Another amazing morning of being awoken by our personal butler with tea and cookies to enjoy during the sunrise before a scrumptious breakfast...its bittersweet though...soon we are departing the Serengeti. Bound back to Dar; back to extreme heat, an unreal number of flies and a distinctive lack of amazing wildlife (except for a mongoose and a monitor lizard that have chosen to make our yard home). Oh yeah...and no butler.
I let out a deep sigh as I climbed into the land rover; I could hear Starr doing the same. The only solace we had was a brief game drive enroute to the airstrip. A few interesting birds provided bulk to my future impressive birding collection but did little to lift my spirits...but the large herd of giraffes put the grin on my face. Nineteen of these massive creatures who seemed as mystified by us as we were of them, grazed on nearby acacia trees and gracefully surrounded us.
The promise of different game made it tolerable to bid farewell, but the twiga (giraffe) had a different idea. Upon the starting of our engine, these immense animals formed a sort of yellow and brown spotted barricade across the road...it was impenetrable by our truck. Not wanting to scare the giraffe and not being allowed to off-road, Mohammed was forced to turn the vehicle around and find another route.
I waved good bye to the giraffe as we sped off...thanking them for their valiant efforts. Mohammed has been an awesome guide – even when we are running late (vehicles out past 6:30 pm are subject to fines) but come across an unusual site...we stop. It’s refreshing to see him get as excited as us at the glimpse of wildlife. Our brief visit has been peppered with several elephants and giraffes but as we happened upon some more...we stopped. A nuclear family of three giraffes was enjoying breakfast while a lone bull elephant was grazing on some grasses.
The ‘ellie’ appeared a bit irritable after a tree he was attempting to fall remained upright. As he approached our truck his frustration grew, probably as he realized that Starr and I were travelling with our luggage. He watched us for a while, the sadness clearly evident in his eyes, before turning and starting to amble down the road. It was only after my initial bout of gloom at his departure that I realized his brilliant plan.
A 12,000lb animal, who is already having a lousy day, is not something that you want to irritate. As our flight departure time grew closer Mohamed became worried about us missing the flight (for the record, he was the only person in that truck worried about such things)...and he started to move closer and closer to the back of this pachyderm, who showed no indication that he was prepared to move off the road anytime soon.
I get irritated when I am tailgated in traffic...I am embarrassed to admit that I will resort to unnecessary breaking, hand gestures or passive aggressive driving. Apparently I have more patience than an elephant. Our repeated attempts to pass were met with blocking manoeuvres, dirty looks and the start of a mock charge. I was never scared though...I knew deep down he was just trying to keep me in the Serengeti.
Well, despite the good intentions of both the elephant and giraffe communities, we have returned to Dar. This morning when I awoke there was no tea or cookies to enjoy with the sunrise. It was 38 degrees celcius at 8 am and flies buzzed around my head as I stood in the kitchen eating a granola bar. And while it’s not quite the same thing...at least I got my wildlife...the mongoose came out to welcome me home.
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