Mother and Son Make The World Their Classroom for a School Year: October 8, 2014

Last night I slept soundly until I heard branches breaking. Then I heard all kinds of sounds. I got up and grabbed my iphone and peaked through the netting of our tent to see a couple large elephants out in front of our room eating. I heard maybe hyenas or they say baboons will bark sometimes. It was pretty cool. I tried to go back to sleep but again was woken by loud snoring One of the elephants opted to go to sleep just outside our tent and he snored so loudly. I thought it was Sam at first and trying to wake him so he could be more quiet.

We woke early and the elephants were still 2 feet from our door eating the bushes. Was wondering how that was going to work, but they moved past once we were up and I had a nice shower and breakfast. After breakfast we went out in a small motorboat with Charlotte from Paris, France. We came across a pod of hippos which had about 13 hippos. They were very curious about us and the kept their eyes on us the whole time. The one large male in the group made a move in the water towards us and we backed away. When they go underwater which can be for up to 6 minutes they don’t as much swim as they do walk across the bottom of the river area creating channels. They can move surprisingly quickly under water. We saw an elephant in the reeds as well. We were reminded about the river vegetation: Papyrus for paper, bullrushes for weaving, tall grasses and reeds for roofs and fences. We came to a spot where the water is shallow, where hippos are less likely to be or crocodiles since they like to also be in deeper water banks where they can hunt more easily. At this shallow area we climbed into a couple Mokura, a traditionally a wooden carved canoe.

In the Mokura Owner, our guide, stood and pushed the boat through the shallow water like a Venetian Gondolier standing up at the back of the boat guiding it through narrow water ways. It was very relaxing and peaceful to ride through the bullrushes while Sam would catch small frogs on the grasses. We parked along the bank of the water and climbed out and saw a huge rare owl,…. It was large, awake and reddish brown up in a big old tree. We cruised through these narrow water ways,,… hippos highways and made our way back to where we had left our boat. There we had a snack and rode back to the hotel.

The morning the temperature had been very cool and by the time we got back around 10:30 a.m. it was very hot. We had some lunch with Charlotte where we heard about her 17 days trekking trip with the Masai in the Masai Mara. She is a real adventurer. I feel like Julia needs to meet up with her, they both like to do adventurous things. I cannot imagine how crazy hot and difficult that was. She said it was so hot and wasn’t sure if she could continue on. They would trek in the morning for 4 hours and then find a place under a tree to protect themselves from the heat and eat and then in the afternoon trek for 3 more hours and then set up camp in the middle of the desert and stay for the night and have dinner over the fire. I was so hot as she told the story I just couldn’t imagine. After lunch we went back to our tent to get caught up on reading and writing and I had to take a cold shower to just cool down. In the shower there were a couple of large wall spiders, I am not as freaked out as I have been but I did hit them with some “Doom” when I was done. I know they were supposed to be here to eat the mosquitos but they scamper so quickly and do jump and they are so freaky I just can’t share a home with them ;)

In the afternoon. we boarded the small outboard boat. We went on a water safari. Again we ran into this large pod of hippos and then after about an hour on the boat we came across some islands in a more open area of the Delta that was covered in large Maribou storks, Pink Backed Pelicans, and Herons and tons of other large birds. It was rather beautiful to see them all together, big and proud and when the big grey heron’s fly and the Meribou storks fly it is just amazing. They all were coming and going it was a proper bird colony really. There were many nests of baby pelicans too and there was such chatter coming from those nests. It was quite the navigation to get through all these little canals lined with tall grasses and to find your way around seems like a challenge but beginning to recognize the surroundings by the Fish Eagle that is always just a couple bends from camp and the pod of hippos. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the still waters of one of the open areas. So beautiful.

At dinner we visited around the camp fire with a couple of the new comers. One gentleman is from England and he is great and chatty and has been a pilot for Qantas and has traveled the world and is on for another adventure this time. He was talking about his bucket list and how he was busy checking everything off. I am so grateful to be in what I consider my relative youth and checking so many places off. I feel as fit as I was when I was younger and so grateful to have Sam along who is so interested and happy to be with and so go with the flow. It has been really enjoyable.

What is on the bottom of this stem is what some put on themselves as mosquito repellant

wall spiders that we got into the ritual of killing each night and morning. Here is one taking a shower with me in our tent! I know they are supposed to eat the mosquitos but just couldn't bear them crawling around above and below me.