What typically makes up for most of the amazement out in the plains of Africa are the animals. They are big, fast, and just straight up gorgeous. Even if not many people would admit to this, what we’re all really hoping for while immersed in the wild are those close encounters, those “I know I was safe but I definitely stopped breathing for a good 3 minutes” type of unforgettable moments. And I, for one, am most definitely not an exception! It just so happens that today and ‘my favorite event’ are two of the same specifically because of those hair-raising moments, 2 of them to be exact!
First thing this morning, 6:45 AM, I whisper-scream for Lenka to wake up: there is FINALLY something outside our tent! After a few minutes of crawling on our tent floor we see him… a magnificent elephant, shaking trees, walking around a few meters away on the other side of the fence! The sheer size of him is mind boggling!
Skip a few hours of hard work, to approximately 9:00 PM. We are on our last night game drive, and the scenery itself is breathtaking. The Milky Way shines like i’ve never seen it before in my small 21 years of life…
Then they appear: 2 sub-adult female lions, lazily rolling around in the grass. Just when you think this day couldn’t get any better, nature proves you wrong once more and the girls start roaring out in the open. Its both impressive and emotional, if that makes any sense!
I hope you all got to imagine a little bit of my heaven, and get to experience it one day!
-Nikki
Anybody who knows me knows that I am a huge nerd and that I love learning. I can honestly say that yes, everything Nikki said was also the highlight of my trip but so was the constant learning. I loved learning something new every single day and the fact that even by our last day here, I am still seeing new plants and animals amazed me!! This trip was nowhere near a vacation and even though it was a lot of work and some days were rough, it was AMAZING!! On top of our classroom, out of classroom and field research/learning, we also got to do our own individual projects. I personally chose a topic I knew very little about, bats, because I was very curious to increase my understanding and really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more from people (such as Dan) who are very knowledgeable in this area of research. I have learned some amazing new things, broadened areas that I already had knowledge in and all the while laughing, smiling and having fun.
BEST TRIP EVER 🙂 (and that’s coming from a travel bug)
Lenka
*Our nice and warm 8am lectures (we even had hot water bottles some days)
Wow! that was amazing having an elephant right outside your tent. Then two lions later on. You are all going to not want to leave when the time comes. Very exciting times.