Sonntag, 9. Januar 2011
The real Jungle-Camp
The wildest animal at a federal german campsite has 32 teeth, a hairy back, and roars when it has to say something. It is the groundskeeper, who is often called Horst. The wildest animal at a campsite in the Masai Mara ( a nature reserve in Kenya), has 30 teeth, a hairy back, and roars when it's stomach is rumbling. The groundskeeper here is called lion.
We had seen quite a bunch of them during the day. Some of them just two or three meters from our rebuilt Scania truck, which carries 21 tourists from 6 different countries. The lions were dozing in the sun, as they would rather go for a hunt when the sun sets – so pretty much at the time that we start to put up our two man tents. This should protect us from the biggest predator of Africa? "It's rip-stop canvas" reassures expedition leader Gracie (37).
It's Gracie with whom we arrive in the national park with the biggest wildlife in Kenya, and at one of the most spectacular camp sites in the world. It is the first stop of a 71-days long camping trip from Nairobi to Capetown. The Overland truck cruises through nine countries on this trip: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
The air-conditioning is the airflow through the truck and dinner is cooked by the travellers themselves. The facilities of the camp site is minimalistic: no fence, no lion alarm system, no security, and no washing room or shower; that's what wet wipes were invented for – scented wet wipes.
In case of a chase there is one thing that lends itself to a panic room: The long drop shithouse, a concrete construction about 100 meters from our tents. "Rather don't use it" says Gracie, who used to be a policeman in Australia, but has led tours into the wild since 2008. "If u need to go, rather go behind the tent, and if there is a lion, never turn your back on it."
Further paragraphs of the camp regularity:
§1 Never run away!
§ 2 Look straight into the eyes of the lion.
§ 3 Pretend to be ready to rumble and fight.
Not really a sleep-inducing note for someone whose closest experience with attacks was at most fighting against the offence of her rivals, with her Basketball team from SV Pfefferwerk Berlin.
"The moment a lion tastes human, it won't hunt for anything else", Gracie adds quickly before everyone disappears into their tents. I'd rather be a wet blanket and not play with the lions tonight, instead of being a "human-in-a-blanket" - Very fresh (24 to 48 years olds), imported goods from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Brazil, USA and England.
The night is as loud as it is dark, hyenas laugh, lions roar, and the warthogs grunt happily grazing in front of the tent.
We leave the Masai Mara and Kenya behind and head for the most exciting destination of our trip: the Volcano National Park in Rwanda. Mentioning Rwanda, a 23000 sqm sized country; most people think of the Genocide in 1994, when 800 000 humans lost their lives. Today Rwanda is a safe holiday destination – with the most incredible nature experience that the world has to offer: a visit to the mountain gorillas.
The entrance fee to the national park is an extra 500 Dollars. The walk over tiny trails through green rank plant growth takes one and a half hours, and all of a sudden they sit in front of you – up to 2 meters tall apes with a weight up to 230 Kg, and they are found here, in the middle of Africa near the Equator. 13 gorillas belong to the family, their boss is silverback Charles. "Stay away at least 7 Meters from them", Ranger Vincent (28) whispers, "The Gorillas are allowed to touch you, but you are not allowed to touch them." All right, Vincent.
All of a sudden fellow hiker Renato (26) tumbles into me, a female Gorilla had pushed him aside, he was probably in the way. Bitch fight in the Jungle camp. Now the gorilla chick is a chilling meter away from me and munches on a bamboo stick. "Basically gorillas are very peaceful animals", Vincent calms us down, "They don't care about us tourists."
Silverback Charles looks bored to the visitors and extensively scratches his crotch. Meanwhile, his wives delouse each other, and the kids scuffle and play between the huge ferns and bamboo bushes. A real storybook family.
After an hour the stay with the Gorillas ends. For a farewell one of the babies passes by and touches my leg. In any way the most touching experience I've ever had in Africa.
