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Published: June 11th 2009
How do I even begin to talk about the madness that has been this week?! I guess I'll begin with the essentials: I am safe, happy, and haven't been mauled by any wild animals, so that's a good start.
Anyways, the trip here was relatively uneventful, except for the fact that I was in such a state of exhaustion from Germany that I foolishly wore shorts to the airport. Thus, the 9 hour layover in Egypt was potentially the most uncomfortable 9 hours of my life, as I stuck out like a sore thumb. I spent the whole day hiding in various corners, when I finally did get the nerve to go buy a coffee the guy asked me in broken English if I was married. Wow. Luckily, a nice Lebonese family was there who were heading back home for the Lebanon elections, and I spent the entire day with them, which was really great.
I got here at about 4am and my program director picked me up from the airport to take me to Boulevard Hotel, where our safari was taking off from. However you can imagine the state of mind I was in after a full night of festivities followed by a full 24 hours of travel. Basically I was worthless. . . Fortunately we had an incredibly long ride to make it to Arusha, Tanzania, where we stayed for the first night before our safari. Despite the ridiculously bumpy roads and insane driving, I was able to sleep for much of the trip - Probably just a testament to how tired I was. Now on to the fun part: The safari.
It would be a gross understatement to say that I didn't know what I was getting myself into. We pitched our own tents and camped for the entire safari. We spent the first day in Arusha, Tanzania shopping around the city, and I went to the Maasai Market as well as the Tribunal - where they are still holding trials to this day from the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Pretty incredible. Then we had more driving to do to get to the Ngorongoro crater - a 600 km deep and 300 km wide caldera that was created by a massive volcano exploded and collapsed in on itself. Within the crater there are anywhere from 25,000 to 75,000 animals. I knew I would see a lot of things on a safari, but the immense capacity of animals was just incredible. As soon as we started driving in, we saw literally hundreds and hundreds of zebra and wildebeast, just lining the roads. Throughout the day we saw so many different things, from gazelle to lions (three huge lions right by our truck! I was a little scared, not gonna lie). . . a black rhinocerous, elephants, giraffes, a cheetah, hyenas, hippos, you name it - We saw it. I didn't think there could be a better day, but then we headed to the Serengeti. . .
The meaning of Serengeti is "Endless Plains" and that is literally what it is. There was an overlook where you could just see the park, and it is just miles and miles and miles of plains covered with some of the most amazing creatures!! We spent the entire day doing a game drive there, and what made the day even better was that the Safari guide, Mat, was in our 4x4 that day (He had to split up between the jeeps b/c there were so many of us). This pretty much capped the experience. He was truly one of the most knowledgeable and interesting people I have ever met, and could tell dozens of facts about every animal, tree, grass, or even rock formation that we saw. He was able to point out a number of birds and other animals that I definitely wouldn't have spotted myself, or known to even look for. The final highlight was that we saw a Leopard, which completed our search for "The Big 5" (Lion, Leopard, Black Rhinocerous, Buffalo, Elephant). Often people go on multiple safaris before seeing all of the big 5, and we saw them all within 24 hours! Just amazing, there's no other words for it. We headed back to Arusha that night for another night of camping, accompanied with a snake walk and checked out some crocodiles in the park, and then had one last night of just hanging out and having a few well deserved drinks at the campsite. Today a few of us made the trek back to Nairobi, and the rest of the group continued on to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar (It's actually a 56 day safari. I just joined up for a short part. . But now I want to go back and do a longer one, of course).
Which brings me to here, safe and sunburned in Boulevard Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. Tomorrow my program director is picking me up and taking me to my dorm I'll be staying in for the next month. Then I'll begin my work on Monday. I hope to update this with pics and more info soon, but I imagine this is enough of a novel for tonight. Take care, I miss you all!
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Mary B
non-member comment
Hi!
Glad to hear you are safe and sound, Egypt sounds pretty interesting! Let us know how your work goes in Africa. I am babysitting T's cat who is the most affectionate creature I have ever met and also loves to jump up on every surface available. Bobo is having a ball! Be careful and stay in touch. Your car is fine, we really love driving it!