Safari Report - Part 1

26 August 2004

 

I haven't written for a long time as we've been really busy.  The kids had only a 7 week "Summer" vacation (although it is winter here) and they had various lessons or we went to the beach a lot.  This is the "cool" time of the year, which means that you still wear your shorts and tank tops but you don't sweat through them unless you do something strenuous, not just making the beds or doing the dishes.  The pool is cool, so that you feel it when you first get in but you get used to it quickly.  Generally there is no need for blankets at night, but no need for A/C either.  Lately we've been thinking that it is feeling a little warmer, so I fear the best weather is just about behind us and the heat will return soon.

 

We had a family safari for the last two weeks of our vacation, with Rob's two brothers, Tom and Bill,  and their wives, Alice and Elissa,  joining us, along with Karen, a friend of Tom's and Alice's, and our niece Amanda.  Including the 5 of us, we were a party of 11.   We did the "Northern Circuit" of game parks, which includes the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and two other smaller parks.  These are the cream of the safari park crop.  We also did a mini hike up Kilimanjaro, and the various parties toured Zanzibar and some even went to South Africa to see Cape Town.  The first arrivals were on the 1st of August, and the last departed on the 21st.   We had a great time - we saw the "Big Five" animals (Lion, Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Rhinoceros, and Leopard) which is the definition of a successful safari.  We stayed in a variety of places ranging from tented camps to luxury bandas, mostly with fantastic foods that could satisfy our varied diets, from nearly vegan to real red meat eaters.  We experienced the African problem with a complete lack of water, or no hot water, and had showers to die for.  We had access to the internet that was state of the art, or none at all, and the full range between.  We stayed where electricity was only from a generator that was "on" for only a few hours at a stretch or no problem at all.  We managed to get 11 people with strong opinions ranging in age from 8 to 65 moving in the same direction at the same time for 9 days running - and we lived to tell the tale!  I have put a photo of the entire family safari on the website for anyone interested in taking a look.

 

When I think back to the schedule of the days from the 1st to the 21st, I can't believe how much we actually were able to do.  I named this "Safari Report - Part 1" because I'm sure there's no way to put it all into one e-mail.  I'm going to make an attempt to record as much as I can remember in an effort to both inform anyone interested and to keep it for my kids and Rob and me as part of the record of our time in Tanzania.  

 

Tom and Alice flew in from New York on the morning of the 1st.  Karen, their friend had been traveling since the 14th of July, and had gone to Kenya a few days before but was due to arrive early on the first as well.  Unfortunately, her flight was overbooked from Nairobi, so she had to take a later flight which gave her only a few hours in Dar to regroup before leaving on the 2nd for a couple of days in Zanzibar.   We had booked a banda at the "Mtoni Marine Center" for them and had reservations on the local Tanzanian Airline to fly them there.  I had arranged for a friend to house-sit with the animals while we were on safari, and I spent that day packing and cleaning and getting the house ready for her, as well as beds ready for our return on the 12th.  We would have all 11 in our house on the 12th, and I needed beds and sheets and towels done before we left as I knew we'd be coming back from safari with the biggest piles of the dirtiest clothes and they'd need to be done then.

 

Rob and the kids and I then drove up to Arusha on the 3rd, which is about an 8 hour drive, with one stop for lunch at about 1/2 way.  The kids were great.  Gone are the days of stopping every hour or two for a pit stop, and gone are the days of fighting over the best seat in the car - I don't miss those days at all, even if it means my kids are growing up. Rob and I practiced our Swahili, which we've been trying to learn for the last few months.  I had my notebook and we went through it from the beginning.  It's starting to make sense to us now, and comes in handy now and then.

 

Bill and Elissa and Amanda were due to arrive at the Kilimanjaro Airport from Washington, DC on the evening of the 4th, and Tom, Alice and Karen in the afternoon.  We were booked into a hotel called the "Moivaru Coffee Plantation" which was built right in the middle of a former coffee growing farm.  Although the hotel itself was the picture of modernity, the road to it was one of the finest examples of a third world road.  It had never been paved, isn't even on anyone's list to be paved.  The houses are built at varying distances from the dirt track, some so close you felt that you were driving in their yards.  There were a couple of very small signs at the turn off from the main paved road, but once you committed to the track there was nothing to reassure us that we'd gone the right way.   The whole track is in the middle of cultivated fields, with at minimum 3 crops growing together at varying levels.  This is truly intensive farming, with beans and maize and coffee and bananas and sometimes cashew trees all sharing the same dirt.  Although it looks impressive, I'm told that the intensity of planting is detrimental to the yield of any one of the crops planted.  It is beautiful, however, to see so much, so green, so dense. 

 

Since we arrived in the evening of the 3rd, we spent the morning of the 4th at a Snake Park in Arusha that we'd seen when we had passed that way on our April Safari.  Austin is begging for a chameleon for his birthday, and Arusha is the place to see them.  We figured that a snake park would have some, but were disappointed to find that they only had snakes and crocodiles and turtles.  The lack of chameleons, however, was soon overlooked when they let the kids hold the snakes (non-poisonous only) and even a baby crocodile.  Then, they fed a couple of the snakes, which is a truly gruesome spectacle.  Although we felt sorry for the cute little yellow chick and the baby mouse, it was just the kind of thing that boys aged 8 and 11 like to see.  I have put some pictures of the snake and croc holders on the website. 

