Adventures with Julia

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Yesterday was a travel day. We flew on Air France from London to Paris, waited a few hours, then caught a 5+ hour flight to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, which is called TChad by the locals. The airport was small and dated, but functional. The immigration agent was very pleasant and understood a fair amount of English. He was curious about why we wanted to come to Chad and accepted our explanation about coming to visit Zakouma National Park. We had no trouble getting our bags; however, we ended up waiting a hour for the Hilton Hotel driver to find us and collect the rest of our group. Once we got outdoors, we were pleased to notice that the temperature was a comfortable 80 or so degrees. We were all tired and kept to ourselves for the 45 minute ride into town.
The capital is basically a large town, with mostly low rise buildings in various states of disrepair. There were very few lights along the way and very few people on the streets. The road to town was divided with only one half paved. It felt like a country village rather than a capital city. Arriving at the Hilton was a real treat. It was brightly lit and looked like a Hilton in any US city. Our room was

large, clean, comfortable and, best of all, had great AC. For some reason I had prepared myself for a third rate hotel and was surprised to find a first rate experience.

We did not get to enjoy it very long, however, as we had to be up at 4:30 and out by 5:15 to catch our charter flight to the park. With 8 guests and 2 guides, we filled the plane. Weight was an issue and there was too much. The guides graciously gave up some of their baggage so none of us had to.
This was the reason we were told to keep our luggage soft sided and less than 33 pounds including carry ons. Neither one if us made it, but we were close. We flew 2 hours southeast of N’Djamena over scrub and desert and arrived at Zakouma at 9am. Watched the plane be unloaded, refueled and depart with the group whose place we took. Then we climbed into stadium seating Toyota Land Cruisers and began our first game drive.

By now the temp was heating up and I would have preferred to go directly to camp, but the drive proved to very exciting in spite of the heat. We saw a great number of birds and small animals in the three hours of the drive.

We drove through scrub and wetland planes seeing the expected African animals: wart hog, Lewelle’s hartebeest, roan antelope, Bohrhor reedbock, water buck, baboons and, of all things, 2 ostrich. Unique to this park were: Kordofan giraffe, Buffon cobb, tiang antelope, tsessebe antelope and savannah buffalo.

The bird life is remarkable in its diversity and quantity. Most especially were the millions of red-billed quelea, multitudes of spur winged geese and black crowned cranes. We saw many Goliath heron, cattle egrets and yellow-billed kites, In small numbers were Green beeeaters, Yellow-billed storks, Sacred Ibis, Tawny eagles, Abissinian Rollers, red-billed hornbill, Pied Crows, Spoon-billed storks, Long crested eagle, black headed heron, a Lappett-faced vulture, a Fish eagle, and others I can’t recall.

Finally, we pulled into Camp Nomad, washed our hands at a stand next to the dining area and went directly to lunch. Although I really wanted to get to the room, clean up and try to get cool, I went to lunch as requested. The camp was in a shady spot and very charmingly laid out with all tents facing a lush wetland full of birds and small animals. The public area was arranged with mats, lounge seating and a dining table and chairs under a thatched roof. No walls. 10 tents were arranged in a row with half on either side of the public area. By the time lunch was finished, I was boiling and had a headache.

 

The temperature had climbed to 107 degrees. Although the tent consists of woven carpets on the floor and mosquito netting for walls and roof, there is nothing cool about the place. I laid down to try to rest, but the bed was hot. Eventually we both fell asleep for awhile and woke up sweating profusely. So we got up and sat outside in chairs on our front porch. Thankfully my headache was gone. Both of us drank copious amounts of water.

At 4pm we gathered again for another game drive. The air was starting to cool and we felt less miserable. By sunset and sundowners we were comfortable, and enjoyed the comradery among the group members, all of whom are very well traveled, especially in Africa. We continued the drive until 7pm – well after dark, spotting gannets and bush babies along the way.

