A Four Day Safari - Our Grand Finale to Plan B

Midsized dumbo
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Anybody who knows me well enough knows that I LOVE hippos.  They are my favorite animal, and one item on my "Life List" was to see hippos living in their natural habitat.  There could be no better grand finale to Plan B than to experience that.

We departed for our safari in a loaded Land Rover filled with food and camping gear for 3 nights.  Along with our guide/driver named Halfan, our new BFF, Barbara (see Kili article) was part of the team, as well as two 22-year old girls (Jordan from the US and Fanny from Sweden) who have been living in Africa and volunteering at a girls orphanage.  Brian thought it was great fun to be with all the ladies, and they took to calling him HM, short for Harem Master.

walking thru the african wilderness with a man carrying a sub-machine gun

So that's where the term comes from
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Day one brought us to Lake Manyara, a National Park teeming with wildlife.  When we booked the safari we thought we'd drive around, see an animal, drive 15-20 more minutes, maybe see another animal, drive some more, maybe catch a glimpse of an elephant.  Boy were we wrong - the minute we entered the park we were surrounded with animals!  Countless baboons lined the road and welcomed us, some with tiny babies that were the size of newborn kittens.  Almost immediately we had a pack of 6 elephants cross the road about 50 feet in front of our truck.  Zebras and wildebeests were everywhere, as were cape buffalo, impalas, giraffes, and warthogs.  The park was also filled with several different kinds of birds, but I'm not much of a bird person and didn't really pay attention to the guide when he would talk about them.  The highlight for me was the hippo pool, where around 60 hippos napped in the mud.  Their tiny ears and noses stuck out of the water, and every now and then one would make a grunt, shift positions, and maybe yawn which would give us a nice view of their big teeth.

Maasai greeting us
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Day 2 was a dull day.  We had a long drive to our next campground followed by a visit to a local Maasai tribe where we were pretty much forced into buying beaded jewelery.  In the afternoon we were scheduled for a walking safari with an armed park ranger.  That sounded particularly exciting - walking thru the african wilderness with a man carrying a sub-machine gun ready to take out an attacking lion or cheetah if necessary.  Unfortunately the only wildlife we saw were 2 ostrich about a mile away, and he never shot them.  The best part of the day was watching the zebras walk amongst our campsite.

Maasai boy and rainbow
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Day 3 provided far more animal excitement as we toured the Ngorogoro Crater, which is the worlds largest unbroken volcanic caldera in the world.  Once again we were surrounded by countless zebras, wildebeests, elephants, baboons, warthogs, impalas, gazelles, buffalo, hyena, hippos, etc.  The 2 highlights were spotting 2 large male lions resting in the shade, and also the sighting of a black rhino from afar.   No giraffe are found in the crater.

Day 4 was spent at the Tarangire National Park, which boasts more elephants per square kilometer than anywhere else in the world (however they don't have a single hippo).  I would estimate our elephant sightings in the hundreds - they were literally everywhere we looked.  We also found a group of 6 lions napping under a tree.  At first glance they appeared to be all female, but upon further inspection we found that 2 were young males (around 2.5 years old) who were just starting to grow their manes.

I think I see hippos
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The safari was an unforgettable way to finish up Plan B.  I could go on and on and on forever about what a great time we had, but the pictures speak for themselves.  Enjoy!

Anne