Safari – Back to Nairobi – Thursday 3 May
This is it. The adventure is over. The safari is at an end. Today we got back in the truck and got bounced all the way back to Nairobi.
There were a few less of us on the truck for the return trip. Matt and Heidi were flying out from Arusha. Matt was going straight to Zanzibar. Heidi was flying to Dar es Salaam (capital of Tanzania) then she was going onto Zanzibar. The rest of us were back on the truck to Nairobi.
The drive back was uneventful. The border crossing was much the same as last time, but the Tanzanian’s claimed that Flick and Sarah’s passport didn’t have the right stamp so Alex had to take them and their passports back and then they had to point the stamp out (it had been there all along). Then we were on the Kenyan side getting our entry stamps and Alex gave his form to Sarah but then she had to wait at the counter because Alex had to line up in person. It took some scurrying round to find him and get him to the building. Meanwhile we’d all got our stamps, some people went and got their money changed either to US or Kenya and the rest of us got safely on the truck.
While on the truck there were loads of locals arms reaching in the door trying to sell us bracelets and other trinkets. It was actually a good way to buy stuff – 6 feet in the air buying stuff out the windows of the truck.
We stopped at the same rest area just on the Kenyan side of the border but just for a quick snack. We bought some chips etc and we shared our money round a bit for those who were nearly out of currency. We also did some last minute purchasing. I bought a soapstone chess board. I’ve wanted one for ages, I’m getting a backgammon set for Egypt and now a chess set from Kenya. These will be my lasting touristy trinkets in my house.
When we got back to the Comfort Inn in Nairobi Dee and Aubrey headed off to the airport. Fiona and Hugo went to their next hotel and Aidan, Colin, Sarah, Flick and I went for a wander round the market.
We lasted about 20 minutes. Colin – as usual – kept getting separated from the herd. He’s like some wildebeest cub being picked off by hyenas! We walked down the street, around a corner to a marketplace. We walked in and immediately the harassment started. No worse than Khana Khalili but still bloody annoying. We walked about, bought a few little things (including some more Tusker beer t-shirts). We got jack of the constant harassment pretty quick and decided we were better off just going to the bar.
So the five of us went to the bar, had a drink, then had an early dinner at the hotel restaurant and then back to the bar for another quick drink. Most of us were fairly tired so we headed off to bed pretty early. Colin stayed up and ended up drinking with some other random tourists at the bar across the street. Aidan and I are convinced we’re going to get a call from some South American gaol house because he’s gone out drinking with random tourists and ended up in a pub fight… ok he’s not the aggressive kind but who knows what these random strangers were like. Fortunately he survived none the worse for wear (if a little tired and hung over) for our 7am trip to the airport.
I can’t believe the trip I’ve been waiting for forever is now over… I’ve been talking about a safari for 10 years and now I’ve been, I’ve seen all the animals and I’ve looked at the stars in the middle of the Serengeti. Pretty cool really.
Next stop – Cairo for the beginning of our tour of Upper Egypt.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Safari – Returning to Arusha – Wednesday 2 May
Well the adventure is nearly over. We got up, had an early breakfast and dismantled the tents. We packed up the truck and took our day packs. The truck is meeting us down the road because we are spending this morning in the Ngora Gora Crater.
The crater was great. We got into two little 4x4’s with rooves that opened and drove down into the crater. It was quite deep so we had to wind down the sides of the crater, it took a little while but the view on the way in was amazing.
We saw loads of animals – some more lions and they were just laying by the side of the road. A couple of girls and a boy, they were younger than the ones we saw on the rock, gorgeous.
We even saw a rhino. Alex said later that he’s taken six week tours and not seen the top 5 and in 8 days we’d seen them all. We’d seen lions, leopards, elephants, bison and now a rhino. The rhino was pretty far from the road so I didn’t get very good photos (even with all the zoom) but we still saw a rhino :)
We spent a few hours in the crater and then drove back out and met up with the truck and set off back to Arusha.
We were all a bit weary by this point so it was a fairly peaceful trip back to Arusha. As we were getting into Arusha we drove past a massive market. It’s so colourful. I guess it’s no real difference to a market here, but it seemed brighter. The dirt seems browner, the colours brighter it just looked lovely. Aidan got a couple of pics as we drove past. It would have been nice to be able to wander round the market, but we’d have been mobbed (and probably robbed!) in about 4 seconds.
