The Jungle Book [part 1]

The “bare necessities“ might be one of the reasons why my patience was taxed during the last week. Last Friday there was a meeting with our project manager who is called Shaffi. After Simon, Simon, Sören (3 guys from Germany) and me had to wait for 5 hours because Shaffi´s colleague had an hangover we wanted to discuss all the important things for our trip to Wami Mbiki. First, Shaffi introduced me tot he organisation he is working for and then we got down to business. The plan was now to stay in the park for 14 days rather than for 10. We also had to include our guides in the plans for food. Because there is no electricity in the bush we had to find food that would last for two weeks without refridgerator. For someone who is used to a fridge at all times this is a very hard task. During this meeting there were many problems we came up with. We had planned our water supply for example. For one person we calculated about 3-4 litres water a day. That would mean for 14 days and six people way over 300 litres of water. How were we supposed to get that amount of water to our project? Still, the project manager assured us that they would find a way.

On Thursday we finally got round to do our shopping. Although our shopping list got lost for reasons nobody knows. We went to the market in Morogoro although it was burning hot. There you can find everything. Clothes (secondhand), food, poultry (still alive), pots and pans… First, we went and got secondhand bed sheets with deer motives. Then, we got our food. We bought tons of potatoes, a sack of rice, beans, some spices and other tools for the kitchen. We even fetched some vegetables and fruit for the first few days. The guys were desperate to get a machete each because a real bushman would not go tot he bush without an appropiate weapon. After all the shopping about four boys had to carry our bags (of course we paid them a little pocket money). We drove back to the office of the organisation in two cars, unloaded them and made an appointment fort he next day to be picked up.

In general I would describe myself as an adventurous and spontaneous person. But this trip was supposed to be different. As the guys and I were waiting to be picked up the next morning a dead rat fell from the tree above and landed in front of Simon. Was this meant to be a bad omen? After this little incident it did not take long for Shaffi to arrive with his colleagues and a jeep. The jeep had seven seats which suited us well. But where were we supposed to put all our luggage? The Africans do not know any such problems. If there is no room in the car there is still a roof to put all the stuff onto. Our suitcases, rucksacks and food fort he next two weeks including water bottles and the camping cooker were hoisted onto the roof and tied up with a rope. As i asked whether there is a maximum roof load the boys jusht shrugged their shoulders. In this country there are no such regulations. As our vehicle rolled onto the street Shaffi remembered that he had forgotten his mobile phone. So we had to turn around and start anew. Apart from a little stop to buy some fresh tomatoes and meat fort he next couple of days there were no other interruptions on our way. That was until we reached the Wami Mbiki park. The road were not tarmaced anymore and big pot holes and an uneven path caused our jeep to shake and jiggle. Once we arrived the maingate we had to ait for quite a long time as the park has only got motorbikes for means of transportations and not even enough fuel. So after somebody was sent to get some petrol we started the even more bumpy trip through the wild. The roof was creaking and complaining everytime there was a bump and sometimes the vehicle even hit the ground. After a while our roof load was falling down so we had to stop and secure everything. The rangers told us that we had to hurry as there were elephants around. This procedure was repeated at least five times. Sometimes we could not even drive on the path because some elephant had accidentally knocked down a tree. As our car was driving in an angle of almost 45° our driver opened a bottle of Konyagi (the African equivalent to the russian vodka) and we continued our drive. At the time we arrived at the huts we were all very tired. Still, I had to explore the buildings as the boys had already seen them a few days earlier.

The rooms were tiny and apart from an old bedframe there was nothing. As a toilet there was a hole in the ground and there was no shower. After we emptied the jeep and we declared one room as our kitchen a woman who also joined us from the organisation cooked rice and meat. In the evening we played cards at the campfire. As the woman who accompanied us sat next to me and said that she did not know how she was supposed to live here for the next two weeks I realised that this was not going to be easy.