During the short rainy season, the many waterholes and bushy vegetation, a magnificent green that smells of freshness and chlorophyll, make it seem, at first sight, more difficult to discover wildlife.
However, in the experience of this trip - and we were very well accompanied and guided by Jessie, whose knowledge of French also helped us a lot - the beauty and multitude of the fauna was well and truly present during our explorations from morning to sunset.
We found this wildlife wilder, more defiant of human presence than in the parks of northern Tanzania. They don't wait to be photographed! But we can't manage it very well either! Perhaps the Covid period has unaccustomed the wildlife to our presence. If only they had, they'd have forgotten about humans. But this impression of the end of the world, with its runway airport of beautiful red earth, which you have to watch out for during take-offs and landings, for the ever-present possibility of a troop of Impala, or even Wild Dogs on the prowl, was also for us, as on our previous trip, and even more so, the impression of a great familiarity with the landscape.
At the same time, we were completely disoriented, at every turn of the trail, and at the same time discovering a landscape whose beauty we knew deep down inside. Waterfront clearings, inhabited by giraffes and elephants, tranquil impalas. A hippopotamus grazes past in the late afternoon.
A landscape of magnificent colors and skies, always harmonious, evoking the enchantment of our childhood, with its wolves (wild dogs) and lions of course ... Its black mambas too in some bushes. At all hours, the landscapes of our origins. We often get the impression, given the Ruaha's perfect and complete balance of flora and fauna in its food chain, that the landscape has been designed and created by artists and experienced landscape architects.
This is not the case: nature is free and harmonious, in all its splendour.
Where does this come from?
We know that this beautiful Africa is the setting of our origins (...).
We have wondered whether this common origin, fundamentally shared by all humanity, is not deeply rooted in each one of us....
(...)
A "in common", now globalized, for better or worse, where the sense of beauty and harmony would have originated, like all of us, in the heart of this original Africa, which we still have the chance to explore and feel, in such exceptional places as the Ruah River Park.
(...)
It's a chance made possible by the dedication of all these people, who work to protect and preserve these places, to provide a hospitable and fantastic welcome (like the Jongomero River camp) for visitors, and to accompany and guide them as they discover these beauties.
Thank you and bravo to them, and to all those who safeguard such jewels in this ever-changing world...
In any case, it made us really want to go back. As soon as possible. Probably in another season, to admire other settings and colors.
And to share our admirations.
