So-so Serengeti

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Our last true safari experience was going to be the Serengeti. We had booked this again through a UK company who outsourced to an Arusha based African agent called Shidoyla. Shidoyla is a word in a local tribal language for the black and white colobus monkey. Our flight from Dar to Arusha was short and easy and the airport affords views of both Mount Kilamanjaro and neighbouring Mount Meru. We were met at the airport by our cheerful guide for transport to our lodge. For our first night we were staying at Karama Lodge, just outside of Arusha situated pleasantly on the side of a hill overlooking a picturesque valley. The lodge was nicely appointed and fairly typically set up for most safari lodges. We had one of the smaller huts with an ensuite, comfortable bed and nice balcony. There was an airy bar overlooking the pool area and a restaurant below. By the time we got there is was dinner so we only had time to get the travel grime washed off before heading over to eat. Both of us were pretty tired so we didn't eat much, but what we did eat was very tasty.

The first day of our safari was supposed to start at 0830. Probably our first sign of things to come was our guide arriving a half hour late. Our first order of business involved some quick logistics before heading out for an afternoon game drive at Tarangire National Park and an overnight on the escarpment of the Rift Valley. Following the Serengeti would be a bus ride to Kampala and we were lucky that the tour operator could purchase the tickets for us while we were gone. The offices of Shidoyla were situated in the UN compound that George Jr. called African Geneva. It was the most secure place we have been so far and the home to the war crimes tribunal for the Rwandan genocide. Sadly one of the highlights of Arusha is watching the court proceedings for the worst genocide in the recent history of mankind, an estimated 800,000 killed people in the span of 100 days (I know this is debateable and not meant to offend anyone, the number is also impossible to confirm but this is the most commonly quoted figure). We were either lucky or unlucky depending on your viewpoint that we didn't have enough time in Arusha to go. It is a very profound and sad reminder at the level of violence and atrocity that the human race is capable of.

Our first stop on the way out of town was the grocery store that is frequented by seemingly all the tour operators. If you would like a look into African corruption you need to go no further. It was a small place stocked mostly with booze and water with not a local in sight. There were no prices on any of the products and upon entering we heard another group of Mazungas questioning their driver as to the exorbandent cost everything. We had been told by our tour operator that we would be stopping here and that it was a cheaper alternative to the lodges we would be staying in, so if we wanted any alcoholic drinks while on Safari, this was the place. Since our safari was over New Years and we had two days bush camping, and we are slightly alcoholic Canadians we thought we should get something. We selected a familiar box of South African wine that has historically been about $6-8, a cheaper looking box of what we thought was Tanzanian white wine of smaller quantity, a cheap bottle of sparkling wine also of the $8 range and a box of water valued elsewhere at about $10. The total of our bill was just under $100! Initially we had selected some other things and nicer wine but after the shock of the total we went back to get the cheapest stuff around. We weren't having the best luck so far but we held out optimistically that the wildlife would make up for all of it.

The drive to Tarangire is about 3 hours of good tarmac heading west from Arusha. It takes you past several Masai settlements and coutless coffee and banana plantations. On route is the prison where the accused wait for trial at the war crimes tribunal. Tarangire is a spectacular if a bit small national park. A nice drive takes in the neighbourhood of 3 to 4 hours and encompasses some beautiful and varied geography. We started on the typical savanah to watch antelope and elephants before descending into a river valley. The valley afforded a nice variety of birds and a good sized family of elephants playing in the water with some of the youngest calves we have seen. They were in a playful mood with some of the younger males trying to prove themselves and the babies sticking close by the older cows. We didn't get to see any big cats here but the elephants were great and one of Rach's favourites. From the park we were off to our lodge on the escarpment. We drove passed lake Manara which is itself a nice wildlife destination for those of you in the Arusha area. Our lodge was Kirumiru with is right on the edge of the escarpment overlooking lake Manara. We were greeted by our first Masai serving as security and porters at the lodge. In typical set up we were lucky to get one of the huts that did overlook the valley. We arrived late and were off early so it wasn't much of a night but again the food was good and the shower hot. Kirumiru afforded us our first opportunity to tap into our heinously overpriced booze. For our first victim we picked what we thought was local white wine. Now we didn't have the highest hopes for Tanzanian white but what we got was totally unexpected. I am still not sure exactly what it is but if you are offered something in a black bottle/box with a red number 7 on it I would avoid it. It was most similar to grappa I guess, but really just tasted like a really bad batch of home brew that somebody left sit out for a long time. Hey at least it was supposed to be cheaper than the wine in the lodges right? Wrong! The nicer, South African whites at the lodge served chilled were cheaper, UGH! The shower also offered us our first scorpian sighting much to Rachel's surprise and dismay.