We got to the hotel in Arusha – it was only a 2 star hotel but it was very nice. Aidan and I even had a balcony on our room. Sleeping in a bed was so nice :) I think an 8 day safari is perfect. We got 8 days of camping – well 6 in tents and two nights in hotels. I survived the camping better than I expected. I thought I would find it harder to cope with the creepy crawlys and sleeping on the ground but I was fine.
We had dinner at the hotel, but it was pretty ordinary. We told Solo that his food was loads better but he told us off. Said it was rude to say the food was bad (even thought it was). We paid for Alex, Hungry Man and Solo’s dinner, plus we gave them a tip to share. We each put in USD30 and they split $240 between them. It didn’t seem like enough, but since it equated to about 12,000 Kenyan shillings I guess it was ok :)
Last night when we were sitting around the fire Alex was telling us a story about a guy on one of his tours that was a sleep walker. Apparently in the middle of the night he’s got up and sleep walked out of his tent to where they’d got water. Then he’s stood in the middle of the savannah lions and other wild animals just yards away and he’s woken up. He took one look around him and yelled ALEX!!!! Alex said he had to jump up and get him safely back to his tent. I count myself lucky that I only talk in my sleep, not walk in my sleep. Alex had loads of stories.
After dinner we played cards again. We were sitting at the dinner table playing cards and all of a suddenly the lights went out. Matt yelled out ALEX! We were in hysterics – he didn’t come save us from the dark though. Luckily the lights came back on quick enough. And we were able to continue playing.
For the whole trip we’ve been playing arsehole. Everyone had been president or vice president at some point and everyone except Colin had been arsehole. We played for a couple of hours and just when people were starting to slow down and look like they were ready to pack up Colin became arsehole. We decided there and then that the game was over and that Colin must remain arsehole forever. We thought we were hilarious :)
Well the adventure is nearly over. We got up, had an early breakfast and dismantled the tents. We packed up the truck and took our day packs. The truck is meeting us down the road because we are spending this morning in the Ngora Gora Crater.
The crater was great. We got into two little 4x4’s with rooves that opened and drove down into the crater. It was quite deep so we had to wind down the sides of the crater, it took a little while but the view on the way in was amazing.
We saw loads of animals – some more lions and they were just laying by the side of the road. A couple of girls and a boy, they were younger than the ones we saw on the rock, gorgeous.
We even saw a rhino. Alex said later that he’s taken six week tours and not seen the top 5 and in 8 days we’d seen them all. We’d seen lions, leopards, elephants, bison and now a rhino. The rhino was pretty far from the road so I didn’t get very good photos (even with all the zoom) but we still saw a rhino :)
We spent a few hours in the crater and then drove back out and met up with the truck and set off back to Arusha.
We were all a bit weary by this point so it was a fairly peaceful trip back to Arusha. As we were getting into Arusha we drove past a massive market. It’s so colourful. I guess it’s no real difference to a market here, but it seemed brighter. The dirt seems browner, the colours brighter it just looked lovely. Aidan got a couple of pics as we drove past. It would have been nice to be able to wander round the market, but we’d have been mobbed (and probably robbed!) in about 4 seconds.
We got to the hotel in Arusha – it was only a 2 star hotel but it was very nice. Aidan and I even had a balcony on our room. Sleeping in a bed was so nice :) I think an 8 day safari is perfect. We got 8 days of camping – well 6 in tents and two nights in hotels. I survived the camping better than I expected. I thought I would find it harder to cope with the creepy crawlys and sleeping on the ground but I was fine.
We had dinner at the hotel, but it was pretty ordinary. We told Solo that his food was loads better but he told us off. Said it was rude to say the food was bad (even thought it was). We paid for Alex, Hungry Man and Solo’s dinner, plus we gave them a tip to share. We each put in USD30 and they split $240 between them. It didn’t seem like enough, but since it equated to about 12,000 Kenyan shillings I guess it was ok :)
Last night when we were sitting around the fire Alex was telling us a story about a guy on one of his tours that was a sleep walker. Apparently in the middle of the night he’s got up and sleep walked out of his tent to where they’d got water. Then he’s stood in the middle of the savannah lions and other wild animals just yards away and he’s woken up. He took one look around him and yelled ALEX!!!! Alex said he had to jump up and get him safely back to his tent. I count myself lucky that I only talk in my sleep, not walk in my sleep. Alex had loads of stories.
After dinner we played cards again. We were sitting at the dinner table playing cards and all of a suddenly the lights went out. Matt yelled out ALEX! We were in hysterics – he didn’t come save us from the dark though. Luckily the lights came back on quick enough. And we were able to continue playing.
