Hakuna Matata

Here I am, back in Windhoek, after a wonderful week in Tsumeb. I am back on my top bunk, sweating a bit from the heat of the day. My chaco tan is back with a vengeance and my summer freckles are almost in full swing. I hear the Midwest has had some snow, eh? J

Anyway, I am not only writing to make you guys jealous of my sun and fun. I also want to update you on my incredible safari this past Sunday. I don’t even know where to begin…pictures take lots of internet credit to upload, so I need to stay up really late one night when the internet is free and upload some more shots. In lieu of many pictures, I will give you some highlights of what we saw. Get this visual: 12 volunteers from the US and Canada, entering Etosha National Park, the one Namibian in the car puts on the opening song of The Lion King. Ok highlights…go:

*A buttload of giraffes and zebras. I mean these guys were EVERYWHERE

*Warthogs!! (and many Warthog Crossing signs)

*Kudu (big ungulates with curvy horns)

*Springbok: Ok, this deserves an explanation. So there are lots of springbok in Etosha. For those of you who don’t know, springbok are sort of like antelope, but cooler. We came up to a larger group of them and slowed down to take a closer look. Upon inspection, we noticed that a lone female seemed to have something coming out of her backside. Upon even further inspection, we realized it was a freaking baby springbok. She was giving birth. Right there and then. As if by some strange magic, the song Circle of Life happened to come on just at the same time. It was quite a moment. A moment that was directly replaced with a dropping stomach feeling when our trusty driver, Camberona, (more stories about him later) told us he thought the baby was dead. We had to admit, the baby (before being completely born) looked grayish and wasn’t really moving…Camberona, having the “been here, done this” mentality, swiftly drove us on to the next sight. Needless to say, we were all a bit stunned in the van at what had just occurred. We managed to move on and enjoy some more wildlife. In order to get back to the exit, we had to go past where the springbok was in labor. As we went past, we saw the baby sprinbok, fully birthed now, with its mama licking it! It was alive! It was a miracle! We promptly put the circle of life back on and stayed to watch it attempt its first steps in life. Pretty cool moment.

*A male lion. YES. A MALE LION. We were freaking. It was just chill walking around in the savannah, its beautiful mane flowing in the wind. Beautiful.

*A male elephant. YES!!! We saw piles and piles of dung and places where the bush was so trampled that we thought we might drive right into an entire elephant family. We never did find that family, but we did manage to see a beautiful, majestic male elephant, all alone in the middle of a field. It was probably the highlight of my day. It was just incredible.

So, those are some of the highlights of the trip. Obviously, the entire experience was just awesome. We ended the day with a big braii. I could definitely get used to this.

We came back to Windhoek yesterday with our trusty driver, Camberona. Let me just tell you, if you think you have seen bad driving, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve been here. This guy is a hoot, along with most other Namibian drivers. Just to give you a taste…we passed an ambulance on the way back to Windhoek. Yes, we were on the highway and we passed an AMBULANCE with flashing lights. I felt like I was on Cops in a high speed chase. It was quite the adventure.

Ok, more later. Thinking of you all!

Wa tokelwa po nawa (Have a good night!)

~h

p.s. i'm obviously not engaged, but that was an awesome engagement spot!