Natasha and Scott Davis spent the first night of their honeymoon sleeping on a mat in a South African hut, with a floor made from elephant dung to keep creepy crawlers away.

        They wouldn't have changed a thing, though. It was all part of their dream — a 14-day, three country African safari.

        Natasha, 26, is a third-year law student at the University of Cincinnati and an intern with the Cincinnati Economic Development Department. Scott, 24, is a civil engineer and project estimator for Messer Construction. The Clifton couple, married July 21 in Cape Town, South Africa, and was featured Feb. 14 in the Enquirer as one of five Tristate couples planning their 2000 wedding.

        They got engaged Dec. 30 in West Africa, Mauritania, where Scott was a Peace Corps volunteer. They decided to marry in South Africa because Natasha interned there this past summer for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Pretoria.

        Their safari honeymoon started in South Africa and continued to Zimbabwe and Botswana. Their first night in the African village of Shanghaan in Mpumalanga, South Africa, was awesome, Natasha says.

        “They showed us how women made corn meal. We sang by the campfire. We had traditional African beer, which was disgusting. It tasted like dirt and water. The next day was my birthday, and Scott told the village chief. The people sang happy birthday.”

        In Zimbabwe, they took a two-hour elephant ride. She was impressed by the handlers' respect for the animals, who are allowed to roam. “Some come back, and some don't,” she says. “They usually do because of the food.”

        At Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the couple took a break from the safari to stay a couple days at a luxury hotel. “That place (Victoria Falls) is just beautiful. We took a helicopter ride over the falls. It's just this feeling of peace. We had enough luxury to cover the next week of the safari,” Natasha says.

        It was a good thing, too, for their next stop — Botswana — was the most primitive leg of the trip. “There was no electricity and no running water. We had to bring our own tents. We had to burn our toilet paper because they didn't want animals to eat it and get sick. We couldn't use soap because they didn't want to poison the fish.”

        Scott tells her he could live in Pretoria, but she'll be satisfied with occasional visits to Africa.

        “My home is here in the United States,” she says. “The more I travel, the more I know that.”

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