Lion around in Ngorongoro CraterHaving successfully completed the ascent to the top floor of our hotel and drunk a beer (or two) whilst watching the sunset on Mt Kilimanjaro I now felt that I had conquered the mighty peak. Content with our achievement we spent the next day strolling around in the foothills visiting a nice waterfall and the local village where we had some very fresh coffee – roasted while we watched.
Getting to Arusha the next day was easy and cheap on a local bus, but we were sadly disappointed at the bus station on arrival as no one tried to sell us a safari at all. We has been warned that the touts in Arusha were really bad, but as with most things in Africa they are pretty laid back and if you look disinterested they seem to give up pretty fast. It think they should probably spend some time in Sth East Asia in “Tout Training” to perfect being really annoying.
We lined up a 5 day safari with Great Masai Adventure to visit Arusha and Tarangire National Parks, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti where we also book an (exorbitantly priced) balloon flight. Things didn’t start well with the first day being a day trip to Arusha NP, and the vehicle broke down about 100m from our hotel and then continued to conk out about every 10 minutes for the next hour. Eventually we got it sorted (with a little help from me, such as convincing the driver that bypassing the fuel filter probably wasn’t going to be very good for the engine, and that diesels won’t go if you don’t prime the fuel lines first). In the end it was a great day including a 2 hour walking safari with an armed ranger as a guide. He carried an Ak-47 style rifle which while looking impressive is only really designed for killing people not large game animals. As people are actually pretty easy to kill, I doubt it would have done much except to further enrage a buffalo or elephant had it taken exception to our presence. As it turned out we had no need to kill anything (despite me asking nicely) and all the warthogs lived to oink another day.
After bit more bargaining with our safari organizer that night, the next day saw us setting off with a guide who new the difference between a monkey and an elephant and in a car which, while also decrepit, seemed to work. We then headed to Tarangire NP – a baob dotted landscape chock full of all sorts of animals including a heap of lions and elephants. That night we camped on the edge of the rift valley escarpment overlooking the flamingo covered Lake Manyara. Day 3 was the famous Serengeti, somewhere I have wanted to visit from many, many years. The Serengeti is my kind of place – a vast open plain dotted with a variety of animals (although most of the wilderbest and zebra are still north in the Masi Mara). We saw a heap of lions, a couple of leopards and took our balloon flight at dawn the next day. Floating across the plains in a hot air balloon was fantastic. We didn’t see all that many animals, but the expansive views were amazing. We also got a pretty good silver service champagne breakfast under the acacia thorn trees at when we landed. The balloon aside, a highlight of the Serengeti was the camping. The campsites are not fenced so after spending the day looking at lions, buffalo, leopards, elephants, hyena etc you then suddenly arrive at your camp site – which looks exactly like the rest of the scrub and is liberally scattered with the dung of all the critters that wander through as the feeling takes them. Apparently if you stay in your tent the lions leave you alone – tell that to the 140 railway workers eaten by lions in one year at Tsavo earlier last century! As it was we only had hyena for company and they were far to busy dragging off the rubbish bin to worry about us. As we were the only aviators in our camp ground we were first up and had to walk through a herd of buffalo in the dark to get to the toilet block – hoping that our safari guide was right that they only get cranky when they are on their own. By that afternoon we where back to bouncing down the road in our elderly landrover, inhaling dust and getting our spines regularly compressed and camped that night on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater at a chilly altitude of 2400m. The decent into the crater the next day was great – full of wilderbest, buffalo and zebra which supported a good population of lions, hyena and at least 1 cheetah. It must suck to be a herbivore in Africa – the lions just sit around watching the zebra walk past like a great mobile black and white buffet until they get the itch to grab one. Not surprisingly the lions all looked pretty fat and happy with life, while the herd animals tried to make sure they could all run faster than the creature next to them and jittered around like they had just drunk a dozen espresso shots.
