We were ready to start our shortened 3-day safari. We met our guide, Ally Mtemvu, put our mountain gear in storage, and headed out in a Toyota Landcruiser It was just the two of us, kind of like a private safari for the honeymooners.
Our guide, Ally, and trusty steed, a vintage Landcruiser
Once on the road, it quickly became obvious that Toyota was the dominate car make in Tanzania. However, their product lineup there was nothing like their product line up here in the US. And safari vehicles were everywhere; some were Land Rovers (from England), but the vast majority were Toyota Landcruisers, which have a global reputation for being bulletproof. Well, not literally bulletproof, but they are tough trucks. First stop, Lake Manyara National Park, a four hour drive from Moshi. Before leaving Moshi, Ally had to obtain park permits for us. As we sat in the Landcruiser alone, we began to notice a bank guard getting agitated at us. It seemed we were parked near “his” no parking zone. As he yelled at us and fidgeted with his AK-47, I imagined what it would be like to be dragged from the vehicle and thrown against a wall before being shot. The only English I could make out was, “you are accountable”. The chest puffing continued until Ally showed up and made a quick getaway. Odds were, he was only after some hush money from the tourists.
On the way to Lake Manyara, we passed through the city of Arusha, another popular safari and Kili trek base, and made a lunch stop at a big gift shop just outside of town. It, like most businesses geared for tourists, was surrounded by a high concrete wall, which served to inform the locals that the tourists are being held captive and being overcharged for everything. This shop was huge, stuffed with Maasai wood carvings, soapstone nicknacks, beaded jewelry, and tanzanite gems with heart-racing prices. Convenient shipping services were offered, just $10 per kg to the USA. A 50 lb statue would be just $250. Yikes.
Continuing on, we were occasional slowed by Maasai herding their cows or goats across the road. At one point, Ally called our attention to some young Maasai men with white paint on their faces. These were Maasai Warriors. When Maasai boys turn 16, they undergo a traditional ceremony to become men. Circumcision is performed without any anesthesia. If they flinch, grimace, make any noise, or show any emotion at all, they are deemed too weak to be men and their families must pay two cows to the village for improperly raising the boy. If they pass the test, white face paint signifies their manhood. Ouch.
Lake Manyara National Park Finally, we arrive at Lake Manyara. The setting, against the cliffs of the Great Rift Valley, had been described by Ernest Hemingway as the “loveliest I had seen in Africa”.
Lake Manyara National Park below the Great Rift Valley Escarpment
As we entered the forest, we were greeted almost immediately by troops of baboons and blue monkeys playing with each other. We stopped and stood to watch from the open top of the Landcruiser. A mother and her baby, clinging to her back, walked by our side. Another safari vehicle was just ahead of us. The animals seemed to ignore the vehicles and just behaved as they wanted to. A forest hornbill called out from a branch above us.
Monkey business
Hitchin' a ride on mom
Forest Hornbill
Later, we were stopped by a family of elephants emerging from the trees and slowly crossing the road. A few infants were in tow, very cute but just as wrinkled as their parents. A large male stopped near us to pee and poop. Think fire truck and cement truck unloading at the same time.
Ladies and gentlemen, please stand back
Cute little fella
As we drove around, we saw bushbuck, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, impalas. We were at the tail end of the dry season and the lake was at its smallest size, surrounded by large expanses of mud. Off in the distance, the opposite side of the lake was pure pink, as far as the eye could see. Millions of pink flamingoes. At the “Hippo Pool”, alas, no hippos.
It was time to start driving to our overnight destination, Ngorongoro Wildcamp, a couple of hours away. Located high in the saddle between salt water Lake Eyasi and the Ngorongoro Crater in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, we were delighted to find such breathtaking scenery after the long dusty day. Tanzanian Wildcamps are typically comprised of spacious permanent or semi-permanent tent structures that offer guests many of the qualities of a nice hotel room. The year-old Ngorongoro Wildcamp was the nicest yet. Set into the hillside on stilts, the wooden floor of the tent was 30 ft by 20 ft, with a peak about 14 ft high. The two full size beds were dwarfed by the open space inside the tent. At the back, the tiled bathroom, 20 ft wide by 8 ft deep, sported a large shower with sliding curved glass doors. Warned
about “hostile” animals in the area, we were provided Maasai escorts
when moving between our tent and the mess tent, which was actually a
large pavilion with a tent-like atmosphere. It appeared we were the only
guests that night and enjoyed a private honeymoon dinner of grilled
chicken, roasted eggplant in a rich Tanzanian sauce, African
crepe pancakes, and a slice of carrot with an artful heart carved into
it. It was perfect.
Roughing it in our spacious tent at Ngorongoro Wildcamp
Private dinner for 2
Honeymoon dinner with heart carved into the carrot
Morning view overlooking Lake Eyasi
Writing the morning update in my journal
During the night, we were awakened by noises surrounding our tent. We quietly pulled aside the mosquito netting and crept up to a window to see, under a full moon, a herd of zebra lazily grazing as they passed by. In the moonlight, they almost glowed.