Back at camp, Mark and I made a beeline to our tent for a shower. We were allotted one bucket per person, but neither of us wanted to wait so we shared the one bucket and took turns standing under it. It sure felt good to get clean and feel almost cool. With clean clothes on, we felt human again and ready for dinner at 7:30. Now it is bed time and I am ready for a good night, listening to animal sounds in the dark before dropping off to sleep. 5am will come too soon.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

We were all up and out by 5:30 for coffee and on the road at 6am. It was cool enough to wear a fleece. The view from our camp site is so full of bird and small animal life that one hardly needs to venture away. Fortunately we did and not long after leaving camp, we spotted 3 lions: a female walking alone followed by 2 brothers drinking at a watering hole. They all looked very healthy and comfortable. The 2 males, small maned as an adaptation to the heat, walked right by us as we clicked away on our cameras, before they plopped down in the shade and went to sleep. We saw many of the same creatures as yesterday and found ourselves mesmerized by a quelea show that did not stop. Millions of the small brownish birds fly in waves around and among the trees and bushes. We could hear the sound of the birds calling each other and the beating sound of their many wings. Experiences like this are what draw us back to Africa over and over.

Back at camp, we had a light breakfast and headed for the Park Headquarters about 30 minutes drive away. We met the Jerome, the park’s operation manager, and his staff. He ushered us into the “Command center” where African Parks keep track of the movements of the elephants in the park, control for poachers and monitor fires, most of which, sadly, are set by arsonists. African Parks is a non profit organization that has been awarded the the sole mandate to manage Zakouma National Park, along with 13 other equally threatened parks on the continent. It provides a glimmer of hope in the darkness.

Gerome is an unusual person of French descent, who has lived mostly in Australia and came to Chad 18 months ago with his wife to do the difficult job of increasing the number of animals in the park, especially elephant; eliminating poaching as much as possible; and training the local people to learn and do the work themselves. He showed us a map that indicates where the elephant are currently located. 40 of them have collars and are easy to track. For the last 4 years all the elephant have stayed in the park, which indicates that they are less stressed. Their numbers have increased from 443 in 2010 to 510 in 2017. A new census will be done in a few weeks. He expects the numbers to increase by at least 5%. The last poaching occurred in 2016. They are doing a good job, but do not stop every poacher. In the 60’s, elephant numbers were estimated to be above 300,000. Poaching gradually became an epidemic. There was so much poaching that 900 animals were killed every year until 2010. Finally the Chadian government wanted the poaching stopped and thus began the effort, whereby African Parks and the Chadian government embarked upon an ambitious conservation project to save the park from extinction. In addition to the command center staff, there are 3 mamba (sniper) teams of 10 each, who take turns patrolling the park; and 6 horse teams that take turns being with the elephants at all times. It costs 3 million a year to operate the park and much of the funds come from tourists like us. All their supplies come from South Africa.

On the 3rd of May 2018, the park will receive 6 black rhino from South Africa with a plan to bring in an additional 14 next year. They are each tagged and will have their horns removed in hope that they will not be killed. This is a new attempt to grow the park. There will be new people hired to monitor these new animals and Gerome hopes to get a drone to assist in keeping an eye on them. He was pleased to report that 2 female muslim employees are on staff. After spending a hour with us, it was clear that he needed us to leave so he could get back to work.

We drove back to camp for a late lunch and then had the afternoon free. Mark relaxed and I wrote. At 5:30 we drove a short distance away from camp to have sundowners.

The sun had already set, but the staff built a camp fire and set out chairs for all of us. Kingsley read his written thoughts for the day, as he did the first day and says he will do every day. He is pretty philosophical and serious about Africa and how to make it a better place for the people who call Africa home. I made a video of his comments this evening and will share them with whoever is interested.

Back at camp, the staff had set up dinner out under the stars and we had a lovely time eating and visiting. Slowly, everyone is getting acquainted. I now have everyone’s first names and a bit about most of them. What I have learned is that everyone in the group has traveled extensively around the world as well as in Africa. Mark and I are fit somewhere in the middle of the pack. Several are like us in not having children or spouses to slow us down. Mark and I are the only couple. Everyone else is traveling alone, although at least one is married. I will share more about them as I get better acquainted. We both took showers before going to bed. I did not mind that the water was cool, except I could not wash my hair and get it rinsed properly. So I went to bed with a dirty head. At least most of me was clean. I woke up a few times during the night to the sound of a lion calling. Each time the sound seemed closer. I hoped I might see the animal, but then I went back to sleep.

