Africa Post “Why do they have to be the deadliest AND the fastest!”

Hello All,

We have experienced a lot since we last posted so this will be a bit long with more photos than usual.

Our trip to Africa was assisted from the start by Deb and Drew (D&D) ______ (I will not disclose their last name as once their hospitality is known everyone will want to visit them). We landed in Nairobi, Kenya, early in the morning and were greeted by a repersentive that D&D had set up that escorted us to a bus that whisked us off to Arusha, Tanzania, our kicking off point to our African adventures and also home to D&D. The border crossing resembled a cross between a smash up derby and an outdoor flea market with vehicles jostling to a narrow funnel and the commerce of a large market going on. All in an undulating dusty motion, it was a spectacle to see.
As we neared Arusha, Mt Kilimanjaro loomed over the Great Rift Valley in which we were traveling. Though the clouds obscured much of it, we did catch brief glimpses of its flat peak. Colourfully dressed people and traditionally dressed Masai were everywhere and with the brief spotting of some zebra on the savanna we became very excited about this leg of our trip.

We are just barely surviving at D&D's palatial compound on the edge of Arusha's golf course. Great dinners and better conversations seem to be the rule at D&D's. Topics are no holds barred; we are having a great time with this dynamic duo. As with all African cities, personal safety is a responsibility that you have to be cognizant of all the time. There are some areas that we can walk in the daylight but movement at night is only possible by taxi or car. Many homes, including D&D's, have walled gardens, barred windows and 24 hour guards. Despite this (or maybe because of this) we feel safe here.

Arusha is a small city that is home base for many NGOs in the area and it is also home of the UN Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal. Both D&D work for the UN; Drew as a prosecutor and Deb manages the countless documents that are involved in the tribunal. We were invited to Canada Day/4th of July/Going Away Party/Hash House Harrier Run/Barbeque that was a mixture of UN employees, locals and NGO volunteers. The evening started with the Hasher Run: Hashers describe themselves as “drinkers with a running problem” and the run itself is more of a follow the leader/musical trails. The route wound its way through the lush hillside of Arusha and we had an honor guard of laughing children the entire way. The run ended in a circle with large beers in hands where new people had to chugalug, departing people had to chugalug, runners that showed competitive spirits had to chugalug, and those who took short cuts had to chugalug… Basically all had to chugalug a lot. The food was endless, the most interesting was watching two goats slaughtered, the liver butchered, roasted over a fire and within 20 minutes of the goats walking onto the property I was eating a portion of its liver… yum yum. I felt like Hannibal Lector.

As a major distribution location for western aid there are western clothes everywhere including lots of t-shirts from Canada with logos like Regina Pats or Maple Leaf Foods or Alcan Safety is #1. We went to one of these clothing markets and viewed bales of “Canadian Gift” clothes opened and auctioned off and actually bought some shorts to wear on the Hash Run. The negotiations went sort of like starting at a 5000 shillings ($6), where Brandy begged poverty, (that is the starting point of this game) things almost fell apart when we could not bridge the gap between 55 and 65 cents. But we some how walked away friends and with the shorts. It is all part of the game and if you do not play it they lose respect for travelers.

Arusha is the jumping off point for Tanzanian safaris with Ngorongoro Crater, The Great Rift Valley and The Serengeti within 150kms or 8 hours drive away (4 wheel drive roads). There are two methods of safari, fly in to luxury lodge ($1000/day) or drive in to tent camp ($80/day). For authenticity reasons only, we chose the latter. The number of touts that are pushing safaris on the streets of Arusha is unreal and there are definitely good and bad operators. We spent two days sourcing out the right safari and we were able to find a good operator that had another couple that had booked several months earlier and wanted another couple to join them to help share the costs. We were told it would be a 4 day, 3 night camp safari to Ngorongoro and Serengeti with a British couple. The day before we left we were informed that it was actually a 5 day, 4 night trip to Ngorongoro, Serengeti and Lake Manyara and the other couple was French, not British. Things change fast in Africa but we got the extra day and night for cheap! The transport is a Land Rover with three rows of two seats (including driver and passenger seats). Each set has a large sunroof so you can stand on the seat and view the wildlife. Our group consisted of Siya our guide and driver, Festo our cook and entertainment director, Kevin and Gaelle our French partners, and us.
We started with Lake Manayra National Park known for its wildlife abundance in a very small area. As we drove up to the park we came across a troop of savanna baboons and I insisted we stop so I could reel off 30 to 40 pictures. Siya seemed to be impatient with this delay and I thought this stopping may get to be an issue. Little did I know as we entered the gate there were basically baboons every where and this continued so for the next five days. If there are a couple of things this country is not lacking its baboons and fool tourists demanding to take pictures of the first one they see.

