Day Seven

Up at 6:00 for coffee and juice, chilly game drive but with warm blankets and hot water bottles all is well.  We saw our first white rhino, not named for the color, but the shape of their mouth.  It may have originated from the word "wide" rather than "white" as his upper lips is wide and the black rhino have a pointed lip.

After a gourmet breakfast and siesta we saw the elephants come to the pond to bathe and play.  Throwing mud, splashing, taking a dust bath, and several times getting frisky is you know what I mean.  The main man will have none of this behavior from the teenage boys.  There are 8 adults and several babies.  Everyone is on birth control.

 

 

Last year they had an elephant that wanted to be with the wild herd and was allowed to leave.  He continued to visit the barn and on one of these occasions suddenly killed one of the grooms.  They made the tough decision to put him down.

Elephant back safari is at 4:00 followed by a bush sundowner then, oh my Lord, more food.

I did it!  As Maddie Pat says when she sits on the potty.  The elephant back safari.  They were so much bigger when standing next to them than watching them swimming today.  The safari was fun, and my groom was very bright.  He came with the herd when they were rescued from Zimbabwe during the political strife and has been here since.

Caroline (of course) was on Jubulani, the lead elephant and the one the camp is named after.  We rode for an hour and then had sundowners with appetizers.  We skipped the night drive as my face has taken a beating with all the sun, wind, and cold weather on this trip.  Caroline has found a bunch of special lotions and potions and is taking a hot bath before dinner.  More food yet tonight.

Princess And The Pea

Day Six

We're aware of the typos in our text but we won't take the time to correct.  We're short on time.  Caroline is the engineer of the blog and it's the only thing we have squabbled about.  I can't make her mad or there will be no more posts to come..

The Livingstone airport was crowded and chaotic but we cheated and went thought the last scanner and sat outside by our plane in order to be the first on.  Our camera bags barely fit in the overhead compartments and we want our space.  Many people need deodorant for Christmas!

The two hour drive was interesting since all we saw was poverty looking homes, people carrying their possessions on their head and a cow with a piece of lumber nailed to its rump.  And sadly what we saw probably isn't really their poverty.

Camp Jubulani. OMG. Died and gone to heaven.  The 20 minute chilly drive but with very warm blankets brought us several species that we haven't seen. Duirker, wildebeest, bush babies, steinbok, and a very relaxed serval that was hunting.

The lodge is all you could want, roaring fire, costumed butlers, leather and zebra hide chairs. 12 total in camp.

We crossed a big, swaying suspension bridge to our room.  Lovely, another fire, stone tub, enclosed outdoor steam shower.

Dinner is whenever you want.  We met a beautiful young chef who comes out to tell us about the menu which was as follows to give you an idea about Camp Jubulani:

• spinach and ricotta ravioli stuffed with quail egg served with a mushroom sauce 
• warthog loin served with caramelized apple and celery
• crispy duck leg served with pea puree, fondant potato, baby corn, and molasses jus
• ginger chocolate fondants with ginger foam and banana puree 

All beautifully presented and delicious.

We have met the most interesting, friendly people to make this trip even more special. 

Game drive in the morning. Night night!