Glamping on the Serengeti

Seventh in a series

Now when I said we went to our first tent camp in Quintessential Serengeti, I don’t mean your summer vacation tent that took your parents two hours to put up. I don’t mean long walks to the park bathrooms and showers either. Kiota Camp, this is truly camping in style!

Our tent was a double queen with extremely comfortable beds, writing desk, running water and toilet with a shower kind of tent. Now mind you when you are taking a shower, it’s from a gravity bucket mounted outside your tent. You have to schedule your shower and if you run out of water you just yell “more shower!” and the guys outside your tent go running for more water they are heating on the fire. You really couldn’t ask for more comfort out in the middle of nowhere.

The main tent had couches and chairs and a separate dining area. They had a campfire that you could also sit around as you watched the sun go down. When walking back to your tent at night you had a flashlight and a walkie talkie. We met wonderful people at Kiota. One couple from California was a life saver when he figured out where I lost my pictures on my computer!

The men of Kiota Camp are truly the most friendly and helpful! Every day when you roll into camp after a long day on the Serengeti plains they meet you with cool wet washcloths and a cold drink. They hurry to prepare your hot gravity shower so you can truly unwind for the evening. Only men work in these camps because the women stay home with the children. Working out here is no easy task…they carry water to tents, cut firewood with rudimentary tools, cook all the meals, and haul our heavy duffel bags.

My son owns his own forging business (Bravehawk Forge) and was actually on Forged in Fire last year. I decided I would bring one of his tomahawks in case we wanted to trade for something with a tribal chief. Imagine trying to figure out how you are going to bring a weapon of this sort into a foreign country. I wasn’t sure how it would go over! But the tomahawk made it and I didn’t go in for questioning!

One night at Kiota Camp, Dad and I were watching the men of Kiota Camp breaking branches with their hands, their feet and rudimentary tools…no chainsaw or other power tools….so I went down to the tent and brought up the tomahawk. I showed it to one of the men and told them I wanted them to have it. He was so excited…he went behind the main tent where they work and showed the other men…all talking spiritedly in Swahili. They came out with the tomahawk and asked if I would take pictures with them with it. They all lined up and took pictures individually and together with the tomahawk. Such a small gift to them makes such a big difference in their lives.

Of all the places we stayed in Africa, Kiota Camp was probably my favorite. I would return in a heartbeat!

At night, lying in the dark, you could hear animals crunching the grass nearby, the grunt of a Cape buffalo, the braying of zebras, the distant roar of a lion. I wished so badly that I had night vision goggles when I looked out the window of the tent! There were things that were so close that I could not make out in the pitch black darkness.

Early in the morning, Dad stands and looks across the Serengeti plains….we have a big safari day today and what we see will be incredible….