July 8, 2005

We were glad that we did not have to use the whistle during the night.

On our drive north to Lake Victoria we spotted a Cape Eland, which is the largest of the 74 species of antelope (the smallest being the dik-dik).

We exited the national park and stopped for our potty break. There was an interesting sign indicating the mileage distances to different points.

We entered the area where the largest tribe in Tanzania, the Sukumu, lives. We saw fields of rice, cotton and corn. This tribe mainly farms and fishes.

We had a local guide, Joseph, who told us about the lake and his tribe. Lazier gave candy out to the children and made them line up in an orderly fashion to receive it.

We saw the local pool hall and then boarded four boats. Several young men needed to push the boats out of the sand in order for us to depart. They were chanting something as they pushed which we later learned meant "God help us!" While we were out on our ride we saw a man in the lake fishing with a net. We also had a race among the boats and the rowers were again singing a song.

While walking into the village we saw a boy riding a bicycle and one small little girl was frightened of us because we were white.

We visited a home to see how this tribe lives. A woman was boiling water over a wood fire in the home. She added a thick corn meal and the result was a pasty material that was rolled into balls and eaten by hand.

Our final stop of this discovery adventure was a visit to the local witch doctor. These were two females dressed in black robes. At every witch doctor's abode is a structure made of sticks out front with two doorways. There was a treatment hut, a "hospital" hut and convalescent huts. The treatment room was filled with medicinal bottles.

If the patient does not recover they do not need to pay. If they do recover they are expected to give a cow or goat or work off their debt by harvesting corn, cotton or rice. It was rather amusing when the witch doctor's cell phone rang as we were leaving.

We returned for lunch and I got a short nap before we set off for our afternoon game drive. We almost needed to blow our whistle as we discovered that the zipper on our tent was stuck and we could not get out.

We were afraid that our last game drive of the trip might be miserable because it was hot out and the tsetse flies were out in full force.

We took several roads up to the river looking for leopards, crocodiles or wildebeests crossing.

I stood up in the truck and videotaped the roadway.

We came to the airstrip where we will be departing from tomorrow. This was just a dirt patch of land surrounded by wildebeest. We saw a plane about to arrive. The plane first buzzes the runway to scare off any animals and then circles to make its landing approach. We watched with apprehension as the plane landed and a big cloud of dust arose. There is no terminal. You just get off the plane and hope there is a vehicle there to meet you. It should be a big part of the adventure tomorrow morning.

Near the airstrip we departed the main road and headed into some tall grass. We spotted a male and a female lion. They were within feet of us. We spent a long time watching as the male rolled onto his back and then sat up and yawned several times. We really had a ringside seat.

Only about 100 yards from these lions was a female with two male cubs. Today must have been lion day.

With our sightseeing done we headed back to our lodge. It had cooled off considerably and we even got a few drops of rain. It was a fitting end to our safari as we drove through the fires off into the sunset with the acacia trees silhouetted in the foreground.