It was very hard to leave out idyllic tented camp this morning but none the less we set off round 7 heading for NgoroNgoro crater. 

Last night over dinner the staff sang us a farewell ‘welcome song’ and presented us with a cake – very cool. They were dancing and using every conceivable  Pan, spoon and plate for percussion. Much hooting and laughing- it was fabulous. All came out to wish us farewell this morning.

Wildlife were out in force as we left- we came across a pride of lions feasting on their kill, with hyenas lurking all around (just out of reach) waiting for the leftovers. 

Just got past the Serengeti gate and our fuel line came loose – sending Tony under the car with tools. Alas a temporary fix only so needed to detour to a garage for repairs and fuel- we had lost almost all the fuel along the way.

After about an hour  with multiple people under the car it was fixed and we were back on our way.

The Ngorongoro Crater was incredible. The rim sits at 2500 metres above sea level with the crater 650meters below – a steep drive in and out. The steep sides restrict movement of animals in and  out, so basically it’s a 305 square mile discrete ecosystem.  It houses almost all animals except giraffe, leopard and impala – as there are no trees. 

It feels a bit like the garden of Eden- lush undergrowth and animals everywhere.

Managed to see a few rhino – all in the distance but it means Caity has now seen all of the Big 5.

Spent a few hours driving round the crater- the up close zebra experiences were amazing.

This is the last wildlife we’ll see for the trip, so it felt a bit sad heading out of the park.

We arrived at our lodge absolutely covered in red dust and watched as the staff beat the dust out of our bags with straw brooms.

A shower never felt so good!

Out last day and n the Serengeti today. Feeling a bit worse for the wear so we delved into the suitcase pharmacy and opted for two short safaris rather than a full day.

Bush bathroom wasn’t too attractive with these guys lounging around……

This afternoon we visited the Serengeti Research Visitor Centre. Our wonderful student guide Melvin gave us a very informative tour explaining all aspects of the migration – who migrates, who tags along eating those who migrate and who stays behind.

The centre itself is really beautiful. Landscaped by a German designer with fabulous pressed metal sculptures of the animals and informative displays.

Sitting on the tent verandah relaxing before dinner. Will be hard to leave this beautiful camp tomorrow. Heading back through NgoroNgoro first thing tomorrow.

Sight for the day: hyena running down the road with a car tyre in his mouth! Tony thought he might use it to clean his teeth!

Saw hyena last night on way to tent- their eyes glowing in the flash light.  Our escort reassured us that  they are cowards so we have nothing to fear – but I’m a coward too so not sure how that works.

Set off on the long haul down to south western Serengeti today in search of rhino. There are only 21 rhino in the Serengeti and they are tagged and monitored by rangers daily to ensure the poachers don’t get them- no wonder they hide away! And today they did this very successfully despite Tony’s persistence. 

Despite the almost total lack of wildlife today this area of the Serengeti is really beautiful – full of kopjes (pronounced copy’s) which are huge sedimentary rocky outcrops – where lions like to live. Very reminiscent of the lion king.

Our lunch spot was meant to be on one such skopje but no other tourists/trucks were around so Tony thought it best not to tempt fate of the lion encounter kind. So we ate lunch on the bank of a salt lake with a smattering of Greater Flamingos- these are large and white in colour- none the less just as beautiful as the ‘Lesser’ (pink) ones- even if in small numbers.

After lunch we started the long drive home in light rain- the first we’ve had while we’ve been out on safari. encountered various wildife along the way….

We slept like logs last night. Absolute darkness and so quiet that we could hear the blood pumping in our ears.  If there were animals round our tent we didn’t hear them- other than a few hyena noises this morning.

After a very early wake up (5.15) and breakfast we headed off for a dawn game drive. 

Jolted, slipped and slid our way around the VERY muddy tracks down to the southern Serengeti area. This southern part is pure unadulterated plains – not a tree in sight (apparently the volcanic soil is hostile to trees). There are masses of small termite hills (apparently cheetah’s favourite resting places) and outcrops of enormous boulders for big cats to lounge on.

UIt was all about the big cats this morning with some very close encounters.

