Mikumi National Park, part three

This could be a Kansas sky in June!

Mikumi Day Two, Part 3

Ah, our first night sleeping in a mobile camp in Tanzania. When Paul and I are ready to retire, I discover my pjs are missing and deduce that I must have left them at Hotel Oasis. We checked the room over twice before leaving, so I have no idea how I missed packing them. A borrowed t-shirt from Paul covers me for the rest of the trip! Our tent is pitched with one side slightly uphill, so my cot listed to the left and I felt like I was sliding off the narrow bed all night. I told Paul this morning that tonight he could sleep in the left leaning bed.

The best part of sleeping under canvas is the sound of an African night. We heard the whoop of hyenas, the trumpeting of an elephant and one very loud, annoying call that was repeated over and over, which I attributed to some bird that had its night and day confused. Also intermingled with the creatures calls, were the sound of tent zippers throughout the night as the camp occupants answer the call of nature.

Paul and I add the rasp of our tent zipper to the night’s musical repertoire and follow Brian’s directions before we step out of our tent. First unzip your tent, stick your head out and listen, next shine your torch all around the area (never mind that you are lighting up your neighbors tent) and see if there are any eyes glowing in the dark. If you hear or see anything, step back inside, zip your tent up, and suffer:). If you detect no sign of wild animals, you can leave the tent and take care of business. Once outside make sure you don’t trip over the tent stakes!

Those of us far away from the choo, (the choo consists of a hole in the ground, topped with a wooden stand that has a hole cut in the middle, surrounded by a rubber curtain), have permission to visit the back of our tents instead. I know, more information than you needed. This is fine, but Paul and I can’t get behind our tent due to brush and trees. Instead we will go by the side of our tent and we broker a deal with our neighbors that if we venture out at the same time, we will just turn our backs on each other. Most of us have been in mobile camps before and so we know a person’s modesty disappears in a hurry! For some reason, Paul and I must exit our tent three times during the night, and Paul blames this on the leek soup. I know, go ahead and groan. At least we are on the same schedule and could venture into the darkness together.

After eating a breakfast of eggs, sausage, fresh fruits, cereal, toast and hot tea or coffee, it is time to load up in our designated vehicles to venture forth and see what the morning will bring. It’s eight o’clock before we leave the camp and I admit that I am fretting that we aren’t out viewing game at the crack of dawn. Hey, I am a morning person and daylight is wasting.

Zebra we admired on road out of camp

A small herd of zebra ready themselves for our cameras along the dirt road as we leave the camp. When we reach the busy highway we must drive across to enter Mikumi, there is a trio of giraffe that want to cross the highway to reach the protected area. We drive on the black top road until we are near the giraffe, park on the shoulder of the road to photograph and watch what the graceful, towering creatures will do. The giraffe walk near the edge of the highway, then retreat, and then come back. Finally, the three long-necked beasts seem to think better of walking across the highway and begin to glide back in the direction of our camp. With the giraffe decision to stay put, our driver’s make a U-turn and drive back to the entrance of Mikumi. After we enter the park, we look back to see that indeed the trio of giraffe have safely crossed the road and are striding across the safe ground of Mikumi.

giraffe trio that wanted to cross the highway

This morning we are taking a different route in the National park, and in my mind we are heading north instead of the westerly direction we took yesterday. Of course, my compass, like some peoples clocks, might be reversed since crossing the equator! One of the first animal encounters we have is watching an elephant feint a charge at a lone cape buffalo. The buffalo is facing the elephant and seems to have no fear of him. I think he knew the big bull elephant wasn’t serious. A bit further down the dusty road, we find a herd of elephant with a very young baby in their midst. Hmm, which is more adorable, baby elephant or baby zebra? I won’t even try to choose as I thoroughly enjoy both of the diminutive animals. We see lots of baby elephants before our safari is over and I will admit the little pachyderms prove to be ornery and very playful.

There is a baby elephant in the midst of this parade of elephants

Elephant that mock charged the Cape buffalo

There is no shortage of impalas, and their numbers range from large herds of the bronze antelope, to single males with their impressive spiral horns, standing like statues in the shade of a tree. It is great fun when a herd of impalas run across the road in front of us, leaping high into the air as they perform their own graceful ballet.

I never got a good photo of leaping impalas. This will have to do

Kevin is very patient with his six passengers and is willing to stay in one spot so we can enjoy the behavior of the animals and birds we encounter. Also, Kevin is an avid birder and because this part of Tanzania is unknown to him, some of the birds we are seeing are a first for him too. Kevin also loves to take photos and joins in with his wards when we go into a photo frenzy mode like a bunch of paparazzi. Because of our vehicle lagging behind, Kevin is often trying to catch up with the other two vehicles carrying our fellow safari mates.

This morning is no exception and when we finally catch up with our group, they are sitting next to a dead tree that is standing just a few yards from the road. It doesn’t take us long to spy what has brought their Rovers to a stop. A carcass of a reed buck is hanging among the bare branches of the grey tree, blood still trickling down the small doe’s throat. Wow, we obviously just missed seeing a leopard bring down the unlucky antelope and after killing it, dragging the carcass into the tree. Can you imagine the strength it takes for a leopard to pull dead weight up into a tree!! It sure keeps their kills safe from the likes of lions and hyenas.

