Night One: We slept ok..
Night Two: After seeing so many big animals and being challenged by elephants on our game drives, before going to sleep we inquired about how low the fence was going around our camp. We learned that it really “do nothing, just make tourist feel better.” My mom sleeps with ear plugs. I consider this unsafe. About midnight I woke up to sounds RIGHT outside of our tent. I woke my mom up and she told me it was nothing. That is until she looked up out of the window of our dome tent and inches away saw elephant tusks…looked down out the window of our dome tent and counted elephant toes! We laid there shaking, not knowing what to do. The elephant was at least four times the size of our tent and stepping us wouldn’t even phase the big guy! We laid there as we heard the elephant munching and crunching on the tree right above us. After about 30 minutes we snuck out of our tent, barefoot, and briskly walked to the kitchen (the one indoor building at our camp) and made it safety! We sat awake in the kitchen and slept sitting up in there for over three hours before we were brave enough to return to our tent. Mom went out once earlier to see if the elephants had left, but I had to yell for her to come back in because there was a big snake on the patio, so we put off going back out there for quite awhile. This was all a very big deal to us, but in the morning we were told, as we were told many times, “No problem…usually.”
Jumbo (the elephant’s name) came back to visit us with all of his friends several times throughout our stay. To help herself calm down, Mom even drew this picture of him in the middle of the night.
Night Three: In the middle of night two while we were sitting in the kitchen we decided that we were going to be tent camp drop outs! We would head to the nice lodge a night early and actually get some sleep. But, of course, we toughed it out and are very glad that we did! We did change tents to one a little bit farther away from the miniature fence. Still didn’t sleep much that third night, but we were glad we stayed and when the elephants came back, we didn’t even sneak out of our tents to the safety of the kitchen.
Our game drives with Elton and Hendrick were amazing! They both loved their job and we so excited about the animals. Our most interesting drive was at night. We were heading back to camp we came across two male lions. They were just staking out spots in the road in front of us to lay down and then started roaring to dominate their territory. Their roars can be heard for many kilometers and shook the ground around us. We watched them for a few minutes from closer then we liked and then we let our guides know that we were ready to back up and go. They laughed and informed us that this was the only road back. We literally went around the first lion within a foot of him. He totally ignored us. Mom and I were basically on the floor of the open-sided Land Rover and Yoost said, ”Take photo, take photo.” I couldn’t even watch. Then, we had one lion in front of us and one lion behind, roaring in stereo! We had to go around the second one. It was right in the middle of the one lane dirt road. Terrifyingly beautiful!
It was really fun to watch our meals being cooked entirely over the fire and to eat with our guides, learning about their lives growing up in the bush.
Side trips included the Cheetah breading project and Moholoholo, a place that rehabilitates wildlife, educates homo sapiens and reintroduces endangered species into the wild.
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