Our wake up at Kirumiru was in the dark to try to be on the road for 0730. Surprisingly punctual we were done breakfast with our bags ready and sitting at the reception at 0730. There we sat for about 20 min waiting for our guide to show up. Now this one was a little worse since we had gotten up much earlier that desired to get ready and that extra 20min of sleep would have been greatly appreciated. By this point we weren't super enthused with the tour group. Chronically being late and wasting a tonne of cash on bad booze was not a great start. Hey the Serengeti lay ahead, all would be forgotten as we watched lions, cheetahs and leopards and the beginning of the wildebeest migration, one of the modern wonders of the world.

I guess we weren't the only ones that had this idea because when we arrived at the gates to Ngorongoro crater which you have to drive to on route to Serengeti we were met by dozens of lined up landcruisers as far as the eye could see. I would conservatively guess that when we arrived there the line was the better part of 1km long with no apparent order. Rach wasn't feeling too hot so she waited in the car while I got out to wander around for what ended up being over an hour. The official story we were told from our guide was that they are using a new system so things are taking a little longer than normal. I don't imagine it helps getting there late either. One bright point was the baboons that reside at the gate. They have gotten wise to the stupid tourists leaving windows and doors open with their tasty boxed lunches inside. I did get to see a few baboons ransack a landcruiser for the lunches, much to the amusement of everyone whose lunch it wasn't. The itinerary called for a Masai village tour on this day to break up a bit of the driving but unfortunately due to our late departure and time wasted at the gate we didn't have time.

The drive to the Serengeti gate was about 3 hours that starts with lush tropical forests along the rim of the crater before descending onto the flat savannah grasslands below. Our luck was continuing and the migration was not quite in gear yet. The wildebeest and zebra were in massive herds as far as the eye could see stretching along the savannah leading up to the park. It would take several days for them to move into the park on their majestic migration. This was our first chance to see herds this size. Literally extending as far as the eye could see were various sized dots that as they got closer you could appreciate as wildebeest and zebra. All moving with the rains to follow the grasses to where they will have their young. It was our hope to stop and just appreciate the scale of the whole thing but due to time constraints we were told that we would see all of those animals better later so we had to keep going. The gate at Serengeti was no better than Ngorongoro and quite predictably all the same landcruisers lined up again. When we arrived the parking lot was completey full and the queue of drivers waiting for permits looked like the real migration. Our chosen waste of time for this hour was reading in the sweltering heat. Optimism was admittedly waning at this point but tonight we would be bush camping in the heart of the Serengeti so we kept hope alive.

On returning from the epic queue our driver broke the news that we wouldn't be able to make our original campsite and would be selecting one a little closer to get there before dark. Ok so maybe we wouldn't be in the middle of the Serengeti but hey we were closer to the migration right? The campsite was very nice and had flush toilet and cold showers that were cleaned everyday. When we arrived there was only one other group there so we felt good with the selection and looked forward to camping. Our guide and cook set up camp while we read and wandered and watched a large group of teenage girls arrive and set up camp behind us. I don't know if there are any teenage girls reading this but you should all randomly tape one of your conversations to listen to when you're older. Good god they had to be some of the most annoying people you could ever want to meet. Maybe we were grumpy by that point but we did get to hear about all flavour of bodily function before actually hearing those same bodily functions happening, ugh again. Our cook was luckily a ninja of the camp kitchen and his meals were consistently very good and he made sure to always have a gluten free option for Rach.

