My Safari

I woke up super early in the morning to be packed and read to go for my safari. A "tourist" bus as it was called picked me up from my hotel at about 6:15AM and after stopping at 2 other hotels, we were on our way to Arusha. I can't tell you too much about the ride to Arusha because I basically slept the entire way and did not wake up until we were pulling into a parking lot. And once the bus came to a stop, I had to ask the driver if we had arrived in Arusha, at which point he said yes. Haha! So I walked off of the bus only half aware of what was going on. Luckily, the man who was supposed to pick me up from the bus stop was waiting for me. He approached me, introduced himself, and then asked me if I wanted to get some breakfast because we still had about 2 hours before our safari would be leaving. So we then got in his car and went to this really great place for breakfast, but after that he dropped me off at a hotel, where I would wait for the rest of the safari "participants." They also had a rooftop restaurant, so I went upstairs and waited until about 9:15AM when I went downstairs with my things to wait in the lobby.

Sitting across from me were 2 men from France and we started talking while waiting. Previously I had been told that the other people on my safari included 2 Irishmen, and 2 Australians, but I found it odd that these 2 men were waiting to go on a safari as well. And then I reminded myself that Arusha is a big hub for safari travelers. But when the guide for our safari arrived, we discovered that we would be on the same safari! I was happy for this because both of the guys were really nice even though only 1 could speak English (where were those French skills I learned in middle school?)

So we loaded all of our things into the back of the Land Cruiser, but then another one of are safarians (and yes I made that up) showed up. She was an American girl who was quite frazzled and in a very bad mood because she was unhappy with her tour operator and felt like she got scammed. I tried to reassure her that she was now where she needed to be and that things would be better now since she was with other travelers, but my consoling words did not help. After talking a bit, I found out that she was from Los Angeles, California and just got out from doing the Peace Corps in Zambia. So I would have thought that she would have a bit of patience after being in an African country for 2 years, but apparently not. Once everyone was loaded on, we were told that we had one more stop to make to pick up our last two safarians. They were a couple from Israel who were traveling for 2 weeks in Tanzania. So once we were all accounted for, we thought we would be on our way, but we then had to stop to meet the cook who would be riding separately, but had to give up the food to put on the Land Cruiser. After that, we stopped at a local "supermarket" to get bottled water, and then our last stop was to get gas for the trip. So by the time we finally left Arusha, it was about 11:30AM, and we were all a bit annoyed.

But I was happy because we were finally on our way! We would first be going to our camp to drop off our luggage and eat some lunch. And I was actually really happy with how nice the camp was because it was basically a hotel. But it again took forever to eat lunch because it took about an hour to get prepared by the cook. (We were told that he left ahead of us so he could start preparing lunch, but then we realized that all the food was with us. Talk about misconception!) Lunch wasn't overly delicious and we would later discover that none of the food would be appetizing. But after that, it was about 2:00pm and we were finally leaving the camp and heading to our first park, Lake Manyara National Park.

Lake Manyara was beautiful, mainly because it has so many different environments. When we first entered, we were in a tropical forest with tall trees and monkeys everywhere! We then went around the brush area of the park where we saw several elephants, giraffe, and a tree climbing lion that is only found in this park and is very rare! We then ventured out towards Lake Manyara which is how the park got its name. Near the Lake we saw herds of wildebeests and zebra, but unfortunately they were far away and there were no paths that could get us closer. I have to say that throughout the trip, our guide was really good with keeping to the park rules, which doesn't always happen here. Sadly, near the end of our trip in the Park, we could see heavy rain near the entrance of the park, and I prayed that it wouldn't disturb our safari. But as we were at the Hippo pond (where there were about 30 hippos just lounging in a big mud pond) it started to rain. But this wasn't just any rain; the rain was falling completely horizontal because of the intense wind in the park! So we all got out of the car so our guide could close the roof, which is off during our game rides in the parks so we can stand up and see everything! We then started to head back towards the entrance of the park. But before getting a few yards, we had to stop again, so our guide could attach a fuse to the car to start the windshield wipers (very sketchy). But thank goodness for that car, because we went through some pretty muddy roads on the way out of the park, and any other car would have probably gotten stuck.

