After the beach time at Lamu we spent one day and two nights in Nairobi. It was quite an enjoyable break, doing a bit of needed shopping and getting back on line. No monkey attacks either. We then hit the roads and drove from the Muthaiga Club across town to the main airport (Jomo Kenyatta) for a quick flight to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The sense of time and travel in East Africa is so different. In a former life I would move if I had to commute more than 30 minutes each way. It took us 90 minutes to drive about 10 miles on the comical roads and detours, but I’ve already bored you with those descriptions. Suffice it to say that traffic has gotten worse in the month since we’ve been in Africa. So after a brief delay we caught the 90 minute flight on a 737 to Tanzania. It was super interesting. The plane was full and with the 5 of us there were a total of 7 caucasians on board. Most folks were dressed to the nines in their business attire but it was such a different experience being such a minority but then again it was no big deal and I doubt anyone thought about it except us. Also cool to think that the plane was made in Renton, Washington. We next took a quick taxi ride to the “private” air terminal and boarded a small plane for a 45 minute flight to the Selous National Park. The Selous is the largest game reserve in Africa. At 100,000 acres it is similar in size to Yellowstone. It also famously allows hunting in most of it although we have heard that is on the way out. At $50,000 per elephant, plus the economic downside of people choosing countries that don’t allow hunting for their safaris, hunting is likely on its last legs. After a short flight we arrived at our camp, called Sand Rivers, and had a great few days. There is a huge river here called the Rifigi and it is chock full of crocs and hippos. We traveled upstream by flat bottomed boat with our guide Musa (Moosa) and were awed by the birds, crocs and hippos. Your humble author was pretty sick from Malaria meds and didn’t enjoy the trip as much as the others. At breakfast at the side of the river, Halle hauled in about a 5 lb catfish, much to the chagrin of Hayden who pulled in a measly two pounder. Hayden had a huge tigerfish on his line before it jumped in the air, gave him the fin, laughed, shook his head and bit the line. He was shocked it happened so quickly.
Day 2 we enjoyed a cool game drive to a distant lake. We were treated to great views of most of the plains animals, about twenty elephants, and a troop of yellow baboons. We “fly camped” at the lake the locals call Tatallooloo. Full of crocs, hippos, and every kind of bird imaginable. It was so quiet and peaceful. We sat by a campfire and watched the sunset. The kids were peppering us with questions focused on fighting between crocodiles and hippos (author’s note…they are the best of friends and never fight….very symbiotic). It was determined by Musa and Nella that a croc wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight with a hippo. One crunch with the powerful jaws and canine teeth and it would be easily cut in half. Unwavered, Halle then asked in complete seriousness, “well what about a fight between a baby croc and a baby hippo?” Seriously? Talk then turned to a meaningful discussion of how crocodiles kill their prey. They mostly eat fish but when they rarely get something from our aerified world they grab it (ouch that would hurt) then drown it (hurts worse for a minute or so). Sydney promptly inquired about “do the crocodiles also drown the fish that they catch?” There was an awkward silence, followed by a few chuckles from the adults, and then realizing what she said she quickly added “do they drown them by lifting them up out of the water into the air?” Good fun and another lesson learned/reinforced.
We enjoyed an amazing clear night and a spectacular view of the stars. Interesting to look up and see the Southern Cross, Scorpio and Orion and when you look to the north you can only see the handle of the Big Dipper. It reminded us all of the amazing nights at Priest Lake, but with the exception being that the kids didn’t have to stay up until 11 for it to be dark enough. Plenty dark at 8. Big world but the billions of stars once again put the time we enjoy in this life in perspective. After a loud night of bellowing hippos we awakened at dawn’s first light and enjoyed a very tranquil morning. I sat with Hayden watching the wildlife. There were dozens of birds and he pointed out the Pied Kingfisher, the Yellow -Billed Stork and the Grey Heron. I could barely see the things and he was so cocky that I had to call over our guide who just as quickly confirmed Hayden’s sightings. Darn kid. He has an absolutely amazing recall of animals. I don’t exaggerate when I say he can name hundreds of birds, reptiles and mammals and where he saw them. Every child has his or her strengths and Hayden is really gifted here. Oh and he also caught a 6 lb. catfish to re-establish with Halle who was the fishing boss. I would like to say that I was busy baiting and detangling lines per usual but I had a line in the water most of the time and was definitely out-fished.
Our next adventure was to swim with the hippos and crocs, but fortunately we were instead diverted to some really cool remote natural hot springs. Our abused kids hadn’t been to hot springs, so we made them guess what they were called. Hot Tub? Hot Bath? Hot Stream? Finally Hot Springs. Super cool experience. Sydney stepped on an acacia thorn in the stream and unfortunately was pretty hobbled by the effort it took to get it out, lots of soaking, tears, local anesthetic and deep digging. She has absorbed most of Africa’s soft punches so far, falling off a horse and now the deep thorn splinter. I tried to give her my best advice to be tough ("Think of those Samburu boys who get circumcised at 15 w/o any painkillers and if they flinch they are beaten, banished or disowned!). Strong parenting…probably a grade D for the day but she did finally let her mom give her the needle in the ball of her foot and we think we got most of the thorn out.
Our final morning I asked Hayden to awaken me when he wanted to go fishing. It gets light around 6:30 and there he was at my bedside at 6am ready to fish. Foolish father. About 90 long minutes later we were joined by our guide Musa and the camp manager Claus and we slayed the catfish for about an hour.
We loved the Selous. Really fantastic mix with all the big game animals plus having the river and all the options it offers.
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