We were not 200m into the gate when we came across a herd of African buffalo in the dense jungle. They are one of the most deadly animals in Africa because of their size and aggressive behaviour. Big, black and beautiful they stared us down and won - we moved on. As we came out of the small jungle we opened onto a shallow savanna laid out before the saline Lake Manayra. The park abounded with giraffe, elephant, impala, gazelle, zebra, wildebeest, gnu, wart hog, a plethora of winged fauna and my favourite: hippos. All of these animals were wild but not fearful of our vehicle and would pass within spitting distance of our jeep. We enjoyed a spectacle of two young elephant bulls rehearsing domination fights for future battles. Nervous young giraffes stood frozen in our path until their mother would push them along with a gentle nudge of their long slender necks. Warthogs fed on dry grass along the track by kneeling on with their front legs with their hind legs straight, asses high in the air. We were treated to the comedy of a gang of hippos that their very existence creates. Rolling, sitting, floating, yawning and grunting in a large muddy scrum. I could have sat at the hippo pool for hours but the sun was setting and off to the camp site we went. After a great meal and conversation with our new friends we watched the progression of the black African night with its trillions of bright stars open before us on our little deck of our fixed tent. With no light pollution or moon the stars never looked brighter, or maybe it was the very cheap wine? I'm sure that I impressed our new friends, who are from the Bordeaux region of France with our box of “soft & fruity” red wine, it was cheap though. I woke up in the night to strange jungle sounds “holy crap is that a baboon out side our tent? That cannot be good!” Pulled out the pocket knife and the flash light and waited for the attack to come. Luckily the cheap wine led me back to sleep.

Day two found us on the long slug of drive around the rim of the Ngrorongoro Crater to the Serengeti which is off road the entire way. We stopped to look at the Crater where it the wind howled over the ridge and at that elevation it was just above freezing. How can this be possible, we are on the Equator and we are freezing our cajungas off? The clouds completely obscured the crater as they swirled around our bare legs. This did not bode well for our night of camping in the national park. We also stopped at Olduvai Gorge, known as the cradle of mankind, where archeologists found evidence that increased the age of mankind from a few hundred thousand years old to more than two million years old. It had a small descriptive museum but the actual gorge looked like sort of an 80m deep dry ditch. I guess I just wanted to get going to see the great Serengeti migration, this birth of mankind place did not compare with hippos. So off we went.

The Serengeti Plains are huge expanses of grasslands that grazing animals sway back and forth pushed by the seasonal rains. Zebra and wildebeest are the migrating animals and they number in the millions. There are resident grazing animals that do not migrate and that is what we viewed the first 100km or so. The giraffe, elephant, hippos, topi, redbuck, waterbuck, gazelle, impala, eland, hartebeest, gnu, and many others stay in their ranges year round. Of course to go along with these residents are the predators such as lions, hyenas, jackal, cheetah, leopard, crocodiles and many more smaller species. Evidence of murder is everywhere on the plains with the horns of wildebeest being the most numerous. After just a few minutes on the plains we came across a small pride of lions sleeping in the long grass. These fat and golden felines obviously did not lack for food. They looked at us like they did not have a care in the world. The size of a lion is the first thing that strikes you, they are massive. We were not more than 30 feet away and looked that it would take those long bodies a bound or two to bridge that space. Their paws were the size of a dinner plate and they eventually showed us the not only the length of their claws but gave us a good view of their 5 inch long canines. We moved on quickly and quietly.

That night after reading all of the warning signs at the camp which lacked the 8 foot high barbed wire fence that I relied on the night before (only the baboons get over it) I decided that more wine than usual would be required to ensure a sound sleep. It was after this that our guide told us not to leave our tents in the night. “What about the toilet?” I asked. “Don't go near them but if you must go, do so outside you tent door - but have a good look first”. Later… “Brandy, I have to go to the bathroom.” I poked outside the tent and flashed my light around, quickly did my business and scurried back into the tent. The zebras heehawed, the hyenas woopppedd and the lions grunted very close to the camp that night. What an experience.

