Saturday, Nov.18- Camp Manze to Dar Es Salaam and home tomorrow. Last chance for a safari.

About 15 minutes before leaving Kamkumba leaves the kitchen with our packed lunches. He places them in the jeep and goes to chat with some other guys. Not long after he’s running and yelling at the jeep. Monkeys have gotten in and they took some of our food. So funny. He had to go back and refill one of the bags.

During breakfast we see about 30 elephants passing in front of us. So cool.

The Masai and one driver.

We say our goodbyes to the staff and head out at 7:45 after trying to check-in on Millie’s computer. Never did work.

 We see lots of giraffe on our drive as we are in Acacia land and this is their favourite food/tree.  We also see a Savannah Monitor Lizard walking around and a Blue Glossy Starling at the same time. I take a few videos today something I should have doing all along, but I do have the ones that Wendy has taken. We see some European Rollers, an African Hawk Eagle in a tree. Might be a kill in the area as there are also vultures. Our guide finds the cache. It’s a Cape Hare under a bush; well covered to try to prevent other prey to get it.

Savannah Monitor Lizard

Glossy Blue Starling

African Hawk Eagle

Dead Hare

African Hawk Eagle

We see our first Tawny-Flanked Prinia which is a very small bird. The giraffe keep showing up as we see about 40 or 50 of them. There is a Red-Billed Buffalo Weaver and some Combrita flowers (Burning Bush)

Tawny Flanked Prinia

Giraffes and Wildebeest

Love this head

Cute family picture

Lots of giraffes running

Red-Billed Buffalo Weaver

Combratum paniculatum (Burning bush)

A Lilac Breasted Roller

About 5-6 minutes from the airport our guys are still offroading. I spot a few wild dogs. It’s the same pack as the other times. It’s very apt to see them one last time before we leave. We loved seeing them interact. They are 15 km away from when we saw them 3 days ago. They are constantly on the move.

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Cooling off but still tired

They were scattered under the trees

The plane is already there when we arrive. We have a female pilot today. The Swiss couple from our camp is taking the same flight to Dar. We are waiting for one more passenger and he arrives shortly after us. We leave about 15 minutes early and have a good flight into Dar Es Salaam. 

Clouds way up from plane

A look at Dar es Salaam

Driving to our hotel

A market seems to be up every day.

It's says Barber Shop

It’s easy to get our luggage as they lug it on a dolly right beside us. Our driver is waiting to take us to the hotel. We booked a room before flying out at 11:30 tonight to take a shower and hang out as it would be a long day at the airport. We thought that we might get out to visit a market or something but there is so much traffic and anything could happen out there. We need to go early to the airport as Wendy and Andre are unable to check in. We were lucky that it worked for us. 

The hotel in Dar is making supper for us. It is served at 6pm. This place also has a public pool where people come and hang out. There’s a bball hoop, some weights. Also around 6 pm, a wedding party arrives to take pictures. Lots happening here. We arrive at the airport around 7:15. The Swiss Air desk is not open yet as we are 4 hours early. We are first in line for economy. Agents open up around 7:45 and W & A find out there’s a glitch in their booking. A call is made with Swissair’s headquarter. It takes about 30 min. to sort things out but finally they are given boarding passes for our 3 flights. We go off and wait at our gate. There isn’t any real air conditioning in the airport so it is quite sticky. It’s finally time to board the plane. We are tired and look forward to sleeping. About 1h into the flight they serve a meal. We actually sleep for about 5 hours or more. Only time to watch one movie. In Zurich it is still early. We have close to 3 hours wait. Our flight to Toronto is on time so we leave at approx. 9:30. It is a 9h flight again but this time it is daylight so we watch movies but also doze off from time to time. In Toronto we have a 2:30 hr wait. It goes pretty quickly. Unfortunately, our plane to Moncton is over weight so they have to take luggage off. It might have something to do with the high winds. Ron says they need more fuel under these conditions. We leave about 50 minutes late and arrive in Moncton at around 6:10. People still don’t know that their luggage might not have made it. We are lucky and find our luggage and leave. The car is parked at the airport and we pack up and are home around 7 pm. The house if freezing, but it’s nice to be back.

What an amazing trip. A place we will never forget. Thanks Andre and Wendy for the “invite”. 

Friday, Nov.17 Camp Manze

We see a Cape Buffalo from the deck this moring and Giraffe as we sit for breakfast.

We meet Zack and Kamkumba at 7:45 for a full day safari. There will be another bush lunch.

