#mekoro

OK, we had just landed at the Nxabega Airstrip, which just looked like land and not a typical airstrip you would think! :)  We climb into our vehicle and head to the camp.  Now when I say, "climb", I mean it, it's not accessible.  There are no doors, so you have to step up and swing you leg over, at least I did, since I'm so short, HA! ;)  The vehicle reminds of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.

When we arrived at the camp, the 3 member camp staff welcomed us with a beautiful song, refresher towels and a cold drink, yay! :)  We were oriented to our tents.  Yes, David and I stayed in tents, HA! :)  There is a king size bed in the tent and a nightstand on each side.  On the nightstand, there is bug spray to spray in the tent before we head out for dinner and another to spray on ourselves before we go to bed.  Each tent also has a toilet tent, that has a flushing toilet and a stand with toilet paper.  In between our 2 tents, it is closed off with tarps and there is a sun shower and a table with a basin, pitcher, shower gel, shampoo, lotion and hand soap.  (Side note: my next posts will have videos of the tents).

As much as we wanted to take a shower, there was no time.  We were called for lunch and there was a large table with a tablecloth set up outside.  The chef came over and told us what the meal was and we served ourselves.  I can't remember what we ate, but all the meals were absolutely delicious, that I do remember, HA! ;)  Time to get back inside the Land Cruiser and go out on our first game drive!!

Off we went and the terrain is definitely not smooth, but glad I didn't get motion sick, HA! :)  We saw a giraffe carcass which was so sad and smelled awful! :(  But, it was awesome because we saw a leopard chewing on the leg!  I'll never forget the sound of flesh tearing, crazy!  Yes, we were that close that we could hear the leopard tearing the meat off!!  After that, we saw elephants and I remember one especially.  As Mompati was telling us to look at his trunk and notice that there were white marks, I had my binoculars ready, and he continued telling us that those marks were from the elephant pushing against the palm tree to shake the nuts down.  As if on cue, the elephant does exactly that!!  It sounded like thunder, wow!!  We also saw buffalo and there was one in particular that kept coming over to our camp!  Those were the major highlights that I can remember before we headed back to camp for our afternoon coffee/tea.

When we arrived at camp, again we were greeted with refresher towels and a cold drink :)  We walked back to our tent and had a few minutes to decompress before we were called to our afternoon snack.  We were offered coffee, tea, hot chocolate or juice and some cookies and muffins, yummy! :)  Off to our evening game drive!  I was still in awe and couldn't believe what I was experiencing!  As it got dark, Mompati had a spotlight shining.  We saw a pack of hyenas eating the giraffe carcass, crazy!  One of the pups came right next to our vehicle and we almost thought it was going to climb in, HA!  We go back to camp and it's now dark and we had to be escorted by one of the camp staff.  We were given a flashlight as well.  As we sat under the stars, the chef read our 3 course menu, yes, every dinner was 3 courses, yay! :)  They all started with a soup, then the main course with a starch and vegetables ad finally  dessert, yum!!  We were totally spoiled :)  How beautiful to sit outside by the fire and hear all the noises of nature around us!

Time for bed and try to get some sleep, even though we were pumped by all we'd had seen, smelled and heard!!  Suddenly, in the middle of the night, I heard the cape buffalo that kept coming by our camp!  He sounded like he was right next to me!!  I could hear him breathing and chewing his cud, wow!!  We were awaken at 6 AM by Mompati as he filled our pitcher with warm water.  The mornings are cold!  I would wear my fleece and a fleece beanie.  Too cold for a sun shower, we would handi-wipe every morning.  We headed for breakfast and it usually consisted of different types of cereal, milk, yogurt and fresh fruit.  After breakfast, we went out for our morning game drive.  

Mompati pointed out many animals, birds and animal tracks, so cool!!  We took a power boat and saw baby crocodiles among the lily pads and suddenly there were 2 elephants blocking our way!  They were bathing and eating the tall grasses, wow!!  Now you know you are in the real wild because we waited, but they did not move so we couldn't finish our speed boat tour.  Great reason, don't you think?! :)  We found an area to stop the boat and have our afternoon snack, yay! :)

We headed back to the camp and were greeted with refresher towels and a cold drink - I can definitely get use to this, HA! :)  Our sun showers were filled and we finally took a shower, yay!  Now, you should note that it's more of a rinse off quickly kind of shower, but that works! :)  Time for lunch and then off to our evening game drive!  Being on a private concession allowed Mompati to drive anywhere and everywhere!!  We saw the leopard again, elephants, impalas and I can't even remember everything, sorry!  We then took a mekoro (dug out canoe) ride down the channel.  Kind of like a gondola, another guide was standing in it pushing us with a big stick while David and I sat inside.  It was so relaxing and beautiful!!  After that, we drove around more at night, then headed back to the camp.  Yes, refresher towels, cold drinks and the cape buffalo greeted us!  Poor buffalo, when you shine a light at it, only one eye would catch the light which means, it was blind in one eye - I totally understand, HA! ;)