The next day we were able to see the masses of wildebeest and zebras slowly moving north though this was definitely the tail end of the migration. We were given a modeling session by a large male cheetah as he flexed and posed on a elevated log we were about 100 feet away from. He then disappeared into the grass like he was never there. The most elusive beast is the leopard and we managed to see four of them. You can see them clearly then the wind blows the long grass and they fade out only to reappear in another spot. They are the chameleons of the savannah, shy and elusive and our guide told us we were very lucky to see four of them. We were witness to three lions devouring a wildebeest, so close we heard the rip of flesh, the crunch of bone and the gnashing of teeth. It was unreal. The oddest thing was that the zebras and wildebeest herds stood not that far from the feast and calmly watched - we assumed that they felt safe that the single sacrifice would appease.

When were returned to the camp for lunch I walked past the bush shower on the way to the pit toilet when I interrupted a 8 foot long black snake drinking from the pan drain. I backed off as it raised its head, opened its hood, and hissed at me. I stood and watched it drink for a minute not more than 10 feet from it before I took off to tell Brandy and grab the camera. Brandy ran over to the shower to see for herself only to catch the thick black snake streak past her and into the grass. As I described the event to Siya he was noticeably concerned by the tale. He informed us that we were very lucky as we had just run into Africa's most aggressive, fasted and deadliest snake, the Black Mamba. The Masia call it the Seven Step Snake as after you are bitten, you die within seven steps. I shivered imagining us bending down in front of that doorway to take a picture of the thing. Why in Africa is the fastest and deadliest, could it not be the slowest and the deadliest or the fastest but harmless? We have made some new family rules in regards to snakes after that encounter.

To end the evening, we were treated to the long saunter of two young cheetah brothers as they were so close to the truck they could have rubbed up against it. Later that night after a further increased amount of cheap wine: “Is that a damn lion out there and what is that breathing… oh damn, I have to go to the bathroom”. How can we be allowed to camp in a field of large fanged predators? We enjoyed a dawn savanna drive watching an orange globe rise above the flat top acacia trees with the golden plains as a back drop and the brother cheetahs reappeared to say farewell.

We spent the rest of the day driving back to Ngorongoro Crater where we set up our tents in the high cold clouds that engulf the crater rim most of the year round. There is a cook house that all campers ate in, drank in and bemoaned the cold of the equator. More cheap wine was needed: thank the gods that we still had several litres. The evening took at turn to the horror movie side as we were overtaken by Safari ants that seemed to be attracted to the electrical cords at first. Eventually they were so thick on one wall that they would fall to the floor in thick clumps. Of course this infestation started and spread from the point directly behind us. We moved across the hut to the opposite wall and watched as each row of diners was systematically attacked. A good evening by any standards. Later that evening, “Is that something standing on our tent? Oh crap I have to relieve myself again.” I poked my head out of the tent, switched on my headlamp right in the face of a zebra. We both scared the hell out of each other but I still had to get back out there. Brandy laughed as I yelled and the zebra screamed.

The next day we zigzagged down to the crater floor that holds one of the heaviest concentrations of wildlife in the world. It was amazing! Right out of the gate we spotted a black rhino off in the distance and it got better from there on. We saw a lioness with its four cubs walk along a road way for some 2 kms and she just about brought down an unsuspecting warthog with the cubs mimicking her actions. The cubs play fought and tramped right past our truck where we could have reached out and grab a tuft of their fur. Later as we watched the hippos in a lake where we ate lunch, I spied a huge elephant on the rim wall and commented that it would be spectacular if such a beast came down to the lake for a drink. Not more than 30 minutes later as we sat on some rock, this huge mammoth walked around the valley floor and continued towards the lake not more than 10 feet away from us. We sat in awe as this 60+ year old male drank huge trunk fulls of water. What a way to end a life long dream.

Advice for future safari-ists, be a deep sleeper or don't drink lots of wine before bed or have an enormous bladder or best of all spring for the luxury lodge!

We are going to spend some further time at chateau D&D and maybe do a trekking safari with an armed guide. Maybe we will look at some stronger juice to take on this trip. I will leave that story for Brandy.

Bye for now.

KLH

Photos:
Deb, Brandy, Drew at BBQ
East Africa's Answer to Starbucks
On Top of the Safari Jeep
Giraffe, Zebra in Lake Manyara
Our Camp at Lake Manyara
Us at the Entrance to Serengeti
Our Camp in Serengeti
Cheetah
Lions Eating Wildebeest
Us at the Hippo Pool
"Do Not Get Out of the Campsite..."
Serengeti Sunrise
Zebra Herd
Giraffe and Ngorongoro Crater
Brandy and Lions
Lion Pride
Festo, Kevin, Gaelle, Brandy, Kevin, and Siya
Kevin and Elephant

PS: We have also added a couple of photos onto our last posting: Dahab II