EPIC Africa Vacay pt.2 Selous Safari

SAFARI
Arriving in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is when our trip started taking a turn for the worse. This was the part of the trip that we had actually arranged through a travel agency, which meant that someone was supposed to be with us every step of the way, but when we stepped out of the airport, there was no one waiting for us. Misol used her awesome living-in-Africa skills to ask a random taxi driver to call the local contact given to us by the travel agency. He of course had no idea who we were or anything about our airport transfer, but he did arrange for the taxi driver to take us to our hotel.
Dar es Salaam seemed similar to Maputo – very urban but rundown. Our hotel, though, was really nice. But when we tried to check in, first they had trouble finding our reservation, and then they said our room wasn’t ready. We finally made it into our room, which was pretty swanky. It was a 1 bedroom/1.5 bathroom suite, and the bathroom was amazing. Too bad we were only there for less than 24 hrs.
By the time we settled in, it was already 9 PM, so we headed down to the restaurant to grab a quick dinner. Little did we know that we were in for a nightmare dining experience. Mommy ordered bouillabaisse, and Misol and I ordered a couple of Indian dishes (I guess Indian food is pretty popular in Tanzania). We waited – no joke – over an hour for our food to arrive. And when it came out, Mommy’s soup was so salty that she had to ask for hot water to dilute it, and our Indian potato pancakes were burnt on the bottom. But luckily, our butter chicken, rice and naan were delicious. And then the chef, the restaurant manager, and various other people started coming out to apologize for the wait and the bad food, and when we finally left (after another long wait to get our check), they took the 2 bad dishes off the bill. So I guess that was good.
The next morning, the bad vibes continued. The night before, the hotel reception guy had told me that he talked to our travel agency and that our driver would pick us up at 7 AM. So we woke up early, grabbed a quick breakfast and went out to meet our driver. But of course, no one showed up to get us – again! Luckily, one of the hotel workers took pity on us and arranged for a private car to take us to the airport. Also, the hotel front desk guy – after much trouble and confusion – had been able to print out our plane tickets for the charter flight to Selous, so we were able to get check in for our flight without any problems. There was a strict 15 kg weight limit on our bags, and we just barely made it – Mommy’s bag snuck in at 14 kg. Haha.
Our plane was a little Cessna that was big enough for about 12 people plus the pilot and co-pilot, but it was just us and another couple. The flight itself was only about 35 mins. And once again, when we landed, there was no one to meet us. But one of the guides from a different camp called our camp for us and found out that our car was on its way. So we waited at the airstrip (which was literally just a strip of dirt, with a couple of benches near by), but during our wait, we saw a bunch of giraffes and impalas (kind of like gazelles). We even saw a lone elephant, which is apparently a big deal b/c elephant are hard to find. Our car showed up about 30 mins. later, but he was dropping off a family, and he couldn’t leave until they left, so we ended up waiting like another hour until their plane came.
So after about 2 hours, we were finally able to leave the airstrip with our guide Rashid. We traveled in a special safari jeep – the seats are elevated, and the back is open, but with a tent to provide shade. The drive to the camp took about an hour, but it was a mini-game drive b/c our guide would stop and point out cool animals along the way. We saw more giraffe and impala, as well as hippos, crocodiles, black faced monkeys, wildabeest, and a waterbuck! It was pretty cool. And then our camp is situated on the other side of the Rufiji River, so we had to then transfer to a small motor boat to take us across.
We’re staying at the Selous Wilderness Camp, which is really nice. Tonight, we’re the only guests in the camp because everyone else checked out today. Our tent is awesome. There are 3 twin beds, electricity, a toilet, 2 sinks, and a cool outdoor shower. There’s even a hammock on the patio. I took a shower before dinner, and it was so cool – being outside, stars in the sky, while you’re taking a shower is so cool. (Mommy, on the other hand, is too scared to shower in the dark. And what neither of them realize is that this ‘tent’ was like a mansion compared to my house so I was in HEAVEN!!)
After a lovely nap, we went out for a river safari with Rashid. We didn’t go that far, but we saw baby crocodiles, lizards, and lots of hippos. We also saw these beautiful birds, green with red/orange/yellow/blue highlights. After riding around for a while, we docked at a sandbank for a “sundowner.” That’s where they set up a table and chairs in the middle of nowhere and serve beer, cocktails and other drinks while you watch the sun go down. So cool!
Once we got back to the camp, we got ready for dinner. Here, when it gets dark, it’s pitch black outside, so they have Masaai (indigenous African people) who escort you throughout the camp after dark. We’re the only guests in the park tonight, so they set up a table for us right by the pool, overlooking the river (except that it was so dark that we couldn’t see anything past the lantern light on our table). Dinner was a spicy gazpacho, kingfish with a garlic butter sauce and basil rice, and crème caramel with peppermint tea. We also ordered a bottle of South African white wine. It was a great meal. And now we’re back in our tent, getting ready to play some GoStop. We probably won’t stay up that long b/c we breakfast is at 7 AM so that we can go on our full day safari ride.
