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jessiewre · 4 years

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Day 65

Mon 9th March

Safari Day 3 - Serengeti & Ngorongongo Park

Some would say a wet mattress is a sign of bad luck.

Sean & Jane would probably sit in that category.

They both looked KNACKERED the next morning at breakfast and I cringed as I asked them how their night was. I had to ask though, I’m British! It’s what you say!

‘Awful’ she replied. She was looking straight at me and there was a strange look in her eye. Did she think...no, she can’t think...

‘We’ve basically had no sleep’ she continued, her eye contact wavering at this point. ‘Well, Sean’s had a bit and I’ve not. How was your night?’

Ok I was sure I was started to detect a hint of accusation in her tone. Maybe I was imagining it.

It was weird though, because we were constantly trying to get a balance between bigging up the tour that they had recommended to us, so that they felt good about it, but then also not having too good a time incase we were having a better time than them. Which we clearly were.

I blame the Romanians.

‘...yeah, it was fine’, I began, ‘My mattress was a bit wet too but it was ok when I turned it over...’.

Was that the right answer or the wrong one? I just couldn’t tell. It’s like saying ‘Yeah my mattress was wet too, so it wasn’t just you guys who suffered, but hey look at me - I just got on with it!’

It felt like we couldn’t win.

If we’d had a perfectly good night sleep it was unfair, but if we’d had a bad night sleep, it was like saying they couldn’t complain cos we had it just as bad as them - when clearly we didn’t.

What can you do other than just tell the truth and hope they will take it well?!

We guiltily began to feel grateful that the Jeeps groups were being kept apart for dining and went off to enjoy breakfast with our happy Romanian friends.

We started off with a beautiful sunrise safari in the Serengeti and it was a bit of a pinch me moment. Pink and orange skies and grasshopper safari sounds all around us. I could practically hear music from the Lion King on repeat in my head. We watched the hot air balloons beautifully glide overhead and kept our eyes peeled for any early risers of the animal kingdom. We saw hippos and birds and a serval cat very briefly - but no big cats. The overnight rain had caused a major problem to the roads and we realised that we were quite limited with where we could go due to the muddy tracks. At one stage, we had travelled for an hour seeing NOTHING at all, then got to a point in the track where loads of vehicles were struggling on an incredibly muddy single vehicle track. As one jeep tried to pass another, it had to go sideways up a bank - but as it did so, it slipped down the bank side on with the other jeep and crashed into it!

Luckily it was all quite slow and there was no major damage, but now these two jeeps were in a sort of V shape squashed together blocking the track for everyone.

By the reaction of the drivers, it was just another day on safari! They were so relaxed about it.

Eventually it got sorted and we drove off in search of animals again but apart from the amazing sunrise, it had not been a particularly fruitful morning safari. Oh, apart from our driver - Alfani - helping to fix a broken down jeep. Our driver was not amazing at spotting wild animals we’d realised, but he sure knew how to fix a car!

Then suddenly, we got a tip off from another vehicle that there was a lion nearby and we headed to a potential cat spotting area as quickly as the muddy tracks allowed. We zoomed through the savannah trying to avoid the huge muddy puddles, crossing all our fingers and toes that we’d get a sighting.

And then there she was.

A huge female lion!

She crossed the road and ran up a tree to pose and yawn in front of us while we (I) snapped away with my camera.

Then she stayed in position for OVER HALF AN HOUR!

MAGICAL!

We felt so lucky.

We looked around at all the vehicles arriving, desperate to see Jeep 2 somewhere amongst them. C’mon we are nice people, OF COURSE we wanted the Irish couple to get a sighting of the lioness too.

Mainly to avoid a very awkward conversation later.

But we couldn’t see them. Oh gaad.

Luckily, when we got back to the campsite to collect our belongings and have breakfast before leaving the Serengeti, they confirmed they too had seen a lion. PHEW! They seemed pretty happy now too. Perhaps the bad nights sleep was just a distant memory now. Maybe this was the turning point we’d been hoping for. Maybe all prejudice in the world will stop soon and there will be equality for all.

Yeah. Maybe not.

The drive back through the Serengeti didn’t feel as long as the day before and we spotted hyenas, vultures, giraffes as we headed to the evenings campsite. We were crossing our fingers that the campsite would be a step up from the previous night, but mainly praying that we would be the first car to arrive so we could choose our tents and use the showers first! Screw equality for all, we wanted a nice tent!

And rumour had it this campsite had HOT WATER. Can you imagine it? Hot water in the middle of the African plains. Plus people had definitely cottoned on to the first come first serve vibes, so we really needed to be selective about our jeep stops along the way. On Day 1 we would have stoped for a bloody dragonfly. But now we were old hat at safari! Professionals mate. Pah, another wildebeest? BORING. Hit that goddam pedal dude, them tents aren’t going to pick themselves.

We finally got to the campsite as dusk was falling and luckily, we WERE one of the first jeeps! Oh sweet lord! And it wasn’t raining! You don’t realise how much you love NO rain, until it rains while camping with an ancient tent and lack of hot water. Not tonight though!

