a hippo in our yard

It has now taken me over 10 minutes to sign on so this has to be short. We had our goodbye dinner with most of our group in Dar es Salaam. the dinner was very Mexican if I had to catagorize. The pre-dinner entertainment was pirated DVD salesmen doing the rounds. They did a brisk trade but Mom and I held out. Dinner was bbq, i had chicken and mom had fish. We both left still hungry but it was fun. We went back to the hotel and some of us (the girls, me, Steve, Brian) stayed up and had a few more beer and tried out the casino. that was the girls idea and money. None of the rest of us were willing to put our money on African odds. it was a fun night and we didn't leave the casino until after 3 am.

Indulge me a few pictures from our last night together.



Our last night as a group, dinner in a real African restaurant. From left: John, Brian, Trevor and Carol



Lisa and Alan



Phillip

Francios



Tanya and Katrina outside of the Casino at 2am

The next morning I was feeling pretty worse for wear but I figured the day was going to be spent driving to Selous park. it was supposed to be a 7 hour drive. Well nobody mentioned that it was the worst roads in Africa. Now I know why the south isn't visited by tourists very often. Yikes. We were actually lifting off of our seats. It was pretty funny but I was dying, hung over and dead tired. We eventually got to the Rufiji River resort. This river is remote but gorgeous. We were so wiped that we just had dinner and went to bed. We couldn't face any activities. The resort has tents for rooms. They were very nice and the bathrooms were first rate believe it or not.



Our tent at Rufiji River

A Vervet Monkey, they live right in the camp.

Mom writing in her journal in the dining room at Rufiji River Camp

We were not allowed to walk around camp after dark. We had to have a Masai escort. It seemed a bit contrived on the first night when we were escorted to our tents but during the night we could here the hippos in the river right by our tent. Mom woke up to hyenas in the area. Simon at the other end of camp had a hippo looking at him when he woke up. And the next day he was face to face with an elephant. The drivers get the cool yet dangerous end of camp.



The Hippos were right outside

The next morning we took a boat tour where we happened on a mother elephant and her small calf. We are still excited about elephants so we took a million pictures again until our boat almost bumped into her. She left at that point. But we saw lots and lots of birds (18 new ones) and hippos, hippos and more hippos.



Mother elephant with her baby at the river's edge



Steve and Mom on the boat for our river safari



Crocodile



Fish Eagles



A yellow billed stork



view from the boat

Meals here were much more simple. You got what you got. But dinner always started with a pasta course and lunch with the best soup we have had at any resort so far. We did an evening game drive where we saw little. The next day we did a morning walking tour. I don't have sufficient time to properly describe the experience. We saw some giraffes etc but the best part was the guides. We had a young guy as our official guide and then an older guy as our ranger with the rifle. But he wouldn't let the young guy talk. And he kept quizzing us. And not letting us continue until we got the right answer. I now know way to much about giraffe dung. He would as these obscure questions and we would guess at an answer. We were pretty much always wrong and he would give us this look like we were pitiful fools. Then he would wait for us to guess again. It was so funny that we started just guessing wrong for the entertainment value.
Mr. ranger also took a shine to me so there was alot of keeping me back so we could discuss bird trivia. We may actually be engaged in the culture. I hope he doesn't have access to my sign in forms. Yikes.



Joanne with the creepy ranger



Giraffe watching us on our walking tour



A Thompson's Gazelle on our walking tour

By the way, on our last night, there was a hippo right ourside our tent. Freaked us right out but it was fun. Still didn't keep me from sleeping.

Another evening game drive, lots and lots of animals but still no leopards or wild dogs. We are running out of time for them. Oh well. I feel bad for Simon, he seems to be taking it personally that he hasn't found one.

Mom was always looking for the perfect African sunset, I think this is the best one from Rufiji River.

Another gruelling day in the car today to leave. we are currently in Morogoro. I really can't tell you where it is, some mountain range or other. Just for the night and then we head on to Ruhua park.

1 minute to go, I will try to post this.