I wouldn’t usually get up really excited at 4am for anything other than wildlife. This was my first park trip adventure. My eyes were wide awake but the rest of me took a while to catch up and get to the truck.
Driving through the villages no one else was up, not even the sun. We arrived at the village which was still and pulled up outside the village hall. 10 spritely villagers came from the building and climbed aboard the monster truck, it wasn’t a real monster truck but it was a monster, I mean it worked but only just.
With villagers aboard and food collected and the all important chai collected from the chef we were set. The villagers were all talking quite cherpily behind me laughing frequently, I couldn’t yet understand them but the laughter gave their mood away. What they were laughing at so early I can only imagine, perhaps it was my hair, my crazy Muzungu hair gets quite a lot of funny comments, so I am told by my translators.
The sun was up when we got to the park and so was everyone’s spirits. We dished out the digital cameras which was a total surprise to them and they struggled somewhat with the technology but soon had them working. It reminded me of when I taught my grandad to use a mobile phone, it took him ages to get the gist of it but once he did he was calling everyone all the time and this was the same with the villagers, they were snap happy after 5 minutes taking photo’s of me cleaning out my ear with pen of all things. Which reminds me I need to clean that pen.
Once in the park the villagers were all standing up ready to shoot…. With cameras peering out the top of truck like meerkats. Giraffe were the first animals we saw, The villagers liked these animals because they see them as polite, when I asked why they all said they don’t run away from you and they don’t eat farmers food. I did agree, considering all the ferocious behavior of many animals, this does seem quite polite in comparison.
When we came across a large herd of elephants all of the villagers eyes widened even more than they currently were. Suddenly all the laughing had stopped. These guys were petrified. One villager asked why we were so close to them and one lady started doing up the window. The guid explained that elephant rarely attack and only do so when backed in a corner and provoked, it took a while for them to really relax, but after a few minutes they did come to terms that the elephants were not going to charge us and flip the truck over. If they did want to do that doing the window up would not be much of a shield but it was endearing.
We saw a load of other animals including Water buck, hippos, crocodiles with cheeky smiles, baboons, hyena, ostrich, warthogs, eagles, hawks, impala and others.
We stopped for lunch, this gave the cameras a chance to cool down, all the clicking the cameras really needed a rest. Beans and rice was sharply served up and I had been given the rather formal name of Mr Nick by a tall happy fellow called Gilbert, who was wearing the brightest lime green shirt I had ever seen. I only thought that I should reciprocate this by calling him Mr Gilbert, he and the rest of the villagers laughed and wanted more photos of them and me. If I had of known this I would of combed my hair and put a different t-shirt on as bright yellow Labrador attire was somewhat outrageous but did compliment Mr Gilbert’s lime green Shirt quite well.
Bellies full we set off to find some carnivores so we headed to the area of the park notorious for big cats, optimistic with rested cameras we drove off.
It wasn’t long before we bumped into a loan fully grown adult male walking through the bush land. He was ferocious looking with two of the biggest K9’s I had ever seen, I heard a “ohhh”, from the rest of the villages sat behind me, equally thrilled by the presence of this massive cat. He walked right in front of us and then sat down and watched as we were watching him. I could have sat there for the rest of my life watching him but I guy from the national geographic filming a documentary on lions told us of a rare treat just over the hill in the distance.
A rare treat it was, an adult Cheetah resting by a tree, I couldn’t believe my luck, I was very excited. Everyone who comes to the National Park dreams of seeing this animal and only a few get the chance. Wow. The guild Rowland told the villagers this and they were proud to see it.
The final part of the day took place in a classroom inside the park. A community park office was giving the villagers an education on why it is important to protect wildlife, one of the villagers responded with the following comment:
”We are brought up to think that elephants were bad, eating our crops, but they are very important to us, providing benefits like schools and tourism, we shouldn’t kill them as they give us so much and they are not bad when eating and drinking from the river”
I feel we had touched one person and the above confirmed this but I also feel the trip had a positive influence on everyone involved as they all sat there whilst driving to exit the park with reflective looks on their faces. The day was going down in my book as a success. We left the park with the sun setting on the horizon. It sounds like a cheesy book ending but it happened. And I wrote it down.
