second time around

Poe and I had a nice short flight from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania. We were met by our guide/driver for the next 6 days, Letawo. He was very pleasant and knowledgable and a good spotter. The first night was in the Arusha Coffee Lodge. A series of bungalows in a coffee plantation. They plant tall trees all around to shade the shorter coffee trees. We mostly rested and got caught up and drank tea. That’s right, tea. The next day we drove out on the paved highway for about 50 km and then turned onto the “African super-highway”, a rutted and rock strewn dirt road. It gives you a massage and abs workout at the same time. Our safari truck would seat eight plus the driver, but it was just Poe and I and Letawo. It was nice having our own truck. We went to the Tarangire Treetop Lodge, checked into our room which was on stilts about 4 meters up off the ground. Then off to have our first actual game drive. An hour and a half down the backside of the Boundary hills and into the park itself. Since there are no fences anywhere, the distinction of “park” is purely in the minds of the people, the animals go anywhere they want to go. Tarangire in famous for Elephants and it did not disappoint. While there we saw many herds of Elephants, up very close, babies, juveniles and adults. Coming and going. The first afternoon toward the end of the drive as it was getting toward dusk the driver pulled up and at the same time Poe said, “over there is that a cat?” and sure enough it was a Leopard. They are the hardest of the Big Five to spot. This one was about 100 meters away and blended into the branch. I don’t know how she spotted it, but it made the Big Five for me.

I loved the Baobab trees. They are in this area and are amazing. The trunks are huge, easily 4 to 6 METERS in diameter. They are not overly tall, maybe 20 meters (66 feet). They look kind of like a stalk of broccoli but are great. The reception area of the lodge had a Baobab tree growing through the floor and out the roof. It had a large hole in the trunk and at dusk about 400 or so bats would come flying out for the night.

A couple of days and several drives later having gotten our eyes used to looking for animals and seeing bucket-loads of Elephants, Giraffes, Impala, Warthogs and so forth we checked out of the Treetop Lodge and drove on to Lake Manyara. It is on the edge of the western cliffs of The Rift Valley. Our game drive in Lake Manyara Park was a completely different environment. We went from savannah and scrub with some trees to a jungle like place with plenty of water and Baboons and Blue Monkeys everywhere. We searched in vain for the Lions and Leopards in the trees. In Tanzania the Lions often go up into the trees to get a breeze and escape the flies. Alas none to be seen, but we did see Hippos and many other animals.

From there we went on to the Manor at Ngorongoro. It is a Colonial style upscale place. We got some pampering in there. Then was the drive down into Ngorongoro Crater. It is a unique environment. 300 million or so years ago it blew out and formed a crater 12 kilometers across. The side and rim are dense forest and jungle like, while the crater floor is smooth with short grass. The animals stay here as there is good food supply all year round and they don’t have to migrate to find food. On the way in while driving along the rim we came upon two Lions, a male and female right on the edge of the road. After a few minutes they started making a new lion and then walked off into the thick green. The crater floor was full of life. We saw Hyenas cleaning a carcass and a sneaky little Jackal got away with a large piece of meat. We saw the black Rhino and Cape Buffalo and Elephants, so Poe had her Big Five. It was a long day, but we saw lots of lions and all kinds of animals. It was great. Then back to the Manor for some more 5-star treatment.

The next day we flew a tiny bush plane across to the southern Serengeti. We met our new guide/driver Baraza and had a short game drive before we went to the camp for lunch. I was impressed with the pilot, the landing was smooth onto a gravel and dirt runway that was at most two feet wider than the landing wheels and sloped outward to shed water. On our short introductory drive we saw a single Hyena make a kill of a baby gazelle. Hyena are mostly scavengers, but will hunt if the opportunity presents itself, or if they are hungry and in a large group. They are an intimidating looking animal, and have jaws that crunch up the bones of the carcasses. The Hyenas, vultures and Jackals are the cleaners of the bush. In less than 24 hours a carcass is nothing but a skull and a couple of bones, no skin, no meat, mostly no bones left.

The Sanctuary in Kusini is a “permanent tent camp” which means the tents are on a wooden floor with its own bathroom and shower with hot and cold water. This is clearly uptown camping. The terrain here is another change from the rest. It is set in an Acacia forest on the edge of the savannah with short grass and scrub. The Tse-Tse flies are a pain, but our safari truck had A/C and so in the forests we kept the window up and the top closed and the A/C on. In the open plains the flies aren’t so bad, so we would lift up the pop-top and stand up holding on and looking all around for animals. Some of the other guests were in totally open trucks like the one I used in South Africa. One woman had her slicker on with the hood pulled tight over her head and tied around the face with a horsehair fan going full blast at her face. Later I mentioned our A/C and thought she was going to come over the table at my throat! The hosts; Mark and Cornelia have “happy hour” half way up the Kopje (huge granite rock sloping up, think Pride Rock from The Lion King). They put overstuffed pillows and open bar with snacks and we all watch the sun go down while drinking and chatting. This is some way to camp.

The great migration is in this area at this time of year, so there are Wildebeest and Zebra all over. I can’t even guess how many we saw, maybe 50,000 over a few days? Herds from horizon to horizon. Sometimes just scattered all over feeding, sometimes a long single file line stretching for miles. We went on several days of game drives and saw many, many animals and loads of Hyena and Vultures cleaning up the carcasses of kills. We saw many Cheetah, on kills and with cubs. We put our pictures of the Cheetahs into the database they pass on to a Cheetah watch project to track them by identifying them with spot patterns. We saw many Lions, up in trees, on the ground and there was a pride of 17 sprawled out on a Kopje! The final game drive we went north and found a different environment again. The rocks were beautiful and the open grassland was miles of green tall grass. It looked so smooth I thought of a giant golf course, but the lions and other animals would disappear into it. At the end of the drive we came upon many other trucks and got the chance to have a good look at a Leopard. There were a mom and young one up a tree. We got a great look at them and it was a nice topper to a great last drive.

The birds of Africa are just as amazing as the animals. We have seen many, many new kinds and the eagles are everywhere. The Vultures are huge and fight like crazy over meat. there is a Maribu Crane which steals food from the Vultures and stands easily 4 feet tall. I loved the Secretary bird, which chases and eats snakes. I can’t help but think of Katherine Hepburn in pedal pushers when I see it. (not weird or anything, eh?) and the Superb Starling was wonderful looking.

Africa has been spectacular, the people are friendly, the country beautiful and the animals simply amazing. It has exceeded all of my expectations and now we are on the way to Israel.

Tags: Travel

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