dreams of africa: first night in paradise

i'm in paradise.. slipping under my mosquito net and lying across my bed, it's too hot to even wear a sheet. i'm sleeping in underwear and singlet listening to the slow breathing of the girls all around me. luckily no one snores!! as i drift off, my thoughts fly to home and then swiftly back to camp as i realise the land around us is alive.. night time is a different world and i can hear all sorts of awakened creatures going about their business on the other side of the dirt walls.. there are monkeys moving about in the branches, little creatures bush babies (these sorts of squirrel-sized tiny monkey creatures with huge eyes) screeching to defend their tree spots, foreign bird calls (so different to the ones in australia) and crickets as an ongoing soundtrack. i don't even notice it all fading out as i fall asleep..

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at some point during the night, i'm awoken by an alarm clock. it is the most irritating, foreign sound you could imagine and it breaks the now more-prominent silence around camp. i'm going to kill whoever left that thing on... it's this shrill BEEEEP going off every second or two for a good minute and just as i'm about to struggle out of bed to find the source of the noise, the beeping stops and i hear a flurry of wings near my head and something settling on a branch. and after a moment's pause, it begins again and i realise the culprit is in fact a bird!! funnily enough the sound bothers me less now and it isn't too long before it stops.. i'm out like a light.

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6:30 am and i can hear birds chirping softly. there is a little golden light filtering through the coconut trees and the mosquito net on our windows.. a cow moos in the distance. the first thing i do is reach over and snap a photo from where i'm sleeping - my feelings from yesterday have changed, i can really see myself waking up like this every morning for a while. i slept like a log. the simple mattress and pillow are perfect, the temperature thankfully not too hot and i've even draped a sheet over myself in the early hours of the morning. walking outside i discover quite a few gappers wandering around the grounds and this is where i leave you to trek down to breakfast in my classy snoopy pjs (;