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Published: July 15th 2009
June 27th passed into Tanzania. On the drive to the border crossing we encountered a road block of Massai warriors. They had drug acacia bushes into the middle of the road and were standing there with machetes. We didn’t actually get to see any of this but that is what our driver and tour leader said happened.
The first town that we went to in Tanzania is called Arusha. The campsite that we stayed at was called Snake Park and this is located about 20km from Arusha. The campsite was not that great. The cool part was they had a load of snakes, crocodiles, and different birds. The camp takes in animals that cannot be rehabilitated and released into the wild. While were there, the entertainment provided was a local Massai museum, which Jen, Irene (another traveler), and I went to. It was very cheesy. It was sort of like a haunted house, the lights would not turn on in the different rooms until you walked a good five feet in. At one point the lights still had not turned on, I was in the lead holding Jen’s hand, she was holding Irene’s, I bumped into something screamed, which caused them to scream. We just laughed at how silly it all was.
The other entertainment the campsite provided was snake feeding. I was really excited for this because they had huge snakes, some of the biggest that I have ever seen. There was a huge group for the viewing. I pushed my through and got right up front; the snake was becoming very active you could tell that he knew that it was feeding time. The feeder opened the door, and to my surprise and dismay he threw in 5 yellow, fluffy baby chickens. I was mortified. I covered my eyes and crawled under people’s legs just to get away so I didn’t have to see the babies be eaten.
About 30 minutes after the feeding, we were picked up to go to the Serengeti. I got in the front seat and that is where I basically spent the next 2 and half days. Our driver’s name was Gabriel. He is a local from Arusha, I enjoyed him very much. He told us about this 109 year old Massai man that had a village of his family which consisted of his 30 wives, 150 children, and 165 grandchildren. The village was the largest Massai village that I have seen.
The night they picked us up we stayed in this campsite that was very nice. When we arrived our tents were already set up and a dinner was being prepared for us. Talk about a 5 star experience!
The next day we drove to the Ngorongoro Crater. This crater was created from a volcanic eruption 300 million years ago. They believe that before the eruption that the mountain was larger than Kilimanjaro. We saw a ton of animals. This game drive was my favorite so far. We saw wild ostriches, which I just thought was really weird. We saw the typical line up: zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, baboons, buffalo, hippos, and jackals. We also saw a ton of cool birds: Crown Cane, Kori Bustard (largest bird to fly in Africa), Hamerkop, and Eagles.
In the transition from Ngorongoro Crater to the Serengeti we saw our first wild elephant! He was massive and walking along the side of the road. We also drove along a large giraffe family that was running from something, probably us! We passed the Cradle of Mankind, where they found the oldest skeleton, estimated to be 1.7 million years old.
To enter the Serengeti you just drive through this huge archway in the middle of this long dirt road. Then when you are in the Serengeti it looks just like everything else that you saw before. Before we got to the camping registration center, we saw the same animals that we saw in the Ngorongoro Crater. We did see our first Cheetahs, they were very far away and they were just sitting there so it wasn’t very exciting. While were waiting for Gabriel to pay the camping fees we did see a large elephant family, we were told that elephants are very hard on trees b/c they pull them down to eat them. The rest of the drive through the Serengeti was the same as all game drives. Not sure if I really like them anymore. We did see an adult lion playing with her cub on a hill in the sunset that I thought was really fun.
Before we got to our campsite it started to rain; by the time we got we got to the campsite it was pouring! We had to set up our tent in the rain, it was freezing. Thank heavens, Jen and I are really quick with the set up! We then stood under the awning of the cooking hut to guard ourselves from the rain. When dinner was finally ready the guides actually assumed that we would eat dinner in the rain. Jen and I took our food to our tent to have a picnic. This sounded like a really great idea, until we remembered that wild animals walk freely through our campsite. Just while we were standing under the awning there was a very large elephant 35 feet away from the building.
During the night Jen woke me up because she needed to use the bathroom. We were specifically told that if you have to go to the toilet during night to wake your tent buddy up. Jen and I are both very lazy now and most of the time we just pee right outside out tent. So while Jen was going, I was standing guard looking all around for wild animals and vice versa. Right after we got back in the tent we heard all kinds of crazy noises. One of which we thought were lions, and the next morning we were told were lions. The experience was great. Not worth the money, but I am still glad that I did it.
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