Friday, March 16, 2018

This morning was leisurely. We did not get up until day light at 5:30am. Thank goodness we did. The quelea put on a spectacular show right in front of the rising sun, directly outside our tent. It is like watching a huge school of sardines swim in waves and be circled by dolphins who swim up through them to capture their filI. With the quelea, it is kites who fly through the center of the quelea waves and pick off birds as they go. I don’t know how better to explain it. This morning, there were no kites. Just the little birds paying homage to the new day.

Today, after breakfast, we drove to the nearest village, called GozD’jarat, to do an art project with secondary school children in the school built by African Parks, called the Elephant School. A brain child of our guide, Kingsley Holgate, this project is to teach the children about the plight of elephants, what has happened to them ,and how conservation of elephants is important to the children’s own survival. Each child is given a black and white outline of a mother and baby elephant with a lot of white space around them, a list of facts about elephants and lessons about what they can do to help. We handed out crayons and colored pens and asked the kids to color them however they wanted, add other art as they thought appropriate and write a sentence about what conserving elephants meant to them. We helped them with the project as none of them had used crayons or colored pens or done any kind of art. It was an education for everyone. The students all spoke French, so sign language was required to communicate. Eventually most of them got the drift and completed the project. Kingsley had us select the 2 best “art works” and we each added one more so 12 students received prizes for their work. The prizes consisted of a small notebook, a package of biscuits, a piece of candy, and a drink. The first place winners also received soccer balls. Then everyone assembled outside for a large group photo and Kingsley collected all the art works for use in conservation efforts by African Parks and the Holgate Foundation, started by Kingsley’s family to help and improve lives through adventure and a strong focus on wildlife conservation.

We were all wilted when we climbed back into the vehicles and headed back to camp. The school children and teachers, meanwhile, did not seem the slightest bit uncomfortable. We think it is somewhere around 110F, about as it has been during the middle of each day since we arrived in the park. As no one has a thermometer, we can only say that it is African Hot. New sightings on this outing included a Patas monkey and a Black-headed Gonolek.

Lunch, as with other days, was a selection of salads. The food is reasonable, if not exciting or memorable. Mark and I both took a shower. It felt good, even if the benefit did not last long.

We sat by our tent during the hottest 2 hours of the day and tried to think cool. We both considered passing on the afternoon game drive, but knowing we might miss something and be sorry, we mustered and joined the group. We enjoyed the many birds, the huge buffalo herd and several giraffe and baboons. Then we spotted the male lion in the distance and drove to where it was laying with the sun setting behind him. He graced us with a deep call to his friends, who returned the call. By the time he called again, I was ready with the video and recorded his call. Hope it will sound good when i play it back. We stayed with the boy until it was dark than drove back to camp. As luck would have it, we saw his friend laying near the road and got a photo of him too. Then camp called and we returned.

A quick shower, a vodka tonic and we are ready for dinner. The other people in the group include:

Don, a retired gerontologist who spent his career working with elderly people in outpatient clinics doing health screenings and counseling. He is a gentle soul who has an easy going disposition. In addition to traveling extensively, he does volunteer work at the local YMCA and spends a good deal of time with his 16 year old god-daughter, whom he has had a major hand in raising. He lives in Topanga, CA.

The third man, besides Don and Mark, is Brian, who had a long career in the pharmaceutical business, running his own company for a number of years. He was born in Michigan and moved to Tokyo when he was 23. He has lived there ever since with his Japanese wife of 45 years, who, unfortunately, has diabetes and could not travel to Africa and have no access to medicine and hospitals. He is our most extensive traveler, having been to 176 countries, including 36 in Africa. He has us beat by quite a bit.

There are 5 women, all traveling alone, except me. They are Noriko, who is 75, Japanese and lives half her time in Tokyo and the other half in Seattle. Her husband was Fed Ex pilot and the flew around the world visiting 172 countries in a turbo prop bonanza. He died a few years ago and she has kept traveling. She is very gutsy and is the only other member of the group who is going to the DRC with us after Cameroon.

Lois, who is 77 and lives in Utah now that she is retired. She was a college professor at the University of Virginia, for 24 years in the field of applied math. She is really into birding, especially cranes. Her focus on this trip is the Black-crowned Crane. As we have seen the same thousand or more of them every day, she is a happy camper.

Leslie, who is 75, worked for JP Morgan in the banking industry for 17 years before retiring in 2011. Before that she had a very interesting career working for David Rockefeller helping develop his philanthropic ideas and those of his children. She was married twice. Left the first one and lost the second one, who died in 2001, too soon. She lives in New York.

Laurie, who, at 58, is the youngest member in our group. Her career was in Landscape Architecture and she worked in the field for a number of years until her 23 year old son was killed in a motorcycle accident 10 years ago. Fortunately, she has another son, Spencer, who is doing well. She went through a long depression and now is a volunteer board member for an organization called Pease Park Conservancy in Austin, Texas, where she lives. Her grandfather was in the newspaper business and owned the Austin American Statesman and the Waco Tribune Harold among other papers. He sold the business when she was 12 and she has had trust funds ever since, although she chose to make her own way. She loves to travel, but is currently hampered by needing to watch her mother who is 83 and has debilitating Parkinson’s Disease. I certainly understand that situation and the need to buy travel insurance before each trip. At the moment, Mark and I are skipping the insurance, but know we will need to buy it again, as his mother ages.

It is a very interesting group of people in addition to the common bond of travel for all of us. After 3 days, we are getting more deeply acquainted. I hope to learn more about each person.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

At last, a wonderful night’s sleep. All night under the covers with not a single wake up. We are at last on African time. The whole group is very punctual. Everyone is on time for coffee and a light breakfast. At 8:30 we head out on a game drive while enroute to the Saturday market at a place called Kach-Kacha. On the way we saw 5 very full lions lounging under some trees, with the remains of last night’s antelope feast nearby. The group consisted of 2 adults and 3 sub adults. We also saw a Long Crested Eagle, a Red-fronted Gazelle, and a few Abysinian Ground Hornbill as well as a few old male buffalo, who are referred to as Digger Boys. They tend to be solitary, irritable and worth giving a wide birth. The landscape, I have forgotten to mention, is perfectly flat in this center part of Chad. All the way from N’Djamena, it has been so. The altitude is 1,400 feet and the terrain consists of shrinking wetlands, woodlands and scrub. At the moment we are near the end of the dry season and everywhere the ground is dried up and cracked, like a jigsaw puzzle. The only water ways are in the middle of the wetlands and all the birds and animals are congregating near them for sustenance, which is why our camp is located there as well.

We leave the park and drive to Kach-Kacha on the highway, which is a less bumpy one lane gravel road, for half an hour. As we get closer we see people bringing goats, camels and cattle to the market, as well as bags of sorghum and rice and other products. We pass through the market to the protected car park and agree on a plan to visit the market for about an hour and a half. By now it was African Hot and some of us were wilting before we started. At one point my phone quite and flashed a message that it was too hot and needed to cool off before I could continue using it. This was the first time I have seen this screen.

The open air market was packed with literally thousands of people, none of whom seemed to be bothered by the temperature. It was possibly the largest market I have ever visited. Where did all these people come from? Apparently, this is the only market for many miles in any direction, so everyone comes here once a week to do their business. Unfortunately for us, most people here do not like having their photo taken and we were told to enjoy the market without taking photos unless given permission. I did my best and did get a few photos, but nothing like I would have liked. We were absolutely the only tourists and rubber necking was happening in both directions. Although it was hugely crowded with many stalls and vendors, it was not especially colorful. Even the ladies were not as colorfully dressed as we have experienced in other parts of Africa. At one stall, I purchased a string of beads that, I was told, were old and came from Yemen. Sure hope so. They were different from other beads I have purchased and will make an interesting necklace if I can get them strung nicely. I did not plan to buy anything, but it seemed like it would be nice to have a souvenir from Central Africa, even if it is from Yemen. Don’t laugh.

Then, as we were about to leave the market, Kingsley and Brad suggested we eat some goat meat in a local lunch stall. Mark and I were game, as long as we could see the cooked meat. It was served in little pieces with an oil and salt sauce. It was very tasty and not too chewy. We ate several pieces and went back for more. Only Dan, Mark and I joined Brad and Kingsley. No one else wanted to try it. Back at the vehicle, everyone was ready to get back to camp. The driver took a short cut, but it still took us 45 minutes. Once there, we washed and had lunch before heading for the shower. It sure felt good, even if we were hot again in a few minutes.

We sat in our “patio” watching the afternoon Quelea show. I took some video of it to show people as it is very hard to imagine without seeing it in person. It lasts about an hour before the birds dissolve into thin air. We know they roost in shrubs and trees at night, packed so tightly they nearly drag the branches to the ground. When a show starts, they come by the thousands from everywhere. We can hear their wings as they fly overhead. It is an amazing sight. As quickly as it comes, it is gone.

Looking out at the wetland in the late afternoon light, I hear the cacophony of bird calls on the wing, see a few buffalo and many bird still feeding in the wetland and feel the joy of this awesome sight. The heat is starting to abate and I am grateful to be alive and joyful in this place.

Dinner was again served at a lovely table set under the stars. Although the food is nothing to write home about, the conversation is very interesting. Both Kingsley and Brad are great story tellers and all the guests have had experiences everyone enjoys hearing. After we left the table, some of us retired to the fire pit and continued chatting. Mark and I went to bed shortly after 10pm.

Sunday, March 18, 2018.

This morning, another dry sunshiny day with some high cirrus, we went for a walk rather than a drive. I thought it would be rather boring, but was surprised to find myself immediately engaged in Brads commentary about termite mounds and how they work, barely after we left camp. Turns out a queen can live 50 years, laying 30,000 eggs every day. 5% of the termites are soldiers, who are fed by worker termites and are always out patrolling. The rest are made for one particular task or another. There may be as many as 11 kilometers of tunnels the workers build and maintain in order to keep the mound at a constant 30 degrees celsius.

Along the road Brad identified a number of animal prints, their ages, whether it was a right of left foot and other details.

He talked about the gestation of different animals and why they are of different durations. There are basically two kinds of births: altripical births, which require a lot of parental care, such as people, most birds, lions and dogs; and precocial births, where the animal is relatively self-sufficient shortly after birth, such as horses and rhinoceroses.

Then, we walked off road crossing the jigsaw puzzle of broken dried ground. Real ankle breaker walking, which forced me to watch every step. No wonder animals stay on the road, if they can. We took cover behind a downed tree where we could watch a 1000+ herd of savannah buffalo cross the wetland undetected. They were quite lovely with clean, dust free bodies from crossing through the water. Their skin glistening is varying shades of brown, black and caramel. Once across the pan, the lead animal spotted a lion, as did we, and started to turn around. As he did, so did the others around him. It looked like there would be a mass stampede. Then he changed his mind, turned back and purposefully walked toward the lion, picking up his pace as he grew closer. The lion moved off and the herd relaxed. It was a very nice experience we would have missed if we were in the vehicles. Just as we turned away from the buffalo, masses of quelea flew into the area. We witnessed another beautiful and mesmerizing display. It was nice to see it from a different perspective than our camp.
A short walk on and we came upon our staff setting up breakfast for us under a large shady acacia tree. We took our time eating breakfast and enjoying the setting. We had walked about 2 miles in the cooler morning air and, with the increasing heat, were happy to take the vehicles back to camp.

Mark and I took another shower and let the air dry us. Sitting in front of our tent, we listened to the multitude of bird calls. Such a pleasure.

Lunch was at 12:30 followed by our departure south to another camp for 2 nights, where we hope to see elephant. A long cry hot drive through dense bush with just a few interesting sightings: a giraffe bent over drinking carefully from a stream; a pond full of crocks; our first lone elephant deep in the bush; acacia sahel trees that have red bark, which people burn to extract the sap, which is used as chewing gum; large numbers of buffon cobb antelope that are similar to, but larger than, reedbuck antelope, which we saw in smaller numbers; and a lion stalking a pair of worthogs. We crossed the Salamat River over a dry bed. After a long, hot afternoon, we arrived at our”fly” camp on the banks of a crocodile infested pond in the southern half of Zakouma Park. Our Nyumbani (Swahili for home) for the next two nights.

In addition to the crocks, we were entertained by hundreds of Carmine bee eaters flying in and out of their mud homes in the river bed on the opposite side of the pond, by Egyptian Plovers, red throated bee eaters, and a Pied Kingfisher, trying to swallow a fish whole. Eventually it succeeded after banging the fish on a tree limb for a good ten minutes.

We all took turns taking showers in a grass walled, one bucket shower, ate goat stew in the dark by the campfire and listened to the crocks make a guttural burping sound we had never heard before. By 8:30 we were all ready to turn in. Our open air tent had two bedrolls on the floor and we were soon asleep after watching the stars for about….a minute. I heard there were lion calls in the night, but I slept through it all.

Monday, March 19, 2018

 

Up at 5:30 and in the vehicles at 6:30. This is our big day to try to find elephants. As luck would have it, we found a herd of breeding elephants with at least a dozen babies only 20 minutes from camp. They heard us coming before we saw them and they were moving rapidly across the Salamat River and up the bank where we stopped. Many had passed before we were in position with our cameras. They came flying through the area stirring up loads of dust. Some of the mothers stopped and trumpeted at us, a couple actually did a mock charge. We just kept clicking away. It was an awesome sight, for which we are grateful, because these were the only elephants we saw the whole day. We drove all over the southern half of the park in another African Hot day. Several times our drivers had to stop and take a machete to a tree limb that had been pushed over by an elephant and blocked the road. We knew they were around, but we could not find them. We even encountered one of the Mamba groups who protect the elephants from poachers. They had no idea when or where the elephants would appear again.

So, on the edge of a busy pan near the southern boundary of the park, we met up with our staff, who brought a prepared lunch and set it up for us. If it were not for the heat, we would all have enjoyed the afternoon. As it was, we took naps after eating and began the long drive back to the “fly” camp. Apart from a family of banded mongooses and a few wort hogs the park was unusually quiet. We pulled into camp shortly after 4pm and headed for the open bar. No point in rushing for a shower as you will only get hot again and need another one. So we waited until twilight and were more comfortable and less sticky for having held back. By the time we ate dinner, we were sitting in the dark. I think we had stewed chicken with sweep potatoes and rice and cabbage salad. Similar to other meals we have had, but hard to tell in the dark. The conversation was lively as everyone talked about their travels and Kingsley and Brad regaled us with stories of their adventures. The group is very compatible, considering we are all from very different paths in life. Again we turned in by 8:30. I think the heat is wearing us all down.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018.

The night was so warm that we did not use our blankets. This is certainly the warmest night we have experienced. We heard crocodiles, hyenas, lions and baboons carrying on in the dark, but felt safe and secure inside our mosquito net tents. Although we were told we could sleep in, everyone was up by 5:30. By 7am everyone had had breakfast and was in the vehicles ready to had out. Off we went. Too hot to linger. We did stop to watch a herd of buffalo walk to the river’s edge and take long drinks. We’d all have loved to get in the water with them. After 2 hours we arrived at the Park headquarters, where there were three male elephant being watered by the camp staff. We sat in the shade of the park manager’s veranda and leisurely took photos of the elephants sucking up water from a hose. One more lone elephant crossed our path as we left HQ and headed for Camp Nomad. Given that I had been told we would see a large concentration of elephants, I could have been disappointed in our overall elephant experience. However, elephants are so wonderful to watch, we just enjoyed the ones we saw.

