26th of May

Amazingly enough the restaurant is already open at 06.30h when we show up for breakfast. The handler picks us up and the side of the road to the airport is full with kids that walk to school. One can see that they do not have much; while most wear flip-flops, others walk just barefoot.

Take off is one hour late as the immigration officer is here on time but left his office key at home. Africa. We fly on 12‘000 feet along the coast and reach dar after 2 hours. We approach right over downtown dar es salaam with many high buildings. It is really one of the most developed cities in africa. At the airport, the official procedures are again very easy. This place makes a much more sophisticated impression and people are friendly. Herr bürgi, our flight mechanic who we had flown in from switzerland to do the big service on our plane, is already here. After tom explains him what to do at our piper, we change to a cessna caravan 208 of safari air link. Peter fox, chief pilot, brings us safely down at the banks of the ruaha river where the ground crew is picking us up, does all the formalities for the national park entry and we wait in the domestic arrival building till the plane is unloaded. The stretched limo brings us in 45 minutes to the ruaha river lodge. Tom feels like in the movies; and so do we actually too. This morning at the beach in mozambique, now in a national park as big as switzerland (over 40‘000 km2).

We are greeted by the friendly staff and get our instructions. At night, never walk alone outside your cabin. There are wild animals in the camp, especially elephants and they will attack you at night. After a good lunch, we take a quick shower and are ready for a late afternoon safari leaving at 16.30h. It‘s like in a daktari movie and we see giraffes, elephants, water bucks, impalas, small birds and other small creatures. The sunset is fantastic; sun going down on one side and the full moon coming up on the other.

Back in the camp, it is already dark and our massai friend mereso brings us back to our cabin; with spear and flashlight. He picks us up again later, pilot talk with peter fox and tom over a beer, followed by good dinner. There is a large group of germans with kids next to our table. Quite noisy and lively; they are just everywhere! Mereso, the massai with knife and spear, brings us back to our home.

Sorry fan community – no update today. We only have access to the net in the morning and then it is very slow. You might have even to wait till saturday when we are in zanzibar.

27th of May

We sleep real well in our comfortable bungalows since it was rather cool at night. We have a great breakfast and are happy to see that the german bible group is packing up and ready to leave.

We hop on the jeep with driver and spotter. After a short time we see a lot of animals: first a hippo, then antelopes, lions, giraffes, zebras, wild boars, small and large birds, impalas, crocodile, buffaloes. We pass an area with tse-tse flies; really nasty bastards.  But the wildlife is just incredible; all this in the morning and in free wilderness!

We stop for lunch and in the afternoon it is getting hot. We don‘t see many animals anymore: giraffes and impalas are too common now for us. We are getting tired and and after all this driving over bumpy roads; we are having a james bond feeling: shaken not stirred!!

A nice sunset over the river, full moon coming up (real nice) and another nice dinner. Back with the massai to our bungalow and we sleep immediately. What a first day in the ruaha national park!!

But unfortunately there is only a very slow internet connection here at the lodge. Looks like everything has its price – sorry folks!! You have to wait 2 days.

28th of May

We have a good night sleep since it is rather cool here. When i check the temperature last night it shows only 30.4 degrees and we pull up our additional blankets. We have early morning tea on the patio of our cabin at 06.30h and watch the sunrise. Spectacular. Breakfast is in sweaters and then we get ready for another safari.

Today we want to see cats and tom, the canadian pilot, is with us for his first safari. We drive for quite a while and see some eagles, impalas, giraffes; nothing really spectacular. It looks like all the cats are gone; nobody is around. Looks like they are at school. When we had yesterday a james bond feeling; today is more paris – dakar like. Just driving over bumpy, dusty roads.

So we decide to go back to the ruaha river where we saw all the animals yesterday. For the first time we meet some other tourists in their jeeps. From far away we see a male lion with his family; 2 females and 4 cubs. We decide to go off-road and follow them. All of a sudden they start to duck, move and the females run. When we are closing in, we see that they got an impala. The big male one is holding it down. It is still fully alive. The big one lets the young ones try to kill it. They have to learn it. The whole thing is very brutal and bloody. But such is nature. Eat and be eaten! Even our experienced safari hand rainer has never seen anything like this. Our guide tells us that for him it is only the third time in his three years of his career to see this.

We are heading back since we want to be at the lodge for lunch. We see another lion and go off-road again. All of a sudden we see the rest of the group (6 of them)  on the other side of us; we are right in between. And then it happens: our car doesn‘t start!! It‘s just dead!! And the lions on our left and right side!! The driver is very surprised when he is told to get out of the car and look at the engine! There are at least 7 lions around us. But as soon as he moves out of the jeep, they all start to move and walk slowly away. Now even the white boys dare to leave the safety of the car and give it a push. Despite all efforts, we need another car to pick us up and drive us back to the lodge. Lunch is still waiting for us and it is really good.

On the other side of the river there is a group of rhinos laying in the sun and getting a tan. When we approach them, they jump up and are within no time in the water. It is amazing how quickly these big animals can move. They are feared since they are very dangerous. They hunt you down and can easily cut you in have with their giant mouths and teeth.

While the pilots are snoozing and dreaming, the webmaster is working on the photographs, webpage and diary. Hopefully we have a fast internet connection tomorrow in zanzibar. The one here is extremely slow; even for african standards. So sorry folks; bare with us but it will be worthwhile to read today‘s diary and look at the pictures!