For the whole trip we’ve been playing arsehole. Everyone had been president or vice president at some point and everyone except Colin had been arsehole. We played for a couple of hours and just when people were starting to slow down and look like they were ready to pack up Colin became arsehole. We decided there and then that the game was over and that Colin must remain arsehole forever. We thought we were hilarious :)
Safari – Going to Ngora Gora – Tuesday 1 May
We packed up our tents and loaded them into the truck. The drive to Ngora Gora crater was fairly peaceful, on the way the truck slowed down next to some little Maasi kids and Solo handed them a huge bag of coleslaw. It’d been leftovers from our dinner last night. Alex said they always give the leftovers to the kids. We were stoked to know that the kids got a treat (even if it was icky coleslaw).
We were one of the first groups to get to the crater. We set up our tents (the girls were trying to be in the middle so that the wild pigs had to go through us to get to them!) We were just fiddling about getting organised when we saw a big busload of people arrive.
At this stage we’d been a few days without a shower and the Ngora Gora crater had hot showers. We were so excited. We were talking about it all the way there. We were really lucky, because we got there first we jumped in the showers first so didn’t have to wait in line with all the other people. It was funny, Flick and I were in shower cubicles next to each other and we were saying how good the shower was, how nice it was to have clean hair. You’d think it’d been 3 weeks without showers the way we were carrying on, but it was lovely :)
There were loads of people at the crater. A few groups smaller than us, and a few groups much larger. We were scattered all over the hill top. People were climbing up on top of the toilet block to take sunset photos of the crater. Aidan got some really nice ones.
Being first to the site had another advantage – Solo took over the kitchen area. He got in and set up in about 4 seconds flat. However, I think all the cooks pooled their resources because everyone seemed to have similar food. It was kind of a curry stew type arrangement. The difference was each group had different sides. Ours of course was delicious. Solo has made amazing meals every night. I’ve never had so many homemade soups that were all so delicious.
After dinner we started playing cards, but then we moved outside to sit around the campfire. Hungry Man had built a fire next to the truck. We were sitting there, just chatting generally and then Alex jumped up and walked to the edge of the clearing. Then he called us over and showed us an enormous buffalo – it was about 2 meters from camp and bigger than my car! I’ve never seen such an animal so close – nothing but air between us and its just staring at us.
This is why Alex was so adamant about us not having food in the tents. In fact most of us just put our sleeping bags etc in the tents and left out big bags in the truck. Flick went to get something from the truck at one point and didn’t turn the truck light on (coz her bag was near the door) and she’d only been in there about 4 seconds when someone yelled HUNGRY and he jumped up running for the truck. Flick said, its ok, its ok and Hungry Man just smiled and went back to the fire.
We sat around the fire for a bit, we didn’t really go mingle with the other groups. We could have, but I don’t think any of us could be bothered! Sad isn’t it – we’re at the top of a crater in the middle of Tanzania with about 100 other foreigners and we just talked amongst ourselves. But in fairness to us, we were getting to the end of our trip and were all a little tired – although we were clean now thanks to the lovely showers.
I slept peacefully, as I have for the whole trip. Anyway, apparently during the night there was a scream. We found out later that one of the guys from the other groups had a packet of chips in his tent and the wild boars had come trying to get it. I’d have freaked right out had a wild boar come knocking on our tent! Alex took better care of us that the other guide did. He told no to even leave toothpaste and soap in the tents coz the smell attracts the animals – given how close the enormous buffalo was I didn’t want to try my luck.
We packed up our tents and loaded them into the truck. The drive to Ngora Gora crater was fairly peaceful, on the way the truck slowed down next to some little Maasi kids and Solo handed them a huge bag of coleslaw. It’d been leftovers from our dinner last night. Alex said they always give the leftovers to the kids. We were stoked to know that the kids got a treat (even if it was icky coleslaw).
We were one of the first groups to get to the crater. We set up our tents (the girls were trying to be in the middle so that the wild pigs had to go through us to get to them!) We were just fiddling about getting organised when we saw a big busload of people arrive.
At this stage we’d been a few days without a shower and the Ngora Gora crater had hot showers. We were so excited. We were talking about it all the way there. We were really lucky, because we got there first we jumped in the showers first so didn’t have to wait in line with all the other people. It was funny, Flick and I were in shower cubicles next to each other and we were saying how good the shower was, how nice it was to have clean hair. You’d think it’d been 3 weeks without showers the way we were carrying on, but it was lovely :)
There were loads of people at the crater. A few groups smaller than us, and a few groups much larger. We were scattered all over the hill top. People were climbing up on top of the toilet block to take sunset photos of the crater. Aidan got some really nice ones.
