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Marabou Stork
I absolutely adore this bird! It is about 1.5 feet tall and kinda stumps around, looking like a hunchbacked old man... = This will be a very long entry as I absolutely adore animals (except mice). I’m just not so sure that the feeling is mutual.
After being awakened at 5 am by the nearby mosque (I think the call is actually quite beautiful but Marlous quite vehemently disagrees), we managed to struggle down the 4 flights of stairs to meet our driver cum guide, Khalifa from Sunny Safaris. Much to our surprise, he was on time to pick us up in a completely pea-green land rover, inside and out.
- Number of Passengers = 4 (us plus our two large backpacks which each got their own seats in the back)
- First destination = Ngorongoro Crater, that is, after we made a stop at the grocery store for some cookies, candy and chocolate (yes, all three were required).
The first animal we spotted was about an hour into the drive - a pair of giraffes! Bursting with excitement, we pulled over and snapped off a few pictures of the twigas, who continued to slowly cross the road, oblivious to the eager onlookers. Settling back into our green covered seats, we took in the
Hyraxes
These odd little creatures are just about the same size and shape as footballs. They were running around at the lodge and I had the biggest urge to punt one off the ledge... I didn't, don't worry. Btw, somehow this rodent-like creature is related to Elephants!!! scenery along the way, including some colourful villages, and had our first experience with the music Khalifa had brought along for entertainment.
- Number of Music Tapes = 4 (none recommended, including Bongo Flava 3 and Rebecca)
- Number of Hours of Blessed Silence = ~3 hours in 5 days
As we continued along the very nicely paved highway, the predominant colour changed from the red earth to lush vibrant greens of the trees. Upon reaching the gate of
Ngorongoro Conservation Area , we stopped for our first picnic lunch. Now I think I’ve mentioned that the concept of vegetarian does not register with East Africans, but I was optimistic……
- Number of Desserts in Lunch Box = 5 (crepe, cake, cinnamon bun, mandaazi, and donut)
- Number of Other Items in Lunch Box = 2 (chips and juice)
After a carb-heavy lunch, we headed into NCA for our first game drive. Honestly, who needs amusement parks with roller coasters when you can ride down the scary, steep, winding path to the crater floor at 40-50km/h? Anyway, we made it safely to the crater floor and much to Khalifa’s amusement, we soon stopped
the car again to snap photos of zebras… and a short time later, to photograph a lone warthog (yes, they are so ugly they are adorable) that was a good 10 metres away. Catching on to our infectious ignorance, Khalifa mildly suggested that we might want to wait to take the picture of the very distant buffalo (teeny little brown dots on horizon).
- Consensus on the First Day = AMAZING!
- Joke of the Day =“Do you know wild dogs?” (Explanation - we come across a group of animals lounging in the grass right beside the road. Gawking with excitement, we reach for cameras and start snapping photos of what we thought were lions………then Khalifa convinces us that they were not cats but rather, dogs… naivety)
The rest of the afternoon was spent driving along the roads without another vehicle in sight (the joys of going in low season - don’t have 10 cars surrounding a single animal). In addition to many other animals (flamingos, hippos, wildebeest, and beautiful birds to name a few), we saw all the
Big Five, which include lions, buffalo, rhinos, elephants and leopards. Amusing because apparently there are
Migration!
Us hanging out with 1000's of animals = normal mid-morning experience in the Serengeti only 12 rhinos in all of Ngorongoro and we spotted 4 (mind you, was from very far away -
“Is that a rock? No, wait, it moved”). At any rate, after stalking a leopard in the forest, we ascended to the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge just in time to watch the sunset.
The next day began with two pleasantly stuffed girls (mmm… passion juice and make-your-own omelets) having the pleasure of a ringside view of the same pride of wild dogs (ahem, lions) feasting on a poor wildebeest. Omigosh - the smell, the bloody muzzles, the flies…… what an experience!
- Lesson of the Day = Do not hang your entire upper body outside the vehicle to take a picture of the very large lioness not 2 metres away, especially when she is making eye contact with you.
- Largest Pride of Lions Spotted = 19
The afternoon was spent journeying to
Serengeti National Park (about 4 hours away) and becoming more familiar, thus irritated, by the catchy music (one in particular had the lyrics
“sorry, sorry, sorry”……………indeed). We lunched under an umbrella tree just outside the gate to the park (I had
spoken with the staff at the hotel to make sure I had at least some fruit to accompany my cakes) and set forth in search of cheetahs and the promised countless wildebeest and zebra (ongoing migration).
