August 20, 2006, 8:26 pm
This morning we went for the viewpoint once more to spot some animals and then we had to pack to leave for the campsite in this park. While walking in between the room and the car one of the boxes fell lost its bottom and everything fell on the ground, all the cans and utensils were spread out on the ground.
A bit later, when I was back in the room I heard Ramon scream ‘A monkey is sitting in our car!’ I ran outside and saw the monkey sitting on the passenger’s seat. I ran to the Benz and when it saw me coming it ran away with our bread.
Luckily it was this dirty bread we would give away anyways. We were very relieved it didn’t take the photo camera which was next to the bread on the chair.
A moment later the monkey sat high up in the tree, enjoying its lunch for today, while his friends and family watched him eat all by itself.
Then when Alamata arrived we left for the safari and we spotted loads of animals, like warthogs, bucks, many bird species and monkeys and so on. The tracks were sometimes difficult because of the heavy rains that fall every night.
We passed nice tracks and with the very long and deep pools and swampy terrains. This way we came across the best places in the park. The swampy parts were sometimes very exciting, as the Benz is of course loosing traction in swampy parts. Sometimes Alamata walked through the big pools, to see how deep they were and if there were no big obstacles. Up until now, there were no limitations during this trip because of the rear while drive, The Mercedes just all goes through it, as if it is a tank. We did see some hippo and crocodile tracks, but we didn’t see them in real life here yet. We did see lots of beautiful vegetation.
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| Nice kind of dragonfly |
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| Finding our way through the park |
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| Niokolo Koba National Park, Senegal |
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That night, after a whole day of driving we stayed at Camp de Lion, where we slept in our own tent, on this cosy little place where african workers sat there for research. They were very fond of Ramon and we sat together for some time. Ramon was instructed how to get water from a well, their only water supply. It was a nice night with millions of stars, and fireflies flying around. When we were in our tent, we heard the hyenas howl. We adore Afrika, especially at moments like this.
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| Careful, you don’t want to be a hippo’s meal. |
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| The W123 driving through the tracks |
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| Very friendly staff worker at Camp de Lion |
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| Fun driving in Niokolo Koba National Park, Senegal |
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| Plouging through the pool |
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| Weaver birds inhabit the big palm trees. Hundreds of weaver birds make so much noise, If you’re standing under the tree, you can’t talk to each other. |
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| Impala |
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| Impala |
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| Arrived at Camp de Lion |
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