This Trip is NOT for the Faint of Heart!

Now, don't get me wrong--it's amazing--no doubt! But, it's not for the faint of heart--that's for sure. Let me explain. 

This might sum in up:

Yep, almost 47,000 steps--nearly 20 miles on our first day! But, surprise, that's not walking! It's bouncing around in our safari vehicle! There's so much to see and they want to make sure you see it all. But, the roads are not very good and the drives are long--Africa is a big country and so are the national parks! The drivers fly along the bumpy roads--often we would go airborne--no lie! 

Although we traveled many more miles than 20, my Fitbit registered that I walked this many due to the bumping and bouncing around. If you have any body aches and pains, this definitely exacerbates them. Butch and I are doing fine, but some of the other "seniors" in the group are complaining about their backs and necks. I feel for them. For me, it's my "rear end" that's a little tender--nothing that would hold me back! I don't have the padding there that I used to! Still, it doesn't bother me. They have an extra cushion on the seats that you can also stand on when we come to a stop. The sights are just unbelievable--so hard to describe. The animals are not afraid--or at least most of them aren't. 

I stopped taking pictures because the whole family is. So, I don't have a picture yet of the "rock python" we saw yesterday. Our driver said it is rare to see one--it's the second largest snake in the world. The only reason we saw it was because it had just eaten something huge and was digesting. Apparently they can't or don't move during this process. We don't know what it was he ate, but the bulge was as big around as a human! Our driver said he could eat two!

We lucked out--again--with such a small group. There were only 13 on the tour and 7 of them were US! One gal left on Sunday, so we're down to 12. We convinced our driver to let us have our own car rather than one person having to go in the other car. It's a little tight, but so fun. The other people are really nice, but I'm sure they are loving having their car to themselves too.

The accommodations are first rate--rustic, but very nice. I'm out of time right now but will come back to this post later and add to it.

Every camp greeted us with fresh juice and warm, moist towels to wash our hands. That was a nice touch. 

This was the first place we stayed--where they put the hot water bottles in our bed at night. None of these places have heat or air conditioning. The water bottles was all we needed.

This was the second camp. It was a luxury tent on stilts! This is the place where the monkeys almost overwhelmed me.

Camp #3--I'm only showing you our rooms. All of the places were so nice. I took plenty of pictures of the scenery and buildings, but it would be too much for this post. 

This was our last place and the nicest of them all. You walked in to a large living area with a tv--the first place to have that. Of course, Butch got excited too quickly. There were only 2 channels. He was watching what he thought was a soccer (football) game (couldn't find any golf) only to discover that it was some soccer highlights channel.

I have to share just a couple of floral pictures--there weren't that many flowers on our game drives. The ones I took were mostly in the camps which were lush and beautiful. But, I just had to share this one. 

This one greeted us at the entrance to our final camp. If you look close you can see it in the picture above.

It's a "bottle brush" tree--I cannot even begin to pronounce--much less spell--what they called it. I know I've seen it in the US too, it's stunning!

Every room along the way had mosquito netting. We didn't really have problems with mosquitos. All of the views are spectacular. This "resort" is in the midst of a coffee plantation. They grow 75% of everything they serve here. All camps had pools, but this is the only place where we had time to enjoy that. They keep you pretty busy--starting after breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and going untll 5-ish.

This camp greeted us with an outdoor lunch--which is what I think of when I think of Africa. Fancy!

They serve family style--with bowl after bowl of food on the table to pass. Before you can even ask for more, they replenish them. The first round was enough for us. Meals took quite awhile. We Americans are used to eating quickly and on to the next thing. We felt like we spent a lot of time eating!

You know how much I love a cloth tablecloth!!!

Later...