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Day 4
I slept most of the day. The cottage was so nice that they set me up in. There were kudu and warthogs wandering around just outside my window. I was so happy to be back in South Africa. After such an eventful and crazy beginning to the trip, I was looking forward to some calmness.
I was really worried that I was going to be heading back to the airport for an early return trip home. But, I believe all things happen for a reason and things were starting to look up. It turns out that Frans Troski from Sitatunga Safaris had a concession in Zimbabwe very near where I was hunting before. Frans was also still in Zimbabwe with another hunter but he and John talked for quite some time on the phone about all we had been through, as well as what had happened on my previous trip to Zimbabwe. Frans said he would be returning the following day and would help us figure something out.
After four days on the road of living on granola bars, diet coke and my embarrassing chicken wrap incident, it was heaven to sit down to a home cooked meal. The cook, Fanwell, was a master in the kitchen. He began our dinner with some potato soup that was to die for. It’s funny how a warm bowl of soup can calm the soul. We were also served a beautiful salad, steak, rolls and rice. I’m not kidding, it was heaven.
We all decided to hit the hot tub once again before bed. Claire, John and I, all settled in to the cozy seats of the hot tub. It felt so good to just soak in the heat. We were sharing in some light conversation when I commented about how great the suction was working in the seat next to me. Just then, I noticed something black out of the corner of my eye, floating in the water. It was dark and I couldn’t see very well. Then, I noticed some more black things floating in the water. I managed to grab one of the floaters and I held it high toward the distant light. I carefully examined it trying to figure out what it could possibly be. It felt kind of fuzzy, maybe like some gathered lint. Meanwhile, John climbed out of the hot tub and grabbed his flashlight and began shining it in the water. Maybe a towel or something had fallen in the hot tub? John disgustingly said, “Oh no, it’s a mouse”. WHAT? Sure enough, the suction was working so great in the hot tub, that it had sucked all the fur off the poor little mouse. There it was, a dead, naked, mouse floating with us in the hot tub.
Well of course there was a mouse in the hot tub with us. We had managed to narrowly escape from Zimbabwe, survive running out of gas in the middle of the night on the dark streets of Bulawayo, live through the deathly fumes of rotting meat, stay up for three days and almost die of hunger. Why wouldn’t there be a dead mouse floating the hot tub with us? That only makes sense.
Interestingly enough, John privately commented to Claire later that he had been concerned for my emotional well being when I had first noticed the black floaters in the hot tub. He thought that my fake eyelashes had come off and I would be quite embarrassed to find them in the water! My fake eyelashes? I most definitely don’t have fake eyelashes, but what a great PH to think of the sensitive needs of my heart. There are not many PH’s like that out there. How lucky am I?
Be sure to catch my African adventure on Eye of the Hunter, Thursdays at 2:00 pm EST, on the Versus channel.
Next: Day 5 & 6
