The Circle of Life

With our Fish Lake group settled in we showed them no mercy and headed off to Ruaha National Park (again!). Peter was our driver and he took 30 minutes off the 100 mile ride on a washboard road. We started to encounter wildlife about 3 hours into the ride so at least there was something to watch as we rattled along. Once in the park there are Kudu, Elephants, Giraffes and every other sort of animal and bird to watch. About 5 PM we pulled into Mwagusi Safari Lodge. The staff gave us instructions (watch out for elephants) and led us to our Bandas. Dinner was once again on the river at 8 with stars twinkling above

At 6 AM a quiet voice says "good morning" and brings us coffee and cocoa. By 6:30 the sun is up an we are off on a game drive. The game is all awake and chewing on something right outside of the camp. It is jacket weather for an hour or so but soon the tropical sun warms us and we are bouncing along snapping thousands of pictures. Dale Stiles Facebook page has some good pictures, and when I have a chance I will put more of them up. We traveled about 20 miles thru the 40,000 square kilometer park (about the size of Massachusetts). Only 1/3 of the park is developed for tourists so you can imagine the vistas. There are 6 or 7 developed camps in the park--some with bandas and some campsites.

At 9 we stopped for breakfast and by 1 returned to the camp. Some of us took the afternoon off and just read and slept by the river. The others boarded the jeeps (really Toyota Land Cruisers) and headed back out from 4 to 6:30 PM. The highlite of their game drive was a lion that had taken down a giraffe and started to devour it. In addition, a Servile Cat caught and devoured a Guinea Foul as they passed by. By the next morning the carcas was pretty well stripped of any meat and the vultures were circling it for scraps. I can still smell the carcas! That evening was another dinner on the river bed (a 50 meter wide strip of beautiful white sand) with a presentation of a beautiful birthday cake for Annica's (real) 11th birthday.

Thursday morning we were up again at 6:30 and off to find some more game. Just riding around that beautiful park with the sun coming up and the giraffes and impala watching us go by was a real treat. We had breakfast overlooking the river just downstream from the pride of lions that finished off the giraffe. They were all fat from eating and just watched us pass by. By 11 AM we met the bus at a river overlook. Hippos, crocks, herons, storks and hammerkopf birds were our entertainment. Then back on the road again for a trip back to Iringa. We stopped for lunch at a lodge just 30 minutes out of the park. Once you turn into these lodges, it is like coming into a small oasis in the middle of brown ground and brown buildings.

By 5 PM we were back at the Lutheran Center and ready for showers and stretching our legs. We all joined at the apartment for yeah Gods (what good things you saw) and a planning meeting for the remainder of the Fish Lake trip. They have a few things to visit and we have a bus for the next 5 days to cart them around.

I am up early on Friday (again to the sound of a hymn at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Louder Day Saints) at about 5 to type this in and get ready for another trip to Tumaini University in hopes of finding what I will be teaching next Monday. The rest of the gang is sleeping and resting their bones from hours of banging around. This was an amazing experience and I am glad we went again, but I think we will take a rest for now.