You're In Africa Now, Baby! #3

"Truth Be Told!"

We had an outdoor picnic lunch almost every day on Safari

The Fall

The truth is I have not been honest.

I took a nasty fall while in Serengeti National Park at a picnic area. The only ones who know are immediate family, a few best friends, and those who witnessed it. It was scary and embarrassing.

Entrance to Serengeti National Park. No medical help available here.

While trying to snap a photo of my new safari friends eating lunch at our picnic table, I stepped back, and back again, trying to include the entire group in my small iPhone camera's view. A ragged ledge of rocks that I hadn't noticed, caught my heels and unbalanced me, and unable to catch myself, I tumbled backwards, landing hard on my back. My shoulders and the back of my head took quite a hit. The impact of my head hitting on the concrete must have been heard all over. People came running and my embarrassment was palpable.

Christian, the youngest and strongest person in our group, helped me get up and sat me down at our picnic table. Sweat poured off (shock?) and I was unsettled until my eyes refocused. For a bit, everything was blurred. All I wanted was to lay my head down and quietly recover, and regain some semblance of dignity. My terrified colleagues were searching my scalp looking for bleeding or cuts. Fortunately, the only thing they found was a bloody, scraped elbow.

An elderly gentlemen I did not know, approached our group and informed us he was a physician, as was his wife. They sat at another table and had seen me fall. After observing the incident and my response, these two doctors felt, "I should be seen by someone." I inferred that "someone" meant a professional medic.

Unfortunately, where we were, no such thing existed! There were barely roads let alone medical facilities. I had not asked for his opinion and his professional evaluation scared me to death. With a dawning clarity, I realized that medical help meant evacuation by a small "medivac plane" which would delay and inconvenience everyone in our safari party. Deep down I knew that flying out of the Serengeti to get medical assistance in Arusha (where we started the journey) would mean the end of my Safari, and a quick trip back to my home in Oregon.

After thinking this over for about 2 seconds, I decided I was going to be fine and I was staying in Tanzania, period. If I succumbed the next day to a concussion or a brain bleed, I gave permission to my new friends to feed my remains to the wildlife. Becoming part of the Serengeti food chain seemed a very good option at that point!

In the meantime, my wonderful group mounted a fruitless search for ice to help with swelling and a headache. Although there was no ice available, they were able to secure a litre bottle of cold water, which I poured over my head intermittently that entire afternoon. As we bounced along on our continued adventure I began to feel better, regularly quizzing myself, as to things I should know: who is our President, what month and year is it, what are my children's names, birthdates and so on. Thank goodness, my memory seemed fine! Extra Strength Advil helped too, once I was able to locate it in the jumble of my suitcase.

Me? Carrion for African vultures?

Christian, I owe you. Thanks for picking me up
off the ground.

There is a good ending to this tale. When I returned home one of the first things I did was see my doctor who requested an MRI and several X-rays. The results showed no concussion, no visible skull fracture, and no sign of internal bleeding. While it aggravated arthritis in a shoulder, I am fortunate that I did not sustain more serious damage. My injuries consisted of a brief headache and a sore spot on my elbow and a soft spot on my 'noggin. Thank you Mosses for that cool bottled water that kept the swelling down, and all that mercurochrome and band aids you applied to my scraped elbow each day! Grateful thanks also go to Christian, who literally picked me up (all shaky and uncertain) and helped to get me moving again.

Animals in Love!

Of course I knew we would be seeing animals in their natural habitat, doing natural things. However, it never occurred to me that in addition to hunting, browsing, eating, and sleeping, we would also be party to the "love/ procreation" part of wildlife behavior.

Honeymooning Lions!

As it worked out, one afternoon, ahead of us and down the road we saw several tourist vans like ours, pulled to the side of the road, the passengers exclaiming and intently observing and photographing something. As we edged in closer, what they were seeing came into view. At an extremely close range were lions (!) and they were close enough that a person could reach out and pet them, if they dared!

There were exactly two lions, one a great, handsome male, and the other, a comely and beautiful young female! Mosses tactfully informed us that "they were lions on their honeymoon!" Wow! A lion honeymoon! Who knew we would be seeing such a thing.

So much in love, these two had eyes only for each other and seemed oblivious to the vans, people, and cameras clicking away around them. We watched for quite a while, as our guide explained to us the process and nuances of a mating lion pair. There was mating, separation, rest, then mating again. He explained this could go on for hours, even days. The lengthy process would virtually assure the arrival of a new batch of cubs in the future.

Hoping for lots of healthy cubs in the future, like this one.

Beautiful Poppa!

Taking a break for grooming.

It was hard for me to believe that all the human activity surrounding them was not disturbing to the animals -- making a natural process unnatural for them. Though they seemed to only focus on each other, I wondered if our presence might be a distraction to a successful mating.

And, I also wondered, after observing these magnificent creatures so incredibly close up, how any person would want to shoot and kill them for pleasure.

On the other hand, we also witnessed an unsuccessful affair between an ostrich couple living in Ngorongoro Crater. She was ready and had her man in sight! She was gorgeous too, well preened with her feathers clean, ruffled and fluffed. Truth be told, he was not ready and not interested, and would not be seduced. In fact, he turned tail and ran away! All that work on her part, went unrecognized and unrewarded! It broke my heart to see her rejected. Perhaps I could relate! But as always, there is next time.

