The Woze of Travel

 The days are blending into one another, though tomorrow promises to be very different because we’re leaving the Serengeti for Ngorongoro and staying on the rim of the crater in a lodge.

 But I digress…..

 Our second tented camp, Kubu Kubu, is lovely, but for a couple of major things.  The outdoor shower looks awesome, but I took my shower after settling in and before dinner, and if you’re not standing directly under the waterfall shower, you get chilled. And when you’re finished, it’s really chilly! Matthew was going to shower after dinner in the dark, but I strongly urged him to reconsider, which he did. He came in freezing and shivering, so it would have been worse later. 

 Then there are the bugs. Little harmless round things everywhere and in everything. I was about to brush my teeth, but was faced with about 7-8 of them in the sink. They don’t seem to fly, but they magically appear all over. Then there was this giant black beetle in the sink just before I went to bed.

 I was never a camper, so trying to enjoy the rustic life at this age is a challenge to say the least. And I haven't even mentioned the tsetse flies that get into the vehicle and sting as soon as they land on you. They’re a very ugly part of the terrain. I was told not to wear black because they are attracted to it, so I brought every pair of ugly white socks I had, and still they’re all over me. Adam has to fight them off as he drives…they really love him. 

 One part of KubuKubu that’s cool is the Masai warriors who walk you to and from your room with their spears.  They wrap beautiful colorful cloths around themselves. Adam explained they used to wear animal skins they’d dye, but once machine-made textiles were introduced, they switched to using them. He’s from the Masai culture so talked to us about their traditions today.

 Okay, yesterday and today…so many wildebeest. Have I said I’m already sick of seeing them? Enough already. Remember, I have a short attention span. Adam loves watching as the herds combine and grow, and I get that it’s a natural order of things. They gather and gather, then someone decides to lead them in a direction. They have no leaders, so it’s sometimes whoever draws the short straw. We watched for maybe an hour yesterday while the herd stood around trying to decide if it was safe to cross the road to get to the drinking pool. It wasn’t, as evidenced by about a dozen land rovers waiting to see if the hidden female lion was going to feast or not. A male and another female were under another bush sleeping, but she was in full waiting mode. 

 Adam is a tracker who’s been doing this for 20 years, so he said we should wait because he felt something else was going to happen. Almost every other land rover left and didn’t see the lions move to another spot, where 2 more females and a baby were waiting and we got to watch them get up and move as a group. It was an aw moment.

  The key to game drives is patience. We’ve waited for something to happen for ages and then it does. We’ve found lots of lions by watching and waiting. We also saw a group of  7 giraffes together, which Adam says is rare. They clumped near each other, then Adam said to watch because they looked like they wanted to move elsewhere. So we sat and waited and I took the slowest video of them moving single file very slowly. 

 It’s great when these animals in front of you, but getting there isn’t always easy. The roads are dusty, bumpy, and sometimes deeply rutted. I had had enough by the end of yesterday and asked to head to the camp about an hour early. We had a little down time that way, which I sorely needed. 

 Today was a bit difficult….I had some intestinal problems, which wasn’t helped by bumping along the Serengeti plains. I mean it’s plain. We spent at least an hour driving through boring landscape and I felt like crap. Sorry, wrong word to use. Oh, so also not a camper means toilets, not the back of a land rover, but I finally had to give in today after drinking a lot of water to avoid dehydration. I was so proud of myself, I took a picture. Adam’s catch phrase for when you need to stop is you need to “check the pressure.” Men are so lucky…

 Fortunately we left early and returned at lunch time—but it was still 6:30am till 1pm, so that’s a long time in a bumping car when your insides want to explode. Again, sorry—TMI?

 Oh, we did see the elusive leopard today in a tree with her cub, who’s about 8 months old. Adam says they stay together for about 18-22 months, then he gets booted to make his own way. They’re solitary animals, so once they mate, that’s the end of it. No long-term relationships for them. I have no pictures because my zoom isn’t strong enough, but Matthew got some good ones.

 Tomorrow is another long day in the car, so keep your fingers crossed for me that Imodium starts working soon. Crap. oops

 Oh, and now Matthew's stomach is acting up, so we are thinking it's the Malorone for Malaria that might be causing us problems. That I can live with. Met a bunch of people before dinner tonight who are all from CA--SF and SD. One lady said her attitude is to plug herself up with Immodium so she can enjoy her vacation and worry about unplugging later. Ah, those Californians.