The night before the Serengeti, we stayed at heaven’s nature
campsite. We arrived well after dark and
finally found a use for our flashlights.
When in Tanzania, there are a few items you should always have on
hand. These items include: flashlight, tampon/pads,
antibacterial liquid &wipes, a hat, sunglasses and a neck/potty pillow…but
I digress.
Upon arrival, we were greeted with the usual jambos, after
which we were led to our tent(s). We
were told, 2 will stay in this one and that one over there shall host one. Ofcourse J, nat and I looked at each other wondering
who would draw the short straw. It was going
to be a long night for whom ever would be alone. So we did the only logical thing to do. We agreed to all snuggle our way into one
tent. Thankfully, the camp assistants
came to our aid and moved a mattress from one tent to the next. That night, my imagination went into high
gear as I imagined all the amazing animals I would see at the Serengeti.
At dawn, 5am, we woke up only to discover that the ‘other
tent’ the one that was described as that tent there over there was really one 10
feet away. The distance just seemed ominous
at night. OOPS. We had our first jungle
showers in warm water baths, and took off!
The route to the Serengeti was unbelievable. I imagine if God sneezed, and every single bacterium
sprouted into an animal, that is how the path would look. The land was littered
with wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, Ostriches, and warthogs, or Pumbas! I convinced the driver to stop every2 feel
which meant that we BARELY made the deadline for getting to the entrance and paying
our park fees. (3-330pm is the final
check in time.) Depressed I had missed ‘so
many’ photo opportunities, I looked forward to our journey. That day we headed straight to the camp and
set up home. Here we built our FIRST
tent. Infact, we built ours, our guide’s
and our cook’s tent at the Tumbili campsite. We had our dinners
under the dull glow of a fluorescent lamp and made our bathroom visits, and
went to sleep.
I was awoken in the middle of the night. “you guys, I”ve to pee.” You would THINK I would be annoyed at having
been woken up in the middle of the niht, but quite the contrary, I was thankful
because I awoke to a cacophony of hyena calls within meters of our tent, a
grunting wild buffalo, and an occasional lion yawn. Suddenly, the silence of the night was broken
by another voice. Our guide, whom we had
forced to position his tent within 1 foot of ours’ asked, “are you okay?” Of course J responded, “I’ve
to pee”… “don’t it’s not safe”… "ok, ok, I’ll try to sleep through it”…
Some 10-15 minutes must have passed as I dozed to the sounds
of the Serengeti when suddenly I heard, “you guys it’s only 130am! I’ve to pee” Finally we opened our tents and peered
cautiously out to see if we could sight these hyenas that seemed not too far
away. The stars twinkled, our LED
flashlight jetted from left to right to ensure no animals lurked around looking
for the next easy meal. When we deemed
the coast clear J skittered to the back of the tent, relieved herself, and the rest of
the night passed uneventfully.
I awoke at 5, caught the Serengeti sunrise, packed tents, ate
the food prepared by our chef, Obedi, and set up into the rising sun, jetting
into the Serengeti, or Endless Plains.
The Serengeti turned out to be less exciting than
anticipated. Animals were sparse and sightings were rare. Although we added a whole new set of previously
unseen animals (2 baby leopards on a tree, a Goma (a really large deer), a Dik
dik (a lil bambi like deer) and a Jackal, a pride of lions, an amazing hippopotamous pond, and a clan of babboons )this was nothing like the area just
prior to entering the Serengeti. Our
guide told us that since the migration process was just starting, all the
animals were JUST outside of the park rather than within the park. TO me the Serengeti reminded me of an abandoned
home, waiting to replenish itself and await the return of the animals in the
fall.
Baby Leopards playing on a tree while mama was away on a hunt
That evening upon our return, we found our cook to be in
immense pain! “obedi, whats wrong?” …wince,
stagger, sit, and point to chest… We had a language barrier, we
couldn’t understand what the matter was with obedi. All we knew was Obedi, our proud maasai
warrior and cook, was in such intense pain he couldn’t stand!
Was this Angina pectoris? Was this a muscle spasm? We waited as our tour guide translated it to
us. Obedi is in pain, explained
Joneson. He says it hurts to swallow and
that the pain is on the inside. I
took a quick medical hx which showed no significant findings, I checked
his pulse which was a steady rhythmic 62bpm, and I asked his when he attempted to lift a
heavy box through his pain if the process of lifting his arms above his
shoulders exacerbated his pain. Once
satisfied that he seemed stable, we gave him 800mg Ibuprofen, put him to rest
on a chair outside in the shade, gave him a blanket and told him to not
move. Suddenly, we found ourselves one
hand short. But, Hakuna Matata we said,
and set on to break down the tent, back up the kitchenware, and set off to
Ngorongoro Crater.
