Friday, 24 July 2009
I woke up this morning....soooo exhausted. While I was asleep, a hippo came up from the Mara River from down below the campsite, and started grazing BESIDE my tent!!! I awoke at 2:30 am to a "munch-munch-munch" sound that was coming from outside my tent, and directly behind my bed! Quickly, I recalled Gideon (safari guide) telling my group how dangerous hippos were out of the water... and realized that only a thin piece of canvas was separating me and the hungry hippo. Zoinks! My heart raced until I heard the Maasai night patrol talking softly amongst themselves nearby, and instinctively knew they had it under control. So, I released my o'dark thirty anxieties and let the sandman lull me back to Zzzzzz Land. But man was I dragging when Mandiba, my 6 am wake-up call, came by my tent and dropped off my morning tray of hot tea and scones. I gulped down my tea and hurried to meet my game drive group. The Austrians were in high spirits as we headed out, which made for a jolly start. Quickly, we came across our 3rd big-game sighting as we rounded the savannah and spotted cape buffaloes in the early morn. It was hard to imagine that the seemingly docile creatures before us were considered dangerous African animals, often attacking people unprovoked; goring and killing 200 peeps per year. Whoa! But the biggest find of the morning was the pride of female lions and their cubs feasting on a fresh wildebeest kill. The cubs were quickly smack-pawed as they tried to "snack" before the adults finished eating. And as children go, they quickly forgot their spanking and began rough housing with each other as they tumbled and wrestled tirelessly before playing "ring around the rosie" around their mother's hind leg while peskily trying to bite her tail. Ahhh, kids! LoL. There were so many safari off-road vehicles out there clicking and shuttering away.... sheesh. Afterwards, we went by the river and caught a family of hippos in the water, thus bringing me back to my pre-morning wake up call. I felt my heart racing again as I recalled my fright and shook my head at the harrowing memory. But then, one of the Austrians drew my attention to our first giraffe sighting poking his head out from behind the tree limbs in the forest across the river. Unfortunately, the river was too deep to cross so we missed our opportunity to see the giraffe up close but I was confident that we would see another one before the day was over. We headed back to camp, hungry as a hippo (ha!) and triumphant with what we saw on our first game drive of the day.
