A knock on the door at 6 told us that it was 6 am. Breakfast
was at 6:40 so when we were ready we walked out to meet up with Wendy and Andre
and our host. There were rabbits, turtles, turkeys (which we heard around 5
am), and hens. We assumed the eggs that we were eating were pretty fresh.
Breakfast also included fresh watermelon juice, tea/coffee, water, toast, and
French toast. (I think that’s what it was)
At 7 am, we were in the van heading to the airport as our
flight was leaving at 8:30. We got off our side road only to crawl into
position behind a bus. A position we stayed in for 10-12 minutes. Finally we
saw movement and away we were. Luckily we were close by and were checked in by
8:00. Shorlty after, we were called up to walk to our 12 seater plane. There were 6 passengers and the pilot.
This is the airstrip when we arrived in Ruaha
This was our 12 seater airplane
This was our pilot. There was no co-pilot.
We were
air born for 35 minutes before landing to deposit the British couple and collect
6 more tourists. There was a French couple, a Scottish lady, and the rest were
British. We then flew for a little over an hour to drop off the French couple
and the last leg was only going to be about 12 minutes and thank God for that.
Ron and Wendy were both looking a little green. Because the distance was so
short, the pilot had to fly at low level and there is more turbulence there.
(Ron even had the barf bag out and ready) Phew if Ron had started not sure we
wouldn’t have all joined in.
Our driver and guides (one is a trainee) welcomed us off of
the plane. We found bathrooms then jumped into the jeep. We had 45 km to get us
to the camp, but it would take us 2 hours to get there. Ah well, hopefully we
would see wildlife. Sure enough as soon as we were back in the jeep, still on
the airstrip, we saw baboons and impalas.
Our first, but certainly not our last Impalas.
There were quite a few of them. First
pictures of many to come were taken. Our guides and driver are very nice and
aim to please. They will stop anytime we ask to take pictures or simply to look
around. We don’t drive too far before a couple of giraffe appear. It’s somewhat
hard to see them as they blend in with their surroundings. They haven’t had
much rain so everything is brown. We saw many different birds, the lilac
breasted roller, so cool to watch it fly with it’s colourful wings open. There
was also a young eagle, which looked like an osprey to us, some
turkey vultures and more. We saw lots more impalas, baboons, and a few more
giraffes along the way. At one point Wendy says:” ok, I’m ready to see
elephants now”. Not 5 minutes later and only about 10 minutes from the camp we
saw 2 older elephants. They were right on the side of the road. It was awesome.
They are so beautiful and graceful
The baboons were grooming each other.
Two big males
First Lilac-Breasted Rollers (too far away but we exited to take photos)
We had to continue as lunch was waiting and everyone was getting hungry. We
arrived shortly after 1 pm and met Rebecca and Andreas, our hosts. She is
Tanzanian, with British background and he is Italian. We get the low down on
the camp, a fresh drink of juice, and lunch. We meet up with the rest of the
tourists staying there. They are all from the UK. We all sit together at a long
table and chat. It was nice. We are the newbees to the camp. We are treated to
quiche, green salad, vegetable salad, fresh tea biscuits, and rice. You can
order beer and only Andre from our group does so. Dessert is a piece of
pineapple doused in a sugary sauce. I was quite full afterwards. Rebecca then
shows us to our tents. Wendy and Andre have # 1 and we are in # 2. The tents
are all alike. It’s divided in two sections. We have a nice sitting area outside
with a canopy over to protect us from the sun. We unzip the tent and walk into
our bedroom. There’s a small table with water, bug spray and other stuff on one
side, a little closet like area for our jackets and packs. Behind the bed is
were our clothes will shelter for our stay here. Then there is another zippered
area where we find the sink and vanity and the shower and toilet (without a
roof) We are advised to take showers before or after dinner as the water heats
up during the day by solar power. It cools off enough at night to have to start
the process over again every morning. Ron and I change into our shorts and sit
outside, me writing the blog and Ron snoozing and snoring.
Our home for the next 3 days.
Our bed inside the main area of the tent.
Our bathroom on one side.
Our shower on the other side.
Ron found the recliner pretty quickly.
Just looking at a
young group of impalas just outside our tent. And now a baboon. We will go out
on the jeeps for a tour around here around 4:30 for a few hours.
Very good start to our safari. We saw many 9 giraffes
together, 4 kudus, some zebras, elephants, and a jackal. It was amazing. Unfortunately, the
rains came and by the time we made it back to camp it was coming down pretty
hard. Rebecca was there with umbrellas waiting to greet us. It doesn’t work
great when I have to share an umbrella with someone twice my height, I get wet
anyway.
Elephant Dung burns on the back of the jeep to try to control the Tsetse flies.
A female Kudu
A monkey near out camp
Our first Zebras.
More Giraffes
A Jackal. A pretty elusive animal. Very lucky to see him on our first day.
We had nice warm, even hot showers, before relaxing and
meeting up with everyone at 7 for pre-dinner drinks. We chatted with John and
Rose-Marie, from Norfolk, UK for most of that time. They have been on many
safaris over the years, they even went on one for their honeymoon.
Dinner is served at 8 pm. We had mashed potatoes, curried
veggies, boeuf bourguignon, and an eggplant dish. Dessert was like a crème
brule. The Masai walked us back to our tents around 9:15 and it was off to bed.
One of the Masai at our camp.
I was awoken by Ron at some point during the night to point
out the silhouette of a giraffe hanging out around tent # 3. It was very cool.
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