The reed buck that a leopard had stashed in the tree

We look everywhere for signs of the leopard. One vehicle drives under a nearby leafed out tree, thinking the leopard took refuge in the cool canopy to rest after the exertion of what took place here a short time ago. We all scan with our binoculars, the expanse of grass that reaches as far as one can see behind the storage tree. Is that something lying in the shorter grass just before the expanse of towering grass starts? I hold my binoculars on the dark spot and swear I see a yellow eye looking back at me. I can’t explain to anyone where I am looking at because it is just an expanse of grass. Brian tries to follow the direction my binoculars are pointed but has no luck in seeing what I think I have seen. There again, I swear I see a slow motion turn of the head and the eye is gone. My arms are getting tired and no one else is having any luck finding my ” leopard”. Again I am sure a yellow eye appears through the leaves of grass before slowly turning away. I know if I lower my binoculars and try to point out where I am looking I will never find the area with my bare eyes. We finally give up and move on down the road with the intent of returning to the stashed carcass on our afternoon drive. Before we leave, I take one last look and am sure “an eye” is staring back at me.

As we move on through the park, there is a tower of giraffe scattered over the plains under a beautiful blue sky filled with puffy, white clouds. I have never seen so many giraffe in one group! Several people decide to count these skyscrapers of the African plains, and settle on thirty-four giraffe. Paul asks Brian what is the largest number of giraffe he has seen on his forays in the African continent, and his reply is twenty-six. Wow, this really is something special.

A few of the 34 giraffe that were together in this area

There is an enormous bull giraffe who is a giant among giants, and his coloring is nearly black compared to the reddish-brown of his companions. This handsome male is paying a lot of attention to one of the smaller females in the herd. It is quite obvious to us, as we observe the males antics, the young female is coming into estrus. We watch as the male sniffs around on the female, or dips his chin towards her back. The cow always walks away when the male makes his advances and when she retreats, the big bull trails after her. Again we have been left in the dust by our companions so must move on darn it. Ngruwe and I stare back at the amorous pair until they become specks in the vastness of the bush. Wouldn’t that have been interesting to see such gangly creatures mate!

The amorous couple

You do realize that we are still on our morning game drive and I have only hit the so-called highlights! We have one more encounter this morning and that is a seemingly endless herd of Cape buffalo. The surly buffalo are strung out over the plains of Mikumi, and I can’t back my camera off enough to come even close to capturing where the string of bovids start and where they end! Again, Paul and I have never seen so many Cape buffalo at one time. I don’t even try to guess at the number, but Paul and others that are better at such things; guess there must be three to four hundred of the hulking beasts. Holy Smokes, what a morning we have had and my worries about leaving camp late certainly prove to be unwarranted.

A small portion of the enormous herd of Cape buffalo

Cape buffalo peering back at us

Oops, I forgot that we make a stop at an ancient baobab tree where a rectangular hollow is big enough for a person to walk into. Brian asks us to join hands and see if the whole crew can encircle the monstrous tree. We link hands and with our backs against the “upside down tree”, we encircle the enormous girth of the baobab trunk. After this experiment, Brian then takes a group photo of us gathered at the base of the tree.

We return to camp for lunch, and in my journal I have jotted down how great the lunch of kabobs, quiche, tomato/cucumber/avocado salad, and oranges was. I don’t recall the meal at all which proves I’m not traveling for the food (except those dinner rolls!).

After eating, I decide to wash out a few clothes and hang them from the cords that run from our tent to the ground stakes. Others are showering now so there aren’t so many of us lining up to shower when we get home from our afternoon game drive. As I am washing out t-shirts I hear some excited female voices from the direction of the shower area. I later learn that a snake decided to take a tour near the shower stalls while Bibi Bahati Njema and I think Mama Uchunguzi were either in or preparing to shower. Well, that will get your blood coursing through the old heart.

It is time to venture out to see what is taking place in Mikumi this afternoon. This time we are the lead vehicle in line as the decision has been made to go see if the lion pride is still at the Cape buffalo carcass, and Kevin knows his way. I think Kevin is tired of playing catch up and eating the other vehicles dust. We are clipping right along as we aren’t seeing a lot of animals at the moment, when Kevin receives a call on his two-way radio from Mochie(sp). Mochie is always the second vehicle in our convoy while Bacari (sp) is the leader. Bacari is the native of this part of Tanzania and knows the parks. Bacari’s radio is broken, so he calls Mochie on the phone if need be, and Mochie then passes the info on to Kevin via radio. Did you follow that? The next thing we know Kevin is turning the Rover around and stepping on the gas pedal. There are a couple of other safari vehicles driving in front of us and Kevin buzzes around them like they are sitting still. My proof reader, Paul, thought I should inform you that the times when our vehicles were racing down the roads, we obviously knew some special sight had been relayed to us via our group or the bush telegraph (other guides). In our vehicle at least, there seemed to be an unspoken code that the driver wasn’t going to tell us what we were rushing to see, and we passengers never asked the driver what information had been conveyed to them. Perhaps the drivers didn’t say anything to us since the wild animal they were speeding towards might not be there once we arrived, thus saving us from being disappointed. For me at least, I was willing to wait until we arrived at the destination and enjoy the surprise.

When we reach our sister vehicles they are parked along the road staring towards the grass airstrip. Oh my gosh, sitting along the edge of the short grass of the landing strip is a large leopard. Kevin apologizes to us for driving so fast but explains that often a leopard will disappear in minutes. I don’t think any of us were upset as we figured there was a good reason for the urgent driving.

