The Safari
This country is unbelievably beautiful. Last week, I was fortunate enough to see some of the best that Tanzania has to offer – definitely at the top of my list of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. My two sisters were here to visit me for a couple weeks before the holidays, as was Aleya’s friend who is working in Rwanda, and as our Christmas present from our parents, to each other, and to ourselves, the five of us went on a 5-day safari to three of Tanzania’s most acclaimed national parks: Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, and Ngorongoro Crater.
Day one was Lake Manyara. This is the place they show on the Discovery Channel with all the flamingos everywhere. While the lake itself is quite a sight (even though we weren’t able to get close enough to see the flamingos very well), this is really only a small part of it. After arriving and setting up camp (we opted for a camping safari, since it is much cheaper than staying in the lodges and also pretty sweet to be sleeping out in the African bush with the animals), we headed out for a game drive and immediately ran into a pack of elephants and a forest full of baboons. By the end of our first day we had seen these plus giraffe, zebras, warthogs, impalas, water buffalo (they are enormous!), dik diks, mongooses (mongeese??), and even a hippo or two. The afternoon light cast an indescribable beauty that not even my camera could fully capture. We went to bed happy, despite the thunder, lightening, and pouring rain going on outside our tents most of the night. At least it covered up the sounds of whatever animals might also have been lurking on the other side of the canvas.
Day two, we got up early and headed for the Serengeti. It’s about a 3 or 4-hour drive from Lake Manyara and, to my delight, it involves a drive through the Crater highlands and sneak peak at Ngorongoro Crater from the rim. Again, the lighting and the last two months of rain made for scenery so beautiful that I actually found myself tearing up once or twice – lush rainforest and endless green, rolling hills scattered with Maasai bomas (their small villages of round, mud huts surrounded by stick fences to keep their cattle in). The Maasai are all over the highlands, where they are allowed to maintain their traditional pastoralist culture, freely herding their cattle over the hills. The sight is mesmerizing: the vivid reds, oranges, blues, and purples of their robes against the bright green of the hills as they – some of them just young boys – walk with their cattle for who knows how many miles a day. It was impossible to get a good picture without treating them like an attraction (which I am sure they are used to and, actually, they make good money from it with all the ‘cultural tourism’ programs, but I hate it), so I had to resign myself to blurry, stolen shots out the window. The rest are in my head.
As we drove further, we soon found ourselves in the midst of the Great Migration – hundreds and hundreds of wildebeest and zebras, everywhere you looked. It was awesome. During this time of year, the animals are migrating out of the central Serengeti to the northeastern part and western Ngorongoro, where they give birth and enjoy plenty to eat. We stopped to have lunch along the roadside, with giraffe and zebras grazing quietly just 50 feet away. By late afternoon, we were heading out of the migration, into the Serengeti, and into a rather ominous-looking storm. Luckily, the weather moves pretty fast here, and by the time we reached the campsite, the storm had left us with the makings of what would be a gorgeous sunset. We would get to enjoy that later, though – for now, we had to unpack the jeep as fast as we could. A leopard had been spotted.
We left Goodluck (our cook) to unpack and set up camp, and we sped off with Isaac to find the leopard. Isaac proved to be a fantastic guide – 21 years of experience, a wealth of knowledge, and an unbelievably skilled driver. We did find the leopard, sleeping up in a tree next to the remains of a freshly killed something, as well as a cheetah, two lionesses that came right up to our vehicle, hippos, hyenas and jackels, more water buffalo and giraffe (they just stare at you, it’s hilarious), and one breath-taking sunset. We made Isaac stop so many times to take pictures of it, that we were late getting back to the campsite and had to outrun the park rangers so we wouldn’t get in trouble. This campsite, unlike the one at Lake Manyara, was a public site and thus crowded much noisier. It felt a bit like camping at home, though there were constant reminders that we were still out in the wild: the advisory to not leave our tents at night, the sign warning people not to leave the campsite, or else risk being attacked by animals, the unfamiliar snorts and growls throughout the night, sounding uncomfortably close. And instead of waking up to see a deer or a raccoon in camp, there would be a giraffe or an elephant, going about its business like we weren’t even there. It was surreal, but extremely cool.
