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Published: October 24th 2007
After Mt Kilimanjaro, we spent a night in Moshi, and then 2 in Arusha for a bit of R+R before continuing the travels. Following some shenanigans on the part of Brigid, Simon and Whitley (can anyone fix curtain rails?) and some home surgery on my toe (thanks, Justin!), we said goodbye to Simon, met up with Sarah and went on safari…
Our 4-day camping safari of Northern Tanzania was run by a guide called Severin and his trusty cook (why are sidekicks always trusty?), Felix. After making a detour through the suburbs of Arusha to pick up Severin’s sleeping bag from his mum’s house, we hit the road. And what lovely roads they were! Tanzania has nice, normal, smooth roads in most places - they even have lines!! Brigid and I were more than a little excited about this and even felt compelled to take photos (sorry about that - who knows what we’ll be like when back in Australia!!)…
On day 1, we went to Lake Manyara, which is famous for its tree-climbing lions. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of these, but we did see more baboons than I ever knew existed.
Day 2 entailed a long
drive west to the Serengeti. The 5 hour journey was on smooth road until we passed Ngorongoro crater, but the last half of the trip was over some of the bumpiest road in the world. We stopped on the way at Olduvai Gorge - 50km wide, up to 90m deep and the site where some of the most complete fossils of ancient hominid life have been found. Arriving in the Serengeti in the late afternoon, we chanced upon some lions on rocks - 3 lionesses and about 8 small cubs (there were a lot of baby animals around at that time) who were feeding and playing, which was fantastic. Our camp that night had no fence, which was a little unsettling given the number of lions we’d seen. But, this didn’t stop us dragging our chairs over to the perimeter of the camp to drink our (warm) beers while watching the sun set over the acacias and plains of the park. And, once in the (assumed) safety of our tents at night, it was pretty cool to hear the roars of lions and the laughing of hyenas not all that far away…
Our morning drive on day 3 was
also in the Serengeti. The landscape of the Serengeti is much the same as Masai Mara (being just the other side of the border) and there were a lot fewer animals here given they’d all gone north for the migration. Despite this, Serengeti was still worth a visit for the number of lions we saw - including 2 lionesses stalking some gazelles. In the afternoon on day 3, we drove back east and stopped at the rim of Ngorongoro crater to camp. They were back burning in the crater, which made for a spectacular scene once the sun went down…
Day 4 got off to a bad start when Justin realised that his sandals were missing from where he’d left them outside the tent (taken by hyenas, according to Severin). It was hard for him to stay annoyed for long though - Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most spectacular places any of us have been. We’d heard that it can get so packed with safari vans that it can seem a bit spoiled, but we probably saw less than 10 (a lot fewer than the other places we’d been) the whole time we were down there. Highlights included
thousands of zebras, warthogs digging in the dirt (up very close), elephants rolling in the mud (apparently bull elephants migrate here from other parks to retire!) and a hilarious ostrich mating dance (no, he didn’t get the girl in the end…).
We headed back to Arusha happy, but filthy (and very sick of Pringles, which had become our in-car snack) and were glad to have a night of luxury (showers, cold beers, real bed…) before moving on to Nairobi. Our drive up there was a bit hairy in parts, with one of the more crazy drivers we’ve had at the wheel (fast, and then faster… at one stage we almost crashed into a donkey standing in the middle of the road as the driver hadn’t seen it!), so we were glad to finally arrive. After a visit to Casablanca, where Justin and Whitley had the most outrageously girly cocktails I’d ever seen, we said goodbye to Whitley the next morning (he’s going to New Zealand to start a new job) and the four of us flew to Uganda for a week of white water kayaking on the Nile…
Love, K
PS Thanks to Justin for the use
of a couple of his photos in this blog
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