The End of Matt's Epic Visit

I forgot to write this in an earlier post: One night while Matt was visiting and we were hanging out at Innisfree we heard mob noises. Really loud mob noises. And we thought it was the end of the world and that we were all going to get slaughtered. Actually, what it was, was that some thieves had broken in Vegas dorms at UB and stolen a laptop. The girl who ownered the laptop saw the thief and shouted after him, thus alerting the rest of the student body. People here hate thieves, and so they went after him so beat the shit out of him and teach him a lesson. The thief got in his car and drive to one of the gates, but it was locked. The mob was catching up with him and, fearing for his life, the security guards gave him sanctuary in their office. The mob was MAD when they were denied their prey, so they threw rocks and then moved on to lighting his car on fire. The police were called and they failed to disperse the mob, so then a special services team was called. They shot rubber bullets and this failed. Finally, tear gas was able to clear up the angry students and the thief was hauled off to jail. End of story.

Back to Matt's visit: We booked a night drive and a stay in one of the chalet's at Mokolodi. The night drive was refreshing and relaxing; it was not as cold as when I went with Mom back in September. We didn't see a whole lot, but what we did see made us happy. This included a black house cat (feral, no doub) streaking off into the bushes. Our guide dropped us off at the chalet around 9 pm when it was quite dark. Our place was called 'Hartbeest' and included a main room with sleeping room for three, a bathroom with a shower, and a fully equipped kitchen. Outside was a porch and braai area. We knew we were somewhere near the water hole, and we could hear something splashing around, but we had no idea how near or which water hole it was. You see, one of them contains crocodiles and hippos and one doesn't. Matt immediately set about gathering sticks and grasses to make a fire. It was a little nervewracking to watch him disapear into the dark. There are leopards wandering around, after all. We had a nice, if short lived, fire. Then we went inside and watched Jurassic Park until we fell asleep. It had been a long day. At one point I woke up and went to get some water from the bathroom and discovered a frog! I got so excited I dragged Matt out of bed to see and he did, but didn't seem at all excited about it. In the morning I learned that he was asleep the whole time it was happening, haha. Anyway, we both woke up early in the morning in order to enjoy the African sunrise. We had asked the game drivers to pick us up at 8 am so that I could get to campus and make a poster presentation for my archeology class. With this in mine we set off to enjoy our short time in the great outdoors to the fullest. The water hole (the one without crocodiles and hippos) was RIGHT IN FRONT OF US and we saw some hornbills, some catfish, and some warthogs right off the bat. The water was low, so we walked around it a bit. It was getting on 8, but no one had appeared to pick us up. Meanwhile the wildlife started to get more interesting. Impala came and went and a giraffe lumbered in the distance. Still no vehicle. Matt began to wander around with my cell phone looking for reception. Zebras and wildebeest appeared! Kudu! Dung beetles! I was simultaneously upset to miss my project, which was 40% of my grade, but also excited to see so many animals. Finally we managed to get enough reception to send a help! message to Batsi. Then the giraffe showed up. It was thirsty. We totally watched it awkwardly bend down to drink, just like on National Geographic, awwwwyyeeeaaahhhh. Then a truck finally did arrive (an hour late) and we headed back to civilization. Matt and I spent a pleasant morning and afternoon together and then he caught his plane home.