Leopard that Brian spotted next to the airstrip

The big cat is paying no attention to us and is staring intently down the landing strip. It appears the object of his attention is a big impala buck, sporting a nice pair of black spiral horns. The leopard rises to his feet and my goodness, is this an impressive male cat. As he walks onto the airstrip you can see this massive cats muscles rippling. The magnificent feline specimen has one odd thing about him, I don’t remember who noticed this and alerted the rest of us, but he has no tail! How in the world does a leopard lose its tail?

The leopard has no tail but what a gorgeous animal anyway

The cat moves across the airstrip without the impala, which is a long ways off, noticing him. Once he reaches the tall grass he disappears without a trace, even though the leopard is actually closer to us now. Our drivers move down the road in the direction of the impala, anticipating that the feline is sneaking through the grass towards the antelope. More safari vehicles have arrived now but most came too late to see the leopard while it was in the open. Thank you Kevin! After several minutes the impala begins to snort and look towards the area of the unkempt grass. It isn’t long before the buck loses its nerves and takes off running, but there is no leopard in pursuit.

Our group and a half-dozen more vehicles drive slowly along the road in hopes the beautiful leopard will materialize again. We know the cat is in all that cover somewhere as several wart hogs come running out of the grass, their little tails pointed skyward as they flee from danger. We continue to wait for quite some time but eventually conclude that our hope of seeing the tailless leopard isn’t to be. I ask who spotted the cat and how they saw it because the leopard was a long way from the road and just sitting still. Brian has the honor of taking credit for the awesome find and explains that he once saw a cheetah sitting on a landing strip on another safari. He figured it was worth checking out the area as they drove by. Yes it was oh great safari leader:).

Our guides turn the vehicles around and we make a quick visit to the lions. The pride is still there along with a bunch of vultures skulking around acting like, well vultures. We don’t stay long to watch the lions, which are still lying around looking miserably full. We spent quite some time with the leopard and the drivers want to go back to where we saw the stashed reed buck this morning. That is a long drive and the afternoon is slipping away.

vultures at the lion kill

Our convoy moves along at a good clip and when we arrive at the dead tree we are dismayed to see that the reed buck is gone! We are looking all around the area when Ngruwe sees the carcass lying on the ground fifty feet from the tree. Where is the leopard? Everyone is scrutinizing the area with and without binoculars. Suddenly, Kevin yells out, “There he is”. No way, that leopard was lying almost next to the dead reed buck in scant cover and none of us saw it until it got up. The big cat slinks behind some small bushes and disappears from sight. How do such big animals do that. We are all staring at those bushe, hoping he will move again when Nyama cries out that she sees him. Where?? Nyama directs me to an area behind the dead tree a good 50 yards away. What the heck, the leopard must have been flat on the ground and belly crawled until he felt like he was far enough away to safely expose himself. Again, he disappears from sight and again it is Nyama who finds the leopard as he continues to retreat further from our intrusive presence.

Photo I took when Kevin first spotted the leopard

The sun continues to slip toward the horizon and I am ready to leave the beast in peace, so he can return to his kill. Our drivers decide they want to drive out to where the leopard was last seen before disappearing again. I am completely against this as I consider driving off the road after animals, harassment. Out we go anyway and it is our vehicle that approaches the area where we had our last look at him and we scare the leopard out of his hiding place. This seems to satisfy our drivers and they turn around and drive back to the road. This action leaves a bad taste in my mouth and when we return to camp, I ask Brian if what our guides did was legal. He explains that there are areas where you are allowed to go off-road and this was evidently one of them. Well, I’m glad we weren’t doing something illegal but it still didn’t feel right.

When I saw this fuzzy photo of the leopard looking through the grass, I was sure that I had indeed saw the leopard this morning.

There is no way we are going to get out of this park on time. Our guides are driving with urgency, when we come across animals that are stampeding across the plains near the road. There are zebra, wildebeest and best of all thirty or forty of the largest antelope in Africa, eland. It is a surreal scene as dusk is falling and the herds of running animals are throwing clouds of dust into the air which obscure them even more as we race toward the exit. What an interesting way to end this incredible day.

I am so ready for a shower and I follow the camp staff as they carry buckets of steaming water to fill the shower canister. I hear branches snapping in the woods that are close to the shower stalls. As I peer into the gloom I can see a big tree moving back and forth. “What is that” I ask one of the guys as they finish filling the canisters. “Elephant” but he quickly adds that they aren’t coming this way. Maybe not but they aren’t feeding that far away either. I’m having second thoughts about this shower! I convince Paul that he should stand guard while I shower. Paul agrees but tells me that he doesn’t see what he can do if the elephants make an appearance. Well, that’s true but just having Paul nearby at least gives me some moral support. I finish my shower in record time and when I emerge from the cubicle, I see three staff people shining a light into the trees as the sound of breaking branches punctuates the air. Ha, they must be worried that the grey ghosts of Africa might be heading this way after all!

As our tired, but happy group sits around the fire before dinner, the whoop of hyena breaks into our discussion of the events of the day. We stop talking to listen to the eerie sound and because of our silence, we also hear the low rumbling of elephants. I love it.

Next installment, our final game drive in Mikumi National Park then we move on to the Udzungwa mountains. Nancy

Mikumi National Park, Part 2

Aug31

Mikumi National Park Part 2

Taken as we were driving to Mikumi

Today we leave Morogoro for Mikumi National Park after having breakfast at the hotel. Most of us have shown up at the dining area together and Vidole Juu directs our attention to the TV, which is anchored on the wall. Oh yuck, a big rat is crawling up the cable and then disappears into the ceiling. Lovely! After our initial gasps and groans, we settle down and continue to eat our meal. Vidole Juu tells us later on that he has listed the rat in his journal as his first mammal sighting. That’s funny.

