I have worked hard most of my life. Why? Because my parents taught me about work ethics and the value of doing what you say you will do. Thanks to my hard work, I benefit from my “why.” I enjoy learning continuously, and one way I learn is by traveling.
I enjoy seeing many different countries and continents. The place I find the most interesting is Africa. It is truly like the wild west must have been years ago. With so much of the wildlife and land preserved by the conservancies on the continent, we can experience so much of the wildlife.
A brilliant podcaster, Adriane Berg, who specializes in travel for the unyoung, interviewed me about my experiences and my future travel plans. In her podcast, The Ageless Traveler, Adriane hosts both travelers and travel companies who talk about traveling adventures. Into Africa with Marla Noel –
Thanks to Flow Travel in Johannesburg, I am heading to Uganda in January. This is my third trip to the Continent of Africa. My first two experiences included South Africa and Kenya. Both trips were different and wonderful, with sights and sounds unique to Africa. In the bush, the sounds of the various birds and animals are sounds I don’t hear in Southern California.
Is it bad to be frightened? I think not if you are relatively safe and don’t do dumb things. In Kenya, we were told not to venture out at night after our guide accompanied us to our tent. We had a whistle and flashlight to let someone know we needed help after we turned in after dinner.
In the Lion Camp, one of the Porini Camps we visited with Gamewatchers, I heard chewing outside the tent at 3 in the morning. The chewing sounded loud from a larger-than-human mouth. Obviously, not an animal trained to chew with its mouth closed. Frustrated with being awake, I listened for a few minutes as my sisters, my traveling buddies, slept soundly. But not for long. The chewing preceded a loud grunt and a nudge to the platform our tent sat on. The tent shook violently, waking my sleeping sisters.
“What was that?” one of them asked as I struggled to find the flashlight and whistle in the dark. It sounded like an angry animal who wanted our tent out of its way.
I fumbled to find the nightstand and the two items we had to summon help. It seemed like hours as I fumbled to find the whistle and flashlight. Would the beast knock over the platform or try to make its way into the tent? By now, we were all wide awake and terrified.
My first thought, we irritated a hippopotamus who wanted to move our tent to get to the river. Here we were, in between the hippo and the water, one thing the guides told us created a life-threatening issue for anyone who did so. Oh no.
When I found the whistle and the flashlight, the animal must have found a way around the tent. We sat in terror but without any more complaints from the upset hippo. We lay awake, holding our breath, waiting for another episode from the animal, impossible to go back to sleep after our harrowing experience. In the morning, we found a large footprint at the base of the steps of the tent platform. Yes the experience got our hearts racing, but I have a feeling we were in no real danger. The experience supported the advice of our travel company to stay in our tents at night and only venture out with one of the camp employees to accompany us.
My advice to anyone looking to travel is to find their way to Africa. It is a long flight, but definitely worth it.
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