Safari Heaven (Great Animals, Food and Locals!!!) - Arusha

The plane ride was quick and was worth the few extra dollars because we had an incredible view of Mt Kiliminjaro. It was extra funny when we headed over the mountain, the pilot pulled out a bazooka of a camera and started snapping pictures (autopilot is the way to go I guess).

When we arrived in Arusha we were greeted like celebrities. I don’t think that we knew how celebrity like we were going to be treated over the next couple of days. We had been told to expect the steep prices of safaris, but we figured we had negotiated a good deal and a good enough deal that would surely not include any celebrity like treatment. But...we left the gates of Arusha to find a man waiting there holding a sign that read “welcome Jeremy” and were escorted to our car (haha royal treatment minus the red carpet). We were finally introduced to Abraham whom we had spoken to and texted many times in planning for our safari.

We were first taken to our hotel to discuss all the details of the trip which included the final cost, the itinerary for the parks we would visit and the finer details like our meal preferences and such. After deciding on Lake Tarengeray, Serengeti, Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyare, we headed to the bank to settle up. Although it was a fair deal of money, the actual size of the stack of bills was incredible and the TSH amount was in the millions (oh…if only we were millionaires in Canadian dollars). After returning to the hotel, counting the money and settleing up all of our details for the next day departure, Abraham asked one of his employees if he could escort us to the market to pick out some fresh fruit and see if we could find a book so I could learn Swahili. Stanley was extremely kind and brought along his son who was absent from school because he was ill. Katie made a new friend instantly and was dragged along by this very cute four year old (glad he was so young or I might have lost my gf to this cutey). The market was interesting to see but definitely not a photogenic place that Sobey’s would have included in their advertisements. The Swahili book was not what I had been hoping to find as it was simply a phrasebook. It is pretty difficult to learn to speak a language when they simply give you long phrases but it was nice to try because everyone here is so willing to help you learn.

After the market Katie and I headed to the hotel room to just chill out and enjoy some quiet time with no one trying to sell us anything (if you can avoid the street people in the lobby then you only have to avoid the hotel staff who are also trying to sell you their own ‘hand made’ batik’s).

The next morning we were greeted in the lobby bright and early by Rueben, our guide. He was there to keep us on time as we had much to do and could not afford to get behind. Despite the distance, (less than ten feet from the lobby) we were immediately hounded by people who ‘remembered’ us from the night before and who informed us that we had told them we would ‘support’ them by buying a safari hat, a batik, or some trinket that could be of no use…I can say for certain that we did not meet them but I guess to them it was worth the try.

After picking up the essentials we headed out of town. We were a little concerned about the fact that there was no seatbelts at all and we would be driving for the next several days in this vehicle. Rueben didn’t seem too worried and just commented to Katie that we weren’t going fast enough for anyone to get hurt because the speed limits in Africa are low. He said this as he traveled over 100 km/hr down a highway with no end of the traffic and infinite obstacles to avoid.

#18) Get used to having no seatbelts in Africa because some of the taxis are either too old for them to have been built originally or may have been removed because they did not work and there was just nothing available to replace it or no money to do so. The drivers here are exceptional because they are so used to avoiding everyone and everything that they are on constant alert mode or so it seems (knock on wood).

Our first campsite was in Lake Tarangiere. It was a deserted campground with dilapidated buildings. I now understand what Dawit has told me about camping in Africa. When you go camping here you don’t really do it by yourself. Well of course you could do it yourself but that it is just not how things work here. As soon as we got to the campsite we were greeted by four young men who took our bags and the rest of the camping gear and within minutes had the kitchen and tents set up. Gregory immediately set to making our dinner as we went to Lake Tarangiere for a late afternoon game drive. It was a nice park and we got to see many elephants, giraffes and much of the same we had seen before. The most exciting part was the large (at this point considered large) herd of elephants and a set of twin elephants (our guide was shooting pictures and so we asked why – response was that they were the same height and followed the same mother and were always together – big deal if your guide is also taking pictures).

We were a little perturbed that the game drive ended after only three hours but we waited to see what else was going to happen over the next days. Once we returned back to the camp we were intrigued to see a table for two setup under one of the little huts. We sat down and were hoping to get to charge our cameras and computer but when we plugged into the outlet we were shocked to find no electricity (ok shocked was an overstatement because after no power on the island for three months we figured it was normal). We were more shocked that there was only two plates when there was four people in our group but we asked and they said that only ’we’ ate there. The meal was as Linda (the reference for our safari) had described, incredible. (Side note – we had discovered this safari company from a Czech group while on the ferry from Tanzania to Zanzibar. She exchanged the number for the group and said the price was good in comparison to others and the food was amazing.) It was amazing to see Gregory cook all that he had in the dark or near dark and how many courses the meal was when we were camping. The meal had been way too much for the two of us and so we returned the extra and Gregory divided it up amongst all of the workers. I could have let Gregory come and gather the rest of the food (they would serve us on head and foot if we wanted) but I was intrigued and went over to see how they worked. Not only was Gregory working but the other four men that were working at the campground were also helping to do the dishes and help prepare Ugali (local staple food made of crushed maize and flour which is cooked or boiled until it turns into porridge/jello like mixture). They had absolutely no light with the exception of some small lanterns, so we offered Gregory our headlamps which he took graciously.

Rueben had disappeared after the game drive to head to town to fix the vehicle because it was shorting out and we had to push the jeep to get it going. He had seemed different than the day before but we figured it was because he was sick. He kept returning to the washroom time after time but would never let on that anything was affecting him…not yet anyways.

We spent our first night in the tent under the canopy of a small hut because it had threatened rain but were lucky enough to avoid any wet spells. However, Katie began to feel ill just before bed and awoke in the middle of the night to purge her stomach. The toilets at the camp (squat toilets) were a bit different than we were used to so it was unfortunate to be sick here ;).

The next day we awoke very early to head on our morning game drive. It was a nice morning and we captured beautiful pictures of the sunsets (pictures gone ) but did not see as much game as the night before with the exception of a dead giraffe being feasted on by the vultures and a scavenger stork. After the game drive we headed back to the camp for another amazing meal (just the beginning of many) and a tour around the campground by one of the workers. They were pretty excited to show me how things work and I was shocked at the same time and especially with their home. Their home was a very modest hut the size of a very small room that was segregated into four rooms by sheets which also doubled as mosquito nets. I was extremely embarrassed at this point to be on our trip and enjoying the food we were and accepting their infinite kindness. I guess the upside was that all of the food that we didn’t eat (because of the size of the portions was a lot) they feasted on and with our tips they had extra money for their families. These guys were hard workers because even though this was low season and they had no guests they still hand cut all of the grass on the premises.

Our second stop was Lake Manyare campground which was just a pit stop on our way to Serengeti. On the way our guide and our cook barely talked to each other so we decided that we might as well give them our ipods to listen to. They did not refuse by any means and were extremely happy to listen to our music. I can’t be certain if they liked it all but it was music and they were just glad to have it. The campsite here was much nicer. We were surprised to be greeted by eight employees considering we were the only guests. Back home a campsite would be looked after by a park ranger or someone but they would definitely not be there all day and night to look after our needs and sleep amongst us but would rather wait for us to call in any problem (not sure this system is all efficient but is probably more of a job creation program). Again they setup our tent (without us even knowing) and then our cook went to work preparing the evening meal.
At this point Katie and I had decided that we did not want to head to Europe any longer. We were wanting to spend the rest of our travels in Africa (as Africa has no doubt stolen our hearts) but were not sure how safe it would be in places like Rwanda and some of the surrounding countries for us on our own. Plus on short notice it would be difficult to figure out our transportation requirements and would get mighty expensive with flights. We decided that the best way to do it would be to get ourselves on an Overland tour across Africa. If we were going to organize this we figured we had to do it today because we weren’t guaranteed to have power for the next couple of days. The people at the campsite must have thought we were weird because we were on our computer or talking to our computer for most of the evening (we explained later that this was skype). It was hard to research any travel options because our internet signal was weak. It was even worse because we were trying to book flights for Egypt at the same time as organize our overland trip. Almost every tour was booked solid because it was such short notice but we never gave up and eventually got ourselves a trip. It was a little longer than we had hoped but it was the only thing available. Despite it not being the length we wanted it was going to cover all the countries we were interested in seeing: Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, Nmimbia , Zambia and South Africa. We were a little unsure about Tanzania because they were going to cover all of the same places we had been too but we called our Safari company (the one we were presently with) and he said that he could organize us a trip to Mount Kilimnjaro. In Zambia we were also going to visit Victoria falls but because it would be short and would be from the other side of the Falls we decided to do it.

That evening we purchased a goat leg because the guide thought it would be nice. Katie was not so impressed by our meal choice but Gregory insured her that he would make something else in case she did not like it. We agreed because it cost only 3 dollars for the entire leg and it would also feed the rest of the workers if we couldn’t eat much of it. It turned out to be a lot of food (I mean it was an entire leg) and was delicious (well I thoroughly enjoyed it) and Katie had freshly made pizza. The cooks here are incredibly ingenious and made a makeshift oven by using coals underneath a frying pan and then placed more coals over a second frying pan that is turned upside down over the food. I talked a lot with Gregory that night and discovered that the reason he is such a good cook is because he is actually training to be a chef. Not only is he cooking great for us is he is also teaching many of the workers to cook and must be a good teacher because they cooked most of our food here, with his help, and it was fantastic. I cannot stress enough how good the food is. Picture a top notch restaurant and then remove the nice décor get rid of the large kitchen but keep the food and that is what we are having every night on our safari.

Because Gregory liked our music so much we told him to keep it while he was cooking. We were very pleased to go back to the kitchen, after planning our trips, to see several of the staff bouncing while listening to our music. They were taking turns with the cooking and were just smiling ear to ear listening to our tunes. We thought they couldn’t be happier but after dinner we let them use our computer to browse the internet and we soon realized how much happier they could be especially over something that we considered so small. It was amazing how much pleasure something so small for us could be for them. I realized how little they had used a computer when I came back after half an hour and they were still trying to log onto their email. They still had our gmail page open and were trying multiple combinations of their yahoo addresses in the gmail login section. It was such a good feeling to be able to show them something so simple and to see them light up after so much frustration. Once they logged on, it was also interesting to note that although they could read their email they did not know how to reply…they had never replied. So I showed them how to reply and then they began typing.

At one point I wanted to pass out but it was too hard to tell them they had to stop so I just let them continue. After a while I looked over to see a very sad look on Gregory’s face and realized that the email had disappeared. I think he was going to quit so I asked him if I could type out what he had lost. They were amazed by how fast I could type and I was amazed that he had only typed three lines in twenty minutes but I guess without any practice how would they learn? Gregory was so happy that I was able to return his email. I spent much of the night talking with these guys about Canada and life on our side of the planet and was returned with much information about their way of life. For some reason I found it very difficult here to comprehend how they live. I didn’t think I would ever feel so sad but that night when I tried to fall asleep I was not able to…I just kept thinking about how fortunate we were and how unfortunate they were here, yet how incredibly happy they always were and always will be.

The next morning when we awoke we were greeted by several of the workers and they were so looking forward to using our ipods. Even if we had wanted to say no there is no way we could have done so because they were so excited…just like small children. After dinner we packed and headed out to Serengeti. Again Gregory and Rueben passed the time by listening to our ipods while we tried to read up on Egypt and to admire the people and their very different way of life. For example, the endless carriages being pulled by cows that are born with large humps on their backs. And not only are the cows used to pull the carriages but there are endless amounts of people pushing makeshift carriages carrying vegetables, water or even people between stores and homes or between towns. The scenery along the drive was nice but once we entered the Ngorogoro conservation our opinions changed as the Ngorogoro conservation area was a jungle winding through the mountains. We had thought we had seen large herds of animals until we left the Ngorogoro Mountains and found what seemed like a hundred giraffes just chilling out. Katie had to stop to pee, everyone ended up peeing, and was very entertained that she got to watch the giraffes while she was tinkeling. Then, when we entered the stretch between Ngorogoro and Serengeti, we witnessed part of the large migration of Wildebeest and Zebra’s. But it didn’t end with these animals because we saw the largest herds of elephants we had ever seen and many many groups of elephants (over 100+). It seemed like the migration went on forever because everywhere you looked there was just black dots on the horizon.

Just before we entered the Serengeti park we stopped to stretch and a group of Massai women came up to us and in sign language told us to take a picture for 1000 TSH. We did not know what to do but decided that we would help them out. When I took the picture they just stood without changing their expressions or changing their positions. When we were finished they just stared at us and said one more so we did and then they demanded another thousand. We were shocked because they did not speak about payment before and we didn’t have any more money so we gave them some small change and under the guides instructions just left.

That evening we had a night game drive and we were fortunate enough to see lions and leopards sleeping in trees. Our guide did not take pictures of the lioness in the tree but he took some pictures of the leopard and also helped us to take pictures in the bright sunlight. Again it became obvious how important a leopard spotting could be because there were so many cars parked there to witness a leopard simply sleeping (again, no pictures to share as they were stolen ).

That night we were not greeted at the campsite by any workers as we were now staying in the Serengeti park…instead, we were greeted by herds of giraffes, walking next to and alongside our campsite. We were also fortunate to arrive just in time to see the sun setting over the Plains – so beautiful. We helped Gregory cut up the vegetables and after dinner we helped him with the dishes which I think he was very grateful of. We also learned that our driver did not like to sleep in a tent because for the last two nights he had left our campsites to sleep at a friends homes. Also our hunch about him being ill was correct as in Lake Manyare he had visited the doctor because he had been having abdominal pains which the doctor figured was due to an Amoeba he had received from drinking some bad water. This had us a little concerned as maybe it was what had caused Katie’s illness but he informed us that he had drank some bad water in Lake Natron despite knowing it was not a good idea. Yet even being sick he was always up on time and always wanting to continue. Although, he said that he could not sleep in the tent due to a bad back I think he was a little scared about the wild animals that would come out at night in the campground.

We weren’t really sure about what we were going to hear that night but were told that usually about two hours after dark, the hyenas would surely be out and who knows what else. To stay cool we left open all of our vents but realized part way through the night it may have been a bad idea. We awoke at one point to hear a low grumbling noise from around the tent but had no idea what it was. The crazier part was that about a minute later the tent behind us opened up and someone wandered out to the bathroom. We thought the person was crazy because no matter how bad we had to pee we were not going outside. And almost immediately after that person left to use the toilet the grumbling continued.

The next morning Katie also told me that she had awoken at one point and had heard an animal either screaming in heat or because it was being killed. Our guide also filled us in on the noises we had heard the night before…lions…crazy campers going pee!!!

That day, we headed out on a morning game drive and were greeted by a picture perfect beautiful sunset over the Serengeti plains (kills me to think we no longer have this picture). We saw very few animals with the exception of a hyena running down the road towards us (our first hyena sighting – yah!). We tracked lion footprints and spoor but found nothing. The only other exciting thing was that our truck broke down and had to be fixed…well not good exciting. Our guide was kind enough to get us a ride back to the campground as none of us had eaten breakfast. It took our guide two hours to fix the vehicle and when he got back he wouldn’t eat. He just didn’t want us to waste anymore time so he refused to eat until we had left the park and had reached the area where our permit was to be returned. We figured that our guide must have to pay out of his own pocket if he were late to return our permit because as soon as we were out of the campground we were going extremely fast. We couldn’t stand in the roof rack area because we feared that we would hit a bump and smash our heads. It wasn’t hard to coax out of our guides that they weren’t paid by the safari company but lived off of the tips because when the vehicle broke down our driver had to ask us for a loan on the money until we returned to Arusha where we would be reimbursed and the cost wasn’t high (~13 dollars US). We headed to Ngorogoro but this time we didn’t stop near any entrances for the fear of having to take pictures of local tribes for money.

#19) The Massai people are one of the tribes of Tanzania and bordering countries that live in the wild. They are similar to our Amish people as they do not really believe in modern technology. So much so that they do not allow their children to be educated because they do not want to alter their customs. They live in the wild with the animals and to fend off the animals. They rub themselves with cow fat. Supposedly the only animal they are afraid of is the Water Buffalo which seems to be the animal the guides are also worried about.

