The Big Vacay
Absolutely breathtaking. Amazing. Once in a lifetime experience. There are not enough adjectives and gushing expressions to encapsulate today’s experience. Not even the pictures and videos do it justice. It is something you truly have to experience to understand. Between the hours of 8am-8pm I saw not only breathtaking scenic views from the gorgeous reserves surrounding our lodge and those in the area, I saw Nyalas, Impalas, Giraffes, Zebras, Warthogs, Wilde-beasts, Elephants, Hippos, Rhinos,Water Buffalo, Lions, Leopards, and Cheetahs. It is indeed indescribable and hard to believe. What’s more is that I got to this with my very close family and can only hope we have such adventures together in the future as I make my way across this crazy, beautiful planet.
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The last two days were equally cool as the first. Today we went on another game drive to see a host of large game on the reserve where we are staying at the lodge. It was a bit quiet at first but turned into Giraffe day—we saw tons of them it seemed around every corner and they are so beautiful and statuesque.
The afternoon was also great—we went to a African cat rehabilitation center and saw African Wild Cats, Caracals, Cheetahs and Serval Cats whom are being rehabilitated from various circumstances and then their young being re-introduced back into the wild through various reserves and preserves. The Wild Cats are like large feral cats with the difference being that they have never been domesticated and have a few other defining characteristics. The Caracal cats were feisty and could jump higher than their enclosure fencing to get their food! They remind me of cougars back home. The highlight of the experience was with the Cheetahs, there are two brothers there that had been brought to the center before they had opened their eyes and so are essentially tame and very used to humans. We were all able to pet them and hang out in their enclosure! It was awesome and they were so cute, purring just like my kitty back home, only they had massive unretractable claws… We ended with the Serval cats, and were able to enter an enclosure with like five of them. They are like mini cheetahs and very sweet. There was one, Jane, who likes humans a lot and as I was trying to take a picture of one that was resting up in a tree, Jane walked by and rubbed against my legs! She did that a couple of times and I was also able to pet her. Near the end she found and killed a small bush snake in the enclosure and then the handler came over and played with her and the snake just like you would with a cat at home. Very cool.
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This trip, thus far, has been rewarding in many obvious and unknown ways. I have had time to spend with my dearest Aunt and once again re-connect with nature at its best, something believe it or not, I have been yearning for since I left Colorado. Strange considering my work, but life in Togo is a different type of connection with nature, more ruthless and in your face—there is little sitting back and drinking in, it is more of a battle to survive it. I miss reserved forests and spaces and land that is let be. I realize why this is not a reality in Togo and that the environment takes on an entirely different meaning all together when you rely on it to survive—it is beautiful to breathe again, to dry my skin out from the sweat baths of 14months and once again feel a chill upon my soul.
Yawning green vistas shadowed by blue rolling hills, twisted aged bark and uprooted trees ; some primal being resides in these patchwork lands and the whipping breath of time runs along the songs of birds. But it is the quiet that speaks to me. The simple green, the smell of deep earth—it settles like sediment into my bones and lifts my spirits up into the ceiling of never ending cloud. I cannot see one building on the horizon and if I listen hard enough I hear nothing. The call of the ancestors reaches into my thoughts and hushes the chatter. I am calm now. I am here.
There are animals here. And not just the ones that people come from all over the world to see. There is a healthy ecosystem, something that has become foreign to me. It reminds me of reminding times. It is going to be infinitely difficult to return home—that home being a bereft land of scorched grasses and cracked earth. Of pleading people donning the shroud of apathy. I know I want to return and part of me misses much of my little spot of Africa, but I miss home also. The real home. I miss the small comforts, I miss the mountains and being able to explore without social repercussion. I want to smell the mountains again, to shovel snow and wear a parka. I know that the next year will be fulfilling beyond my current knowledge but I know this is not my place in the world of things. I am still looking to find that niche but I know in my blood that it must be found amongst the land and nature.
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This morning was yes, yet again, amazing. We went to an elephant preserve and participated in an elephant ‘interaction’ program. The preserve has two elephants around 25yrs old Rachael and Rambo whom were spared as calves from a culling in a reserve in Namibia. Because they were initially, from a young age, accustomed to interacting with humans they began causing issues at subsequent reserves until they were brought to the one we visited this morning where they are allowed plenty of interaction with humans—whom they have identified as part of their ‘family’ due to their experiences as impressionable calves etc. They recently had a calf of their own named Jubilano (the last of four that has survived due to the lack of a herd to show Rachael how to care for her young) and they were a real treat. So they are indeed still wild elephants that live on their own accord on the reserve but due to their special circumstances they are not accepted into the other herd of 80 elephants on the preserve and also provided with daily human interaction. We were able to feed them, stroke them—feel their legs, tusks, behind their ears and I even got to stick my hand in the bull’s mouth and touch his tongue! The baby was very playful but we were instructed not to interact back with him because they are wanting to attempt to integrate him into the herd so that he has a chance at a normal Elephant life. It was beautiful and soul stirring to get so close to these wise and gentle giants.
The guide today with the Elephants was really nice. She is originally from Sweden but decided she wanted to live in South Africa as a young girl and lived for a year in the bush to learn and become a wildlife guide. She and I talked about what I was up to and how she wanted to visit West Africa. I just thought it was another nice reminder of how you can make something happen for yourself if you want it badly enough.