Safari part one

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Safari

I’d like to preface this post by saying that I wrote this in a huge rush and weeks after the fact. It’s basically just word vomit. This is essentially the case for every blog that I post and I hate that I don’t have the writing ability or the time to really do these experiences justice (the main reason I never posted for the couple of months I was in Mexico). If it wasn’t for my responsibility to inform all of my generous donors about what I’m up to I’m sure I’d be too frustrated and distracted to write about this trip as well. So that being said, if you’d really like to hear about anything specific or get a less garbled account of my time in Africa, or Mexico for that matter, just ask and I’ll talk for as long as you have time.





When I was loosely making plans for how I was going to spend my time in Tanzania before heading to Swaziland I was fairly certain that I would spend about half of that time climbing Kilimanjaro. When I shared these plans with my Dad he bluntly said “That’s a waste of time and money. Go on a Safari.” I already had reservations about going on a Safari because it seemed like an awful lot of money to spend sitting and looking at animals that I could see in a zoo and if anything this turned me off to the idea even more. I love my Dad and trust him with my life but as I’m sure many sons do I often rebel against his views and inwardly resent it when he’s right, which is most of the time. This occasion was no different. Pops was right again.

I still maintain that going on a traditional Safari is outrageously overpriced and I’d like to know what the government is doing with the loads of dough they bring in on the daily. That being said, the way we did it is certainly the way to go. We were able to cut the price to probably less than half of booking with a company by renting our own car and hiring our own driver and cook. This also gave us the freedom to create our own itinerary and change it however we liked instead of following a set schedule.

The driver and cook were both friends and colleagues of Gudlak that do seasonal survey work for Rutgers. The driver, Odee, was an easy smiling 50 something year old from Arusha who hardly spoke a word of English. In fact, sometimes I forgot he spoke Swahili because he mostly communicates with ems and ahs. Justin, the cook, was a 30 year old from Karatu who is the spitting image of Tupac. I mean seriously, the resemblance is uncanny.

The 3.5 hour drive from Arusha to Karatu was easy going and scenic. In Karatu we spent the night in the Lollipop guest house, a hotel run by a colleague of the fellas. This is where we met Justin aka Pac and spent the night drinking and discussing plans for the trip. I could tell I was in good hands as I discussed migratory patterns and hunting techniques of different animals with Justin who spoke fairly good English and even a smattering of Spanish.

The next day we headed into Ngorongoro park and sped through Rutu on our way to the Serengetti. We cut off the main road for a quick game drive in Rutu where Odee proved himself to be an impressively capable driver taking us through the small lakes and muddy channels that were once roads. He remained flawless throughout the entire trip taking us places other drivers didn’t dare enter without a single incident. During these first couple of hours I snapped picture after picture of wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, giraffe, and impala. These animals were so ubiquitous that by the time we got to the Serengeti I didn’t even reach for my camera when I saw them. We got caught in a bit of a storm in Rutu but managed to make it back to the main road and raced ahead of the rain to the Serengeti.

We spent 2 days and nights in the Serengeti and camped out in Serena. On the first day saw more of the same that we had seen in Rutu plus a few new faces such as the buffalo, hippo, and what I believe was the giant eland (the largest antelope in the world). The whole largest in the world thing became a recurring theme. Sadly, we still saw no cats and no elephants.

After we set up camp I did what I usually do when camping and clambered up the highest point at hand to get a look around. What a view.. It would only be topped at one other point during the trip. (more on that later) I snapped a quick selfie before climbing down as the guys are yelling stuff about leopards and mambas and their favorite word “dangerous.”

After a delicious dinner Gudlak, Odee, and I headed out for a night game drive with hopes of seeing some lions hunting. We were soon informed however that this was not allowed so we headed to the researchers pub for a couple of drinks (one of the many bonuses of rolling with the locals) while we watched the sunset and the lightening storm that ensued soon after. (Seriously breathtaking stuff)

We arrived back at the camp to Justin putting the finishing touches on our lunch boxes for tomorrow. This guy has some serious talent with a camping stove. I ate like a king the whole trip. This particular night I feasted on freshly fried chicken before heading to bed to listen to the sounds of lions roaring and hyenas laughing around the camp.

The following morning we headed out and were lucky enough to find a pride of lions. I snapped some pictures before they headed out into the tall grass and got some pretty good ones of a female tracking some gazelle. If I don’t include that here I’ll put it on facebook at some point. This day also included some crocodiles, a leopard feasting in a tree (although you could barely make it out through the foliage, and a couple of cheetahs. The most exciting part however, was that 3 buffalo grazed their way into our camp. I have it from some very good sources that the buffalo is an extremely aggressive animal and is by far the most dangerous of all of the animals in the Serengeti. So to have some wallowing just a few meters from the camp was pretty exhilarating. I got as close as I could taking pictures before a cloud of tsetse flies turned me around.

That night after a few beers at the research pub we returned to the camp to find 2 things, one, the buffalo were seriously IN our camp now. As in between us and the tents.. Also when we managed to sneak past them to the safety of the barred kitchen area we realized that baboons had broken into and stolen most of our food, which thankfully while making a slight dent in my pocketbook didn’t affect our stomachs because Justin can make something delicious out of the sparsest ingredients. We ate a quick snack and retired to our tents. Almost immediately after zipping them up we heard a hyena cackling not 10 or 15 feet from our tent. It was so startling I couldn’t help but burst out laughing and the rest of the guys joined me. I suppose laughter is infectious even across species. We hushed up pretty quickly however as we heard it sniffing around the outside of our tents.

The next morning we decided to wake up early and haul ass to a part of the park where we thought we might find elephants. I had yet to see an elephant and I refused to leave without seeing at least one. We drove for about an hour until we came a across a family of 6 feeding about 80 meters from the road. We sat there watching them for at least 45 minutes. The elephant is a truly awesome animal. Observing them in the wild left me just as wide-eyed and amazed as I had been when was as a small child watching them stroll about their enclosures in the Point Defiance Zoo. One of my favorite “discovery channel” pub stories of the guys’ time spent in the bush is one of an elephant killing a crocodile by snapping its neck with one powerful blow with the trunk after being bitten while taking a drink. As they say: “the simba kills all things, but not the elephant.” Through its sheer size it has made itself a nonfactor in the food chain of the Serengeti and in my opinion that is something to be admired.



On our way out of the park we happened upon a large group of maybe 20 or more elephants roaming about the plains and catch a glimpse of the great migration of wildebeest in the distance. It was a fitting end to our time in the Serengeti. We then sped through Oldupai gorge and snapped some pictures atop “The Shifting Sands” (literally a sand dune that moves about 20 meters or so per year), grabbed lunch with some Massai, and continued on to Karatu where we would spend one more night in the lollipop guest house before heading to Lengai.

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Photos

"Mzungu becomes African"
The result of just one day of driving with my arm out of the window.

Goal posts in the middle of the Serengeti
There's actually a small village out here

One of my better wildlife photos
There are plenty more like it. I'll put an album together at some point.

Ngorongoro crater
From left to right: Justin, Mzungu, Gudlak