Once back at the camp, we relaxed while we all waited for dinner, which was actually not too bad compared to the rest of our meals. Then after dinner, the Israelis (who are huge partiers!) came out with a handle of Jack Daniels! It was crazy! I mean why would you bring a handle of hard liquor on a safari!!!? But it was at this point I decided to head to bed because I could tell things were about to get crazy and I wanted to be ready to go in the morning. And things got really crazy; come to find out, the whole gang went to a local club and got completely trashed! It definitely showed in the morning as well.

Day 2 of our safari was the earliest day of our trip because we had about a 2 hour drive to reach the Ngornogoro Crater Conservation, and then another hour to get to the rim of the crater. So we headed out at about 7:00AM. And it was incredibly foggy too! I slept for most of the ride before reaching the Conservation entrance, but once we were in the park, I was on the edge of my seat because the fog was so dense that we could barely see the front of the car let alone the road! And the road would wind and curve all over the place; our lives were literally in the hands of the guide. And when we reached the rim of the Crater, it was so anti-climactic because all we saw was fog! So we began our descent into the Crater at which point the fog grew thinner and we could soon see the plants around us.

Once in the crater, we were all awestruck because it was a huge bowl with mountains all around! (New Orleans has nothing on this Crater). Not only was this our earliest day, but it was also our longest because we did not leave until about 3:30pm! And during this time, we saw so many different animals that I cannot list them all. Some of the more memorable ones include, 2 cheetahs that were relaxing on a big rock in the sun, a male and female lion on their "honeymoon" as our guide told us, and a black rhino! which was really far away, but I could still see it. We also stopped by the Hippo pond where there were about 60 hippos all piled together and boy were they loud! They made some of the oddest grunting noises I have ever heard and they would constantly splash muddy water on themselves because they don't have sweat glands. Not only can you see all of these large animals, but we also saw so many exotic, beautiful birds! I tried to take pictures of them, but as you can imagine it wasn't too easy. Probably my favorite part of this day was when we literally drove through a massive heard of wildebeests. We stopped about half way through the heard to take some pictures, but I really enjoyed listening to them eating the grass because they were so loud!

So our second day at Ngornogoro Crater came to an end, after we stopped at the viewpoint at the rim of the Crater which was fog free at that point. The view was breathtaking and I was able to get our whole safari group together for a group photo before leaving. On the way back to the camp, we dropped the 2 Frenchmen and the other American off because they were returning to Arusha to do other things, while the 2 Israelis and I headed back to the camp. And this night was much mellower, mainly because we had such a small group left, but I also think the Israelis were a bit tired from the night before. So I went to bed early that night, simply because there was nothing else to do.

Our 3rd and final day would be spent at Tarengire National Park, and I was excited about this because there would only 3 safarians with the guide making it much more personal. We left at about 9:00am after eating breakfast and packing up the car. And I think that overall, this was my favorite park for several reasons. We definitely saw the most animals in this park than in Lake Manyara or Ngornogoro Crater. There were herds of elephants with babies! We also saw several giraffes really close, and there were zebras everywhere! And I have deemed them as my favorite animals on safari. The only down side to Tanrengire was that they had so many tsetse flies, everywhere! There were so many in the park that before we left the entrance to the park, park workers sprayed our car with a chemical to keep them away. And the main reason that these flies are bad is that they carry a disease known as “sleeping sickness.” I’m sure I was bitten at least once, but luckily I had no symptoms of the illness.

As we headed back towards the entrance of the park, I was standing on the front seat with my upper body out the roof of the Land Cruiser just taking in as much as possible because I knew this would be my last chance. I was very sad to be leaving my safari trip, and I definitely agree with the travel books when they say, “you can spend days in just one park.” But my time had come to an end and we were on our way back to Arusha.