Day 2 Klein’s Camp

My stomach is mostly back to normal. The Dinty Moore Beef Stew Factory is closed for business. Today was an early morning rise. We were out on the trail before sunrise with The Londoners. Today was their last day here in Tanzania, they leave for home tomorrow. Chris and Sara, quite a lot of fun to be around. They hiked to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro before coming here to Klein’s Camp. That is one hell of an accomplishment. We found out all the details, peak names, and other jargon so if necessary we could lie to people some day and make it sound like Wifey and I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Since we left before sunrise they cooked us breakfast out in the middle of the bush. It was quite an extravagant setup to feed four losers breakfast. We partook in a fully cooked hot breakfast of bacon and eggs, all out in the middle of the Serengeti. We could have been eaten while eating. Just before we stopped for breakfast we saw 3 lazy cheetahs. They were just relaxing. I tried to get them to run but no luck. I told them I was definitely faster then them, in hopes of self-concious cheetahs needing to show off. We also ran into a part of the pride of lions again. There were 2 lionesses and several of the cubs. They were full from eating and also just relaxing while the cubs play fought. Adorable, and obviously harmless. I wish I had my red laser pointer.

The real part of today was the visit to the Maasai village. Unbelievable. I still do not have the words to describe the experience, and I have had a couple weeks to digest and think about the visit. It was a very powerful life moment. One thing I always think is they would
not want to trade lives with me either. As humans we only know what we know. The visit was truly one of the most gratitude lifting, eye opening, humbling life experiences to date. The way they live is exactly what Sally Struthers showed me on television. No matter what I may think with my white guilt-filled mind, they seemed like a truly happy people. The children were laughing and playing with giant smiles. They were nice enough to take all the pictures I wanted. They lined up, posed, and were overly excited to have their pictures taken. As soon as I was done snapping photos they came running over to see the pictures on my camera. I was told this would happen. It was pretty damn cute, if cute is the appropriate word to use.

We headed back to camp after a long morning for lunch and a quick afternoon nap. Lunch almost did not happen. We walked to the eating area and were told that our lunch had been prepared, set aside in the kitchen, and then promptly stolen by naughty baboons. It turned out this was the African version of a prank. We fell for it, laughed, and then gobbled down lunch.

Yummy Zebra

As soon as we woke from our nap it was back into the Serengeti Park. We saw a leopard with a fresh kill. A zebra he had murdered for food was in a tree overhanging the river. It looked like a safari meat locker. It was one of the top views of the entire trip. Truly the food chain hard at work. About an hour after that we saw 12 lions with another freshly killed zebra. It was a bad night for the ol’ black and whites. We saw an entire elephant family, about a dozen. They had a baby that was so tiny, in elephant terms. The baby was only a few weeks old. Somewhere along the road today Wifey got stickers in her butt when she got out to pee. Pictures of that can be seen HERE.

I think the best story of the trip may be something that happened later this evening. There are a lot of rules in the Serengeti. It is a national park, so there are guidelines to adhere in order to use the park. There is a sunset curfew, currently 6:30pm, not allowed to have a tracker riding on the front of the vehicle, no “off roading”, many rules to keep the park as safe as possible and preserved. As with any government owned park there are rangers enforcing these rules. Klein’s Camp, where we stayed, is a private concession of land rented from the Maasai tribe. There are no rules on the plot of land that Klein’s operates. You can do night drives, trackers sit on the front of the vehicle, feed the animals (at own risk), and the guides can drive off road or anywhere they want. This plot of land borders the Serengeti with no fences or physical borders. At 6:30pm we were an hour drive from the park exit closest to Klein’s Camp. Once we got near the entrance Rabine off roaded us out of the park and back onto the private land, circumnavigating the entrance gate. I didn’t notice the detour in our route, but Wifey and the Londoners surely did. They asked Rabine about the altered driving route and the paperwork that was supposed to be filled out when we exit the park. Rabine answered very casually, “Maybe I’ll do the paperwork tomorrow.” It was rebellious and hysterical at the same time. Breaking the rules in Africa is exactly what it said in the brochure.

Tonight during dinner, which was scrumptious, the Maasai men put on a tribal dance for us. It was quite unique and the voice rhythms are hypnotizing. It was a ritualistic dance that the men did to impress women. I slept alone that night.

After dinner on the walk back to our room, due to the darkness and scariness, a Maasai Warrior with a spear escorted us. It was extremely badass. As we approached our room there were 2 buffalo within feet of our door! The Warrior Escort punked the buffalo away without a fear or care in the world. It was either brave or stupid, either way we survived.

The newest pictures added are HERE, some pretty good ones.