Hey! Just got back from my safari trip! Too fun! You said you didn't get much rain... well we got it all Thursday night. I have never been in a thunderstorm so severe. Buckets and bucket of rain. Lightening and thunder like you wouldn't believe. We were out walking looking for animals and had to run back to the vans 20 minutes into our hike. We stopped running because we couldn't get any wetter. My shoes stayed wet most of the trip. Now they smell like something died in them. Needless to say... the storm was the coolest thing ever. No one was upset about being wet or anything. It was an adventure. The power was out in our rooms and we had no water the first night. No problem, we had a pretty darn good shower running through the rain. I didn't know it until the next night(last night) that the owner of our lodge was thrown about 30 feet by the lightning. He was not hurt badly, I guess, cause he ran out to meet us, and told us to stay in the van for a while because the storm was dangerous. He didn't mention the fact that he was struck by freaking lightning. He ended up being fine and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with us. None of us knew, until he told a few of us by the camp fire the next day.
Anyways, the next day we got a "wake-up call" (knock on the door) at 4:30am and set out on a safari. We got a late start, cause people kept forgetting things and running off, but we still had a full day of wild adventures. I don't even remember the first animals we found, I would have to go through my pictures. We found 3 out of the big 5. No lions or cheetahs. :-( Guess I have to go back! :-) We did get charged by angry elephants. We were watching them peacefully, and they slowly surrounded our vehicle. It was amazing! They were so close. Then when their babies came closer to us, they started to get angry. We were blocked in by them from both sides. They started flapping their ears, shaking their heads and stomping their feet at us. Keep in mind that elephants could literally throw our jeep with no problem. We found an opening and drove out. We got great pictures while all this was happening. Later, we found another elephant. A teenage male. He got mad at us and charged at us. We had to throw it into reverse. We almost hit a car that was behind us. Then another jeep with some of our group in it, passed us. Their driver was an indigenous African. He was crazy. He started charging the elephant, then the elephant went back at them, they almost hit... then the driver charged forward more and drove the elephant off the road. Really pissed it off, then it came back towards us. We got the hell out of there. It was a really close call. The driver should not have chased the elephant like that. Our leader said that was bad, and I knew it! That elephant is going to remember that later and demolish another vehicle. An elephant never forgets.
We saw so many giraffes! They are so graceful and awkward, if that even makes sense! We saw a baby one! Sooo cute! We also saw a million zebras. Baby zebras too! Loved them. I swear they look exactly like normal horses with body paint. Beautiful animals. We watched a family of baboons for about 10 minutes. They were too funny. You could tell which one was the boss. He kept stealing the others seats and pushing them around. We saw quite a few white rhinos. We didn't get too close to any of those... that would end badly. We also saw a couple herds of buffalo. They said they were the meanest and most aggressive animals out there. More dangerous than lions even. Didn't see any up close, but that's ok with me. My camera battery ran out about halfway through the day, so I have to get pictures from other people from the trip soon.
Later that night, last night, we had dinner and a camp fire. Then they took us on a scorpion hunt! So cool. They glow florescent yellow under LED black light. They had a really strong flashlight and shone it though the trees and the train and we found tons of them all over where we were! They were so freaky! And all around us everywhere! I slept with one eye open last night. Then this morning, we got up and went to see the owners venomous snake collection in his garage. He had a breeding facility for a snake that had never been bred before. They said it was impossible, but he now has 30 babies. He was the first to do it, and now has to get a license and fix up his facilities to do it professionally and legally. There were so many snakes. All of them very poisonous. Oh, and a cage of rats! He also had the worlds most venomous scorpion in a box. He opened it to show us, and guess what, it jumped out of the box. Almost landed on a girl's foot and he and another guide scrambled to catch it and get it back in the box. I was about to start crying like a little girl if he didn't catch it, but they did. There was a cobra that struck at the glass and spit venom when we moved its cover and waved at it. Haha. Ugh. Lots of snakes, many indigenous to the area. Then we went out on one last nature hike... where all the snakes live, one last time, had breakfast, and headed to the airport.
**I know I am really behind on posts! I will update and fill in soon**
