Tanzania!!!

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A word or two from Tanzania

Another long flight filled our day, but at least allowed us to start shuffling through the hundreds of pictures we managed to collect in Egypt. Before we knew it, we had arrived in Arusha. A driver met us at the airport and we were whisked away to the outpost hotel. Such a name could only lead to delight and surprise when we arrived at the hotel. Staff swarmed the place, traditional Maasai porters in their red checkered blankets with their walking staffs hauled our bags to our room and we delighted in the enormous beds draped in mosquito net. We riffled through our bags and found our dresses to stroll by the pool and settle in the outdoor restaurant. We filled ourselves, feasting on the delicious soup, samosas, and wine, celebrating a realized dream. You see, it was before the millennium that Mom and I made a pack to go to Africa together - ten years in the making, and a life-long dream for my mom made our arrival, our anticipated adventure, and our amazing surroundings that much sweeter.

Refreshed and filled with excitement, we ventured out in the morning, wandering the streets and the market. We found a lovely local restaurant and I was bewildered at how the chai could be so different and delicious than any I had tasted before. We feasted on spicy treats and fresh juices, and then found our way to the tourist information where a fellow sweeping the floor immediately offered to be our guide, and take to a traditional maasai village. We ran back to the hotel, arming ourselves with more sunscreen and our full camera gear, and we were off.

We followed our guide from street to street, winding through local life and businesses and found our way to the most unorganized, chaotic dusty patch of land, filled with little mini-vans shouting out directions and destinations. The streets were filled with locals, children as young as 7 or 8 pulling carts, their sweat dripping over their dusty faces, as they stopped to stare openly at us. I retrieved a few balls and pens that I had brought with me and threw a few to the children hard at work. But that created more interest, and soon we were swarmed with hopefuls now on all sides, our guide called us on and we frenzily boarded a bus with about 12-13 seats and 27 full grown adults and their bundles squished inside. Bodies were bent-over and propped-up to fit inside, and the silent staring of locals was unending. We went for what seemed like hours, the surrounding dry flatlands only extending into the distance with less and less traces of life as we went on.

Every now and then, Maasai children would be with some goats, or women, carrying baskets on their head, walking along the road, seemingly coming from and going nowhere… And then the bus stopped, slightly less full that when it started and we were dumped at the side of the road. We followed our guide who seemed to be wandering on an invisible path and he talked of the local people and plants. The land was normally dry and there had been a recent draught. My mom and I were wanting those traditional blankets we had seem so often, now understanding with the whipping wind, the necessity of them in this climate.

We walked and walked, passing by children tending the herds in the distance, always reacting to us with frantic waving and wide eyes. Some children ran up to us and our guide helped us converse. The children often knew some English and were happy to try it out. I presented them with a pen, and they disappeared, running back later with more children, all of them telling me they were studying and would like a pen too - they chatted with us, and we passed many huts, making our way to a specific property. They were expecting us there, and they showed us their houses, their children, and a goat they were busily slaughtering for another group. A precious goat. They try to harvest and live off of that dry land, supplementing their diet only 10-12 times a year with one goat for everyone in the village. There is no waste; they men drink the blood and use every inch of the animal, cooking every last edible bit. The skill with which they use the knives and the utter wastelessness was extraordinary.

We visited the locals and went to the house of the man with 16 wives. The wives sang and danced for us, their children running about and laughing. They sold us some of their beadwork and then we had to make our way back to the city before dark. The buses would not stop on the way back; they were all full and grazed past us. We waited and waited. I convinced the guide (and my mom) that we were willing to hitchhike if that would get us back faster. Finally a bus arrived and we were off. This time, using a different route, switching buses and arriving in the middle of the city caked in dirt. We were covered in so much dirt, that we had managed to camouflage our white skin. We were still foreigners, but somehow we fit in more. It was getting dark and the city was no longer safe. Not for locals, and especially not for us. We jumped in a cab and went straight back to the outpost. We had another divine evening and an early night to be ready for the start of our safari the following day.

