Safari. part one.

I know that it has been a while but I have a valid excuse! Last Friday, while walking home from work I received a phone call from Yotam (the country coordinator for IFRE) asking what my plans were for the weekend. I though this was a little strange, but I thought I would play along, saying that I was probably going to rest at the hostel and enjoy the quiet. He asked if I wanted to go on Safari for three days leaving the next day, explaining that he had an opening and they needed three people for the trip. He gave me a FANTASTIC price, an offer I couldn't refuse. So the next morning I loaded into the Land Cruiser with Jim and Nate(two of the guys who have been working at Malaika and staying at the hostel) and drove 7 hours to Selous National Park in Southern Tanzania. I wrote in a journal while I was there so that I wouldn't forget my thoughts and so that I could post it up here when I got back.

I have a post that I wanted to put up on Friday (but the internet was down) and I'm going to wait till tomorrow or the next day to put it up so as to do both entries justice.

Without further ado, the Safari:

From July 20, 2008:

Here I sit, at the bank of the Rufiji river, exhausted from a full day of safari but exhilarated from the amazing scenery and wildlife. All day, I had one verse from the beginning of Genesis stuck in my head: "God made the beasts of the earth according to their kind and the livestock according to their kind and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:25) And it certainly is good!

So, they don't call where we are staying "Hippo Camp" for nothing! Last night, I fell asleep to the sounds of the hippos- a noise that sounds like a cross between a dog and a cow. We woke up early this morning so that we could leave for a game drive at 8 am. We piled into the Land Cruiser after breakfast, ready for our adventure. After only being in the park for 15 minutes, we crossed paths with a pack of elephants- literally! Five elephants and a baby elephant were grazing after their morning water break, taking their time crossing the dirt road. Of course, this made for some amazing photos! At the same time, giraffes were wandering around but they were a little shy and ran away (oh so gracefully). Our guide, Saidi knew exactly where to take us so that we could see the best (and the most) animals. After a while of incredible scenery, we traveled over a small hill and what we saw below us could only be described as something out of the opening scenes of The Lion King (and yes, I had that soundtrack stuck in my head the entire safari!). The hill looked out over a small valley with green grass, a rarity in the dry season. Wandering around were monkeys, giraffes, impalas, birds and zebras with crocodiles and hippos resting by a lake in the distance. There really are no words ad the pictures don't do the beauty justice. I think this is something that has to be experienced because it is so amazing. We drove down to the valley and though the zebras and impalas were rather skittish, the giraffes allowed us to get so close before starting to walk away. After a while, we moved back to the main road in search of lions. It took us a little while but we finally stumbled across a lion and lioness (according to Saidi, the guide, they were on their honeymoon). Both were napping and resting in the shade of an acacia tree. After taking pictures, we drove around another bush when Saidi made a sudden stop, pointing to a spot under the bush. There, two small lion cubs were resting. They were so adorable that it was hard to believe that they are also fairly dangerous. We stopped for lunch (the deal was no lunch until we saw lions) and made our way back down to the bank to eat. Saidi pulled off the path by a 2000 year old Baobab tree and invited us to sit. I kid you not, walking around us were giraffes, zebras and lots of baboons. After a while, we started to drive again and realized that most of the animals resting in the afternoon heat but it was nice to drive leisurely, watching the scenery go by. After a few hours, we decided to head back to camp and now I am sitting on a bench facing the river, writing, watching the sun set, hippos swimming nearby birds flying and enjoying a safari beer (because what could be better than drinking a safari beer after going on safari! :) ) Tomorrow is another adventure and I cannot wait!

From July 21, 2008:
I just arrived back to the hostel after a 7.5 hour drive! Wow! But for me, it wasn't as bad as our trip there becasue somehow I managed to get the front seat ( I think the guys were being chivelerous- or they were deffiring to their elder ;) ). Regardless of the good seat, 3 hours of extremely bumpy roadshas made me really tired. I attempted to kill time by writing a journal entry on the way home, but again, too bumpy. The day started very early0 6:15 am as the boys and I had to be by the mess hall at 6:30 to meet for our river tour. At first I thought the river tour might be kind of hokey (I'm from FLorida- Disney River Cruise ring a bell? :) ) but it was actually pretty fantastic! The boat was very small and very close to the water and at first I was afraid the hippos might try to get in the boat with us! It started off a little slow but i think that was becasue the animals were just as tired as we were. But not after too long, we saw a few families of black faced velver monkeys, jumping from tree to tree. According to Saidi, they make fantastic pets (and I'm really tempted to bring one home. Kristina, do think a monkey could make friends with Pepe?) We aw tons of birds- in such beautiful colors too, like a crayola box. Saidi was sitting in the front of the boat with bonoculars and told the the boad driver to pull over to the side by a big tree. I wasn't sure what we were supposed to be looking for so I looked over at Saidi and he just pointed up. I glanced up and I'm pretty sure I screamed. Right abouve my head (no, litterally 3 feet above my head) was a 4 foot long river lizaerd, a miniature dragon looking creature. The boys chuckled at my obvious discomfort and I quickly snapped a picture before I ducked my head down and prayed that the lizard didn't decide it was hungry. A little farther down the river, we saw a few crocodiles lazily swimming down the river looking for breakfast. Nathan and Jim thought his was pretty cool but being from South Florida, I have seen too many crocodiles/ alligator looking creatures. Still I do appreciate the cool factor. By this point, I was getting a little antsy. Don't get me wrong, lizards, crocodiles, monkeys and birds are really cool but I really wanted to see hippos. We were staying at hippo camp and I hear them all night so I knew they were out there. After a few minutes, my prayers were answered and Saidi saw a few hippos snouts in his binoculars. The boat man headed that way and within 45 seconds, I was within 300 feet of 4 massive hippos (adult hippos weigh a minimum of two tons). We took tons of pictures and marveled at these not-so-gentle giants when all the sudden one of the hippos descended into the water and started running on the river floor- a pretty amazing scene. But the hippon was running very fast our way so the boad driver decided it was time to move so that we didn't hurt the hippo with the boat motor, or worse get tipped over by the hippo and made a mid-morning snack! On our way back, we literally stumbled upon a group of baby and adolescent hippos playing on an island in the middle of the river. Fantastic pictures! After this it was time to go back to shore and leave the camp for our long drive back. Great trip but too too short!

Pictures to follow soon!

Namaste!