The Baboon without a Tail and other Tales

This week we met a baboon. He kept coming back. We became familiar with him for the observable reason that he was missing his tail. This leaves us with the unanswerable and curious question of "what happened to his tail?" There is a story opportunity here... 

The baboon that kept coming back...

But before we get to the tail-less baboon, first a follow-up to my last post... the pigeon peas from our "shamba" were soaked and cooked and made into a delicious Mbaazi wa Nazi (Coconut Pigeon Peas). Planting in our "Trial and Demonstration" garden, we were expecting a less than 50% germination rate, and were therefore amazed when it turned out to be over 90%! It has been a great crop; great nitrogen fixing for the soil, great for dry, arid soil and very plentiful, meaning there will be many more pigeon pea meals to come!

Bubbling pigeon peas on the gas burner (electricity is still infrequent!)

Another Arrival Announcement!
After announcing the grand arrival of bees and the happy arrival of baby bunnies, we now announce the exciting arrival of two young dogs! Thanks to some good friends here in Bwiru, we are all very pleased to have these two guard dogs (in training). They have been named Snowy and Pepper and are settling in very well here! Thankfully, we were able to send our first "dog" back to his previous home. Poor Kili was never going to be a guard dog. We think his traumatic early years (before he came to us) scarred him for life. He was scared of his own shadow, didn't really understand why it was not a good idea to sit on a fire and scorch his backside and had various other problems that don't bear repeating!

Louisa making friends with Snowy and Pepper

Trying out the Tent
Thanks to a generous gift from kind friends while we were in England, we decided to buy a small tent to bring back with us. This makes it possible and far more feasible for us to take a short break from time to time! And so we were thrilled to have the opportunity to try it out at Tembea Mara, Balili, very close to the Serengeti, for two nights this week! We haven't been camping since we went to Scotland for two weeks in 2007 and it has been a long time since we've been away, just the four of us, and it was good to do again! Time to read and play games together! And enjoy some amazing fruit smoothies (when the power was on) in the café! The great thing about camping in Tanzania (as opposed to Scotland), is the very predictable sunny weather in the dry season! It really was incredibly dry there, and particularly hot climbing to the top of Balili Hill! But the views over Lake Victoria and the Serengeti Plains made it all worthwhile!

And this is where the baboon without a tail comes in. We obviously recognized him whenever we saw him at the campsite and you can't help but wonder about the story behind his missing tail!

Our camp

A goofy happy camper waits for her meal!

Cooking wasn't too different to life at home! Just a lot more ants!

Watching all the baboon activity

On the way up to the spectacular top of Bunda Hill

Admiring the views of the Serengeti and looking for wild animals!

Great views of the Serengeti and Lake Victoria from the top!



Beautiful African sunsets never fail to amaze!