Mini-Safari

One wouldn’t call me an experienced camper. Or even a good camper. Or really a camper of any kind. When I was 7, my Brownie troop “camped” in our troop leader’s backyard, I was in one of those play tents with my friend, which is most definitely not made for actual camping. There was a gap at the entrance flap, which we plugged with our clothes “to keep out the bugs”. It downpoured all night, meaning my mother had to run home and get me a change of clothes since all of mine were soaked. I don’t remember any bugs, though, so technically our plan worked.

In college when I worked at a rich kids camp one summer, we had to spend one night with our campers away from our cabins and mattresses and in the “wilderness” a few feet away from camp, in the woods, where there was a lean-to. I let my kids sneak back into camp to use the bathroom instead of making them go in the woods, and used bug spray to get the fire going. 18-year-old me was a great role model.

So my history of camping is not something I take pride in. But when it was suggested that we go camping in Akagera National Park, about a 2-hour drive from Kigali on the border of Tanzania, I figured what the hell. You only live once, plus there are cool African animals there. Also there were plenty of actual campers with extra tents, sleeping bags, etc to share with me. So 7 of us loaded up 2 SUVs with aforementioned tents & sleeping bags as well as headlamps, cameras, folding chairs, hot dogs, marshmallows, nuts, beef brochettes (meat skewers), cups, plates, cutlery, wine and beer, and got going.

Day one consisted of driving through the southern end of the park, keeping our eyes peeled for fun safari beasts. For most of the day, all we saw was this:

Sure we saw a baboon or two, and a couple of antelope, but nothing too crazy. Actually, the most wildlife we encountered were the zillions of tsetse flies that would swarm the car from time to time, and if we opened the window to take a picture, would sneak in and hide. Then, when we thought we had gotten rid of them, they would launch a sneak attack, setting off several moments of hysteria while we went on the warpath. This happened so often throughout the trip that the floor of the car became a virtual tsetse fly graveyard. Serves the suckers rights. Their bites HURT. Still, it was pretty cool to be bouncing through a national park in Rwanda.

At about 4pm, we finally made it to the camp site, at which time it became clear the trip was completely worth it. (Also we were at a high enough altitude that the tsetse flies were no longer with us).The camp site was on top of a big hill, overlooking a lake:

The weather was perfect, and later we would have a full moon. If the ground wasn’t so hard, I might have actually slept. But before trying to sleep, we did the campfire thing. My hearty camping compatriots did not do a good job lighting a fire. They had been working on it for about 10 minutes when a hearty German family who lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo drove up. The mother started their campfire in about 3 minutes, while our firestarters were still frantically blowing on tiny embers. In the end, our friendly German neighbors gave us one of their burning logs. I think our team was embarrassed, but hey, we had a fire.

Our campfire. Our German saviors are sitting in the background.

Things looked up from there. We ate, we drank, we chatted, we were in our tents by 10, and up by 6 the next morning to continue our mini safari. Fortunately no hyenas surrounded our campsite overnight (that I knew of), but in the morning, there were zebras and topi (type of antelope) within feet of us. They were just minding their own business. It was super cool.

Plus, safari day 2 proved to be much more fruitful. We were in the northern part of the park at this point, and although the roads were much much worse, the animal sightings were much much better. Giraffes (completely fearless; you can drive right up to them), warthogs (total scaredy cats), water buffalo (mean; apparently the park guides are even afraid of them), tons of zebra, a bunch of kinds of antelope, more baboons and, unfortunately, more tsetse flies.

Mean water buffalo glowering at us

Giraffe!

Zebra family!

All in all, I had a great time. Although one night of camping at a time is more than enough. You can take the girl out of the city, but…