Noah told them not to go to the bathroom until the paint was dry. The waterbuck couldn’t wait, so now he has to live with the consequence!
Lunch consisted of delicious kebabs and cuscus. Very good. After lunch, we all laid out by the pool and hopped in a few times to cool down. Man, can the African sun be hot! But I got my tan back now. J T and I explored the area a bit. We checked out the tents we were supposed to stay in and watched the local women fish with just a line and hook. Oh, and I followed a baboon along the shore for about 10 minutes and saw the pet mongoose.
The night drive, our last with BJ, was not fruitful in quantity, but in quality. We started off the trip with a bang before entering the park: we had an elephant about 20 feet away from the vehicle for 10 minutes! Mr. D&D might have played a part in getting him that close….. J Right after that sighting, we ran into a herd of 12 giraffe—my favorite! They love those acacia trees, which are prevalent around our camp. In the park we once again saw zebra, buffalo (from afar), a few impala and puku, lots of scrub hare, and several elephant sightings. We did see a warthog family crossing the road (Pumba) from a distance. And then we didn’t see anything for a really long time. I was hoping to see Simba or Mufasa, but we ended up even better than that….we saw the elusive LEOPARD! They are pretty rare to see in the park, and we followed ours with the vehicle for about 10 minutes. Plus, he was walking less than 10 feet from the vehicle, so we got to see the gorgeous coat up close. SO COOL! Wow, God’s creation is AWESOME.
The rest of the evening involved more elephant and hippo sightings, a break with popcorn and cider under the baobab tree, and playing around with an old giraffe skeleton. We headed back to camp around 9 pm where they had prepared a three course meal for us! Heck yes, full board! J Too bad I was way too full to eat it. But, there was butternut squash soup (yum!), a very German main course (as I butcher the words) of schnitzel and pork wrapped in bacon and biscuit breading, followed by apple strudel for dessert. And all this was done without any power, as the camp had lost power a few hours back. A shower by the light of the paraffin (this book comes up repeatedly in the novel I’m reading with my ladies in English class, so I decided to throw it in there) lamp (minimal light and no glasses or contacts on…..makes for an interesting shower…) before bed. What a spectacular day!
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