November 15 - Our First Game Drive

 We left at 7:30 and entered the Selous National Park (now called Nyereere National Park)  On the way to the park entrance we caught a quick glimpse of an elephant. As we entered the park you drive along a dusty road used by lots of big trucks as they are building a huge hydroelectric dam 130 km into the park.  All the trucks stop when they see a safari vehicle to keep us safe and to keep the dust down as we pass.  Very respectful of tourists.  There are many roads for us to take off the main road.  I don't know how our guides know the way, but they expertly brought us to the animals, mostly to lakes and watering holes every day.  The number of animals is just unbelievable.  Because it is usually hot and dry right now, all the animals are concentrating around the water, so we are very fortunate.  Here is an example of what we saw today, most in many numbers.

  • Savannah Baboons
  • Yellow Lace Baboons
  • Elephants
  • Bushbuck
  • Kudu 
  • Warthogs
  • Banded Mongoose
  • Common Waterbuck
  • Zebra
  • Lions
  • Cape Buffalo
  • Hippos
  • Crocodiles
  • Giraffes
  • Hartebeest
  • Impala by the hundreds
  • Wildebeest
  • Waterbuck
  • Southern Ground Hornbill
  • Marshall Eagle
  • Palm Nut Vulture
  • Goliath Heron
  • Great White Egret
  • Yellow-billed stork
  • Lilac-breasted roller
  • Fish Eagle
  • Yellow Cheeked Plover
  • Maribou Stork
  • Pelicans
  • Beeeater
We had a picnic lunch near the largest Baobab Tree you've ever seen.  There was a little palm leaf shelter there so we could be in the shade.
On the way back to our camp, our vehicle suffered a broken drive shaft.  It could not be repaired on the spot, so we loaded into 1 vehicle and carried on to camp with Cornelius and Ken on the roof.  Steven, stayed with his vehicle and Rashidi drove back to help him limp it back to the village.  They fixed it good enough for the next day and ordered new parts for the next evening when they made a good repair to return it to 4 wheel drive.  
We were hot and dusty from our day so went straight to the pool, then to the bar for a beer before supper which was at 7:30.  We had a really fun eveing answering the question 'What is the craziest thing you've ever done?'  Lots of laughing.  















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

November 18 - Mikumi National Park

Image
 We started our game drive at 7:30 a.m.  The water hole was just incredible.  Herds of all different kinds of animals were coming and going all at the same time.  We saw giraffes, warthogs, elephants, hippos, wildebeest and crocodiles.  More that I'm not remembering.  We stayed there quite a long time. Then we drove more through the park to try to spot a leopard.  That was not successful.  We had a picnic lunch at a beautiful spot with concrete tables and chairs that was built in preparation for a visit from Obama in 2013.  The previous waterhole was also dug for that event and a concrete fence was made to look like tree bark.  Unfortunately, that trip was canceled but the improvements are being well used.   We returned to the lodge singing most of the way including Christmas carols.  We had split up into guys and girls for this game drive.  Steven and Rashidi drew straws to pick who got to have the girls.  Rashi...
Read more

November 24 - Back to Dar es Salaam

Image
 We were up at 4:30 this morning and ate quickly at 5.  We wanted to be on the road by 5:30 as the trip to Dar es Salaam is 320 km.  The drivers thought 8 hours would be required and we have a nurse coming at 4 p.m. to our hotel to do the covid tests for our return to Canada.  The first part of the trip was all roads under construction and we did that in the cool of the morning.  The rest of the trip was paved roads, but there are constant speed bumps, villages to slow down for and trucks that can't go fast.  Then there are endless buses that pass whenever they want, motorcycles loaded with people or products, little tuktuk vehicles and lots of pedestrians.  We saw so many school children in uniforms walking to and from school, and young men hanging out at the edges of roads, some on their motorcycles, some at the village centre.  So many women carrying water and babies, doing laundry, sweeping yards and front steps.  So much garbage, dirt, d...
Read more

November 20 - Game Drive in Ruaha

Image
 Our breakfast was outside at 6:30 a.m.  First a bowl of fresh fruit with fruit juice.  Then a plate of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and beans.  This place has the best food yet.  We left for our game drive at 7:15 a.m.  We are about 5 km from the park.   After going through the entrance to the park, which always has paperwork in Tanzania, we quickly came to the Ruaha River which is pretty much dry.  There were 2 deep pools of water where we found hippos, crocodiles, maribou storks, herons and pelicans.  The rest of the day we had to look really hard to find anything.  The new things we did see were a little antelope called a Creep Springer which can climb rock like a goat, a dicdic which is rather like a rabbit and a lesser kudu.  We saw lots of new birds:  a male and female vonder decker hornbill, crowned hornbill, red bill hornbill, barefaced goaway, black-bellied bustard, crested francolin, African ruff, Ostrich, brown pa...
Read more