The group dynamics in "the truck" - which is our mobile, east African equivalent to "The Loft" - is going smoothly. Although, there are a few annoyances. The main one was from one of the Australian who feels it is her duty to tell everyone that what she is looking at is better than what they are (even though everyone is looking at the same thing) and then proceed to loudly describe what the animals are doing:
"Oh look everyone, the lion is washing itself like a cat"
That's because it is a fucking cat, woman!
(Just in case there is any doubt, I did not write "fucking catwoman", which brings up all sorts of lewd images of Michelle Pfieffer in a skin-tight leather cat costume, which is not appropriate for this family-oriented blog)
Even more interesting was when whatever cute animal baby was spotted. I didn't do a thorough investigation, but the "oohhs" and "aahhs" that came from the childless women on the truck were inversely proportional to the following:
a) The distance there boyfriend was standing from them on the truck
b) The distance between them and their boyfriend on the subject of marriage, kids and family
c) The amount of time left on their clock, so to speak
That's it for now...but here are some pix for those who still have to reach the boredom limit:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=9s4cmvvd.41d8hvnd&x=0&y=-2n3nz9
Monday, November 05, 2007
Serengeti & Ngorongoro I
Just got back to the closest equivalent to civilization offered in Tanzania after a week game driving through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro national parks.
All in all it was a very interesting time, having had the opportunity to disrupt the lives of every animal we met by stopping a huge Mercedes truck in front of them and proceeded to take as many pictures as possible, in the hope that the animal I saw would be more than just a little brown speck next to green speck once I get the photos. Of course, soon as one tourist truck stops, within a few minutes there will be 5 more there because the true art of viewing wildlife in the parks lies in spotting stopped vehicles; they are much easier to spot than the animals themselves, and if they are stopped, there must be something worth looking at.
So, for example, since you can't spit without hitting a zebra, a truck would never stop at a zebra sighting, unless something special is going on. Like there is a lion nearby which may try to make a kill...unless of course everytime the lion is close, the zebras get frightened away when yet another big, loud 4x4 full of trigger-happy camera owners comes by. To be honest, I'm not sure how any of the predators survive anymore since every ambush they set seems to be foiled by tourists. On the other hand, tourist dollars are the only thing that keeps the game parks going, so if that means that lions have to deal with extra skittish zebra, so be it. They should just be thankful that none of game in park have been smart enough to figure out that whenever a bunch of trucks stop together, there's probably some animal waiting there to pounce on them.
Anyhoo, here is a partial list of animals I thoroughly annoyed in the above method:
elephants, lions, cheetah (which we almost ran over), leopard, hippo, zebra, gazelles, dikdik, impalas, rhino, ostrich, monkeys, baboons buffalo, wildebeest and about a billion different birds (yes I know that ostriches are birds, but I mean the smaller, flying kind)
Of course, it's forbidden to get out of the trucks at all unless they are in designated camping areas. I couldn't help but compare the game park I visited years ago in Nepal, where we went hiking on foot in search of tigers. Then again, I was also chased up a tree by a rhino, so I guess staying the vehicle is not that bad an idea.
All in all it was a very interesting time, having had the opportunity to disrupt the lives of every animal we met by stopping a huge Mercedes truck in front of them and proceeded to take as many pictures as possible, in the hope that the animal I saw would be more than just a little brown speck next to green speck once I get the photos. Of course, soon as one tourist truck stops, within a few minutes there will be 5 more there because the true art of viewing wildlife in the parks lies in spotting stopped vehicles; they are much easier to spot than the animals themselves, and if they are stopped, there must be something worth looking at.
So, for example, since you can't spit without hitting a zebra, a truck would never stop at a zebra sighting, unless something special is going on. Like there is a lion nearby which may try to make a kill...unless of course everytime the lion is close, the zebras get frightened away when yet another big, loud 4x4 full of trigger-happy camera owners comes by. To be honest, I'm not sure how any of the predators survive anymore since every ambush they set seems to be foiled by tourists. On the other hand, tourist dollars are the only thing that keeps the game parks going, so if that means that lions have to deal with extra skittish zebra, so be it. They should just be thankful that none of game in park have been smart enough to figure out that whenever a bunch of trucks stop together, there's probably some animal waiting there to pounce on them.
Anyhoo, here is a partial list of animals I thoroughly annoyed in the above method:
elephants, lions, cheetah (which we almost ran over), leopard, hippo, zebra, gazelles, dikdik, impalas, rhino, ostrich, monkeys, baboons buffalo, wildebeest and about a billion different birds (yes I know that ostriches are birds, but I mean the smaller, flying kind)
Of course, it's forbidden to get out of the trucks at all unless they are in designated camping areas. I couldn't help but compare the game park I visited years ago in Nepal, where we went hiking on foot in search of tigers. Then again, I was also chased up a tree by a rhino, so I guess staying the vehicle is not that bad an idea.
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