Tse Tse flies are the devil

The day has finally arrived when we set out on our safari. Side note: in Swahili, safari just means "journey," so we've been on our safari since Friday when we left for the airport. Anyway, after another amazing al fresco breakfast, we joined the rest of our safari group at a large table for our safari briefing. John, our head guide whom we met last night, sat at the head of the large table and gave us the general rundown of how the next 8 days would go. He handed out nice maps of northern Tanzania for reference; mentioned the general daily schedule, how the camps worked, how the game drives would work, etc.

We went around the table and everyone introduced themselves: there's Richard and Sylvia from Vancouver, Naomi and Velia (2 old friends) from the Bay area, Roland and Sharon from San Diego, Bill and Nancy from Oklahoma City, Scott and Karan from Houston, and the 3 of us. It turns out that Richard and Sylvia were on their 40th anniversary and the trip was a total surprise for Sylvia. She didn't know anything of where they were going (except to "pack for warm weather") until they got to Amsterdam and were boarding the plane to Kilimanjaro. Bold move, Richard. Bold move. Next stop: Tarangire National Park via the aforementioned Cultural Heritage Center.

For the drive to Tarangire, we rode in John's rover with Scott and Karan. None of what we saw on the way to the cultural center was new to us, since we were just there yesterday, but for Scott and Karan it was eye opening. They spent all day yesterday at the Rivertrees and drove in at night like we did so they hadn't really seen any of what shocked us so much. Seeing the goats and cows tied up along the side of the road grazing; the shanty-towns; etc. I could see their faces and it was exactly like what I imagine my face looked like yesterday.

We didn't really have anything to do at the cultural center since we'd spent a couple hours there yesterday. Of course, Angela and Michele can always find some new trinket to look at, but I was pretty bored. We were there for an hour or so (while the guides took the jeeps back to the Thomson office to offload bags that people wanted to store while we were in the bush) and then got the word to mount up and move out.

The drive to Tarangire was pleasant. As we got out of Arusha we saw less of the shantytowns and more pastoral scenes featuring the boma clusters of the Maasai and young Maasai men and boys watching over their family's herds of goats and cattle as they grazed. We would pass the occasional cluster of more permanent buildings that would bring us back to the reality of daily life here.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at the main gate of Tarangire National Park. The Rivertrees had packed us very nice boxed lunches that we enjoyed in the company of a whole bunch of hungry birds and other groups of safari-goers. John implored us to "deet up" because besides the birds and elephants, Tarangire is known for Tse Tse flies. We could see the fly traps (large sheets of dark blue and black cloth impregnated with insecticide) all over the gate area.

Our drive in to the nyumba camp was our first exposure to "safari." Almost immediately we saw "wildlife" in the form of Impala, Warthogs, a lone Cape Buffalo, Giraffes, and Elephants, some lions (yes lions), and some of the birds for which Tarangire is famous.

The first lion sighting of the safari (we're now at 3/5 of the "big 5," by the way, after only our first half-day in the bush) was while we were watching some elephants on the far side of the Tarangire river. There were 2, one adult female and an adolescent, laying on the river bank licking each other. They were a couple hundred yards away, so not really close and almost too far for a good photograph, but they were there and they were real.

Our elephant encounter was pretty amazing. A family of elephants was grazing along the road (and by "road," I mean dirt track) as we passed by. Of course, we all stopped since this was our first close encounter with these magnificent animals. There was a variety of ages represented; from small babies less than 6 months old to fully mature females. As we were watching them do their thing on the side of the road, the matriarch of the group decided they were going to cross the road right in front of us. Some of these elephants were less than 10 feet away! They just walked right on past like they owned the joint. And they kind of do.

We were all pretty high from our close encounter that we barely noticed all of the flies. As we made our way to camp, the flies got worse and worse. John was flailing at them with both hands. There were some fly swatters in the seat back pockets, so we all got into the act of trying to keep the flies off. John was so violent that we asked him if he was allergic to Tse Tse fly bites. "No," he said, "but these flies are the devil."

We were welcomed at the camp by the entire staff with cold, damp towels and fresh passion fruit juice. John, the camp manager, introduced everyone, including the park ranger/guard and his AK47, to us. All of our duffels were spread out on a tarp and when John gave us our tent assignments, we pointed to our bags and they were taken to our tents. Since this is our first camp, John gave us demonstrations of how the toilets and showers work; how they don't refresh the shower water after dark so we have to take our showers between returning from our drives and dinner; how the dining tent works (we have to wash our hands in a sort of "ceremony" they affectionately call "washy washy"); and how the bar works.

The camp itself is located in the western part of the park nestled in among the Baobab trees. Our tents are very large, with a front "patio" that has 2 chairs and table; a large sleeping room with solar powered LED lighting; and a spacious bathroom/dressing area that's divided from the living area. There is a large vanity with 2 vessel sinks and pitchers with wash water and bottles for drinking water and behind that on the left is the toilet and on the right is the shower with a teak lattice "floor."

We had barely gotten to our tent that we heard from out back "First shower ready!" That was our cue that they had loaded our camp shower with hot water and it was time for someone to get cleaned up. Navy showers, here, folks, since we only have 10 gallons of water with which to get clean. The camp staff must be hanging out behind the tent waiting to hear for signs that you're done, and then they ask "ready for second shower?" When you say "ready" they lower the water tank and refill it and announce "second shower ready!" Angela used most of her allocation, but I had enough to use my leftover water to rinse out our laundry. 10 gallons is apparently a fair amount of water. Not sure how it will work out when Angela washes her hair. She might have to use some of my "second shower" water.

Dinner is at 7 and everyone at the camp eats together and everyone eats the same stuff; unless you've made prior arrangements with Thomson. There was a group finishing up their safari in the lounge tent after I got cleaned up so they shared some of their camp wisdom and the interesting things they'd seen on their way here from the Serengeti. Can I just say that a cold beer in the middle of the bush tastes so much better than that same cold beer in a bar or on your couch?

Dinner was delicious. The camp manager reads off the night's menu once everyone is seated and then guys come around with dishes serving soup (pumpkin), then the main course, then dessert. Tonight's dessert was announced as baobab fruit tart, but when it was time for dessert we were treated to the entire staff singing "hakuna matata" with cakes for Karan and Scott and Richard and Sylvia to celebrate their 30th and 40th anniversaries respectively. Nice touch, guys.

After dinner, John, who was sitting at the end of the table, announced the plans for the next day. Wakeup (or "Jambo Jambo") at 6:30, breakfast at 7, game viewing at 7:45 or so. By this time, we were all pretty beat (and it was only 8:30) so everyone retired to their tents. I am excited about what we might hear tonight; or what might mosey through the camp tonight.