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Published: February 11th 2008
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Following our relatively relaxing time in Zanzibar, reboarding Pangani and saddling up for more driving along Tanzania's less than perfect roadways wasn't exactly high on my list of "must do" activities, but because we were headed towards Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation area - arguably the climax of the trip - I was able to keep my good spirits as we bumped and lurched our way north from Dar.
The "highlight" of what was essentially a travel day was when we stopped in a small village for lunch and to take Janice and one of our other group members, Jim, to a medical center for a malari test - Janice had been sick with flu like symptoms for a few days, so we decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
With our tour leader, we made our way by taxi to the "medical center" and upon arrival were presented with a small, squat, concrete and brick structure situated on a dusty and dirty block of land in the middle of several construction projects. Surrounding the building was a crowd of at least a hundred women and children of various tribes - most of the children
Serengeti Sunrise
Sunrise as we lifted off for the balloon safari were dirty with snotty noses, but the majority seemed like they were in pretty good spirits.
While not the primary reason for our visit, it was a great opportunity to observe locals up close in a "real" situation - we saw Masai women clothed in their traditional robes of dark blue, red and purple with long, shiny earrings hanging from their mis-shapen and elongated earlobes. After waiting for about an hour for the test results to come back, I was relieved to learn that Janice did not have malaria...phew!! Unfortunately for Jim, he did (luckily he was able to start the treatment immediately and he seemed to recover quite quickly).
With the medical emergency out of the way, we rejoined the group and headed off to the camp site where we would spend the night before arriving in Arusha - the safari "gateway" of Tanzania. As soon as we arrived at the campsite our agitated tour leader boarded the truck, and to our surprise, proceeded to offer us a tearful apology for the issues we had been experiencing on the trip. Clearly someone had expressed their concerns to the tour company's head office and words had been had
Serval Cat
This rare small cat of the Serengeti savanna was a great spot by our guide Copa. - needless to say that evening was quite awkward for everybody.
The next day we heard a rumour that Nairobi airport was going to be shut down indefinitely due to the continuing political unrest in Kenya, so as soon as we arrived in Arusha we rushed off to the Precision Air office to once again rearrange our flights - this time we decided to avoid Kenya altogether and booked flights from Kilimanjaro airport back to Dar and then from Dar to Dubai; and finally onto Cairo. With our travel arrangements taken care of, we set off in search of food and managed to find ourselves the best burger in Africa to date - it was delicious (Jambo Cafe for anyone going to Arusha) but, it did come back to haunt me later that night (damn fatty food!!).
A frustrating and unproductive few hours of Internet time later (it is so hard to find a decent service in Africa), I gave up trying to write this blog and we headed off to Meserani Snake Camp - twenty kilometres out of town to re-pack and prepare for our three day, two night safari.
Driving through Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA)
on the way to Serengeti we saw herds of wildebeest, zebra and buffalo as well as groups of Masai walking the roads and herding their cows across the open plains. The Masai are the traditional "owners" of the area and have permission from the government to graze their cattle and live in the conservation area as they have done for centuries. According to their legends, the Masai originated in Southern Sudan, and then migrated south to the north part of sub-Saharan Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries clearing the land of it's original inhabitants as they went.
Passing by their circular villages, constructed from the branches of camel thorn acacia trees, it is easy to see why many become fascinated by this mysterious and private people. Unfortunately it is difficult to get a real sense of the Masai as they limit their interaction with foreigners, unless they're trying to sell you something, and really object when you attempt to photograph them. Nevertheless, I was able to learn a copule of interesting things about their way of life - women are responsible for building the family home and it is quite common for a man to have many wives
Hippo Roll
I caught this hippo with his legs in the air...apparently quite rare. and even more children (the leader of one village we visited had nine wives and over fifty kids!!).
As we entered Serengeti National Park, it is clear why the Masai named the area "Siringitu - the place where the land moves on forever"; from which the word Serengeti is derived. The vastness of the plains have to be seen to be believed and it is easy to imagine what it must look like when millions of wildebeest
congregate there during the annual migration.
Finally we were in a position to start looking for game and thanks to the skills and eyesight of Copa, our local guide, we had a very successful afternoon. Driving through the park's rough and dusty roads we spotted all the usual suspects - Zebra, Buffalo, Antelope, Wildebeest, Hippos, Giraffe and Elephant - with ease, but what we were really on the lookout for was Lions.
As such, it was with great satisfaction that I spotted our first lion pride - several hundred yards from the road I saw a patch of orange that was a different colour to the waist high grass and called for the car to stop. Upon closer examination (through
binoculars and telescopic lenses), I was relieved to see a couple of lioness' and cubs sitting in the grass almost completely obscured - even Copa was impressed with my eyesight!! (and I was glad it wasn't a termite hill).
After a while we moved off as they were too far away and soon we were watching a pod of hippos wallowing around in the mud - a few minutes later Copa suddenly reversed the 4x4 and took off in a hurry; we soon realized that he'd spotted two lioness' sitting on a termite hill about 25 metres from the roadside. A few minutes later, these beautiful creatures stood up, stretched and began walking directly towards our vehicle and crossed the road a few feet from where we were standing - seeing these wild animals so close in their environment was quite an experience; especially when we realized that one of them was heavily pregnant. Finally we had seen lions up close!! But still no males!
Arriving at camp, we excitedly told the rest of the group what we had seen and were flabbergasted to learn that they had come directly to the camp site to set-up their tents
and had seen nothing!! Putting up the tents in the twilight seemed a cheap price to pay for the experiences of the afternoon.
The next morning we were picked up at 5.15am for our Serengeti ballooning experience - this was something I had really looked forward to so I was somewhat disappointed when the flight was only 35 minutes long and we didn't see much wildlife - luck was against us that day. Nevertheless, the sunrise from the balloon was spectacular and floating above the Serengeti plains in complete silence was a worthwhile experience. Also, having a full English breakfast with silver service and white tablecloths under an Acacia tree within sight of buffalo and wildebeest herds was pretty special. However, it didn't help matters when we met up with the rest of our group and found out that they'd seen a leopard up close during the game drive that morning.....oh well #$@* happens.
During the game drive to our Ngorongoro campsite we again saw lionesses, lion cubs, zebra, wildebeest, elephant, a tree lion, buffalo and giraffe; but no male lions!! I was really hoping that we would turn this situation around the next day in the Crater........
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I want a full English breakfast under a tree one day...
...and I am in no way "lion" about it. Way to go Janice for not winding up with malaria -- bonus! You guys look lovely out there :)