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Hiking in the delta. |
The day started by one of the guides walking through the
camp saying...time to get up...get up!
So we rose and headed to get breakfast.
Not 15 minutes later he said we will be leaving in 5 minutes! Apparently he changed his mind as to our
start time so everyone starting running around trying to get ready for our bush
walk.
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|Not sure who is watching who here! |
Before we could start our walk we had to go in the mokoros
to reach the island we would be visiting. There is something so tranquil about
gliding through the water while sitting in a boat only a few inches above the
water. There is no motor, only the sound
of the poler putting their pole in the water every few seconds. A walk on the
island in the delta definitely was an adventure! You can only imagine my surprise as we were
told there were dangerous animals such as elephant, buffalo and lions and we
were on foot with only a native guide who didn’t carry a gun! The fact that Alyssa had a really bad
bleeding nose in the middle of an open field that lasted at least a ½ hour
didn’t exactly put me at ease. It was
pretty amazing walking in the true wilderness of Africa and seeing animals such
as elephant, zebras and wilder beast. It
was so peaceful walking along as you didn’t hear people or automobiles. After awhile everything seemed okay but I
still prayed we wouldn’t see a lion! Our
guide was pretty funny as he would always ask us why something was the way it
was then he would tell us we were wrong.
After a number of these types of questions Alyssa thought she would try
and stump him by asking him a question about mountain caribou, it was pretty
funny and he was a good sport. The walk
lasted about 4 hours before we headed back to camp.
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Weaving in her spare time. |
The afternoon was ours to spend as we wished so I took
advantage of the time to relax and read my book. Alyssa, Kevin and surprisingly Jenna, went
with a number of other people to the “swimming hole” which was a shallow area
in the water where the crocodiles apparently don’t go. Somehow this did not appeal to me. One of the polers had collected palm leaves
on the morning bush walk and was now making bracelets. It was amazing how fast she created little
works of art. A number of the lady
polers brought some of their crafts to sell.
I bought a couple of bracelets and Jenna picked up a really nice little
basket. A number of us at camp decided
at one point to try poling a mokoro on our own only to realize it is not as
easy as the polers make it look! I had
the hardest time trying to keep it going straight. Kevin didn’t really have any problems, the
girls did pretty well and only one person ended up falling in the water.
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Its a lot harder than it looks. |
Later in the evening we went for another mokoro ride to the
hippo pool. It was such an amazing
experience gliding so quietly through the water while the sun slowly started to
set. We were greeted at by a loud noise
as we entered the large body of water where the hippos were. A
number of us jumped at the noise but thankfully no one fell out. The hippo was across the way and we settled
our mokoros in the reeds while we watched the hippos. They can be quite dangerous so we were being
respectful of the space they needed. It
was very peaceful other than the noises the hippos made. Before the sun fully set we made our way back
to camp where dinner was waiting us.
What an amazing day!
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The hippo welcoming us to his pool. Wow, was it loud! |
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Poling at sundown. Alyssa has taken some pretty amazing photos. |
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Think he's done this a few times before. |
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