CHRIS - AKA STUMPY
During one of the first game drives, Chris wanted to be the first in his Rover to see an animal. In his zeal, he spotted the ever elusive African tree stump.  He mistook the stump for a sleeping animal, and only realized his mistake after proudly announcing sighting the lion, er stump, to everyone in the land rover.
 
MICHELLE - AKA PYTHON / CHATU
Poor Michelle is terrified of snakes, so of course, per Murphy's Law, she was the first one on the trip to spot one.  She spotted a very tiny snake (rumored to have actually been a twig) which turned into a 24 foot python in her mind.  Chatu is Swahili for python. : )
 
 
PAUL- AKA CHIPPENDALE
While at Gibbs Farm, we were all told to sign our names, addresses and professions into the lodge's guest log.  When Paul signed in, he wrote that his profession was a "male escort," hence earning the nickname "Chippendale."  Fortunately, repeated requests for one of his fabled performances were demurely denied....
 
PAM - AKA BUSH / PUMBA / KOMBE
Pam was nicknamed Bush after an incident at Gibbs farm during our first bush baby sighting. When the porter was trying to get the bush babies to come close by feeding them treats, Pam got a good look at the animal and said, "What is a bush baby…..is it a monkey?" to which the porter said, "No, it's a bush baby."  The exchange was pretty funny to onlookers, so we named Pam "Bush" after the bush baby. 
 
However, as Bush isn't the most elegant of names, Julie tried to do Pam a favor by looking up the Swahili translation for bush baby.  Julie told the group that bush baby in Swahili was "pombe," which was later mispronounced as "pumba."  Unfortunately, we discovered while playing cards at the Serengeti Serena Lodge that pumba actually means warthog, and that we'd been calling Pam a warthog for the past week.  The actual translation for bush baby in Swahili is "kombe," with a "k," not a "p."  Clearly…..an honest mistake!  : )
 
 
NICK - AKA TARDY SAUCE / THE ROCK
Nick was given a couple of nicknames over the course of the safari.  The first name resulted from the fact that he and Julie always seemed to be the last ones to get to every event whether it be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a game drive.  This tardiness was always blamed on Julie, hence the couple became known as "Chum with Tardy Sauce."  Later on in the trip, Nick followed in the dubious footsteps of Stumpy, believing that inanimate objects were animals.  However, rather than spotting tree stumps, Nick kept thinking that rocks were elephants, gazelle, hyenas, etc. Hence he was given his second nickname; "The Rock."  He is currently considering a career change to professional wrestling and acting....
 
JULIE AKA CHUM
On the first night at Kigongoni Lodge, when we were all getting to know each other, we had a discussion of who would be most likely to be eaten by a lion.  It was determined that you didn't have to be the fastest person in the group in order to be safe from the lion, but rather, you just had to be faster than the slowest person.  Further, if you were clumsy, it didn't matter how fast you were, you'd be dead.  When Julie admitted to being the clumsiest person on earth, Chris spouted off… "Okay, then you'll be the "chum" for the lions."  Later on, during the game drives, the group would ask Julie to jump out of the jeep and "chum it up" for better game viewing.
 
 
RUSS - AKA BABOON / NYANI
During the nature walk at Gibbs Farm, Russ insisted on getting dangerously close to the waterfall's edge which had a 30 meter drop to the waterfall's rocky bottom.  When Julie asked the guide if anyone had ever fallen off of the edge, he replied, "Oh, no….no humans….just baboons."  Russ was henceforth nicknamed "Baboon," or "Nyani" in Swahili.
 
 
DAVE - AKA DOODY AND SIMBA
The first of Dave's nicknames was the result of a twist on the pronunciation of his Swahili name "Da Udi."  While at Gibbs Farm, the entire group was sitting in lawn chairs outside drinking Tuskers, and discussing the nicknames that had been given out thus far.  Dave did not yet have a particular nickname when Julie chimed in and said that his name should be "Doody," a slight twist on his Swahili name.  Julie then had to buy Dave a Tusker and beg for forgiveness.  Shortly after, Dave was given the new nickname of "Simba", which means lion in Swahili, as he was the first person in the group to spot one. 
 
 
JACK - AKA CAPTAIN JACK /THE TERMINIX MAN / PINKY THE POOP MAN / THE BUG TRAINER:
Jack was the only character in the crew quirky enough to earn four nicknames.  It all began when someone started calling him Jack Sparrow from the movie "The Pirates of the Caribbean," after which the name was shortened to Captain Jack.  We all marvelled at the remarkable resemblance between Jack and Johnny Depp...
 
Jack earned himself another nickname at Kikoti Lodge, where all of the men were asked to join the Maasai tribesmen in a tribal dance which involved quite a bit of jumping.  When Lindy saw that Jack was going to have to get up and do the dance, she whispered "oh dear….poor Jack."  Then we all watched on as Jack jumped to a record height of 2mm!  Upon returning to his seat at the dinner table, he commented….. "Did you see me jumping?  Those bugs under my feet didn't stand a chance!"  It was at that moment that he earned the nickname "Terminix Man."
 
Jack's third nickname was earned during the Gibbs Farm nature walk.  Always one to look out for others, Jack took it upon himself to be the official "poop" announcer during our walk.  Every time there was a pile of elephant or buffalo dung in the middle of the trail, Jack would scream "POOOOOOOP" for all to hear.  The verbal warnings of Pinky the Poop Man saved many from dirty hiking boots!
 
Jack earned his final nickname during the nature walk at Gibbs Farm.  It all started when Julie flicked a bug off of his collar and he asked, "What was that?"  When Julie told him that she'd just flicked a bug from his collar, he went on to say, "Do you know how long it took me to train that bug to do that?  You should have seen him on the trapeze!"  It was hilarious, so we started calling Jack the "Bug Trainer."
 
 
TOM - AKA SHOOTER
Tom came on this safari an amateur photographer with a cool new camera and a telephoto lens….by the time he left; he held the world's record for most shots taken at a kill sighting.  Tom earned his nickname by taking more than 50 shots at almost every lion sighting, and was therefore named "Shooter."
 
ERIKA - AKA GIB
During our nature walk at Kikoti lodge, Erika spotted a number of birds, and impressed our guide James with her avian knowledge.  As such, James told Erika that she was "good in bird;" however, because of his accent, everyone thought that he said that she was "good in BED."  Erika was henceforth nicknamed "GIB."  Tom will neither confirm nor deny....