Heaven on Earth

Riding in a mokoro (although very hard on your butt after a couple of hours) is my idea of a little piece of heaven, my absolute top choice of anything in the world I could do. The sky is a beautiful shade of blue, the tall grasses along the waterways are brilliant green, the water reflects the sky and is saphire blue. The water channels run through the grasses, and the only sound is from the birds. The man poling the mokoro, Philip, is at the back and there is no noise from poling. There are gentle ripples from the canoe gliding through the water, lilies and lily pads on each side. After a couple of hours we pull into an edge and get out to eat our lunch, on this trip I had ordered an extra packed lunch for our poler. They work the whole day with no water and no food, unless you share your lunch. Last year we shared, this year I brought one for him. You should have seen him eat! He was small in stature, but he put away his lunch (cheese sandwich, piece of chicken, 2 hardboiled eggs, and an apple) plus my eggs and apple, and my husbands eggs. he then took us on a walk through the bush. We walked in the hot midday sun for about an hour each way. The Africans have a way of walking that is a very steady pace, not fast, not slow but you can move for a long time and not get tired. It was hard to get used to, from my fast paced world I wanted him to hurry up, in North America we just want to get to where we are going, without wasting time. Finally I got accustomed to his pace and WOW....you can walk forever like that! He knew the names of all the birds and animals. There was a herd of giraffes that started to run away when they heard us coming. An elephant had come out of the water and was throwing dirt over his back to stop the itch (Philip took us up carefully so as not to alert the elephant) Just an amazing place! I'd go back in a heatbeat.