Being first to the site had another advantage – Solo took over the kitchen area. He got in and set up in about 4 seconds flat. However, I think all the cooks pooled their resources because everyone seemed to have similar food. It was kind of a curry stew type arrangement. The difference was each group had different sides. Ours of course was delicious. Solo has made amazing meals every night. I’ve never had so many homemade soups that were all so delicious.
After dinner we started playing cards, but then we moved outside to sit around the campfire. Hungry Man had built a fire next to the truck. We were sitting there, just chatting generally and then Alex jumped up and walked to the edge of the clearing. Then he called us over and showed us an enormous buffalo – it was about 2 meters from camp and bigger than my car! I’ve never seen such an animal so close – nothing but air between us and its just staring at us.
This is why Alex was so adamant about us not having food in the tents. In fact most of us just put our sleeping bags etc in the tents and left out big bags in the truck. Flick went to get something from the truck at one point and didn’t turn the truck light on (coz her bag was near the door) and she’d only been in there about 4 seconds when someone yelled HUNGRY and he jumped up running for the truck. Flick said, its ok, its ok and Hungry Man just smiled and went back to the fire.
We sat around the fire for a bit, we didn’t really go mingle with the other groups. We could have, but I don’t think any of us could be bothered! Sad isn’t it – we’re at the top of a crater in the middle of Tanzania with about 100 other foreigners and we just talked amongst ourselves. But in fairness to us, we were getting to the end of our trip and were all a little tired – although we were clean now thanks to the lovely showers.
I slept peacefully, as I have for the whole trip. Anyway, apparently during the night there was a scream. We found out later that one of the guys from the other groups had a packet of chips in his tent and the wild boars had come trying to get it. I’d have freaked right out had a wild boar come knocking on our tent! Alex took better care of us that the other guide did. He told no to even leave toothpaste and soap in the tents coz the smell attracts the animals – given how close the enormous buffalo was I didn’t want to try my luck.
Safari – Serengeti Game Drives – Monday 30 April
We thought it was an early start yesterday – today we had to be up and ready to go by 630am!
It wasn’t too bad actually because we’re staying at this camp site again tonight so we didn’t have to dismantle the tents. In fact today’s important lesson was to make sure the tent was securely zipped up so no animals or creepy crawlys could get into our beds.
We set off on our first game drive. Heidi got picked up a few hours earlier to go on her balloon ride. We saw her balloon – took some pics for her. We’re meeting her at the Lodge about 11am.
The plan for today was a game drive through the Serengeti while the animals were getting up and another one this afternoon just as the animals are settling down for the evening. This morning we saw a bison and ostriches then we saw a daddy elephant. He was all by himself, then we went along a bit further and we found his herd. They were so cute. We took loads of photos. There were babies and teenagers the works.
We spent ages with the elephants, then on the way to the lodge we saw a few more of the local inhabitants – birds, bisons, crocodiles. At one point (not far from the elephants) we were driving along and Hungry Man stopped the truck and him and Alex got out to check the road – it looked a bit soggy to us. They were worried that we might get bogged so when Alex got back in the truck he told us to hold on, Hungry Man was going to floor it through the mud so there’d be no time to get stuck.
We all settled into our seats and braced ourselves. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as it sounded. We just zoomed through with a spray of mud and we were safely on the other side. I’m glad we didn’t get bogged – I didn’t fancy trying to leverage the enormous truck out of the mud, it would have sunk up to its axels its so huge.
We met Heidi at the Lodge. She was so excited. She’d loved every minute of it. She said she’d seen some herds and got some ok photos. Her only complaint was that her zoom on her camera wasn’t zoomy enough.
We went back to the campsite and had an early lunch. We had a few hours to kill before the next game drive so we got the cards out again. Fiona had a sleep for an hour or so and the rest of us played card. We were talking and laughing it was great fun. The boys had a beer and then Heidi and Aidan cracked open the bottle of Bacardi. It was funny to watch them get drunk – they got smiley, then more smiley. I think they went through half the bottle and they only had 4 cans of coke!
We were drinking in the daytime because Alex had us so concerned about leaving our tents in the night time to pee that none of us were drinking so much as water in the evenings. The plan was they could have a few drinks and be sober by the time it got dark.
They were both still drunk when we set out for our afternoon game drive. Heidi even forgot her camera! When we set out for our afternoon game drive we saw two lions in a tree. We stopped and took some photos then continued on our way – that’s when we saw the leopard.