Ngorongoro Crater After a nice honeymoon breakfast, we were off to visit the Ngorongoro Crater. We were quite excited to see the crater. On our flight between Amsterdam and Kilimanjaro, the Dutch woman next to me claimed her first experience visiting the Ngorongoro Crater was emotional. The Ngorongoro Crater is located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), originally part of Serengeti National Park but later separated to provide land for the Maasai evicted from the national park to live peacefully on (people are not allowed to live in national parks). The NCA became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The crater is a large (2000 ft deep, 100 sq mi), unbroken, unflooded caldera formed when a volcano originally as high as Kilimanjaro is today collapsed millions of years ago.
A tower of giraffes (yes, that’s what a group of giraffes are called, look it up) barely acknowledged us as we drove within feet of them near the wildcamp. Ally explained one way to tell males from females. The horns on males are bare at the top (from sparring); females’ have fur.
Male giraffe near Ngorongoro Wildcamp
The two hour drive to the crater took us past many Maasai homesteads and grazing lands. We stopped for a personal tour of an elaborate Maasai village near the crater entrance. But not before a wallet-thumping discussion about the admission price with Ally. The Maasai were charging $50 per person. We wanted to go no higher than $20 per person. Ally negotiated on our behalf for several minutes. After the offer was adjusted up by $5 each, it was accepted. The village was home to 87 people and was ruled by one chief; we didn’t get a count on how many wives he had but as a polygamous society, it could have been many.
Loved the colorfulness of the Maasai
During
our 30 minute tour, they danced, we danced (not a pretty sight), we
talked with them in one of their small smoky huts in near pitch-black
sauna-like conditions where they showed us where they sleep, cook, and
eat, we visited the school room where one small child led the room of
children in a recital of the number system in English, and we suffered
through high-pressure sales tactics for souvenirs. The Maasai are master
marketers and tough salespeople. We caved and bought a beaded bracelet
and tribal talking stick for way more than we should have.
Maasai classroom
His little way of greeting the tourists
Inside the Maasai compound
Okay, now where is that crater? We entered the crater at the southern edge and took in the view. Breathtaking.
Descending into Ngorongoro Crater
A long descent took us down to the crater floor. It was vast. Our tour found giant herds of wildebeest, zebra, Thomson and Grant gazelles, cape and African buffaloes, warthogs. Ostriches here and there, crowned cranes too. We came upon several female lions waiting for the dominant one to finish gnawing on a recent kill. Jackals and buzzards were moving closer with interest. Hippo pools were filled with lazy hippos, just floating around and doing slow barrel rolls. Occasionally, one would open its maw wide, perhaps to impress the fetching female nearby.
Lunch time
That bloody bone over there smells pretty good
Ostriches seemed to be camera-shy, they always wanted to look away
Love the horn-doo (Cape Buffalo)
The
crater is a popular safari destination. Lunch hour looked like a Boston
car lot with dozens of safari vehicles lined up, as if for sale.
Nice cream-puff Land Rover for sale, low mileage
Most bizarre thing we saw in Africa
Barreling down a crater road
In the afternoon, we spotted, in the distance, a black rhino. The crater is one of the last places in Tanzania where they can be found. We were told there are as few as ten left.
As the afternoon wore on, we began to take the wildlife for granted and no longer stopped when we spotted anything we’d seen earlier. A lone hyena, though, warranted a stop at one point.
With such dry weather, the dust was a constant companion. Each vehicle raised a rooster tail of dust that trailed for a quarter mile. We were often blinded for a few moments when passing one another.
An hour’s drive brought us to our next overnight location, the Highview Hotel in Karatu. Opened six years ago by ZARA, it was set beautifully above fields of coffee bean plants. The same coffee was served in their dining room and sold in their gift shop. A quick dunk in the pool by the MotoBar and were completely refreshed. They put us in the honeymoon suite with flowers in the room and two queen beds were pushed together into one giant bed 12 ft wide. It was a good night.
View above coffee fields from Highview Hotel
Honey, look how big the bed is!
Yeah, this is what I'm talkin' about
Beer model
Tarangire National Park Several hours away was Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is huge, 2600 sq mi. And it is the land of the baobab tree. We’d seen lots of baobab trees during the last two days but Tarangire is the motherlode. Baobab trees have enormous trunks, typically 20-30 ft in diameter, and the largest ones can store thousands of gallons of water. The leaves, fruit, and seeds are food sources for humans and animals, and elephants are known to strip the bark for food.
Baobab trees and wildebeest
The obligatory tree with hole through it photo
Tarangire was the driest and dustiest park yet. Still, we saw herds of animals as in Ngorongoro and Manyara. But here we found a new treat, a cheetah. Word spread of a cheetah sighting and safari vehicles rushed to find it. We came upon at least a dozen vehicles parked on a lonely stretch of road near some woody brush. We all scanned the brush for movement. After a few minutes, two cheetahs moved into view and sat to survey the valley below them. They were 50 yards away and seemed to not care one bit about the army of paparazzi over their shoulder.
Hey, I heard there was a ...
Cheetah sighting
With this, our safari ended on a high note. We saw 4 of the “Big 5”: Rhino, Lion, Elephant, and Cape Buffalo. But no Leopard. Not bad for a shortened safari. We headed back to Moshi to prepare for a big day tomorrow: climb Kili!
Hello,
ReplyDeleteThe above posted pictures are very tremendous and attract more number of visitors to visit once in their life.
Group Safari Tours Tanzania