We go on a safari

Safari means journey in Swahili. Any journey could technically be considered a safari.  Going to the grocery store for a loaf of bread is a safari.  Our first safari, however was much more eventful.

Fellow volunteers, Margaret and Vanessa assisted by Samantha did all the legwork, which was considerable.  Negotiating a fair deal with safari outfitters is a lot like swimming through a shark tank while bleeding.  The chances of losing your cash or being taken on a bad safari are overwhelming.  Safari touts have refined lying and scamming to a fine art.  However, thanks to the three volunteer safari organizers our operator showed up with two working Land rovers, sufficient enough to navigate dirt tracks, with raised roofs and knowledgeable guides.

Just before the dawn we set out  to Mikumi National Park, a locale which has pretty much guaranteed sightings of wildlife in its over 3,000 square kilometers of wilderness.  The nuns equipped us with enough water and boiled eggs to feed an army.

We saw buffalos, elephants, giraffes, zebras, male baboons (their sex was pretty obvious), crocodiles, impalas, hippos and wildebeests.  At one point an enraged rogue elephant charged at our vehicle and our driver had to gun the engine and pop the clutch for us to escape being tusked to death.

It was at the hippo Pools area that I received the fright of my life from the devious and cunning Vanessa.  I was watching the crocs swim just at the surface of the pond thinking of the film, ‘Crocodile Dundee’ and remembering how Mick Dundee explained how a croc drags its victim below the water and rolls him around until he drowns and then hides him in his meat locker until his dead body is ripe enough to eat.  As I was contemplating the meat locker part of the story Vanessa grabbed by ankle in imitation of a croc.  I would like to say that I reached for my Swiss Army knife to pound the croc through the skull but that was not so.  Karma was on my side, however, as later in the day a monkey shat on Vanessa.

As they say in Swahili, the day was supa safi.