That's a terrific piece of poetry, Mark. Have a safe and easy flight to Joburg. We are so looking forward to seeing all of you on the 8th.
The Softer Side of Safari
We are finalizing our packing in preparation for an early breakfast, game drive, lunch at the Saboru camp and then day rooms until our flight around 4 pm to Kigali and onward journey to Joburg.
Our hosts have been delightful. We played "who do you know?" in the South African camp management world at tea today, and lo and behold we've got several connections at the first and second degree of separation. I've located Marius Coetzee's first camera up here in the vast plains of the Grumeti reserve.
Last night's dinner featured Tapas, Tanzania style. Our maitre d' Paul was pleased as punch to have us try the local cuisine, served 4 ways. The dishes were lightly spiced, with a dollop of spicy sauce on the side for those who wanted the full local effect. Jim assured us the local sauce could put Dave's Insanity Sauce to shame.
Chris has gone out of his way to help us with wine pairings at dinner. As a result, we have gone out of our way to limit the alcohol prior to dinner. A duck sous vide main course was simply irresistible last night - and damned if I can remember the terrific blend of wines chosen for that dish. It was a really interesting pairing.
This morning our maitre d' nicknamed Gary's coffee melange as 'cocktail coffee'. How perfect - mix up decaf coffee, hot chocolate mix, a little milk and top it off with amarula cream liqueur.
Today's non-game drive entertainment was vervet monkeys playing hide and go seek with me through the locked door to the outside shower. They bounced around on the tented roof as if it were their personal trampoline. The water hole was slow on entertainment, except for the tiny warthog piglet who was born to play. He got dangerously close to a baboon, who thought a tasty morsel of warthog would be just fine as a post-lunch snack. Wham! out of the grass charged four - count 'em, four - adult warthogs at full speed. Two tore after the baboon, who quickly dropped the piglet. The other two tore after the piglet, who was running in full evasion mode. The baboon was chased far, far away much more easily than the piglet was redirected towards the safety of the den.
After sitting on the edge of my chair watching the outcome of this interspecies battle, it was time for a facial. I promptly fell asleep and woke up to a very dewy complexion.
We've enjoyed a number of jackal and bat-eared fox sightings on this trip. Zebras were calling up a storm today; could the 12 lions in the immediate area who periodically were eyeing the herd be the cause of the commotion? Inquiring minds wish to know.
Yesterday's non-game drive entertainment was all about the watering hole. Several water fowl - yellow billed storks, the giant Maribou storks (a/k/a funeral directors), the unusual African spoonbill storks, a grey heron and an African pied wagtail were busy grabbing all the insects and other edible waterborne creatures in the watering hole. The African fish eagle swooped in to make his scheduled landing around 2:30 pm. The various storks flew up by specie, riding the thermals, until each of then had left for the day.
Today's game drive featured the cheetah brothers back from a failed kill run. They were snoozing up a storm in preparation for a hopefully successful kill run in the early evening hours. We enjoyed a number of giraffe sightings, complete with babies. The topis are an Eastern African centric species, and they have lots of babies. They are a bit like hyenas with longer front legs and a loping gait. The babies look like bobble head dolls as they run; hopefully, their necks grow strong enough sometime soon. The lions were also in full on snooze mode. Two warthogs trotted within 30 feet of them; only when they got close did they realize their mistake. One took off at top speed; the other was a little slower to realize the danger. Only after at least seven of those lions perked up and stared it down did it depart as fast as its little legs could carry it.
It will be tough to leave this lovely place .. but it's made so much easier knowing we'll be joining the South African Sixteen.
PS Mark - brought my Pooch Addict pin
Pleasure, Anne
