My African Adventure: Day 38

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June 19^th. This morning, we had a rhino walk at 6:30. I woke up around 6:01, but I was really tempted to just stay in bed and not do the walk! But I don’t want to miss anything this week, cause it is my last chance to do all of these awesome things! So I forced myself to get up and go. It was SOOOO cold, and we all bundled up. The bush camp gang came with us, so I was sitting next to Daniel, and ended up scooching really close to him to share a blanket and body warmth. The African cold mornings are a great way to make close friends! So much snuggling on the trucks in the past few weeks! We drove an hour up to Pidwa, then began to track the rhinos. We ended up not seeing anything super fresh, but we followed a track from yesterday into the bush. We had a nice hour or so of walking around and following tracks. It was really cool to just enjoy walking in the bush, not knowing what is around you, but listening for any sounds. You become a lot more observant. We found some areas where you could tell the rhinos were moving around, laying to sleep, and getting up again. We saw tracks for a youngster with the adult, which was cool. But we decided to get back in the truck and check around some dams. We didn’t pick up anything fresh, so after doing some driving around to look for tracks, we headed home. It warmed up nicely on the drive home, which is about 45 minutes long, so Justine and I took some nice doo-doos on the drive (Doo-doo is apparently South African slang for a nap!). The sun, the fresh air, and the car bouncing is a perfect combo. :) When we got home, I decided I was going to head to bush camp for the night. I have been wanting to spend a night there at the bush camp since I have been here, just for the experience, so I decided tonight was the best option I was going to get! I quickly packed up my bag which many layers of warm clothing, and headed there with Toko, Lauren, and Daniel after dropping the Twines gang off. When we got there, I stowed my things, looked around a bit, and then began to cook lunch with Lauren and Daniel. Today’s menu was corn fritters, which I am a big fan of. I showed them how we made them in the past, and we quickly got a nice hot pile of fritters. The stove there in the tent kitchen is gas, and you light it with a match after opening the gas flow. It was definitely a cool experience to cook there. We ate on a cool deck under a tent, and it was very yummy! After lunch, I decided I would take a nice bush shower, because I think it would be cool. The showers there are in a bathhouse that has a foot of open between the wall and ceiling, so you get some nice sunshine and air. You have to boil your kettle of water, and then put that hot water, plus however much cold water you want, in this little sack, which you pull above your head. Then, you open the faucet and let the water pour out of the bag onto you. Well, I added too much cold water to the bag the first time, so when I poured the hot in, it was only lukewarm. I was really hoping for a nice hot shower, since yesterday I had a lukewarm shower at Twines. So, I let some of the water out, and then boiled another kettle of water. When I mixed it again, it was the perfect temperature. So I strung the bag up and jumped in. What I found was that the showerhead on the bags were all clogged with calcium or lime deposits, so the water came out like a trickle. It was all well and good, and I made the most of it. But to rinse the shampoo out of my hair, I ended up just using the cold-water tap. At the end of my shower, I had quite a bit of hot water left in my bag. Rather then waste it, or wait ten minutes for it to slowly trickle out, I decided just to dump it over myself from the bag. It was very lovely, like a strong hot shower should be. All was going well, until I got to the bottom of the bag. I apparently dumped little chunks of calcium/lime deposits straight over my head and into the lovely clean hair. Such a depressing realization. I tried to rinse it out with the cold tap, but it wouldn’t come out, and we were supposed to leave for Twines in ten minutes. I didn’t have time to boil more water, and there was no way I was going to put ice-cold water in that bag to wash it out. So I just threw my hair up in a bun to drive to Twines, and as soon as we got there, I jumped in my nice hot shower and washed my hair again! Such a relief! So apparently, bush showers are not a good thing for me! We got ready to go on a combined drive (bush camp and Twines), which was an ellie drive with Andrew and Jamie. I wasn’t going to go, but I decided I should just go ahead and not miss out. It ended up being a pretty interesting drive. We used the telemetry set to find the ellies, which was pretty difficult because they were along the river, at a part where there aren’t a lot of roads. We ended up visiting a huge lodge that is owned by a rich family that wasn’t there, so we got to go visit the lodge and check it out a bit. It was gorgeous, and the view of the river and plains below was incredible. I could get used to a view like that! Then, on the way down the hill, we went on some pretty steep roads that weren’t really on the map, and did some awesome off-roading adventures. We accidently ran into a tree trying to make a sharp turn, which was pretty funny, even through we were going really slowly. We eventually got to a point where we found a roadblock of a large knobthorn in the road. We couldn’t chop it down, so we all bailed out of the car, and Andrew did some serious off-roading over some trees to get through the block. We had to circle around blocks to keep finding the signal, and they led us all the way to the very west side of the reserve. We eventually got back on track with the dang ellies. We got to a corner where the fenceline came in towards us, but the ellies traveled along the river where we couldn’t drive. We had a visual of a few feeding, by using binoculars. Andrew and Jamie walked toward them to get a better view, and helped us to confirm the plant they were eating and whatnot. We left the sighting a little bit later, and headed to look around for some predators. As we were on a hill, making a game plan, we turned the car off. When Jamie went to drive again, she gunned it, but in reverse. It was both scary and hilarious, to suddenly shoot backwards down a hill. We all died laughing because we were all prepping to shoot up the hill (including her). Sometimes it helps to check your gear stick, hey? We got semi-lost on purpose, just exploring on the way home, and picking random roads to take. Jamie was exploring and familiarizing herself with the roads, as we looked for predators and nocturnal animals. We got back to Twines with the gang, and then Leon took us back to bush camp, cause Toko was off doing something. We were set to make macaroni cheese for dinner, and Toko had thawed mince, so we threw that in there as well, and made a yummy beef and cheese pasta dish. It was really interesting to cook in the dark, by lantern and torch. But it worked, and the food got made, and was yummy! Toko arrived back to bush camp, so we all ate around the fire and talked for a while. It was very cold there, but around the fire, it was so nice and warm. Eventually, though, we had to go to bed. That meant dousing our warm fire, lacing up the kitchen tent, and getting into cold beds! I was staying in the second bed in Lauren’s tent. I put on multiple layers of socks and clothes, as well as multiple blankets. We were in bed by 9 or so, and I am pretty sure I had 4 blankets, plus my sleeping bag. Lauren and I talked for a while, and then I curled up and read a book my Kindle for a while, listening to the quiet bush with the occasional hyena calling. I asked her to wake me up if she heard a leopard, because I wanted to hear one really badly, and off to sleep we went. I was plenty warm and quite comfortable in my cocoon of blankets.

My bedroom tent I shared with Lauren.