In the morning our driver, Leyimo, gathered us up and we set out for Tarangire National Park. It was the beginning of our true African experience. As we drove, we passed through remote villages and local life filtered through our windows and appeared in the rear-view mirrors. There were always more locals walking the long dusty streets than there were vehicles. There is no way to describe the excitement up on entering the park and seeing our first lions and zebra. We were camera hungry and our laughing guide kept telling us not to bother - they were at such a distance and we should certainly see tens or hundreds more in the following days. But, we could not help ourselves, we pointed and gasped, oooed and ahhed, and our guide simply drove on, with a contented glimmer in his eyes and a smile on his face.

Every turn had new animals, baboons, and waterbuck, buffalo, and elephants, and we were getting whiplash trying to see everything. We Arrived at our first “tented camp” and realized what true luxury was. It was a colonial version of a “tented camp” and we had expected real camping. It was unreal, this tent I could do cartwheels in! It was incredible, overlooking the park, and with animals all around us. We could barely put our cameras down for dinner…. And we couldn’t imagine all that we were going to see the next day. We immediately arranged with our guide to start before breakfast. We wanted to see the sunrise and get the most out of our day.

The next morning, we wound through Tarangier Park, and continued straining our necks - Baboons, monkeys, elephants, cheetahs, lions, and a python. It was all too much for us. We even had a two year old spunky elephant get feisty and (fake) charge us - running at the truck, flapping his ears and trumpeting - what a sight! The following morning, we were off on the python search again, and then we made our way through the animals and park to Lake Manyara. We could not have imagined a better day that the one before, but each day was truly more wondrous that the last. We found hippo pools and watched those extraordinary animals. We lunched in the open and took in the sights. We were surrounded by and forced to stop for a troop of baboons - hundreds parading by. We went to some hot springs and caught sight of a giraffe fight - An unthinkable sight. The sound and movement of the giraffes as they swung their bent necks to leverage their blunt horns, knocking each other off their feet…. What a sight!

By the next day, I was in rough shape - I had arrived sick from Egypt, and it was now the 6th day and I was only getting worse. The driver encouraged me again to go to the hospital. I again refused, but finally admitted that I needed a pharmacy (I had stocked up on various cold medicines arriving in Arusha, but had ran out, and was getting worse). The driver and my mom joined forces and finding a closed pharmacy (I am still not sure if that was on purpose or not…) used logic and persuasion to their advantage. We were getting farther and farther from civilization and I was getting worse. If I did not get better, I would not be able to see the mountain gorillas (our germs can transfer to gorillas). I finally agreed, and Leyimo took us to a large western-established hospital he knew of. What a wonderful thing - this American man had set up this clinic in 2002 (In the middle of rural Rwanda!) and was in the middle of expanding the ward. He had a mobile unit that went out into the bush, and was open arms in welcoming us there. The system was tiered, locals paid a dollar for a visit, ex-pats paid10 dollars, and travelers paid 25 dollars. We happily paid, he looked at the medications that had been prescribed in Egypt, and tested me for malaria (informing us that despite the anti-malaria pills, catching malaria was still a common and real occurrence!). I was malaria free, but he declared it nasty cold and filled out prescription after prescription… armed with that, we learned about his clinic and his desire to bring health care to the region. There were a couple of orphanages nearby that he treated, and told us of his trips into the bush with his mobile clinic (a sturdy hummer-like vehicle stuffed with medical supplies and personnel. What an amazing man…

Soon we were back on our way to Ngorongoro Crater, seeing nature without a filter, as we watched two cheetahs hunt and kill a gazelle. Then, we happened on a group of lions, lounging by their half-cleaned buffalo carcass. We ended the day in Sopa lodge, a hotel fit for kings, though admittedly still quite dangerous. As we were heading back from the dinning room on the short outside path to our room, I told my mom I heard chomping. We paused and she listened, but heard nothing. She discredited me, encouraging me to continue on, but I protested, insistent I had heard chomping. Then I realized that it had indeed stopped, and if an animal had been grazing stopped, it would only have been because we bothered the animal, and that did not seem like a good situation… I peered through the darkness and declared “There mom - see it, there! It’s huge!!!” I gasped “Oh, Trisha, that is just a statue. It’s not moving, it’s like the last lodge, remember all the statues around the…” “It just moved.” I cried and we started rushing to our room, suddenly and forcefully it charged, the hotel-boy behind us shone the light on the buffalo and the two women behind us almost trampled mom as we all ran for the covered stone hall a meter or two in front of us. The women were shrieking and I was trying to get to my mother, making sure she was okay after being trampled - luckily by the guests behind her and not the buffalo. We were all jittery with adrenaline and all too thankful for the stone structure that had just saved our lives. We trembled our way back to our room and tried to calm ourselves, taking in the view that overlooking the park.

