DAY 16: AH, NATURE: ENJOYING THE MANY CREATURES OF MIKUMI
Funny thing about the spiders: They seem to really like my banda. They greeted me at the door last night, followed me in, and one healthy-sized one climbed immediately up the curtain right next to the bed. This made the fact that the fancy remote-controlled electric mosquito net in my room was inoperable, and that all electricity went out in the wee hours to save generator power, more serious problems than they might otherwise have been. I could have probably protected myself adequately from the mosquitoes without the net, but what was going to keep my eight-legged friends from snuggling up during the night?
I couldn’t wait for an answer, so I abandoned my cute little banda and conned Kristina, who had plenty of fully operational mosquito netting, into taking me in.
We had a lovely evening game drive last night, and spent most of today also out scouting the various animal residents of the park. The regional implementation team (RIT) members from other countries seemed to especially embrace the opportunity, unabashedly excited at the chance to get a close-up view of the biodiversity. There are several bird-watching enthusiasts in the group, too, and they were busy identifying and recording the many different, and often spectacularly colored, species on their drives, and getting lots of photos.
It has been quite hot, though, (luckily, I still can’t convert the Celsius to Fahrenheit, so I’m not sure how hot) and I have rarely been more sweaty and dirty.