Day three was a full day roaming the Serengeti. It was much different than I had pictured – much greener, thanks to the rain. The Serengeti is 14,763 square km of pure, wild beauty. It’s immense. Even Isaac, in all his years of driving around it, says he hasn’t even seen half of it. We woke up early for a sunrise drive, revisiting the leopard (still in the tree, but this time with a new treat to munch on), and more of the same – giraffe, elephants, warthogs, baboons, waterbuck, gazelles, hartebeest, water buffalo, a lion sleeping on the rocks, and a secretary bird (Zazou in The Lion King). I couldn’t help it; all day, all I could think of was The Lion King. Couldn’t get the song out of my head. It’s sad sometimes, how we relate everything to TV and movies…
We returned to camp for meals, and then headed back out to see what we could find. The afternoon was full of reptiles – a green mamba snake, a small crocodile, a huge monitor lizard, a tortoise – and babies of all kinds! Baby elephants, giraffe, warthogs, hyenas, and baboons; disgustingly cute, all of them. We visited a river so full of hippos, there couldn’t have been much room for anything else. It was one of the most entertaining sights I’ve ever seen – their constant bobbing up and down, the occasional giant mouth opening for a yawn, bizarre noises and smells coming from everywhere, and their massive, blubbery bodies just floating there. What odd animals they are.
It was later that afternoon, on our way back to camp, that we came across the most exciting moment of the entire safari: a lioness hunting a baby giraffe! Now, I like giraffe, I like babies, I don’t want anyone to get hurt…but, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to see a lion take down a giraffe right outside my car window. This is the wild, people! I wanna see something get eaten! Fortunately for the giraffe, but not so fortunate for us, the attack did not ensue. The mama and baby giraffe knew the lion was there and were on high alert. Besides, Isaac told us that there is no way a single lion could take down a giraffe, even a baby. (He did, however, once witness 16 lions take down an adult giraffe; it was an hour-long battle, but they eventually won.) It was disappointing, but a very exciting and intense few minutes.
On day four, we headed back to Ngorongoro (and back through that gorgeous stretch of land) to visit the famous Crater. 2.5 million years ago, a huge explosion inside the volcano caused it to collapse in on itself, forming the world’s largest unbroken and unflooded crater (600 meters deep, 19 km across, and approximately 300 square km). It is now home to thousands of animals – most exciting to us, by this point, being the black rhino; the only member of the ‘Big Five’ that we had not yet seen (the term refers to the five formerly most prized game animals, the other four being the lion, the leopard, the elephant, and the water buffalo). It took us some searching, but we eventually found three of them. That is the nice thing about the Crater – you will come across them eventually – but it does also make it feel more like a park and less like the wild. It was, once again, incredibly beautiful. We saw our first male lions there, just lazing about with about 8 to 10 other females, so, so close to the vehicle. Apparently, they sometimes jump up on the hoods of cars…I think I would have wet myself.
It was here, in the Crater, that I bore witness to the reason Land Rovers were invented. The rains had created some rather large mud pits and made some roads impassable to any lesser vehicle. But, the Land Rover, in all its glory, forged those streams and glided through that mud with no problem. And any road judged a little iffy, we simply went around it. They really are amazing vehicles, and this is what they were made for – not the impeccable, paved roads of suburbia. That’s like keeping a wild animal in captivity. It’s cruel.
We left the Crater that afternoon and headed deeper into the highlands, and deeper into Maasai country. We were going to Olmoti Crater, a shallower crater higher up in the hills. We were driving into another storm and this time it looked like we would be spending the night together, so instead of going all the way to the campsite, we pitched our tents at the edge of Nanokanoka village, right outside some Maasai homes. It was pretty comical, actually. We arrived, and within minutes about 5 or 6 Maasai men appeared (out of nowhere, they just emerged from the forest or something), and helped us set up camp, staring inquisitively at us the whole time. The rain came soon after, so we set up our table and chairs on someone’s front porch, under the eaves, and sat there sipping hot chocolate and tea, shivering, and waiting for dinner to be ready. It was a surprisingly cold night, but we ate a huge, steaming hot meal (as usual; they fed us tremendous amounts on this safari), had an awkward but interesting conversation with the Maasai man living inside the house we were camped in front of, and after several more cups of tea, we ran for the cover of our tents and below-zero sleeping bags.
The morning of our last day, we woke up early to sunshine and after breakfast, we began our trek to Olmoti Crater. After 4 days of doing nothing but sitting in a car and stuffing our faces 3 meals a day, hiking had never felt better. It was embarrassingly exhausting, though, and I think our Maasai guide (they require you to have an armed Maasai ranger accompany you on treks, just in case…no gun, but he did have a pretty big knife) doubted whether we were going to make it. (Not Stacia, though. Everybody loves Stacia. She just climbed Kili. She’s a forest fire fighter. She’s tough, she’s strong, she’s cool, she can do anything. She’s the sister that gets a marriage proposal from the hot, armed Maasai ranger… I love you, sis.J) Once at the top of the Crater, we paused to take in the view and then headed down to a waterfall below. It was lovely, but unfortunately we were in a hurry. We had to be out of the national park by a certain time, and we were going to be late. We quickly packed up (or rather, we watched the Maasai men, who once again appeared, quickly pack up) and headed back out of the Crater, and then back to quiet, boring, giraffe-less Moshi.