I forgot to mention in my first blog that on our drive from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro we met up with our actual safari drivers around the midway point between the two cities and transfer into three vehicles. Paul and I are riding with two other couples from Kansas, Vidole Juu, Uwiano, Nyama, Ngruwe, and our driver/guide is Kevin. After breakfast, our luggage is being packed in the vehicles and we are waiting to load ourselves into our designated vehicles. An employee of Hotel Oasis walks out of the lobby carrying my red fanny pack and asks who it belongs to. Good grief, how did I not gather that bag up with everything else? Thank goodness the honest woman found it before we left. Although I could have survived without it, it did contain the bird book I borrowed from my sister-in-law, my journal, and other items I wanted to be able to get my hands on easily.

An unique way to display wares for sale

As we speed our way toward Mikumi, I try to take photos from the moving Rover. On past trips I have had really good luck capturing road scenes through the window but so far my results on this trip are not good. I finally figure out why most of my efforts are proving disappointing on this trip. The windows on our Rover don’t roll down; they slide open and only halfway at that. I can’t get the camera lens out the window far enough to point it forward thus the camera can’t focus well. Pooh.

As we near the outskirts of Mikumi National Park, there is a troop of baboon along the edge of the highway. They act like beggars and I suppose foolish tourists have tossed them food from car windows. Don’t get me started on people who feed human food to animals in National parks and then wonder why they become a nuisance. A bit farther up the road I spy several elephants in the distance. Impalas and ground hornbills (these birds are huge) have been spotted by the lead vehicles in our group. All Right! We haven’t even entered through the official park gate yet.

Bats occupying the rafters of Mikumi National Park headquarters

Our drivers pull into the dirt parking lot adjacent to the official entrance to Mikumi. They have to check in and fill out paper work that will allow us to legally enter the park. All of us unload from the vehicles and gratefully make our way to the restrooms. We then walk into the Parks headquarters to look at their displays of various items such as skulls, maps and photos of the wildlife found in Mikumi. The main “attraction” is a group of bats that are hanging from the rafters. Someone comments that they aren’t real and gullible me actually believes them. Well, in my defense, they do look a bit like a stuffed display but once you begin to scrutinize the rather creepy creatures, you can see some of the bats moving around, or opening and closing their eyes.

Once we load back into the safari trucks, the guard lifts the wooden barrier for us and we are off on our first game drive! Holy Smokes, it didn’t take long for us to find what we were searching for. Within a few hundred yards of the gate we see a few wildebeest (they really are the oddest designed critters), zebra (they always seem to be posing for the camera), elephant (the true king of the bush), impalas (such fine boned and graceful antelope), a giraffe (giraffe are oddly hard to see sometimes), plus numerous birds. All of us are snapping photos as fast as we can and I am surprised our shutters are not smoking with the nearly nonstop punching of our camera buttons.

Graceful impalas and the landscape of Mikumi

Wildebeest

The lone giraffe

Zebra always seem to be posing for you

Earlier in our trip, after we had been divided into the three safari vehicles, Brian gave us a lesson on helping your fellow passengers find an animal or an unusual roadside scene that you have found. Using the direction the arms of an imaginary old-fashioned clock would point to on the hour, is supposedly the easiest way to direct people’s eyes to the area they need to look. The front of the vehicle is designated as twelve o’clock. So if you see an animal to your immediate right of you, one should yell out “three o’clock”. Now that may seem easy enough but with most of our time pieces digital now this simple directive isn’t as reflexive as you would assume. I for one must think for a moment before yelling out the corresponding time, by then we may have driven far enough that the animal that was at one o’clock is now at three o’clock.

The lovely landscape of Mikumi

This lesson in alerting fellow passengers to an animal you have found reminds me that I left out an amusing story in my first blog, so I have included it here.

The first time Vidole Juu called out “three o’clock” was when we were riding back to the hotel from our hike to the falls. The five of us dutifully direct our gaze to the right and see nothing. Vidole Juu apologizes and says he really meant nine o’clock. I can’t even remember what Vidole Juu was trying to get us to look at, but we do give the man some grief for the mix-up. When Vidole Juu mixes up three and nine o’clock occasionally on our game drives we tease him unmercifully, partly because Vidole Juu’s career is all about working with numbers. We keep telling him we are going to ask Brian to change his name to Mr. Three o’clock. Being a good sport Vidole Juu banters back and offers the excuse that his mix up is because we are on the other side of the equator and the hands of the clock are reversed! Good come back but not enough to keep us from kidding him when he slips up. Paul reminds me after he proofread my blog that the first time Vidole Juu made this mistake, Paul actually looked towards nine o’clock when Vidole Juu called out three, so I guess the hands on Paul’s clock had reversed directions too.

Notice at hippo pool

We are the trailing vehicle in the convoy because our driver, Kevin, is not familiar with this part of Tanzania, thus he needs to follow the other guides that know the roads in this park. As we continue down the dusty, red, dirt road, our vehicle leaves the main track to check out the hippopotamus pool. We see a few bulbous heads poking out of the water but mostly the large mammals are keeping as much of themselves out of the hot sun as possible. There are also some small crocodiles that we observe sunning themselves along the edge of the water.

