Through the Seasons

Safari Njema

(Good Safari)

Well, we got back from the safari to Ruaha National Park safe and sound yesterday afternoon.  We spent the evening unpacking and getting settled back in.  Today we dove back into classes and now we’re totally beat.

The trip was good.  It was interesting to see the scenery between here and there.  It was a 3 hour bumpy ride.  On Saturday evening we got to the campsite and cooked pasta over an open fire.  The next morning we got started at 5:30am.  The drive to the park was a bumpy 30 minute drive.  We saw a few antelope and giraffe on our way there.  (The animals don’t know where the park boundaries are.)

In the park we saw hippos, crocodiles, a fish eagle, giraffe, antelope, dik-diks (dwarf antelope – so cute), warthogs, monkeys, elephants, buffalo, many birds, and another big animal that we’ve yet to identify.  I really wanted to see hippos and they were the first thing we saw.  Everything else was icing on the cake from there although it took us a long time to see elephants.  We saw lots and lots of elephant poo without seeing the animals themselves.  And they’re BIG.  For goodness sakes.

We drove around the park (which was also extremely bumpy – and extremely hot) for over 7 hours before finally stopping at a lodge for lunch.  We were SO tired of being in the car.  The food was good and really rejuvenated us so we’d feel like driving for a few more hours on our way out.  The lodge is called Mwagusi and the price to stay there is staggering!  For residents it is $130 per night PER PERSON.  For non-residents it is $390 per night PER PERSON.  It’s a nice place…um…without air conditioning and electricity is run off solar panels.  The animals come right through the lodge areas though so that’s cool.  We were fine with our $20 per night tent outside the park.  (It had real beds in it and the staff was wonderful!  It was also quiet and peaceful.)  Maybe one day the rates will come back down for the lodges inside and we’ll treat ourselves to a vacation.

The park gate closed at 6:00pm and we went back to the campsite for another pasta dinner.  This time the staff gave us extra food to go with it and our little scraps became quite the meal.  Jonathan and I were in bed at 8:45 that night and slept until 8:30 the next morning.  We had our breakfast of eggs, toast, and cereal then hit the (bumpy, hot) road for the 3 hour journey back to Iringa.

It was really fun to see the animals in the wild and to see them so close.  All the bouncing around a vehicle though I got very tired of and the heat was draining.  I’m sort of glad to be back in a familiar place.  I’m not sure when I’ll get back in a car again! 

We took about 1,000 photos and a few videos.  Jonathan will post the pics on the website soon.  (Don’t worry.  He won’t post them all!)