Dunia Camp

Thursday, 20^th January

Dunia Camp

Dunia Camp Lounge

This is amazing.  We are sitting in a lounge with solid wood furniture, books, lamps both electric and paraffin, games and knick knacks under the stars – well, not quite, it’s all in an enormous tent, open at one end and one side – in the middle of the bush of the Serengeti, with elephants and hyena’s making noises nearby.  We just moved from the dining tent – same set up – for tea and coffee after dinner.  Very ‘Out of Africa’.

But my cell phone keeps ringing and ruining the romantic atmosphere – two of the three other couples here are on their honeymoon drinking champagne and giving me dirty looks.  It’s Robbie calling to tell us about the mains water line break at our house in Canada.  Apparently our whole back yard has to be dug up by the City because their line has broken and is flooding our basement, in January!!  He has been trying on and off all day, but the signal is very week.  So also has Jo in Arusha.  Poor Leanne, who is house sitting, having that to deal with.  Of course this had to happen during the 10 days of our trip when we can communicate with the outside world only with difficulty – and it’s amazing that we can even do that.  It’s good to know that there are people taking care of things at home and that they are kind enough to take the trouble to try and contact us.

Simba Kopjes on the main central north - south road from Ngorongoro to the Serengeti National Park

We drove here from Ndutu, setting off at noon, along the oh, so familiar road home to Seronera.  However, we turned off not far after Simba Kopjes and drove west towards the western hills.  It was pretty lucky we found this very fancy tented camp thanks to Helmut’s excellent sense of direction and knowledge of the terrain, because neither it, nor most of the tracks are marked on the map and there are no signs.  We were supposed to go to one of the big lodges this afternoon to find a doctor because I’ve developed a really bad earache the last couple of days and probably need an antibiotic.  Probably from all that swimming in the sea in Mombasa.  However, we were so focused on finding Dunia tented camp that that particular errand got neglected.  I hope I’ll be able to sleep more tonight than last night, and that tomorrow will be the start of some better luck!  These distractions are rather putting a damper on our enjoyment of the trip today.

An ostrich family with chicks on the short grass plains

This camp was not very easy to find

Bridge to Dunia Camp

Our tent

A bed the size of a football field in a tent bigger than our bedroom at home, complete with flush toilet and shower behind the screen at the back.

Next morning, January 21^st

That has to be the biggest and most comfortable bed we have slept on so far in Africa!  There was even a hot water bottle each for our tootsies in the bed when we retired last night.  What a difference a good night’s sleep makes!  Morning tea taken sitting on the chaise long in the awning of our tent as the sun was rising, looking out over the woodland to the distant hills and kopjes while listening to the dawn chorus and distant lion grunts was very special.  Now the tsetse flies are buzzing bloodthirstily all around the tent, only an hour later.