Some of them are absolutely beautiful such as a yellow-breasted apalis (which was beautiful), Jameson's firefinch, African gray hornbill and the green wood hoopoe.
We got back to the lodge around 8:15 a.m. and ate breakfast before Kelly, the liaison for Waterberry with the community projects, joined us. We arranged to purchase a cylinder for the village's only water source so the villagers no longer have to go to the river to get water, and they'll get clean water. It cost us only $150. We were a bit surprised when our guide told us about the need for a cylinder and no one had stepped up, considering that the folks at Waterberry - and I'm assuming here - have a lot more money than we do.
We'll also be contributing some money toward purchasing menstrual kits for the young women. They use rags and must stay at home three to four days when they have their period because of the stigma and the mess. The menstrual kits are good for six years, and they include washable pads, panties and such.
There are other needs - and it is not a lot of US dollars to meet those needs so I'll be sending out a call for donations along with a list of what the money goes toward funding. I hope my friends will consider contributing a small amount of money - it goes a long way here.
We didn't have much time before the van left for the airport at 10:45 a.m. The plane was late getting in, so it was late getting out but we arrived in Jo-burg around 3 p.m.
An Audley representative met us at the gate, thank goodness, because the Jo-burg airport is worse than Toronto, and it would've taken us quite a while to figure it out. That's the beauty of working with Audley - they're taking care of us. The representative got us through immigration before anyone else, we sailed through customs and he led us to the location at which we caught a shuttle to our hotel for the night.
We showered and went down to the outside sitting area to have a drink so we could spend the last of our rands, as we leave South Africa tomorrow. I successfully spent all our rands on a couple of beers and a gin and tonic for Beth. We hung around outside until we got hungry, and it was getting cool. We went into the restaurant to eat around 6:15 p.m., and it was the worse experience we've had so far in our travels. It took us at least an hour to get our food. We started with a calamari starter but it wasn't served until around 7 p.m. There were several people who were seated after us, and they all were eating way before we even got our starter. The servers weren't even friendly, which is not something we've encountered in South Africa. When we complained, a manager explained that the calamari wasn't plated correctly so they had to send it back…. Really? We got five calamari rings on a dish with a bit of fresh greens and a dish with tartar sauce. It wasn't much to "plate" correctly.
Anywho, I'm venting because I am not happy with the service. We just got back to our room, and it's nearly 8:15 p.m. - two hours after we sat down to eat.
Things will get better, as we're going to be in the hands of our Audley folks tomorrow.
Friday was another travel day. We flew from Jo-burg to Dar Es Salaam, where we were kind of escorted through the visa process and passport control, and we got to the lounge for our next flight well before the 4:30 p.m. takeoff. Then we jumped on a 12-passenger airplane that us to the Selous River Camp. It was about a 35-minute flight at about 5,000 feet. We were the only ones on the plane.
We landed on an airstrip of dirt and was met by a guide from the camp, who drove us through the village on the way to the camp. We were greeted by three giraffes on the road not long after we began driving to the camp. It was a female and two juveniles. It's the closest we've gotten so far to the wildlife.
After we arrived in the camp, our personal server Chanda took over. He escorted us to our "room" - it's a tent with a plunge pool, our very own plunge pool, on the deck. He brought us Cokes, and we took a dip then hung out on the porch until around 7 p.m. Went to the bar for Happy Hour and met two couples - one from Belgium who inspects chemicals from India and China - kind of a quality control manager. His wife does the same thing. The other couple are from Durango, Colorado. The woman grew up in the Wildrose, Wisconsin, and went to school in Madison.
We had a nice visit, then we sat down to eat. Chanda made sure we had everything we needed and served us some wonderful pumpkin soup with clams then some sumptuous coated chicken. Dessert was a lime tart.
The Selous River Camp is just like Waterberry in terms of the service. We're very well taken care of. They're spoiling us, in fact.
Our new friends told us about the wonderful things they saw - lions, hyenas, etc. They also told us that around 5:30 a.m. there is a call to prayer, which perks up the birds, and it's glorious listening to them.
And Chanda told us that sometimes the monkeys will get on the roof and jump about.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. We're going on an all-day drive safari. Chanda will awaken us at 7 a.m. with coffee and tea (see what I mean about spoiling us?), then we'll have brekkie, and we're off. We'll take lunch, and I suspect we won't get back to the camp until nearly sunset at 6 p.m. or so.
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