...or however much I can get typed before I melt. Where did I leave off?
We spent two days in Moshi, before heading to Arusha for our 5-day excursion. Moshi is clean, small, and suffers from many power outages. However, we found good coffee and spent our three mornings staring silently at Mount Kilimanjaro (covered in cloud by 10am). There are worse things... Our safari guide, Victor, came to collect us. Thank god - we could not have spent 3 hours on a bus to only go 86 kms. Victor could not have been a better fit for us. He's a 29-year old guide who's hoping to own his own company some day. He's been guiding for four years, out of Arusha. He is contracted by 3 different companies, with varying rates of pay; none of them are particularly good. We found this out after our trip with him, when we got together before we left Tanzania. Our tip, I believe, more than made up for it. And he earned it. He also climbs Kilimanjaro both for fun (?) and as a guide. We're thinking that we might come back in a few years with some eager friends and have Victor guide us.
There are not many good roads in Tanzania. That wouldn't be so bad if Tanzania was not peopled with the craziest drivers we've ever encountered. However, a government initiative to enforce driver training might help - at least new drivers. It is de rigueur to drive at break-neck speeds, anywhere. In particular, they do it on blind curves, on a hill. It's heart-stopping. Luckily, Victor seemed to be the safest driver in the country. Possibly too safe. Forty or fifty in an 80-zone meant really being able to absorb the country-side... :)
We left Arusha and drove about 130 kms Tarangire National Park. It is straight out of the "Lion King" - except here, the elephant is king. We saw hundreds of them - up close and personal. Awesome creatures. We also saw countless warthogs, impala, birds of many kinds, lizards, zebra, dik-diks, one leopard lounging in a "sausage tree", several giraffe. It was like being at the Granby Zoo - except these ones were really happy. Amazing to see them in their natural environment. They pay little attention to people. Victor, it turns out, is a bird-lover, and a bird-watcher. Some of you may know that birds, as beautiful as some may be, are not high on my priority list. However, I now have a couple of favourites, in particular the Splendid sparling or something like that. I did have trouble grinding to a halt for my fiftieth Marabou Stork. Tarangire was a feast for the eyes. As part of our safari, we got to stay at the lodges in the parks. In Tarangire, we stayed in a "luxury" tent (yes!) with a view of the river, where normally, animals come to drink. One wasn't allowed to stray out of the tent after 10pm. After all, there are hungry animals out there. The lodge had the most spectacular view of the valley.
On day 2, we left early and a couple of hundred kilometers to the Serengeti (which means endless land in Masaai). This was great, but for the fact that paved roads disappeared after 50 kilometers. The crazy drivers didn't. We made a trip into the Olduvai Gorge. Again, I'm checking things off to make Mr. McCorkill happy. It is baffling to me that anyone would give up more than fifty years to sit in the blazing heat, hoping against hope to find the missing link. There are also some very interesting Laetoli footsteps which was not in my grade 9 notes. There was not a speck of green in that gorge, and not the shade of one tree. Joanne! Our poem was entirely accurate (about the sun, anyway). Many bowls of gin might do the trick - the Leakeys are better people than I. Although I am sure that Mary Leakey died in 1996, others would have me believe that she's living in her house in the area still. I guess every continent deserves its own Elvis.
The Serengeti is quite remarkable. Grassland as far as the eye can see. And there really is no end to it: 14 000 kms squared. We drove much of it and saw even more animals (and birds). We saw several lion (majestic), hundreds of cape buffalo, zebras, many stinking hippos (literally), and migrating wildebeest. That was amazing - better than Lorne Greene's New Wilderness. Zebra travel with them and act as there scouts; we saw zebra steer their enormous wildebeest herd away from an onlooking and hungry lion. We spent 2.5 days in the Serengeti. The forecast each day: glaring sun and dust. But worth it all.
On the fourth day we made it to the Ngorongoro Crater. Our lodge was situated right on the rim, overlooking the entire crater. In the morning, we left before sunrise so as to be the first vehicle in the crater. It was rather cool and we had to break out our sweaters (but not for long). We saw more lions,zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, impala, cape buffalo, and birds, but what was special was that we saw the endangered Black Rhino (only one). They are hunted by the Arabs and the Chinese solely for their horns - apparently, it is believed to help with sexual performance.
We made it back to Arusha, and our hotel with the 57 barking dogs (they only bark at night), and bid an almost tearful farewell to Victor. Coming back to Arusha from the national parks was like going back to work after a half-year sabbatical. Yes, boo hoo...
There is nothing remarkable about Arusha. At some point something went wrong. Probably in the '80's. Over the last 30 years, over 300 000 people have migrated from the hinterland to Arusha. There isn't enough good infrastructure for all of them - and very few plans to develop the town. Most roads are dirt and most business places are tiny sheds covered in corrugated tin. The usual in Africa... The town is teeming with boys/men who want to sell you something, anything... usually a safari, even after you've told them you've been on one. Victor was a breath of fresh air, as you can imagine. We tried to go to the Rwanda UN Genocide tribunal, but it was a Friday, and things seemed to have ground to a halt on Thursday. We went for a BBQ with Victor and his friend Max in the back streets of Arusha... and paid local prices, not mzungu ones. The meat was tough but we soldiered through. And so, other than going on safari or starting your Kili climb, or visiting the world's worst museum, there is little to do in Arusha.
We hopped a "shuttle" to Nairobi. Great! A shuttle! Yeehaw! We could avoid a 10-passenger mutatu (into which they stuff 22 unwashed bodies with luggage, goods and fruit). This was going to be good! How long could a direct shuttle (260 kilometers) take? Including a dusty border stop? We'd be in our hotel by 1:00pm. Negative. But that'll be for the next entry.
I'll leave you with this last thought. There are three things that I might never embibe again: eggs (every morning, thus far), bananas (see previous parentheses), and Fanta orange.
A bientot!
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