Jul 30, 2011

It was 19th of July when we got aboard the aluminium boat for a short safari on Wami river. It was not a boat safari actually but a simple transfer to the Tanzania National Parks jetty, about 3 kms from Saadani River Lodge.

We were accompanying our new friend from Greece Chryssa Botou, the new Marketing Manager of the company that runs the lodge, who had been with us for a while. During the transfer downstream the river we saw many happy hippos, enough crocodiles next to them and many birds as ever. Coming back to the lodge, though, it was the real big moment.

Not far from the lodge, Simba, the boat driver turned left to a small channel where he had seen something before. I directed the boat driver to the river bank. It was a crocodile, pretty big, lying on the thick mud showing his tail to us.

I took out my Sony camera with the white 70-200 mm lens and started shooting. I could see something around the croc’s neck but couldn’t say what it was. At one moment the crocodile turned to me and – guess what – there was a huge monitor lizard into his mouth, still alive and with her body around his neck. In the next few seconds, the green monster, intimidated by our presence, started running towards us.

I kept shooting till he splashed into the river right next to the boat. It was a unique and a bit frightening moment for me because the crocodile seemed enormous into my lens. Vula kept her eyes closed till the serpent disapperared into the river.

Moment later, when we downloaded the pictures we realized that we had been in front of a rare wildlife show. A crocodile with an alive lizard in his mouth? I googled for pictures like this but I didn’t find anything similar.

When I sent the pictures to our friend Costas Coucoulis he replied enthusiastically; “I’ ve been here for 12 years and I have never seen something like this”. He asked me to give him the picture to use it in the book “Saadani, a celebration” which is going to be published soon by well known photographer Paul Joynson Hicks.

Jul 13, 2011

[gr]

[en]

When I was a kid my favorite food was an omelette mixed with french fries. I had my father Socrates preparing it from time to time and the portion was never enough for me.

May 19, 2011

Yesterday we entered Paraguay for one reason; to add one more stamp on our passports. I may seem cynic but this was our intention.

The same night we were confident we did good. Paraguay is a different country than Uruguay and Argentina. It lacks personality and turistic attractions but is worth a visit. Encarnacion was the first town we visited. We had read about the “pearl of the south” that is the most important one after Asuncion.

May 19, 2011

Reinholdt from Germany and Katerina from Greece is a couple we had never met before they arrived to Saadani, using their GPS. We accepted them happily at Saadani River Lodge where they wanted to take a rest during their long African trip. Initially they objected our invitation to sleep in the Managers’ house but we persuaded them, so they enjoyed a proper bed after so long. The couple in the monstroous MAN truck quit their normal life in 2004 and since then they actually travel continuously. They started from Europe and in 2009 entered Africa. From the music business (they were selling professional guitar amplifiers all over the world and worked for various artists from M. Jackson to Dire Straits), they turned to professional overlanders. Now they say they can’t go back to normal life and will try to continue for ever. We wish you exactly this from the bottom of our hearts fellow overlanders!_A.Temperidis

May 19, 2011

This morning I woke up excited and left Costas and Vula in our rooms to go for diving with Spanish Dancer Divers at Nungwi. It was great to dive again in two coral reefs not far from the beach despite it was very bumpy on the surface and despite the limited visibility (5-8 mts.) underwater.