Week 56 - Tanzania

Braving the wild in Ngorongoro Crater

Our path in Tanzania

Did you see my lunch?

Cute little hyenas

Masai people - they do not seem to be afraid of the lions!
Evil Vultures!

Mama and Baby

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Jambo, Mambo!

Wow, what a topsy-turvy week we have just had. After leaving the mountains we still faced a few up and downs, but thankfully nothing that couldn't be resolved.

Just a few of our findings about Tanzania;
Firstly, this place has the harmonious cultural mix of Singapore - the streets are filled with Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, and Christians all in their traditional clothing - well besides the Christians. Its absolutely amazing!

Secondly, There are Masai people all over the north of Tanzania. They wear the traditional red garbs along with tire tred sandals - to prevent from the evil thorns of Africa (think Aruba Craig). You will see the Masai not only in the villages, but in cities as well and they sometimes assimilate into regular jobs including tourism.

Lastly, I can promise you that wireless internet is easier to find in South America than electricity is in Tanzania! The whole country is run on generators which provide the cities with a buzzzzz; unfortunately not a good one!

Our path thus far - Arusha > Serengeti Park > Ngorongoro Crater > Arusha > Mbeya

Tuesday - Bogus Safari: Let me say this, Tanzania is a taxing and challenging country to backpack. This isn't due to the lack of hotels or infrastructure, these are fine, but there seems to be a con-artist convention in every city in the country. Thankfully we have been lucky to meet some nice and honest people. This morning we booked a safari to go to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater and we were due to leave at 3pm. Too good to be true, well yes it was. So far in our trip, it has been safe to assume that tour companies in the Lonely Planet books are solid and may over charge, but they will not con you. The safety is in their reputation. Unfortunately we took the usual precautions, but were very unlucky. As we were due to leave a dodgy guy showed up and raised our suspicions. To cut a long story short, we gave them another chance, despite this individual and went 2 hours by taxi to the camp where we were to meet our new group and join their safari. On arrival there was no group or tour guide, just 5 con-artists in the camp trying to cheat us. Their objective was to keep us at this hotel and delay us over and over then charge us ridiculous amounts for the hotel and food to where we wouldn't get a refund. It was fairly easy to spot once we got there. Also, the tour agents now had all their phones off. Thankfully our taxi driver was not in on the scam and noticed this also and was kind enough to drive us back to Arusha - he didn't get paid either for not leaving us there. We arrived back at our hotel by 10pm and were just happy to be out of the scam; the next day we would attempt the task of trying to retrieve our money.

Wednesday - The real deal: Thankfully our threats of calling the police were actually concerning for them. The Tanzanian police must do a lot more than those in Argentina. We were given our money back and went shopping immediately for a new tour. However, this time we decided to book our own private tour rather than risking the chance of being mixed on another tour. For the last blog didn't I tell you we are social people, haha, more isolation. Our new tour was set to start the following day and we had a close inspection of our guide, cook and the Toyota Landcruiser. Now with time to relax, we spent the day running a few errands and enjoying an outdoor lunch and coffee and cake somewhere that looks like Patisserie Valerie in London.

Thursday to Sunday - Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater: If you ever have the chance, I would highly recommend a Tanzanian Safari for a top 10 list of things to do in the world! Wow, it's just raw beauty and this is what the world was like before we changed it! No I'm not going all hippy on you and yes, I have been wearing the same shirt for 2 days, but you will see when you go; such a magical experience! The first day we drove to our camp Seronera in the middle of the Serengeti. Yes, I did say camp. We camped out in the middle of the park, no fences, guns, or anything, just us, the other people and lots of animals all around! You don't see too many animals close to the tents, other than the small scurrying animals looking for breadcrumbs. Everyday we saw such an amazing array of animals. Our 4x4 SUV had a removable top that just extended up so we could stand and have shade over our heads. I'll just give you the details on the animals we saw; 12 vultures eating a large carcass, multiple groups of lions (one occasion 4 cubs playing by themselves, two males lounging around, 3 females which walked by our car possibly touching it with their fur, and a pride of 14 lions who were eating what was likely to be a Zebra while the vultures thought they could move in) and several other groups of lions, we saw a few leopards (one in a tree with a gazelle carcass), several cheetahs (one which was hunting, but the hartebeests managed to elude them, jackals on the prowl, dozens of hyenas (a pack of 11 with blood on their fur who had just polished off some creature), 500+ elephants many with young babies (one sunset they came just by our truck), possibly 200 giraffes all over the place, three black rhinos which are very elusive, velvet monkeys and baboons all over the place, thousands of wildebeests, thousands of gazelles, hundreds of hartebeests, thousands of African buffaloes, thousands of zebras (which were just beginning the mating season so couples were sitting in fields hugging, yes hugging each other), warthogs all around the place digging, hippos cooling off in the water and occasionally on the shores,buzzards, eagles, storks, cranes, starlings, secretary bird, and many crowded carnes (google image these). The scene was just stunning every day. This time of year in the Serengeti the landscape is very arid and has some small trees and bushes, with mostly plains. The second day we went up in the afternoon to Lobo in the very north near the Kenyan boarder and there were many large boulders and lush green water fed areas. The third night we camped just above the Ngorongoro crater rim. Millions of years ago a gigantic volcano erupted in Tanzania, leaving the worlds biggest volcanic crater (20km wide or 12 miles) which is now home to one of the highest concentrations of animals in the world. Every day we were fed very well although always hungry for more animals, to shoot! With the camera I mean! :D

Monday - Safaris from the highway: Yesterday was a tiring one. We had an all day bus from Arusha (in the north) to Mbeya all the way in the south (20 hours)! During the drive during the sunset we passed through a national park, strange to have the highway go through, but we were able to see a dozen giraffes many of which were feeding by the road. Welcome to Africa! Despite getting in around 2am, we were able to quickly find a hotel and get to sleep.

So what's next; I'm now writing you from Zambia and we are waiting for our over night bus to go to the capital Lusaka, no rest, too much to see!

Quahari,

Dan and Marina