Following our usual schedule of rising at 5:30 AM (Jeffrey's "knock knock", spoken softly at first then increasing in volume if you didn't acknowledge his presence the first time); breakfast at 6 AM; morning safari at 6:30 AM. Brutally cold this morning, so we took some hilarious shots of us bundled up looking like Middle Easterners or bandits.
Today we found a euphorbia bush. Apparently some of the natives use the poisonous latex from the plant to catch fish. They toss the latex into the water, it suffocates the fish and they float to the surface for easy gathering. This practice is apparently illegal today, but some people continue to use it this way.
Jeffrey took us down a route to show us the largest baobab tree in the area. It was a phenomenal tree (as you can see from the photos) and a great place for our morning tea & coffee. I included shots that could illustrate the actual scale of the baobab compared to the jeep and our group so you could get a better idea of its size. I walked around the entire tree base to explore other photographic opportunities. That's when I discovered a huge cave-like opening that all 9 of us could easily fit into, so we took multiple photos of that as well.
The baobab.
I see Iris and Shelly are up to their dirty tricks...
Some of the animals we spotted included cape buffalo, crown eagle, warthogs, elephants and meves (long-tailed starling).
Cape buffalo.
An impala that didn't quite make it.
The elusive lilac breasted roller.
The evening safari was over very rocky terrain where we spent equal time rocking back and forth like bobble-headed dolls and equal parts leaning inward to avoid being scratched to smithereens by the nasty acacia thorns. After Pamela and I jumped out to attend to nature at the back of the jeep, we continued onward. Less than 5 minutes later, my cell phone somehow slipped out of the jeep when I went fishing for my flashlight and disappeared into the surrounding darkness. I alerted Jeffrey, and he was kind enough to stop and get out of the jeep, come around to the back, lower the gate, pull out the spare tire, and search under the seats with a flashlight. Just as he was sliding the spare back under the last row of seats we heard a roar from a frightfully close location. Cries of "get in the jeep Jeffrey!!!!" rang in the night. I have never seen a guide move so quickly. Jeffrey slammed the rear gate, lunged into the driver seat, slammed his door and put the pedal to the metal. Any thoughts of retrieving my cell phone went by the wayside.
After we thought we were safe, we went back again to see if by some miracle we could see the cell phone in the dark. Jeffrey put the jeep in reverse. Pamela and I were in the last row of seats, each with a flashlight, searching each side of the track. Pamela thought she heard a branch snap so she raised her light a little bit to see what was going on. Just as she raised the beam slightly, we encountered a huge male lion not even 10 feet from us. I thought we both were going to pee ourselves - maybe even poop our drawers - we were so scared. (Even typing this makes me laugh out loud). I can't believe I had the presence of mind to take some excellent photos - didn't even need the zoom lens. I was prepared to be like Grizzly Man and document my own demise so everyone would know exactly what happened.
Following the track of a lion.
Out of the darkness...not more than 10' away...
Just wanted to check us out.
Finally, he had enough of us and our stupidity, so he wandered back into the darkness of the bush.
Since this was our last night at Pafuri Camp, we were treated to an incredible bush barbecue out in a huge clearing (don't know how we were being protected from the animals, especially since it was dark. Makes you eat very quickly). It was so cold we just wanted coffee, tea and more of the incredible dinner rolls they were serving. (I have been consuming way too many carbs since coming here. Any hopes of losing weight have gone by the wayside).
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