I'll start off by saying my trip to Tazania was beyond amazing and exceeded my expectations, which I didn't know was even possible! When I went to Botswana last year, my love affair with Africa began. My trip to Tanzania has deepened that love to the 10th degree. The landscape of northern Tanzania is awe inspiring and quite literally leaves you a little breathless. See below for proof if you don't believe me!
Annie and I set off for Tanzania on Kenya Air, which my mom was a little worried about (but lets be honest, what wasn't she worried about!) In the end she had nothing to worry about, Kenya Air was great and they even had little animals on the pillow cases, love it! We flew into Kilimanjaro Airport via Nairobi and met our new travelling mates and soon to be friends for the first time. We had a very diverse group of 10....Annie and I were the youngest at 27 and the oldest was Mama Jenny at 63. I believe the word is gumption, yes, Mama Jenny has gumption. She is one tough lady! We also met our tour leader, Paulo, who became a great friend over the two weeks. Paulo is a fierce Masai warrior and shared his amazing stories with us...more on those to come!
Upon arrival we piled in our minivan and headed off towards our first destination, the Ngorogoro Crater, also catching our first glimpse of Kilimanjaro! We pulled over to the side of the road for pictures and the butterflies began, the mountain is HUGE! It took us a couple of hours to reach the crater, but we stopped several times along the way to enjoy the roadside scenary...like the picture above! The above picture is the eastern wall of the great rift valley that runs along the entirety of Eastern Africa. Spectacular views! We finally had our first view inside the crater by late afternoon before reaching the Rhino Lodge, where we would stay for the night.
Me and Annie looking over into the Ngorogoro Crater
More roadside scenary
Sunrise at the Rhino Lodge
The next morning we woke up really early, the first of MANY early mornings! At least in Africa early mornings are rewarded by the most amazing sunrises! We ate some breakfast and headed off into the crater for a day of game viewing. The Ngorogoro Crater is was created when a volcano imploded and is like it's own little (or not so little) oasis. It is absolutely over run with wildlife, most stay in the crater their entire lives, they really have no reason to leave. We were amazed once we got onto the crater floor at how many animals there were EVERYWHERE! The previous day when we had looked down into the crater, you couldn't see anything, it just looked like a giant empty crater filled with grass and a lake. It just went to show us the sheer size of the place. Zebra and wildebeest were in the most abundance, they are scattered everywhere, intermingling and leveraging off of each others natural abilities. The zebra don't have the best sense of smell but their eyesight is excellent while the wildebeest have a great shnoz but can't see too well. They are a match made in heaven!
We were super lucky and within about 5 minutes of being on the crater floor we came across two cheetah roaming around together. I was thrilled as I didn't see any cats on my last trip to Botswana! They said these must have been two young brothers, as they were still travelling together, adult cheetah travel on their own. I will say that the cheetah is one of the most majestic animals I have ever seen. They have so much grace and their bodies and quite svelt! Their heads are super tiny, pretty funny looking! The black tear drops under their eyes are one of their defining features. These guys are notoriously shy, but these two brothers didn't seem to notice us at all. They just carried on as if we weren't there crossing the road right between our two vehicles. Then they just wandered off into the distance until we couldn't see them anymore. It was definitely a highlight of the day!
After the buzz of our cheetah sighting wore off, we continued on and saw many animals all living together. It was amazing, I kept feeling like I was in some game park where the animals had all been placed there for me to see, I had to keep reminding myself that this was nature at it's best! We saw herds of elephant, 1000's of zebra and wildebeest, both grant and thompson gazelle, many warthog families, monkeys, hippos, a lake full of pink flamingos (!), rhino, ostrich, etc etc etc!! Being on the floor of the crater was a truely incredible experience. You look around you and you are surrounded by these giant walls, it makes you feel so tiny.
In the distance we saw several safari vehicles congregatings so we headed over to see what the big fuss was. It turns out it was two lions having a little mid-morning snack...I think some sort of gazelle...sorry for the graphic photo!! We watched these two guys for at least 45 minutes as they devoured this little guy. We didn't see the actual kill, just the aftermath. They seemed to keep the carcass in between them and then they would just get up and go grab another piece, go back to their spot with it, lay down and tear in...then repeat until they were satisfied. Towards the end, the hyena's started closing in, hoping for some scrapes. They patiently waiting their turns, waiting for the lions to leave before closing in. You could tell it took all of their restraint to wait their turn, as they kept inching in ever so slowly.
After the lions it was time for lunch and we headed to a nice little corner of the crater by a small pond and ate our packed lunches that we brought with us. We couldn't get out of the safari truck to eat our lunches because the birds are onto the fact that this is where the tourists come to eat lunch! They literally start dive bombing the cars! So we staying in our trucks and ate our lunches...this was the lowlight of the day for me, but I think the highlight of the day for the others in my truck! To start with, most people know I am scared of birds, well these little guys started perching themselves all over the top of our open-topped jeep and staring us down with their beady little eyes! The bigger birds were dive bombing back and forth. I was already on edge when I opened up my lunchbox to find that our main entree was a chicken leg! ICK!! I HATE eating meat off of a bone. I think this stems from the fact that I don't like eating anything that resembles the form it had when it was alive. Hence I don't like shrimp, meat on bones, etc. So there I was cowereing in the corner of the car, grimacing as I choked down what little meat I could get off of the chicken leg without actually touching the bone, all while keeping my eyes glued to the birds looking for any sudden movements. I was a mess! I was laughing that is was my own personal hell. Everyone on the trip was wondering how I had lived to the age of 27 by the end of the trip with all the things that I was afraid of!
Our lunch locale
After lunch we headed back up to the rim of the crater to make our long drive to Serengeti National Park. On the rim of the crater and all along the roads almost the whole way to Serengeti there are tons of giraffes...I mean seriously, thousands of them! There are actually no giraffe inside the crater because they can't get down the steep walls, so they just hang out up top with all of the trees!
When driving from the crater to the Serengeti you are in the heart of Masai country. The masai are everywhere herding their cattle around to greener pastures. It is pretty remarkable to see a huge herd of cows with one red spec in the midst. Cows are everything to the Masai. They are a reflection of status, food, currency, they are their sustanance. I did find out that with my fair skin and my blonde hair, I'd be worth at least 20 cows, which is 13 higher than I was offered in Botswana. So I think my future husband definitely resides in Tanzania rather than Botswana! The Masai are nomadic, moving to the greenest pastures for their cows. They belong to no single country and are allowed to move between Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda freely. Some even make it as far south as South Africa.
Masaii and their noble steed :)
A Masai village, called a boma
By late afternoon, after 12 long hours in the safari vehicle we finally reached Serengeti National Park, which is where I will pick up next time!! As usual, there are many more pictures on my shutterly site. lwaterfield.shutterfly.com
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1 comment:
Oh my! I have been waiting for these posts! I can't wait to read more! What an incredible journey!!
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