Today we woke up early and went and had breakfast at about 5.45am, luckily the hotel served breakfast from 4am........and this was not a light early morning breakfast. Oh no, we could have had a full cooked breakfast, every type of fruit or pastry you can imagine, cereals, yogurt, fruit juice, tea coffee and much more - amazing!
We then checked out and were collected at 6.30am for our return to the airport. This was Sunday morning and there was very little traffic so the journey took less than 30 minutes. We checked in for our 8.30am flight direct to Ruaha and then waited in Coastal's lounge until we were called.
The plane was a 12 seater plus the pilots and had 7 passengers. The flight was pretty smooth although I was slightly perturbed to see the pilot reading the flight manual at one point. Not to worry though, we landed safely around 10.30am.
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| Ready for take off |
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| Dar es Salaam from the air |
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| Pilot reading the manual!! |
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| Ruaha |
Once off the plane we were met by Ayoub, who we knew from our trip last year. Ayoub was our driver and had been great so I had asked if we could have him again this year. We then also met Dismas who would be our guide for the next 4 days.
There is a little paper work to do before we leave the airstrip but then we are off. We are sharing our jeep with Christine and Olaf, a German couple who are lovely and we soon become good friends. Dismas explains that we will do a game drive back to Old Mdonya River Lodge where we will then have lunch and unpack before heading out again about 4pm for another game drive and sundowners.
Not very long into the drive Ayoub stops the car and points to an impala right by the road and something on the ground. He quickly explains that the impala has literally just given birth. He urges us to quickly take a photo of the baby and we then leave so that we don't upset the mother. Quite a start to our safari.
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| Baby impala - less than 1 minute old |
As we continue our drive we see plenty of wildlife including giraffe, impala, warthogs, greater kudu, a tawny eagle and many other birds.
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| Ruaha Red Billed Hornbill |
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| Greater Kudu |
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Tawny Eagle |
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| Lilac Breasted Roller |
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| Look carefully and you will see a slender mongoose |
When we arrive at camp we are met by Rebecca, one of the managers, who suggests we have lunch first and then go to our tents after - this is fine with all of us. Over lunch it's good to catch up with Rebecca and also to get to know Christine and Olaf a little better. Rebecca then shows us to our tents and we agree to meet again at 4.30 for our game drive.
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| Our tent |
Whilst we are unpacking in our tent the heavens open and there is quite a thunder storm. Luckily the rain stops about 4ish so Pete and I decide to walk up to the "lounge" tent for a cup of tea. As we walk out of our tent we see 2 elephants down by the furthest tent. We stand and watch as they wander around eating. We decide to go and get our cup of tea as we continue to watch the elephants, who are now joined by a third. The camps's Massai watch the elephants carefully and gently "persuade" them not to get too close to us.
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| Elephant outside Tent 0 |
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| The Massai behind the tree stump watching the elephants |
The elephants delay us a little and eventually Dismas comes to look for us so we can start our game drive. This evening we spend some time looking at birds. Luckily Olaf and Christine seem interested in everything including the birds. Other notable sightings included some cute monkeys and tree hyrax. We then stop at a viewpoint for our sundowners. The moon looks huge and the stars so bright.
Once we finish our drinks we head back to camp. There is just time for a quick shower before we join the other guests for a pre dinner drink around the camp fire and then dinner. At this camp all the guests eat together with the camp managers, at one long table under the stars. The food is good and the conversation entertaining but by 9.30pm we are ready for bed. It has been a great start to our safari. Little did we know that we were in for an exciting night and an amazing day tomorrow.
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| Bare Faced Go-Away Birds |
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| Up close |
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| Cheeky Chap |
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Tree Hyrax
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"Let me clean you up"
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Ruaha
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