Arusha: Day 36-41 Serengeti, Ngorongoro, X-mas

Wendy and Tovah on Christmas wearing Secret Santa gifts.
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Serengeti National Park

Fancy dress to impress

Acacia (our overland tour company) booked us on Sun Safari's 3 day adventure (costing about $300/per person).  They came to our campsite in Arusha packed up our tents, mats, and day packs and headed us out the four hours to the Serengeti in 3 4x4 safari trucks (Toyota Land Cruiser modified to have a flip top for game viewing).  In groups of 6  we headed off.

Lunch stop at the Pangani River
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The Serengeti is usually very dry, but they have gotten so much rain this year (global warming) that it is all green, and lush.  The ride gave view to rolling hills, with the occasional circular Masai village and a Masai cattle herders coloring the distance with their red blanket covers.  Once in the park you can see millions (no exaggeration) of wildebeest and zebra by the road, in the distance, and in the far far distance.  Everywhere!  It was migration season and the horizon was speckled with animals at every angle.

group picture at on the Crater's Edge
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Wendy and I have been on a lot of game drives in Africa (Hluhluwe- Umfolozi, Estosha, Chobe), but this was the best, the variety of animals in such a short distance with the scenery was spectacular!  It really looks like the Lion King.  You have flat grass land, with the occasional Acacia tree or Ephobia tree, or these massive rock formations kopjes (pronounced "copies"), which look just like pride rock.  In fact on the 2nd day we say three lion cubs saunter away from their father towards the truck, yawning and starring at us, until they got bored and moved towards a collection of Kopjes to climb it and roar (more like a yawn- but in the picture it could be a roar).  Yep, just like the Lion King.  The giraffes walk straight up to roadside tree and munch away.  We even saw a leopard.

Meret, Roosh and Tovah Game viewing
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Leopards are really hard to find, they are shy by nature and rest and even drag their kills into trees.  On the second day we saw a leopard.  I can only try to explain the excitement in hoping to find a leopard only to actually be rewarded in seeing one.  To hear over the CV radios where there is one, then rush there, hoping it will still be there when you arrive, very intense. We, along with 15 other trucks, watched amazed as a leopard quietly sat in it's tree starring at a baby tokke (deer like animal).  It creepped across each branch, down the trunk, to the low grass below.  Slowly it got closer and closer, patiently, moving paw by paw.  After about 30 minutes, it tried to attack, but the Tokke got wise to the situation and scampered off.  Perhaps it was the 15 trucks snapping pictures or the tokke's freight or flight knowledge, regardless it was spectacular to watch.  Similar to the way we feel about village walks, and some cultural tours, sometimes game viewing can be rather intrusive and seem harmful to the delicate balance of the animals natural habitat.  The flip side is that your tourism pays for the protection of these animals which you would never otherwise be able to see interacting like this.

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Our campsites were IN the national parks.  Meaning we were attempting to sleep with the sounds of hyenas walking around outside of our tents and lions roaring in the not so far off distance.  This made me very nervous, especially because our safari company did not bring any weapondry.

The second day gave an opportunity for some of us to go hot air ballooning over the Serengeti at sunrise.  Those of us who didn't go were able to see the brightly colored balloons float across the great flat lands.  Misty with an early morning chill it was a colored the sky giving us even more to look out for. As we exited the park we learned that game viewing is a popular activity around christmas time.  We eve bumped into the Tanzanian President as we were leaving the park.  We did not get any pictures with him due to his security and us not being sure if he was a good guy of not.  We found out later that he is more popular than the last guy. From the Serengeti we drove to the Ngorongoro's crater edge.

Hippos in the crater.
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Ngorongoro Crater

We camped on Christmas eve on the Crater's rib at the Simba camp.  This was the coldest it had been for us in Africa. Covered in fleeces, hats, some of us in gloves, we drank by the roaring campfire.  In the spirit of the season we got a round of "12 Days of Christmas" going.  We weren't all sure of the words so some verses were altered and I had to sing the chorus, and 3 french hens, but the spirits were all there.  The next morning we were the first trucks into the crater, 6am.

Piet in the Safrai truck with Zebra
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The crater is a giant extinct volcano top.  It's like a massive fishbowl for animals.  Riding around standing in the 4x4 we saw a black Rhino, elephants, flamingos, the ground crane (national bird of Uganda), hippos, cheetahs, 2 kori bustards (both doing the mating dance, which is very rare and special), lion cubs, wildebeest and zebras, all mingling in their environments.  Oh, we also saw lots of buffalo, but I don't get why they are so special and don't really see why they are part of the Big 5 (just because hunters liked them as trophies doesn't make them special).  There are also no giraffe in the crater, this is why we didn't see them.  We left around mid-day and not a minute sooner as many of the trucks that stayed spend Christmas day digging themselves out of the mud. Special thanks to Nasoaro, our guide we got us out of the crater safely, not an easy task as the thick fog made it impossible to see the road let alone another truck heading in, as we head out.

Scott, Wendy and the Danish
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Meserani Snake Party- Xmas party

Our time in Arusha was spent at the Meserani Campsite. 11kms outside of Arusha it is not only a campsite but a snake and bird of prey sanctuary (with owls, crocodiles, and all kinds of big scary snakes that can and have eaten people). For Christmas day they had a big pig, wildebeest, impala, and lamb roast.  Wendy ate lots of salad.

We returned here after the crater, with time to shower and get ready for the exchange.  In Malawi we had purchased Salvation Army reject clothing as Secret Santa gifts for our picks, and now was the time to give them out.  Our group exchanged the heinous dresses, hot pants, leather ties, animal print blouses, and night attire.  We proudly displayed these lovely garmets at the bar all night in a monstrous game of darts.  The warm culmination to a not so lonely-far-from-home christmas was seeing the few emerge from their tents the next morning wearing their favorite new outfits, still. Ahem.. Wendy couldn't get enough of her Ms. Claws Santa nighty/moo-moo.

Finally saw a leopard.
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Masai Village Walk

The morning after the Christmas party was the Masai village walk and cultural center visit.  The cultural center proved to be uninformative as we were in no shape to be listening to the guide's hard to understand guide's accent.  It was a shame, but while the walk's intension was to enlighten us to the wondrous ways of the Masai, it turned us off completely.  While it was interesting to learn about women being circumcised, one man getting as many wives as he can afford in cattle, or the Masai diet of meat, milk and blood; our attention was lost with the masai children from the village we visited.  We went to a village that was started by one man.  The people there were his 10 wives and his 50 children. The little kids would not stop harassing us for money, and spent much of their time trying to pickpocket us, even taking off some of the visitor's watches.  We have been on Village walks all over Africa, we are used to the kids  hanging from our arms and wanting to swing or have their picture taken.  This new behavior was completely alarming and made the majority of the group leave the experience, retreating alone, back to the campsite.  Shame.

Flamingos
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As a side note, we found many encounters with the Masai unrewarding. I realize that many of the "dressed up" Masai are imposters, however, my view of the Masai is not positive now.  A few group members were caught into unpleasant situations, as a Masai would ask to have their picture taken, then demand money after the picture was taken.  I respect their beliefs of not wanting their picture taken, but these experiences were too often and made most of us uneasy.  One of our group was harassed at the Kenya border by a Masai women who tried to sell her a bracelet.  She kindly said no thank you, but the women then insisted it was a free gift, putting it on her wrist.  When the bracelet was on her wrist the Masai women insisted on payment for the craft, and would not take it back.  It ended with our group member throwing it at her and walking away.  Talk about pushy craft sellers.

Now, that's hot!
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for all you editors reading, i promise to proofread later