Karibu (Welcome in Swahili)
This has been the most difficult blog to write so far, and for great reasons. We have thousands of photos to cull and edit. We saw so many animals (all that we anticipated seeing plus many others). Thank goodness, we both kept a journal so we could refer to them when we couldn't remember which place was which. You are so busy each day, there isn't much time to absorb all that you experience. So here are the highlights.
Joseph handed us over to Elias of Leopard Tours at the border with Tanzania. The entry process was complicated as we had to line up at 5 different windows, in the right order, to be admitted. The new drivers made sure we didn’t get arrested for missing a step, like paying $50 per person for the visas or taking photos in the immigration building (oops).
We traveled from the border to Arusha, the main town in the safari area, and lunched at a lovely restaurant (Arusha Coffee Lodge). Then it was off to Lake Manyara, a 2-hour drive west from Arusha.
Remember to click on the photo galleries to see larger images and/or hover over the photos for text
LAKE MANYARA NATIONAL PARK
Since it was too late for a safari when we arrived at Serena Lodge, we were able to have a quick swim in the pool overlooking the valley. Nice to have some breathing time before bed.
This area, unlike the other parks we have seen, was heavily forested so you were never sure what was around the next corner. The most interesting part was closer to the lake with quite a few new birds but no hippos, as we had hoped. A sign at the entrance advertises “tree climbing lions” but none were seen. Other than the lake, the area actually looked very dry so hopefully the monsoon rains this summer will green-up the landscape.
Near the park is an excellent shopping complex (African Galleria) where they market the Tanzanite found only in Tanzania, at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro. A beautiful stone but their pieces were way beyond our price range ($20,000 for a ring).
After our shopping time, we drove even further to the west for a total of 5 hours. We passed many spots that we would return to in a few days, stopping for lunch at an overlook to the Ngorongoro Crater.
SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
To many folks, this park is the poster child of safaris from National Geographic articles and TV documentaries with it’s grassy plains and acacia trees.
Our lodge overlooked some of these grass lands so we watched the herds of elephants and zebras moving about in the far distance. Knowing the animals were protected and continuing their normal lives was heart-warming.
We had several thunderstorms at night which produced an unbelievable amount of rain in a short period of time. The rains are important as they provide the moisture for the grasslands which in turn encourages the wildebeest to migrate to fresh grass. We did see some wildebeest but the height of the migration in this area is later in the year, during our summer.
A female lion wandered down to a watering hole near us, to have a drink. We could see the rest of the pride at a kill site nearby and assumed she had just had her fill of buffalo, maybe?? She then sauntered over to a large tree and easily jumped up to a short (or maybe, long) nap.
We were only in the Serengeti for an evening safari, a full-day safari from the lodge and then a morning safari before we left to travel east again. But it was a packed 48 hours with lots of exposure to the animals there.
Our lasting impression of the Serengeti was the miles of grass – not like Alberta prairie but rougher, uncultivated fields with random trees and lots of wildlife.
OLDIPAI GORGE
Nope, that isn’t a spelling mistake. We, in the west, refer to this archaeological area as the Olduvai Gorge but the Maasai actually called it Oldupai (place of wild sisal plant). The museum onsite was excellent so we spent an hour with the artifacts and explanations. We finished with a short talk in an open-air theatre overlooking the gorge, by a young Maasai fellow who added some humour to our day. Grade 7 Social Studies comes alive once again.
NGORONGORO CRATER CONSERVATION AREA
We had passed through this lush area on our way to the Serengeti, a few days ago. The Conservation Area, outside of the Crater is huge and parts are set aside for the Maasai to live by their traditional ways of herding their animals in the verdant setting. Their villages are still built in the historic way, with the cattle residing at night within the enclosure as protection against the lions.
The Crater itself is an old (2.5 million years) volcanic caldera, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) across. We stayed in a lodge on the north-east rim of the crater – there are no accommodations on the crater floor. Because of no artificial lighting in the area and low humidity, the stars were incredible. We could only see the end of the handle from the Big Dipper. The animals are free to leave the crater or stay on the crater floor where they eat, grow and reproduce in the grassland.
The Crater gave us the closest view of many of the animals that we had seen at other parks. We were never allowed to leave the vehicle while in the parks as when Jim’s hat blew off and caught on the edge of the truck. The guide instructed us that he would move the vehicle away from the hippo pool before trying to retrieve the hat. If the trucks have a mechanical problem, several other trucks come to create a shield for the guides to check it out. Hippos can be extremely dangerous, even though they only eat grass.
One morning, the lions were out doing their normal thing - eating. We were alerted to a new kill, not far from the road. Others, like birds and jackals, were wanting to benefit from the lion's work.
Wildebeest seek out the relative safety of the Crater to birth and nurture their young before migrating further south. We saw many youngsters among the adults but usually at a distance from the road. About 30 rhinoceros live full-time in the Crater - we were fortunate to see two, an adult and a youngster.
TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK
Our last night while on safari was at this special place. Many times, we stopped along the access roads and to view elephants grazing not far from the road. We videotaped (not able to post here, unfortunately) and watched as they walked about 10 feet from the truck. The only sound was the knee-high grass brushing against their legs, with no thumping of those huge feet. Truly magical.
The next morning, as we left Tarangire, we noticed a few buzzards in a tree. As we got closer, we realized something had made a kill and there were actually buzzards and storks, on the ground, having a feast. The way of the grasslands, eat or be eaten.
We finished our safari travels back at the same Coffee Lodge in Arusha for lunch and a transfer (1.5 hour bus drive) to Kilimanjaro International Airport. The Lodge has a small shop and workshop area which employs handicapped people to create items for the tourist trade. Of course, we spent some cash here and bought Elias a new bird book as he was keen to learn the birds and had to borrow a book from one of the other drivers to help us out.
SAFARIS IN GENERAL
If you have the money, it would be worthwhile to fly between some of the parks. We spent a lot of time driving back along the same roads we had traveled, just 2 days earlier. A driven circle tour would make more sense but border crossings by road between Kenya and Tanzania are not always available near the parks, hence the need to fly
between some parks which do have small
airstrips, close to the lodges.
If you have limited time, just doing one country would work. Each of the parks is different in it’s own way but you could see almost all of the major animals in either Kenya or Tanzania. We saw all of the Big 5 – so called as they were the most difficult to hunt on foot (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, Cape buffalo) plus the other 4 (cheetah, hippo, zebra, giraffe) and many other species.
We documented 150 different species of birds while on safari. We were fortunate to have 2 guides who had knowledge of the local birds and could help us find and identify some of them - not always a guarantee with every driver. One morning, we documented an average of 9 different birds per kilometer.
Below are 6 bird photos in a slideshow using the < >, click on a photo to see the full view and hover on a photo to see the text
Tanzania is not as crowded as Kenya so road travel is less stressful. But the number of safari trucks present at the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater were greater than in the Kenyan parks.
There are many tour agencies judging from the signs on the land rover type vehicles we saw in the parks. Most of the truck have a maximum of 6 people so everyone gets to see the animals. We were perfect at 4 people in a truck as we could all fit thru the open roof to get great shots.
Our lodgings were all excellent, the food varied and tasty (usually a buffet so lots to choose from).
Since our safari adventure was only 12 days long and we had come so far, we had decided to extend our time in Africa by visiting the island of Zanzibar, which is part of Tanzania since it joined with Tanganyika in 1964.
NEXT BLOG: Part 3 - Zanzibar and the trip home
