in wild places!

What is the craziest or funniest or the most amazing place you spent the night(s)?

As you can probably relate from the heading photograph, I treasure fond and deep memories of sleeping in veritable wilderness surrounded by nature’s sound – which can also be absolute stillness – watching the sun go down and rising over breathtakingly vast and wonderful landscapes sharing the outdoor lounge with wildlife of all kinds and sizes such as spiders, mosquitos, birds, baboons, crocodiles, kangaroos, lions, elephants…

Pure abundance.

South Australia

Botswana

South Australia

Western Australia

Botswana

Trees are most welcome natural sunshades in these during the day often hot climates of the Southern Hemisphere.

Sometimes, though, you park and pitch your tent directly under the cupboard with the goodies. That is when you chose a camel-thorn tree full of seedpods, which are commonly known as the elephant’s chocolate :0).

Camel-thorn tree full of seedpods

Pods and seeds of Acacia erioloba

A herd of elephants kept us awake for more than an hour while pretty silently eating this tree’s chocolate bars. They were right beside and around our car and we could watch them from the relative safety of our rooftop tent, but we had to be absolutely quiet and were not to move in order not to upset or in any way disturb them. Their back was about at the height of our tent…

Until today, I am fascinated how our instinct woke us both up at the same time as soon as the herd – a possible danger just because of the African Elephant’s size and power – arrived and how adrenaline kept us awake for the time being of their dinner. You must know that elephants, even though they weigh several tons, are very silent and walk so softly you will hardly hear them. So their sounds won’t wake you up, it is definitely our deep intuition for survival that does.

Their footprints is what we found the next morning and our hearts remain filled with gratitude and delight for this unique experience and encounter for the rest of our lives.

Did I say wild sunrise?

Or wild sunset? Well, ….

I hope you get good night sleeps with sweet dreams wherever your favourite bedroom is.