Elephant in camp, run for your life!!!!

I'm a bit behind with my trip journals so i will write 3 separate accounts of what's been going on in my life the past week or so. We have been on the road and busy with activities...thus no journal entries...but believe me, I have lots to share with you. So, be sure to check all 3 entries.\r

\r

We had no problem leaving Malawi. We went through the border with little hold up. Getting into Zambia was another story. First, another group arrived and their tour guide was not the happiest of campers or the most organized. obviously, he didn't get his masters degree in tourism management. hee. anyways, we had to wait an hour for that group to complete their paperwork and get their the border. the rate for americans had been $40 but it had just gone up to $100. yikes. there were 8 americans in that group. the paperwork too forever and the guide was called back 3 times...and had to pay more money. So, by the time our group got up to the counter, the immiagration officer was pretty much pissed off. guerba (my travel group) had a group visa which meant none of us would have to pay. well, the names of that some of us filled out on the guerba paperwork was the passport name so we had 2 dutch folks who were held up. eventully, one of them had to pay $25 to get into zambia. in all, we were at the border for 3 hours. yikes. this should have given us some indication that the A in zambia stood for adventure.\r

\r

we then stayed in a small town just past the border. nice campsite with hot showers, flush toilets and best of all, tv with satellite. when we arrived at the campsite, we all ate lunch, set up camp, took showers and then hit the bar. for the first time in a month, i was able to watch bbc and cnn and catch up on world news. the only news about america was that pres bush would not set a timetable to remove troops from iraq. that night, reinet and i watche the movie, 'cold creek manor.' good movie..but scary to walk back to our tents at night without our torches (oops, flashlights).\r

\r

the next day, we had a L-O-N-G 4 hour ride on a bumpy, dusty dirt road. the dust was killing my contacts. talk about fanny fatigue....bumping up and down for 4 hours. we arrived at south laguana park. this is 9,400 sq. km national park that is a hidden secret of zambia. most people don't want to endure the bumpy road so it's not as crowded as seregenti np. as soon as we arrived, the owner spoke to us about the dangers of the campsite. he warned that elephants, lions, hippos, baboons, etc could and would come into camp and if that happened, please put some kind of barrier between you and the animal. \r

\r

after lunch, we had free time. took a nice hot shower and then grabbed a mosi beer and sat out by the pool reading, talking and watching the hippos wallow int eh river below the campsite. baboon were wandering all around camp. so far, this has been my favorite campsite. it was so neat. that night, we chilled out in the bar and watched tv and chatted. we tried some maize (corn beer). yuck...it was worse than that banana beer. this people will make beer out of anything.\r

\r

the next morning, we had to get up at 5:30 a.m. for breakfast and leave at 6:00 a.m. for our morning game drive. we always sit in our camp stools in a semi-circle facing the truck. we were eating bananas, biscuits (cookies) and drinking tea. at 5:50 a.m., chris (our guide) was telling us to get ready to meet the land rovers for our game drive when suddenly his eyes were huge and he screamed, elephant, run! we turned around and this massive elephant had walked into our campsite and was 10 feet behind us. how can an elephant walk into camp and no one know it? well, we grabbed our daypacks and mayhem begin. talk about 17 people heading every which direction. some went behind the truck, some in the truck, some behind a tree and some behind the trash bin/water faucet. Lloyd and I both ran for the truck. we argued over who should enter the truck first. by this time, the elephant was at the table which sits in front of the truck. lloyd yelled, go and i scrambled up 3 steps...maybe i only hit one of them, who knows. just as lloyd and i got into the truck, the elephant inhaled the banans and the biscuits. he then picked up the remaining maize beer and consumed it. i hope i got some good photos. we had no idea where everyone else had gone at this point. the elephant wouldn't live so chris started up the truck and honked the horn, flashed the lights, did anything to scare away the elephant. as he fianlly left, he got one foot hung up in a campstool and he kicked it off...breaking it of course. at this time, teh landrovers came forward to our campsite and the guides got out with guns. we mananged to scare away the elephant long enough for us to get into the landrovers. the elephant then returned and began to scavenger for more food. he used his tusk to pull off the grill of the trash bin and then used his trunk to inhale all of our trash...throwing down the garbage bags. he's obviously done this before. apparently, the elephant and others hung around our campsite for quite some time after we left.\r

\r

\r

the actual game drive was awesome. we had a 2 hour drive and then a 2 hour walk among the wildlife. unlike in sergetti, we were so much closer to the animals here. also, lots of bush, tall grass and weeds so one never knew when an animal would suddenly appear. it was amazing. \r

we walked so close to elephants, giraffes, etc. we had 2 guides...one who carreid a gun and led the way. it was amazing.\r

\r

that afternoon, we all went swimming in teh pool and chilled out...reading and chatting. it was so relaxing. we couldn't quit laughing about eth elephant in our campsite.\r

\r

that night, we went out for a 4 night safari. again, amazing as we saw so many animals. the first 2 hours were in teh daylight. we then watched an amazing sunset. finaly, we had to use spotlight to go on the safari the last 2 hours. driving on narrow dirt p athss among tall weeds was interesting. one really had no idea when wildlife would appear. \r

\r

that night, some of us slept on platforms that were about 15 feet off the ground in a tree. there were no sides to the platform. the biggest fear to me was that i'd roll off the side in the night while others worreid about eth hyennas and baboons coming to get us. we strung up mosquito nets so we wouldn't be chewed up during the night. isle, linda and i had fun up there. we thought we heard a lot of wildlife noises during the night..way more than w3e heard in serengetti. after the elephant episode, we didn't know what to expect in the middle of the night.\r

\r

the next day, we left south laguana park. by the way, in 1975, there were 100,000 elephants and 4,000 rhinos but due to poaching, there are only 9,000 elephants left and no rhinos. oh yeah, one other amazxing thing was the termite hills. there were 6-8 feet tall or some of them even taller, most of there were based around a tree...exposing all of its roots. \r

\r

as we left south laguang park, we headed back down that bumpy, dusty road. ugh....4 hours. unfortuantely, as we were passing through a small village, a local ran out in front of the truck. he hit the side of the truck and chris slammed on the brakes...but it was too late. we saw him lying on the ground...not moving. by now, teh villagers were gathering around and looking at the boy. chris and charles jumped out of the truck...grabbled the boy and found out that the local hospital was just 1 km away. so much for all of the american red cross training i've had where you support the neck and back, check for airway, breathing and circulation. we quickly took the boy to the hospital and dropped him off. we then had to backtrack for 1 hour on the bumpy road to the police station. then, back to the village and the hospital. fortunately, the boy only had a fractured leg and a cut on his head. chris was not charged with anything as the villagers said the boy defintely ran out in front of the truck. it was a quite somber 3 hours as we went between the hospital, village and police station. we were proud of our guide as he handled it well and we were thankful that the boy wssn't injured any worse. because we lost this extra time, we went back to the same campsite in chipata that night.\r

i didn't mind as i knew we'd have good showers, toilets, bar and i could watch the news again.\r

\r

well, i will close for now as i head back to our campsite. read the next couple of entries to find out about on our adventures in victoria falls. hold on to your seats, because the stories are going to get wilder.\r

\r

adventure on dear friends,\r

\r

julie\r