 

We followed the snake park with a camel ride for the kids, with a sour faced, but obliging camel.  One of the camels that the kids didn't ride was apparently called "Zip", as it was branded in his fur.  I can't think of a more inappropriate name for a camel.  Anyway, this was fun, and good for Christmas card style photos of all three on the back of the same camel.  (see website)

 

We picked up the New York party at the airport and got them settled in and then Rob and Tom went back for the DC group.  The coffee plantation is really beautiful.  The gardens well tended and varied.  There's even a walking path around to take in the sights (a view of Mount Meru, Tanzania's second highest peak) and the surrounding rain forest-like farms.  The Safari party was all assembled and we had our first meal of many at the largest table in the place.  The safari car was set to pick us up at 7 the next morning, which was met with groans all around.  But this was the beginning.  I can't tell you how good it feels to be sitting at the dinner table with family after 6 months of living in a foreign land.  It is gratifying and comforting to see your kids relaxing with family and telling stories about their lives to people that they've known for a long time.  People that know them and care about them.  Rob and I also felt ourselves relaxing into our familiar relationships and getting caught up on the family news and the important news of America from someone other than Dan Rather and the BBC.  This is the one thing that can't be replaced no matter how close we get with our friends and "substitute" families in these foreign places.

 

Next morning, bright and early we packed up and started our safari.  We were leaving our car with all the superfluous luggage in Arusha in favor of two safari vehicles with open tops and guides.  The larger one met us at the Coffee Plantation at the appointed hour and we were on our way.  We had walkie talkies so we could communicate between the cars, and after a quick stop in Arusha to drop our car, we were off.  The first stop was a souvenir shop, and last decent potty stop for some time.  Although the crafts and things were nice, our group was anxious for the animal adventure, so we didn't spend much time or money here.  We were excited to get to Tarangire, the first park on the schedule.  When you go on safari, you usually take a boxed lunch from the hotel so you don't have to (and since you often can't) stop for lunch at a restaurant.   We had a date to have lunch at a picnic area overlooking the Tarangire river and we were ready to go. 

 

This was our first visit to Tarangire, and I hope we have more.  This park is known in particular for Elephants and Kudu, a particularly shy and attractive antelope, and for it's birds.     It is located on the edge of what is known as the Masaai lands.  Just driving through the Tanzanian countryside is interesting, and often you will see housing varying from the Masaai bomas made with grasses and cow manure to brick houses that could be in the hills of California.  The land here is rolling grasslands and the Masaai boys with their herds are all around.  Once you enter the parks, there is no sign of civilization at all until you reach the camps.  The tracks are fairly well maintained throughout the park, and at the gate there is often a small shop and some information and toilets.  We saw elephants within the first 1/2 hour in the park, and I added a few more birds to the collection of sightings.  We're now well over 120 different birds in our tally.

 

At the picnic area, there were birds and vervet monkeys begging for food and generally making a nuisance of themselves.  The monkeys are so personable and photogenic, but they can get a little aggressive if you feed them.  The view was of a bend in the Tarangire river, which flows year round, and the elephants were bathing and drinking below us.  I believe that we saw nearly 100 elephants in the river below while we were eating.  There were also impala, zebra, buffalo, and a few wildebeest.  We could see giraffe in the distance.  Nowhere on earth looks like this place.  The baobab trees and flat topped acacia and the rolling hills are incredible.  Add to the scenery the fantastic animals and birds - Amazing!  I hardly have words to describe how it looks and feels to be standing in a place like the picnic area at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania!  At least this time we've shared it with people that we care about and we can recall together how special this was in the future.

 

After lunch, there was a rumor that something special had been sighted on one of the roads nearby.  What usually happens is that the guides stop and chat a little when the cars pass.  This way, or by radio, all the guides know what's been sighted and where on any particular day.  It makes for much better tips if your party sees the more rare and exciting animals.  Having learned a little Swahili helped me listen in on the conversations and anticipate what we were searching for.  On this particular day, the sighting was a leopard in a tree near a particular crossroad.   Leopard sightings are particularly exciting.  The leopard is a shy and solitary cat, and he doesn't like to near any of the other predators.  This one was napping in the crook of a tree, and although he didn't even move the whole time we watched him, it really is special to see them.  For the Tanzania Nooters, this was our fourth leopard, and we are gaining something of a reputation for being lucky on safari.  One particular friend of ours has lived in Tanzania for some 11 years and has only seen one leopard in all that time.  We saw 2 in Ngorongoro Crater in April, one in Saadani, and now this fellow in Tarangire.   There was rumor of a leopard on the ground the next day, but we never saw him.

 

The most special sighting for me, however, was the baby elephant.  This little calf was so young he was still pinkish.  He was running along at the heels of his mother and also skipping about the other young elephants.  When we stopped to photograph him, he seemed to be as curious about us as we were about him.  He raised his little trunk and tried to get our scent, and then would scamper off to hide behind his mom.  The elephant family was marching down for a drink and a shower.  I say marching and I mean it.  Elephants march for miles every day.  They go single file, with the mothers and youngest calves at the beginning, with the teenagers lagging behind.  Whenever I see them I think of the 'Jungle Book' elephants and the song they sing.  The thing that  was so special about this baby was how little and sweet he was.  When the others stopped to drink, which they do by filling their trunks with water and then emptying the water into their mouths, he bent down and lapped at the water like a kitten.  He was so little that he didn't know how to use his trunk yet.   Can you imagine!  Also, everyone else in the family of elephants was as smitten with him as I was.  They kept petting him with their trunks and all the other youngsters would generally try to be near him.  We saw him nurse a little and bend down to drink in the river a couple of times and play.  He even just splashed the water with his feet just to be funny.  Fantastic!  I'll put his picture on the website.

 

Well, I'm going to let that be the end of Safari Report - Part 1.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I liked remembering it.  I'll try to do installment 2 soon.

 

Hope everyone is well and having great adventures.

 

Barb