Nkhota kota: Game Reserve

The third day in Nkhota kota Fr. Paul arrainged for us to visit a game reserve nearby. Normally there is a charge to enter the game reserve especially for white people with money, but Fr. Paul convinced them to wave the fee because we were teachers visiting the reserve for the purpose of educational training. We went to the Parks Department Office and waited for our guide who eventually showed up in a green uniform, barret, and machine gun. If I knew anything about machine guns, I could tell you what kind it was, impressing others who don't know about machine guns and not impressing those who do, but as it is I don't so I'll leave it at just a machine gun. We drove out into the bush for about a half an hour and eventually into a wooded area arriving at a ranger site (I guess) near a river. Along the way we saw several small blue canvas enclosures that our guide explained were traps for the Tse Tse fly. Later I saw one up close and inside it was just a net with a small opening on top. I was skeptical as to why the flies would enter it or how affective it would be in trapping them inside. Before I realized what I was doing, I was curled up in the trap and unable to figure out how to get out, so I guess they might work well enough on a fly. The guide led us single file through a "path" of grass that was well over our heads. Occasionally we would cross another path of beaten down grass that was made by elephants. While that was interesting it got even better when we came across a pile of elephant poo. Although we thought we might be close we didn't actually see an elephant...yet. We did see some elephant tracks where they came down to the river along with waterbuck, hyena, and lion tracks. The first sighting of an actually animal was of some monkies hanging out in the trees on the other side of the river. There were also some close encounters with fire ants that found there way into my shirt. We were eating our lunch back at the Ranger camp when our guide spotted four elephants down by the river getting water. Sure they were really far away, but they were Elephants and they were in Africa so that is a victory in book.