We began the day with a game walk, accompanied by Sunshine, a local park warden with a rifle, following our early morning sunrise at 05:30. We weren't joined by Suki, the tame impala who roams the camp who let me touch her nose, despite promises by Paul.
The 285 bhp speedboats took us back to Gwabi Camp in a magnificent 1 hour 45 minutes. It was a heck of a distance we had paddled! There was plenty of hippopotami sightings on our return, some puku antelope, impala, lots of elephant, a couple of crocodiles and a heron. The sun was beating down on us all day long.
Lunch was ready at Gwabi Camp on our return and we enjoyed a nice cold beer watching the butterflies by the pool.
In the afternoon Marshall took us to his village where he was brought up. He introduced us to his cousin and some villagers. The village covers a length of 1 kilometre although the huts are very few and far between. We were blessed with lots of young children following us for the entire walk presenting numerous photograph opportunities. They all willingly smiled at the camera, some posing. They were delightful and I used nearly a whole roll of camera film of these beautiful children. They were so admirable. I felt so exceptionally privileged to be in their company, being welcomed into their village. Marshall encouraged them to sing and dance for us and he led them into song. All of the young joined in and formed a circle around Marshall. It was a wonderful experience and our time there passed so quickly.
It was our first washing day today, although we had some laundry done for us a few days ago at Victoria Falls. Surprisingly we had quite a load including our Tilley hats! Having done a satisfactory job on our clothes Ian threw my clean wet white clothes on the muddy floor. I wasn't impressed. I didn't see the funny side. As I hung the washing out there were monkeys playing in the tree, watching us. Things kept falling from a tree next to the tent through the night. Perhaps there was an association with monkeys...
Today was the first day we saw sunrise through to sunset and it's well worth getting up and staying up for.
I managed to break the speedboat at Gwabi Camp
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.