With classes dismissed and final grades submitted, it was time for some R&R, this time in Tanzania. We originally had planned to organize the trip ourselves (including all the driving), but fortunately we were talked out of it by fellow Fulbrighters here in Rwanda and friends in the States who had done similar trips. Frankie - our trusty RAV4...though no longer ours as it had been sold - definitely could not have handled the roads nor could we have navigated the game park roads to locate the animals.
After lots of research on travel agencies in Arusha - the main launching point for game park safaris in northern Tanzania, we picked Tanzania Safari Supremacy and booked a trip which consisted of a short stay in Arusha, some time exploring the three national parks and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and beach time on the island of Zanzibar. The map below more or less charts our trip with more details below.
Tarangire National Park
Our 10-hour flight to Arusha was a marathon one involving three stopovers: Entebbe, Nairoibi, and Dar es Salaam. Upon arrival we were met by our tour guide, Laizer, who took us to the Ilboru Safari Lodge. Laizer gave us a short briefing of the following day's itinerary and then we checked into our room and relaxed by the pool until dinner.
The following morning, we headed to Tarangire National Park, which was about a 3-hour ride in Laizer's Toyota Land Cruiser. Tarangire National Park is Tanzania's sixth largest park and covers an area of 1,200 square miles. The name comes from the Tanangire River which crosses the park. We spent the whole day traversing the park observing impalas, waterbucks, giraffes, elephants, and a quick siting of a leopard.
Tarangire National Park is famous for its many elephants and giraffes, and its baobab tree-climbing lions which we unfortunately did not see. We stopped for a picnic lunch at a site overlooking the Tarangire River and watched with amusement as vervet monkeys dropped down out of the surrounding trees to grab food from the picnickers' boxes and scurried back up the trees. As some soon discovered, this was not the place for leisurely munching.
We left the park around 5 p.m. and headed for Sangaiwe Tented Lodge for dinner and an overnight stay. It was an idyllic spot to rest our safari bones for the night. We stayed in a self-contained rounded-rooftop thatched 'tent'. The interior had a unique African Maasai design. We sat on our private terrace overlooking a lush lawn until sunset. The homemade pumpkin soup at dinner warmed our bodies at this place that was a tad too chilly to enjoy the swimming pool.
Some interesting trivia from Laizer while in Tarangire National Park:
Thomson's gazelles are nicknamed McDonalds because of the big "M" on their behinds.
There is only one male impala per harem of females. The males who have no females to call their own stay in the bachelor groups.
Elephants eat between 200 and 600 pounds of vegetation per day spending 12-18 hours a day consuming this massive amount of food.
Both male and female elephants have tusks and change their set of teeth every six years. So how do you tell the difference between the males and the females? The males have bigger ears, are larger in size, and the texture of their skin is different. Or, so we're told as we certainly did not pet any of the pachyderms we encountered!
Lake Manyara National Park
Our next stop was Lake Manyara National Park, which is situated at the base of Mount Meru and not far from Tarangire National Park. This park covers 129 square miles, of which 89 square miles comprise the lake. It is noted for the flamingos that inhabit the lake's alkaline waters and there are over 400 species of birds. If you are not avid ornithologists, you will definitely be impressed by the hundreds of baboons on and along the sides of the road. It was a scene out of the Planet of the Apes. The hippo pool where tourists can get out of the vehicles was not as impressive. But hey, compared to the baboon performances, hippos don't do much but sit in crowded pools and throw mud and water on themselves.
The minor glitch in this day's game drive was a flat tire that occurred on a lake-side savannah where zebras, buffalo, and wildebeests were grazing and/or lazing. When Mark jumped out of the vehicle to help Laizer repair the flat, Sheila offered her services as the lookout. The two Cape buffalo nearby were staring straight at our party, but Sheila monitored the situation and the new tire was on and we were back in the vehicle in no time finding blue monkeys, a dik-dik, Maasai giraffes young and old, and marabou storks perched on acacia trees, and you guessed it, more troops of baboons.