The next day we drove around the rim of the crater and visited Oldupai Village (Dr. Leaky’s discovery ground and research camp) before continuing on to Central Serengeti, where we again saw more animals than we ever imagined. We ran into a female lion with three cubs… an arm’s length from our vehicle. The baby’s meowing and clomping along behind her. We watched another leopard, and found another hippo pool. We spent the longest time watching all the hippopotamuses. One hippo even gave us a satisfying yawn that terrified us as we realized that we could probably both fit in his mouth at the same time! And a mama hippo moved aggressively to protect baby, who was floating on her neck sleepily, when an intruder swam by a little too close.

We arrived at our “wild frontier camp” and were again amazed at the enormity of the tent, but found this camp much more secluded and small. We were in heaven, well, actually, in the bush, but it was heaven for us. The camp had two cooks and two extra staff. It was cozy and comfortable, and we were able to relax over dinner, after a hot bucket shower, by the fire with our dear driver, Leyimo, every night. The days were filled with sightings: a pride of lions - 17 in total (such a sight I would never have even dared to imagine), more cheetahs, a leopard feasting in a tree, baby cubs, gazelle, ostrich, hyenas, warthogs, lizards, zebra, giraffes, mongoose, jackals, hartebeest, monkeys, impalas, bushback, lesse kids, watrerbuck, redbuck, and so many birds that I simply cannot name them all….

Our last full day our on safari, we were certain that could not outdo the previous day, and yet, we did. We left with the sun, way before breakfast, and saw hundreds of animals and dozens of species again. But that day we came across the most inconceivable sight we had ever seen, even the guide was in reverence. In front of us, was a lion in a tree… eating his lunch. Of course, lions rarely kill, they actually prefer to steal their meals, and there in the canvas of that every same tree, was a poor leopard laying as still as the earth below him in the highest branch he could find. You see, the lion had climbed up the tree to steal the leopard’s lunch… and the leopard had nowhere to go but up. Now, usually a lion would steal the lunch and leave, but the lion could not get the kill down from the tree without falling. We watched, as the lion tried and tried, wavering and hesitating each time, then finally the lion curled up into a ball in the tree, and started gnawing away. Just then, a cheetah paused below the tree, likely smelling the kill and unable to place the danger, the cheetah sat up straight for some time, scanning the grass fields, and then crouched down and disappeared… perhaps he felt the vibrations, for only a minute or two later, out of nowhere, a heard of elephants appeared. There were almost a hundred of them, clumped in groups and strung out in a line, marching along, one following the next, directly towards the tree. Now one by one, they would approach the tree and react - lifting their trunk to the air, following the trunk of the tree, just meters from the lion and kill, flapping their ears, rushing the tree, and trumpeting away. They were all alarmed, alarmed and confused, not being able to see or place the smells. They made a fuss, then rushed on with a short sprint of worry before settling back into their marching pace. This happened over and over and over again as each adult elephant reached the tree. None of the elephants changed their course and the cheetah was nowhere to be seen, but the lion was confidently munching away and the leopard didn’t move an inch. We stayed for the length of the elephant procession, astonished by the show. After some time, we watched the lion finally come out of the tree. It had eaten enough to drop down the last limb and was finishing it up on the ground, just below the tree, the leopard still a statue in the canopy. We had been there for hours, and finally decided to move on, only to realize we had a flat tire! The front right tire, no less, just next to the lion munching away…. We laughed and laughed, unable to contain ourselves thinking of the ridiculous circumstances. Finally, Leyimo drove a few meters on our flat to get a safer angle, and mom and I went on full watch-guard duty while our guide changed that tire faster than I thought was humanly possible - sweating profusely, I’m guessing from the work as much as the situation!

It was the most amazing trip that I have ever been on and one that I could not have made more spectacular or incredible with my own imagination. I am still in awe, in wonder, and in love with that place. We were so sad, in fact, to say goodbye that I decided instead to say, until next time…

More to come, as always,

Trish xx

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