TAN: Editing Crunch Time

Some wildlife visible form the dining area at breakfast, a hornbill and bush hyraxes.

The baboons were having a good time in the river bed.

Gabriel and Julie opt out of the morning’s game drive. Chantal and I head out again with Joseph. This morning we find a bunch of hippo pools. The light is bad because the sun is behind everything, but some of the shots should turn out decent. I finally find out what has made the strange coating of plant material on several of the large rocks in camp. It turns out that when the hippos defecate, they wag their tails rapidly, thus making a coarse spay of their feces. Fascinating.

Our next destination is the river overlook. There is not a whole lot to look at, as the river is almost dry. We stop for some refreshment and get to talking with Joseph. He has been a guide for 9 years and has two children living with his mother in Iringa as his wife died last year. He likes his job but thinks he could make better money as a park ranger although there is some danger of getting shot at by poachers. We estimate he makes about $1 per day. We head back early to get some more progress made on the project.

After lunch there is an opportunity to record some of the staff singing. Sarah Fox had really put down their ability to sing. The quartet we got was quite good and had even gone as far as making up a song about DVD’s.

The whole group emerges for the late afternoon game drive. There are no regular drivers available, so Vlad volunteers. He leads us on a rather harrowing journey north of camp. He drives much to fast for us to spot much game, although our guide does point out a pregnant female lion that crosses our path. We are all happy to make it back to camp in one piece.