Monday was moving day – I was going back north to the Mara River camp inside the Serengeti National Park, which I have found to be my favourite Singita property here in Tanzania.
Under normal circumstances, it would be a 3-4 hour journey, but this is Africa!
Even though it was another emotional goodbye at Sabora, it was a great start to the day. I jumped in the camp transport with the lodge manager’s young daughter, who was heading to school. The rest of the car was full of staff going on leave and materials to be delivered to other camps. The driver played some East African church music and I enjoyed the views of ostriches, buffaloes, warthogs, giraffes and secretary birds on the way – the best commute ever!
I was dropped off for breakfast as I waited for the second transport to pick me up. What was supposed to be an hour’s wait turned into 3 hrs and then we had 2 hours of errands to run before heading north… hmm!
OK, so I wrote about patience last year… about having patience with reaching my dream and I feel like I am getting good at that, but having patience with waiting for people and/or transport and accepting inefficiency… NOPE! So I was in a pretty ratty mood when I arrived at Mara River at 5pm, but after a nice shower, a homemade juice and an hour enjoying the view, the smile was back on my face!
Anyway, the car journey up was actually really nice… driving through the villages and towns was a welcome contrast to the luxurious camps and as usual it was rather thought-provoking to see day-to-day life here. At one point we saw 50-60 young school children of the ages of 5-12 walking down the street with tools ready for ploughing the field… made me think how kids here don’t really get to have a childhood like mine, they have to grow up so fast to help support their families. Good or bad? Well, I cannot judge, but I am certainly grateful that I had the childhood that I had…
BETINA IN AFRICA 