“I Don’t Know, Probably a Four-Legged Mammal”

The trusty Noah.

The volunteers went on our first “big adventure” last weekend—camping in Mikumi Wildlife Park.  Saturday afternoon we packed everything up into the trusty “Noah” and were on our way.  As with most cars here, the Noah is trusty in the sense that you can trust it pretty much always has something wrong with it and will potentially break down and/or not start at any point in time.   Right before we left, we were informed that it probably had an oil leak.  So, following the rule that “if you have it you won’t need it” we stopped at a gas station and were directed to the fundi (translation: mechanic) across the street where we got oil (which came in an old 1.5 liter plastic water bottle).  And then we were on our way.  Mikumi is an easy hour and a half drive down the road from Sega and has all the perks of the big northern parks without the big crowds, so we were all pretty excited.

The Noah was pretty trusty after all, and we ended up getting to Mikumi all in one piece and without problems.  After paying our entrance fees we drove through the park to our campsite which was well-equipped and super nice.  Polly, the director of our program, had a bunch of tents and camping gear for us to use, so we hurried to set up our tents before dark.  As I went to set up the tent I would share with one of the other volunteers, Dana, she told me that this would be her first time camping.  And what a first time it would be.

We set up camp pretty quickly and still had some light so we jumped back in the Noah and did a quick mini game drive out to the hippo pool.  As soon as we pulled up we saw a pair of elephants drinking from the pool.  No matter how many times I see elephants, I think I will always get excited and this time was no different.  We jumped out of the Noah to walk around and get some pictures.  With the sun setting, the silhouettes of the two elephants, and all of it reflecting in the hippo pool it was quite a beautiful sight and a really nice note to start out our trip.

We got back to camp and fixed the fire and had our dinner of rice and beans (what else) and a few bottles of red wine that Polly had brought for all of us.  As it got dark we talked for a while, played a few card games, listened to music, and enjoyed the fire.  At one point we looked up and noticed a glow in the distance—a brush fire.  There were a few trees that were blocking the view and it was hard to figure out how far away the fire really was from our campsite.  We walked around the group of trees to get a better look.  It was still hard to tell exactly how far away it was, as the land is so incredibly flat and tree-less you can see for a lot further than any of us are really used to.  But it looked big.  And it looked like it was moving our direction.  We were all a little nervous about going to sleep with the big brush fire, so we decided to try and stay up for a little while to keep watch.  And then we started hearing animals. 

Now, last year when I camped in the Serengeti with my study abroad program, we heard hyenas at night sniffing around our tent, lions making their strange yelping calls, and even a big cape buffalo snorting.  But there were 40+ of us and we had askari (guards).  So, when we sat back down and heard a loud animal noise that sounded fairly close, the six of us jumped up from the table and scuttled towards the car.  We all stood there, staring intently in the direction of the noise, pointing our headlamps into the little woods to try and find the source, but not wanting to go any closer.  I had told the story about hearing hyenas the previous year and everybody was asking what kind of animal it could be.  I had no idea so, jokingly, I said “It’s probably a four-legged mammal.”  In reality, it was probably a baboon and it was probably not as close as it sounded.  But after a few minutes of us standing close to the car “just in case”, we settled back down at the table.   

Polly and Alice (the outgoing Peace Corps volunteer) went to bed, but the four of us other volunteers stayed up playing cards and talking.  The animal noises seemed to occur more frequently after that: hippos, birds, bats, and other unidentifiable four-legged mammals.  At one point Dana and I heard something that sounded like a dog howl and I was pretty convinced it was wild dogs.  Wild dogs are virtually extinct in Northern Tanzania, but they do have them in Mikumi.  Despite common conception of lions as the “kings” of the jungle, wild dogs are actually much more successful hunters.  While lions have a kill rate at around 60%, wild dogs are somewhere closer to 90%.  Not thinking, I shared this statistic and definitely freaked poor Dana out.  Quite the first camping experience.  We went to check the brush fire again and, thankfully, it had died down by then so it was off to bed.  It was around 2 AM at that point and, apparently, within the hour Polly and Alice woke up when lions started roaring relatively close to our campsite. But, we all woke up the next morning no worse for wear and excited to make another trip soon.  I see a lot of fun camping adventures with this group in my future.