Day Forty Seven

It’s been difficult to find both the time and energy to sit down and write about our weekend safari to Mikumi National Park, but I decided I should get to it sooner rather than later.

On Friday, we left Dar es Salaam and headed west (because we certainly couldn’t head east) toward the heart of the country. It took about 4 or 5 hours to get there. The drive itself was fine. May slept most of the way, so there was some silence. In Morogoro, we stopped to see one of the vehicles belonging to Dr. Sabet’s company. One of the engineers and his driver had been in a wreck a few days earlier. The car looked pretty bad, and you could definitely tell it had rolled several times.

When we arrived in Mikumi, we went through the ordeal of paying the park fees. It turned out to be one of the less expensive parks, which is a good thing. I hear that the fees for the Serengeti have gone up so much that it’s USD $100 per person per day! Supposedly they’re actually trying to discourage tourists because the government is so conservation minded that they want to reduce the impact of humans on the area. They’ll probably make up the lost money on what the ultra-rich tourists spend in the extremely posh lodges and things in the park. I guess it’s a good thing the government is worried about the impact of humans on the parks but there are plenty of contradictions in the policy, like catering to rich Westerners and others who want to come in and shoot lions and elephants and whatnot.

We headed to our safari camp, Vuma Hills, in the pouring rain. The camp is situated on a hill above the park, which offers a fantastic view of the broad savannah. When I woke up every morning, I could step onto the deck and survey one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. We spent lunch worrying about whether or not the rain would stop, but by the time we finished and socialized a bit with the other people staying at the camp the rain had stopped and the sun came out. It gave us enough time to learn that lions had been spotted along one of the roads. So, we loaded up and headed for the park.

At the gate, Dr. Sabet stopped to have a conversation with the guard. I should note that Kiswahili speakers mix up their L’s and R’s a lot. For some reason, they also add an “I” on the end of things, which is pronounced like “ee,” so “chips” become “chipsee.” Dr. Sabet went through this whole conversation with the man switching the L’s and R’s without him even noticing. “Have you seen the rions? They’re down the load? Are they beside the load? So, we go past the blidge and then we’ll see the rions by the load?”

The first things we saw were, of course, antelope, gazelles, and impalas. I don’t know how to tell the difference, really. To me they all look like the same thing, just some have horns and some don’t. They’re everywhere, so I don’t think any lion could ever go hungry in Mikumi. We also saw a bunch of really ugly birds. They kind of looked like a genetic experiment gone wrong, like a cross between a flamingo and a vulture. They liked to get in the middle of the road and then run, not fly, in front of you. It was kind of funny to watch those spindly little legs try to carry that big body.

After traveling down the road for some distance I was beginning to wonder whether we’d see the lions, but then we spotted two stopped cars, so we knew they must have been up ahead. When we arrived, the lions were right next to the road, maybe ten feet away from the car. There were six of them, all female, and they had a cub with them. We probably stayed there for an hour and a half watching them. The cub was playing with the grumpy, napping adults the whole time, and one of the younger adults was playing with her tail. She was laying on her side, so she’d dart her tail at her head like a snake and then snap at it with her mouth or try to pin it down with her paw. Apparently it’s pretty rare to see so many lions, especially with a cub, so close to the road in Mikumi, so we were very fortunate. They were just amazing to watch, especially when they turned to look at you. One of them was constantly rolling on her back and spreading her legs all awry, which led Mrs. Sabet to comment that she needed to go through Ruhi to gain some self-respect. =P

They were so beautiful and so close that you just wanted to reach out and touch them, even though you’d come back without a hand. In fact, Mrs. Sabet got a little too courageous. She wasn’t satisfied with the picture she was getting of one of the lions, which was a few feet from her door, so she opened the door a crack. The lion didn’t like that too much, so she jumped up, opened her mouth in a snarl, and hunched down in a pouncing position. If she’d wanted to, she could have jumped on the car before we could do anything, but she hesitated long enough to let Mrs. Sabet close the door and Dr. Sabet to floor the accelerator. My heart was beating a hundred miles an hour!!

Because the batteries to my camera had died, Dr. Sabet needed some medicine, and we were all a little stirred up from the lion encounter, we decided to head back to the camp for a little bit. When we returned, we decided to try to go to the Hippo Pool, which is where the hippos congregate (obviously). However, when we got to the Hippo Pool road, there was a bit of a traffic jam. Two cars had stopped and then suddenly the front one started backing up. When we got into a better position to see, we noticed a big bull elephant was in the middle of the road, flapping his ears at us. Apparently he was using the road at the moment and he wasn’t too happy about the human presence. He just kept easing forward, occasionally shaking his tusks back and forth and flapping his ears, until he was satisfied that all the cars were well enough out of the way.

