Monday, June 25, 2018

BREAKING NEWS! Baboons ransack my room!!!

We were in this really nice lodge in the heart of Namibia, and enjoying the stay. I decided to take some photos to share this typical African lodge with all of you. All started out just fine.



These are typical lodges that we stay on when we are on safari. They are really nice fabric-walled structures that are very comfortable.


This was the view from my deck, overlooking the plains.


And here is a view of my room (the way that it is supposed to look).


Even the view from inside was really nice.


The bathroom area...


...and the shower (with better water pressure than any of our homes).

I have been to Africa numerous times before and never had any trouble in the past. But this time I was in for a surprise.



The lodge has these signs in every room, but I didn't think much of them at the time.

We were out photographing the sand dunes in Sossusvlei for the later part of the afternoon and until about 7:30pm. Those were the photos that I posted in the last blog. We arrived back at the lodge to have dinner and settle in for the night. Upon our arrival, the hotel staff asked us who was in bungalow 23 and 24. That would be Conrad (one of our guests) and myself. They informed us that our rooms had been broken into by a group of baboons.


These baboons can be a real pain in the butt here in Africa, as they scavenge for food and other goodies.


I was laughing as the lodge employee walked me to my room to survey the damage. They told me that the baboons like to mark their territory by going to the bathroom in the rooms. I knew that they would switch me to another room, but was just hoping that they did not mark my clothing, suitcase and other stuff. (I had my camera gear and laptop with me out in the field.) It turns out that they ripped their way into my room and had a heck of a party.


They demolished the bed and left me a little present on the bedding (as you can see to the below).




The baboons definitely left their mark all around the room (and it really smelled bad).


They even pooped in the shower and threw some of that on the walls. How rude!

The good news is that all of my belongings were away from the mess and unscathed. The lodge employees were nice enough to move all my belongings to another room, as we sat up on the main lodge deck and had a couple beers. We just laughed at the whole situation. How often can you say that your room was ransacked by a pack of baboons?

__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.
__________________________________________________________________________

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Just having lived through that experience and being able to share the story makes trips like this so memorable. I'm SO jealous...about the trip in general! (Not so much about the Baboons raid).

Elizabeth Conley said...

The beauty of exploring is experiencing nature at it's best. Love pics and your story!