We returned home exhausted, never wanting to eat again, and in desperate need of 5 hot showers (something our water tank cannot handle). It was a fantastic 5 days, and by far one of the most memorable times I’ve had with my sisters. I feel so lucky and guilty at the same time for getting to see parts of this beautiful country that most Tanzanians will never get to see. They have so much to be proud of.
Day one was Lake Manyara. This is the place they show on the Discovery Channel with all the flamingos everywhere. While the lake itself is quite a sight (even though we weren’t able to get close enough to see the flamingos very well), this is really only a small part of it. After arriving and setting up camp (we opted for a camping safari, since it is much cheaper than staying in the lodges and also pretty sweet to be sleeping out in the African bush with the animals), we headed out for a game drive and immediately ran into a pack of elephants and a forest full of baboons. By the end of our first day we had seen these plus giraffe, zebras, warthogs, impalas, water buffalo (they are enormous!), dik diks, mongooses (mongeese??), and even a hippo or two. The afternoon light cast an indescribable beauty that not even my camera could fully capture. We went to bed happy, despite the thunder, lightening, and pouring rain going on outside our tents most of the night. At least it covered up the sounds of whatever animals might also have been lurking on the other side of the canvas.
Day two, we got up early and headed for the Serengeti. It’s about a 3 or 4-hour drive from Lake Manyara and, to my delight, it involves a drive through the Crater highlands and sneak peak at Ngorongoro Crater from the rim. Again, the lighting and the last two months of rain made for scenery so beautiful that I actually found myself tearing up once or twice – lush rainforest and endless green, rolling hills scattered with Maasai bomas (their small villages of round, mud huts surrounded by stick fences to keep their cattle in). The Maasai are all over the highlands, where they are allowed to maintain their traditional pastoralist culture, freely herding their cattle over the hills. The sight is mesmerizing: the vivid reds, oranges, blues, and purples of their robes against the bright green of the hills as they – some of them just young boys – walk with their cattle for who knows how many miles a day. It was impossible to get a good picture without treating them like an attraction (which I am sure they are used to and, actually, they make good money from it with all the ‘cultural tourism’ programs, but I hate it), so I had to resign myself to blurry, stolen shots out the window. The rest are in my head.
As we drove further, we soon found ourselves in the midst of the Great Migration – hundreds and hundreds of wildebeest and zebras, everywhere you looked. It was awesome. During this time of year, the animals are migrating out of the central Serengeti to the northeastern part and western Ngorongoro, where they give birth and enjoy plenty to eat. We stopped to have lunch along the roadside, with giraffe and zebras grazing quietly just 50 feet away. By late afternoon, we were heading out of the migration, into the Serengeti, and into a rather ominous-looking storm. Luckily, the weather moves pretty fast here, and by the time we reached the campsite, the storm had left us with the makings of what would be a gorgeous sunset. We would get to enjoy that later, though – for now, we had to unpack the jeep as fast as we could. A leopard had been spotted.
We left Goodluck (our cook) to unpack and set up camp, and we sped off with Isaac to find the leopard. Isaac proved to be a fantastic guide – 21 years of experience, a wealth of knowledge, and an unbelievably skilled driver. We did find the leopard, sleeping up in a tree next to the remains of a freshly killed something, as well as a cheetah, two lionesses that came right up to our vehicle, hippos, hyenas and jackels, more water buffalo and giraffe (they just stare at you, it’s hilarious), and one breath-taking sunset. We made Isaac stop so many times to take pictures of it, that we were late getting back to the campsite and had to outrun the park rangers so we wouldn’t get in trouble. This campsite, unlike the one at Lake Manyara, was a public site and thus crowded much noisier. It felt a bit like camping at home, though there were constant reminders that we were still out in the wild: the advisory to not leave our tents at night, the sign warning people not to leave the campsite, or else risk being attacked by animals, the unfamiliar snorts and growls throughout the night, sounding uncomfortably close. And instead of waking up to see a deer or a raccoon in camp, there would be a giraffe or an elephant, going about its business like we weren’t even there. It was surreal, but extremely cool.
Day three was a full day roaming the Serengeti. It was much different than I had pictured – much greener, thanks to the rain. The Serengeti is 14,763 square km of pure, wild beauty. It’s immense. Even Isaac, in all his years of driving around it, says he hasn’t even seen half of it. We woke up early for a sunrise drive, revisiting the leopard (still in the tree, but this time with a new treat to munch on), and more of the same – giraffe, elephants, warthogs, baboons, waterbuck, gazelles, hartebeest, water buffalo, a lion sleeping on the rocks, and a secretary bird (Zazou in The Lion King). I couldn’t help it; all day, all I could think of was The Lion King. Couldn’t get the song out of my head. It’s sad sometimes, how we relate everything to TV and movies…
We returned to camp for meals, and then headed back out to see what we could find. The afternoon was full of reptiles – a green mamba snake, a small crocodile, a huge monitor lizard, a tortoise – and babies of all kinds! Baby elephants, giraffe, warthogs, hyenas, and baboons; disgustingly cute, all of them. We visited a river so full of hippos, there couldn’t have been much room for anything else. It was one of the most entertaining sights I’ve ever seen – their constant bobbing up and down, the occasional giant mouth opening for a yawn, bizarre noises and smells coming from everywhere, and their massive, blubbery bodies just floating there. What odd animals they are.
