Tanzania 2012
It's a 1 hour flight to Ruaha (Jongomero Airstrip), there is 2 stops in Ruaha, luckily ours is first, and we are the only ones that get off the plane. It's a little unsettling to think that we might just be left on this airstrip by ourselves, but as our bags are taken off the plane, a Land Rover from Jongomero rolls up, and we are met by Frank who would be our driver and guide for the next 4 days.
Ruaha
Ruaha is the 'other park' in the southern circuit and is perfect for those seeking that elusive, raw Africa experience in a truly wild landscape. Famous for its large prides of lion and elephant, you can also find cheetah on the plains and leopard sightings are frequent. Ruaha is ancient and wild, studded with thick baobabs many hundreds of years old, and carved through the centre by the Great Ruaha River.
As we pull up in front of the reception tent, all the staff is standing out front singing a Swahili welcome song to us.
When we meet with the camp managers Noelle and Molly (he's a guy), we find out that we are the only guests in the camp, everyone else has left, and no other guests will arrive until the next day. It's pretty cool to have the privacy and the full attention of the staff, who are so polite to us, it feels a little bit like "The Stepford Wives". Of course check in includes the phrase "There are no fences...", we also hear loud and clear "do not go into the riverbed, animals use it as their roadway".
Much like Selous, our tent here at Jongomero is absolutely amazing, covered by a large thatched roof with a huge tree growing through it. We walk into the tent complete with hardwood floors, a giant comfy bed, flushing toilets and running hot water, and a giant shower. The highlight of the tent is a huge balcony overlooking the dry river bed. During the wet season the Jongomero river runs through here.
There's some unique touches in the tent, from handcrafted African art, to the lights made out of old lanterns.
Jongomero is quite unique in it's location, layout and especially how it has been integrated into the bush. There are only 8 tents in this camp and they are all well spaced from each other so you don't hear or see the other campers, that wouldn't matter tonight, we're the only ones.
The tents are perched on the edge of the riverbed, and so is the Dining Room and Lounge. Every tent and building seems to be a part of the forest, even the reception bathroom seems to part of a huge Baobab tree.
We have lunch with Molly and Noelle and learn a little history of the area, the camp and themselves. Noelle is a California girl that ended up in Tanzania as part of her University studies, and Molly (Andrew Molinari) is a Kenyan born local. While we are eating our lunch on the banks of the sand river, some Elephants come down to drink from a small pool of water on the edge of the sand.
Back at the room before we head out for a safari, we watch more elephants from our deck, and meet our room-mate, a cute Lizard.
It's time to head out on our first Game Drive of Ruaha with Frank, and we notice he has a large coffee can attached to the back of the truck, he picks up a big piece of dried elephant pooh, puts it in the can and lights it on fire. Apparently its a native remedy, acts like an incense candle, and the smoke does not appeal to the Tsetse flies, they can be a problem in certain areas here. Every time Frank comes to a stop we get a blanket of Elephant Pooh smoke, strangely, it smells not bad, kind of like those Mosquito coils we take camping.
Ruaha Red-Billed Hornbill 
Agama Lizard
We come upon a group of Elephants digging holes in the river bed, they can smell the water, and don't have to dig very deep to create a sand filtered water hole. Apparently other animals wait in the bushes for the Elephants to leave and then come in for a drink.
From the river we crossed a small bridge and entered a very unique forest area known as Kuu Soko (main market or the Marketplace), as soon as we enter we start seeing groups of Elephants. Apparently these trees are rich with seed pods and fruits that the animals love, so it is a very common gathering spot for many types of animals. At one point if we did a complete 360 turn we couldn't look in a direction and not see Elephants, there had to be over 100 of them here. Every group had babies, and some of the Matriarchs would get a little upset with us as the truck got close to them... they would flap their ears at us, trumpet, and do mock charges to make it clear we shouldn't get closer.
Kuu Soko - Main Market
The great thing about the Marketplace was the mix of other animals, Giraffes, Yellow Baboons, even Dwarf Mongoose.
Our last stop of our first Safari here would be a Sundowner with Hippos, drinking a Safari while on Safari.