On Tuesday, we went on a full day game drive, which meant that we had to wake up around 6:30 AM. It was still dark out, and there was so much noise in the area around our tent. After breakfast (fruit, eggs, bacon, toast, juice, coffee/tea), we took the ferry over to our car. The roads are not much more than dirt paths, so driving is extremely bumpy. Our guide Rashid was awesome – he knows so much about everything in the park – the animals, the birds, the plants, etc. In one day, we saw giraffes, impala, zebra, wildebeest, elephants, hyenas, lions, crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, kudu, tons of different birds, black faced monkeys, baboons, waterbucks, mongoose, and warthogs. We also saw some crocodiles feeding on a dead elephant. Some of the animals are very skittish, so they start running as soon as they see us. But others just kind of stand/lie there watching us, trying to figure out whether or not we’re a threat. When we came across the family of lions, we drove up until we were maybe 10 feet away – it was so cool! Lunch was a “picnic” in the middle of the bush. In the distance, we could see a herd of impala watching us. Rashid set up a table (but no chairs) and set out a meal of cheese and tomato sandwiches (on stale bread), potato egg salad (with egg shells), and chicken wings. Mommy was *very* dissatisfied with our meal, but Misol thought it was delicious. (it’s true, I’ll eat anything and think it’s God’s gift to the world!) We discovered that Mommy has a special safari talent: Every time she would say, “I wish we could see __________,” that animal would appear out of nowhere. It was quiet useful. We didn’t get back from our drive until around 6 PM, and then there was a snafu with the ferry (our camp only owns one boat, and another group got back late), so we ended up having to cross the river in the dark. Mommy was SO NOT HAPPY. She kept thinking that a hippo was going to attack our boat. Haha. But we made it safely back to the camp. After dinner, we were all so tired that we crashed pretty much right away, and all of us slept through the night with no problem. (Most of the other nights both mommy and miray were afraid that the little geckos, ants, spiders were going to attack them in their sleep haha)
On Wednesday, we wanted to go on a walking safari, which is best in the morning, so we had to wake up at 5:30 AM. It was pitch black outside and we were still really tired from the day before, but we dragged ourselves out of bed. After a quick cup of coffee, Rashid took us in the boat to the park entrance, where we were met by a park ranger (equipped with a gun and best of all his name was Goodluck) and a park guide. The walking safari was really cool and very educational. We didn’t see too many animals because they ran away as soon as they saw us, but we learned a lot about various things in the park. It’s amazing how much the park workers know about everything in the park – there’s a certain swallow that always builds its nest on the northeast side of the tree in order to face the rising sun; elephants roll around in the mud and then rub against trees in order to get rid of bugs; other animals follow hippo tracks because they always lead to water. After our walk, we all took a long nap, ate lunch and then got ready for a river safari in the afternoon. We saw a hippo fight and lots of beautiful birds. When we got back to our camp, we saw a huge group of baboons right in the middle of our camp. After dinner, we played GoStop and Big 2 (because it wouldn’t be a Gweon Family vacation without card games).
Thursday was our last day in the bush. Rashid was out with another family, so our guide for the day was Kiki. In the morning, we went on another river safari. At one point, the water was so shallow that we got stuck in a sandbank and the boat driver had to get in the water to push us back out. We didn’t see that much stuff – some crocs and lizards, but it was really relaxing. Went we got back to camp, the group of baboons was playing on the beach right in front of our camp, and Misol walked right up to them. After lunch, we went on our last game drive. We saw lots of hippos out of the water, which is pretty cool cause you usually only see them in the water. We also went back to the dead elephant, and it was surrounded by a swarm of crocs – probably about a hundred! We saw one HUGE crocodile out on land – he was probably full from eating because he didn’t move the entire time we were there. It was also Baboon Day because they were EVERYWHERE. We saw lots of baby baboons, who were so cute. On our way back to camp, an elephant family crossed the road right in front of our car. The papa elephant got nervous because the baby was going the wrong way, so he trumpeted threateningly to try to scare us away (and Mommy did indeed get scared). And then about 10 mins. later, we saw another family crossing the road. It may not sound like a big deal, but elephants are actually kind of hard to see because they’re so nomadic, so we were happy to have seen two families during our final safari. Mommy was really cranky at dinner because they served lamb as the main course, and so she asked for fish instead, but she didn’t like the way they cooked the fish, so she didn’t really eat dinner.
On the other side of the river from our camp, between our ferry stop and the game reserve, there’s a small village that we drove through a couple of times. Not surprisingly, it’s not developed at all, and there’s a great sense of poverty. Most of the homes have mud walls and thatch roofs. There didn’t seem to be any electricity or running water. But the kids were so happy to see us (mostly because they thought we would give them candy) and so cute.
The meal portions were on the small side, they didn’t really serve snacks in between meals (other than a really small bowl of homemade masala potato chips once in awhile), and the meal times were normally at 8 AM, 1 PM and 8 PM. So we were hungry a lot of the time. Good thing we took lots of snacks. (I wasn’t very happy with having to share all my snacks all the time…)
Sleeping in the bush is such a cool experience. Other than a few geckos (which Misol said were our friends because they eat bugs) and a few gnats, the inside of our tent was really clean, but just outside our tent, we could hear an entire symphony of different bugs, frogs, birds, etc.
The shower was outside, so when we showered at night, we could look up and see an entire sky full of stars.
All of our dinners were served outside by lantern light. It was very romantic, but we couldn’t really see our food. Good thing we took our flashlights. On our last night, they set up a table right on the beach and built a small fire next to our table. It was lovely except Mommy and I had to keep our feet elevated because we were worried about what would crawl up from the sand. (Mommy was also terrified that hippos and crocs were going to come up on shore and attack us in the middle of our meal hahahahaha)
On Friday, we woke up around 7 AM, packed and ate breakfast. We had a small scare when we couldn’t open the electronic safe (which held all of our passports and money), but the camp manager had a separate key. We also had an unpleasant surprise when it was time to settle the bill – it turns out that when they say that the camp is “all-inclusive,” they’re only talking about the food. In other words, we had to pay for all of the drinks – including the bottled water! Plus, the camp only took cash, and we hadn’t had time to go to an ATM because of our airport transfer issues, so we had a very limited supply of cash. After settling our bill, we didn’t have that much leftover, so unfortunately, our tips for the guides and other camp workers was not as generous as we would have liked. Oh, well.