Advertisement
Published: October 23rd 2009
Edit Blog Post
Our journey from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania, took hours and hours. The roads were AWFUL! They were being resurfaced for miles and miles which meant that half of the road (the parts that were finished) were lovely and smooth, and the other parts we were taken to a rough road alongside the main road which was basically just a rocky path. Inside the bus we were being thrown about all over the place, even though we were only travelling about 20 miles an hour. Fiona and I were at the back of the bus - behind the back wheels - so we're convinced we were feeling the bumps even more than everyone else - or at least that's Fiona's theory, as she seemed to literally hit to roof every few seconds!!
We finally arrived just before dark at a campsite called Snake Park (though luckily we didn't see a single snake...) and learned to put up our tents, and had our first truck meal.
The next day we set off in four small safari vehicles and headed towards the Serengeti National Park. Again, this was a really long drive, but the scenary was amazing - just vast flat plains,
with very little greenery because it is still the dry season. As far as animals, we didn't see much for hours apart from some gazelle and antelope, but when we finally got into the Serengeti itself, we started to see lots - zebra, giraffe, wildebeast, vultures, and then finally some lions. We saw a couple hiding being a rock, having a snooze, but we could only really see their feet. And then we came across a male and a female sleeping under a tree just a few metres from the road, so we were so close! We also saw a few elephant, some hippos, and lots of different birds. When it was starting to get dark, we were forced to head to the campsite which wasn't really a campsite at all, but just a clearing in a patch of trees with a small toilet block and a small building with a place to cook - we were literally about to sleep in the wild! Before we'd even gone to bed, we could see hyena eyes approaching from all directions, and there was a herd of buffalo standing right behind the toilets - who'd have thought going for a pee would
be so life threatening! We were prepped on what to do if we met different types of animal in the middle of the night, but needless to say noone got out their tents at all that night! Fiona didn't sleep much that night and kept waking me, and at one point I was so sleepy that I was asking 'Where am I?' to which Fiona replied 'You're in the Serengeti National Park, and I think there's a buffalo near my head!' She wasn't wrong either - we found out that it had been sleeping against our neighbour's tent for most of the night!!
The next morning we discovered thousands and thousands of fire ants heading to and from the kitchen area - they looked like a black stream a metre wide! And as soon as you get too close, they crawl over your feet and bite - ouch! We were in our 4x4s before sunrise to head out on an early morning game drive. We saw lots more things - a leopard lazing on a tree, a cheeta, warthogs (Pumba!!!!) and some lions lazing about on a high rock Lion King stylee. Needless to say there were a lot
of Lion King songs being sung all day!
That afternoon we went on a visit to a Masai village. It was all a bit money grabbing - $10 to get in, and then they kept trying to pressure us into buying Masai jewellery at stupidly high prices, but it was interesting nonetheless. Their houses are tiny, and we got to see into the school where all the 3 year olds recited their numbers and alphabet for us.
That evening, we camped on the edge of the Ngorngoro crater, this time with zebra and wild pigs about our tents, and lions roaring in the distance. We drove into the crater at sunrise the next day, and it was amazing down there. We saw loads of elephants and monkeys and thousands of wildebeast. We also saw a black rhino, but it was lying down so far away it could well have been a rock... But still, we were so lucky to see the Big 5 before we'd even finished day 4 of the tour!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0557s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb