Monday, July 11th:

In the morning we enjoyed the palm swifts zooming around and the mangrove kingfisher posing near the porch.  We had a final breakfast with Anne and Livia under the tamarind tree.  The girls spent the morning with Livia while Joe and I packed up.

We boated back to Mafia getting our final splashings of salt spray.  Then we had a short van ride across the island followed by a short flight to Dar with a bumpy finish.  We killed 2.5 hours in the Dar airport which is pretty basic.  Our second flight was from the high rises of Dar to the enormous wilderness expanse of Selous.  From the plane, as far as the eye could see, there was no sign of humans until the clearing of the landing strip.  We saw a shimmering river and lake network surrounded by tall palms.  Further from the water were plains dotted with trees. Ruby spotted zebra and Jane spotted impala before the plane had even touched down.

Our tented safari lodge guides zoomed up in an amazing open vehicle.  Before the airstrip was out of view, we saw giraffes, impala, warthogs and hyena in a den with cubs.  We took a long time getting to the camp stopping continuously to watch the prolific wildlife in the sunset light. Along the way we saw wildebeest, cape buffalo, baboons, and so many species of colorful birds, notably the glossy blue eared starling and the lilac breasted roller.  Samwel, our guide, was incredibly knowledgeable and charming.

We finally reached the camp at dusk.  Once registered and oriented by the managers from South Africa, Shaun and Millie, we were escorted to our family tent by a Maasai.  We waited in our tent getting situated until a Maasai picked us up to escort us to dinner.  We are not allowed to walk unescorted at night.  

We joined the hosts and a Dutch family of four at a large table under the stars with fires on either side for a dinner of ginger chicken, our first non seafood meal in many days.  A beautiful genette showed off climbing up and down a palm trunk during the meal.  Exhausted, we went straight to bed after dinner.  I was up many times at night listening to animal sounds and the tremendous birdsong come dawn.

Tuesday, July 12th:

Unable to ignore the animal and bird sounds any longer we began to stir.  We heard loud cracking sounds and then saw an elephant nearby through the mesh of the tent window!  Before long we were out on our little porch watching a family of elephants, small in stature, walk past.  One turned to face us and approached and we all scrambled back in the tent until it lost interest.  We also saw a hippo grazing with a white egret across the water and many vervet monkeys, including babies, scampering around the doum palms overhead.  One was jumping around on the roof of the adjacent tent.

After breakfast at the restaurant, we spent the morning on a game drive.  We identified at least 40 species of birds which Ruby dutifully recorded in her journal.  We found a pair of lionesses and cubs sleeping in the shade of a palmetto bush and drove within a few feet.  We spotted a lone female kudu. We encountered the ubiquitous impala and skittish herds of wildebeest and zebra.  We saw many graceful groups of giraffe and areas thick with golden baboons. We visited a pair of baobab trees with a gigantic beehive hanging on high.

We returned to the lodge for lunch to find the family of elephants again nearby.  In the late afternoon, we took a boat trip.  We followed a shallow muddy channel spotting many birds including the small brilliantly colored malachite kingfisher.  We saw kingfishers, egrets, herons, storks, lapwings and geese.  Crocodiles slipped into the waters from the banks as we approached.  Some waterbuck stood near the shore.  We exited the channel to the lake seeing hippos, some shyly ducking under the water, some blowing warning geysers.

Along the mud cliff bank we found a colony of little bee-eaters. The colorful little birds nested in holes they had excavated in the mud.  At times they all flew together in a flock. The yellow billed storks flew from the waters to their nests high in the palms backlit by the setting sun.

After a nice dinner we were escorted to our room and saw an elephant and heard it trumpet along the way.

Wednesday, July 13th:

During breakfast an elephant passed through the camp again. Then we enjoyed a peaceful boat trip around the lake observing the many water birds, hippos, and crocodiles.  We were back by 10 AM.  

We had a very lazy day around the lodge reading, writing, looking at photos, and taking new pictures.  Around camp golden weavers, impala, and baboons are easily spotted.

In the late afternoon we took another game drive in a new direction. We saw many animals including a few giraffe babies so young the remnants of their umbilical cords were still visible. The perfectly good drive ended spectacularly when we first spotted hyena, immediately to be forgotten when we intercepted a large family of elephants.  As before, the elephants were relatively small, but none the less magnificent.  The family included a young one and a little baby.  The elephants pulled leaves off the palms and drank from the lake.  They kept the young ones in the middle of the group.  A few times when we pulled up very close they threatened us with trumpeting, ear flapping, eye contact and approaching.  All the elephants appeared to be relatively young. Two were sparring playfully with their tusks when we had to leave and race back to not be late for the 6:30 PM curfew.

Thursday, July 14th:

We had an all day excursion with Samwel and Daniel. After breakfast we headed out and on our way around Lake Manze we saw the two lionesses and two cubs again relaxing in plain sight. We continued on past the lake over open ground with bigger herds of wildebeest and zebra and many birds including african grey hornbills.  Then we came to a denser forest of doum palms with tons of small white and yellow butterflies everywhere. We found a couple of elephants.  Further on there were three male lions and one female.  The young female was mating with the young male with a modest orange mane.  He kept close to her.  The other two males, one with a meager beard and the other maneless hung around nearby.

We had a picnic lunch in the shade of palms by a lake full of hippos, crocodiles, storks, herons, egrets and more. After lunch we arrived at the hot springs pools.  We swan first in the higher very hot pool and then in the lower, larger warm pool.  After the swim we began back to camp.  We heard the alarm bark of a baboon and searched hoping to find a leopard to no avail.

On the way back in the sand river we saw three more elephants drinking from holes they had dug in the sand. The largest tuskless female was the largest elephant we have seen thus far. We returned at a brisk pace stopping to watch the sunset reflecting in Lake Manze.

Upon our return we continued our pattern of dining at 7:30 PM before the other guests to allow the girls to get a good night’s sleep.  We are all asleep around 9 PM, the adults lasting not much longer than the girls. We have been waking around 6:00 – 6:30 AM.