Saadani Day 2 - Monkeying around!

In the morning when the tide is low, men and women from the local village are out with their nets fishing for prawns. They would wade in the water, dragging their nets, and a few hours later they would walk by with the nets over one shoulder and a bag of prawns over the other. Occasionally we heard some singing.

We were up before our 5:30 alarm to head out on a land cruiser at 6am. So nice of them to have coffee ready before we left. The morning was beautiful and the surroundings so different that that alone would have been enough. We didn’t see any animals for quite awhile but I wasn’t surprised as I had heard that from another group who went out a couple of days before us. But then we saw bush pigs, common water bucks, Hartebeests, monkeys, then a long break before we saw a group of giraffe, zebras and a poacher! We travelled slowly through what appeared to be elephant land with no luck. Our guide seemed more disappointed than we were. Scattered throughout the 3 hour drive were single and groups of monkeys, birds and more common water bucks and a couple of warthogs. I was reminded of Phillipe Baud visiting at Christmas a few years ago and wanting to see deer. We see deer regularly at home, sometimes several a day but if I went looking for them, I would likely have no luck at all. It is amazing that we saw anything but I’m sure many tourists come expecting to see hordes of the big five on demand.

Swimming in the Indian Ocean is like swimming a large bathtub. The water is incredibly warm! And full of salt – huge salt chunks line the high tide mark – so not much paddling was required to keep ourselves afloat.

Afternoon winds from the southeast were a daily occurrence. The Dhows (sail boats used for fishing) would head out to sea at quite a clip. The high tide would churn up the sand and crash against the shore.

At the end of the afternoon, we were visited by a swarm of Vervet monkeys. They may be the African equivalent of pigeons or seagulls or squirrels or raccoons, but they sure were cute. One sat up on the furniture on our deck and picked up our cribbage board and then touched one of our metal water bottles. A mom with a baby clinging to her belly came by with a few very young monkeys. They seemed quite at home until a baboon appeared and there was some hissing and they all moved on.

There is a star house and a tree house at the lodge. The star house is open to the night sky but you didn’t need to go there to see the stars. Star gazing is something else here.........even for novices like ourselves. So bright, so close, the Milky Way forming a huge arch overhead.

The tree house was covered and overlooked 2 watering holes. It was a quiet shaded place to watch for animals and journal on the laptop.