Exiting the park, we headed to the Ngorongoro Farmhouse Lodge which was a short distance from the entrance to Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the following day's quest. This colonial style coffee plantation farm house, now lodge, was the perfect place to lay our heads for a couple of nights. We say by a blazing fire outside on the main terrace, ate organic vegetables from the farm house gardens, observed the Marabou stork observing us at breakfast, and of course, checked our emails.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) was our next stop on our safari adventure. NCA is a World Heritage Site and a unique protected area where conservation of natural resources is integrated with human development - Masai live here and, as such, it is not designated a national park. The main feature of the NCA includes the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic crater in the world. The heavy early morning fog at the top of the crater quickly dissipated as we made the spectacular 5,900-foot descent into the crater. This "natural enclosure" for approximately 25,000 large animals that inhabit the crater include the black rhinoceros (which we spotted in the distance), wildebeests, lions, zebras, impalas, warthogs, and Cape buffaloes and all were easily viewed on very open grassland.
Laizer informed us that the zebras and wildebeests have a symbiotic relationship. The zebras have excellent eyesight, while the wildebeests have a keen sense of smell. Although both animals are very vocal, we were fascinated by the grunting, frog-like sounds of the wildebeests and found ourselves chiming in to get their attention.
The highlight of our morning, however, was seeing a young adult male lion feeding on a Thomson's gazelle. Buzzards, golden jackals, and a black backed jackal joined in the feast when the lion had its fill.
Another feature of NCA is Lake Makat (the Maasai word for 'salt'). This salt lake is in the middle of the crater where hippos and bird species, such as crowned cranes, kori bustards (the largest flying bird native to Africa), and white storks can be observed along the shore.
In addition to the salted lake in the crater, there are rivers and swamps. When Laizer skirted the river areas, we spotted a pride of 13-14 lions resting on a mound across a small stream. They had obviously had their meal for the day and were going to be out for the count till their next feeding. In fact, one was lying on its back with its paws up in the air. Even the sound of a jeep roaring its engine wasn't going to disturb this magnificent creature or its family members.
To sum up this crater adventure, we were struck by the variety of landscapes we traversed: grassland plains, savanna woodlands, forests, mountains, volcanic craters, lakes, rivers, and swampland. Indeed, this wonder should be on everyone's bucket list!
We concluded this full day of wonders stopping at the overlook at the top of NCA (7566 feet in altitude) and took panoramic pictures of the sights we had experienced that day.
Serengeti National Park
Before leaving Ngorongoro Conservation Area, there was a site that was not included in our safari package that we decided to visit - Olduvai Gorge (which is a misspelling of Oldupai, the Maasai word for the wild sisal plant that grows in the area). The gorge, often referred to as the Cradle of Mankind, holds the earliest evidence of the existence of human ancestors. Louis and Mary Leakey - paleoanthropologist and archeologist, spent much of their lives, (and later, the Leakey children continued) exploring this gorge. Among other discoveries, they unearthed the remains of prehistoric stone tools and early humanoid fossils, but most noteworthy was the discovery of fossil footprints - the earliest record of bipedal gait - at Laetoli.
We toured the small two-room museum and sat overlooking the gorge as a docent lectured us on the history of the gorge.
Although two days into our safari tour, we had already seen the Safari Big 5 of Tanzania (African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros). The drive through the Serengeti was definitely the icing on the cake. We had read about the Serengeti wildebeest migration and asked Lazier to take us north to see this phenomenon. The migration consists of the movement of vast numbers of the Serengeti's blue wildebeest, accompanied by large numbers of zebra, and smaller numbers of Grant's gazelles, Thomson's gazelles, elands, and impalas. These animals migrate in search of fresh grazing and better quality water.
Vast numbers is an understatement. Everywhere we looked on the plain were wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, elands, and impalas. We were informed that every year 1.5 million wildebeest migrate on a loop path through Tanzania and into Kenya's Maasi Mara National Reserve following the seasonal rains. Around 25 miles south of the Kenyan border (and the Maasai Mara), we saw thousands of wildebeest moving in herds, occasionally stopping in their tracks to observe us and utter their familiar grunts. At one point, Lazier drove up to an overlook and for miles and miles around us, we could see nothing but thousands of wildebeests and zebras.