We got our pick of the tents and I quickly grabbed my stuff to head to the showers.

I practically skipped there, humming a little tune to myself.

The thing with rumours is that they are often false. I’d forgotten that.

The shower I went in was absolute dog shit, a pathetic excuse of a shower. I attempted to wash my hair under a cold trickle of water but I gave up after about 5 seconds. It’ll have to be a basic body wash this time, I thought, shivering under the cold dribble.

As I left the cubicle, I noticed the one next to me had the distinct sound of flowing water. WTF.

And did she have hot water?? I couldn’t resist asking.

‘Hey! Excuse me! Is your shower HOT?’

‘Umm, I wouldn’t say hot...but its not cold’

Well that was enough for me to decide to wait for her shower and go for Hot shower take 2.

So I waited. And waited. And waited. I swear to god this fecker seemed to think that there would be a limitless water supply and took AAAAAAGES. By the time she finally came out, there were 3 more people queuing for it. I’ll tell you what really does my nut in, its when there are limited showers, such as a situation exactly like this one, and people STAY in the cubicle to fully dry off and get dressed and brush their hair and blah blah blah. NAH babe, GET OUT OF THE SHOWER CUBICLE there are another 100 stinky safari bitches out here and we ain’t got all night ffs!

And breathe.

So anyway.

Moving on.

This was going to be the Romanians last evening with us, as they were doing one day less safari’ing than us - so it was sad times! But they were still going to be with us for the full day the next day, so it wasn’t over quite yet. And we were already planning our trip to go and visit them.

We went to the dinner room and saw the separate tables again, giving Sean and Jane a little wave. Then I thought, frig it - we should make the effort and join the tables. Even though part of me didn’t want to, I felt like it was the right thing to do.

So I suggested it to them and they looked pleased, ‘Yeah great idea, lets do it’ they said.  Phil and I walked over to their table and helped to carry it along with their chairs and plates over to join the end of our table to make one big long table. Great!

Except it wasn’t really, was it.

For some unknown reason, our table was way better than theirs. In so many ways.

We had proper chairs, but their chairs were camping chairs WITH NO BACK ON THEM. I watched Jane’s eyes hover over to our plates, ‘Wow you guys have fancy plates and stuff. Ours are basic’

Jesus.

How was it so awkward so fast.

I prayed Jane wouldn’t spot our metal cutlery. I’d already seen they had plastic. I COULDN’T TAKE ANY MORE OF THIS.

In hindsight, having their table right next to ours was a terrible idea.

Every dish that came over to our table was scrutinised by them to see if it was better than their food. Which of course, it was. Even if it wasn’t, it just was.

Their table was quiet and their conversations were forced and, well, kinda boring to be honest.

Our chat was better, our laughter was louder and our Romanian love story was blossoming right before their eyes. I reckon it almost felt like we’d invited them over to sit with us so we could show them just how much fun we were having. We hadn’t. (Really. We hadn’t. I swear).

The difference between the two now-joined groups was so starkly opposite that it probably just confirmed to them that we were solely responsible for their safari being second best. Which in a way, it really was.

We even offered them some of our food when we’d all been served but they politely declined of course (its the principle don’t you know).

I was sat on the join of the tables, so at least tried to make an effort with conversations across the border - whereas Phil was chugging back the rum and having a jolly old Irish-Romanian time learning some Romanian slang phrases such as ‘F*** my feather’ & also ‘F*** your dead ancestors’ (which seemed particular unnecessary).

I tried my best to chat to their side of the table without having to miss out on the fun vibes of our side, but I kept having to repeat myself so they could hear me, as Philly’s hilarity was causing very loud laughter.

Yep, it was pretty cringe.

We couldn’t really avoid the obvious safari chat so I tried to say something positive. In a backwards sort of way.

‘Our driver is not a great wildlife spotter to be honest’ I said, ‘YOUR guy seems great though!’.

Jane replied, ‘Yeah he is actually, he is really good at spotting stuff. He spots the most out of everyone in our vehicle!’.

And that meant a lot considering they had about 12 people squashed into their jeep 😬.

I thought we’d made some progress there, but then she just came out with it.

‘Yeah, thats the one we’ve beat you guys on and to be honest, its a really important one’.

Ok so up until this point, no one had actually said out loud what this safari trip had turned into. No one had said that it had become a weird competition, a battle, to see who had the best tent / best food / best time. And me and Phil really hadn’t paid much attention to it because, well, we were busy HAVING THE BEST TIME.

But now it was confirmed. They were constantly comparing what they had to what we had and it was clearly wrecking with their heads. I’d had my suspicions of course, but this was a proper penny-drop moment.

She meekly smiled as though trying to shrug it off as a light-hearted comment. But I could see right through her.

From now, it was GAME ON.

 Ok not quite.

I actually still felt sorry for them and a bit embarrassed about it all. And Phil was just drunk at this point.

I decided I’d wait till the morning to tell him about it all and see what he thought. Maybe I’d read it all wrong.

And as crazy as it might sound, in between these moments, we did kind of enjoy a sort of pleasant evening with them. Honestly. We DID 😬.

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