Anyway, time is fleeting and I have to get off the web. We made it back to Arusha safely and are off to Nairobi (aka Nairobbery) tomorrow for a look at Kenya. Hope all is well with everyone out and will update again soon.
Getting to Arusha the next day was easy and cheap on a local bus, but we were sadly disappointed at the bus station on arrival as no one tried to sell us a safari at all. We has been warned that the touts in Arusha were really bad, but as with most things in Africa they are pretty laid back and if you look disinterested they seem to give up pretty fast. It think they should probably spend some time in Sth East Asia in “Tout Training” to perfect being really annoying.
We lined up a 5 day safari with Great Masai Adventure to visit Arusha and Tarangire National Parks, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti where we also book an (exorbitantly priced) balloon flight. Things didn’t start well with the first day being a day trip to Arusha NP, and the vehicle broke down about 100m from our hotel and then continued to conk out about every 10 minutes for the next hour. Eventually we got it sorted (with a little help from me, such as convincing the driver that bypassing the fuel filter probably wasn’t going to be very good for the engine, and that diesels won’t go if you don’t prime the fuel lines first). In the end it was a great day including a 2 hour walking safari with an armed ranger as a guide. He carried an Ak-47 style rifle which while looking impressive is only really designed for killing people not large game animals. As people are actually pretty easy to kill, I doubt it would have done much except to further enrage a buffalo or elephant had it taken exception to our presence. As it turned out we had no need to kill anything (despite me asking nicely) and all the warthogs lived to oink another day.
After bit more bargaining with our safari organizer that night, the next day saw us setting off with a guide who new the difference between a monkey and an elephant and in a car which, while also decrepit, seemed to work. We then headed to Tarangire NP – a baob dotted landscape chock full of all sorts of animals including a heap of lions and elephants. That night we camped on the edge of the rift valley escarpment overlooking the flamingo covered Lake Manyara. Day 3 was the famous Serengeti, somewhere I have wanted to visit from many, many years. The Serengeti is my kind of place – a vast open plain dotted with a variety of animals (although most of the wilderbest and zebra are still north in the Masi Mara). We saw a heap of lions, a couple of leopards and took our balloon flight at dawn the next day. Floating across the plains in a hot air balloon was fantastic. We didn’t see all that many animals, but the expansive views were amazing. We also got a pretty good silver service champagne breakfast under the acacia thorn trees at when we landed. The balloon aside, a highlight of the Serengeti was the camping. The campsites are not fenced so after spending the day looking at lions, buffalo, leopards, elephants, hyena etc you then suddenly arrive at your camp site – which looks exactly like the rest of the scrub and is liberally scattered with the dung of all the critters that wander through as the feeling takes them. Apparently if you stay in your tent the lions leave you alone – tell that to the 140 railway workers eaten by lions in one year at Tsavo earlier last century! As it was we only had hyena for company and they were far to busy dragging off the rubbish bin to worry about us. As we were the only aviators in our camp ground we were first up and had to walk through a herd of buffalo in the dark to get to the toilet block – hoping that our safari guide was right that they only get cranky when they are on their own. By that afternoon we where back to bouncing down the road in our elderly landrover, inhaling dust and getting our spines regularly compressed and camped that night on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater at a chilly altitude of 2400m. The decent into the crater the next day was great – full of wilderbest, buffalo and zebra which supported a good population of lions, hyena and at least 1 cheetah. It must suck to be a herbivore in Africa – the lions just sit around watching the zebra walk past like a great mobile black and white buffet until they get the itch to grab one. Not surprisingly the lions all looked pretty fat and happy with life, while the herd animals tried to make sure they could all run faster than the creature next to them and jittered around like they had just drunk a dozen espresso shots.
Anyway, time is fleeting and I have to get off the web. We made it back to Arusha safely and are off to Nairobi (aka Nairobbery) tomorrow for a look at Kenya. Hope all is well with everyone out and will update again soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment