Nsolo Camp is known for its walking safaris, as the founder Norman Carr, believed that this was the ultimate way to experience the true essence of the African safari. Now, I have a low tolerance for the high heat, and exercising in the heat is my worst nightmare, so once again I opt out of the morning walking safari. Those of you that know me well know that I love to get my 2 hour walks and hikes at home or on Blakely in the cool of the morning so it’s not the exercise I object to, it’s the walking in the dry grass with the sun beating down on me, with the added anxiety of surprising a group of lions or elephants and wondering if I am going to die. This is how my brain works. I opt for a much more peaceful solitary morning of reading and writing back at camp. We are definitely living with nature here....as I mentioned yesterday there was a leopard in the bush near our room last night. In addition, as we are getting ready for bed, a bat flies into our room and panics because it can’t find a way out! I scream because I am deathly afraid of bats, and dive into our bed which is ensconced in mosquito netting. I huddle in bed tucked into John as I hear the bat flapping around for another 20 minutes before he escapes. Now I can sleep. This morning I go to use the public loo next to the lodge’s common area, lift the lid, and find a frog perched on the dry upper side of the toilet bowl. I am so glad I looked first! The lodge staff scared it away so life could go on.
We are all annoyed by the bush fires intentionally burning around us. The camps do this seasonally to help with grass growth. Apparently the grasses regrow within a few weeks and animals are also attracted to the ashes. But why didn’t they do this in April and early May? They only just opened for the season May 20, so it could have been done earlier it seems to me. The acrid air is burning our eyes and noses, and the crackling of the brush fire nearby is a bit unnerving, especially where we come from, we would have a full fire fighting crew on site. They know what they are doing though, and the grass fires just peter out eventually. We hope they are right, our cabin is nearest to the fires.
Since I didn’t go on the walking safari this morning, today we have guest blogger Beth Droppert.
BETH: an early morning as we had wake up call at 530, and light breakfast at 6AM. No coffee delivered to the room today, apparently I was supposed to order last night. Last night, Marc went to take a shower and there was no hot water, and he was none too amused. Breakfast this morning was around the fire pit with the other guests (all travel agents) who are leaving today for another camp. Tomorrow we will see them again, as they will be at Tena Tena as well. Around 630am we headed out in the Land Rover and rode to a spot where we parked and began our walking safari. Early on we walked by a tree with three Lilac Breasted Rollers in one tree! It’s my favorite African bird, so beautiful! We learned some new info about plants and poop - always amazing we can learn something new after 3 weeks in the bush. As we were walking, Chris - the armed National Parks guide - noticed some lions coming out of the bush and motioned for us to crouch down and be still and quiet, as they were only about 60 yards away. One by one they came out into the open and there were a total of 8 of them including a large male that brought up the rear - yikes! We followed them for a while and at one point the male actually turned and looked right at us but then continued on. Fascinating to be so close to a huge pride of lions. The guides told us it was a rare occurrence for guests to see this on a walking safari and that we were lucky. I asked Chris if they would shoot the lions if they became aggressive towards us and he said “we have never had never shoot the animals” so I am thinking “ok, what then?” if the whole pride turned on us? Lion attacks apparently have never happened around here because the lions just aren’t aggressive towards humans, so we just put our trust into the guides and hoped they were right. We walked back to the vehicle and had our tea, coffee and biscuits, then headed back to camp. On the way we saw a beautiful Thornicroft giraffe, a different species with slightly different markings than the other giraffes that we’ve seen on our trip so far.
Back to DENISE: well the Droppert’s hot water still isn’t working, Marc is rightfully annoyed, and they are moving them a new room. Clearly they knew before we arrived that the hot water wasn’t working in that unit because the valve was turned off, but they surely didn’t want to put a travel agent in there and get a bad review. They should have told us this on the front end. Our afternoon game drive was very tame by our standards, the game concentrations just aren’t in this area. Further, we mostly drove in the areas with smoldering bush fires so it was quite unpleasant. We finally asked the guide if we could drive in areas they weren’t actively burning, he hemmed and hawed and said “sure” but then continued on the same path. But there was a greater plan at work because soon we arrived at a lookout point with sundowners all set up and staff waiting for us, so now it became clear. However...we were still in the middle of a burned field of grass so once again, not what you expect to see when you are supposed to be on a safari. Another night drive back to camp but nothing remarkable. I think we are ready to be done with this camp.
Lilac Breasted Roller
Sundowners
Storks lined up
Chris, our stone-faced parks ranger drinking a coke
Female Puku
Tonight’s sunset picture
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