Where Was I?
Flew from Boston > Dubai > Nairobi > Kilimanjaro
Drove from Kilimanjaro > Arusha > Tarangire > Lake Manyara > Ngorongoro Crater
Flew from Ngorongoro Crater > Serengeti > Zanzibar
Total flights: 6 (including a few on these small planes)
When Did I Go?
Sept 28 – Oct 13
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Hello again. My first time checking in from abroad. I write this first international post from my beach villa in Zanzibar, a spice island just off the coast of Tanzania. Before you get pissed off and think ‘look at this a$$****’, realize this will probably be the most luxurious accommodation I reside in all year.
Villa in Zanzibar
The first two weeks of the trip I spent in Tanzania with my aunt Leah, who has an appreciation for the finer things in life. The accommodations these last two weeks have been a bit nicer than what’s to come, although the AirB&B’s I’ve booked in South Africa for the next two weeks do look alright.
So, even though I’ll have to pause writing this entry for my butler to cut down a coconut off the coconut tree in front of my villa and serve coconut water as I stare out into the Indian Ocean over my infinity pool…. Ok I’ll stop.
As for the safari…
I don’t want this blog to be a diary of what I did and ate every day, so I’ll stick to the highlights and provide some sugar updates.
I’ll start each post with a segment stolen from the SVP show, titled ‘The Best Thing I Saw’. That’s how he opens each show and I think I’ll do the same.
So….
The Best Thing I Saw
The best thing I saw on safari would have to be a tie from day one and day two at Tarangire National Park.
On day one, while driving in the safari vehicle, our guide, David, spotted wildebeest sprinting frantically away and he knew a cat was on the hunt. He sped off and whipped our vehicle about 50 yards away from the unlucky wildebeest who was just taken down by a female lion. The wildebeest was still alive and struggling for a few minutes before the lion finished him off for the kill. She then left the prey unattended for about 20 minutes and wandered off into the distance, before returning with her family, including young lion cubs, to feast on the meal. All I needed was a British narrator in the vehicle to provide play-by-play and I would have thought I was watching one of the many animal shows I love to watch on TV. It was surreal to see it all unfold in person.
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On day two, we went off on another game drive in the Tarangire and came across another cat. This time it was the cheetah, who was resting under a tree. We watched him nap and rest in the shade for about 20-25 minutes, taking pictures and marveling in his beauty. Then, our guide actually first noticed three kudo, a rare antelope, way off in the distance. Not too long after he spotted them, our new friend, the cheetah, also saw them at least 500 yards away. He rose up from under the tree and just stared them down for about one minute. He then slowly started to make his way out towards the antelope, which you can see below on the IG post. We then watched as the cheetah crept through the tall grass, until he was so far out we had to use the binoculars to really see him. About 30 minutes later, he had let the antelope pass by so he could sneak up from behind and get close enough to sprint and pounce. The baby kudo was in the back and he was the prey the cheetah was eying. Once he was close enough, the cheetah went into his sprint and the kudo had no chance to get away, as the cheetah pounced on him a few times before getting a full takedown and kill. It was wild to watch this all unfold from beginning to end, where I truly saw the meaning of survival of the fittest.
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Some Other Highlights
Elephants in the Serengeti
– I felt like I saw every animal living in Tanzania. Hundreds of elephants, baboons, giraffes, hippos, zebra, impalas, all of the Big 5, including the Black Rhino on the last drive to the airstrip on our final day before departing the Serengeti.
– My personal favorite was seeing the lions almost every day. A few times they walked right up next to the truck, almost close enough where you could touch them if you reached your hand out (not advised).
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– The other cats were also a treat to see, the cheetah and the leopard were so beautiful and watching the leopard cubs play in the grass was a real sight.
– The Ngorongoro Crater (actually a caldera as we learned from our guide) was stunning to see. Provided some amazing backdrops to the animals on the floor and some great views from up on the rim. We stayed at a lodge called Gibbs Farm while visiting the crater, which was a highlight in itself from the sheer size and beauty of the place.
– Wildebeest Crossing. Known as ‘The Great Migration’, every year over one million wildebeest travel north through the Serengeti where they have more available grass for grazing. They travel in giant packs, sometimes by the thousands, and it creates an unreal visual when they decide to cross the rivers. It can take them a while to actually decide to cross, but once they start they all go, and it’s remarkable to witness in person.
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– Following the ALDS from Tanzania. For those who know me, they knew I wasn’t going to let the first Red Sox – Yankees playoff series since 2004 pass by without following along. I grew up outside of Boston and have been a die-hard Sox fan since I was about 9. I was actually able to watch Game 1 and Game 2 from Gibbs Farm, where the WiFi was strong and I could stream the game on the MLB International app. The games started around 3am, so I set my alarm and watched from my bed. For Game 1, we were supposed to leave the lodge at 6am, which happened to be the same time Craig Kimbrel was entering the game with a 5-3 lead in the 9th. Luckily for us, our wonderful guide David, allowed us to sit and wait for about 10 minutes in the lodge parking lot with WiFi as we watched the final three outs recorded for a Game 1 win before taking off for the crater. Game 2 wasn’t as much fun to watch, but I woke up again and streamed it. Games 3 and 4 were much tougher to follow, as we were in the Serengeti with very limited WiFi at our mobile camp. There they didn’t even turn on the limited WiFi until around 6am, which was around our wake up time to head out on safari. It was quite a shock to wake up and see a 16-1 score at the end of Game 3. As for Game 4, it was a bit excruciating watching my phone slowly update as Kimbrel worked his way out of a jam to close out the series. But, once the final out was recorded (and confirmed after replay) I was the happiest primate in the Serengeti.
