Last Night at Selous Game Reserve

Goodbye Asilia

Our morning started around 4 am with a gentle wake up ‘jumbo’. We finished packing our bags and left our camp to drive almost 3 hours to the airstrip. It was completely dark and very humid and chilly this morning. The boys slept a little bit but surprisingly stayed awake more than I expected. While on our drive, we saw a huge hippo walking across the middle of the road. I guess our presence startled him because he began to run and for his massive size, he can really move!!!

We also saw a ton of bush rabbits- they look like regular bunnies but with taller ears and slender bodies. While driving in our open air safari jeep, a bird flew in above our drivers head. The vehicle does have a cover on it so the bird got stuck for about 30 seconds in the vehicle. It was flying around frantically trying to find its way out. All of us ducked our heads in fear of getting smacked in the face by this bird. Finally, once the bird flew away, Finn says, that would be pretty sad if we got hurt by a small dove in Africa. Of all the animals to get injured by, this little bird would definitely be the most embarrassing to tell everyone back home!

We were also fortunate enough to see a serval crossing the road while we were driving this morning. A serval looks like a leopard or cheetah but is only the size of our puppy, Kai. After driving for almost 3 hours on bumpy, dirt roads, we finally made it to the airstrip! Now we are the only people (besides the pilot) on our plane heading to the central Serengeti.

Last Night at Selous Game Reserve

On our last night, the staff at the camp did a traditional song and fire dance that the local tribe here does on special occasions. Everyone was singing and smiling wide smiles the entire time! The boys were shy but eventually joined in on the singing and dancing. After the celebration, we were getting ready to walk back to our tent and 2 massive bull elephants walked directly between where we are standing and the staffs ‘kitchen’ area. They walked past the bush tv (fire pit) and knocked over several of the chairs. Omar yells at another staff to ‘turn the flash light off, he will charge at you if you shine the light in his eyes’. After the elephants passed by, we made our way back to our tent. All night long we continued to hear hippos singing and elephants trumpeting . I don’t know how we will ever be able to sleep without the sound of wild animals to sing to us every night!

Coffee

Omar, who has been our waiter for our entire stay at this camp, taught the boys a new Swahili word. Coffee, in Swahili, means - slap in the face. Of course Nash and Finn found this to be hilarious and kept asking him to give them 10 coffees. It became quite the joke around the camp for the boys to ask any staff if they would like some coffee. By the end of our 4 days here, I was ready to give the boys some coffee if they didn’t stop making that joke with anyone and everyone they saw!!! Omar has a great sense of humor! Some of the people here are very kind but also very serious and sometimes the jokes get lost in translation.

Sacred Tree

During our time here at Nyerere National Park, we have noticed so many different rivers and lakes that flow all over this park. Well, in Africa, where there is water there is also Nile Crocodiles. We were very curious to learn how the local villages and tribes get water from the rivers and lakes.with all these crocs around. Our guide, Goodluck, told us that the local tribe here believes that if you make a special carving into this 1 specific tree then their god will protect them from predators. As we were heading back to the front entrance of the park, he pointed out this tree to us. He also said that sometimes the children wear ‘blessed’ necklaces to keep them safe.

Acacia Trees

Along our travels in this park, we noticed several acacia trees had been completely knocked over by the elephants. Finn asked Goodluck ‘why are the elephants mad at those trees?’ Goodluck says ‘At the top of the acacia trees are special medicines that help the elephants stomach. Also, other animals can’t reach the top of them so the elephants are also helping smaller antelopes get this special medicines.’ Mother Nature has a way of taking care of itself.

Golden Baboon

In this area of Tanzania, the baboons have more of a golden color to them vs normal brownish color. The baboons loved eating the fruit directly about our tent. During the day, I could look up and see around 20-25 of them playing, eating, pooping, and just interacting in their natural environment. If they heard the boys laughing or playing loudly, they would disappear in the tree. Once every thing was quiet again, they would slowly come back out. The babies always secured a free ride by clinging onto their mother’s backs or stomachs. The father baboon was quick to defend his territory or children if other male baboons came near. That was the most intense noise and fight we have seen thus far. A male baboon was coming too close to another’s family- several of the family members began chasing and fighting this guy. Goodluck told us if he defeats the dominant male, then he will take over and often times kill all the youngsters because they are not his. Nash fell in love with the baby baboons and kept asking if we can bring one home. I reminded him why we could never do that after watching this battle take place.  I asked Goodluck if the females ever fought and he said ‘No, never. They even help each other out by nursing each other’s infants and sharing the food they find’.  Even with animals, it’s the men who cause all the trouble!

Southern Serengeti

Our guide was telling us the reason why many animals, especially wildebeest and zebras, give birth in the Southern Serengeti. When the animals are pregnant and about to give birth, they eat all the grass in this area because it is full of nutrients. All the rain flows through Ngornongoe crater -which is an old volcanic crater and picks up special minerals and nutrients from the old volcanic soil and then drains down into the southern Serengeti grasslands. These nutrients allow the newborn calves to survive without their mother’s milk. Most newborns cannot survive without their mother’s milk. Because of the circle of life, wildebeest die so quickly around here, these animals use Mother Nature to help them survive.

Grumeti Hills

We’ve spent the last 2 nights at Grumeti Hills Camp. The camp is on the top of the Grumeti mountains overlooking the grasslands. We’ve been watching zebras, wildebeest and giraffes walk down in the plains. The staff of this camp are all from the local village and are very kind, but have slightly different standards than the US. For example, yesterday, we were eating our picnic lunch in the middle of the Serengeti, I took apart my sandwich to remove the cheese (personal preference) and I happened to notice tons of bugs were all in the bread and meat. I quickly took away the boys food and gave them a bottle of soda to have for lunch. The other options in our sack were very questionable as well. While we were eating, both Nash and I got fire ants running up our pants and we were both slapping them away and trying not to pull them off completely- whole new meaning to having ‘ants in your pants’ when you are dancing around in the middle of the Serengeti watching the wildebeest migration trying not to scream or attract predators.

After a full, bumpy day of driving around in the Serengeti, we finally get back to camp. I think Paul would have rather slept outside than in our ‘room’ because of all the bugs in our bed, bat poop covering the floor, lizards and geckos crawling along the walls and the spiders, millipedes and other unidentifiable creatures crawling along the floor- let’s not forget about the misquotes eating Nash alive.

We have discovered there are bats living in the roof of our hut. Paul hears them returning to their home between 3-4 am and every morning we see fresh poop on the floor and our luggage. Everyone here is sooooo nice and accommodating but…. for health and safety concerns, we are trying to find a different place to stay. Paul’s main concern is if this is what is happening in our room can you imagine what’s going on in the kitchen. We are completely reliant on this camp for all of our food, water, snacks, etc. The boys have been living off of glass sofas (that we open and clean the top) and bread - as long as we don’t see bugs in them- for the past 48 hours. It’s better than risking them getting some sort of parasite- which Paul got last time we were in Africa and was insanely sick for months, even after taking several rounds of antibiotics and other meds.

Ok, enough complaining now on to the good parts of being here!

As soon as we landed here 2 days ago, we were greeted by a group of children on a school field trip. The teacher told us the kids were in Year 4 and from a school an hour away. Part of their field trip is stopping by this airstrip to meet the pilots and see these planes. We got a chance to talk to the kids and the boys gave them some soccer balls. I also gave the teacher some of the school supplies we brought. They were very excited and it was such a good experience for the boys to witness the true joy all of these children had on their faces from such a small gift.