Days 48 to 52 - Tanzania, Africa (Part I - The Safari)

Jambo!  After a fantastic week in Dubai, we ventured onto a new continent with very new experiences.  Our two week African adventure in Tanzania was out of this world (pretty much literally), and we felt we had to break it up into two separate blog posts…

So first, the safari!  After barely making our connecting flight in Kenya (a stressful 10 minutes we might add), we landed at Kilimanjaro airport to news that everyone entering a two week stretch in Africa wants to receive:  our bags didn’t arrive.  Our delay coming out of Dubai caused the short connection time in Nairobi, Kenya and we found ourselves without bags (despite the gate agent assuring us our bags made it to the plane before we even arrived to board).  This meant we didn’t not have the proper attire for the jungles of Africa-however, we have grown accustomed to carrying on a change of clothes and toiletries, so don’t feel too bad for us!  Upon landing, we were assured our luggage would be on the very next flight to meet us at our hotel in a day, so we quickly boarded a small six seater Cessna airplane to fly to our first destination, over the national parks of Tanzania.  We landed gracefully on a dirt runway in an area called Kuro, hopped into a Land Cruiser, and within five minutes of driving Ines pointed out a herd of elephants walking right in front of us!  It was very surreal for us to see these animals for the first time in their natural habitat.

A full day of seeing amazing animals while driving throughout all of Tarangire National Park ensued.  Tarangire is known for its elephants (and it’s biting tsetse flies!  Luckily we had horse tail fly swatters to help us out…), but we were lucky enough to see ostrich (including baby ones, whose heads bopped up and down through the grass, Ines’ favorite!), warthogs, lots of giraffes, lizards, many species of antelope, mongoose, and a huge variety of birds!  Our hotel that evening was an experience in itself, as it was literally a glorified treehouse in the middle of the Tarangire forest.  It was even more interesting to learn that we were required to have an escort to/from our room in case of an encounter with wild animals, which normally inhabit the area and roam around at night.  Despite Korey insisting he could handle such an encounter with roaming nighttime jungle wildlife, we took the advice of our hotel.  We quickly learned that we were guests in the home of the wildlife.

The next day was another day full of exploring the Tarangire National Park with our guide Peter.  Lunch was an adventure as he repeatedly “suggested” to us we should eat in the car due to an approaching storm, but we disagreed and said rain never hurt anyone!  Well, this was our first instance of the tough lesson “always listen to your guide.”  The rain came down hard, basically ruining our lunch (and our only outfit as our luggage still had not yet come).  Wet, hungry, and bitten, we experienced a great day on safari and enjoyed another night in the treehouse!

Next we were off to a new area to explore the wildlife of Tanzania.  Halfway through the three hour drive we stopped in a town to meet with a taxi driver who apparently had our luggage.  It was an awkward encounter to say the least, as we were swarmed by villagers trying to sell us random items, but we got our luggage nonetheless and were off to enjoy the drive to Manyara National Park.  Much different than Tarangire, Manyara was a jungle in the truest sense.  Monkeys flung from trees left and right, and baboons blocked the roadways in mass amounts.  Once through the jungle, we came to an opening where we saw wildebeest, zebra, and hippopotamus!  Also, while checking out the hippos, our guide informed us that we were standing next to a prominent diamond dealer with his new bride, whose over the top custom designed Land Rover clearly stood out from the rest of the safari vehicles.  

Our time in Manyara closed with yet another example of “always listen to your guide.”  While waiting for our guide Emanuel in the jeep, a person in the jeep next to us got out of their vehicle to use the restroom, forgetting to shut the door.  We were told while at the park gates to always shut the door and roll up the windows, due to aggressive baboons.  Well, sure enough, a baboon came out of nowhere, leapt into the car next to us, grabbed a bag of “crisps" (chips) and scurried off to enjoy its snack.  Our guide returned to lots of screams from the car next to us, and a wry smile saying “I told you!”.  Lucky for us, it was the car next to us who suffered the screams and lost their crisps.