- Number of Animals that Afternoon = 0 (unless you count the hyraxes and vervet monkeys that reside at the Sereonera Wildlife Lodge)
- Quote of the Day = “But you’re Canadian!” (Explanation - the temperature in both Serengeti and Ngorongoro was freezing! Spent part of day wrapped in a wool blanket, shivering under my MEC fleece, while my Dutch traveling partner, who was quite warm, laughed.)
After only being able to enjoy the scenery the previous day (dark purple distant mountains, endless yellow plains, the odd large rock formation…), we were quite keen to see some animals. So we headed off-road outside the park in search of the migration and just when we were starting to think the animals had disappeared, we found them……… wildebeest and zebra as far as the eye can see in every direction. We ended up sitting for a few hours on top of our car in the middle of a valley, surrounded by thousands
of animals, all making horrible honking noises - it was incredible!
- Quote of the Day = “It’s like one big family reunion that happens every year”
- Surreal Experience = Going to the washroom behind a bush with sharp thorns while having a clear view of the nearby animals on the plains
The afternoon was spent on Khalifa’s mission to find a cheetah. Sequence of Events = (1) Bounce along off-road, (2) Stop randomly, pull out binoculars and scan the horizon, (3) Spot nothing, repeat #1. After about 1.5 hours of this cycle, I decided to demonstrate my ability to sleep anywhere, and took a nap - there were no animals to be seen
inside the Serengeti park anyway…… Upon waking up I decided to stand up and at least take in some of the beautiful scenery - sadly we were still within the same sequence of events. As we were bouncing along quite rapidly, I spotted a furry head…… Khalifa, however, was looking in the other direction and when the long-awaited cheetah finally popped up, he almost missed it and had to slam on the brakes, sending yours truly flying across the
car. Finally! A cheetah -
"come on, let’s see that fabled speed and watch it hunt those nearby impalas………… oh wait, she’s very pregnant, and very tired" (I could walk faster than her).
Day Four began with us mentioning that we would really like to see more giraffes and elephants. So we set forth in the direction of Masaai Mara and went twiga hunting. These have to be the oddest creatures - so graceful yet so awkward! The rest of the morning was spent watching hundreds of hippos (watch out they can bite you in half) at the hippo pool. These are also very strange animals, kind of like a very large, chunky hotdog with stubby little legs. We also saw some chameleons that were doing a very bad job of blending into the background (i.e. fluorescent yellow does not camouflage you on the brown road). After our first non-picnic lunch, we settled in for the long 5 hour drive to
Lake Manyara, bidding the famous Serengeti farewell.
Lake Manyara is the closest National Park to Arusha and is known for tree-climbing lions, hundreds of flamingoes and many mosquitoes. I think it might be nicknamed
Mosquito Lake? We arrived at about 6pm, and settled in to enjoy one last night in the lodges, complete with traditional African dancing and my very own big electric green dudu (bug).
- Mishaps with Hotel Rooms = 3/3 (Ngorongoro was a large spider in the shower, Sereonera was lack of electricity, and Lake Manyara was Mr. Green)
- Number of Mosquito Bites = unknown, itchy itchy
The next morning we descended to the lake for our very last game drive. At first you drive through a forest full of gigantic trees of all types, and as you get further into the park, you start to encounter more bushes and finally, a flat plain with a lake surrounded by mountains. Unfortunately, despite it being “rainy season,” there has been little rainfall, and the lake was very far away so although you could still spot the vibrant pink of the flamingos from a distance, there was no way to get any closer. *
Quote of the Day =
“I thought it was a warthog at first!” (
Explanation - We came across a herd of elephants really close to the road. Busy admiring the
Ngorongoro Crater
This is the view from the gate entrance at the top of the crater. large female elephant, we noticed a little animal very close to her foot…… turned out to be an itty bitty baby elephant, approximately 2 months. It was absolutely adorable. I think I snapped off about half a roll until Momma elephant got a little upset and started to charge the car……
“Reverse, reverse!!!”) After our last picnic lunch (I had resorted to secreting away peanut butter sandwiches from breakfast), we sadly left all the animals behind for the people of Arusha. What a great adventure - I can’t wait to get my 10 rolls of film developed!!!
- Expected Quote = “Yes, another giraffe… and here’s another giraffe…... and, yup, that's another.........”
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