The plan for the morning was that some of the guys head off to the Tarangire National park to check out what the deal is with camping there, while the rest of the vehicles spend some time in the garage for some TLC and servicing (Air filters, oil change etc). Annelie and I choose to stay at the lodge and just chill, although “chilling” for Annelie involves cramping and the warm slicing of scalpels in her gut. We’ve tried the usual meds and had her on nothing but black tea and toast with marmite (a sure fire fix) but this is something normal Boere raad won’t fix.
By the afternoon we regroup, having received a message that there is a place to camp in the National Park proper, but it’s shit. And expensive. Our alternative is the Roika Tented lodge close to it, but at the usual £150 pp. Fanie managed to work it out so that we can camp next to their swimming pool instead, for $10 pp, but we must have dinner also at £25 pp. Our alternative is to stay here, at the very smart Maramboi (with dapper host extraordinaire Aladdin), but Aladdin was unsure if he’d be able to get us the same discount, since they had just enough room for us last night so it was kind of a special deal. All depends on what the boss says.
We make the decision to head 45 minutes down the road to the park. It costs $40 per vehicle and another $30 pp to enter the park. And they follow the same script as the previous park, so no room for negotiations. The nice thing at least is that the pass is valid for 24 hours, but the park closes from 19:00 to 05:00. Next up, we arrive at the Roika Tented lodge (yes, same tour company we’re using for the safari).
Very nice place, fully decked out with a huge reception area, req-room with pool table, huge bar and restaurant and a massive kitchen. The pool side area is a little under construction still, but we setup our tents just fine. Heh, a little hillbilly actually, this really nice lodge with us setting up washing lines and whatnot, even rinsing some washing in the pool! At least the lodge is totally empty (I found out later that from the 1st of July, they are fully booked). The facility manager allows us the use of one of the tented lodges so that we can use the shower, very nice of him.
Before we head down to the park I need to clear out some room from the back seats of the Bulllet, since it’s the only other double cab we have and we want to use two cars instead of four, to save some cash. Hard work. I may have mentioned this before but I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing so much stuff to Africa. By late afternoon we’re cruising in the park, on the lookout for game. I manage to snap off pics of a great many Zebras, Wildebeest, Giraffes, Elephants, Dik Dik (a very, very small antelope), Impala, a wide range of birds including a majestic and bad ass looking falcon and a large group of Warthogs. No Lions. Too bad.
I did spy a particularly LARGE bull elephant, shepherding his herd across the road. His tusks where massive, probably 3 meters or more, at least. We managed to get his attention once. He gave us a “look”. A look that said “that tin can you’re driving in wont save you from my wrath”. We apologised for any inconvenience caused and (slowly) went on our way.
Back at the pool, we’re all mulling around waiting for dinner (to be served at 21:30...) and Mattie is checking out his 2 infected wounds again. Eeeew. Not pretty. It basically looks like something is running tracks... underneath his skin. Actually, about 2 or 3 “things”. They through around some ideas, like slicing it open, injecting alcohol or what it may be (venom?). The wounds feel fine though, apparently, but they look red and swollen, and... those tracks! I comment that to me, it looks like a parasite burrowing under his skin. Which last time I checked is bad, and he should have that shit checked out. This is way-waHAY past Betadine, band aids and a good night’s rest.
Dinner was too much food. I couldn’t possibly finish it. Ordered the steak (rare) again, received an over cooked but massively better cut of meat, with chips. Starter was a butternut soup (delicious!) and for dessert we could order tea, coffee, coffee with tropical fruit, tea with tropical fruit, tropical fruit or nothing. This may seem pedantic, but I assure you that our waiter, Moses, was adamant that we understand our options. A language barrier was also crashed into on many occasions.
I chose coffee, with the tropical fruit salad. Yes it was a weird combination. No, I couldn’t finish it.
PS: my stomach feels funny.
Tomorrow the gang wants to go back to the park at 06:00. We’re not going to get up for that ride. I have quite a few things to do, like repack and rethink our strategy for our day to day boxes, and clean out the fridge (someone spilt about a litre of milk in there. Rather, someone spilt a litre of milk in the fridge, 3 whole days ago. Yuuuuuck.)
Mattie and Johan will bail at around 09:00 for Arusha to get some real medical advice on those interesting critters doing road works on his knee and bicep. Yes, my money is on parasites.
[G & A], out
Karibu = welcome
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