Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Oh my GOD! Just checked in to Makalolo Lodge for my safari. This place is unbelievable. I can't describe this. The safety talk was an eye opener. We must be escorted back to our tents by an armed guide, because of the animals, of course! And...only blow the airhorn in an emergency - like if there's an animal scratching on the tent - yikes! I'll write more about the trek in here and all we saw....I'm off now to trek #2 with Raymond, the guide. Ooohh! Thunder. I love it!

10PM

Oh my. This bed is the MOST comfortable bed that I have ever been in. I feel like Ernest Hemingway here. Just finished dinner and drinks with Mary Ann, the hostess, and Raymond, our guide. Dinner: rice, veggies, rolls, blue cheese on puffed pastry, and salad. Dessert was tasty, too, and a nice white wine. The insects are INSANE right now. Went over to the campfire to finish our wine. *Funny story of the day: a GIANT clicker beetle landed in my wine. Huge. Immense. At least 3 inches long. A baby praying mantis fell in my tea earlier, but that's another story. I rescued both the mantis and the clicker.

Holy crap. Something just snorted outside my tent. I turned off my light and I can't believe how dark it is.

So the day started with a 9:30 pickup. It was 2/12 hours to the main camp, where we met our handsome guide, Sasha. Really good guide. The drive in to the Makalolo camp was 3 hours. I spotted the first animals, 3 sable antelopes. Quite beautiful. Saw a 17-year-old or so elephant zebras, birds, warthogs, baboons, wildebeasts, hippos, impalas, Jesus (no I didn't see Jesus) I think I just heard a lion roar. Ohmigod. I'm thinking I should turn off the light. It's attracting bugs. Getting up to see what the roar is. Yikes. back in bed. I almost landed out on the boardwalk out there with the beasts. I leaned against the tent and thought I was going to fall out! More later. Roooarr.

So it turned out that the roarer was a rather large elephant who was having a late night snack next to my tent. It was very cool. He(?) drank some water from the swimming pool, then walked toward my tent to snack. He chomped around the tent, then moved along. Mark mentioned that he heard him lurking around his tent and he looked around for his emergency horn, "just in case". What a fantastic day. Alarm is set for 5 AM