Hippos hiding from the sun

We leave the hippo pool and drive in the direction our sister vehicles went. As we round a corner we find them and three other safari trucks sitting on the side of the road. Well no wonder the rest of our group drove by the hippo pool, a small pride of lions have killed a Cape buffalo right by the side of the road. There certainly was no hurry for us to get here as the lions are lounging around, so stuffed full of meat they can hardly move. There are two male lions, lying off by themselves, while two lionesses and three cubs have found shade in a clump of bushes not far from the kill. Our poor cameras are given another frenzied workout! Nyama hauls out a long lens and attached it to her canon camera. I admit I look at that powerful lens with some envy. I would guess if she gets a photo of one of these lions yawning, Nyama will be able to see if they have any cavities! We sit for quite some time watching the lions, which mostly just lay around trying to alleviate the pressure on their bulging bellies.

A male lion and the Cape buffalo carcass

Isn’t this male lion a beauty?

Look at the cubs bulging belly

Since we are to be in camp at 1:30 for lunch we reluctantly leave the lions behind. We do stop at the hippo pool on our way back to camp, where we are allowed to leave the vehicles and stretch our legs. The hippopotamuses still are just grey bumps in the water but we do see some larger crocodile lying on the dam across the water from us. They are camouflaged so well that it takes a while to convince ourselves that what we are looking at aren’t just dead logs.

Glad this bug was outside our tent

When we arrive at camp we must all choose a tent where we will sleep for the next two nights. There is one large open air tent and the rest are small two person tents, each containing two cots and a wooden table. Paul and I settle on tent number eight, and when the camp staff sets up our mobile camp in other parks, tent number eight will always be ours. The inside of the tent is really hot, so Paul goes to open the back rain flap in hopes that some air will find its way through the tight mesh of our canvas house. Paul calls to me and shows me the darndest insect, happily perched on the side of our tent. Yikes, I’m glad that thing is on the outside and not crawling around on our beds.

Our camp

Christophe the chef puts a meal of spaghetti, watermelon, salad and cheese in front of his safari clients. Despite the fact that we rolled into camp late (hey it was lions!), then had to choose our tents and retrieve our luggage, Christophe managed to keep the spaghetti and sauce hot and edible. Christophe is cooking over wood and it is amazing the meals this man puts in front of us over the next two weeks. The fact that he can produce such fare while preparing the food over an open flame or coals while using just a few pots and pans is unbelievable.

Christophe and his kitchen

After the satisfying lunch, we have some quiet time before we leave on a late afternoon game drive. Paul manages to take a nap in the stuffy tent, but I can’t tolerate the heat so retreat to a chair outside. I look over my photos, good grief at this rate I will fill my cards up before we are halfway through this safari. I delete a few photos that are obviously blurry, and some that are exact copies of each other. I admonish myself to try to temper the urge to photograph the same animal or a landscape shot every few seconds. I write a few notes in my journal and before you know it, 4:30 has arrived and it is time to leave for our second game drive.

One of the jackals

Our camp is not far from the park entrance and we haven’t driven far when someone observes two jackals trotting through the underbrush. They are smaller than our coyotes and like most predators are very well camouflaged. We watch the little canines until they trot out of sight.

Our drivers take us back in the direction of the lion pride we saw this morning. Along the way we find a group of zebra that contains a baby zebra. I can’t help but verbally gush over the cute, toy like creature. I’m pretty sure that the other females in the vehicle joined in my out loud admiration, but I was so engrossed in expressing my own delight I can’t be sure :).

The baby zebra

How cute is that

We watch a group of warthogs for a while but they mostly just stare back at us. Good heavens, these animals have a face that only a mother could love. Brian and Mbuzi will probably scold me for that critique! Also, why do these warthogs have a mane, and what is its purpose? Our convoy also encounters more regal elephant and graceful impalas. We watch a lone reed buck exhibit some odd behavior. The antelope lays down, then jumps up and runs for a short distance before lying down again. Kevin tells us (or maybe it was Brian) that this is classic behavior of a reed buck when it is nervous about a nearby predator. We leave the reed buck behind after scrutinizing the brushy area for big cats. We saw no sign of a predator but that doesn’t mean something wasn’t hiding in the tall grass.

Wart hogs, the poor things

When we reach the lion pride again one of the male lions is partaking of some more Cape buffalo meat. The sun is sinking low in the African sky and the rays are lighting the lions up as if they were spun of gold. Although some might find it gruesome, the power of the lion in stripping the meat off of the carcass was something to see. The big male doesn’t eat for long and as he is walking away from the buffalo one of the lionesses walks up to him. The two big cats head butt each other in the exact manner that domestic cats greet each other. The majestic male then lies down by the base of a tree and begins grooming himself. Once he is satisfied that he is clean, he rolls over on his side and points his overstuffed gut to the sky.

Lion and Lioness greeting each other

Grooming session

He looks miserable!

The female has two cubs trailing behind her, their little bellies so full they appear to be sway backed. The lioness goes up to the Cape buffalo, sniffs at it, takes one bite, than sits down near the carcass. The two cubs do begin eating more meat, one cub practically crawling in the cavity of the old buffalo’s stomach. How in the world the youngsters manage to make room for any more meat is a mystery to me, but eat they do.

The lioness couldn’t bring herself to eat anymore

We must leave the satisfied lions as the sun is beginning to set and our guides must be out of the park by 6:30. We don’t quite make the deadline but the guard at the gate just opens the barrier and waves us on through. I have a feeling they are used to late departures.

When we arrive at camp, the staff has hot water ready to fill the bucket showers for us. There are two shower stalls but with bucket showers one doesn’t spend much time in them, maybe five minutes tops. Basically, you open the spigot and wet yourself down, shut the water off, lather up, turn the spigot back on and rinse off, put your towel or clothes on and let the next person have their turn. After a long day of driving, we are dusty and sweaty so a shower feels wonderful!