We did see one cheetah but was too far for our whimpy zoom lens (where are R & D when you need them)- perhaps without a photo it’s a bit like the fish that got away?

Being wet season the roads are gluggy, we got bogged once but after much wheel spinning and flying clumps of mud we found traction – with the open roof we all arrived back in camp a bit grubbier than we left.

JAfter a sumptuous lunch in the dining tent and a brief siesta we headed back out  to see the hippo pools at dusk. A long drive but totally worth it.  Literally tens of hippos wallowing around in what smells a bit like cow poo  flapping their tails and laughing their heads off – their laughing is infectious – will perfect the sound before I come home so I can demonstrate! 

Sitting on our tent verandah sipping G & T overlooking the plains of the Serengeti 

Ironically we have the best wifi we have had for the whole safari – so we will blog away.

Took the whole day to get here from Karatu all on dirt roads, which equated to an 8 hour safari massage!

We drove through the Ngorongoro game park to get to Serengeti hosting the incredibly beautiful Ngorongoro Caldera – we drove around the rim but will be returning to explore the craters wildlife later in the week.

We were spoilt by wild life today. Given a picture says a thousand words I’ll let them do the talking

Arrived at our camp round 5. Tents are in the heart of the ‘unfenced’ game park so we can expect wildlife during the night. We are so reassured by the tiny whistle to blow if animals make us fearful – should we blow it now?????

5am start tomorrow for a sunrise game drive. Can’t wait!

Tony arrived to pick us up just before 9, we were waiting promptly and all seemed to be going to plan until the ‘mama’ in the group realised she’d left the binoculars in the room – delay no 1 involved fetching keys from reception, Much running (or at least fast walking)to retrieve said binoculars and we were off. Until…5 minutes up the road the same mama realised she didn’t have her phone! Saint Tony didn’t even turn a hair, just  proceeded to turn around – fortunately mid U-turn the phone miraculously appeared in the bottom of the bag…yet another u-turn and we were on our way to Lake Manyara.

A short drive from our lodge, Lake Manyana National Park is the smallest park in Tanzania. The Lake itself is a salt lake fed but hot springs. It takes up 2/3 of the park.

To get to the park we had to climb the beautiful Riff Valley with fabulous views. 

We stopped at the African Galleria in Kiratu on the way-  apparently  owned by the wealthiest Masai  in Tanzania who also owns the biggest tanzanite mines. The Tanzanite was incredible such a rich blue. The stone that took my fancy – a big emerald  cut of 5 carats was a mere 3000USD just for the stone- anything set in a ring was upwards of 9K- needless to say we came out empty handed!

JWe arrived at the park round 11. The park is really a forest – very different to the park we visited yesterday. Lush, moist and green (fed by ground water) it had HUGE acacia canopies with dense bushy foliage below. This made animal spotting tricky. In fact we decided it was a bit like fishing – you can dangle your line but you have no idea of what you’ll catch, when or where- and the animals were certainly shy today. We had close encounters with a couple of elephants and baboon gangs and distant sightings of wilder east, buffalo, giraffe, a zebra and a few flamingoes floating on the lake.

Our lunch spot was on the shore with fabulous views – we dipped hands in the hot springs which were scorching.

On the way back spent a long time watching a troop of baboons groom each other – fascinating to watch the meticulous parting of fur and squeezing of the ticks before the groomer popped them in his/her mouth- and to see the look of sheer bliss on the face of the groomee.

Arrived back at our  lodge hot and absolutely covered in red dust. Tomorrow we head to the Serengeti for four nights. We are in a  tented camp so not sure what the blog capability will be.

Jambo from us!

Set off at a respectable 8am making our way through the bustling Arusha into the countryside. 

First bit of wildlife was a goat! Then cows and camels. 

We passed the Masai markets – Saturday is market day for the Masai – so the markets were bustling with Masai bringing their animals and produce for sale – men with their checked shawls and women in vibrant fabrics carrying enormous baskets on their heads. Goats fetch about 60 USD.

