I cannot believe how much we've done and seen

by D. Oliver

Our visit to the local school on Monday morning was awesome. We arrived in time for the student's morning assembly which takes place outside starting around 7:30. There were 4 of us and the students fought with each other, clamouring to hold our hands and bring us to the school. One of the little girls with me was so excited to read her book to me while we walked - an African version of Chicken Little! The school is made up of 3 smaller buildings formed into a horseshoe and the students line up in a single file at their classroom door. They begin marching in a pattern that eventually sees them form one large group with the littlest at the front...all done while singing beautifully. The flag is raised while they sing their national anthem. We visited with the grade 7 class who sang and danced for us before and broke into small groups where each of us had 6-8 students to visit with. I read them a story, they asked a lot of questions, and answered all of ours...and they practiced photobombing. They love having their pictures taken and then viewing them. This school has so much that Boomu doesn't have...WOW!!

In the afternoon we hid in a hide. It was a shipping container built into the ground beside a water hole and had narrow openings so we could watch the animals as they came to drink and bath. We had excellent moments watching baby elephants play slip and slide in the mud.

We arrived at the park gates to return to camp for dinner, but made a quick turn around when we heard that cheetah had been spotted in the shade of some trees by a nearby waterhole. Phetz quickly found them...lying panting with the heat and suffering from what I thought looked like severe indigestion. Half a kilometre away we came across the remains of their snack - a small warthog that was now dinner for the vultures.

The next morning we did a final run before we got the Elephant Express to go to Victoria Falls. We have been so lucky on this safari and we ended with a bang. What would a day be without a visit with lions...once again just finishing a meal. There were 4 lionesses and 7 of their cubs.