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Published: June 11th 2010
GOODBYE GIRAFFES
We’re woken up at 6:30am with juice, hot chocolate, fruit and toast brought to our room, it took a lot of insisting that this would be enough, they wanted to give us a full cooked breakfast. The other Australian couple left today as well as 4:30am and they were also offered a cooked breakfast!
So we are now all ready for our driver to collect us at 7am, all that’s left is to see our giraffes. We see them walk out of the bush and one heads our way, we are madly shaking the food tin, it looks our way, so we shake some more, it starts walking over, we get all excited and then it just walks right by us! Damn giraffe!
We go downstairs and say our farewells, Jess has come to see us off so after hugs all round we are on our way to the airport.
Tim is not having a well morning and sadly he ends up on the side of the freeway, he commented later as much as he has loved the pineapple since being in Africa (he won’t touch it at home) it was decidedly unpleasant on the
return. But on the up side, after that he was feeling much better and started getting some colour back in his cheeks. It was most likely a combination of Malaria tablets, eating loads of food for the last few days and having to go on yet another plane.
Tim is also a bit concerned that we are going on a small plane, but the car driver assures him that it will not be.
We check in and it’s more waiting. It’s a big airport though and easy enough to kill time in.
WHERE’S OUR JUMBO PLANE?
When it comes time to board we go through the gate, down the stairs and onto the tarmac, and that’s when we see it, a tiny jet with propellers on the wings. There are 18 rows of 2 seats on each side in total. Tim and I have both been given 2 seats each across the aisle from each other (possible to keep plane weight even, possible to be nice to us…) so at least we can stretch out a bit, even though the flights only 50 minutes.
When we get closer to landing the pilot tells us out
of the left side we will be able to see Mount Kilimanjaro and the right side Mount Mero. Yay for me, I’m on the left! It’s a huge mountain and we can only see the part of that is above the clouds! Tim’s mountain is okay, but no Kilimanjaro! There’s 2 groups of people on the plane who are here to climb the mountain so they all get pretty excited, I don’t blame them!
It’s not long after we land at Kilimanjaro International Airport.
TANZANIAN CUSTOMS
We finally have to show someone our Yellow Fever vaccination certificate; we were starting to wonder if anyone would ever ask for it, so now all those needles are worth it. There was someone who didn’t have one and wasn’t permitted to enter; perhaps they should ask to see it before people get on the plane, just a thought.
After we collect our bags, for the first time in all our travels we are questioned by Customs. He asks why we are here, who we are meeting, do we have any gifts (at that moment, I thought he meant for him, like a bribe, damn I thought, not here!) but
he then added a gift for anyone we are meeting in Tanzania, whew! He asked what was in our bags and I had to show him all the souvenirs we had brought with us. Eventually he was happy for us to go, interesting being on the other side of the questions!
Once we get outside we very quickly meet our driver/guide, Roman. He’s a nice guy with very good English. On the way he says we need to stop at the office in Arusha to collect the paperwork after we have lunch.
THIS IS AFRICA!
Driving to Arusha, the thing that strikes me is that for the first time this is exactly what I expected Africa to be like. There are women everywhere wearing what I guess we would consider traditional dress, of the bright fabrics layered and with a bright scarf wrapped around their head. More women than anywhere else we’ve been carried everything on their head - even their handbags! We saw so many Massai warrior men wearing their bright red or purple robes carrying what we initially thought was a spear but was actually a long stick, but they all had one, even the
ones we saw riding bicycles! There were lots of small herds of cattle, goats and donkeys that were being tended to by some Maasai men but mostly by children, all boys, some as young as maybe 6 years old. They are allowed to tend their herds anywhere except the National Parks.
We got into the city, and stopped at a hotel for lunch. It was a very basic buffet, but what was there was really nice and we were very content. Roman said he would go to the office and get petrol and would come back for us. We try exchanging some money, but again they wouldn’t accept Australian money, we really miss the luxury of being able to use an ATM….