The Ngorogoro campsite was also supposed to have electricity which was not only important for us but also for our driver as our vehicle had consumed about 30 liters of water as it continued to overheat every hour or so. Unfortunately when we arrived at the campsite we discovered that while all of the surrounding campsites had electricity, we would be without. It wasn’t a big deal for us as we still had enough battery power in our cameras but it made it difficult for Gregory to cook and Rueben had to drive to a surrounding campsite to find a mechanics shop. But as always they both managed with no problem, and with our help, we ate another incredible meal. I stayed with Gregory to help with dishes as Katie had done this the night before. Gregory said that of all the Safaris he had been on he enjoyed us the most as very few people join in on the cooking and cleaning process. After I explained to him the rule that runs back home, “those that cook don’t clean”, he kindly asked me to look around the cooking hut to show me that there was no one else in there besides the hired help. Not only did these guys cook for all of their guests they also prepared the lunches for the next day and after all of that around 10:30 would eat for themselves and then do all of the dishes.

#20) If you ever go on one of these safaris and have a guide and cook and want to make them feel appreciated all you have to do is one night try and help them with the dishes. A simple deed that will bring them a lot of pleasure and joy.

That night we were not greeted by lions but rather we heard both wild pigs and Water Buffalo wandering around the campsite. It was obvious to us that they were pigs because you could hear them snorting as they gobbled on one piece of garbage or the next. Although, we had been told that it would be much colder here, we did not believe it until we tried to sleep and had to put on socks and lots of clothing. The morning was further evidence of the chill here in the mountains as we could easily see our own breath.

The game drive in the Ngorogor crater (Kaldera rather than crater – name given to a crater that has life and is not only barren ash) was by far the best we had experienced. Within 100 meters of entering into the park we ran into a queue of vehicles watching a couple of cheetahs lounging below a tree and walking in the grass. Shortly after, we ran into a pack of lioness lounging in the sun (at a distance) as well as elephants, ostrich and even some black rhino. We had our second hyena sighting followed by our 3, 4, 5 and then many more. The Kaldera was filled with flamingos and all sorts of other creatures. Shortly after discovering a hyena lounging in the water we were treated to the sight of a lioness sleeping no more than one foot off of the road. We pulled up and just sat there watching her sleep and snapping endless pictures (our guide included). Once we finally were able to pull ourselves away from such a sight we ran into two male lions wandering down the road. There was only one other vehicle around so we were able to follow the lions for about 500 meters before anyone else interrupted and drove the lions off. It was a spectacular thing to see these seemingly ferocious creatures casually wander down the road. The driver of one of the other vehicles was actually daring enough to put his hand out the window and touch the lion as he passed. As I mentioned the day was spectacular with so many sightings and even a close up of a very pregnant zebra – circle of life at it’s greatest!

We spent our last night in Lake Manyare at the same campsite that we had stayed three nights prior. The guys were excited that we were back and within seconds had asked if they could use the iPods. We gladly gave them the iPods and had to cycle through the two of them because they would use it until the battery died and then return it to us in hopes that another one would be charged and ready to go. We got to know all of the staff better that night and discovered both their true names and the nicknames they gave themselves. It was easiest to talk with Pancakes and Tomato Boy as they spoke the best English. Somehow it came about that we should make them cds (one of our ideas) and all of a sudden we had suggested that each write down their postal addresses and favorite artists and we would send them each some cds. Well that was a hit. They took our book and altogether frantically wrote down all of the cds that they could think of…I think there will have to be a little filtering on our part but they were just so damn happy!!!

Our last day was a hard one because it was hard to say goodbye to all of these nice people we had met. But it wasn’t going to be goodbye forever because we had already arranged our Mount Kiliminjaro trek and would be taking Gregory as our cook (we insisted). Oh ya, and I was kind of glad that the camping was over for now because I needed some good rest to fend off my nasty chest infection!! Katie was now just starting to get sick…hello hotel in Arusha!

As for the pictures, you will learn of our sorrow in our next blog. We just only wish we could share with you the beauty we were so fortunate enough to see…