Terrific, Terrifying and Terrible Tanzania

 Terrific, Terrifying and Terrible Tanzania

The Tanzanian part of our adventure has been interesting to say the least.  It was a country of very long drives, hot weather, the worst roads we have traveled on so far, bad traffic, rich in history and amazing animals.  The pictures are put at the end of the text as I don’t have time to organize them properly and the wifi is very slow here in Nairobi.

I will explain the meanings of the words in the title.  Terrific were the game drives and camping in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater (much more on this later) and the history and views from Zanzibar.  Terrifying were the camping in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater (more on this later).  Terrible were the roads –both in condition, construction and speed humps (mini mountains)-, also the stomach issues in Zanzibar (Montezuma’s revenge in Mexico has nothing on this).

Our journey here started with an uneventful border crossing and a 12+ hour drive (bounced around a lot) which brought us to the outskirts of Dar Es Salam (the countries capital) which was very warm and traffic congested.  It puts the Toronto traffic into the fast lane.  There is no semblance of organization.  It’s everyone for themselves with city buses doing whatever they wanted.  Below is a picture of one of the buses in traffic (this is on the main highway and people just hop on and off since we are not going very fast). The temperature at the time was in the high 30’s with a humidex in the high 40’s. We didn’t even get to the campground.  We ended up getting off the truck and took tuk tuks which moved much faster.  The truck got to the campground 2 hours later. Racing each other through congested streets was the best part of the day.  The drivers are nuts. (sorry no pictures – we were just hanging on)

The second day had us up early on onto the ferry that took us to the island of Zanzibar.  This island has a very strict Muslim culture and the women had to dress appropriately (no visible shoulders or legs).  They have had incidents in the past where women were attacked for not dressing appropriately.  The first night in Zanzibar had us staying in Stone Town.  This place has a lot of history and is very dirty.  The slaves were sold here at the slave market in town.  The buildings were very interesting and the street mazes reminded us of some of the areas in Europe and old Quebec City.  We got lost a lot and were being constantly bombarded with shop owners trying to hock their wares.  Our group definitely stands out in the crowds.  The second and third days saw us drive to the north end of the island to a beach resort.  We were definitely not expecting this type of travel but it was definitely welcome as we were able to recharge ourselves and slow down a bit.  The last day on the island saw us back down in Stone Town and this is where I (Dan) had some real stomach issues ( I passed out in the hotel for hours and made many and powerful visits to the toilet)

After Zanzibar we made a big push the Serengeti (a very large grassland national park with an unbelievable amount of animals – I only set some of the pictures). Here are the highlights and terrifying times.  We boarded our jeeps for the safaris.  The leopard is one of the hardest animal to see and we were able to find three different ones (even our local guide said to seeing that many is extremely rare)  We got up close (in the jeeps) to almost all the animals.  The elephants, lions and leopards seemed to be the favourites of most of the safari trucks.  I have a lot more to tell on this but will explain more when we get home.

Now for the terrifying stuff -well maybe not so terrifying as amazing.  Our accommodations in the Serengeti and on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater were our tents.  Keep in mind there are no fences around the campgrounds and all the animals roam free and we found out this included the area where our tents were.  In the Serengeti we were instructed to stay in our tents at night but one of the ladies from our group thought it would be ok to go out at 5:30 am since this is when we were supposed to start breakfast.  What she failed to hear was the sound of the lions in our camp.  (We had been hearing the zebra and wildebeest all night long and only the lions from just before 5) She was quickly and loudly instructed to get back into her tent unless she wanted to get eaten.  The lions left and we exited our tents and got ready for the day.  As we exited the tent area we found out why the lions had left – they had killed a wildebeest right beside the road – right outside our camp - and were feasting.  What a great way to start the day.  The rest of the Serengeti was just as

amazing.  That night we headed to the rim of the Ngorongoro crater (a large caldera formed when the volcano that was there erupted and left its mark).  This is when the next two terrifying (amazing) things happened.  We were milling about awaiting supper (they have caged in pavilions and for good reason we found out as this area also has many wild animals around)  They have armed guards (not like in the Serengeti) here but not for our protection but for the animals.  They hire Masai warriors to do the guarding and these guys mean business.  Look them up to find out why they are so fearsome – if not wait till we get home and we’ll tell you.  Enough on that and back to the animals.  As we awaited supper a large bull elephant wandered into camp –some idiots thought it would be ok to go right up to it and take photos (the masai warriors were quick to react).  We though the entertainment was over – wrong.  The elephant came right up to the pavilion and then stole food from the kitchen area before they started banging pots and pans to scare the thing away.  After supper we socialized for a bit and then went to our tents.  Part way through the night 

Lisa needed to go to the bathroom and we were getting ready to leave the tent when we could here munching sounds right outside our tent and smell was very powerful.  We waited about a half an hour until the noise went away and went to the bathroom.  There was nothing we could see in the area and thought nothing more.  Later on in the night we heard the noises and had the smells again on the other side of our tents.  It turns out we had a herd of cape buffalo grazing around the tents.  As with the Serengeti if there are grazing animals then there will be predators and scavengers.  We then heard the lions, hyenas and jackals in the area but nothing much happened the rest of the night.  Morning had us descend the crater and go on our last game drive for a while.  The first thing we saw was a pride of lions with a kill and a bunch of cubs.  The day continued for the hunt for the last of the big five (the rhino).  We eventually spotted two in the distance.  Our safari was now complete.  Those two nights and days have been an unbelievable experience that mere words cannot describe.

We are now in Nairobi, Kenya awaiting the next leg of our adventure.  I am not sure about wifi for the next 14 days but will try and post when I can.  We hope those of you that had March Break had a wonderful time and for those of you who did not, we hope you are well. 

Kenyan Family Robinson

Getting some local fruit

Human Pickup trucks for hire

Bringing home the daily water

That must hurt the neck

Another use for a bicycle

Crowded bus and traffic jam

Lisa in the market area of Stone Town

Car pooling

Narrow streets of Stone Town

Fishing Boats In Northern Zanzibar

Heading to the beach from the resort

Enjoying the beach in northern Zanzibar

Mud walled village

Mt Kilimanjaro above the clouds

Mt Kilimanjaro with a Mt Kilimanjaro beer

Going Bananas

Taking home some local fruit

Young Masai

Two Black Rhino

Elephant stealing food from the kitchen