Advertisement
Published: March 20th 2009
Edit Blog Post
So we finally arrived in Mole. The funny thing was that the first people we saw by the pool were the Canadian couple that we met at Green Turtle! Small world! They spent a week in Mole and told us all about the animals they saw so we were really excited. We went by the pool and hung out there for the rest of the day. It was pretty cool because right behind the pool there is a look out over the savannah and we saw some elephants out by the watering hole. Yup! Real live elephants, and not like the ones out in the zoo, wild ones!! It was so exciting, I couldn’t wait for the safari in the morning. We spent the day relaxing by the pool and took a nap trying to recover from the trip there.
The next morning we woke up early for the morning safari. Our guide’s name was DK and he was absolutely adorable! Before the safari he had this little speech about how he prays we see elephants and “we leave with good luck and return with good luck.” He was really silly too, he kept it interesting. We saw all sorts
of animals that morning. Down by the watering hole there were a bunch of crocodiles lying on the bank in the sun. We saw some warthogs too. When they eat they kneel down on their knees and DK said it was their way of showing respect to their food. There were monkeys and baboons, these antelope that they called cob and some striped ones they called bushbacks, a bunch of birds, and some other stuff. I was really hoping we would run into a python just so I could see DK use his gun. The first safari we didn’t find any elephants but we walked all over the place. It was pretty fun even though we didn’t see the main event.
While we were eating breakfast we saw some baboons walk over by the pool. They were so cute wondering around and drinking out of the pool! It was so cool because we were so close to them! We literally got within a couple of feet of them. It was good at first and really fascinating, but then got annoying really quickly. Apparently baboons are the African version of raccoons, they get into everything!! They have to put these
locks on the trash cans just to keep them from getting into them!! And they were everywhere. Today wasn’t the elephant day, but it sure as heck was the baboon day. I tried to take a nap and was woken up by the baboons fighting outside the window. I was about to be really angry, but then I thought about it. When else in my life have I been able to validly complain about the baboons waking me up? Oh Africa. For lunch John and I decided to get the guinea fowl. I’ve never had it before and it sounded interesting. All things considered, it wasn’t much. Pretty much was just like chicken and they over cooked it so it was dry chicken. It was interesting. We looked over at one point and there was this baboon that kept pacing near our table and eyeing our guinea fowl. We knew he was up to something. Sure enough, a few minutes later he tromps over and tried to steal my food!!! O heck no!! It was pretty funny though because John stood up and started yelling at the baboon which I thought was sure to scare him off but he kept
group photo
"oh you know, im just chilling here at the watering hole in africa on a safari... no biggie..." walking towards our table! I thought “Oh crap, we’re going to have a John vs. Baboon battle over here!” but then the baboon turned and ran away. My first reaction was to grab my food and run inside. I guess I have the “flight” and not so much the “fight” when it comes to baboon crises.
That afternoon we met up with DK again to go on an afternoon safari and try to find some elephants. We pretty much just skimmed through the bush right past the other animals and tried to track some elephants. We wandered all over the place trying to spot one or even some footprints to track but had no luck. Poor DK, he felt terrible about it, but I told him it was ok because we were able to go the next morning and try it again.
For dinner we joined up with Janet again for some of the best groundnut soup I have ever had!! Ground nuts are the same thing as peanuts so basically its this soup made from peanut butter. YUM! Sounds more like a dessert than a soup, but trust me, its not how it sounds. They put some
sort of spices in it and stuff so its really awesome. They put this rice ball in it and you eat it with your hands using the rice ball to scoop up the soup. I felt so African being able to actually eat soup with my hands. Auntie Janet was hilarious too, she sat with us while we were eating and was singing songs with us. She kept singing “In the Jungle” from Lion King which just seemed so appropriate. Then we started singing songs that I sang back in preschool like Father Abraham and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. It was a lot of fun and she was so cute!
The next morning we met AGAIN for a safari and we broke off in our own group with DK while the other groups went with different guides. We’re like BFF with DK now. Once again we were on a mission and didn’t stop much for other animals except for some crocodiles at the watering hole. There were some small ones on the same side of us so we were able to get pretty close for some pictures. Don’t worry mom, by pretty close I mean like 15-20 feet.
We were walking around more and right when I was about to give up hope when DK stopped suddenly next to this giant bush and that’s when I saw it. Footprints and leaves on the ground!! The leaves are still fresh and he thinks that the elephant was there only like an hour or so before!! So we start walking through the African bush tracking this elephant. At one point we are following footsteps and John yells out that he sees an elephant! We look through some trees and see a little tail swooshing around. YUP! We found a real live elephant in the wild!!!!!!! IT WAS HUGE!!!! Its so different than seeing one at the zoo. We took a thousand pictures and watched it for awhile. It just wandered around and kept eating the whole time. We watched it for probably 20 minutes and I swear it ate for the whole time. No longer am I saying I’m going to eat like a pig, I’m just eating like an elephant from now on. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! I saw a real live elephant on an African safari! That we tracked down by following its footsteps!
After we finished with the
baboons
doesn't he look like rafiki from Lion King? safari we packed up and headed to Wa to go to the hippo sanctuary. Now on to part 3!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.134s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 68; dbt: 0.0649s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb