We woke up at 4:30-5:00 this morning. Breakfast was at 5:30am and our safari truck was leaving at 6:00. We were so excited! Bec came up to our door and jumped making a loud sound which scared the crap out of us. Mitch and Bec we’re staying in a different chalet because they only sleep three. That part was a bummer. But the chalet’s are super cool and spacious, so everyone was perfectly okay with the split.
Anyways, we go to breakfast, eat cereal and toast, and walk out to the car park where we will meet our guide. A Land Rover with tiered seating pulls up and we climb in with our guide, Simon. Two others are with us, Sara and Julian. It was freezing cold and we were all pretty much bundled up. Before we even got into the park, we saw an elephant! We get to the National Park entrance, provide our names and head in. Immediately over a bridge we see an elephant that is eating its breakfast! It was pretty far away, but still awesome!
The drive was four hours and SO FREAKING COOL! Our guide was AMAZING! Simon would do his best to show us everything and get as close as we could while being safe. He even spotted a leopard in a tree, which was cool. I wish the photo was clear enough for you all to see. We saw hippos, TONS of impala, birds, and heaps of elephants! The coolest part of this morning drive was when Simon stopped and pointed out in the distance two lions. They were not with the rest of the pride. Simon explained that these two lions were separating themselves for mating purposes. Apparently, when mating, lions separate themselves from the pride, and mate 3-4 times an hour, every hour, for 24 hours, for a week.
That was a fun fact.
We asked if we could get closer and he took us! It was unbelievable how freaking close to these lions we were. I could not believe it! Most of what we get about lions and wild animals is from movies and television shows, so naturally, in my head, this lion wants to eat me. Definitely not the case. We hung out with the two of them for a bit while they napped and eventually moved on.
That was a fun fact.
We asked if we could get closer and he took us! It was unbelievable how freaking close to these lions we were. I could not believe it! Most of what we get about lions and wild animals is from movies and television shows, so naturally, in my head, this lion wants to eat me. Definitely not the case. We hung out with the two of them for a bit while they napped and eventually moved on.
After that we saw some Zebras and then took a break for tea. We drove and stopped under a tree, surrounded by tons of Impalas and had biscuits, tea, and coffee. Afterwards, we continued on the drive to see more Zebra and hippos. At 10 our morning drive ended and everyone was pretty stoked on the lions we saw.
We headed back to the hostel, Croc Valley, and relaxed for a bit in the hammocks. Everyone had lunch, read, napped, showered, and just took it easy. We ended up by the bar, having some beers and playing Phase 10 with Sarah and Julian. At 3:50 a waiter came and told us we had tea, biscuits, and coffee waiting for us AGAIN in the dining area. We had no idea and our night game ride was leaving at 4:00. Holly and I raced over, grabbed tea for ourselves and biscuits for everyone else, and booked it back to the car park to catch our next ride.
All of us got in the car and headed back to the park, still with Simon! When we got to the park to go in, the guards stopped us stating that the five of us did not pay our park entrance fees. We told them we gave our fees to Mophy, who was suppose to have paid them, so we did not have to stop. The guards already knew who Mophy was. They said they received word that Mophy would bring the park fees at 11:00, but he never did. The guards said they had been trying to call him all day and was not answering. OF COURSE. We were so annoyed but too excited about our drive. We paid the fees and headed in.
Immediately Simon pointed to tree and spotted the same leopard in the same tree, only this time he was eating a baboon! We watched that for a bit. It was intense, listening to the bones break and everything. We drove around for a bit, waiting for the animals to come out and do something. We came across an entire open field of giraffes! It was so beautiful. I cannot even begin to tell you. Giraffes are so timid, so it was hard to get close to any of them without them moving out of the way. It was here we paused for a break and had some juice and popcorn. Yup! I ate popcorn with giraffes! It was unbelievable. The sun was really beginning to set at this point and we jumped back in the cruiser and ended up really close to one particular giraffe! Simon explained that this one male giraffe (you can tell by how dark their spots are) was looking for a female. But this particular female was already is a group with another male. This male giraffe was following them, but avoiding getting too close, for fear of having to fight the other male. The other male was protective of the female and did not want her to get stolen away, so was guarding her and her baby a lot. Because this giraffe did not want to get too close to them, it ended up standing right next to the road we drove on to get to the rest of the park. It was amazing to be that close!
Immediately Simon pointed to tree and spotted the same leopard in the same tree, only this time he was eating a baboon! We watched that for a bit. It was intense, listening to the bones break and everything. We drove around for a bit, waiting for the animals to come out and do something. We came across an entire open field of giraffes! It was so beautiful. I cannot even begin to tell you. Giraffes are so timid, so it was hard to get close to any of them without them moving out of the way. It was here we paused for a break and had some juice and popcorn. Yup! I ate popcorn with giraffes! It was unbelievable. The sun was really beginning to set at this point and we jumped back in the cruiser and ended up really close to one particular giraffe! Simon explained that this one male giraffe (you can tell by how dark their spots are) was looking for a female. But this particular female was already is a group with another male. This male giraffe was following them, but avoiding getting too close, for fear of having to fight the other male. The other male was protective of the female and did not want her to get stolen away, so was guarding her and her baby a lot. Because this giraffe did not want to get too close to them, it ended up standing right next to the road we drove on to get to the rest of the park. It was amazing to be that close!
After the giraffes, that is when things started happening and getting intense. It was dark now and we came down a road only to hear and ultimately see, hyenas! There were tons of them in the road and on the side. When the guide used the spotlight to see, we saw that there was a dead hippo. Nothing killed the hippo, it just knew it was going to die and separated itself on its own accord to die. The hyenas found it first. We were watching this when all of the sudden out of nowhere, TWO female lions come out of the bush to scare the hyenas off. Everyone was ecstatic! We were SO close! We were watching the hyenas run off, the female lions fight to take over the hippo. Next thing we know, out in front of us, a hyena bolts across the road followed by this lioness right after him! Right in front of our car! It happened so fast. Everyone then watched the second female claim the hippo.
At this point, I was nervous. We just watched a lion run across the road in front of us, into the shrubs on the left, and EVERYONE in the car was turned to the right looking at the second lion guarding the hippo. I was convinced the first female lion was going to jump out and attack all of us while our backs were turned. She didn’t. But eventually she joined up with the other female and the two of them just laid in the road, in front of where the hippo was. Guarding it, and each other. It was amazing to watch. Again, could not believe how freaking close we were to these lions.
As if the lions and hyenas fighting over a hippo carcass wasn’t cool enough, we then came upon a hyena and a leopard fighting over a warthog carcass. First we saw the hyena, just ripping apart this poor warthog, having dinner. The hyena was very alert and when trying to figure out why, that is when we saw the leopard. Simon explained that was probably happened was the leopard was probably the one to kill the warthog, only to have it stolen by the hyena. Leopards do not travel in any sort of pack or group, so when it comes to fighting for food, they tend to flee rather than fight. This is because if the leopard gets hurt, it’s on its own and has no defenses. That is why it was so easy for the hyena to steal her kill. She wast going to give up though. We followed and watched both of them. We watched the leopard try to sneak back around, only to be chased off again. We watched her sneak back again, only to lay down nearby and watch the hyena eat. As the hyena was done, he took a big portion with him and walked away. When he got about 1,000 feet, the leopard got up and walked over to grab some more of the warthog carcass. Next thing you know, this hyena comes sprinting back towards the leopard and the leopard bolts, holding her share of the warthog. This time the leopard makes it, she gets her bit and gets up in a tree before the hyena can get to her. This made all of us happy. We wanted the leopard to win- it was her kill!
We were SO pumped after this drive. It was truly a once in a life time experience and so fantastic to see in real life! We got back to Croc Valley and had dinner. We ran into the receptionist who had to deal with us and the whole Mophy thing the previous night. We told her what happened and she told us that she talked to Herbert (the guy Mophy said he booked it with) and Herbert said Mophy never booked our stay. AND Mophy had not paid them. AND apparently owes this place a lot of money.
Awesome. We all slightly panicked a bit. Mophy had our money and this place we were staying at was all inclusive. We knew it was going to be expensive if we had to pay. The woman wanted us to talk to her manager to explain what happened. Holly sat down with this guy, who has got to be one of the kindest, most understanding humans in the world. Him and Holly talked for a while and he knew that none of this was our fault. That Mophy had done this to them many a time. He asked what time Mophy was coming to pick us up the next morning. We told him we had no idea (as we hadn’t heard from Mophy). The manager told us to just wake up, have breakfast, and do another morning game drive, on them. For free. He was going to let us have another game drive. All we had to do was pay the park entrance fee. He told Holly he was going to have the police be there in the morning for when Mophy arrived so everyone could talk. This was getting insane. But I cannot begin to explain how hospitable and amazing the employees at Croc Valley were. If you ever find yourself in Zambia, it truly is the place to stay. With a plan for the morning, we all headed to bed. As we walked to our rooms hippos were right outside of our room! Crossing the road between our chalet and Bec and Mitch’s. SO FREAKING COOL.
The Wandering Sandals 