TAN: Back from the Hinterlands

More samples of the insect kingdom; a dung beetle and a walking stick.

Have a bit of a sleep-in this morning with wake-up time at 7 a.m. We quickly pack and head over for a bite to eat. We are trying to get in a drive over to where we spotted a leopard the previous morning. Peter arrives with the plane at 8:00 a.m. a half hour ahead of schedule. We all saddle up and head around the corner to find the leopard missing from it’s perch in the fig tree.
We grab a plate of breakfast for Peter on our way back by camp. Our route to the airstrip takes us by the folks who are tent camping. They seem just as morose today as they did yesterday. We are the recipients of long blank stares without any warmth behind them. We get to the plane by 8:30 a.m. and get our gear loaded while Peter has his breakfast.

Preflight meal.

Our flight path will take us to Mufindi first, to drop Chantal and I. Graham, Erik and Inge will continue on to Ruaha. We are all hoping that the morning air will be calmer than what we encountered on our trip out. As we get up to altitude it is a bit rough, but it is much cooler in the cabin and there seems to be better airflow. I feel fine and Chantal seems to be doing alright.
I am happy to be in good enough shape to enjoy looking out the windows. Small hills, rocky outcroppings, dry lakebeds and riverbeds in various states of wet and dry periodically interrupt the endless bush. As we move out of the park, we pass over several small towns, a vast area of Masaai grazing land, their corrals clearly visible from the air, as well as another game reserve further to the south.

Views of the landscape, an interesting water system and masaai cattle pens.

Glorious green tea. The extent of the regional airport. The airstrip attendant arrived on bicycle.
Our descent is a bit bumpy and we have a bouncy landing but come through unscathed. Geoff Fox is at the airstrip to greet us. He greets us and catches up with Peter and Graham while our bags are unloaded. The airstrip attendant helps load our stuff into Geoff’s pickup truck. The others pile back into the plane for the 30-minute hop over to Ruaha. We have an hour-long drive through the Southern Highlands to get to the Fox Farm. It is good to see this area at a more reasonable pace than we had when we were last here.
Gabriel and Julie arrived the previous noon and are out for a horse ride this morning. By the time we get to the farm, they have returned. There are no other guests so we each have a cabin to ourselves. We have been sharing rooms for the entire trip so this seems like a very strange thing. After stowing our gear, we head over to the lodge for drinks prior to having lunch. Geoff is taken aback when he find out that he now has two vegetarians on his hands. Fifteen years ago I would have been thrilled to find Scotch Eggs on the menu, but now they do nothing for me. I manage to find two salads to nourish myself with. The fine English lunch is rounded out with Rhubarb Crisp and Custard. This brings to mind my running afoul of the Primary School in England, which I attended when I was four years old, for refusing to eat my pudding.
The afternoon is spent working. We are busy fine tuning sequences for Lazy Lagoon and Mikumi as well as roughing out those for Ruaha and Mufindi. The footage for Katavi is being logged and captured and menus are being prepared. A nice break comes in the form of song singing from Pili, one of the ladies on the staff. She is a little rusty and off key so I don’t think we will be able to use any of the recordings from this session.

We finally break for dinner at 7 p.m. There is a delicious stuffed eggplant for the veggies. Geoff regales us with stories throughout the evening. He has been in Tanzania some 45 years. I figure he could recount interesting events nonstop for a couple of weeks and not repeat himself.
We head back to our cabins to take advantage of the last hour of electricity. The wood-fired water heater has been calling to me all day. After the power goes out, I succumb to its siren song and take advantage of a piping hot bath. Ah, what luxury. Finally into bed at 11 p.m.