The Bush
September 30, 2009
For me, the best trips are also those where I can do something active each day – skiing, hiking, biking (not swimming), running etc. Although hotel gyms are incredibly important, if possible, I prefer to be outdoors. For me, one of the better ways to see a new place is to go for a jog or bike ride. Given the wild terrain, I didn’t have any real expectations for outdoor exercise on safari. You sit on a land rover and get fed delicacies all week, right? Well, man was I wrong. Here are some photos of the many outdoor activities I was lucky to have enjoyed while on Safari.
1. Tennis on a court fashioned from Termite Mounds at Sabora Camp in the Grumeti Reserve. The color recalls the French Open and there’s even a ball boy on hand. It was super hot and the ground was a bit uneven but we laughed ourselves silly with the sheer absurdity of tennis in the bush throughout the entire game.
Tennis in the Bush anyone?
2. Kayaking on Lake Taganyika in Tanzania. Our first activity upon Lupita island was an afternoon kayak around the neighboring islands. It was surreal to compare it to other places I had recently kayaked (Caribbean, Connecticut, Maine). We passed by a boat of locals transporting bushels of straw for roofing.
Kayaking on Lake Taganyika
3. Bush Walking through Katavi National Park led by two experienced Guides. We got quite close to some hippos below and learned to ignore the constant buzz of bugs by our head – which, was no easy task.
Surveying Hippos in Paradise valley in the Katavi National Park
4. Bush Biking in Sabi Sands Reserve. One of the lesser thought-out things I have ever done in my life. Luckily we were never hassled and often forgot where I was (save for the heat).
Bush Biking promo ad. I'll get my video up soon so you can see me floundering.
5. Any Gym in the Bush seems impressive given it’s incongruous nature to the setting, however I have to give the award to the most jaw-dropping setup to Singita’s Sabora Tented Camp in the Grumeti Reserve in Tanzania. There they have an air conditioned tent (yes – an air conditioned TENT so that the flaps are open with screens the entire time) dedicated solely to the gym filled with an eliptical machine, treadmill, weight machine, yoga mats and those big bouncy balls for sit-ups plus a fridge with cold water and towels. There’s also a flat screen TV that hangs from the top of the tent displaying everything from CNN to Rap Videos. Gu-faw.
