Ruaha Trip to Mwagusi

We had a wonderful weekend at Mwagusi in Ruaha National Park. Tumaini allowed us to drive our car to the park along with Richard and Joan, Don and Babs who were here visiting with Arne (Tumaini's first provost) and Mary Blomquist, and Monica Betencourt who is teaching in the Law Master's program at Tumaini. This was the end of the dry season which is a great time to view wildlife in Ruaha because the grasses are short and animals collect near water sources. We drove into the park and stopped first at the bridge over the nearly dry Ruaha river where there was a concentration of hippos and crocs in a pool. Notice the croc almost submerged between the hippos.

We then drove through the park after asking directions at the airport. Things are not well marked and it is about a 40 minute drive to Mwagusi, especially since you are seeing wildlife all the time and want to stop for photos.

An elephant was at the entrance when we drove up and I encountered a bull elephant later on the path from our banda to the dining area. He was about 30 feet away when I took this picture and then he mock charged me sending me scrambling but fortunately he stopped after about 5 feet when he had made his point. It is an interesting feeling to have a bull elephant run at you from that close. This elephant is the aggressive one in camp and a good reminder that we are not in a zoo. They hang here because the camp is on a dry river bed where they can dig a couple feet down and find water.

We had a wonderful lunch and after a short rest in our banda went back for tea and cake before going on evening safari. We saw elephants everywhere and a nice pride of sleepy lions with a couple restless cubs that were feeding and then harassing the adults.

The special high lite for this trip came on the next day. We had heard a Cheetah had been seen nearby and when we went to the wide open area that the cheetah likes to hunt we saw her under a tree. We arrived near her at the same time as a troop of baboons and the biggest baboon aggressively chased her off. Fortunately for us she stopped to rest in the shade under another tree and we were able to spend 20 minutes watching her up close.

Cheetahs are not very strong hunters, like lions, and rely on chasing smaller game in open areas. The baboon did not want her near the young in the troop and was not at all afraid of her. That evening we visited a fresh cape buffalo kill but the lions were resting after having their fill.
The next day we went on a morning walk with the guide and saw a lot of tracks and birds. The hyena hang out near the kitchen some times and there were a bunch of white scat around because the major diet for hyena is scavenged bones from kills. We hear the hyena at night because they come around looking for food even though they do not leave food outside where we have dinners at night. Mwagusi has to go to great trouble to secure their compost area from hyenas and elephants.

Group leaving Mwagusi, Chris Fox, the owner is on the left and Adrian, the manager is on the right.We had a slow drive out of the park and saw a nice Greater Kudu which was in the open next to a giraffe. I like these large antelope with curved horns on the males.

We had one more adventure on the way out. We stopped by a croc and hippo viewing area at a pool in the river near the bridge. We were out of the car to see better and heard a growl from up the hill above us. There were three lions about 300 feet up the slope and we were making them nervous by walking around outside of the car. They are very used to cars but do not like people walking around. They must have been waiting for visitors to the pool that were tastier than us and we disturbed them. They retreated to the edge of the ridge and watched us. We returned to be near the car and did not stay long.