The drive back to our quarters for the night involved skirting around herds of zebra and battling swarms of tsetse flies. Our lodging at the Serengeti Kati Kati Tented Camp was right in the park and perhaps the "most primitive" and eco-friendly of all of our accommodations. Our spacious tent had three zipped up tented areas: a bedroom with a comfy bed, two bedside tables, and solar lighting; a bathroom with a flush toilet; and, a separate shower operated by a pulley system. Each guest could request 20 liters of hot water to be added to a large bucket outside and above the tent. The bucket was lowered, filled with the hot water, and then raised over the tent. The tent occupant pulled on a chain and the water came out through a large shower head. This system reminded us very clearly that one does not need to take 15-minute showers.
Because there were animals around (Remember those zebras mentioned above?), we were requested to be accompanied back and forth from the dining tent to our tent by resident camp guards. We were informed that lions, elephants, buffaloes, and zebras occasionally came into the camp. Before dinner every night, there was a much needed bonfire which we gathered around and shared safari stories with the other guests. Each night, we heard the sounds of the bush - the cackling of hyenas, the roars of lions, or the eerie howls of jackals. At times, the rustling wind hitting the canvas flaps of the tent sounded like animals right outside our tent.
Zanzibar
The next leg of our Tanzania adventure was Zanzibar, an island located off the eastern coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. To get there, we took a puddle jumper (a 12-seater propeller aircraft) piloted by Steve. The flight took off from the Seronera Airstrip in the Serengeti with us and three other passengers, stopped in Arusha to pick up the remaining passengers, and then continued on to Zanzibar. Pilot Steve apologized for the bumps encountered while going through some clouds, but we felt the entire trip was extremely smooth.
A driver from arranged through our safari agency met and transported us to the Zanzibar Serena Hotel in Stone Town in the old part of Zanzibar City. We received an upgrade and took full advantage of the amenities, including two balconies overlooking the Indian Ocean, a hammock and, later, the swimming pool. We walked around town that evening and ate in a local Indian restaurant.
The following morning, we were transported to the Blue Bay Beach Resort and Spa resort where we did very little except eat, drink, and be merry. We took advantage of the all-inclusive meal and drink package and adhered to our beach lounge chairs for most of the day retiring to the pool bar for a game of Upwords, and then back to our room to our balcony for sunset drinks. The three square meals a day soon became too much of an eat-fest for us, so except for a curry brunch one day, we skipped lunch and opted only for breakfast and dinner. Each night was themed so we sampled all kinds of foods from all sorts of places. The amenities were over the top: WiFi in the room, cable TV with CNN, a large bottle of water delivered every day to our air-conditioned rooms, super comfy beds and more.
There was live entertainment each night at the resort. There were two bands that we particularly liked, one of which had restaurant employees out on the dance floor toward the end of an evening.
This last leg of our Tanzania trip felt a bit decadent. The irony of it all is that Zanzibar is 99% Muslim and our stay was during the last few days of the holy month of Ramadan. All of our servers were fasting from sunrise to sunset while we were gorging ourselves.
The flight back to Kigali from Zanzibar was painless with only a short stopover in Nairobi. It was nice to get "home" and return to a more normal and healthier routine. Safaris are not cheap but well worth doing once (or even twice) in a lifetime - a bit like stepping into a National Geographic documentary.
The video below is 18 minutes, a longer one than usual and one that includes photos and video clips of the animals and sites that we saw on this Tanzanian journey. The soundtrack includes royalty-free songs which have been attributed at the end of the video as per copyright laws. Enjoy!
Suggested Reads
Happiness, Like Water by Nigerian-American writer Chinelo Okparanta is a book of ten exquisite short stories themed around families burdened by the past and the future. Here is an excerpt from the story "Grace."
"Happiness is like water," she says. "We're always trying to grab onto it, but it's always slipping between our fingers." She looks down at her hands. "And my fingers are thin," she says. "With lots of gaps in between."
OUR NEXT BLOG POST
We are quickly coming to the end of our Rwandan - and African! - adventure. We leave the country on Thursday, June 29 and head back to our home in southwest Florida where we will greet family and friends and begin preparing for our fall courses at Florida Gulf Coast University. So, our next and final blog post - Story 20 - Farewell Reflections - is an appropriate finish to this great learning experience. We hope you'll read it and, as always, comment...Mark & Sheila
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