July 21. "Baboons to the left of me, baboons to the right of me..."

Our second day at Mole we got up early (although not in comparison to the day before) and did a walking safari at 6:30. It was a small group of four – me, Genee, and a Flemish couple we befriended the day before. The walk was about three hours in total, and we saw basically everything we did the previous day, although this time we came upon the elephants at a large watering hole. We stayed there just watching them splash around for about a half hour. As we were leaving we caught sight of a crocodile, but he wasn’t up for trying to chomp on an elephant and was giving them a wide birth.

In the afternoon we lounged around the motel’s pool and watched as the baboons launched periodic raids on the dining area, at one point even entering the kitchen. One particularly bold baboon ran over to a table and stole a bottle of salad dressing, then screwed off the lid and sat on a concrete block and licked out the dressing. When he’d apparently got all he could by this method he poured some out and licked it up off the concrete. All in all I’d say the guests were probably only slightly more amused than frightened by the baboon attacks.