Southern Tanzania 2010
Curious that the first question most people ask is about shots and it is a question virtually everyone asks. My first thoughts of Africa are always of deplaning into the dry savanna air. Dust particles, driven by the wind from herds of wildebeest, zebra and cape buffalo crossing the winter earth in search of water, are visible in beams of the African sun. The smell of smoke is there– sometimes slight, the tendrils from a cooking fire – sometimes heavy, the fires of the season that run across the savanna like the herds chased by the flames. And I smell the sage and mopani. Sage so strong the lion rolls among the woody branches to mask her presence as she hunts. The scent of mopani, the elephants’ favorite, with its leaves looking like cartoon renditions of an elephant’s ears, gently stings my nostrils – a sharp smell familiar from another place in my subconscious.
Colors crowd my memory – the blues of the African skies made deeper in contrast to the vast expanses of the golden grasses. Bright splashes of color worn by the birds seem a dare to their predators. Blood red, too, because there is death here -- necessary to life.
And then I think of settling into the routine of the bush…. Early, biting cold mornings hugging a tin coffee cup to warm my hands, hearing the guides speculating on the direction of the lion’s roar heard in the night and walking in the footsteps of the elephant that came through camp while we slept....
So, those are my anticipatory thoughts but perhaps, before the rich memories of my first trip and those that followed, I thought about shots, too….. but I don’t remember.
This trip is all Tanzania – the southern circuit which more remote than any area that I have visited in Africa. First stop in the bush….. Selous Game Reserve.
Parts of this reserve date back to 1896; it is the largest reserve in Africa covering 55,000 square km.
The Rufiji River which bisects the reserve, provides a home for a large population of hippos and crocodiles, and a riverine habitat that creates perfect hunting conditions for leopard. Farther from the river, a more savanna like terrain is perfect for cheetah. The lion population hunts wherever it wants.
We stay at the “luxurious” Rufiji River Camp.
http://rufijirivercamp.com/
Then we fly “by light aircraft” (another way of saying a really, really tiny plane flown by someone who has chosen a life of no FAA regulations and who dodges elephants and cape buffalo on dirt landing strips. He also doesn’t look like Robert Redford – at all) to Ruaha -- Tanzania’s largest national park with rugged and striking terrain. In a convergence zone where northern and southern hemisphere mammals overlap and on the path of migratory birds, there is remarkable diversity in the wildlife.
http://www.tanzaniasafaris.info/Ruaha/accomodation.htm
From the largest to the smallest – Katavi has only 200 to 600 visitors per year perhaps because it is inhabited by the spirit, Katabi – or because it is difficult to reach with limited access to most areas. The wildlife is abundant and I can’t wait!!
http://www.tanzaniasafaris.info/Katavi/accomodation.htm
More when I return.... I'm off to find new wonders, African repayment talismans and ancient tribal dances to invoke spells....