Watching Red Sox – Yankees in Tanzania
The Sugars
Highest high: 303
Lowest low: 31
Avg Morning: 121
Avg Afternoon: 180
Avg Night: 136
Insulin Pods: 4
Avg Basal Rate: 1.10
Emergency sugar supply: Skittles, glucose tablets, apple juice
Insulin needed
For the many non-diabetics reading, you might not understand the numbers. That’s ok, you can skip this part or if you want to understand the basics here they are. I usually aim to keep my blood glucose level between 90-120. Below 70 is when I usually need to immediately find sugar to get my levels back to normal. Above 120 I will normally take a certain dosage of insulin to balance it back down closer to 100. It’s not the end of the world if my sugar is around 150 for a few days or even if it’s in the 200’s. The key is trying to not let it sit in that zone for too long. It has a lot of long-term health effects that damages almost every part of your body.
It took a few days to adjust my levels when I flew into Dubai, where the weather was extremely hot and the change of time zones and sleep patterns took a toll. I had a low of 47 on the plane from Boston to Dubai, but had some juice with me that quickly got my sugar back to normal. I was only in Dubai for 48 hours as kind of a long layover before heading to Africa, but it was enough time to adjust my insulin levels before starting safari.
I dropped off my long-term supply of insulin (which I kept in a Frio bag while flying) with a family friend of ours living in Abu Dhabi. He’ll keep the insulin in a refrigerator until I return to the UAE in November, where I’ll then pick up the insulin and then carry it with me through Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
I’ve used a basal rate (a constant flow of insulin) of 1.30 for at least the past five years (1.30 means every hour my omnipod delivers 1.30 units of insulin) and I’ve adjusted it temporarily based on my activity. The constant flow of insulin helps keep my sugars balanced. So if I had completed four OrangeTheory classes in a week and was eating few heavy carbs, I’d probably adjust it to 1.20 or 1.10 for the week and maybe even lower overnight, where lows were common. If I was travelling for work, eating heavy carbs and not moving around as much, I may have temporarily changed to 1.40 or 1.50, especially overnight. That’s a basic idea of how I’ve managed my basal rate. Even changing .10 of insulin per hour could make a pretty drastic difference in blood sugar.
On the second day of being out here, I permanently changed my basal rate to 1.10, because I noticed my sugars were dropping lower than normal and I needed less insulin. I’ve kept it at 1.10 almost the entire two weeks so far, with a few nights changing it to either 1.20 or 1.30 if I had a lot of pasta or rice for dinner. I’ve had very little choice in my meals so far, as most of the camps and lodges have a set menu for each day/night. But overall, I’ve felt pretty comfortable controlling my sugars, even though they’ve been slightly higher than normal because I’ve been in remote locations and have really tried to avoid too many lows.
I had one severe low up in the hills of Tanzania where my sugar dropped to 31, which was close to as low as I’ve ever seen it. This happens sometimes when I over correct, something I tried to do from the day before the low, when we went on a walking hike in the evening and I turned my pod off and my sugar spiked to 306. It was still high later that night (286) and then 191 the next morning. Sometimes it takes a while to correct and get your sugar back down, especially when you’re active and eating new things. The following afternoon I must have over corrected at lunch, trying to get it back down closer to 100, and it fell all the way to 31 before I went and bought a Fanta at a tanzanite shop on our way to Gibbs Farm. I had to sit down in the cafe area for about 10 minutes and wait until I felt better, but after the Fanta (62 grams of sugar!) it quickly went back up and I was fine.
That was the only time of these two weeks I really felt a bad low, a few mornings I’ve been a little under 70 but some juice or glucose tablets has done the trick. I’m still trying to find a good balance for my overnight basal rates, but that’s certainly been tough with different activities planned each day and different foods at dinner.
Most days I would consider to be ‘good sugar days’ as I jot down in my notes, but the days with travel and flights tend to be a bit more fluctuating.
I still have my emergency sugar supply from when I left the states, something I try not to use unless it is an absolute emergency. When I have lows, I always try to find a sugar supply somewhere else. If I’m near a store, I’ll buy a sugar drink or candy, or if I’m in a hotel, I’ll use the mini bar. I like to keep my emergency supply only for when I have no other options. Then, if I use them, the first thing I’ll do the next day is go find a replacement emergency supply. I usually have a few layers of emergency supplies, so it would be very difficult for me to ever run out of everything.
On one of our safari days, we were supposed to be back at the mobile camp for lunch, where my bags and medical supplies were located. I was planning to change my pod at lunch, as my insulin was close to running out. Our plans changed because we waited to see a wildebeest crossing and we ended up staying out until closer to dinner time. This is why I always like to carry my current insulin vial and a spare pod with me at all times, for cases like this. It wasn’t a big problem, as I changed pods out near the Serengeti airstrip during one of the bathroom breaks and on we went. My sugars were fine and once I got back to camp I just put a new pod into my daily bag as my new emergency pod.
This is why I say the most important thing to be as a diabetic is to be PREPARED!
I hope to check in again from South Africa in a couple of weeks.
Until then, here’s to more solid sugar levels.
Jeremy
THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING MEDICAL ADVICE. PLEASE CONSULT PROPER MEDICAL PERSONNEL FOR ALL HEALTH RELATED ISSUES
My favorite line : The happiest primate in the Serengeti
Love being able to live vicariously through you Jeremy, looking forward to all the updates around the world 🙂
#MrWizards