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Published: July 31st 2006
Elephant on the Radar
Me spotting an elephant in the trees.Arriving in Arusha in the late afternoon, we checked ourselves in and headed off to book a safari through the National Parks. From the moment we stepped off the bus we were mobbed by hundreds of toutes trying to sell us safaris, Arusha is the main gateway to most safaris in Tanzania. We slowly climbed through the crowd and made our way to a tourist info place where we were able to find a reputable safari company that had room for myself and Ryan for a four day trip. Jord was still sick with Malaria, and Jas was not in the financial situation to jump on the safari with us. After booking our safari, we headed out to Pizzarusha, a popular pizza shop in Arusha and had a great dinner.
Up in the morning to leave on our safari ("safari" means journey in Swahili), the entire town looked like a military camp with 4x4 Landcruisers painted green driving throughout taking all the tourists on safaris. We climbed aboard ours and met our new companions for the next few days: Erin from Toronto, and Thomas & Esther from Holland.
The first day the trip headed off to Lake Manyara where
Tall & Wide
A couple elephants with a giraffe. we saw many giraffes, elephants, monkeys, hippos and blue-balled baboons. We camped in a small village just on the outside of the Lake for our first night.
The second day we headed up to the Serengeti, this is a famous National Park formed from the ash which fell over 20 million years ago when the now Ngorogoro Crater was a volcano before it collapsed. On our way there we stopped at a gorge where the oldest humanoid footsteps ever had been discovered back in 1979. Prior to this discovery, humans were thought to be 2.7 million years old, however, these footprints proved that they are atleast 3.6 million years old. Here we got to see a mold created from the actual footsteps which have since been covered up to protect them. Anyways, back to our safari, once we arrived at the Serengeti we saw many more Afican animals: a leopard in a tree, a cheetah posed on a rock, crocodiles sun bathing, more hippos splashing, more giraffes and elephants eating, some zebras and of course some lions. We even got to see a few lions mating, which they do every 15 minutes for 4 days without eating, once they
Lion Style
A couple lions mating. This lasts only 2 seconds, but is repeated every 15 minutes for 4 full days. found a mate. That night we camped in the Serengeti and due to the massive size of this National Park, we spent a second day here as well. On the third night now, we had left the Serengeti and headed for the Ngorogoro Crater and camped the night on the ridge.
In the middle of the night during our stay on top of the Ngorogoro Crater, Erin was awoken to noises in the grass around our tents. Me and Ryan got up to check out the noise, and amazingly zebras had come right up next to our tents and were eating the grass beside us. In the morning we packed up and headed down into the crater. The crater is awesome, its basically its own little ecosystem, with no way for the animals to escape over the steep crater walls, many animals have called this place home for their entire life. It is massive though, and you can barely see the otherside unless it is very clear out. It contains its own small jungle where the elephants eat and hide, a swamp for the hippos, a lake for water, flat plains of sand and streams for the zebras, giraffes
Midnight Snack
A few zebras take a midnight snack outside our tents on top of the Ngorogoro crater. and wilderbeasts to run in and also fields of long golden gass for the lions to hide and relax in. We even got to see a rhino, which is not very common; actually, most tourists never see a single rhino, leopard or cheetah on safaris, but we lucked out and saw them all.
In the afternoon on the fourth day (in the Ngorogoro Crater) we headed back to Arusha as the safari was finished. I have to say that this safari and the hike we did prior to the safari were a few of the greatest thing I have ever done in my time. I strongly recommend anyone and everyone to make a trip to Africa and really see where life began and how amazing it is there. It is so drastically different from anywhere else on this planet.
Back in Arusha, we met up with Jord and Jas who had done absolutely nothing but lay in bed the four days that Ryan and me were out. They managed to order multiple pizzas and eat through three large tubs of peanut butter and who knows how many loafs of bread while they didn't leave their room. However, the
Monkey
A monkey sitting in a tree. one time Jas did actaully make it out into the wild city streets below, he managed to get pick-pocketed, and lost more money than he would have spent if he had come on our safari. However, the biggest problem he faced was that his passport was also swiped, and he is now stuck in Tanzania for the next three weeks while he awaits a new one from the Canadian High Commision in Dar Es Salaam. The next morning, me and Ryan said goodbye to Jord and Jas while the two of us and Erin (the Toronto chick from our safari) took a bus up to Nairobi in Kenya. Here I was to catch a flight the next morning to Cairo (Egypt), but we'll leave all this for the next story.
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