Just got an interesting email from Satao Camp in Tsavo East regarding this morning's excitement:

One of the male impalas, protecting his herd of 52 females, was chasing another larger buck out of camp. They zigzaged all through camp ending up in the area of the staff camp. At this point the intruder zigged and zagged incorrectly and ended up running through the canvas of one of the staff tents! He lay there for two hours recovering, then got up and went back into the bush.

Hope the occupant of the tent was already up and at work. What a way to be awakened huh?

excellent story jan!!!

when we stayed at kicheche mara camp last august there was an elephant coming each and every night "working our garden " around our tent. it was cracking, shoveling, chewing and walking back and forth for almost 2 hours each night. in the morning we were expecting that there would be no more one green leave left. but all we saw was its path. okay, one or the other branch was hanging from the trunk but nothing major.
then, our last day, we did a day trip to the mara river and on the way back there was a huge hail storm crossing the reserve further north. when we arrived at camp i rushed to our tent in order to reach the bathroom "on time". but - OOPS - when i zipped the bathroom and flapped the canvas i ran into our bathroom lamp! further investigation (i completely forgot about the need to visit the restroom) revealed that a huge tree fell down during that massive hail storm. that tree the elphant was "working" at the previous night! good for us that it was the bathroom and we were out that day!
but this is something you cannot book in advance at your travel agent and these incidents are the "salt in the soup" in the bush! anything can happen at any time! and how i love it!!!!

Pippa:

Glad to hear your story. I have never seen a hail storm in Africa yet. I can imagine your shock upon finding a tree in your bathroom!

Oh how I agree with you! My life at home and work is rather hum drum and predictable. I can't say that for Africa! I have never had so many adrenaline rushes in my life as I have there.

I have two other "tent experiences" I can share with you. On my very first trip to Kenya in 2001 I was in Tsavo East - and had never been in a tent before. I went out on the afternoon game drive and the driver was talking in Swahili with the camp and I didn't know what they were staying. He kept me out much longer than usual, it was almost dark, and I felt something wasn't right but I didn't know what. When we started into camp he said they had just reported more elephants behind us so he backed up and we went looking for elephants. It was pitch black and I couldn't see anything so I asked to please return to camp so I could shower and go to dinner.

I went to my tent, picked up some clean clothes, unzipped the back zip and put them on the vanity. There was a gerry can on the shower drain and I smelled chemicals but I didn't thin anything of it. I went back into the tent to get something I had forgotten and a man came running in and told me I would have to leave. I told him "if you're spraying for mosquitos, bugs don't bother me - I'm only afraid of snakes". I was told that there had been a cobra in my bathroom!! When the men had come in to fill the bush shower the cobra had spit in the man's face. He immediately turned around and called for help. When help arrived they couldn't find the snake. It had slithered down the drain!

I immediately ran to the dining hall thinking "what the heck am I going to do - I'm not stupid and will not sleep with a cobra"!! Thought I might end up sleeping in the safari van.

About a half hour later the men came and got me and told me they had to show me what they had. I didn't want to see it but they felt I should so that I wouldn't worry about it. Indeed there was the about four feet cobra they had found.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night. Every time a bird would light on the canvas I thought it was another snake. However, I am now much more comfortable with tent living, but each and every time I enter the bathroom I now take my torch and shine it all around before entering!

Another tent event happened this past year.

I awoke at 3:30 a.m. with babboons barking in the tamarind trees at the waterhole. Knowing that barking babboons meant lions I looked all around but couldn't see anything. Then the barking stopped. I figured that since I was up and awake anyway I should go pee before going back to sleep. I unzipped the back zip and entered the bathroom and had just sat to pee when GRR, GRR, GRR right behind me!! I nearly had a heart attack.

I went back into the tent wondering what I should do next. The manager had already told me the Tsavo lions didn't attempt to get in tents. Yet I had read a book by Iain Allen who stated he had known it to happen, and if it happend one should get under the bed and pull the mattress over the side. I knew I shouldn't call an askari because he would be walking right into danger.

Thus I decided that if I was going to be lion dinner, I was going to have a final smoke. I sat on my bed and lit up and the roaring stopped (guess the lions have joined the millions of others against smoking).

I survived the night, but in the morning the askaris told me six lions were right behind my bathroom wall that night.

Aren't many places in the world you can get that adrenaline type of rush!

jan, excellent stories.....the second one is my favourate; maybe because i am a smoker too )))))
by the way - the tsavo lions only eat railway workers!!! so next time you travel to tsavo you can really relax in view to lions.......
by the way: i have never heart of an incident where lions stroke at a zipped tent - but unzipped they enter, that's for sure!

have a great evening and wish you a gentle start in to the week!
irma

Original von pippa
jan, excellent stories.....the second one is my favourate; maybe because i am a smoker too )))))
by the way - the tsavo lions only eat railway workers!!! so next time you travel to tsavo you can really relax in view to lions.......
by the way: i have never heart of an incident where lions stroke at a zipped tent - but unzipped they enter, that's for sure!

have a great evening and wish you a gentle start in to the week!
irma

Thanks Pippa. I'll never invite a railroad worker to my tent!

You have a super week also.