Up at 5 AM, breakfast and off we go on our 4 hour trek. The reason for the early hour is that it is cool and we hope to see some animals as the sun rises. We begin with high hopes which are diminished as the time goes on. After walking for about an hour, we encounter a water obstacle; off with the shoes, wade through the water and on with the shoes. Alas a large bull elephant. Since we are down-wind from this magnificent animal he can not smell us; he has poor eyesight and cannot see us.
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| Off We Go.... |
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| Wet Feet & oozing Mud |
Snap,,snap,,,snap,another elephant captured in digital format. As we walk we come across various animal foot prints in the sand which are identified as hippo, hyena, impala, warthog, etc...where are these rascals that only leave fleeting glimpses of themselves in the sandy soil. As you walk through the brush you stir up fragrances of the wild sage plants which offers a welcomed smell.
We climb large termite mounds to scan the horizon for additional prey; nothing. We come upon remnants of an elephant...his large skull here, his femur there, two vertebrae away off...bones probably scattered by hyena who savor the bones meaty morsels and marrow. Another water hazard which we portage without taking off our shoes. After 4 hours, we return to camp...we are a little disappointed in not seeing more but exhilarated from the experience.
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| Elephant Skull |
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| Hyena Scattered Bones |
Our time is our own until 5 PM. Same routine as yesterday; reading, journals, swimming, sleeping, washing clothes. The woman polers have made a wide selection of weaved grass baskets and braclets which many of us purchase; yours truly included. At 5 PM we depart on a mokoro sun-set excursion and what an excursion it is. Like our initial mokoro trip through the grassy water highways, we arrive at a point that affords us a good view of the setting sun. Relaxing, we talk, listen to the Delta's sounds and relax. As the sun-sets, we take many beautiful pictures and head back to camp. As we pass a large water pool, a hippo's head and nostrils show themselves to our delight. Again, snap...snap...snap...all of a sudden the hippo seems to rise out of the water and open his gigantic mouth, teeth and all, and lets out a hippo roar...is it a warning to stay away or just a casual yawn...it doesn't matter because yours truly captured the hippo, open mouth and all, with my new SLR camera...fabulous.
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| Sunset on the Delta |
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| Awesomwe Plus |
We arrive back at camp for a spaghetti dinner happy with the evening mokoro ride. The evening ends on a happy note with our polers performing a series of songs and dances which gave us a better feeling of African culture. At the end of the evening we were invited to participate in a couple of dances. The one that we will all remember is the "two-by-two" whereby we circled the campfire as we went in and under our neighbors bridged arms....the bush camp has been the highlight of the trip so far. It is late and time for bed. Tomorrow we break camp and take another 1 1/2 hour walk before exiting the Delta in our mokopro...nite...nite.
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