Sadly for me the trip draws to a close after three weeks – who would possibly have 71 vacation days?! While this text is written, the expedition is in Namibia right now. My ground keeper is the chief editor again. He doesn't roar too often.
We had seen quite a bunch of them during the day. Some of them just two or three meters from our rebuilt Scania truck, which carries 21 tourists from 6 different countries. The lions were dozing in the sun, as they would rather go for a hunt when the sun sets – so pretty much at the time that we start to put up our two man tents. This should protect us from the biggest predator of Africa? "It's rip-stop canvas" reassures expedition leader Gracie (37).
It's Gracie with whom we arrive in the national park with the biggest wildlife in Kenya, and at one of the most spectacular camp sites in the world. It is the first stop of a 71-days long camping trip from Nairobi to Capetown. The Overland truck cruises through nine countries on this trip: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
The air-conditioning is the airflow through the truck and dinner is cooked by the travellers themselves. The facilities of the camp site is minimalistic: no fence, no lion alarm system, no security, and no washing room or shower; that's what wet wipes were invented for – scented wet wipes.
In case of a chase there is one thing that lends itself to a panic room: The long drop shithouse, a concrete construction about 100 meters from our tents. "Rather don't use it" says Gracie, who used to be a policeman in Australia, but has led tours into the wild since 2008. "If u need to go, rather go behind the tent, and if there is a lion, never turn your back on it."
Further paragraphs of the camp regularity:
§1 Never run away!
§ 2 Look straight into the eyes of the lion.
§ 3 Pretend to be ready to rumble and fight.
Not really a sleep-inducing note for someone whose closest experience with attacks was at most fighting against the offence of her rivals, with her Basketball team from SV Pfefferwerk Berlin.
"The moment a lion tastes human, it won't hunt for anything else", Gracie adds quickly before everyone disappears into their tents. I'd rather be a wet blanket and not play with the lions tonight, instead of being a "human-in-a-blanket" - Very fresh (24 to 48 years olds), imported goods from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Brazil, USA and England.
The night is as loud as it is dark, hyenas laugh, lions roar, and the warthogs grunt happily grazing in front of the tent.
We leave the Masai Mara and Kenya behind and head for the most exciting destination of our trip: the Volcano National Park in Rwanda. Mentioning Rwanda, a 23000 sqm sized country; most people think of the Genocide in 1994, when 800 000 humans lost their lives. Today Rwanda is a safe holiday destination – with the most incredible nature experience that the world has to offer: a visit to the mountain gorillas.
The entrance fee to the national park is an extra 500 Dollars. The walk over tiny trails through green rank plant growth takes one and a half hours, and all of a sudden they sit in front of you – up to 2 meters tall apes with a weight up to 230 Kg, and they are found here, in the middle of Africa near the Equator. 13 gorillas belong to the family, their boss is silverback Charles. "Stay away at least 7 Meters from them", Ranger Vincent (28) whispers, "The Gorillas are allowed to touch you, but you are not allowed to touch them." All right, Vincent.
All of a sudden fellow hiker Renato (26) tumbles into me, a female Gorilla had pushed him aside, he was probably in the way. Bitch fight in the Jungle camp. Now the gorilla chick is a chilling meter away from me and munches on a bamboo stick. "Basically gorillas are very peaceful animals", Vincent calms us down, "They don't care about us tourists."
Silverback Charles looks bored to the visitors and extensively scratches his crotch. Meanwhile, his wives delouse each other, and the kids scuffle and play between the huge ferns and bamboo bushes. A real storybook family.
After an hour the stay with the Gorillas ends. For a farewell one of the babies passes by and touches my leg. In any way the most touching experience I've ever had in Africa.
Sadly for me the trip draws to a close after three weeks – who would possibly have 71 vacation days?! While this text is written, the expedition is in Namibia right now. My ground keeper is the chief editor again. He doesn't roar too often.
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