We wait outside for Roman, it’s nice and warm, the weather is nice here, a bit cloudy but still warm. We watch the world go by and marvel at how past meets present here. We are on the main street on the edge of the city, probably the equivalent of being in East Perth, and going down the street were not only cars, but men pushing quite primitive looking wooden wheelbarrows filled with everything you could
imagine. The clincher was when we saw a Maasai walking down the street with robes and his stick - talking on a mobile phone!
Roman comes back, we eventually find someone who accepts our poor Aussie dollar; we only get 1,100 schillings for every one of our dollars.
We notice throughout the city a lot of really long queues scattered all over the place, we ask Roman what they are all waiting for, they are all waiting to use the ATM! Later we see on market day driving through a small town, there is an old bus that has a mobile ATM and a queue that stretches may 20-25mtrs! Traditionally dressed Maasai tribesman standing in queue at an ATM, now that’s something to see!
Then we are on our way to Tarangire National Park. It’s a nice drive through all the small towns. As Roman has lived here all his life, he is constantly waving to people he knows and when we go to shops he stops and chats with everyone. He seems to be well liked which is a good thing. He and Tim go into a supermarket so we can get some water, Tim ends
up coming out with a whole box of water after being told they are not sold individually and he also has a can of Tanzania’s answer to Aeroguard. He was told in the shop that he really needed this spray for the flies that bite and give you Sleeping Sickness (Don told me of this disease back at home so we knew it did exist!), Tim forgot that we brought our own from home after being overwhelmed about the water. Next thing Roman comes out of the store carrying a single bottle of water! Tim said the tourist who followed Tim into the shop was stung as well, suckers!
We head off the main highway to go to the park. Even the dirt roads here are better than the Ugandan Highways! I guess tourism in these parks is so precious that making sure the roads are of good quality is vital to them.
TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK
We get to the park entrance and Roman lifts up and opens our roof, it is so cool, you can stand up very comfortably and have a great view! We are allowed to stand as he drives and we feel very
special thinking it’s because there are only the 2 of us as opposed to up to 10 people, until we pass another safari vehicle driving along with 6 heads all poking out the top, not so special now!
The park we are in is over 2,000 square kilometers so we wonder what our chances are of seeing anything. Roman tells us that the park is famous for it’s elephants and snakes, but it’s too cold for snakes.
It’s not long before we see our first giraffe, then warthogs, then elephants, hartebeest, mongoose, more and more elephants, zebra, ostriches, so many different types of deer and gazelles, I started writing down what we saw, but there was so much I no longer had the time or inclination to write. It was the most incredible thing to see, knowing that all these animals are here because this is where they want to be, nothing has been brought here, there are no fences keeping them in, this is their home.
We start getting bitten by the flies so we decide to use the spray Tim has just bought, thinking it’s made for these bugs, it will be great. Not so!
But we were seeing the most amazing collection of wild animals and we didn’t care!
TARANGIRE SOPA LODGE
We arrive at our hotel around 6pm. Roman said earlier that this hotel won’t be as nice as the rest so we don’t expect too much. But when we get there it is beautiful. The staff is as helpful and attentive as everywhere we’ve been in Africa (except for the lady who took Tim’s bags to our room, he lucked out there) and the room was really nice and big. It had a sitting room when you first walked in, an enormous ensuite and 2 double beds with mosquito nets in the main room. It also had a balcony that looked out onto bush so we hoped something would show itself, maybe one of the many elephants…
The hot water is only available between certain hours of the afternoon and morning so we have showers then off to dinner. Like most hotels in the bathroom they soap and shampoo etc, but here they also have creamy insect repellent to use instead of moisturizer. Talk about thinking of everything.
As has been the case with most places there is
a set menu for you to choose from. We also get the same waiter for all our meals, which makes tipping a lot easier because you can just do it once at the end of your stay, we had Philip. Tea was nice and they accommodated most tastes, my only complaint is that although I ask for a small serving I still get an enormous plateful and I get embarrassed having to send most of it back, and it seems really wasteful in a country that seems to be struggling. But if my only complaint is that they feed me too much (and Tim’s bag girl), then all is fine and dandy.
We get walked to our room again; it will be strange being in a country again where this doesn’t happen! The staff have put our mosquito nets out and also sprayed our room for insects.
So it’s Lalla Sallama from us, which means sleep well in Swahili.
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