Wake Up Little Cindy WAKEUP!
Tembe Elephant Park, where we are
staying has the largest number of elephants and the biggest Elephants in
Africa. The park is owned and run by the Tembe Tribe. Within the park is a very
small camp where a few outsiders are allowed to stay. As a guest you are
treated extremely well by the Tembe people. Meals are a pure delight to the
palate prepared by a wonderful South African Chief named Dave. As a guest you
go on two game drives a day. After dinner everyone sits around the camp fire
listening to stories from your Tembe host. The game in the park is amazing but
more on that later.
So, now to the story behind the title
of this blog “Wake Up Little Cindy WAKEUP”!
Game drives are usually at 7am and
3pm daily. The reason is the time in between is extremely hot in the African bush
and since most of the animals take refuge in the tall grass or under a tree,
they are very difficult to spot. During our visit to Tembe, the temp has been
in the high 90* and even though it is dry heat IT’S HOT!!
So, sitting around the camp fire yesterday
evening, it’s decided that we are going to move up our game drive for the
following morning to 4:30am to try and see more game. That’s right 4:30AM!
So, that evening before we turn in
for the night, Roy decides to set our alarm for the morning game drive on our rather
challenging South African cell phone.
Now you would think that sleeping in
the bush would make for crazy dreams. Especially with lions roaring, animal’s
jumping around and crickets chirping. But, I sleep like a “hippo”.
So, after what seemed like only hours
of restful sleep, I am pulled out of my dreamland by Roy singing “Wake Up
Little Cindy Wakeup”. He kindly sets a cup of warm coffee in front of me and
tells me its 4:15am and I have fifteen minutes to get ready and get to the
truck. I lift my tired body out of bed and survey the room for my khakis and
boots.
Although Roy is clearly wide awake he
also appears to be rather confused. I hear him say “what the hell my watch has
stopped”. Then it starts…”maybe my watch was right and the cell phone was
wrong??? but now I changed the watch to match the phone…back to the cell phone
…let’s call Linda she’ll be up…after discussing how to call the USA for a few
stressful minutes it rings…Linda where are you??? darn no answer”. I sip my
coffee. Now Roy’s pacing. He then says he going to the truck to see if anyone
else is there.
I lay my head back onto the pillow. I wait and wait in what seemed to be forever
for Roy to return. I imagined him being devoured by a lion or bitten by a Black
Mamba. Of course, I stay in the safety of our tent. After all, if he’s met such
unfortunate circumstances there’s hardly much I can do now…right?
Moments later Roy walks through the
tent door laughing. He said he waited by the truck and of course there was no
one to be found awake in camp. WHY???
BECAUSE IT WAS 11:30PM!!!
I laughed and called him a dumb ass. As he
chuckled and crawled back into bed, I also thanked him rather sarcastically
for the 11:30PM caffeine buzz!
