This morning we did, what we call, camp admin – it’s really like house cleaning; washing, checking on the fridge to see what might have gone vrot and cleaning it, checking nothing has leaked or crawled into the food boxes, giving the car a tidy up and so on. It also includes real admin like checking e-mails, confirming bookings for the Dar/Zanzibar part of the trip and blogging.
After an early lunch we headed into the Mikumi National Park. The park is in the northern section of the vast Selous ecosystem and is easily accessible from the main road. The vast, flat grassland savannah areas of this section of the park are enclosed in a horse shoe of mountain ranges. The grasslands are host to huge herds of game. This, at last, is what I pictured the African bush to look like. The herds of impala and buffalo run well into the hundreds. There are herds of zebra, wildebeest, eland, giraffe and elephant. As we travelled further into the bush, the aim to visit a dam with an unpronounceable name, we encountered this tall grass that literally enveloped the car. The only way we could see anything would be if it dropped out of the sky in front of the car. The dam after all, proved a little disappointing and as the alternate road was closed we had to fight our way back through the fountains of grass.
Back in the savannah areas we were again in awe of the wonderful herds of animals. We came across a watering hole and were fortunate enough to see a breeding herd of ellie come down to drink. We must have sat for an hour watching the herd, from the old matriarch to the tiniest little one come down to drink. Some of the younger ellie took to chasing the ducks round the dam and bokking some zebra that also came down to drink. The amazing thing about the game in Tanzania is how relaxed they all are, compared to the skitsie animals in Kafue in Zambia. Besides the great game viewing, the birding here is spectacular; we saw a flock of ground hornbill, superb starlings (endemic to this area), white browed coucal and numerous others.
This evening we decided to try out the swiss section of the menu, it’s kind of weird eating rosti and schnitzel in Africa. The evening was again dedicated to trying to decide on the route ahead, this is the first time we have been this undecided. Our first prize on choosing our route and accommodation is based on people we meet or lodge owners/managers who know the area ahead. We also do research in books, use maps and the internet is a big help; we use blogs of people travelling the area and 4x4 sites. However, the trip we are trying to get info on seems an unknown and untravelled area.
Ellies
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