Safari Begins - Day 1 Ruaha

Up early as we have an 830AM flight and needed to be at the domestic  airport for 730AM.  Breakfast at 6:45 which was good, then dropped off at the airport.  It was a fun ride as we really hadn’t seen too much on the way here last night it was so dark.  We got stuck in terrible traffic and were a little concerned  until the police came along and made it into a one way street, phew.  I had visions of trying to contact the airline and figure out what to do next.  Fun part is we were stuck right in the middle of a little market section in the back streets by the hotel, great to see the city waking up, especially if you are parked right beside the outdoor chickens where people are coming to collect eggs. Kiota Jungle was absolutely fine for us.  If you do end up in the 3 bedroom room like we did if you are over 5 feet you will have a tough time washing your hair, lol.

One of the 3 bedrooms in our room at Kiota Jungle in Dar

Pool at Kiota Jungle

Ready for breakfast, I think Ron is always ready to eat!

Nice gardens at the hotel in Dar

Traffic jam makes for opportune picture taking

Streets are busy even at this time of morning

At this point we are at a dead stop, I was getting a little worried about getting to the airport on time

Egg delivery, had to post even though it is a little blurry

Arrival at the domestic airport, really small airport, we were able to take our water in, no id required, just went to the counter and received our boarding passes when we told them our names.  Boarding passes mean you get on the plane, no assigned seats on this small 12 passenger plane. 

Our plane to go to Ruaha

Getting safety briefing from pilot

Great view en route

 Our first stop was in Selous, where we will be going at the end of our trip, this was a 45 minute plane ride.  Next was a little over an hour to the next stop in Ruaha, then our final flight was 12 minutes to destination.  This nearly did Ron and I in, I was so glad when the 12 minutes were over, one more minute would have been it for me, we both get serious motion sickness.

Ron and Wendy near the front of the plane

Very happy to get off the plane and onto the ground, I guess we were both white, I am not looking forward to the flight next week.  Our guide Hussain, driver Thomas, and guide in training Sosten are all there with a jeep to meet us.  They tell us we are going to drive to the camp for lunch, which is about 2 hours from the airstrip.  Off we go after a bit of paperwork, they ask us a few questions to find out a little of what we would like to see, response, everything and anything will be great. 

We have not even driven past the end of the airstrip and safari begins.  Vultures are flying in the air. Next to the airstrip, there are baboons hanging out here, which are always fun and entertaining to watch.  Then come our first impala, so we had to stop here too.  

Vultures right at the airport

Ground hornbill

Vultures have landed

Never get tired of watching baboons

First impalas at the end of the airstrip, if we had only known how many we would see over the next 12 days...

Just the ride back to camp we see a few giraffe, warthogs, so many beautiful birds, and gorgeous baobabs and acacia trees.  We are also shown the toothbrush trees, and 2 elephants right as we drive into camp.

Giraffes are suffering from a skin disease from last year, oxpeckers are busy.  Guides told us they actually lost a lot of giraffes from this disease

Piggy back ride

Tooth brush tree

Elephants greet us on arrival at camp

Swallow Tailed Bee-Eater

Holubs Golden Weaver

Helmeted Guineafowl - maybe Rons favourite bird at this point

Red Necked Spurfowl

Red billed Firefinch, with some melba finch

Never too many baobab trees

Our views we will have for the next 12 days!

Rebecca and Andreas who run the camp meet us as the jeep pulls in with some wonderful watermelon juice.  It is very hot, so the juice was very much appreciated.  An introduction to how the camp is run, what we are allowed to do and what we can‘t do.  No walking allowed in the dark unless escorted by a Masai.  Again like our last safari they are equipped with a very scary flashlight, but this safari they also carry a stick, I feel so much safer!

Off to lunch and we have a nice lunch of different cold salads and quiche, Andre has also reacquainted himself with Kilimanjaro beer, we quickly learn when asked what kind of beer the answer is your coldest.  We then have some time to unpack and get settled before we are going out again at 430PM in the jeep.  We have a little birdbath outside our tent which I will keep filled while we are here.  Andre decides to take a nap, I decide to go for a little walk around the 12 tents that they have set up here.  It is quite a distance between tents so it is a nice little walk. I grab Andres  camera and off I go as I can see a giraffe in the distance.  Nancy sees me heading out from her tent so joins me.  We walk down past the communal tent where coffee and tea are set up, then past to where the next 6 tents are located and a Masai appears and asks us if we are OK.  Yes, we are just out for a little walk, so he told us to follow him.  So he takes us on a little walk down to where the animals follow a dry river bed to get water.  Unfortunately not too many animals, but it was a fun little walk.  We have seen giraffe here, lots of Impala, and some monkeys and baboons.

Our tents for the next 3 nights, I think Ron may be sleeping in this pic

Dinner set up for under the tent tonight as it looks like rain

Nancy and I on a little walk with a Masai

Ruaha Endemic. Ruahensis

After Andre had his nap, he sat on the tent porch and watched the birds in the birdbath.

Bushback comes by for a visit - this guy is around camp often

Time for a quick bath!



Red Cheeked Cordon-Bleu

Everyone is taking advantage of a little water

Off to start our afternoon safari drive and it is getting dark out, looks like rain maybe.  This will be the last time we go out on safari without our raincoats even if it doesn’t look like rain.  We are only out about 1 hour, but we are very close to camp so it doesn’t take long for us to get back to camp.  In this 1 hour we see probably the most beautiful congregation of giraffes we have ever seen. 

This camp burn elephant dung in the back to try to keep the tsetse flies away

Our first greater kudu

Our first zebra, which we now pronounce as the rest of the world, no longer as north americans :)

Black backed Jackel

Giraffes everywhere

Back to camp and Rebecca meets us with some umbrellas, but we still manage to get pretty soaked walking to our tents, our umbrella was pretty much used to protect Andres camera gear, surprised?

Time for showers before dinner.  Hot water is only available in the evening as it is all solar heated.  Fantastic showers that are half open air, but it has really cooled off, I think we will appreciate it more when it is a little warmer.

At 730 everyone gets together for drinks before dinner and to talk about their day and meet other guests.  The camp is full which means there are 24 of us here.  It is not nice out so we sit under a tent for drinks, normally we would sit around a campfire before dinner.  Dinner tonight is good as well.  Lunch was served family style, but dinner they serve you. 

waiting for Masai escort to go to supper.  Notice the kerosene lantern, there is one in the bathroom and one on the front step that are left burning all night

We are straight off to bed after supper, we are exhausted and have booked a full day game drive for tomorrow, which means we are leaving at 630am and having breakfast and lunch on the road and back in time for supper.  Can’t wait to hear the nighttime noises.