It might not look like much but this bucket shower does the job

The only thing I remember about the meal Christophe put before us tonight is the homemade dinner rolls and the leek soup. The dinner rolls are out of this world, raised up to great heights with a crusty exterior and perfectly done in the middle. The soup is thick and wonderfully seasoned. If the man only put soup and rolls in front of me for the remainder of the safari I will be completely satisfied. Our first game drive was stupendous but also tiring so we turn in soon after the meal. Next installment, Mikumi day 2. Could it top today?? Nancy

Sunset over Mikumi National Park at the end of our first day

Tanzania Part 1

Aug27

I can hardly believe that 5 months after our wonderful Sri Lankan adventure, Paul and I are returning to the African continent, looking for adventure in our favorite country of Tanzania. The hay is harvested and stacked away for the winter. The heifer calves are weaned and most of the steer calves were loaded on a semi-trailer last week headed for their new home in Iowa. Our luggage is packed although it is over the 25 pound limit per person we were supposed to aim for. We will eat our way through some of that extra poundage via the snacks we packed, before we have to meet that limit and will worry about the rest when the 13th arrives that involves an in country flight.

Paul and I drive to the Topeka airport after lunch to catch our flight to Chicago. We meet three members of our group of sixteen here, who also took advantage of the closeness of the Topeka airport versus Kansas City. How nice it is to be able to fly from the capital city with only the people on one flight to contend with! Sadly, we will be one of the last few to use the airport as United is folding up the Topeka operation after opening the service less than a year ago. Darn it.

We have no issues on this first leg of travel and have plenty of time to kill in the Chicago airport before boarding our flight to Istanbul. We begin to get nervous when 20 minutes before boarding, Brian, of Cowabunga safari fame, and 4 more members of our group flying in from Kansas City, have not appeared. A text message is sent to our safari leader and soon a reply is received that the group are making their way to the boarding area. Pheww. Our jet lifts off on time and we settle in for the 10 hour flight.

Istanbul airport, seven more hours!

When we land in Turkey we have a couple of hours before we board the jet for the final leg of our journey to Dar Es Salaam, another 7 hours sitting on a plane. There are 2 more members in our group that join us at the Istanbul airport. The last 4 people in the group will meet us in Dar.

We land in Dar Es Salaam at 2:30 in the morning, disembark and fill out a custom form. We then hand over our custom papers along with our passports and 100 bucks for the cost of a visa, to an uniformed official. The woman sticks the hundred dollars in the individual passports, stacks up as many passports as she can carry and passes them off to two men sitting in an office. The two men evidently are the ones who will approve everybody’s visa. Eventually, passports are handed back to the people who collected them from the tourists. These folks proceed to read off the names one at a time without aid of a microphone. We strain to hear the names the official is calling out and eventually the owner of said passport walks forward to claim their document. The airport official scrutinizes the claimants face to make sure it matches the photo on the passport they have claimed. When one passes muster the frazzled passport owner is directed to a booth where the person behind the glass, takes their photo and fingerprints, stamps the passport, and finally the person is free to go and claim their luggage.

To say this visa ordeal is a test of one’s patience is being kind, particularly in the wee hours of the morning. Once we gather all the luggage, yes everyone’s arrived, there is another airport employee waiting to x-ray your luggage as you exit the airport. I don’t remember this requirement before, but Brian charms the woman into allowing our group to skip this final act of bureaucracy and we are free to go. Our driver is waiting outside with countless other drivers, Cowabunga sign held high, and he leads us through the humid night air to a big white van. The twelve of us pile into the vehicle and in thirty minutes we have arrived at the Tanzanite hotel.

Dar es Salaam from the balcony of our room (when we finally got one)

Oops, it seems the hotel has given our rooms back to the occupants that were in the rooms last night as they missed their flight, at least that is the hotel manager’s story and he is sticking to it. The only thing the Tanzanite has available is a suite which has three bedrooms, a large living/dining room and a kitchen. Two of the bedrooms have private bathrooms and there is another stand-alone bathroom which those of us without a bedroom take advantage of to shower off the past 20 plus hours of travel.

Sooo…three bedrooms only takes care of half of us but this group seems to take it all in stride. We come up with a solution which has three couples in the bedrooms; the young couple in our group gathers cushion backs from the couches and chairs and builds a makeshift bed in the kitchen. Paul, Brian, Daktari ya Moyo and I camp out in the living room, so technically on our first night in Tanzania, I sleep with three men:). Did that statement wake you up!

I get a couple of hours of shut-eye on my short couch but I don’t think Paul slept at all in his chair. The four of us that camped out in the living room and another couple wander down to eat breakfast around eight. The buffet offers a nice variety of cereal, breads, eggs, and sausage. After eating, Brian leads us a few blocks from the hotel to change some money into shillings. Brian then takes the five of us on a short walking tour through the city and down to the Indian Ocean. Brian, who is fluent in Swahili, makes an impression on a couple of curious young men who approach our group with the typical “where are you from” question. Although the young men speak English, the two are obviously impressed with the American who can converse with them in Swahili too. Before we continue on our way the young men insist that I take their photo and I am happy to comply.

Friendly young men we encountered while on our walk in Dar

It was a memorable walk as we enjoyed the interesting street scenes and ocean vistas. Unfortunately we will mostly remember this morning because Bwana Cheka had his small camera pickpocketed! If you don’t know how to pronounce that name it is because it is Swahili. Brian gives all members of his safari group Swahili names and I will use them in my writing to protect the innocent or guilty! Needless to say this cast a pall on our first morning in Dar es Salaam but Cheka handled it with much more grace than I would have.

