Saturday 5 August 2017

Adventure to Lake Manyara

(Team 5 on tour)
After hearing the groans and grunts of zombies rising for a day of work, the majestic members of team 5 grabbed a precious sleep in, in preparation for the day ahead with the mad and slightly scary Karen and a tired Lauren.

Following sufficient bragging to everyone at breakfast (and flag break), saying goodbye to a  Preying Mantis their team leader found in Stewart's tent, team 5 were locked in the land cruiser and whisked away by a cackling Karen to Lake Manyara.

The trip started well, with the simply amazing team 5 driving straight past the check in point, being told off by a grumpy guard. Afterwards, they delved into the depths of the park.

Chugging along they caught only glimpses of meerkats and warthogs, while capturing spider monkeys and baboons swinging from the treetops on camera.

Emerging from the dark forest the exceedingly brilliant team 5 ventured out onto swampland, they headed out following signs for the hippo pool. Upon arriving at the hippo pool, the unbelievably fantastical team 5 were greeted by the sight of thousands of pelicans and other varieties of bird. Some of which were perched upon large bulbous rocks ,which on closer inspection turned out to be the hippos the stupendous party were searching for. Tearing out of the swamp, passing water buffalo, warthogs and zebra the fearsome team 5 set out for their next mission; giraffes and elephants.

After driving aimlessly for about 5 minutes, the beastly team stumbled upon 4 giraffes - apparently doing the mannequin challenge (obviously frozen due to the team's fearsome aura). Moving on, the dynamic team 5 drove in set off in search of larger game, namely elephants. After a while of chasing tour guides in hopes of finding the large creatures, they were finally rewarded with a herd of elephants.
Upon closer inspection, the elephants were quite keen on our car with one of them coming so close to the car that windows had to be closed. After silently freaking out and taking hundreds of selfies the team tried not to spook the beast, which wasn't helped by monkeys throwing what sounded like bowling balls from the trees above us, onto the roof of our car. The simply fantastic team were then urged by a panicking tour guide to move on as the elephant could have quite easily have tipped the car.

This once in a lifetime experience left the team rather smug when, as they navigated out of the   park, they happened across a long queue of tourist heavy cars (at least ten strong) lining up to see a smaller herd of elephants miles away from the track- about 2 metres away from the track.

Arriving back at camp the terrific team 5 joined the rest of the expedition for tea, discovering that good progress had been made on the build site, with the ring beam a third of the way complete, and the majority of the roof trusses fabricated.

By Christopher Mallon and Josh Walker
(Representatives of Team 5)
(Happy birthday Mam)

26 comments:

  1. Wolverhampton wanderers 1 boro nil nice to hear you say some animals

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  2. What an amazing encounter! Even the animals want to meet these strange "muzungus". We can see how hard you're working and it's great to see you're enjoying it too.
    Love Wx (Bob's Mum)

    Margaret North 05·08·2017
    Looking good looks like you are having a great experience ⚜

    👍"Thumbs up" sent from Anne Parkes, Sue Wood, Rachael Taylor, Ian Railton, David Pitcairn, Margaret North, Alex Marshall, Andrew Marlow, Claudine Galloway

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  3. Hi Matthew Bainbridge. Its nice to see you working hard! We are in sunny Scotland, walked into North Berwick today. Its been mostly sunny with a couple of showers. John, Megan, Cameron, Maggie, Iain, Kay and Maisie all say hi. I hope that your having the best time! Lots of love mam xxxxx (Debbie)

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  4. We are just wondering if the preying Mantis was the start of Izzy collecting pets to bring home .When the ginger team have their safari please check her bag for baby animals 😁😁🙊🦁🐯🐵🐆. The cats keep bringing mice in for her but we aren't keeping them for you .x It sounds like you are having a fantastic time, keep working hard and enjoying yourselves xxx we are now counting down to you coming home xx

