Monkey Attack

​This was another early morning wake up call, followed by breakfast and loading up for another game drive in the national park. This would be a long one — we didn’t return to camp for brunch, but stayed out for nearly 8 hours.

The drive covered a great deal of distance, going much farther into the park than we have been previously. The pace was also faster. Mary and I drew the back seat in the truck, and got bounced around a bit with the higher speeds on the unimproved roads. They call it, “The African massage,” but it doesn’t do much for one’s back.

The goal was to find one or more big cats — cheeta, leopard, or lion. So ignoring all but the most interesting of animals, we charged on. Our driver/game guide stopped nearly every oncoming driver to exchange information about what was to be seen ahead.

Thanks to one such exchange, we raced to a spot where at least 5 other trucks were already clustered. Here we got a glimpse of a leopard, just before she pounced on the guinnie hen she was stalking. She missed, and that was the end of the show.

This was a long game drive, so we didn’t return to camp for lunch. Instead, we parked at one of the national park’s very few and somewhat primitive picnic areas. The meal was challenging because half of us had to chase away hungry monkeys while the other half ate. 

The monkeys know this is a spot where people have food, and they are very aggressive. One jumped onto the serving table and ran off with half a loaf of good, homemade bread. Another snatched a muffin right out of someone’s hand.

The monkeys were rewarded at the end of the meal when one member of our group began feeding them. They’ll be hanging around for the next group of travelers after that!

We continued into the afternoon seeing lots of elephants, giraffes and warthogs. But nothing new.

Back at camp we watched elephants parade right through the camp property. Animals have boundary issues.

Dinner was a traditional African menu, which was actually quite good (although we still think that polenta, which is a staple of the diet here, tastes like paste).

The meal was followed by a cultural program by the camp staff. Their performance was a big step above those at the previous camps, with lots of harmony in the singing and dancing to very complex rhythms.