The Old Switcheroo
Day 274
The day had finally arrived, our safari into the Serengeti. This was the most definite of activities before we left home. There were other things we thought we may do or activities that we didn’t plan on that we have done but a safari here was a sure thing. When most people dream of Africa this is the Africa they dream of, so there was no way we were missing out. We signed up for a 4 day safari, beginning in Lake Manyara National Park. Then onto the Serengeti and finishing with the Ngorongoro Crater.
Jordana and I waited in the lobby of the Arusha Naz hotel, the mornig air still cool. We had just finsished off a large breakfast of fresh fruit, toast, fresh juice and a Spanish omelet. For some unknown reason the Spanish omelet appears on almost all hotel breakfasts in Tanzania. We were waiting to be picked up by Nature Beauties, a tour company we booked our safari with. The Lonely Planet and various message boards had recommended them and at $560 U.S. each it was the cheapest tour we’d found. A man came in to fetch us and led us outside to the waiting safari truck. This truck looks old and crappy! Wait a second, Hartebeest Tours? This isn’t us, must be another Mike and Jordana. Damn it, it IS our tour. Yep, we’d had the old switcheroo pulled on us, something the Lonely Planet claimed no reputable company would do without informing you. Believe me when I say we were not informed. We were informed that our driver would “of course” speak English. Almost everyone in the tourist industry does speak English here so I wasn’t worried about that much. Well I should have been. We drove off to pick up a Swedish couple and a lone Aussie guy called Vorn, pronouced Vaughn. Aussies are always a bit different aren’t they? On the way it became quite apparent that our driver/guide was just going to be a driver for the next 4 days. English was far from his first, second or third language. As frustrating as our start was we were finally off and driving towards Lake Manyara the first stop on our safari. The 2 Swedes were friendly and the oddly named Aussie reminded us of our friend back home, Jeff Harris. So we had a good group at least and it looked like it would be a fun 4 days.
We all thought we were driving straight to the park and that we would be camping in tents just outside the parks gates tonight. Instead about 2 hours after Arusha we stopped in a small town at a basic hotel just outside the park, our driver told us we would spend the night here. The rooms were decent so it wasn’t a bad thing, although I would have preferred to be out in the wild camping. Isn’t that the whole idea of a safari? We had lunch and then finally convinced our driver to head into the park for an afternoon drive. He had been telling us we should wait to later and took off for a nap. When you work for tips this was not a good start my friend, lazy bugger. The park was only 10 minutes away and as we climbed the Rift valley escarpment we were given a fantastic view of the plains and Lake Manyara. It was the first time all day I stopped worrying about what was wrong with this safari and was blown away by the beauty. Manyara is famous for it’s elusive tree climbing lions. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see a tree climbing lion. The top of the truck is open, we stand on the seats with our heads poked out of the roof looking for wildlife. Do I really want a lion on top of me in that position? No.
The drive started through an area of dense woods with huge trees. It was a welcome change from the brown and arid landscape of Tanzania. We all poked our heads out of the roof taking in the woody damp smell of the rainforest. Quickly we passed some monkeys, Vervets. They are everywhere in Africa, sort of like macaques in Asia. Then we found a huge group of baboons scattered all over the road. There must have been over a hundred of the large monkeys just walking along, in and out of the forest. We stopped there, with our engine running. Oh did I forget to mention that? Yeah, our truck cannot be turned off unless we are on a slope where we can get a rolling start and pop the clutch. Great safari truck eh? Right, so back to the baboons. They just walked by the truck, looking up at us but not really concerned much by our presence. Then a few of the larger ones started a comotion and we heard loud yelps. About 10 baboons tore across the road chasing a few others, the howl and growl was frightening. They sounded like lions, real vicious animals when they want to be. The baboon being chased was up a tree and soon they all calmed down and went back to doing whatever it is they were doing.
Out of the forest we emerged on the golden coloured plains with the lake in the distance. We passed several impala, one time we couldn’t figure out why we weren’t leaving after viewing some impala that had long disappeared into the woods. Looking down Jordana told our driver we were ready to go, he was busy texting on his mobile! As we drove along the dirt tracks we came upon a watering hole that was fronted by a large muddy area. This was quite the scene, the quintessential African safari scene. Hippos lay in the mud, to the right was a group of Zebras with several warthogs in between them. In the distance behind the hippos were wildebeest and buffalo and just to the left were some large ugly storks and next to them 2 beautiful crested cranes. We were actually able to get out of the truck here for pictures. Amazing! In South Africa at Kruger it was a very rare thing to be allowed to leave your vehicle. Far in the distance was the lake, a sea of pink. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of flamingos. So many that from here the entire lake looked pink.
We drove off, following the track to a large group of Buffalo and then stopping to view some elephants and giraffes in the distance. Sure we had seen these same animals not long ago in Kruger but the scenery here was just stunning. We stopped to observe a lone giraffe walking slowly across the plains. I love the way giraffes walk, so graceful. This had to be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in the wold before. As the sun began to go down we entered the woods again and came across an elephant that was no more than 5 meters from the truck. There was a baby and mother, but they were tough to see since they quickly hid in the bushes. We drove past some more baboons and then drove up the steep escarpment for a spectacular view of the lake and plains far below. So peaceful and beautiful it made us all completely forget the state of our truck or the lack of guiding from our guide.
In the evening we waited quite awhile for our dinner but when it came it was a decent enough and at least a bigger portion than the very tiny lunch we were served. It was a good end to a good day. I wasn’t sure I would be able to say that when we began this morning. Most important was that our group got along well. Imagine having a crap guide and then the three others on the tour were just as annoying? At least we didn’t have to worry about that. We tucked in our mosquito net and hit the bed early, tomorrow was sure to be more exciting as we drove into the Serengeti.
Tags: Lake Manyara, nature beauties, safari, Serengeti, Tanzania
Michael Coroneos
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