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Published: January 18th 2007
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071206A
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania Tuesday was a pretty relaxing day, starting with a yummy bacon & egg brekkie at The Farmhouse in Karen. Spent majority of the day on the internet, loading photos & catching up on journal entries. Had a mini group dinner at the Horseman Restaurant, which was really nice, except I dropped USD$40- on the floor & (surprise surprise) it had disappeared by the time I returned by taxi to find it.
Left Karen camp on Wednesday morning & headed for Arusha. Crossed the border into Tanzania & shopped for a few days worth of snacks before setting up camp at Snake Park. Managed first 'hot' hot shower in a while before heading to the bar for a session. Played a couple of drinking games which included a bit of storytelling, some truth or dare then we moved into the main bar area & continued drinking. There was a guy passed out at the bar & I was going to try & remove his shirt without waking him up as a dare. I wasn't careful enough & he woke up, but it turns out he's due to join us when we merge with another truck after Zanzibar. We decided he'd
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Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania had more than enough to drink & proceeded to spend the next half hour finding his tent & put him to bed. I ended up singing Aretha Franklins 'Think' & doing cartwheels in between all the tents & managed to lose the key to my day locker, which was in my pocket - I wonder how that happened??? Was quite a merry night of fun & frivolity & I didn't drink too much, so am looking forward to waking up fresh & spritely tomorrow.
Woke up feeling fine Thursday morning, but discovered I had managed to steal Yok's (drunk bar guy) hat & sunglasses, so returned them before we set off for the day. He was pretty happy to see them again, as their group is only on about day three & he though he'd lost them already.
We left Snake Park in four wheel drives & drove most of the day to the Serengeti. Saw tens of thousands of migrating animals on the plains along the way, which was a pretty awesome sight. Once in the Serengeti, we did a game drive on the way to our camp & saw our first lions. It was a
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Animal migration in Ngorongoro NP, Tanzania male & female & they were mating, which although very natural, was a little embarrasing to watch up so close - felt like a bit of a voyeur.
Set up a bush camp, which wasn't quite as scary as the others because it didn't come with any warnings from our guides. Mind you, they were locals & they were sleeping in a caged compound, so we decided to follow the same after dark rules Romy had laid out previously. We had dinner prpared by paid cooks, which was a nice change as the group had a chance to sit together & debrief on the days events. I managed half a beer with dinner (what a waste) & decided to hit the hay early in readiness for our pre dawn game drive.
Up early Friday morning as planned for a game drive. Didn't see alot of animals, but we did see both a leopard & cheetah from a distance & spent about an hour watching a pride of lions eating. There were two males to begin with, then one wandered off after he'd eaten. There were also two lionesses & three cubs who were finishing off the remains
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Animal migration in Ngorongoro NP, Tanzania of a wilderbeast. We managed to get within a few metres & got some great photos - it was a real buzz.
Headed back to the campsite to pack up & have some lunch before driving back to Ngorongoro National Park via a local Masai village. Only a handful of us stopped at the village & although it was an interesting experience to see how they lived, at least one of the guys had a mobile phone & it did feel a little bit staged. I guess they obviously get alot of tourists through & must have the tour pretty down pat.
Ours was one of the last trucks into camp, so we set up quickly before dinner & had another early night in preparation for yet another game drive first thing in the morning; this time into Ngorangoro Crater.
Up at the crack of dawn to witness the most spectacular sunrise I'd seen this whole trip. We then boarded the 4WD's & headed down into the crater where we saw four of the big five. The only one of th big five we didn't see was a leopard, although there were supposed to be some
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Blair in Ngorongoro NP, Tanzania around they are very illusive. Witnessed lions eating a buffalo from a distance & having a Mexican standoff with the remainder of the heard. Some of the pride had walked over to the road & came right up to the trucks; some even used the vehicle shadows to nap in.
Again we returned to camp to pack up & had lunch before driving back to Arusha. I visited Snake Park, next to our campsite & held a small non venomous snake. They had some really big pythons there & also some deadly snakes in enclosures, including the famous Black Mamba.
Really enjoyed my steaming hot shower back at camp, as it had been a few days since my last. Decided on an early night rather than hitting the bar because I was pretty tired from the last few long, hot driving days.
First thing Sunday morning we drove into Arusha to a unique African ‘one stop souvenir shop’. They sold everything from t-shirts to carvings & we went there to check out Tanzanite stones. Last night Romy had shown me a couple she’d purchased previously & although I had no intentions of buying any, I somehow
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Nicolle, Al, Ali, Rach, Cheryl in Ngorongoro NP, Tanzania managed to leave the store with not only one, but two! Both Romy & the shop owners did a great job convincing me of their investment value & I had more traveller’s cheques left than anticipated, so I thought ‘why not’? I can always sell them in Cape Town for more than twice my purchase price if I run short of cash; however the idea is obviously to hold onto them for a few years or more. Apparently the mine they were found in has ceased production & there are very few deposits left, so the price should sky rocket in the next twenty years.
After three stops, we finally found a working ATM, then drove to Tembo Camp at Moraboi. The increase in temperature was incredible & the whole group ended up in the swimming pool shortly after arrival. We played piggy in the middle with three piggies & a tennis ball, then had a lovely pasta carbonara for dinner. I headed to the bar afterwards, but only stayed for one beer because I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was annoying really because the campground knew we (two trucks) were coming, yet they didn’t even bother
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4WD in the Serengeti, Tanzania to cut the grass, which was at least five inches long - hence the millions of mozzies; can you say ‘hello malaria’…
Monday we drove to Chalinze for lunch; some went inside for a buffet, but I had previously bought food that needed to be eaten. I sat in the cab with Robert for the last couple of hours into Dar Es Salaam, which was pretty cool. It’s totally different from sitting in the back of the truck because up front it doesn’t even feel like you are towing anything. It took ages to get onto the ferry & across to Mikadi Beach, but was worth it because the campground was pretty chilled.
After setting up tents & sorting out washing, I headed to the pool to cool off & then to the bar to try out one of their famous vodka slushies. They were so good I ended up drinking them for the remainder of the evening. Dinner was an awesome prawn curry with salads prepared for us by the camp staff. After dinner, our group settled into a few drinking games & I ended up in the hammock with Becky & Rach.
We’d been
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Al in Ngorongoro NP, Tanzania warned not to venture off the campground premises after dark, but Becky & I were still shocked when approached by a tourist on the beach that’d just been robbed. Apparently he & his wife had been taking a stroll & were approached by a couple of local guys who hit him in the face & took his wallet. We decided to get off the beach & retire back to the safety of our hammock.
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