A(n untypical!) Tanzanian New Year’s Eve

OH MY GOODNESS!!! What a day.

All started well as we set off from Ilkeliani through the now familiar Maasai Mara towards the Tanzanian border. As we drove through the Maasai Mara, stopping seldom as we had only one hour allowed to transit the area, the light was as dramatic as that of the previous evening.

and my personal favourite photograph from that drive:

We’d seen all of these before: but each sighting was different and, for me, the light in these just makes them special.

“What’s that strange tree?” we asked Charles,”It doesn’t look natural.” Of course, it wasn’t! It was a crafty way of disguising the satellite dishes that are needed for communication around the park and beyond.

Once out of the park – with regrets! – we were driven to the border town where immigration facilities were available. One building contains side-by-side desks for Kenya and Tanzania and I was impressed by the speed and efficiency. After a conversation about why we didn’t look as old as our passports say we are, we were through very quickly, no photos needed. But were held up by the fact that I did not have as many American dollars as I had thought in my purse, so had to go back to the car (in Kenya) to get some more cash. No fuss! I was escorted by a very friendly officer who just waited near the security section while I went down to the car and our new guide to open my case and retrieve the necessary cash. Embarrassing!

It was to be quite a long drive to our next camp and we were with a new driver. He wasn’t keen on our taking photos even through the windows of the car as he thought people would come and ask for money: they didn’t but many did when they spotted the camera. There were the usual villages and markets and vehicles along the way but there were also lots of ladies and younger girls in brightly coloured clothes walking along the main road. It was Sunday and they were on their way to or from church, wearing their Sunday best.

Eventually, we drove into the Serengeti and as we did the skies darkened and our driver said he knew it was going to rain. Again, there were animals looking even more impressive than usual in the striking light.

It was New Year’s Eve and we were looking forward to a relaxed evening in our new camp – enjoying a Tanzanian sunset, perhaps.

Instead, we arrived at Pumzika in the late afternoon in a deluge of rain. we had driven through it for about an hour and had experienced zero visibility as muddy water sprayed up over the windows and, more importantly, the windscreen. At the camp, rain had been pouring down for more than two hours and it was a quagmire.

The driver drove right up to the reception/lounge/dining-room tent and helped the old ladies through the puddles into the tent. Introducing the camp, one of the staff mentioned ‘safety’ an I genuinely thought he was saying that the camp was unsafe: though I had not a clue what they could do about it! In fact, he was saying our safety was their greatest concern so there would be men on duty near the tents at night!!

We decided we would sit tight in the dining-room tent until after dinner which was only an hour away, enjoyed a pleasant meal and finally made our way to the tent ( having reminded our driver that he had offered to drive us there, though it was less than 100 yards away!). The tent was comfortable enough, but all our memories of that night at Pumzika are coloured by the intensity of the rain and the resultant slippery, muddy ground between our tent and the dining tent.

The rain had lifted a bit on New Year’s morning but New Year’s Eve 2017 is likely to go down in history as the one when I had most sleep – we were in bed by 8.30p.m. – nothing else to do but sleep!!!