Photo taken as we walked along the Indian Ocean in Dar

We all have individual rooms by noon so Paul and I settle in for an afternoon nap as the very short night has caught up with us! All of us meet this evening in the reception area and Brian leads us a few blocks to a Lebanese restaurant that he has frequented on prior visits. The food is plentiful and tasty so the day ends on an up note. We also enjoy entertainment during dinner thanks to Bwana Vidole Juu. It seems the ketchup bottle he attempts to use has pressure built up in it. When he pops the top, Viole Juu manages to spray his wife, Mama Uwiano with a liberal dose of the red stuff, starting with the side of her face and continuing down the front of her shirt. Another safari member showing grace over mishap, as Mama Uwiano laughs about the incident which allows the rest of us to join in.

Woman bargaining for melons in Dar

The final four members of our safari group arrived in Dar late last night so we are all present and accounted for. This morning we are leaving Dar (thank goodness) and driving to Morogoro. For those of you who know me well, my tolerance for big cities is two days tops, get me out of the city after that as I need to breathe!

Traveling hat salesmen I took this as we were driving to Morogoro.

We were to stay at a working farm on the outskirts of Morogoro but they canceled our reservations so we are staying at the Hotel Oasis. We all settle into our rooms (everyone comments that their rooms smell of bug spray) then we return to the lobby to meet a local man who will guide us through the city and market.

The market is a sensory overload with yelling vendors, crowds of people, vibrant colors and an unpleasant odor in many areas of the maze of shops. The passage ways through the market are narrow making it necessary to bump and jostle your way through the shoppers. There are pleasing pyramids of vegetables, colorful sacks of grains and heaps of dried fish that your nose can identify before you see the fishy offerings. Clothes, kitchen ware, jewelry and about anything else you might want or need can be seen in the ramshackle market.

Stalls at the Morogoro market. Excuse the purple halo spot in the photo

Our guide, Charles, sets a fast pace and with such a large group, those of us who are taking photos or have short legs, sometimes lose sight of our friendly escort. Bwana Ngruwe has a neon yellow “glow in the dark” Cowabunga shirt on which comes in handy for those of us who tend to fall behind the main group. Searching the mass of humanity for our group, the bright yellow shirt is always the first thing to catch our eye and allows us to reunite with our fellow sightseers. Ngruwe will take a lot of grief about the brilliance of that shirt before the trip is over but it is a welcome beacon more than once today.

An example of the wide array of things offered at the market

Those of us snapping pictures missed the instructions before we left that we weren’t to take photos unless Charles told us it was o.k. Oops. I wondered why some guy walked by me and was basically yelling at me! Later, Paul was told by a vendor “no photo” and it wasn’t until then that a member of the group informed us that taking pictures was prohibited except at a few stalls. Well, up to that point we got some pretty good photos even if they were taboo.

I wonder where the shop owner came up with these manikins?

Sacks of grain in the market

Can you imagine the time it must take to stack tomatoes like this??

The craftsmen that are permanently located in the town were much more accommodating with us and seemed tickled that we were interested in their craft. We visited with a tinsmith and a cabinet-maker, admiring their handy work. The craftsmen were more than happy to have us take photos and seemed to revel in being part of the photos.

The tinsmiths storeroom

Tinsmith

Our market/town tour lasted three hours and all of us are ready to return to the hotel. As we wearily trudge back in the direction of the Oasis, we pass a church where the youth are having a dance and some members try their best to get us to join the festivities. The catch is that we must pay to attend their dance; I would guess this gala is a money-maker for them. When we decline the invitation due to exhaustion, the recruiters keep reducing the entrance price hoping that this will entice the foreigners to join in the fun. It would have been an interesting experience but we really were finished for the day.

The following morning, Charles, our guide from yesterday is taking our group on a hike to a waterfall in the Uluguru Mountains. Two members of our group walk with us for a ways but opt out once it becomes obvious the hike will be steep and over rough terrain. I hate that they can’t go with us but admire them for knowing their limits.

These kids weren’t quite sure about those foreigners.

Brian entertaining the school children

As we hike through small villages and a school we have the opportunity to interact with the uniformed school children. We ask and are granted permission to take their photos. When one little boy is shown his photo taken by Bibi Nyama, he bursts out in the most incredible belly laugh I have ever heard from a child! His laughter is so infectious that it sends Nyama and me into peals of laughter too.

After a couple of hours of walking we stop at a small restaurant to use the facilities. Three members of the group decide they will return to the van as we are only at the halfway point of our hike. We are leaving the drivable road; where we have been meeting lots of motorcycles, and will be hiking higher into the mountains which mean steeper grades and more narrow passages. Fortunately, the temperature is warm but not hot or I might have turned back with this trio.

Paul on hike. Imagine walking this terrain with heavy loads on your head!

I have discovered that Bwana Mkatagiza Usiku is a fellow bird lover, so we are stopping frequently to enjoy the bird life along the way. We are often lagging behind the rest of the hikers but boy are we enjoying ourselves. Paul stays with us most of the time too. We see the Urugulu violet-backed sunbird which if I understood correctly, is only found in these mountains! Exceptional find but too far away for a photo. One of our driver/guides is there to confirm the spotting of the small, colorful bird. We also see an African hawk harrier, Collared sunbird; Tawny flanked Prinia, among numerous other birds.

