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Published: June 17th 2017
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01 Long Pool
Part of Long Pool, with a visible hippo in the middle. Geo: -15.9165, 29.4625
This morning we left the camp at 6am and drove to Long Pool. We had planned to do a walk. We parked and began walking. I was cautious of walking because we had no rifle and there were many dangerous animals around! Within seconds of getting out of the car I could see more than a dozen hippos in the water. The hippos were all staring at us. The bank was high, which made it seem a little bit safer to be out of the vehicle. As we walked along we could see crocodiles ahead of us that would slip into the water once they heard or saw us.
After about half an hour I was ready to turn around, but the others wanted to walk right around Long Pool. There were too many dangerous animals for my liking, especially since we were in their territory. We were not really too sure how long the walk would be either as our map was very basic.
Along our walk we saw a few herds of impalas, baobab trees, waterbuck and baboons. The pool of water was not getting any thinner so we had to keep walking. It would be a
02 Long Pool
More of Long Pool. while until we could cross over and return back to the car. The scenery was beautiful, but I felt so vulnerable! There were just so many hippos in the water and so many out of sight that were under the water.
Then finally the water started to thin out, so soon we would be able to cross over and return to the car. It was an open area that was occupied by many animals – impalas, baboons, warthogs, waterbucks, as well as many water birds. We tested the depth of the water. I was very cautious to walk through water when I could not see through it. So I stubbornly continued walking until I felt comfortable crossing over. On my first attempt I got stuck in mud and nearly lost my shoe in the mud – I was not happy and I was pretty much knee deep in mud. For my second attempt I put a few dead branches across the water. This made it much easier to cross with all the mud about. We walked past a few small breeding herds of elephants, which we enjoyed watching.
We came across a swampy area. Here there were many baboons
03 Long Pool
Looking towards the direction that we will be walking in. foraging for food. Finally we came to the other side of Long Pool. Soon after we were back at the car and I was so relieved. In the end it was a three and a half hour walk – a walk that I will never do again without an armed guide!
Paul drove us straight back to camp, we were all starving and thirsty. We were not prepared for such a long walk. We spent the next few hours relaxing at our camp site. During which the cheeky Vervet Monkeys visited in the hope of stealing food from us.
Sometime during the afternoon, Paul and Francois went to Mana Mouth to do some fishing. John and I went for a game drive at about 4pm. Our first stop was to see how they were going with their fishing. They had no luck with catching any fish.
So we continued on with our game drive. Some other campers told us about a nearby lion sighting. We drove to the sighting, but the lion was not visible from the vehicle and I did not want to get out if there were lions nearby. John went for a little walk and managed to catch a
04 Track
The track that we could have been driving along, but instead we are walking. distant glimpse of the lions.
Further along we stopped at the river and had a terrific sighting of a small breeding herd of elephants crossing the river. We drove back towards the camp ground and saw a few more elephants.
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