Ernest Hemingway - Green Hills of Africa
You come to Africa to see the wildlife. You come to see animals you will
not see anywhere else. The good news is that you need not suspend your
game watching activity while enjoying a few quiet moments in the toilet.
In fact, you will probably have some of your most exciting, adrenaline
pumping wildlife sightings when you least expect it, in the bathroom.
The following is a list of critters we personally observed in our bathrooms over the course of our Africa Tour.
Flattie
I don’t know it’s real name, but it's the pleasant looking fellow pictured
at the top of the page. This is the most common critter you are likely
to find in your bathroom. I think we found him in every bathroom, in every
lodge, in every camp we visited. Mottled brown and black color, very flat
(hence it’s name), generally large (we saw them up to two and one half
inches in diameter leg tip to leg tip.) We were assured that they are harmless
and quite beneficial (they eat other critters in your bathroom).
Red Ferarri
Again, I don’t know it’s real name, this is what they called it at
Masuwe Lodge. Big, red, real ugly, real fast spider. We were told that
the only threat from this spider was having a heart attack from watching
it run up one of your legs and down the other before you can even move.
Hunting Spider
Thats what Cathy called it. Looks like a wolf spider, only uglier and
bigger.
Roachs
At least thats what they looked like to me, only bigger, and they fly.
Only saw them in one place.
Scorpions
Actually we never saw one in our bathroom, but our neighbors did at
two different camps, thereby qualifying for this list. One of our neighbors
was kind enough to capture the critter live, and bring in to the lodge
for identification. About one and one quarter inches long, it turned out
to be one of the nastier varieties.
Gecko
A particulary ugly variety, charcoal gray to black with rough looking
alligator-like skin. We are told they are good, because they eat all of
the above. Largest we saw was about 6 inches.
Skink
Very pretty smooth skinned lizard with a rainbow tail. Observed them
up to 8 inches long in the bathroom, and well over a foot outside.
Ants and Flies
Many varieties.
Moths
Again a variety, but one striking beauty sticks in my mind. Almost
bird-like in flight, it had big circular eye-like markings on its wings.
Insect Bite Summary
Over the entire trip, we may have had two or three mosquito bites and
maybe one or two fly bites between us. This is a benefit of traveling at
the end of the dry season. We did see some others get bitten pretty badly
at Okavango. The most vulnerable spot appeared to be exposed ankles at
dinner and in the evening.
After a full month on the continent, nothing to report, not even a mild case of travelers diarrhea. Most of the camps pumped their own water out of a borehole. We drank the water, and ate the food at every lodge and every camp. The only exception was Lake Kariba, where we tried to drink bottled water most of the time. That may not have been necessary, but we were warned by another tourist who got sick in that area.
Precautions
Before leaving, we went to the UCSF travel clinic and got the
CDC recommended vaccinations. Specifically, hepatitus A, polio booster,
tetanus, diptheria, and typhoid. We also took Lariam (mefloquine HCI),
an anti-malaria prophylactic, once per week starting the week before we
left and continuing four weeks after returning.
They've got a lot of snakes in Africa, some particularly nasty ones like puff adders, spitting cobras, black mambas, and really big ones like pythons that can eat goats. They warned us to look for snakes on the paths to the bathrooms so they were often on our mind. But we never actually saw any snakes of any kind at any time we were in Africa.
