We arrived at Flatdogs around noon. We checked in at reception where they give you a talk about the animals that roam the area. They tell you these are not tame but are wild animals and should be treated as such. You should have no food in your tent and there is a area attached to the camp managers hut that has shelves to store things on and a refrigerator.
We tried out the platforms. They are built for a smaller tent than the one we have. The stairs seemed a little steep to me and one of the platforms had quite a distance between steps. We set up next to one of the platforms and positioned the picnic table so it was a barrier to the front of our tent. Each of the platform areas and many other areas have a picnic table and a concrete structure with a sink, light, braii pit and a trash can. Very nice.
One of the first animals we saw when we entered Flatdogs was a large baboon sitting on one of the tables checking things out I am sure. We got ready to cook our first meal only to discover the gas canisters we had bought were not the right kind. Rookie move on our part. Next time we will know to bring our stove with us to check out to make sure it has the internal threads. We are reduced to using our oldest stove that will run off any type of fuel. The bad thing about it is it is very noisy when running and so you do not get to enjoy the sounds of the bush!
One of the things we have discovered here is the electricity seems to go off at random times but since we have been here it seems to happen around the early dinner hour (6:00ish). We perservered and had a nice dinner. After dinner Robert was heading to the closest ablution block to us and saw a hippo out in the bush! He came back and used the one on the opposite side.
There are watchmen that wander around the area and you are advised to have them escort you to the restroom, your tent, the dining/bar area. We did that and in the night you are to holler "watchman" and one will hopefully appear to walk you to and from the toilet.
The next morning we got up and fixed coffee and went and sat down on the bluff above the water and enjoyed the hippo pods in the water and birds that were flying about and on land. What a great way to start our official Africa visit as far as I was concerned. As the sun rose higher we decided to eat breakfast. I walked over to get our food out of the kitchen area and found my way blocked by an elephant! I went back and got Robert and we enjoyed watching the elephant graze for awhile before wandering off into the bush.
One of the issues you have to grapple with when you go to Africa is what sort of anti-malarial pills you are going to take or are you going to try some sort of non prescription form of malarials. We have always taken some type of anti- malarial pill. This time we are taking doxycycline. It is a tough choice as this is an antibiotic, can cause you to be sensitive to the sun and some other discomforts. Robert has been feeling badly and he thinks the pills seems to be zapping his energy at this early stage. The bad thing for me is that you should not take your vitamins at the same time so trying to remember to take our vitamins is not going so well.
We did a little birding in the afternoon and then fixed our dinner and retired to the bar for a few drinks and visited with the couple that is running Flatdogs. We had an interesting conversation about the effort being made to try to protect the natural animal corridors that are left in the area. They also discussed the problems the villagers are having with some of the elephants especially roaming through and getting into their maize storage areas. One of the watchmen told us the story of a mother elephant and baby elephant that got into their maize beer and got quite drunk and passed out.
The next morning we woke up and started on our breakfast routine. About 7:15a.m. Robert looked up and out of the bush coming from the reception area wandered a hippo right across the path leading to the ablution block. This is why we wanted to come to this camp! The thing is it looks so calm and peaceful and then something like this or the elephant by the kitchen make you realize you are not alone here.
After breakfast we went back down to the bluff to watch the morning scene on the river and riverbank. This time we brought our spotting scope with us. Traveling on a budget makes you think about what you can do to entertain yourself and not have to go on a game drive every day. The spotting scope was a wise investment for us because we can see a great deal more using it. We were rewarded when we trained it on the bank on the oppposite side of the river. There was a mother hippo and her tiny baby hippo. The baby was about the size of her head. We watched it get up and walk around sticking its nose in indentions made by larger hippos and and then it wandered down to the water and sploosh, in it went! The mother came in behind it and we could see it lift it head up and swim about. We wish it a safe life.
Robert did a great deal of research before we set off on this trip and was in e-mail correspondence with the staff at Flatdogs. They had told him the village of Mfuwe did have stores where you can get supplies and actually have a meat shop as well. We did not provision up as well as we could have. Part of the reason was our journey we were going to be making to get here. I was not sure how well eggs, bread, tomatoes would travel so we did not buy them. Since our provisions were not the best, we were still tired from our journey we decided to order lunch from the restaurant.
The restaurant here at Flatdogs is first class. They have a wide and varied menu and have top notch service. They have several choices for breakfast, a snack menu and a nice full meal menu. The bar is also well stocked and seems to be able to make all sorts of drinks. We ordered take-away food for both lunch and dinner and they had no problem fixing us up!
For the birder, this area has a great deal to offer. In the short time we have been here, without really sitting for hours at a time, have seen over 30 birds we were able to identify. For the more serious birder, they would be able to spot more. We found a spot overlooking a small pond and were rewarded by a variety of birds. Later that afternoon we went back over to our tent area and were entertained by the vervet monkeys. They are quite amusing but you must watch out for them and the baboons as they will grab what they can! I was startled one morning while mixing our milk to look up and see a baboon very close to me. We were able to scare it away after it had grabbed up the coffee and then threw it down. That night the vervet monkeys slept in the trees above our tent.
This evening after we had dinner and were relaxing I looked up and there was a HUGE hippo 40 feet from our tent! We decided our best option was to climb the ladder and sit and watch from atop the platform. It did wander back into the bush somewhere, you never can tell and then Robert looked over his shoulder to see one cross the path between us and the ablution block, restaurant/bar area. What an experience these days have been!
No comments:
Post a Comment