Photos

I'm having trouble adding photos to the entrys so here is Mount Mehru and Maura, Femka and I AFTER hot showers!

Disaster strikes!

Freshly scrubbed, and dinner of macaroni and cheese, we were crawling into our tent a bit early for a welcomed sleep. I decided on one last trek to the toilet and donned my headlamp with faded batteries. Intent on the task at hand, I passed through some people standing near the vehicles, and nonchalantly headed toward the toilet, when I realized that the sudden movement towards my direction was the tusk of an elephant who thought I’d come much to close. Judging the distance of only some feet, I completely agreed.

He continued to enter the camp, drinking from the water tank and checking out the meal a group was sitting outside eating on a picnic table. His friend soon came along for a drink of water as well. With all the tourists gawking, taking photos, shining flashlights in their faces and staying far too close to the elephants it seemed a recipe for disaster, but finally they moved on, I think with some persuasion from the rangers.

Early the next morning we were jostling down into the bottom of the crater. Because animals don’t migrate from the crater, we were looking forward to seeing some animals that had migrated from the Tanzanian side of the crater.

I took a photo as we were jostling along, and I was just playing around with the camera. I thought I was doing adjustments on that photo, so thought “format” was pertaining to that photo only. It soon became clear that with no warning, no “format disc” message, I had managed to clear the entire disc of all my photos of that past four months including Victoria Falls with my aunts, events with the kids, Zanzibar, Masai warriors, my leopard, the lion and reacting gazelle’s, EVERYTHING. I couldn’t believe it, since I had bought a large camera specifically so I would have a good zoom when I went on safari. It was so devastating, and put a damper on the rest of the day which seemed to be a bit jinxed anyway. We were on the wrong side of the river causing us to miss seeing a leopard that had moved on by the time we drove around, and didn’t see too much of anything else either. I tried to eat my lunch at an idyllic spot next to a lake only to have two large black kite birds literally snatch the food out of my mouth, gauging my mouth with their talons, and leaving me with small cuts and feeling very stunned. It then started pouring, and we had to continue the rest of the trip sitting inside the vehicle with the top closed…boring…aside from the fact that we didn’t really see any more animals of interest. One thing that was nice about the crater is seeing a variety of animals – wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, topi…. All just kind of hanging out together. We also saw hyena…rather mangy creatures, and a Cheetah, who we hoped was going to decide it was lunch time and go for one of the gazelle, but she didn’t seem to be in a particular hurry.

We got back to Arusha pretty late – around 6:00- and finally found a place to stay at the Catholic Hostel, which worked out pretty well. It had a stunning view of Mount Mehru on the outside porch, and was near to where our friend was staying so we were all able to go for a nice meal after enjoying long, HOT showers.

Pos kichizi kaona ndivi kwenye friji!

Translation from Swahili: I’m cool as a banana in the fridge! Of course, that’s figuratively, not literally because it’s blooming HOT!

We arrived to Arusha after an ever so long day on the bus. It was “luxury” though, meaning they give you a soft drink now and again. Unfortunately, that did not mean that they had air conditioning, and of course, no one wanted any windows open. It was quite a scenic drive through the mountains, but Kili was hiding when we went through Moshe.

We arrived in Arusha to be met by David, the man we had arranged our safari with through a recommendation from a friend of Maura’s. He wasn’t the British man he was expecting, and he referred to me as Sharon, which had us slightly concerned. He checked us into the hotel, and took us to a pizza place for dinner. He seemed concern to leave us alone that we would switch our booking elsewhere. We handed over our $350 each just in our hotel room with no receipt which had us both feeling a bit uneasy, particularly as 8 a.m. came and went the next morning with no sign of him. Eventually he did arrive but we weren’t actually headed out of town until past 10:00. Concern grew when I asked the guide about some camels we saw with the Masai on the way out of town. “From the UK,” he answered. Uh-oh, what were we in for now?

This was certainly an indication of things to come, for hard working and well meaning as he was, our guide Charles was certainly lacking in English skills, animal spotting ability, or any knowledge of species or animal characteristics. That’s rather unfortunate for a safari guide!

We went to Lake Manyara after lunch, which is a beautiful park. However, we whizzed by the flora and fauna so fast, we couldn’t enjoy that so much. Still we did see elephants VERY close….almost too close in fact. We also saw wildebeests, birds (no flamingos though), zebra, masai giraffe (a first), and a monkey which we initially thought was stretching languidly on the road but instead was in the throes of death having been run over by the vehicle our Spanish friends were in.

Our camping site was a bit interesting… budget safari camping central. A pretty rundown campground filled with tents, a swimming pool, two grungy showers with toilets, and a common eating area where cooks from all the companies brought tasty delights!

The next day we went to Serengetti which involved a long drive, but for a big part of it we were driving through the Ngoragora Crater area. We stopped for a view of the amazing crater, as well as a Masai “compound”.

We reached the Serengetti finally and happened upon a large number of cars spotting something. We were told it was a leopard….the member of the big 5 that has alluded me through multiple safaris and I don’t want to think how many hundreds of dollars! No matter how much people described where she was though, I just wasn’t seeing it! My frustration grew, “don’t let me be THIS close and miss it.” Finally I saw the beautiful cat camouflaged in the grass against a dead tree.

My friends with me weren’t too keen on seeking out birds, but I did really want to see a flamingo. I was told one large white bird perched in a tree was one, but I was sceptical and rightly so. Our cook told me later the guide was wrong and it was something else. Still we did see quite a bit: hundred’s of gazelle, also ostrich, supurb starlings, African Pied Wagtail, 2 jackals, male and female lions, Topi, Vervet Monkeys (although Charles referred to them as Blue monkeys, which IS the colour of their scrotum, but NOT the name of the monkey!), Yellow Billed and Saddle Billed Stork, Yellow billed ox pecker, Marabou Stork, Goliath Heron, Grey Heron, Egyptian Goose, Hamerkop, Blacksmith Plover, Mourning Dove, and Cordon Bleus.

Enjoyed a nice dinner at the camp, which is located in the park, although I watched my fluids knowing that it wasn’t a place where I really wanted to be looking for a toilet in the middle of the night….far to close to hungry animals for me!

We headed out early the next morning and one of the first things we saw was a lioness who appeared to be looking for breakfast. It was interesting because the zebra, gazelle, and wart hogs were all there, making warning signals to each other, and obviously with high anxiety, but they just stayed and only moved when she headed their direction. Then they still didn’t run, just backed up a few feet, and stood there trying to blend in to the environment I guess! I got some great video, but, well, read on!

We drove until lunch time and saw elephant, Topi, Gazelle, Buffalo, Secretary Birds, Marabou Stork, jackals, 5 lions on a rock, antelope, Kirk’s dik dik, 2 warthogs with their 4 babies, giraffe’s, impala’s, vultures, ostrich, crocodile- 2 small and 1 large, vervet monkey’s, plovers and weavers. Then we were back at Ngorangora Crater.

This campground had a gorgeous view of the crater and supposedly had hot showers as well, but, well, that didn’t really happen! We still queued up though, and endured the frigid wash. Many of the other people said it was their first wash of the whole safari (for some 4-5 days!). I managed to wash everyday since budget or not, going without washing is just not going to work…particularly with thee amount of dust that gets in your hair and skin. I suppose I still have a few prima donna tendencies, but hey, I can certainly make do with just a few cupfuls of water!

OK, you probably need a break, so let’s continue this on another entry.