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 :)