Frank tells us his Story of the Hippo that is passed down generation to generation...
A Hippo and a Rabbit live in the forest and become friends, and the Hippo is always complaining about how cold he is. One day the rabbit says to the hippo, meet my other friend fire, if you stay near him, you will stay warm. Foolishly the hippo puts fire under his bed to stay warm, and his bed catches on fire while he is sleeping. The hippo is badly burned and goes to the river to try and cool his burns. When God finds out he is in the river, he comes down and says he can't be there. "You will eat all of my fish! How can I trust you?" The hippo tells him, "I only eat grass, and to prove to you I'm not eating fish, everyday I will look up to you and open my mouth wide so you can see there is no fish, and when I go pooh, I will spin my tail around and spray it all over so you can see there is no bones." God agrees to the hippos plan.
And that is why Hippos look burned, why they always do their big yawns, and why they spin their tails when pooing... who knew?
On the way back to camp we pass a couple of Amarula trees, and if you haven't tried the Amarula drink, you won't know why it was exciting to see it in the wild. The fruit of the Amarula is used to create a Cream Liqueur similar to Bailey's Irish Cream.
At 8:00 our Masai Warrior, Thomas, comes and gets us from our room for dinner. After some drinks in the lounge with Molly, Noelle and the staff, we are shown to our table. It is a single table with candles and some lanterns around it, right in the middle of the Sand Riverbed. It is pitch black, we are by ourselves, and they have put is right in the riverbed that they told us to never go into. There is some staff around, but they back away into the darkness after they bring us each course. Every once in a while we see Thomas shine his flashlight around the trees, and then he disappears into the darkness. Every little animal call, every little twig snap, we are on edge for the whole dinner.
After we come back up to the lounge we hear more stories about flash floods, and guests running out of the riverbed. The 4 course dinner that started with an amazing soup, and ended with an incredible dessert was very good, the setting should have been very intimate, but it truly felt like we had just lived through an episode of the Fear Factor... how romantic.
What they tell you dinner in the riverbed will be like What dinner in the riverbed was like for us
The noises at bedtime are a little different here, first it is the sounds of trees crashing and breaking right next to our tent. It is a local small family of Elephants eating our trees; Mother, and her 2 young babies Theresa and Benedict. Apparently those odd cries that sound a little like a baby crying are Bush Babies, a cross between a monkey and a possum. We also were hearing the crazy pig like sounds of the male Impala mating calls. Felt like the old days in Africa (from 2 weeks earlier at Tarangire).
DAY FIFTEEN
In the morning our wake up call allows us to watch Elephants, Impalas and Vervet Monkeys in the riverbed.
Norine and I load into Frank's truck and head off towards the Bebo Bebo mountains to try and see the elusive Sable Antelopes.
We follow the creative road signs and head West. On the way we spot something running along the road, and as we get closer we realize it's a Honey Badger, Frank is clapping his hands because he thinks we are so lucky to see one.
Twiga - Giraffe
We weren't lucky enough to see the Sable, but we did see lots of other animals, especially Giraffes and the plentiful Guinea Fowl, which Frank refers to as Bush Chicken. This area was really bad for flies, no matter how much Elephant Pooh he burned they kept on coming.
Tsetse Fly - Mbungo
It was great spending time with Frank, as he shared a lot of traditional stories and views on Africa, including the "Green Five"; Lion's Tail, Leopard Orchid, Elephant Grass, Buffalo Thorn and Rhino Thistle, and the "Ugly Five"; the Hyena, Wildebeest, Vulture, Warthog and the Marabou stork. Not sure I agree with them all being ugly, I have grown to love the Warthog, and some Hyenas are cute.
Back at camp, we are reunited with Carol who was at Selous, and met a newlywed couple from New York named Chris and Liz. After lunch all of us headed over to the pool to cool down, except for Chris who spent most of the time with the skimmer cleaning the pool.
As the temperature started to drop a bit, we loaded up for the afternoon drive with Carol and Chris & Liz. As we are heading out of the camp, we only get about 50 meters before we see a large elephant eating the trees.
