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Published: March 25th 2006
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Immediately after getting dressed and getting out I talk to some of my neighbours about last night's strange sounds. To my relief I have not yet turned insane, since more people have heard it. Confronting our guide at breakfast he laughs and explains that sometimes a leopard will come passing through the camp at night on its way to its hunting grounds. I am not sure that I should feel relieved by this information or not.
To break the routine we will do a daytrip to a nearby river where we hope to spot hippos and crocodiles, and we will bring food with us. On the way we stop over at a nearby lodge, presumably to stock up on foodstuffs or other supplies. The lodge complex is very classy and the guests live in proper cottages. Our guide explains that people can fly in here in small planes and sit at the porch in leather couches sipping drinks overlooking a small pond where the animals will come to drink. It sounds just a tad ridiculous, although I am sure it is quite comfortable.
As we arrive at the river we immediately spot a group of hippos on the opposite
side of the river standing about looking hot and miserable. Some friends of theirs have sought refuge in the brown water. But where are the crocodiles? We look around and can only find a single one lying about a bit further down the river bank looking stone dead. As we disembark the vehicles and start preparing our picnic lunch one of the experienced Africa travellers suggests we go check out the bend a bit futher down the river to see if we can spot some crocs down the stream. As we walk along the bank we come across what seems to be thigh bones of either a hippo or elephant, they are gigantic. I try to calm myself thinking that there probably are no crocodiles in the nearby bushes, and the ridge will protect us from any charging hippos feeling threatened... It is the only time on the trip that we were actually quite vulnerable and it was an exciting and scary experience at the same time. Nothing bad happened though, in fact nothing happened at all except us getting a concerned eye from our guide, and there turned out to be no more crocodiles in the area so we
headed back to the group and joined in on the lunch.
Riding back to the camp we take a different route across the sundrenched plains, driving past endless streams of wildebeest. The sun stands high on the sky and the yellow grass and distant mountains are so beautiful. My fellow travellers are dozing off inside the bus while I continue to stand up under the opened roof trying to hang on everytime we drive into a ditch or depression, feeling like a true explorer. For an hour or so I have this absolutely magical impression of the vast and strange savannah. As I stand there suddenly I get a tickle in my face, a disgusting fly has landed. Being around the animals there are loads of these nasty critters around, and we've seen so many animals constantly harassed by them. Before I know it it introduces its friends, and my entire face is filled with a swarm of flies -they're everywhere! I can't even take a picture beacuse the camera is swarming with them. The other passengers look on half amused, half shocked as I finally give up and climb back down into the car to get rid of
these persistent pests. As we arrive at the camp in the late afternoon I realise the day has taken its toll, I am sunburnt, dehydrated and have a nasty headache on its way.
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