Since the elephant wasn’t letting us through, we decided to drive around a bit until he was gone and then head back to the Hippo Pool. When we finally arrived at the Hippo Pool, two of the hippos were engaged in a bit of a fight. I managed to snap a picture before they finished. They stay in the water almost all day, so all we saw were a bunch of hippo backs, hippo ears, and hippo eyes. When they get out of the water at night, they’re mean, so we didn’t really want to stick around to see any more than that.

After watching the sunset, we started to head back to the camp, but we stopped to view an elephant family beside the road. They were really close, but they weren’t acting too belligerent so we were able to get some pictures. The biggest one siddled up close to the car and started eating grass, but you could see that he was watching us out of the corner of his eye.

Back at the camp, we were given two tents: one for Dr. & Mrs. Sabet and one for me and May. As May and I were getting ready for bed, she decided she didn’t want to sleep away from her parents. She was “scared.” I guess that’s normal for a nine year old, but I thought her parents might like some time to themselves, so I told her I didn’t want to sleep by myself. Turning it around so she could be self-sacrificing and seem to be the better person, she decided that she could suffer through a night of separation for my sake. The second night didn’t work out quite as well. She wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, so off she went to her parents’ tent. I settled in for a nice quiet night when she came slinking back, saying her mother had sent her back for my sake. After a pillow fight, she was content enough to go to sleep.

On our second day, we explored some more. We came upon a family of elephants with a baby so young that he could hardly walk. He sort of hobbled wherever he needed to go, occasionally falling down in a flop of ears and trunk. His ears were practically half the size of his body! They were surprisingly docile for having a baby with them, so we were able to watch them while they ate grass on one side of the road, crossed, and then munched on the other side. Sometimes they’d get a piece of grass that wasn’t good or had too much mud on it, so they’d fling it over their head and it would land on their backs, so you frequently saw elephants walking around with nests of dried grass on their backs.

In addition to seeing more elephants and some giraffes, we managed to find the lions again. They were in a little more remote spot and not beside the road, but we got to see them play with the cub a little more. On the way back from the lions, we got a little adventurous and turned down a muddy road where we promptly got stuck. May climbed on top of the car to signal some of the people near the lions, and Dr. Sabet bailed out of the car to go meet the people who were coming to help us. I couldn’t believe he did that! Just got out of the car, barefoot, and started walking down the road in the middle of an African national park! There are so many things outside the car that can kill you, not the least of which were the lions 50 meters away. A safari guide named Julius came and managed to get our car out of the mud. I hate to admit it, but I was freaking out the entire time as every bad thing that could possibly happen to us flashed before my eyes.

Before going back to the camp, we went to Mikumi Town for petrol. Mrs. Sabet wanted some lotion, so we went to some of the shops. Dr. Sabet went to look for it, and then came back with two angry Africans in tow. May translated for us, telling us that they were upset because they claimed Dr. Sabet came into their restaurant yesterday, ordered some chips (French fries), and then never came to pick them up! And they weren’t just slightly upset, they were pissed. Dr. Sabet explained that just as many mzungus think all black Africans look the same, many black Africans think all mzungus look the same, so they probably got him confused with someone else.

Back at the camp, most of the evening was spent sitting patiently in the restaurant while May tried to arrange something for my birthday, which was Saturday. She tried to convince the owner to make me a cake, and then to put a candle in my dessert, and then to give me something from the gift shop. Since nothing is free in Tanzania, she finally broke down and bought me a T-shirt from the gift shop. It was a very kind and unexpected gesture from her. I felt bad that everything she tried to do seemed to fail, but she was persistent and she wasn’t going to give up until she did something for my birthday. The rest of the evening, we all played cards and told stories on the deck.

The next day, we got to see quite a few giraffes and zebras when we took a road closer to our camp. The baby elephant and the lions were amazing, but I think my favorite animal was the giraffe. As Dr. Sabet said, “They’re so majestic, so graceful…just like Naomi Campbell.” I’ve seen them in the zoo plenty of times, but nothing compares to seeing them in the wild. They’re so curious! They just stand by the roadside and stare at you the whole time you’re staring at them. Some of the younger ones will run, which looks hilarious, but the older ones know that cars aren’t much of a threat so they just stop eating and watch you.

The trip back was shorter than the trip there. Most of the time May was asleep with her head on my shoulder or in my lap, and when she wasn’t sleeping she was messing with me. I was in a pretty good mood, so I didn’t mind too much. Dr. Sabet related yesterday that we’re very much like brother and sister, and he’s slipped up a few times and referred to me as her brother. They have all been amazingly generous and kind to me since the day I arrived, welcoming me as part of the family and giving me an experience that’s less like a year of service and more like a vacation. Although they’re financially blessed, it doesn’t diminish my gratitude for every bit of generosity they extend my way.

All in all, it was the most amazing birthday I’ve ever had! I’ve always dreamed of traveling the world, seeing the sights, hearing the sounds, and meeting the people, but I never really thought in my wildest dreams I’d be presented with the opportunity to do it. It still seems a little surreal. Be sure to check out my Flickr account for pictures of the trip.