Our hotel that night was nestled into the hills amongst a coffee farm.  We had beautiful views of the landscape from our room, and the coffee also lived up to its billing!  Most importantly, the hotel offered free laundry, which we took full advantage of now that we had all of our belongings back.  Oh how we appreciate clean laundry!  We also had the pleasure of tasting the local food that evening, with a serving of Ugali, a local dish made of cornmeal and sometimes mixed with beans.  It was delicious!  And the best part, we could wander around the hotel at night as we pleased, not requiring an escort to “protect” us from the wildlife.

The last day of our safari was undoubtedly our favorite.  We knew the Ngorongoro Crater was a site to be seen with lots of animals, but nothing could of prepared us for the actual experience.  We got up early to take the two hour drive through winding dirt roads to the crater entrance.  The crater, formed from a volcanic eruption millions of years ago, is the largest in the world of its kind, and it’s said that if it hadn’t erupted, the mountain where it stood would be taller than even Mt. Kilimanjaro.  The edges of the crater stand over 2,000 ft. high, and once inside, it’s over 15 miles long in diameter.  Once on the edge, we descended into the crater slowly (along with dozens of Masai people, who are indigenous to the area, herding their cows) but were interrupted by Emanuel’s radio.  We received news of a nearby sighting of a female lion that had just killed a warthog and was dragging it back into the bush.  Emanuel raced down the steep crater wall and we caught a first hand view of our first lion of the trip and watched it drag its kill all the way into the bush.  We witnessed a close up of the lion resting in the bush before eagerly starting its meal.  What a great start to the day!

The rest of the day included more wildebeest, zebra, elephants, and antelope.  However, the real treat came a few hours later when we saw our first rhinoceros!  The extremely endangered rhino calls the crater one of its few homes in the world, and we were lucky enough to catch seven sightings during our short time in the crater.  We came across more lions (13 in total) and even got a close up of some hyenas (they’re almost as ugly as MSUs recent football loss…).  After a day full of surreal animal sighting experiences, we took the harrowing road back out of the crater, drank some more coffee at the hotel, and tried to mentally prepare for what our next adventure in Africa would bring us:  Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Before that, let’s get to some safari photographs!

Things we learned during the safari 1) always wear the most important clothing needed for the arrival country, and always pack your toiletries in your carry on, 2) can’t be said enough, always listen to your guide.  They knew where to find the animals, can predict the weather, and are very well trained with interesting facts on flora, fauna, and life in Africa! 3) bug spray can only somewhat account for getting rid of flies.  You need to constantly be our your fly swatting game or your feet/arms will be full of bites (okay, we may have learned that one the hard way…) and 4) standing up in a moving jeep is fun!  All the safari vehicles had roofs that opened to give you a 360 view.  Perfect for Korey’s inability to sit still…

Not sure if you call this a runway?  Either way a nice landing!

Planes, trains, and now a jeep safari!

Our safari begins!

A herd dashing across the road in front us, be sure to catch the elephant trumpets at the end!

Up close and personal!

Giraffes have great vision.  He spotted us and was staring us down for miles after we left

See if you can find the 25 bobbing baby ostrich heads bobbing in the tall grass

The ADA compliant stairway up to our room for the night!

Our friend Justin thought it would be funny to bring a guest to our dinner.  Thanks Justin!

Breakfast in the Tarangire forest

Korey is ready for the next day's safari...

...but Ines is even more prepared with the binoculars

No binoculars needed when they become a roadblock!

Still wearing the same clothes two days later...

Baboons everywhere!  Don't let them near your crisps

First Zebra sighting!  Mother and child

A small reminder that we are a guest in their kingdom.  Zebras, baboons, wildebeest, warthogs, and hippos in the background running free!

A "retired general" wildebeest.  This happens when they're sick of dealing with the women in the herd and let the younger males take over (Korey says amen to this guy!)

Beautiful panorama of the Ngorongoro Crater.  Hard to picture the size of it from this, but when you're inside it feels like it never ends

We figured Scar was nearby as a pack of hyenas crossed the road in front of us

Plenty of lion sightings in the jungle!  These females were keeping an eye on the nearby wildebeest

A rare sighting of a rhinoceros.  Even our guide took a photograph to show his kids

The king of the jungle just chillin' doing whatever he wants