Tanzania at its Finest

Trying to organize a safari at the last moment while on the move in a country with substandard communications proved to be a trying and stressful task. Scams are common and the price range of the legit safaris is all over the place. We eventually settled on a company called Nature Beauties and even after visiting them at their office we still only had about 90% confidence that it was the real deal. Not until we and our bags were packed securely in the Land Cruiser did we breath a sigh of relief.

In the end, we had a 4-day/3-night camping safari that covered Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Having returned today, I can say that all our worst nightmares about a safari scam never came to fruition and, rather, Arianna and I are both quite thrilled with the whole experience. And what is more, we got a hell of a deal. To start, we lucked out with good company. We were paired with a British couple who both just finished med school, Sam and Maya. The four of us all received excellent hospitality from our guide and driver, Salehe and our cook Prosper. They drove, set up and broke camp, stuffed our bellies, spotted wildlife and were all around just good safari companions.

The organization of the route was setup quite well such that each day seemed to produce better wildlife and scenery. We kicked off the trip with an initial drive around peaceful Lake Manyara with the fourth day culminating in the mind-blowing beauty of Ngorongoro Crater. We spent the two sandwiched days in the incredibly expansive Serengeti plain. As the plain is wide open and runs to the horizon, I found myself constantly fooled into thinking I would be able to see most of the animals occupying that space, making the drive a little boring. Rather, every five minutes a new animal pops up, everything from zebra to hyenas to even full grown elephants. We were also in for a treat as the Wildebeast migration north is currently underway. Stopping amidst the migration we would hear nothing but the rumble of 100,000s of Wildebeast running around the vehicle.

We were particularly lucky because we managed to see a large variety of animals. They include in no particular order: Elephant, zebra, hyena, jackal, lion, lion with cubs, full grown male lion, cheetah, leopard, ostrich, giraffe, secretary bird, wart hog, black rhino, waterbuck, bushbuck, grant's gazelle, thompson's gazelle, dik-dik, eland, cape buffalo, hartebeast, wildebeast, hippo, monitor lizard, baboon, blue-ball monkey (yes, it is named so exactly for the reason you think) and mongoose. These are the ones I can remember.The overall highlight for me was descending into the crater on the last day for about a 7 hour game drive. The crater is incredibly deceiving. At 20 km across, my first impression would be that if there was anything to see we could have seen it from the top leaving little room for surprise. Rather, much like the Serengeti animals seem to material out of te ether. The crater has an incredibly high concentration of flora and fauna for its relatively small area. The black rhino can be seen cutting through the tall grass with its horn resembling that of a shark;s dorsal fin cutting the water. The north side of the crater was flush with activity with a large lion pride of about a dozen cruising through herds of zebra and wildebeast. We were convinced that we were going to observe 'a kill' but unfortunately never saw the cats give chase. The wildebeast, on high alert, made quite a show. They would follow, and at times chase, the big cats on the prow, but once the cat turned and faced them they quickly turned tail. As soon as we were done watching this comedic act, we then spotted two cheetahs making the rounds. Once again, no kill, but you could feel the tension.

After breaking for lunch, we swung by the flamingos in the lake set against the brilliant green crater wall. The Landi then climbed out the crater as we said our goodbyes. Of course, Ngorongoro was not ready to say goodbye to us. Returning to our camp we found a large elephant siphoning off water from the campground water storage tank. We arrived in time to watch a cook weighing no more than a buck 30 run off the beast with clanging pots - I wish I got a video of that one.

We are now back in Arusha and did a little hunting of our own today - hunting around for a rental car that is. Tanzania does not offer many options in this department unless if you are renting and returning to Dar es Salaam or you want to drop a lot of cash on your own safari vehicle. There is a further catch, outside of Dar, all companies require you take the driver they provide; i.e., no self-drive. - Where is the fun in that?! So, we have spent much of the day working with people who are willing to consider giving us their own car to rent. It is all a bit shady, but hopefully in my next post I will have some good stories to tell - that were collected from our own car.