Safari

While in Tanzania, we also got to go on Safari. We left the lovely island of Zanzibar, and flew to the Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania. Surprise, there are no major airlines that fly into this game reserve. Instead, we flew on very small plane, seating about 12. For one of the flights, one of our crew actually got to sit in the co-pilot seat. 

 

It was very cool to fly low enough over the landscape to get a good view of the terrain and what we were getting ourselves into. You can also see the grass landing strip we utilized to get close to our camp in the picture below. On our landing, a giraffe ran right in front of the plane, probably within 30 feet. It definitely got my heart pounding to be that close at that speed.

Clear of giraffe!

The camp had really nice facilities. There was a common area with a gorgeous deck and view of the river.

Shade was a necessity...

 They also had a bar built around a very old baobab tree (we were told thousands of years old).

We would go out early each morning (usually in a jeep but once in a boat). Then we would come back during the hottest part of the day and hang out at camp. In the evening we would go back out in the jeep looking for animals. It is really cool to be able to see the animals in their habitat.

Cape Buffalo - one of the big 5.

A hyena eating an impala. Don't look too close.

Mama giraffe and baby!

Baby baboon hitching a ride.

After dark and for our evening meal, we always had a guide escort us from our tent to the common area. Animals would routinely visit the camp, and this was a safety measure. Hippos would come into our camp every night, and we woke up on several occasions to the noises of their feeding. Hippos eat grass, and essentially have to spend all night grazing to consume enough.

Our tents and the hippos' lunch buffet.

Our "tent" was very nice. The camp was not grid connected, but ran a generator 2x day, which charged a battery for each tent. The battery would run lights and fans, but would drain after about 1.5 - 2 hours. That meant that you could have a fan running while you fell asleep, but that fan would stop and you would inevitably wake up in the middle of the night soaked in sweat with no relief.  It felt like you were trying to fall asleep in an oven.

Too hot for shirts.

One of our friends got a little heat stroke (at least, that is what a bunch of people without medical training self-diagnosed his symptoms as). His solution was to take a shower with his clothes on and then stand in front of a fan. Instant swamp cooler.

We did have a lot of down time in between our morning and evening safari times, so we did a lot of reading and a lot of crosswords.

It was also interesting to see a new part of Africa which looked very different from our corner of Zambia. This tree is believed to be thousands of years old. Pretty amazing.

Most people fly out of the game reserve back to Dar Es Salaam. Henry and I decided we would go by car. This turned into a pretty interesting road trip. As expected, nothing goes as expected. So of course we had to wait hours for our driver.

Waiting for our driver. Still waiting....

The rains had definitely made the roads deteriorate, and it was difficult going. The first 3-4 hours were on dirt roads, and our driver was definitely going faster than conditions indicated. Case in point: after hitting some pot holes pretty hard, the driver had to get out of the car to remove part of a now dragging bumper. Later, the driver had to wrap twine around a window that was being bumped loose. That trip destroyed that car. But we safely arrived.

Along this route I was desperately trying to get a signal on Henry's phone to check where I had matched for internship. I got enough of a signal at one point to know the information had been released, but it took another 30-45 agonizing minutes to actually get the correct e-mail to load. I was super excited to learn I had matched in Seattle and am grateful just to finally know what the next year will look like!