Monday, August 22, 2005
Mole National Park, Ghana
Tuuli was given the thankless task of fighting the baboons. For the past hour, they had been trying to raid our tents, set on a grassy plain above a large watering hole where elephants, kob, waterbuck, warthogs and duikers could regularly be seen lazily wandering around. An alpha male crawled at one point under the fly tarp of my tent and bit a whole near the entrance. Earlier in the day, another charged and stole our fish off the table we were sitting at, despite Nates own demonstrations of masculinity. These wretched beasts could no longer be trusted. With a handful of rocks and a few large sticks, I fought off their haphazard advances before turning over the projectiles to Tuuli. I was hungry and in desperate need for some good local chop. Tuuli is strong, but the primates nearly did her in. A thrown chair and twisted foot later (they charged from a number of directions), the baboons were scared off by a stray elephant. The elephant fortunately decided our tents and car were unpalatable before making its way to the observation post, where it lunched on a young girl's bikini. Wardens with rifles watched helplessly and shouted to stay back. A handful of tourists took photos. I did a headstand. There was nothing we could do for a place like this. We left early the next day.
Tuuli was given the thankless task of fighting the baboons. For the past hour, they had been trying to raid our tents, set on a grassy plain above a large watering hole where elephants, kob, waterbuck, warthogs and duikers could regularly be seen lazily wandering around. An alpha male crawled at one point under the fly tarp of my tent and bit a whole near the entrance. Earlier in the day, another charged and stole our fish off the table we were sitting at, despite Nates own demonstrations of masculinity. These wretched beasts could no longer be trusted. With a handful of rocks and a few large sticks, I fought off their haphazard advances before turning over the projectiles to Tuuli. I was hungry and in desperate need for some good local chop. Tuuli is strong, but the primates nearly did her in. A thrown chair and twisted foot later (they charged from a number of directions), the baboons were scared off by a stray elephant. The elephant fortunately decided our tents and car were unpalatable before making its way to the observation post, where it lunched on a young girl's bikini. Wardens with rifles watched helplessly and shouted to stay back. A handful of tourists took photos. I did a headstand. There was nothing we could do for a place like this. We left early the next day.
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