About 1AM, I heard a rustling behind our tent; I looked out the window to see elephants eating the leaves off the trees behind us. They were grunting and munching. It was quite exciting. I got Veta up to witness it. Then we heard all this noise to the left of our tent at a distance. The grunts sounded like zebras or wildebeest. Then it stopped and Veta was looking out the front and hollered there are zebras. I ran to see and 4 zebras were passing by. The moon illuminated their stripes. There was a baby zebra behind them who looked grey, guess the brown stripes aren’t illuminated by the moon. Sooooooo cool!
I went on a walking safari with Nathoo in the morning around 7am. We walked along the river and he pointed out the tracks of the different animals. There were elephant tracks, baboon tracks, impala tracks, zebra tracks, and wildebeest tracks all around. He showed me the various poop and told me which animal had left it. The most interesting was the hyena poop because it is completely white due to the calcium from grinding down all the bones. Also, the Masaai people use the elephant poo for medicinal purposes. Because the elephant’s digestion system only breaks down about 40% of what they eat, the other 60% is passed through so there are a lot of nutrients in their poo, which is why birds come along and pick through it for seeds and bits of food. But certain herbs in the bush cure various diseases so instead of searching for the plant, the Masaai boil the elephant poo and sift it and use the liquid as medicine to cure fever, especially when babies are sick. (Wonder who came up with that idea – let’s give our baby elephant poo tea to cure that fever?) Nathoo also pointed out spider webs and the spiders that made them, and how the spiders trap and kill their prey by injecting them with paralyzing venom. He also pointed out the various plants and the geology of the bush. During the walk, we came across hippos entering the river from the banks and elephants chomping on trees and spraying themselves with water from the river.
The walk lasted about an hour and then I went back to the lodge for breakfast. Afterwards we me Albert and went on our final game drive. We saw 7 cheetahs, 8 lions, hippos, crocodiles, hyenas, and of course zebras and wildebeest. The best photos were of a python slithering towards our jeep and a giraffe drinking water, which is a hilarious sight. He had to bend over several times in preparation, and then spread out his legs so he was closer to the ground to finally bend down and drink. Giraffes cannot just bend over quickly because all the blood would run to their head.
During the ride, Albert told us he would not be taking us to the airstrip because he was scheduled to take the new guests who were arriving today. They were going out in the afternoon with Nathoo. We actually saw them when we spotted a group of cheetahs. Albert radioed Nathoo to tell him about the cheetahs. When Veta saw the two people in the truck with Nathoo, she said to Albert as we drove away, “They look like nice guys.”
Albert must have thought she said gays because he said, “Oh do you have a problem with gays? People in my country do, but I could care less. People should love who they love.”
Then Veta said, “What? I said they were nice guys.”
Then Albert said, “Oh, I thought you said they were gay and I wanted to make clear I have no problem with gay people.”
I was chuckling in the back because it was a regular “who’s on first” moment.
Unfortunately, I heard we missed seeing a river crossing. It happened while I was on my walking safari. Oh well, we still have a shot to see one on the Kenyan side when we hit the Masaai Mara.