Our first morning drive was predictably late in getting going and would prove to be a very different experience. Now if you have never done a safari before you would probably have different impression than we did but here was ours. I have heard this type of Safari called high impact because of the shear number of trucks that are out there. The chances of seeing wild life is very high and we were lucky to see lions, leopards and cheetahs as well as the usual giraffe, elephant, hippo, buffalo and impala. On one of our evening drives we also were fortunate to see bat eared foxes and a family of mongoose. The mode of tracking is a little different. Instead of tracking animals and scanning the grassland for what may be a lion but turns out to me a termite mound, you scan the horizon for other trucks. The guides have a system of radioing each other when they see a cat so that everyone within reasonable driving distance can converge on them. Don't get me wrong, it is a great system of letting a large number of people see some very elusive animals. However be forewarned that you will share your viewing with between 10 and 30 trucks depending on the cat. From what we have been told we didn't pick the best season and there are times that you can see prides of lions 20+ big. In our 2 and a half days we saw several lion from quite far, a pair of cheetah from about 100m, two leopards from 50m and another from 100+m. The landscape was savannah grassland with little or no trees and very few rock formations or water bodies. On our drive out of the park we spent 3 hours driving and probably saw 20 animals and fewer trees. From a photography perspective it became difficult to frame a shot without including a truck in it. Our driver also had a knack of moving the vehicle as animals were moving towards us and not shutting off the engine for a while after stopping.

What our driver lacked in punctuality and photo knowledge he did make up for in Masai tribal knowledge and bird identifying. Not being briders we didn't entirely appreciate his birding know how but we very much enjoyed the cultural information he had. Leaving the Serengeti we headed for Oldupai (known as Olduvai) gorge, the site of the Leakey's discovery of the “missing link”. In the gorge and surrounding area they have found three types of hominids remains over tens of thousands of years showing different stages of evolution. Our tour was a bit rushed because we got a late start so we didn't get to enjoy the whole museum but it's an interesting place and one worth stopping at if you have the chance.

The next stop was a traditional Masai village. There hasn't been much that we have done on this trip that I wish we didn't but this if for sure one of them. The entry ranges from $30-50 USD depending on the village that you go to. Ours was $30. With your entry you will be treated to a traditional dance and can get involved with the jumping dance of the males or the female dance if you are interested. There is a tour of a homestead and they tell you about their way of life. As per usual we were in a rush so we kind of tagged on to another tour. The village is legit and it is where and how the people live. Our village had a large backhoe behind it and probably half of the people had cell phones. They do have a school there for the young children and the older children go off to school, of have the option to go off to funded school. Each person that we interacted with openly asked for a tip and we were told by our guide that we could tip each and every person that we interacted with. The whole process had a very schmarmy feel to it and we both lost some respect for a culture that has a rich history and some very interesting traditions. If you are in the area I would take a pass! Our guide had also done a very good job of explaining the different traditions and various ways of life so we didn't get any new information from the tour itself. Oh well live and learn.

We left the Serengeti behind us and moved on to a nice lodge just outside Ngorongoro for two days exploring the crater and it's very tame resident fauna.

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Photos

Driving through the Great Migration
The herds of wildebeest stretched as far as we could see in either direction.

Elephant crossing
This gives an idea of how many safari trucks there were everywhere

Two cheetahs on a termite mound
This is as close as we got to the elusive cheetahs

Comments

[mom mcphie]

herd of tourists
even with the other tour vans around, the idea of seeing those animals is pretty amazing. love mom