Another elephant at RuahaAfter a quick breakfast at Ruaha, we got on the road for our long travel day back to Mikumi town. We planned to stop in Iringa for gas, then at Riverside campsite for lunch, before traveling on to Tan-Swiss for the night.
Giraffe skull in RuahaOn our way out of Ruaha, though, our Hiace got a flat tire, and then only about twenty minutes after that the radiator overheated and blew. With these stops, it took a lot longer than expected to get to Iringa, and we switched out the Hiace and two of the Rovers that had been giving us trouble for one of the big coaster buses. With this switch we also lost Anton, the driver of the Hiace, who was the best driver, and saved me a seat in the Hiace on our long journey days. He's applying to work with Deanna and the HALI project, and we exchanged email addresses so we can keep in touch, and I have a great driver if (or when!) I make it back to Tanzania.
Our flat tireWe got to Tan-Swiss with no more trouble, and had an early night. The electricity, real beds, indoor plumbing, and water heaters at Tan-Swiss seem absolutely luxurious in comparison to Chogela and Ruaha, which had none of these things. I'm still not sure which I like better, but I think a good mix of the two makes me the happiest--and makes me realize all over again how lucky we are to take things like electricity and toilets for granted. Living for a week or so at a time with dirt floors and thatch roofs, peeing directly next to the tent in the middle of the night because walking alone to the squat toilet across the clearing is too dangerous, and showering only when you're too hot and dirty to notice the coldness of the water trickling from the hose above your head--all these things can be great and challenging and fun, for a short time. But we've definitely met a lot of people so far on this trip who live in this way every day, for their whole lives. Just experiencing that here has been really amazing, and totally unlike anything I can imagine in the US.
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