Ostriches on Safari Pt.2, Or Stylized Action and Beauty

Campsite Two: Teringeri National Park. Even though we're no further than 20km away, it takes forever to actually reach the place. One thing we came to terms with while riding across this country is the excruciatingly slow speeds you must travel at when attempting to transport 18 people on non-roads; still, you would think America's army would find the technology for such endeavors. We slowly trudge along the ashy pseudo-path until we reach a series of hills, each of which we climb and weave around. The scenery slowly changes, from burnt grasses and acacias fighting for their survival, to tall yellow grasses, impala sprinting at the sight of our mechanical dragon of a bus, the occasional zebra, of course, more ostrich. Soon enough, however, it transforms again into what can only be described as a scene from the Lion King. Words, or at least my words, will never be enough to detail the flourishing Animal Kingdom Mecca we stumbled upon; a marsh filled with herons and green grasses stretched for miles, weaving through hundreds of zebra, elephant, impala, wildebeest, heron, fish eagle, until finally enormous hills of trees and threateningly tall yellow grass framed the scenic wonderment. It was beyond anything I had ever imagined I would ever see. It was also our lunch stop.

Tanzania is comprised of three types of land: village, which our last stop at Oldonu Sambu was, reserved, which includes National Parks, game reserves, and other types of wildlife protected (or shooting gallery) areas, and general land, owned by no one, a rarity nowadays. Terengiri is a wildlife reserve that is home to a super-abundance of concentrated wildlife, due to its variety of habitat, large size (think Connecticut and Rhode Island combined) and its year long water availability.

Just think of your favorite animal as a kid. An elephant? A lion? A freakin' dik dik (looks like a two foot high deer with a pointed snout)? All of those landmark "Africa animals" can be found here, with relative ease. My favorite was always the cheetah, one that in fact was said to be a difficult find. By the end of our three day stay, we saw four.

Our job was to count animals. Scientifically, of course. For 3 km, at intervals of 10 min, we were assigned 8 linear transects of specific ungulates, both water dependent and independent with the overall goal of determining their relative abundance and the diversity among them. I got to count zebras. It was awesome.

I forgot to mention. At the beginning of our journey we decided to make a bet. Whoever could last the longest without showering would reign supreme. Each person to drop out owed the winner (or winners, due to our mandatory shower before our Olasiti homestay) a beer. I was hesitant about the entire competition, but eventually gave a half hearted, lackluster confirmation on my participation in the Smell-Off. It really didn't take long for people to get dirty and putrid. A week in the savanna is basically a week in dust bath. Even the washing of hands, feet and faces (acceptable in the competition for health reasons) didn't seem to matter much; dirt seems to fall perpetually and invisibly from the sky .

Our next stop was to be a big switch from our week in the hot desert sun. The Nau forest would be our cool off.

More to come,

Tim