Captain Chedi surprised us this morning at breakfast by producing a stack of kanga's that he had fetched from the local Maasai village - is the man a prince or what? We took all of them - just so that he didn't have to drive back again to return the unwanted items you understand...
Today is a very sad day as we are going to bid Chedi goodbye....it has truly been a privilege to be able to spend time with him...his patience with the ladies who needed to water every bush on the Serengeti plains & who had a seemingly insatiable desire for shopping was legendary - nothing was too much effort for him. Not to mention his knowledge on a vast array of subjects which made for many interesting discussions. We are so going to miss him...asante sana, Chedi!
It's all too soon and the plane has touched down at Kleins airstrip...
The cargo is off loaded, final goodbye's said & the doors closed....& we are off on the next leg of our journey...
One last look at Nduara Loliondo as we fly overhead and then it is on to Tabora where we will refuel before heading to Katavi National Park - a total flight time of about 3 hours...
It's only once you are viewing the Serengeti from the air that you get a sense of the sheer size of the area that it covers....this is the Grumeti River as we fly over the Western corridor...only one of the many obstacles that the wildebeest have to cross on their annual pilgrimage to the Maasai Mara..
The plane banks and suddenly I see our shadow reflected on the plains below....so small, so insignificant..
We arrive at Sitelike airstrip near the park rangers headquarters & we are met by the vehicle which is going to take us to camp....a view from the bridge going into the park..
It's after this point where trouble begins to rear it's ugly head....it is midday, significantly hotter than Loliondo and the tsetse fly is out in full force.....and we are in an open vehicle!! All of us are being eaten alive and our guide doesn't seem to realise the seriousness of the situation, is not listening to us & insists on stopping for lunch....we have a total sense of humour failure & virtually have to order him to take us straight to camp...no detours! Oh Chedi....
Four VERY grumpy women arrive at Chada Katavi Camp and it takes a while for the ruffled feathers to be smoothed down slightly. We explore the camp...a simple but stylish bush camp...
The tent is in seperate sections, each closed off by zipped doors. There is an awful lot of zipping - 8 zippings (up & down) to get from your front door to the shower (on far RHS) & another 6 zippings if, God forbid, you have forgotten something in the bedroom!! And the zips have to be closed otherwise the tent is inundated with all sorts of flying insects that bite - quite vicious mosquito's for a start...not great when you're using the outdoor bucket shower...
Our bathroom section with the long drop loo....see, they're actually quite civilised..a bit of a throne actually and they shouldn't smell at all..
Our tent has big 'windows' with views out over the plains and a little veranda so you can sit & watch the action.. They don't zip the windows up at night here as it is so much warmer than the Serengeti and every small breeze is welcome....which meant that we were woken up by munching sounds & had a birds eye view of the elephant herd that passed through camp on our first night...in fact, one of the elephants passed right in front of our tent (just short of the guy ropes), stopped & looked at us, then calmly carried on about its business. I had to go & check to see if Debs still had a pulse after that...very special indeed!!
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