Safari

Hello from Zanzibar! We flew in the day before yesterday from Arusha, 4 hours late (our plane was late then needed to change a tire), but safe and sound. Zanzibar is quite something, but I'll save that for another post. Today it's all about the safari.

Geting there is half the fun

I've been struggling with how to convey just how amazing our experience was. First, I'm not quite sure it has completely sunk in yet, and second it would be difficult to describe, without writing a short book, all of the wonderful things we saw and experienced (also, frankly there are much better things to do in Zanzibar than write a blog). I guess the best I can do for now is give some of the highlights to give you an idea of what we experienced. Bear in mind that you should multiply whatever impression you get from these highlights and our pictures 100 times in order to come close to approximating how we all felt. Also keep in mind that the following are only a series of snapshots and that the whole was much greater than the sum of the parts

The Particulars

Our safari was seven days long (6 nights) and included the "northern circuit" parks (Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Lake Manyara). We spent 3 nights in lodges and 3 nights camping, and we were accompanied by a guide (Jafetti), and a cook / camp hand (Bruno). The safari itself consisted of drives (called game drives) through the parks on dirt paths in a landcruiser with a open top roof so we could stand up to see the sights (just being able to stand up in a car on a bumpy road was loads of fun) and longer drives to campsites, lodges, or other parks.

Wlidlife Spotted

We saw lions, cheetahs (very rare apparently), hyenas, elephants, hippopotamus, giraffes, gazelles (thompson and grant), impalas (Aileen told us they were called NAF impalas in Malawi as in not another f-ing impala), buffaloes, wildebeest, hearetbeests, waterbuck, topi, dik dik, zebras, osterich, warthogs, baboons, monkeys, and countless birds.

Some Highlights

The scenery. From Serengeti's seemingly endless savannas dotted by lonely acacia trees, to clouds spilling over Ngorongoro's lush crater rim to Tarangire's odd yet beautiful baobab trees and Manyara's beautiful lake, every second on safari takes your breath away if you let it.

The Serengeti

The company. Being able to share this experience with Aileen and Tim was great, Not only did we get to laugh and be thrilled together, we got to talk about what we saw over beers all night long at the camp or lodge.. Plus, who gets to say "meet you in Arush on the Tuesday". Given that we were coming from Cairo, Aileen was coming from Blantyre (Malawi) and Tim was coming from Pittsburgh. I still can't believe all that worked without a hitch (Tim's 36 hour flight notwithstanding).

Giraffes. Giraffes are, in my opinion, the most graceful creature on the earth (unless drinking), and I could spend hours watching them. Also, because they have no real predators, they are not really afraid of the safari vehicles and would continue about their business even if you were very close.

Elephants. Elephants were ubiquitous in all of the parks, and we were able to observe them feeding, drinking, nursing, and just walking from one place to the next. My favourite was watching them break limbs off trees to get at the bark, Colleen's least favourite was when on two separate occasions, our driver got a little too close to a calf for its mothers liking and the mother trumpeted a blast and took a few menacing steps towards the land cruiser (not sure what she thought she was trying to accomplish by ducking behind a seat).

Shade for Lions

Lions: Lions really are majestic animals and we were lucky enough to see several of them (males, females and cubs). We did not see a kill (apparently that is very rare - we did see the aftermath though, see vultures below), but we did have a close encounter when a female and two juveniles decided to use our landcruiser as shade. I fad my head out the window to take pictures and one must have walked within 5 feet of me. I'm not sure that I've ever had a more thrilling moment in my life.

Hippopotamus: Hippos stink. I have never smelled anything more foul in my life (and I've been around). They eat at night, then spend all day in the water. Well it's dry season, so the water holes are all shrinking up and the hippos are concentrated in ever smaller pools. One of the pools we saw must have had 100 to 150 hippos. Imagine 150 hippos excreting a night's worth of grazing into a 3 foot deep pool barely big enough to contain them all and you get the idea.

Vultures. While we didn't see a lion hunt, we did see its fresh aftermath. watching 20 vultures devour the remains of a carcass is a disturbing sight, but more disturbing than the sight is the sound that they make while doing it.. It took the vultures around 30 minutes to pick the carcass clean to the point that only the white bones of the spine and ribs were left.

Hyenas. While we did see a few hyenas in the distance on the savanna, we were lucky (or unlucky) enough to hear them much closer, specifically outside our tents. When I asked our guide what type of monkey made that strange whooping sound we heard all night long, his response was "not monkeys, hyenas, maybe 8 of them". We also heard elephants breaking the limbs off of trees (to get at the bark for food) and Aileen and Tim were confronted by a small heard of grazing buffalo when they woke up to go to the bathroom. The next morning was even better. We awoke to elephants, warthogs, buffalo, giraffes and baboons, all within a 100-150 yard radius of our breakfast table. Best campsite ever (Colleen might disagree although thankfully the lions that were at the campsite the night before didn't show up - that we know of).

Eagle. Specifically the black kite eagle gave us perhaps our most entertaining moment of the week when one of them swooped out of nowhere to snatch Colleen's lunch out of her hand. What you have to imagine is something with a 3.5 to 4 foot wingspan silently speeding just above the ground, swooping in to snatch a piece of fried chicken out of colleen's hand with its talons. Instead of loosing continence as many of us might have, Colleen after collecting herself yelled out at the eagle "hey, give me back my chicken". Brilliant.

The Land Cruiser

Herds. We were lucky enough to catch the tail end of the wildebeest migration in the northern Serengeti. While we saw large herds elsewhere, they were nothing like this. Thousands of zebras and wildebeests as far as the eye could see. Truly magnificent. I can only imagine what the heart of the migration looks like.

Lowlights (if you can call them that). The lowlights include tsetse fly bites (sting like hell), dust (dry season, unpaved roads and open top vehicle combine for the perfect storm - I had no idea how much dust my hair, clothes, and nostrils could accumulate) , jarring roads (pretty sure I have a cracked rib or two, car breakdown (cracked chassis), touts (the cracked chassis needed welding, so we had a few hours to wander around the village where the welder was - we got the hard sell from the shopowners), and the Tanzanian traffic jam (twenty landcruisers all trying to see the same lion). Honestly though, not one of these "lowlights" were considered as such in the moment, it was just part of the experience and frankly, I'm not sure it would have been as memorable without them.

Well that is the best I can do for now. Maybe once I've had a chance to reflect a little I'll be able to come up with something better, or maybe you should just come and experience it for yourselves.

Michael
Shagani Post Office

Stone Town, Zanzibar (Tanzania)

PS - the internet here is unbearably slow, so although we have loads of great picturs and video, it is just too frustrating to upload them right now. We'll try at the next spot.