Tanzania Journal, part 4

In which our intrepid explorers get very dusty.

Tuesday

We spent about 10 hours in the jeep on Monday, and my back was killing me by the end. So on Tuesday morning I decided to stay back and skip the morning game drive.

I spent the morning with some prayer, some bird watching, some writing, and some conversation with Ivan, our attendant.

I did happen to see one creature who was new to me: a dwarf mongoose. A mongoose family patrols the camp, looking for snakes. Look how cute it is:

Ivan related an amusing anecdote from when he was 9. It seems his family was Christian, and all the kids spent a year in a short of catechism training. At the end of that time each child would get a new name, which they would use for the rest of their lives.

The process was this. The priest would send home a form stating that the child had completed the training, and asking the parents to choose two names from the Bible and write it on the form. The kids then bring this back to the priest and he would choose one of the two names, which would then be the childs permanent name.

Ivan related that his mother choose the names Adam and Samson. But Ivan did not like either one. He wanted a name from one of the American action movies he saw on TV. You see, only one man in the village had a TV, and he would let the kids come in and watch it they did a chore for him. The boys always wanted to watch action movies.So, on the way back to the priest, Ivan erased Adam and Samson and pencilled in Rambo and Schwarzenegger.

For some reason the old priest doubted that Ivan’s mom had chosen Rambo and Schwarzenegger. The cynic. He asked Ivan about it, but Ivan lied. Finally the priest said, "your mother did not choose these names. I will choose a name for you.”

And Ivan it was.

By the way, as an adult now, Ivan is glad he does not have to introduce himself as Schwarzenegger; Besides, the name wouldn’t fit on his nametag.

Anyway Ivan and I had a great conversation. He asked many questions about the United States, and especially about snow. He just could not wrap his mind around it. I tried explaining as much as I could but some things you just have to experience.

The rest of the crew had a great game drive. They saw a lion steal a antelope carcass from the cheetah who killed it. A lioness hunting (unsuccessfully). A vulture eating a wildebeest head. A cute family of bat-eared foxes. And a family of lions sleeping in the shade.

After lunch and a rest we had the evening game drive. We headed to check out a cheetah sighting. Cheetahs are scarce, and hard to find. Only leopards are more elusive.

We found a cheetah mother with two cubs laying in the shade of a tree. It was hard to get a good picture.

We drove on after a while and spotted two male lions on a high rock.

On our way home we watched as the sun dropped in the western horizon.

Wednesday morning

This was a travel day of sorts. We packed up and got into the jeep for a three hour trek to our next abode: a migration camp owned by the same company.

The wildebeests and zebras follow a circular migration pattern and some predators follow them. The camp we headed to was in the south part of this migration loop. In April they pack up the whole camp and move it north, then pack it up again in the fall and set up in the south again.

Our Fearless leader Sarah had never been to the migration camp before, so we didn’t know what to expect. Here is what we should have expected about the drive: dust, dust and more dust.

The whole trip is on dirt roads, and, unless it is right after a rain, each vehicle stirs up a mini-tornado of dust. Our vehicle was open sided, and every time a vehicle went the other way you were all of a sudden in a brown blizzard. By the time we reached the migration camp our arms and faces had a nice layer of dust, which Eugene called “bush makeup”.

But we did manage to see some wonderful animals on the drive. Here are two lionesses who were hanging out just a few feet from the road.

We also ran across a small herd of elephants.

We settled in to our new gifts and got ready for an evening game drive. More about that next time