NTerrain on the way to Tarangerie was vast and not dissimilar to parts of Aus. We arrived round 11ish in a sweltering 37 degrees – roof up and windows open we managed to keep coolish but we did drink like elephants!

ITarangerie  is an enormous park – over 4000 square kilometres, so even in the five hours we were there we barely scraped the surface. It is a ‘wooded grassland’ which means lots of acacia and baobab (in full leaf) with fairly lush grass (as it’s the wet season). The park is home to over 3000 elephants and they were definitely putting on a show today.  The absolute Highlight for us was being totally surrounded by elephants almost within touching distance.  Absolutely magnificent creatures and so nurturing of their babies (which are incredibly cute).

The big cats were also about today- one sleeping pride and an alert (and Tony tells us hungry) lioness. She was on the prowl less than 200n from the picnic ground where we had lunch! Tony assures is that lions won’t come near large groups of humans but we sat in the furtherest table so that there would be lots of ‘snacks’ before she got to us!

Other sightings today were warthogs, impala, water bucks and zebra & giraffe in the distance.

We are now sitting on an open deck at sunset in our absolutely magnificent lodge (Eileen’s Tree Lodge in Karatu) waiting for dinner which we have no idea what it is but it smells spectacular. 

R

Tony arrived round 10 and we set off to explore Arusha and surrounds. Arusha is one of the  largest cities Tanzania (a bustling 2M plus) .it is home to the banking and environmental headquarters, the national courts and diplomat centres. At the base of Kilimanjaro it is cooler than other parts to f Tanzania but still a warm and humid 28 degrees today

We started our day with a walking tour of the city,crowded with street vendors selling secondhand clothes and the like. We then walked d through the local markets- which were a hive of activity and colour. Beautifully elegant ladies carrying gravity defying, enormous baskets of fruit on their heads with rod straight backs. Amazing sights.

From there we visited two coffee plantations – with their beautiful old colonial buildings- a Mecca for tourists.  Had our lunch break, vegetarian pizza and our first cup of Tanzanian cafe latte at one of them.

One plantation houses Shanga- a social enterprise employing people with disability to create marvellous artworks all from donated and recycled materials.  The weaving and spinning wheels made from recycled bike parts were amazing.

Needless to say we had to make a few purchases……

Back in our hotel round 4 and now having a siesta (and cooling off) before dinner. Early night tonight as we start our safari tomorrow so need to be on the road by 8 at the latest (a slight challenge).

We had an interesting night last night to say the least.Hit the sack very early and slept like logs until about midnight when we were woken by the sound of our door opening. Our neighbours had  mistaken our door for their own and their key (seemingly one size fits all) had obligingly opened our door.

Thank goodness the chain had held so a bit of an adrenaline rush but otherwise harnmless. Following that we had just got back to sleep and the phone rang to tell isourcat to the airport had arrived 12 hours early (2am rather than 2pm). Nonetheless less, even with these disruptions we managed a solid 8-9 hours sleep which went a long way to helping our jet lag .

Cyrus and family – Tony (Cyrus’ son) and Elizabeth (Cyrus’ wife) came to visit us this morning. It was fantastic to catch up again! Cyrus walked us through our day by day itinerary while we are in Tanzania – it sounds amazing and we are chomping at the bit to get down there.

 

Flight down to Kilimanjaro was very quick, 40 minutes in a 20 seater twin propeller plane. Got great views of the mountain as we flew in! It’s so high we were flying along side the snow capped peaks.

On arrival, we met our drive/guide Tony, who will be with us for the next 11 days. Tomorrow he plans on taking us for a walking tour of Arusha including some of the local markets. He has been kind for this first day – giving us a 10am start! 

W

We arrived in  our hotel in Nairobi at about 4pm – 30 hours after leaving home. We were lucky making  it through immigration/customs in less than an hour this time. Hot,  utterly exhausted but very excited, we  have willed  ourselves not to sleep until after an early dinner in the roof to bar – look familiar R, R and D?

Cyrus and family are coming to visit us tomorrow to fill us in on the Tanzanian safari arrangements before we hop on our plane and head down there tomorrow arvo.  

So another day of travel before the real action begins.