LION king

August 19, 2024

Today we had an early start time – 530am. It was our first night in tents, I don’t think anyone really slept well.

It’s our (first) game drive. The park opens at dawn and dawn was 615. We met our driver/guide (Nature) at the hotel and off we went. It was a short drive, maybe 10 minutes to the entrance to the park.

Most of these vehicles are modified long bed pickups (easiest way to describe them). Basically there are 9 seats set up in an ascending way, 3×3. Then the driver and a passenger seat. Because I am solo, I tend to be the odd (wo)man out. But there is an Italian family of six, plus a girlfriend – so their party of seven and I get grouped together.

They all took the 9 seats and I sat in the front with the driver. They had a height advantage over them, but in the cold, I had a heat advantage of less wind. Our driver handed out blankets to everyone and off we went into the park.

They cannot go “off-roading” to find animals, they have to stick to the defined sandy routes. There are no paved roads, literally just sandy pathways. There is a lot of little sliding and I’m thankful for the four wheel drive so we don’t get stuck.

About 30 minutes into our game drive all of the vehicles surround what we thought was just a lion, in fact it was a pride of lioness and their cubs – the lion was watching from a close distance while this group enjoyed a morning breakfast. The animal carcass was mostly gone by the time we got there, but it was a site to see for sure! You can see National Geographic and see what we got to see today. It was incredible. True mother nature’s work on display.

We got to see elephants, giraffe, lots of birds I’ll never remember the names of, all sorts of deer/antelope type animals (again I’ll never remember the names), and African buffalo. It was a wonderful game drive. We were lucky to see the lions at the beginning, that was the highlight of the morning game drive.

We were back at the camp site by 930. They served brunch at 10 and then we had free time until 245. Some people went to swim in the pool, some just relaxed after the early morning and others went into town. I decided to go into town to try and find a magnet. Town may be embellishing, it was more like a grocery store and some tourist shops right outside of our compound. We are as close as you can be to the park, minus the resort that is inside the park (it’s over $2,000 a night in low season).

I got a drinkable yogurt and their version of something as close to Gatorade as I could find. Then I went across the street to the police station to check out the baobab tree. It’s this massive tree that grows in this part of Africa. This specific tree was used as a post office, jail and stepping point for travel in the area. Basically these trees look dead for most of the year. They can store LOTS of water, so in years of drought these trees have been tapped to provide draining water to the natives.

After checking out the tree I headed to a tourist booth. I picked out my magnet and headed back to camp. I got back and decided to use my time wisely and catch up on journaling. At 245 we all regrouped and headed down to the water, we had a river game drive. It would take to sunset.

Here we got to see crocodiles, hippos, Africa buffalo, elephants, two giraffe, more deer/antelope things, tons of birds, and monitor lizards. It was a neat experience. The hippos are lazy and sleep most of the day in the mud. The others all come to the water in the afternoon to hydrate.

After our river time we headed back to camp and Promise (our chef) was preparing dinner. Noel (our guide/driver) used this time to prep us for tomorrow. We have a long day (eight hours of driving) with a few scheduled stops for snacks and bathroom breaks. Then tonight we camp again (again for two nights) and have another boat ride tonight.

Dinner was rice, stir fry vegetables and butter beans. Others had rice and stir fry steak. I’m not the only one on this trip who doesn’t eat meat really, so it’s been nice because we aren’t alone. I started to get a headache and since I’ve been getting migraines I didn’t want to risk it so I showered and got in bed immediately after dinner.