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Lion hunt: the movie

The wait is over. My brother, Dan, has done the editing and the six-minute movie of our Ruaha trip last August is now ready. The blurb describes it as "a story of misadventure and folly, deep in the African bush". It's a film of us hot on the heels of a lion-kill following a strong tip-off from Felix in the safari lodge office. Did we manage to track down the elusive king of the jungle? Find out by watching the YouTube version here. A higher-quality download should be available on this blog later.

Coconut encounters

A less welcome encounter happened the previous day when my foot and a rather large coconut came together at a not inconsiderable speed. We were doing the obligatory (and fascinating) Spice Tour and, as the end approached, a helpful guy shinned up a palm tree to hack down some tasty fruit. We looked to be a safe distance away - but we hadn't counted on the coconut rolling down a palm leaf and shooting out sideways. Time for the tourist authority to re-do their risk assessment I think.

No blood trickled out although it was clearly sloshing around where it shouldn't have been. But bones are obviously much tougher than I realised because a swift x-ray revealed no breaks. Still, purple toes get you a lot of sympathy - and Philly, George, Pete and Sophie spent the next few days bringing me endless cups of tea while I spent much of the time sitting rather pathetically in a comfy chair.

Looking back I'm simply thankful it missed both my head and my friends.

Serengeti in the Spring

Safari veterans - Pete & Sophie, George and Philly - all returned for the second consecutive year to head off to some of my favourite places in Tanzania: Bougainvillea Lodge in Karatu, Ngorongoro Crater and Ndutu on the edge of the Serengeti plains. It turned out to be among the best visits I've done - a worthy end for what may sadly be my last big trip here.

We saw some amazing things: half a dozen of the Crater's extremely rare black rhinos and more cheetahs in five days than I've seen in the previous four years. Some of you, no doubt, will also be interested to know we beat our record for secretary bird sightings with some ease. And among the other astonishing sights was this guy modelling what he seemed to think was the new season safari fashion - the sunburned torso. The guide books suggest avoiding brightly coloured clothing so you don't scare the animals. But this surely is taking it a bit too far. Quite distressing.

Some of our fellow guests at Ndutu turned out to be a BBC film crew getting footage for next year's new series called something like Natures Greatest Events. They said they were mainly interested in following a pride of lions among the great wildebeest migration - but they seemed to spend a fair chunk of their time filming the local erupting volcano. Sadly, despite Pete's charms, we didn't get a ride in their helicopter. Neither did I manage to sell them my 30 second footage of lion cubs shot rather shakily on my digital camera.

 

 

Nun on safari

Now that we've moved into the era of Facebook, going on safari carries the added risk of being away from that all important internet connection. But I think that me, my brother Dan and Tom coped admirably well when we set off for Ruaha National Park last week. Trev, of course, hasn't (yet) caved in to the pressure to join the Facebook generation - and he even left his mobile at home! Fortunately for Dan and Tom it was possible to get the tiniest bit of phone reception just to the left of the Celtel tree at the River Lodge Camp where we stayed, so they weren't completely out of touch.

Much of the trip was captured on digital media of some sort. Dan and Tom had just come from filming the work of a micro-finance charity in Malawi so, when Felix from the Lodge office gave us information about a nearby sighting of lions eating a giraffe, they had the camera at the ready. You would have thought someone called Felix might have pretty accurate info about cats - but sadly, on this occasion, we were sent off on a bit of a wild goose chase (if that's possible in a search for lions).

We saw all sorts of amazing things like the elusive kudu and a pride of 19 lions. But equally interesting was going on a game drive with Sister Elizabeth, the German nun who has been working in southern Tanzania for 25 years. It turns out she's rather partial to the odd bottle of bitter lemon. And we were enlightened over lunch by her specialist knowledge of the rocks and geology of Ruaha.

Here are some more photos, mostly from the long lens of Trev's camera.

 

Under an eland's watchful gaze

Many Tanzanians avidly follow English football. So a week ago on our way back from the Serengeti it wasn't difficult to find a place in Arusha showing the FA Cup final. We managed to get prime seats at the bar to watch the action. And the atmosphere was enhanced by the presence of a sizeable stuffed eland head on the wall next to the TV. As the biggest member of Africa's antelope family, it was certainly impressive.

Unfortunately we were let down by the unreliable electricity supply - and missed much of the second half of extra time, including the only goal. Not even a rather large eland can help in that situation.

Birds of the Serengeti

I'm privileged to get to go on holiday with the steady stream of friends from home who are discovering the wonders of Tanzania. And the fascinating thing is they're all interested in different aspects of this country's beautiful national parks. For Peter and Sophie it was the diverse bird-life that captured their attention. So the 500+ species in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro kept us busy on our trip up there last week. This was good news for me in my quest to find interesting sightings since all the lions we saw, and the one leopard, were fast asleep and most uninteresting.

But that didn't seem to matter, particularly to Peter. He'd had a fruitless search for a secretary bird during their two months in South Africa. So when we saw a total of five in a single day, you can imagine how pleased he was.

Here's a selection of feathered photos - mostly courtesy of the Hamiltons' camera.

Cats in trees

Ndutu, April 2007

Slightly embarrassing: part 3

Know your jacking points

Of the three, this incident was really only potentially embarrassing. After 36,000 km on Tanzania's roads I was beginning to think I was immune from punctures. Foolishly I hadn't even read the manual on how to operate the jack. Fortunately I got round to doing that just one month ago. And as we returned along Ngorongoro Crater rim, there was that unmistakable hissing sound that said a flat tyre was on its way.

We could have done the whole thing ourselves (yes, really) but when a couple of passing motorists insist on helping, who were we to spoil their fun?

Photos by George

Slightly embarrassing: part 2

Stuck in the mud

Ngorongoro Crater was dry as a bone last week. So it was slightly embarrassing when I managed to find what must have been the only boggy patch within 20 kilometres. Only a little larger in size than a car, my Land Rover was quickly up to its knees in mud and completely stuck.

Fortunately Mike managed to flag down a group of fellow tourists who kindly pulled us out. I was somewhat stressed - but everyone else seemed to find it extremely amusing.

Photos by George

Slightly embarrassing: part 1

Department of Transport advice: Know the height of your vehicle (Land Rover Defender: 1.97 metres)

But of course when you put luggage on the roof, it tends to make it a bit higher. So last week it was a little embarrassing when I drove my fully loaded car straight into the shelter we park under here at my house. Particularly as Philly, George and Mike had made such a huge effort to hit our 6.30am safari departure time. Fortunately for me (disappointing for you) none of them had the thought to take a photo of the damage to the canopy or the plastic crates. But remarkably we were on our way 20 minutes later after a few repairs and reorganising.