The leopard was great, but he was too far from the road. He was in a tree, hiding behind the branches and despite our best efforts we couldn’t convince Alex to have Hungry Man drive over to the tree (some nonsense about ruining the natural environment by driving off road… :) )
It was pretty funny trying to take photos of the leopard. We were all complaining about the branches being in the way, about lack of zoom, about not being able to work our camera. I finally figured out how to do the digital zoom on my camera as well as the 10xoptical. I got a couple of good photos, but nothing worthy of the National Geographic.
On the way to the Lodge (for a quick toilet stop) we saw some more hippos. They didn’t do anything exciting though – just general wallowing. At the Lodge we took some nice photos. Got a nice one of all of us on a rock overlooking the Serengeti. We asked some other random tourist to take the photo of us all.
Tonight was our second night in the Serengeti. Its so peaceful here. We were doing a bit of star gazing, but it was funny – we could see loads of stars, but not as many as you’d expect. The moon was pretty full, so that made it a bit too bright. It was so peaceful in the middle of nowhere.
We thought it was an early start yesterday – today we had to be up and ready to go by 630am!
It wasn’t too bad actually because we’re staying at this camp site again tonight so we didn’t have to dismantle the tents. In fact today’s important lesson was to make sure the tent was securely zipped up so no animals or creepy crawlys could get into our beds.
We set off on our first game drive. Heidi got picked up a few hours earlier to go on her balloon ride. We saw her balloon – took some pics for her. We’re meeting her at the Lodge about 11am.
The plan for today was a game drive through the Serengeti while the animals were getting up and another one this afternoon just as the animals are settling down for the evening. This morning we saw a bison and ostriches then we saw a daddy elephant. He was all by himself, then we went along a bit further and we found his herd. They were so cute. We took loads of photos. There were babies and teenagers the works.
We spent ages with the elephants, then on the way to the lodge we saw a few more of the local inhabitants – birds, bisons, crocodiles. At one point (not far from the elephants) we were driving along and Hungry Man stopped the truck and him and Alex got out to check the road – it looked a bit soggy to us. They were worried that we might get bogged so when Alex got back in the truck he told us to hold on, Hungry Man was going to floor it through the mud so there’d be no time to get stuck.
We all settled into our seats and braced ourselves. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as it sounded. We just zoomed through with a spray of mud and we were safely on the other side. I’m glad we didn’t get bogged – I didn’t fancy trying to leverage the enormous truck out of the mud, it would have sunk up to its axels its so huge.
We met Heidi at the Lodge. She was so excited. She’d loved every minute of it. She said she’d seen some herds and got some ok photos. Her only complaint was that her zoom on her camera wasn’t zoomy enough.
We went back to the campsite and had an early lunch. We had a few hours to kill before the next game drive so we got the cards out again. Fiona had a sleep for an hour or so and the rest of us played card. We were talking and laughing it was great fun. The boys had a beer and then Heidi and Aidan cracked open the bottle of Bacardi. It was funny to watch them get drunk – they got smiley, then more smiley. I think they went through half the bottle and they only had 4 cans of coke!
We were drinking in the daytime because Alex had us so concerned about leaving our tents in the night time to pee that none of us were drinking so much as water in the evenings. The plan was they could have a few drinks and be sober by the time it got dark.
They were both still drunk when we set out for our afternoon game drive. Heidi even forgot her camera! When we set out for our afternoon game drive we saw two lions in a tree. We stopped and took some photos then continued on our way – that’s when we saw the leopard.
The leopard was great, but he was too far from the road. He was in a tree, hiding behind the branches and despite our best efforts we couldn’t convince Alex to have Hungry Man drive over to the tree (some nonsense about ruining the natural environment by driving off road… :) )
It was pretty funny trying to take photos of the leopard. We were all complaining about the branches being in the way, about lack of zoom, about not being able to work our camera. I finally figured out how to do the digital zoom on my camera as well as the 10xoptical. I got a couple of good photos, but nothing worthy of the National Geographic.
On the way to the Lodge (for a quick toilet stop) we saw some more hippos. They didn’t do anything exciting though – just general wallowing. At the Lodge we took some nice photos. Got a nice one of all of us on a rock overlooking the Serengeti. We asked some other random tourist to take the photo of us all.
Tonight was our second night in the Serengeti. Its so peaceful here. We were doing a bit of star gazing, but it was funny – we could see loads of stars, but not as many as you’d expect. The moon was pretty full, so that made it a bit too bright. It was so peaceful in the middle of nowhere.
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