Stories from the Bush

Do you know how to tell apart zebras? Look under their tails: Girls wear black bloomers and boys black g-strings.

So, I am sure we spiked your interest with the title of the previous post. Sadly, we, nor anyone else from the group, have pictures of the event. I think we were all a bit shell shock that we did it  to whip out the cameras. As you may or may not know, dung from herbivores is completely benign since it is just grasses. The local children (and I should add adults) use it as game pieces for various activities.  On our last morning our guide, Enok, decided that we should all participate in one of these local games before we left the bush. It’s very simple. One person draws two lines in the dirt, about 7 feet or so apart. (This isn’t an exact science.) Everyone stands behind one of the lines and is given two pieces of dung. The goal of the game is two fold: to spit your dung pieces over the second line and try to spit your piece farther than anyone else. Sadly, neither of us won, we were all put to shame by our British guide, Phil. So now you have our story of dung spitting. Exciting, wasn’t it?

The other real highlight was staying in the tree house for a night next to camp. All of camp is an unfenced location so you do have wildlife that meander through. It is common to wake up with hyena tracks throughout camp, (we did every morning) and possibly lions as well. They like to tell a story of elephants drinking from their dipping pool during the day. The tree house is set apart from camp perhaps by 300 meters or so. After dinner, they have to drive you to it because walking that far in the dark is ‘just enough space to get eaten.’ The tree house is two stories up in the sky, spread between two actual trees, with just canvas flaps creating the 4 walls.  As James mentioned, I woke up in the middle of the night hearing lions. (Evidently, I’m still in the dog house a bit since I didn’t wake him up to hear it.) We both heard jackals early in the morning before we left.

All in all, the safari was amazing. The place, the animals, the people created an absolute unforgettable experience for us.

Our time in Swaziland is flying by. James will put up a post later about what we’ve been busy doing here.