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  5. Hey Jacob b - just catching up on all the blogs as been at work last 3 days. Well done to you all for all your work I can see from the pictures things are coming together. You should all be so proud of yourselves. Minnie and I miss you but looks and sounds like you are all having an amazing time. Fabulous reading. Just think jacob in this time in 6 weeks you will be in Florida with nothing to think about other than what time you get in the pool. Love you xxx

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  6. Another brill blog,please tell our Ellis Boro lostv1-0 takecare xxyvonne woodgate xx

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  7. Team 5, you have had an epic day! I Hope you all got lots of photos!! Vik x

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  8. What a simply fantastic blog :) Sam get yourself out there and get some more animals seen :)

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  9. Sounds as though you have had an amazing day. :-)

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  10. Fantastic encounter look forward to seeing photos when you all get back home. Bob Em would like to see more photos of you please. Love from Catherine xx

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  11. Love these blogs looks like you are all having an awesome experience x

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  12. Love these blogs looks like you are all having an awesome experience x

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  13. Wow that sounds envy inducing to say the least, watch ginger teams adventure be an all inclusive tour of the towns long drops instead... sure there'd be a similar variety of wildlife. None comparable in the least but to try and add a little adventure to the long gone British summer time I packed a stick and handkerchief and headed up the coast on a walk today to quickly find my self horrifically lost with no phone coverage and no clear route home. Two hours later I found myself at bloody lindesfarne (still no idea how I got there), proceeded to get trapped as the tide came in and didn't fancy swimming it back. A good five hours later I was finally land bound again but only to be just as lost as how I'd started. As I finally stumbled upon civilisation it was your mothers texts holly including a misssent shopping list and variety of emojis that signalled I would not be fending for myself overnight in the dangerous banbrough wilderness. Hope you're having a blast and looking forward to the stories, lots of love stella x

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  14. Oh wow that's an amazing day jakey B. Me, joe and con are reading this and in envy of what you have seen today. Barry is in bed as he did a marathon today and finished third! Hope you're having a fab time. Love you baby. Love mum, barry, con, joe and Sam xx

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  15. Jake Bainbridge What an amazing day you have had I am so jealous. Love you Jake. Love Nannie and Grandad xx

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  16. He's alive I've seen a picture. Sounds amazing the adventures your having. Miss you loads Joshua live Mam &Dad xx

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  18. Wow team 5, I hope you have loads of photos Harry, can't wait to see them and hear all about your safari day. Grass getting longer now, can only see top of giraffe head now as they walk past the window 😜. Love you Mam xxx

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  19. Wow, what a fantastic adventure! It's great to see the building coming along so well and you're having fun too!
    Had a lovely birthday thanks Chris. Rosie's party went well and they all send their love.
    Keep up with the good work! Love to all xx

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  20. Wow the somewhat modest team five seem to have had quite the adventure, experiencing such treats as hippos elephants and bowling balls that grow on trees. I'm glad you all made it back to camp alive it appeared a bit touch and go there for a while.
    Meanwhile holly I'm sure you slogging away with the rest of camp making truly awesome progress trying to fend off preying mantis and whatnot.
    I hope you are hanging on in there while we are all sleeping in, having long bubble baths and gorging on pizza, burgers and chocolate NOT.
    Actually I have decided we will all try to live the experience along with you so dry beans and rice are all we are eating, cold trickling showers and holes in the ground for the toilets...... as if!
    Can you imagine the neighbours response?
    Anyhoo lots o loves from all of us here including grandma and famalam. Xxx

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  21. Absolutely brilliant! Love the photo of Esme with all the children 😀

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  22. Hi Jake Bainbridge, we're enjoying reading the daily blog & the building work is progressing brilliantly. Looking forward to hearing all about it when you're home. We'll be thinking of you when we're by the pool in Italy! Love from Auntie Tracy, Uncle Neil, Kate & G x

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  23. Hi Jacob B. Hope you are enjoying yourself and not getting eaten by wild animals! We are loving reading the blog each night. Lots of love from Gran, Grandad, Dad and Izzy xxxx

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  24. Ola from Mexico. Sounds like the hard work is worthwhile and nice to see that Jonathan finally managed to not avoid having his photo taken. David & Christine Paul

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