Our Second Safari

Monday

We have returned from Lake Manze Camp in the Selous Game Reserve.  What an incredible experience.  The camp was a set of 12 tents plus a main meeting/eating/bar area that was covered with a thatch roof.  The camp is in the middle of nowhere as we had to fly into a dirt airstrip to get here.  As soon as we landed we saw a bunch of impalas and there was even a baboon walking on the runway!  A game guide and driver picked us up and we saw giraffes and hippos before even leaving the airstrip.  On the way back we saw a pride of lions eating a wildebeest, a pair of African wild dogs, buffalo, and more!

Our tent was this two room tent with the bed area fully enclosed (keeps mosquitoes out).  Nice comfy queen sized bed.  And the back room was the sink, toilet, and shower which was mostly open to the stars!!  Showering under the stars is a real treat.  :-)

There was a lake about 30 yards from our tent.  You could see a see hippos most of the time.  Grunt grunt!!  At dusk they creep up out of the water in search of food.  We saw their footprints and they are HUGE!!  At dawn they all slink back to the lake single file in their awkwardly graceful way.  

We had strict rules NOT to leave our tents after dark.  Any animal could show up at any time...from our tent we saw baboons, snakes, hippos, and impala.  The camp had several Masai men that were responsible for animal control and for escorting people to their tents.  The Masai carried no guns just a stick, club thing, long knife, and walkie talkies.  They were all dressed in the traditional red material.

One day we did a walking safari.  We did not see many animals but around every corner our guide showed us something interesting about footprints, poop, animal trails, or plants.  In the walk it was just Dave and I with our game guide, a game guide in training, one guy with a rifle, and another security type guide too.  We walked single file with Dave and I in the middle.

We did a boat ride too.  We saw at lot of hippos, crocodiles, and tons of birds.  We even got charged at by a hippo! He was too far away to be a real threat though (did you know hippos can't swim but have to walk on the bottom?).

The food at camp was decent.  All the other campers were friendly and from all around the world.  And thus is crazy...on the last day we met a gal who lives in seattle in the same neighborhood as us...and get this she lives on the SAME street, Mary Ave!!  What a small small world!!  We took her house number and plan to walk up there after we get back home. The staff was very friendly.  I tried to make use of the 20 Swahili words I learned ha ha.

Sorry it's another long post!  Next we spend two nights in Amsterdam before heading back to Seattle.  My company has a branch there so I get to take a tour today.