Frank takes us straight back to the marketplace, it's not quite as busy as it was the night before, but it certainly isn't a disappointment to watch Elephants shaking trees to get the seed pods down. It's actually kind of funny as soon as one shakes them down, the other elephants in the area come over to eat them. It's less work to let someone else do the shaking.
Soon it would be time for another sundowner overlooking the Ruaha River, before heading back to camp.
Luckily we didn`t have to sit in the riverbed tonight, we could watch from the safety of a ledge area and imagine the fear that the new guests must be feeling (at least they weren't alone). Carol joined us for dessert after dinner so we could catch up.
We are walked back to our room by Thomas, one of the Masai Warriors employed here, and as we turn onto the path that leads to our tent, he stops us... there is a Cobra on the trail, he is about 6 feet long, and after having a flashlight shined on him a bunch of times, he slithers off into the bush away from our tent. How Thomas spotted him I don't know, having an escort in the dark is awesome.
As we go to sleep we hear the chirpings and responses of owls around the camp, a nice change.
DAY SIXTEEN
The next morning we get up early for a walking safari with Molly and one of the park rangers. He was the strong silent type apparently, as he never said much to us during the whole walk. One gun in front, one gun behind, single file, talk softly... yeah right. I don't think Molly has talked softly in his entire life, he has a ton of energy and is a very animated loud talker. Unlike the Selous Walking Safari, Molly is an entertainer, instead of just talking about Poo, he tells us about everything, the life of the termite, the flora, the fauna, and the other side of Frank's stories.
Frank had told us about the Elephant's that are born without tusks, they are called Boodi's, and Frank believes they are an evolution of the elephant to stop them from being killed by poachers trying to take their Ivory. Molly tells us it is a genetic defect, occurring in a small % of Elephants. He also tells us that they can be very aggressive, because the only way they can survive is to steal food from the other elephants. Since they don't have tusks, they can't peel bark off of trees for food and moisture, so they have to be more aggressive with their herd.
One of the first critters we see is the cute Hyrax, a small nocturnal rodent similar to a Marmot. Apparently their bone structure and genetics are closer to an Elephant than any of the other African rodents in this area.
Elephant footprint Hippo footprint
Hammerkop nest Weaver nest
We walked for hours, learning all kinds of interesting things as we went, we saw lots of things you would miss in a driving safari. We even watched the Hippos from the shore, and saw the Hippo Highways in the bush and Hippo trails through the sands.
Molly says to us "Know I am going to teach you how to find food in the bush", we round a corner and the staff have setup a table under a tree, complete with an omelette station and everything else you could want for breakfast. So that's how you find food, nice.
After our morning walk in the heat, Carol, Chris, Liz, Norine and I, all head to the pool to cool down. The pool at Jongomero is perched on the slope looking out into the riverbed, the cool waters are refreshing while watching for wildlife to wander by.
While Chris is doing his ritual pool cleaning and we are swimming around, we spot an elephant on the far side of the river. We take some pictures of him from the pool, and then he just comes wandering right across the riverbed and starts munching on trees right below us.
While we are taking future Facebook profile photos, he comes right up beside the pool, and reaches over and starts drinking from the pool...
While we are in it!!!
The Camp Manager and our Masai Askari come over to make sure he doesn`t get any closer to us, and then try to encourage him to move on. They chat at him, walk towards him, they yell, they bang sticks on trees, but he just doesn`t care. At one point he actually walks up to Molly, does a mock charge, Molly doesn`t move, then he kicks dirt at Molly, Molly doesn`t move... That`s when the Elephant picks up a bunch of dirt with his trunk and throws it at Molly. That`s when Molly realized he wasn`t going to gently convince him to leave, as Molly starts backing up, the Elephant starts moving closer. At that point all we saw was the Elephant charge full speed, and we couldn`t see Molly, apparently he ran for the deck of one of the tents, he made it safely, but we thought he was a goner... remember "Don't ever run", that was why.
