Right now we’re just sitting on top of the truck under the shade of a huge tree, snacking on fruit and waiting for the perfect sunset silhouette. Our last day has been great. well… we had a rocky start.. but obviously it all worked out :). As I worked on the scrambled egg breakfast (it turned out pretty much terrible haha) and dad folded the tent back down, I heard some yelling from our neighbors. Turning around, I saw half of a huge furry tan thing sticking out of the side of our truck. My mind was racing from the initial shock, so once I realized it was a baboon that had hopped into our car through the open door, I kind of just backed up softly saying “uhh.. dad… dad.. baboon…” My dad leaped down from the other side of the truck and saved the day!! hahaa. Actually, he yelled, scaring the baboon enough to get out of the truck and back 10 feet…. but he took something with him. Afraid that it was some expensive computer gadget, we craned our necks to get a good look. Luckily, it was the string I had brought to make bracelets with.. and a couple finished products.. so I wasn’t too thrilled ha. Since it wasn’t food though, he eventually dropped the mangled bag. After seeing those sharp fangs, my dad yelled at me to get into the car and we grabbed our breakfast and headed off to finish it somewhere else. There were about 30 baboons closing in around the camp as we sped off. (my dad was realyyyyy scared for me and started rolling up his window every time we saw baboons after that and repeated “nasty. nasty.. nasty. my nemesis.” :))
Our first loop was mostly beautiful savanna. We swished down the road with tall grass on both sides. Dad kept saying how wonderful the color was, and he was right. Our first sighting of the day was a group of elephants. The little ones are just so adorable.. I can’t believe dad put up with how many times I repeated that :). With another elephant sighting, this time with them playing in the water, we were excited for more.
Sleeping lions were next :). We came up to the film crew from yesterday that was following the lions. Sitting on top of the truck for about an hour, we watched what looked like just a tangle of paws just visible above the grass. Every once in a while, a lion would sit up and yawn. again… I thought it was really cute ha.
Moving on, we started heading for south gate, were we will camp for our last night. We spotted more elephants and their babies… :). But, after that, there seemed to be a lack of wildlife other than impala, which started to become part of the scenery. With all the twisting back roads we had somehow managed to find, we started to get a little bit lost. We could see on the gps the direction we should be heading, but as for the map, we had no idea where we were. Once again getting a little hot and sleepy, I almost jumped out of my seat with excitement when we came upon some zebras that were pretty close. Snapping some pictures, we moved on, seeing another giraffe and also making our way back to the main path. This brings us back to now, were we are sitting in the savanna atop our truck, uploading photos and making this post with plenty of crazy bird noises to add to the ambiance :).
I can’t believe this trip is almost over.. it went by so fast. Although I wasn’t too sure right after we arrived, the longg journey is definitely worth it :). I miss you all and will see you pretty soon! God has really blessed this trip!
Sincerelyyy, emilyyy :P
(From the BGAN Inmarsat, that my dad says is working great. Good st reception)
