Sealous Game Reserve and Our Final Night...

Day Fourteen

This morning marked our last full day on the train and I think my Dad and I are feeling mixed emotions about it. We are sad to think this incredible Journey is drawing to a close, but we're also looking forward to being off the train and a few steps closer to heading home. This has felt like a long journey. Now there is finally an end to it. An experience that can now be defined in its totality. Three weeks is a long time to be away from the people that you miss and love...who miss and love you too.

The nice thing about being on a train for 15 days and essentially living out of your bags is that packing is pretty easy to do. We decided to get our things together and organized today so that tomorrow morning - our few final hours - could be spent out on the OC.

We spent the morning hours on the train, which I think was a great time for everyone to connect with one another for the last time. Reflect on the last 14 days. What we experienced. What we loved. What we didn’t love. Our “favorite part”. Our hardest moments. I think everyone was feeling like Saturday morning would be spent packing, preparing and rushing…so this day was the precursor to that. Calm. Relaxed. Slow. 

There were more people out and about on the train today. More in the Lounge. More on the OC. Engaging each other. Exchanging information, emails, addresses in the hopes that these new friendships would continue beyond this Journey. I made it my mission to try and learn all 70 names on this train before the trip wrapped up. I fell short, but feel good about the amount of people my Dad and I connected with. The people we allowed ourselves to open up to. The people we shared our lives with in this two weeks on the train. 

There are people I never had formal introductions with, but felt like I knew all the same. Like the two older men who sat in the “Smoking Lounge” of the train. Every...single...day. It was a small, cordoned off room just before the Lounge Car and the OC so we walked past them every day. And there they always were, Sitting, reading and smoking. All day. Every day. They waved. We waved. But I don't think we said a word to each other the entire 15 days on the train. I'm sure they were entirely pleasant, but we had different priorities, different ways of relaxing. 

My Dad and I referred to their area as “The Penalty Box” because they looked like a couple of Hockey Players that were sent off after a high stick. The plexiglass sides of the "Smoking Section” made it feel that way. Matt and Shelley joked that they felt like they were as close to the “Pope Mobile” they have ever been. Mark and Monique referred to them as “Waldorf and Statler” from the Muppets. I think that one is my personal favorite. 

We got a much needed break from the train on Friday afternoon and headed out on our final “Game Drive” of the trip to Selous Reserve. This is one of the largest faunal reserves in the world. Because of its location - which literally feels like the middle of nowhere - there are very few tourists that have gone through the Reserve, making it feel much more “hard core” than our previous Game Drives have been. 

Despite the fact that it a warm, dry and very sunny 95 degrees outside, we were advised to wear long pants, long sleeves and as much insect repellent as we could manage. Aside from the giant mosquitos that are always a concern, they also have TseTse Flies. They are about as big as a small bird and sound like mini helicopters when they come near you. And...they bite. If you are bitten, they can cause "Sleeping Disease", which doesn't sound all that bad, actually. All joking aside, the insects here are big and don't mess around. There are Termite Mounds everywhere here and most of them are between 4 and 6 feet tall, or taller. Should give you an idea as to how big the actual termites are...

Our Rangers name was "Mr. Six" and we felt fully confident from the get go that we were going to see some good stuff. He was really funny and started the drive into the Reserve by teaching us a little Swahili. He told us "Jambo" meant "Hello". He told us that "Boa" meant "I'm Good". Then he stopped the Jeep, turned around and told us that "Hakuna Matata" meant..."No Worries", but in his Jeep we never say that because we had a lot to worry about with him behind the wheel. Matt told Mr. Six that back in New Zealand and in The States, when people had too much to drink and stopped making sense, some would say they were speaking Swahili. Without skipping a beat, Mr. Six told Matt that here in Tanzania, when people had to much to drink and stopped making sense, they would say that the person was speaking English. Touche. 

Eveline wore her Zebra pants to the Drive and Shelley told her - under no circumstances should she get out of the Jeep or she might get eaten by a Lion. I laughed for about the next 10 minutes straight. So good.

We drove for what seemed like an hour and saw nothing. Not one animal. Aside from roasting in the sun, the drive was about as off-road as it gets so we were being knocked around like crazy. Not a good combination. What Mr. Six didn't tell us was that we weren't even in the Reserve yet. It became obvious once we were because we saw Giraffe literally everywhere. Everywhere we looked - giraffe. It was incredible. I've never seen anything like it before. This was different from any other Game Drive we had done for sure. You could tell the animals weren't used to seeing people very often because they looked startled when we approached and then inquisitive. Like they were trying to figure us out. 

We also came up on a herd of Buffalo that had to have been 200 deep. They stretched from one end of a field to the other and were actually blocking the road we were on, so we had to wait until they cleared out. They are massive animals and don't look like something you necessarily want to mess with. Every time I see a Buffalo - which isn't very often - I immediately think of that scene in "Dances with Wolves" where Kevin Costner keep repeating "Tatonka" over and over. It's a totally weird, I know...but it happens every time. 

We rounded out the Game Drive with a couple Hippos, a herd of Elephants and a few Kudu and then made our way back to the train. It was an awesome drive back because the sun was setting and we were standing up in the Jeep looking over the mountains, dense green forests of trees and beautiful green landscape of this massive Reserve. Fresh air. Beautiful sun setting over the mountains. It felt a little bit like a movie set because it almost didn't look real. A perfect last adventure for us before we wrap up our Journey.

Tonights dinner was casual. People were a little worn from the Game Drive and because so many were traveling out the next day, everyone wrapped their night up early. We had a night cap in the Lounge Car, talked about what a great trip it was and headed off to bed. Another great day.

Our last great day on this train.