Finally Molly goes and gets his gun, not to shoot the elephant, but to make a loud enough noise to scare him away, and let him know, this isn`t a nice place to be. The first shot he fires does nothing... the Elephant glances at Molly and goes back to eating a tree. Finally the second shot gets his attention, and he slowly meanders away from the pool and into the forest. Pool Day would never be forgotten..
Frank was wondering why we weren't at the truck ready to go, and comes up to catch the tail end of our little adventure. When I show him the video I too of the Elephant drinking, he tells me that I need to send him the video, and will give me his email. We quickly get back to our tents, change out of our bathing suits and head for Franks truck to go on our afternoon safari.
Apparently Carol went out alone with Frank in the morning, and while they were searching for Leopards she noticed a tree full of Vultures, there had to be something, and they found a pair of Lions feasting on a zebra. We were going back there, sure enough... vultures.
Gushu - Vulture
Right below the tree of Vultures, we find the Lion pair, resting up with full bellies. Apparently they have been busy, as we can see a zebra tucked away into some bushes, and the grisly backbone remains of another one.
The local scavengers are hanging around waiting to see if they will get a turn. The vultures and Marabou storks watch from a distance, and this cute little Jackal is so fixated on the zebra, that he barely notices us. He notices when the female Lion stands up and warns him away.
It's sundowner time again, as the sun sets creating a beautiful pink sky.
Carol joined us for dinner, and we had some great laughs, especially when we noticed our Masai Warrior turn the flashlight on in the dark to check the bottom of his shoes. We can only imagine what he might have stepped in down in the riverbed... I'm betting Elephant Poo.
There was some crashing around the tent as we slept, but we have no idea what it was.
DAY SEVENTEEN
We wake up to Impala's and monkeys in the riverbed, grab a nice breakfast and head out for our morning safari with Chris and Liz. It's their last safari of their honeymoon, as they head off to Ras Kutani in the afternoon for some beach time... Chris's only wish, which he expresses to Frank many times is that he wants to see a Leopard... really bad.
It was a great game drive, we saw lots of different animals, got to watch Frank bushwack some trails, but sadly for Chris, no Leopards.
Our pool time today was rather uneventful, and the pool had some floating debris now that our pool boy Raul, errr, Chris had left the camp. Cooled down, we got changed, and headed out for what would be our last game drive of our trip. Knowing how much we enjoyed the marketplace area, that was Frank's first stop, and there was a Ton of Elephant's there.
On the first day Frank said that we would be sick of seeing Elephants by the time we left, he couldn't be more wrong. After spending a lot of time watching Elephants digging, scratching against trees and termite hills, and shaking trees, some of our fondest memories of this trip would be of the Elephants.
Our Elephant focused drive ended with another colourful sunset, before heading back to camp for dinner.
Part of the romantic gesture of Jongomero was to have each of the couples separated during dinner, we broke that tradition and pulled together tables with Carol from Alaska, another couple Liz and Andrew from New Zealand, and by the time we got to dessert we added another newlywed couple, Holly and Zaid from the UK. Our international table had a lot of laughs on our last night together.
Our last night of sleep in the jungle including crunching sounds around the tent, I'm not sure I'll miss that.
DAY EIGHTEEN
On our last morning in Jongomero we are woken up early by the roar of a Lion and the strange calling sounds of the Hippos. At breakfast we got a very nice surprise, the camp manager Molly is taking us for one more game drive before we leave for Zanzibar. We could still hear the Lion roaring from the camp, and went on a search for our last Big Cat.
The strangest aspect of Hammerkops is their huge nests, for a small duck size bird, they have one of the largest nests on the continent.
Jackal Bat Eared Fox
We never did find the Lion, but it was nice to get out into the bush one last time before leaving. We ran out of time, and headed back to camp to pack up and fly to Zanzibar. Our bags were packed, we had some lunch, but just as we are about to head to the truck the local Elephants, Mother, Theresa, and Benedict wander between us and the Land Rover to chew on some trees. Mother gets so close to us in the Dining Room entryway that Molly tells us to back up out of her trunks reach. When we get home, we learn that Mother is pregnant again.
I can honestly say that I have never had a flight delay of this type before, but what a perfect way to end our African Safaris.
