Steve and Cathy's Blog

The title of this post is misleading, because, while we indeed docked in this city of two-plus million, Cathy and Steve spent the day in the Selous Game Reserve, a 45-minute flight (in a 12-passenger aircraft) southwest of the city.   It is one of, if not the, largest game reserve on earth, covering an area of 19,000 square miles. Unfortunately, hunting is allowed on most of it, but the part we explored is reserved as a photographic zone.

One quick note before we continue: I still haven’t figured out how to post multiple photos on our blog. This would be the perfect opportunity to correct this problem, because there is no way to put into words what we saw and photos would be a terrific enhancement. So for the time being, if you would be interested, please go on to the Steve Knight Facebook page and you the latest post as a photographic addition to the writing about this day. Thanks. Okay, now back to Tanzania.

The governments of African countries have discovered that “there’s gold in them thar tourists!” and nothing better illustrates this attitude than how we were treated. Our tour is to commence in Insignia Lounge at 8:30, but our buses are late, and we don’t leave until 9:15. And there are probably 20 tour buses ahead of us. No problem, because our two buses (approximately 10 of us per bus) receive a police escort from the ship, through the city, and all the way to the airport. What would normally be a 45-minute drive in heavy traffic is a 12-minute race with police at every intersection and a motorcycle with lights flashing and siren blaring leading the way. Oh my, do we feel privileged. People all along the way are staring at the buses wondering if we are some kind of big shot government officials.

So that is our intro to the excursion. Upon arrival at the airport, we go through security, are ushered to the gate and put on to two Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft, each with a capacity of fourteen people.   The trip to Selous is very routine, with the only possibly disconcerting thing being that the two pilots flew pretty close to each other much of the time. Cathy spots a giraffe as we are landing – certainly a good omen.

We land smoothly on a graded dirt strip, taxi to one side of the field, and get out. Across the way are five Toyota Land Cruisers. And nothing else! They are cloth-topped, and each one seats six, including the driver. We try to team up with our friends Kreg and Judy, but we just aren’t fast enough and end up in the two raised rear seats with Mark and Nancy from Lindsay, Ontario and the Oceania Destination Services Manager Alton. No big deal. Our driver and guide is named Ahmad.

And off we go into the bush. This is flat, open country with trees, bushes, gullies, lakes, stands of trees and mountains in the background. The roads …. one-lane paths, really … are packed dirt. There are hundreds of narrow gullies where water flows during the rainy season, which this is not. Therefore, we have to slow down to a crawl every time we encounter one, which is frequently. We are in a game park, not an amusement park, so we are prepared for a rough ride.

Ahmad and his four colleagues driving the other land Cruisers know this huge park like the proverbial back of their hand, and they stay in radio contact with one another so one can alert the others when a group of animals are spotted. He is an expert driver, knows tons about each of the animals we are viewing, including the birds, and must have cast iron kidneys given the condition of the roads he must drive on. We begin by spotting impalas, small to mid-sized delicate antelopes.

We are beyond excited that we are starting to see animals. Ahmad is very patient with us. It’s going to be a long day, and already we want him to stop every time we see an animal so we can photograph it. He knows there is much more to come, but we obviously are unaware of this.

Then we begin to see giraffes, then zebras, then hippos, then a couple of crocodiles. We can’t believe it! This is like Wild Kingdom, except it’s live and we’re in the show! And interspersed with all the mammals are birds, birds and more birds. Some are huge, some have the most amazingly beautiful coloring, and all are interesting – and hard to photograph, I might add.

We have not seen a single elephant, which is unusual, because the park is apparently teeming with them. But we do come upon a small pride of lions. They are sleeping under a couple of trees, and could care less about our presence. We must ogle at them for fifteen minutes, taking photo after photo. We can’t be more than thirty feet away from them. The male tried to have a couple of quickies with one of the females, but the other females are fast asleep upside down under another tree. This is an amazing sight.

We began this trek around 10:30, and eventually it’s time for lunch, and we are due to meet up with the other four vehicles. But before we do, we stop for a restroom break. Here’s how that works: Woman go the rear of the Land Cruiser and men go to the front of the Land Cruiser. You walk away far enough that you are comfortable, and do your business. It is what it is. After bouncing around for 2 ½ hours, modesty takes a real back seat to necessity. I think I created an entirely new watering hole in Selous. What a relief. Cathy feels the same. [Cathy: Although I did tell Ahmad that I had not brought my penis with me. He laughed.]

The lunch is a box lunch, a really big and delicious box lunch. [Cheese and tomato sandwich, chicken and lettuce wrap, a bag of huge cashews, apple, banana, chocolate bar, drink box, piece of cake, bottle of water. It was enough for two people at least]. We are all situated in the shade of an enormous, and I mean enormous, bilboa tree. It must be fifty feet in circumference and fifty feet high. Cathy and I eat in our seats because the one or two tables are full.   Others eat standing up. We are there for about forty-five minutes. Then it’s back in the Land Cruisers to search for more game to see.

We soon spot a family of baboons, more zebra, more giraffes, a hippo with a large bird using him/her as a perch, and many more impala. We spot a hyena sleeping under a tree, as well as some wildebeests. We are also seeing vultures, herons, egrets and other birds. The most interesting and beautiful one is called a bee-eater. It is a gorgeous red-orange bird with turquoise markings and a black breast, about the size of a large crow. They delight in following the vehicles around in large groups, diving in front of them, circling around them and providing us with quite a show. [It was amazing! I have a new Patronus] Ahmad explains that the Land Cruiser kick up insects, which is why these birds are so enamored with us.

By about 3:15, we are ready to call it a day, elephants or no elephants. This bone-shaking, kidney-stressing, spine-compressing ride is getting the best of us, at least it is for Cathy and Steve, who are sitting over the rear wheels the entire time. Ahmad gets it, and we wind our way through the park and arrive back at the airstrip around 4:00pm. We must have covered fifty miles, I swear.

There is time to relax while we wait for the pilots, who are off who knows where. Beer, wine, water, soft drinks are available. Everybody is delighted with the day and everybody is pooped. [There was a rest room there, of sorts. A toilet and sink attached to a huge bottle of water, surrounded by green netting that you could totally see though. No one cared. The ladies used that, the men the bush.]

Eventually around 4:45 or so, the pilots arrive. We climb into our two Cessna Caravans and off we go. It’s a smooth and easy takeoff and we bid adieu to this wonderful natural asset of Tanzania.

The flight back to Dar es Salaam is a little more eventful than this morning’s jaunt. There are thunderstorms and rainstorms in our path, and we go through a couple of real downpours, with the rain making a real racket as it beats on the plane. Again, we see the other plane very near us for a while, but then, thankfully, they separate. We arrive at the Dar es Salaam airport around 5:45, have to go through security (On the way out of the terminal. Go figure.) and then hop on our buses. Again we have a police escort though dense commuter traffic, so the trip takes all of fifteen minutes. We are tourist royalty. Amazing.

We get off the bus, pass up all the stands of souvenirs and board the ship. We are so tired that we can hardly speak. A good tired, to be sure. What a day. I must have taken 250 pictures, and I can’t wait to see how they turned out. Steve takes a shower, and Cathy has a great idea: let’s just order something from Room Service. She decides on a smoked salmon club sandwich and Steve has Fettuccine Alfredo. By 8pm, we are in bed. Today has been everything we hoped for and worth every penny.