It was later that afternoon, on our way back to camp, that we came across the most exciting moment of the entire safari: a lioness hunting a baby giraffe! Now, I like giraffe, I like babies, I don’t want anyone to get hurt…but, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to see a lion take down a giraffe right outside my car window. This is the wild, people! I wanna see something get eaten! Fortunately for the giraffe, but not so fortunate for us, the attack did not ensue. The mama and baby giraffe knew the lion was there and were on high alert. Besides, Isaac told us that there is no way a single lion could take down a giraffe, even a baby. (He did, however, once witness 16 lions take down an adult giraffe; it was an hour-long battle, but they eventually won.) It was disappointing, but a very exciting and intense few minutes.
On day four, we headed back to Ngorongoro (and back through that gorgeous stretch of land) to visit the famous Crater. 2.5 million years ago, a huge explosion inside the volcano caused it to collapse in on itself, forming the world’s largest unbroken and unflooded crater (600 meters deep, 19 km across, and approximately 300 square km). It is now home to thousands of animals – most exciting to us, by this point, being the black rhino; the only member of the ‘Big Five’ that we had not yet seen (the term refers to the five formerly most prized game animals, the other four being the lion, the leopard, the elephant, and the water buffalo). It took us some searching, but we eventually found three of them. That is the nice thing about the Crater – you will come across them eventually – but it does also make it feel more like a park and less like the wild. It was, once again, incredibly beautiful. We saw our first male lions there, just lazing about with about 8 to 10 other females, so, so close to the vehicle. Apparently, they sometimes jump up on the hoods of cars…I think I would have wet myself.
It was here, in the Crater, that I bore witness to the reason Land Rovers were invented. The rains had created some rather large mud pits and made some roads impassable to any lesser vehicle. But, the Land Rover, in all its glory, forged those streams and glided through that mud with no problem. And any road judged a little iffy, we simply went around it. They really are amazing vehicles, and this is what they were made for – not the impeccable, paved roads of suburbia. That’s like keeping a wild animal in captivity. It’s cruel.
We left the Crater that afternoon and headed deeper into the highlands, and deeper into Maasai country. We were going to Olmoti Crater, a shallower crater higher up in the hills. We were driving into another storm and this time it looked like we would be spending the night together, so instead of going all the way to the campsite, we pitched our tents at the edge of Nanokanoka village, right outside some Maasai homes. It was pretty comical, actually. We arrived, and within minutes about 5 or 6 Maasai men appeared (out of nowhere, they just emerged from the forest or something), and helped us set up camp, staring inquisitively at us the whole time. The rain came soon after, so we set up our table and chairs on someone’s front porch, under the eaves, and sat there sipping hot chocolate and tea, shivering, and waiting for dinner to be ready. It was a surprisingly cold night, but we ate a huge, steaming hot meal (as usual; they fed us tremendous amounts on this safari), had an awkward but interesting conversation with the Maasai man living inside the house we were camped in front of, and after several more cups of tea, we ran for the cover of our tents and below-zero sleeping bags.
The morning of our last day, we woke up early to sunshine and after breakfast, we began our trek to Olmoti Crater. After 4 days of doing nothing but sitting in a car and stuffing our faces 3 meals a day, hiking had never felt better. It was embarrassingly exhausting, though, and I think our Maasai guide (they require you to have an armed Maasai ranger accompany you on treks, just in case…no gun, but he did have a pretty big knife) doubted whether we were going to make it. (Not Stacia, though. Everybody loves Stacia. She just climbed Kili. She’s a forest fire fighter. She’s tough, she’s strong, she’s cool, she can do anything. She’s the sister that gets a marriage proposal from the hot, armed Maasai ranger… I love you, sis.J) Once at the top of the Crater, we paused to take in the view and then headed down to a waterfall below. It was lovely, but unfortunately we were in a hurry. We had to be out of the national park by a certain time, and we were going to be late. We quickly packed up (or rather, we watched the Maasai men, who once again appeared, quickly pack up) and headed back out of the Crater, and then back to quiet, boring, giraffe-less Moshi.
We returned home exhausted, never wanting to eat again, and in desperate need of 5 hot showers (something our water tank cannot handle). It was a fantastic 5 days, and by far one of the most memorable times I’ve had with my sisters. I feel so lucky and guilty at the same time for getting to see parts of this beautiful country that most Tanzanians will never get to see. They have so much to be proud of.
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