While driving out, it always amazes me to see the number of Impalas around. We also see our first Hooded Guinea Fowl. They were a dime a dozen in Ruaha. We see another Pearl-Spotted Owl in a tree, 2 Yellow-Winged bats but they are too quick to photograph, 1 Crested Barbet hiding in a tree. We also take our first pictures of Zebras since leaving Ruaha. Again there are larger numbers over there. Zach somehow spots a Savannah Monitor Lizard in a tree. It camouflages itself so well as it is the same colour as the tree. We stop by a super large Baobab tree. It is about 2000 yrs old. Zach tells us about a family of 7 children and parents living in a Baobab tree. 

A Savannah Monitor Lizard

Watching the giraffes from our breakfast table

Pearl-Spotted Owlet

A Crested Barbet

Same one facing us this time

Huge Wart Hog

First Zebras spotted in Selous

Wart Hog family running away from us.

Huge Baobab tree with Wendy

Baby having a drink

We then see two adult and two young elephants having a mud bath. We drive through the Msile River as it is dry now. It will fill up during rainy season. We shoot a family of giraffes. The little one is very small compare to it’s parents.

Msile Dry River bed. Gets pretty full during rainy season. Hard to believe.

Family out for a stroll

For lunch we head for another side of the Tagalala river. On the way we see Blue-Cheeked Bee Eaters, an African Pied Wagtail, a Juvenile Fish Eater flying above us, and of course Hippos and Crocodiles in the water. We have lunch under a palm tree looking out at the river. It is pretty quiet out there today. We stay there lounging around for close to two hours. It is too hot to get back in the jeep and most of the animals are hiding under trees anyway.

African Pied Wagtail

King Fisher

A Giant King Fisher. Guide said that they hadn't seen any lately. 

Lunch spot: Tagalala River

Snooze after lunch

Juvenile Fish Eagle

When we do head out, Andre spot a lizard of some sort. No one is sure of its name. Zach will research it when we get back and tell us tomorrow. (Zach says he thinks it’s an Agama lizard because of the shape but this one has different colours than normal).  I don’t know how Andre saw it. It was low on the ground and very still. It had a blue head and an orange back. Then we see an African Darter. It amazes me that we are still seeing birds that we have not seen before. There’s just so much wildlife here.

An different coloured Agama lizard

African Darter and Fish Eagle

We then go to see the Hot Springs. It a little hike in the hills. It’s a little tricky walking with our flipflops but we all manage. On the way Zach warns us not to touch a particular twig as it is poisonous if it is broken. Of course, there are lots of them where we need to walk. The pools of water are awesome. People used to soak in there until someone saw a crocodile. We move up the hill as there are 3 different pools. They get warmer as we move up. The last pool was almost too hot to touch. A few seconds would be enough to leave your finger in there. We take a picture of a dead, big Blue-black moth called a Sunset moth, a Damsel, and a Dragon fly. We return to the jeep to continue our drive. 

First Hot Spring pond

Zach touching the water and explaining where the water is coming from.

In the trail, Ron had the most difficulty with these branches.

Second pool, even warmer, about 50 degrees Celcius

A dead Sunset moth

A Damsel

A Dragon Fly

Ron touching the very warm water. Hotter than our hot tub. 

Returning from the top of the trail.

Poisonous plant if opened. White sap inside.

For the rest of the afternoon we drive around looking for another pack of Wild Dogs or Lions, but nothing is spotted.  We do see an Immature Martial Eagle and a Palm-Nut Eagle perched in a tree. There are other Vultures and Eagles around as well. Our guide thinks that maybe there is a kill but we don’t find anything.

So much greenery in this section of Selous

Another Immature Fish Eale

The ride home is very quiet as we see Giraffes drinking, lots of Impalas, 5 Water bucks, and a One-horned Impala. 

Water Bucks and a photo bomb by an Impala

Two young Impalas

Can't get enough of this

On left, male Impala with one horn. Probably lost the other in a fight with another Impala

Back at the camp we have 1 hour to prepare. That’s the earliest we’ve been back all week. There’s still enough light to take a shower without the lantern for a change.

This is the sight from our tent after our showers.

 We decide to have Ginger Beer and Rum tonight. We all love the Ginger Beer. I will look for some at home, but pretty sure we won’t find any. While having our drinks Wendy yelps and then Ron does the same. The big ants are travelling under our seats. They say that it’s really painful. Millie brings over some antiseptic cream so try to soothe the pain. It’s the same international diversity at dinner tonight so a few different languages are spoken. While sitting at the table, Sean frequently flashes his light around. He spots a Bush Baby and gets us to come and look. It’s not easy to see it as it is high up in a palm tree but we finally get a good look. No photos though as it is also quite dark out.

Back to our tent around 9:30. Tomorrow we get up early to finish packing. We will have breakfast at 7 then leave directly after for our last ride before being taken to the airport around noon hour.