Why would anyone agree to sit in a confined, upright position, squeezed beside or between two or more people, for almost sixteen hours?  I was able to easily answer this question when our jeep pulled into the Karongwe Game reserve.  We were greeted at the door of the huge structure with a chilled passion fruit drink and welcoming smiles.  Within an hour we were in an open jeep bumping our way down one of the roads within the 9000 acre game preserve.  Within two hours we had seen bush deer, rhinos, giraffe, and zebra.  We were able to get within fifteen feet of of a pride of lions both babies and mama stretched out in the afternoon sun.

After the game drive we had dinner outside in front of a huge log fire.  I chose the roasted lamb chops instead of the crocodile and justified this because I had tried crocodile once before  and  yes,

tastes like chicken, sort of .   I particularly liked one of the desserts, rice, covered with a sort of chocolate concoction.  We tried to go to bed soon after dinner but my sister an I are still jet-lagged and found ourselves awake at one a.m. unable to sleep. So when the wake up call came at five am it was difficult to get up.

We met Marvin, our guide, in the jeep at 5:30 am.  After a short ride Marvin asked us to get out of the jeep, supposedly to see an anteater.  He stressed that we should stay in single file.  Instead of the anteater we found ourselves about eighteen feet from a cheetah.  Marvin explained that cheetas did not attack the way other animals did and the fact that we were in a line caused him to see us as one huge creature rather than a single being.  I am not sure that I believe this  but  the pictures are wall quality.

This preserve has only about twenty-five elephants and we saw most of them this morning.  One a huge male with enormous tusks was particularly fearsome.  Marvin seemed to get pleasure in seeing us flinch as the jeep got closer and closer to the animals.  The rules seem to be different in the private preserves. On my last trip, jeeps were supposed to stay on the main roads.  These guides are allowed to go directly into the bush to get a better view of the animals.  At one point I was really apprehensive as that huge elephant lumbered directly behind us.  Since we were in the back seat we got a very close view.

Towards the end of the drive Marvin stops the jeep, sets up a table, and we have drinks and muffins overlooking a small lake. How much more wonderful could life be?  We have four more game drives before we leave this area.  Our goal is to see all of the big five before we leave, and we are well on our way.

This was the first of a daily blog that I planned to write while I was in Africa.  When I was in Kenya a few years ago the lodges all had wi fi and you could stay connected.  After the first lodge there was no wi fi and no phone service.  There was not sufficient power for hair dryers or anything at all to make life easier.  Fortunately, there was power to keep our camera batteries charged and for that I was grateful.  My next few blogs will be about my African experiences but not as they happened….maybe that’s better..I’ll have a chance to reflect a little more.