Finally, a real post again

After being out on a safari and contending with a ridiculously slow computer at our hotel in Arusha I now have the tools needed to give you all an update. We arrived after a long day of travel in Arusha on Jan. 9th. Our last night in the hotel in Cape Town was spent listening to Kareoke at the bar next door until 1 am. The song that really seemed to get the girls going was 'Hopelessly Devoted to You'. We needed to get up at 4 am so Jen was not a very happy girl. We flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg to Dar Es Salaam to Arusha, changing planes each time. Our flight from Dar to Arusha was in a 16-seater. We barely made the connection in Jo'burg, but we made it. Our first choice for accomodation in Arusha was a little scary looking from the outside. The taxi driver suggested the Outpost which was in our guide book and more expensive but a very nice place.

Driving in to Arusha felt like Siem Reap to me. The airport was really just one airstrip and the road there was not even paved. It's funny though because on these bumpy, dirt roads, pocked with tire-marks there were always speed bumps in Arusha. They really over-did it with the speed bumps. Anyway, the outskirts of town had red clay dirt roads, small shacks as grocers, and thousands of people milling about. However, most of the people were nicely dressed, ladies in dresses men in dress pants. Downtown had paved roads with large concrete buildings but everything was a little run down.

I still wasn't feeling well when we arrived but I got better and feel fine now. The Outpost was quite nice with good meals in the evening. Due to my slight illness and desire to avoid the touts and sellers we avoided town except for the necessities. I think that's too bad but we just didn't feel comfortable (safe) in town. Sitting around the hotel idlely, waiting for our safari to begin, it did feel a little like the old empire days except we weren't as nicely dressed. The days there did go by quickly even though we weren't doing much. The hotel had a Massai guarding the front gate, everyone just called him Massai. The hotel manager recommended the tour company, Shidolya Tours and their representative, Joshua was very professional and structured our safari how we wanted it and within our budget. We didn't bother to shop around even though we had originally planned to. We got exactly what we wanted at the price we wanted with a recommendation and good quality vehicles, so why bother?

We left on the 12th to begin our safari and headed to Twiga (which means giraffe in Swahili)Campsite in the town of Mto Wa Mbu. We dropped our gear off, had lunch, and went to Lake Mayanara National Park. We saw baboons, lots and lots of elephant, blue monkeys, vervet monkeys, zebra, steenbok, impala, buffalo, giraffes, and flamingos. We also saw some great birds: fisher eagle, red bishop, egyptian goose.

On the 13th we drove to the Ngorongoro Crater dropped our gear for Emmanuel (our cook) to set up at Simba A campsite and headed down into the crater. Its about 20K in diameter and very green. Issac, our driver and guide, changed the order of our trip a little bit which was ok because the weather at the crater was clear and sunny. We saw elephant, rhino, black-backed jackal, hyena, flammingo, zebra, wildabeast, buffalo (nyati in swahili) and a male and 2 female lions close up. We also saw more beautiful birds, eland, hippos, thomsons gazelles. It was very green and not terribly crowded. The campsite was up in the highlands and quite cold at night. We woke up in time to see the sunrise and I did see the stars again that night as well. The campsite was pretty crowded, just a patch of grass with a beautiful acacia tree overlooking the crater.

On the 14th we drove to the Ndutu special campsite on the border of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Serengti National Park. Special just means that you have a designated space vs camping in one big field with everyone else. Our site looked out over a lake. For some reason when Issac turned off-road and started driving across the plains, it suprised me. We drove through huge herds of zebra, wildabeast and gazelle. Millions of them, it seemed. Many more than I expected. After lunch we went for another game drive and saw 6 lions lounging by the lake, 3 female, 3 male. We waited for about 1 1/2 hours but they didn't stir much. They were very close up though so that was good. Afterwards, Issac spotted a leopard in a distant tree. I was amazed that he could see that far. We drove down by the swamp but the tse tse flies were fierce! Everything was much greener than I expected. Also it was rolling hills, not just flat plains. Like Tim said 'The Green Hills of Africa'. Our tent was big enough to stand up in and had cots. Much nicer that our usual camping set up at home.

The next day we drove to the Seronera campsite in the Seringeti. We entered through the Naabi Hill Gate in the southeast of the park, which afforded great views of the surrounding plains, unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. On the way to the campsite we saw 4 female lions sleeping in the bushes next to the road, lots of hippos, vervet monkeys, hartibeast, topi, warthogs, zebra, hyena, jackal. We stayed in the dik dik section of the campsite which is a very small antilope. The weather during the whole trip was good, no rain, warm with a little heat in the afternoon but not severe. In the afternoon we saw a leopard and her cup in a tree. The cub was being kept entertained by the flicks of the mother's tail.

On the 16th we stayed another night at the same campsite and drove to the hippo pool in the morning where we were able to get out of the truck. The truck was a land rover with a pop up roof. It could seat 5 passengers in the back but I'm glad Tim and I arranged a private safari and could climb all over the seats as we needed to get the 'good' pictures. The meals we had were good. A few too many eggs. Eggs, sausage, toast, coffee, tea, and fruit for breakfast. A veggie sandwhich, a piece of chicken, juice, cookies, muffins, and fruit for lunch. Dinner could be roast beef with potatoes, veggies, salad, and dessert. It was too much food! In the afternoon we saw a group of 9 lion and hopefully got some good pics. We also saw a hippo out of the water which is rare. At night I finally heard the lions roaring outside.

None of the campsites were gated or fenced like at Kruger N.P. The animals could wander though although none came to visit us. We saw lots of Massai around the crater area, they have been 'removed' from the National Park. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures since I felt it would be rude. We also saw several groups of circumcission boys who are between the ages of about 12 - 17. After the 'ceremony', they leave their families and go live together for 3-6 months, during which time they do not bathe. This information is according to Issac.

On the 17th we got up for an early morning game drive and saw our first cheetah and 2 cubs. It was great, they even climbed a tree for us (which is rare because they don't have retractable claws like leopards and lion). After luch we packed up and head back toward the Ngorongoro area. We saw another cheetah en-route and stoppe. She started to move toward the truck and then disappeared behind it. When we moved to the back of the truck to try to spot her, she suddenly jumped up on it! We jumped back and I let out a shreik but then I remembered that Issac said that cheetah don't eat people. He told us it was ok and that she was just using the truck as a vantage point to scope the plains. She took a few looks inside and then got up on top of the pop-up roof. I got one really good picture! When the cheetah moved on top of the roof, Issac decided to get out of the truck and take our picture but when he slammed the truck door, it scard the cat and she jumped off. Oh well. It was exciting! The cheetah is the prettiest of the wild animals I think. Later on we saw many more lions, hyena, wildebeast, etc. etc. It was a long drive from the Serengeti back to the town of Karatu where we spent our last (thankfully) night. That night we both got sick. Although I felt ok by the morning, Tim didn't. We were supposed to visit some local tribes on our last day but decided just to get back to Arusha and take it easy.

Well that's about all I can handle for now. I think we will update again soon since internet is cheap and good here. Tomorrow we are going to take the island spice tour and the day after that we are heading to the east side of the island for some beach time. I don't expect there will be any internet cafes over there.