Ready!

Sorry, I'm just not that in to you.

Manyara: The Lake that Isn't There 

We traveled to Lake Manyara, advertised as one of the largest lakes in Tanzania. But as we arrived at the Manyara Wildlife Safari Camp, truth be told, there was no lake there. At least there was no lake anywhere near our lodging. It was pointed out to us in the far distance, but I just couldn't see it.

Where is Lake Manyara?

Our education continued, as we learned that at one time, not too long ago, Lake Manyara lapped at the foot of our lodging. It would have been beautiful to see this large lake with wildlife drinking at its shore, the gorgeous birds of Africa swooping through the sky, and pink flamingoes standing at attention in the shallows.

What lay in front of us was dry and barren scrub surrounding what must have been the Manyara Lake bed with no wildlife that I could see other than a few birds. Two lonely baobab trees and an acacia were just outside my window, looking dry and barren. The gorgeous formal gardens in the vicinity of our cabins and the lodge, were a welcome and much appreciated diversion.

The dry lake bed beyond, and the Baobab Trees.

At one point, I did see a car and two motor scooters speeding through the dry lake area, raising up  huge pillars of dust behind them. I had no idea where they might be going, but it appeared that this part of the dry lake was now being used as a road. Truth be told, most of us found ourselves passing time in the lobby, relaxing with a cold drink and enjoying a very nice WiFi connection! I found the place a bit depressing.

iPhones connecting us to the world!

The story of Tanzania's Lake Manyara was that of a lake that has slowly receded, most likely due to many rainless years, little runoff from the surrounding escarpment, and global warming. Very sad. The lodge/camp was a beautiful facility, in the middle of nowhere. There was no doubt, it was another sad victim of the Global Warming saga.

A beautiful lodge camp! But no lake.

The Coke Fix

The truth is, no one really knows what is in the recipe for Coca Cola. I think the recipe is secreted away in a vault somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia. Ever since my experience in Tanzania, I've wondered, "what is in that stuff?"

It was our last day. We were tired. And each of us, in our own way, was trying to grasp the enormity of what we had seen and done over the past two weeks. We were caravanning back to Arusha and the airport where we would catch our flights home later that day.

In the town of Karatu our two vans pulled into the parking lot at our first tourist "circus". It was a huge warehouse where thousands of African arts and crafts were available for tourists to buy. As I walked in all I could see were wood animal carvings, bowls, spears, textiles, and jewelry stacked on wall to wall shelves. Everything from fine art to junk art was displayed on the walls as far as the eye could see. Absolutely anything and everything a person might want for a souvenir was right there. Tourists were everywhere, speaking all kinds of languages, and the parking lot was jammed with vans. My husband would have called it "Disneyland Africa!" For about an hour, we browsed. Most of us found more than a few last-minute gifts to pack home. My only regret is that I did not capture the chaos with my camera. But hey, I was too busy shopping!

With our purchases wrapped and in hand, we piled back in the vans for the sad, last leg of our journey. Mosses went to start the engine on van #1, and, incredibly, nothing happened. He continued to try several more times and that engine was not going to turn over! Nothing. Nada. The engine was deader than dead. OMG! Maybe we were stuck in Karatu! Would we miss our flights home? For all the miles we had traveled, we had not had one single breakdown, no flat tires, absolutely no problems with our transportation. How ironic that this was happening on our last day.

Now, imagine all the stereotypical African movies you have seen: all of a sudden we were surrounded by hoards of African men ready to help and/or offer an opinion. The hood went up, and although I could not understand the Swahili chatter, it was loud and obvious that every person had an idea on what needed to be done to fix that engine! Arms were waving and heads were under the hood. At one point I thought they might pull the engine right out of the van, take it apart, and put it back together again! I knew they were capable of doing it, but how quickly?

After about a half an hour or so of all this activity, with no results, Mosses disappeared and then reappeared --- with a bottle of Coca Cola. He proceeded to pour the Coke over the battery and the battery connection rods! Then he vigorously cleaned them with that bottle of Coca Cola.

Undoubtedly the battery was caked in dust and dirt from our miles and miles of Serengeti travel. When he emerged from under the hood he had on his huge smile, the same one that greeted me when I arrived in Tanzania. He hopped into the driver's seat, and turned the key. Bingo! The engine started immediately, and we were off. Our trusty van simply needed a Coke Fix!

And, I am still wondering, "what's in that stuff?" Are we drinking some form of battery cleaner or acid when we down a coke? What might it be doing to our guts? Guess we'll never know. However, it will be awhile before I drink a coke again!

Our van, not a breakdown till the last day. All it needed was a "Coke Fix".

This is my last "Safari" installment and I hope my readers have been able to partially live the experience with me. There was an adventure around every corner and it was a dream of mine come true. I thank my husband for such a generous anniversary gift, and I thank my new friends, some of whom have generously shared their photos with me: Micheline and Rick, Leo and Grace, David, Christian, Toby, Mosses, and Suddiy. Thank you all!

My wonderful new friends!

People have been asking for more of my photos! I'm thinking my next blog will be only posts of my favorite photos from this incredible experience. How does this sound, "An Artistic Eye Sees Tanzania"? Your comments are always welcome.