Usiku suggests we take a shortcut via a trail that cuts through the farm fields, because he has spotted the rest of the group on the road above us rounding a curve. Paul and I figure why not and follow his lead. An old farmer passes by and offers his hand to each of us while uttering what we presume is a phrase of welcome. We all shake his hand and say hello before tramping up to the main road. Imagine our surprise when a short time later our group appears behind us! Imagine their surprise when we laggards magically appear in front of them. It draws laughter from all when we admit that we cheated by walking off the beaten path. By now we are walking through beautiful mountain scenes and as usual photos just don’t do the vistas justice.

The scenery we were enjoying as we hiked

It is obvious as we near the end of the hike who the fit and seasoned hikers are in this group as they continue to easily walk up the mountain trail. I am not one of them! Another woman and I are struggling up the final steep, slippery slopes, as Charles encourages us by telling us we are almost to the top. I walk twenty steps and stop to catch my breath, finding that this technique we were taught in climbing mountains in Russia, allows me to keep inching upward. Once we are at the top, Charles gives us a few minutes to catch our breath before leading us down a very narrow trail to the base of the pretty waterfall.

Children who were following us.

Three young boys have shadowed us partway down the trail and stare unabashedly at the tourists who have come to picnic by their local waterfall. The more surefooted among us, help the rest of us cross the slippery rocks to a large slab of stone where we will eat the box lunches that those with daypacks carried with them. The lunches contain grilled chicken, cucumber/tomato sandwich, banana and a piece of cake. A local man brings blackberries and raspberries that are grown nearby and offers them to us picnickers. Paul and I pass the lovely berries up as we are suspicious of the water the fruit would have been washed in. Everyone else ate some of the plump berries and as far as I know they had no ill effect from them.

Some of the crew at the base of the waterfall

Charles amuses us all as he takes photo after photo of his clients, while we dine to the music of falling water and occasionally are refreshed by a light mist coming from the falls, driven by a gust of wind. Most of our group takes the proverbial photo, standing on a rock in front of the waterfall. Brian insists on a group photo with the Cowabunga banner held proudly among us smiling trekkers. Yes, the strenuous hike was well worth it for the bird life, mountain views, people encounters, and lovely waterfall.

Paul waving goodbye to these children he made laugh when he joined in their dancing.

We met these children on the trail. Look at the loads they are carrying!

It is time to start back and as always going downhill is so much easier for me than walking uphill. As we pass by a house there is a woman hanging out laundry in the yard. A rooster has his way with one of the hens as we walk by and some of us yell out the phrase that alerts the other safarists that we have witnessed the mating act of the chickens. This is an inside joke and I cannot give you that phrase that all Cowabunga alumni are privy too, for that you must go on safari with Brian! Anyway, the rooster then unfurled one wing and does a little jig around the hen that completely ignores him. I snort at the cocky display and say with disdain in my voice, look at that rooster strutting his stuff. The woman looks at me and bursts into laughter and continues to laugh as we walk on down the trail. I have no idea if she understood what I said or if she just put the tone of my voice with the rooster’s actions but whatever the reason, it certainly tickled her funny bone.

This may have been the house where the rooster incident took place.

We come upon a woman who has filled a huge wooden vessel full of red dirt and is pounding the dirt into fine dust using a thick, long wooden pole. A few people in the group give it a try, and then Kevin and Charles each take a wooden pole and work together at pulverizing the dirt. Brian takes over for one of the guides and for some reason his technique causes the fine earth to spill out onto the ground. This causes the woman and her young daughter to laugh at the messy effort by Mzungu Mrefu (Brian). Hopefully, all this help gave her a break in the tedious work and certainly it will give the woman a story to tell to her friends tonight. By the way, they form this dirt into small sticks about the size of a fat crayon and sell it to pregnant women to consume (do they dissolve it in water?) which they say helps alleviate morning sickness.

Notice the woman laughing at Brian’s messy effort

When we reach the restaurant where we stopped to use the choo (choh/bathroom) on our way up, the front-runners have discovered the North Rock bar; a little room built on top of a big boulder, and are enjoying Tusker beer or soda. We join them and soon laughter is filling the air. I think this group is going to get along just fine! Charles asks for our attention as we are finishing our drinks and commends us “old people” for making it to the waterfall. This brings more hearty laughter at the “compliment” from our light-hearted guide. None of us complain when our drivers roll up in two of the Range rovers which means we don’t have to walk the rest of the way! The ride from the bar to where we started walking this morning is extremely rough but it will be good practice for what is to come on our safari drives, I’m sure! DSCF3246

Tonight we enjoy dinner at the restaurant at the Oasis and are sitting at a small table with Ngruwe and Nyama. The restaurant specialty is called the sizzler, which is well named as when one of these dishes appears from the kitchen the sizzling sound reverberates through the room. Ngruwe has ordered this dish and for some reason he is still waiting for his order as the rest of us consume our food. He jokes that if it takes much longer they may as well include a fried egg and he can eat breakfast too. When his sizzling dish finally appears, yep you guessed it; on top of the platter of food is a fried egg. We laugh so hard that Brian walks over from his table to see what the brouhaha is all about. After we relate the story to Brian, he chuckles but I’m not sure he thought it deserved the nearly uncontrollable laughter it brought forth from the four of us. I guess maybe you had to be there because even now I am giggling as I type the fried egg story. Later, Nancy (Mama Ndege)

Next installment Mikumi National Park

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Category Archives: Tanzania 2014

Mikumi National Park, part three

Mikumi National Park, Part 2

Tanzania Part 1