Finally, we drove into Camp Nomad about 11am, went straight to our tent and took a shower, undoubtedly not our only one for the day. Our Camp home feels down right luxurious after the “fly” tent experience.  Nevertheless, within minutes we were hot and sticky again. In spite of the heat, everyone gathered for lunch and enjoyed a lively conversation about Kingsley Holgate’s eye glass project called “Right to Sight”. So far his foundation has provided 142,000 readers to people all over the continent. He believes that 90% of the population that have eyesight problems, could be helped significantly just with readers. He hopes to continue delivering reading glasses to every village he passes through. While he was at first a South African adventurer who planed and executed expeditions for fun and exploration, he gradually incorporated humanitarianism into his projects. Today, all his expeditions have a humanitarian purpose. Adventure is a happy by product.

I, as well as many others, am captivated by his personality, his behavior and his dreams and goals. It is no wonder he has become a household name in Africa. Early in our week together, he told us a story about 7 pebbles. He heard a fifty year old man questioning what to do with his life. So, he picked up 7 pebbles and showed them to the man. He threw 5 of them away, because they represented years already spent. Then he threw the seventh one away, as it represented the uncertain future of old age. Finally, he handed the man the last pebble and told him to use it wisely as it is the only pebble he will have.

Brad Hansen, our safari guide, is, on the other hand, the man of the hour. He is the keeper of the program, the master of coordination and timing. He manages to make people believe they are happy and having a wonderful time, even when they are super hot and don’t quite sure how they feel. He is knowledgeable about all the animals, birds and plants and why things do what they do. Highly educated in guiding, he is also excellent at people management. And to top it off, he has a super sense of humor, not unlike Kingsley’s.

Now we are sitting one last afternoon in front of our Camp Nomad tent in Zakouma National Park. Even has hot as it is, we have thoroughly enjoyed the experience: especially the quelea displays every morning and afternoon, the stampeding elephants with their babies in tow; the multitudes of Black, crowned Cranes flying overhead; the savannah buffalo marching through the wet pan with the leader chasing a lion away; gatherings, called Towers, of Kordofan giraffe posing for our cameras; and the many beautiful birds such as the Carmine Bee-eater, the Abyssinian Roller, the Little Bee-eater, the Grey-headed Kingfisher and many more. We have been the only tourists in the park this whole week and have really loved having the place to ourselves.

There is one last game drive this afternoon and we have decided to pass it up. Instead we relaxed and watched another Quelea show from our patio and listened to the cacophony of birds in the late afternoon sun. With the setting sun, their tune changed. The squawks grew louder. They lifted off and flew toward night time roosts. Shortly the sky was dark and quiet.

Our starlit evening dinner was a farewell BBQ of lamb, beef and chicken. It was the best meal of the week. We lingered a long while taking in the night sounds of lions, baboons and hyenas and listening to Brad tell us about all of Orion’s stars, including those in his Belt. With a laser pointer, we did not have to guess which star he was waxing on about. Soon we were getting quiet and sleep beckoned. The breathless air was still very warm. We laid on top with no covers and hoped for blissful sleep…….which came in fits and spurts as we took turns visiting the bathroom.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Up early, packed and ready to go. The heat has finally gotten the better of us all. Breakfast and a group photo over, we said goodbye to the staff and drove to the Park HQ to wait in the shade for the plane to arrive. Then we said our final goodbyes to Brad and Kingsley, climbed aboard and flew east. Thankfully, Peptol Bismal got us through the morning and the flight back to N’Djamena (pronounced N Jam een a).

We are now in the lovely air conditioned Hilton Hotel, have had a good lunch and a swim in the cool pool. Now I am hoping to get this post off and some photos with it.  Am sorry not to be able to add more photos.  It takes a very long time to download each image and i am now too tired to think clearly.  So here it is, ready or not.

Next post will come from somewhere in Cameroon, I hope.  If not, it will come when I have decent wifi.   Good night.