Musical Chairs

How do you get 19 20-year-olds to 60-year-olds to act like third graders? You pull up with four Safari trucks and try to assign them to vehicles for the six days of safari travel ahead!

First, there was the Dutch couple who paid extra to have their own vehicle...they apparently extended this concept to the hotels where one night they refused to let a lovely British couple sit with them even though the empty seats at their table for four were the only open seats in the restaurant!

And then there was the young, spoiled, annoying American couple (no -- not me & Julie :)), and they insisted on traveling in the same truck with the young Australian couple on their honeymoon, who frankly, probably would have enjoyed some alone time!

Then, there was the other Dutch couple (in their 50s), who hated the four Germans they were assigned to a truck with. These Dutch tried at every turn to switch places and get into a new truck. At one point, the American/Aussie's truck broke down on the Ngorongoro Crater floor. After all the mechanics tried unsuccessfully to fix the engine, the drivers announced the passengers would have to switch into other trucks. Immediately, the Dutch couple grabbed their packs and began to move vehicles, but theirs wasn't the broken truck, and the drivers, once again, had to put a stop to it!

Next, we had the two young German girls who were annoyed about being in a truck with four much older people. Aaargh!! It was all the funniest display of grade school behavior I've seen in a long time, but then again, that's easy for me to say, because Julie and I lucked out! Our truck had only 5 passengers. The two of us, and then a 33-year old Dutch woman who was traveling alone and spoke perfect English, and the wonderful British newlyweds, Susannah & Dom, who are also in their early thirties, and were so much fun! Our driver was great too -- Mudi is his name. He was such a pro at ensuring we saw all the wild life up close -- there was no shame in his game when it came to positioining our truck for optimal viweing & photo taking!

Funny stuff!
Mere