The one where I commuted with wildlife

I went on a safari.

It's impossibly expensive to go alone; I needed to join a group. So I went to the Tourist Board--there's a bulletin board with lists of partially filled trips that need more people. I called around and wound up choosing a 5 day, 4 night trip. I think I would have taken a 4/3 trip if I'd found one, but I certainly didn't want to come all the way here and not see what I should so I went with longer rather than shorter.

And, unlike Kilimanjaro, I was quite confident that the group existed--I paid $110/day, which is about what you'd pay to rent a car. And, like Kilimanjaro, the park fees eat up much of that cost, so if I'd been alone the company would have surely lost money.

I got paired with Brad from Vancouver. His wife was planning to join, but they're traveling with their 11-month old so they decided that he'd go alone. Our vehicle was a Land Cruiser with removable roof sections. While in the parks, we could stand up to watch (or catch a breeze) while guide Frank drove around. And any time we saw something interesting, we'd pull over to park and watch. Also joining us for the trip was cook Isaac.

Our first morning we headed to Lake Manyara National Park. And, after having done some game walks and drives before, I think the topless Land Cruiser is _totally_ the way to go. (And it helps that the animals in these parks are pretty used to traffic and gawking tourists so lots of them aren't too shy.) About two minutes into the park, we sat and watched a baboon troop from about 20 yards away. Lotsa babies. Pretty awesome.

We went on to see elephants, impalas, Masai giraffes (noticeably different than the ones in Kenya). And two lumps that I'm told were lions.

Then, after lunch, lots more elephants, giraffes, a herd of buffalo, vervet monkeys, dik diks, and more impala.

Camp the first night--we weren't exactly roughing it. They set up my tent for me, and the site had hot showers and a bar/restaurant. We ate Isaac's food on a table set up out back, but still.

The next morning we were joined by the last member of our group, some Swedish guy whose name we never learned. He had all sorts of safari clothing and about $4000 of camera equipment with him (the special bag alone had to cost more than my camera), and much of the rest of our trip became a quest to search for photo opportunities. He was kinda a tool, but one who spent 20 years in the Special Forces (I resisted the strong urge to refer to the Very Special Forces!). We ate breakfast and headed off for the Serengeti, about 6 hours away.

On the way we stop at a Maasai village. The lands they've historically tended are disappearing (or being turned into protected conservation areas) so many Maasai make a living by selling their culture. They ask for $50 per car to come see their village and take pictures, which apparently lots of people actually pay. I know Björn would have paid his share; I just laughed. Brad and I started reading and acting disinterested while Björn negotiated. I spoke up and said I'd pay 5000 shillings, $4. Brad said he'd pay the same, and we wound up settling for 20,000 shillings total, with Björn kicking in $8. In real life the Maasai herd cattle, but this is sort of a demonstration village where they jump up and down and sing songs. Our Maasai guide took us around, showed us a home, tried to sell us jewelry and made us promise not to tell anyone what we'd paid. Oops.

Also, the Maasai wear tire shoes.

We get to Serengeti National Park and do a game drive on our way to the campsite, somewhere inside the park. Now, the park is about the size of Connecticut, so we don't even try to cover the whole thing. Instead, for the rest of the time we, and most of the other groups, drive around an area that seems fairly large but is surely only a small percentage of the park area. You can only drive on the roads (that decently criss-cross the area), no taking off cross-country.

The campsite in the Serengeti was more basic, with pit toilets, no running water, and a bunch of other safari groups.

We did game drives in the Serengeti on our way to the campsite on day 2, in the morning (sunrise - lunch) and evening (3pm - sundown) of day 3, and in the morning of day 4.

There are a couple of places that we can go to try and see certain animals (the hippo pool, a shady area where lions sometimes sleep, etc.) but mostly we just drive around and hope to spot something. We keep a lookout for animals, and for other safari vehicles--when someone sees something particularly interesting word gets around (Frank spent a lot of time on the CB) and everyone descends.

One constant theme was our search for the leopard. One of the classic "Big 5" (along with elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo), we spent way too much time trying to see one. It was like a game of telephone--we'd pull up to a large group (more than 10, we saw as many as 26 vehicles gathered) where someone said that someone had seen a leopard in "that tree over there". We'd spend a half an hour sitting around, seeing nothing, before finally convincing Frank to move elsewhere. Once, after looking through binoculars for about 10 minutes, I was finally able to make out some paws hanging down from a branch in a dense tree about 100 yards away.

We saw a lot of antelope (impalas, gazelles, dik diks). Lots of zebra and lots of wildebeests (aka gnu) and some of the other beests, the harte.

The zebras and wildebeests are buds. Zebras are really smart, and maybe like to hang with the wildebeests because they are dumb as shit--if there's a predator about, odds are it catches a gnu. The wildebeests maybe hang out with zebras because otherwise they'd have no idea when there were predators about. They don't smell, hear or see very well. They tend to follow each other in single file lines when moving, unless one gets spooked, in which case they take off in all directions. We'd frequently come across zebras and gnus in the road--the zebras would get off the road, and the gnus would run down the road away from the truck. Zebras are pretty. Wildebeests are ugly and they grunt incessantly. It was hard to fall asleep in what sounded like a hog farm...

On the morning of day 3 we saw a bunch of lions fairly far off. After watching for a while we realized there was another road that went right by where they were sitting. There were several sitting around, and one male was still working on the wildebeest that the rest had had their fill of. He went on for a while, and was still going when we left. And the birds of prey were gathering, waiting for the scraps... (There are some cool pictures, though vegetarians might want to stay away.) We found another lioness eating nearby, soon after we left the first.

There's no way to tell if the lions had killed it--despite their reputation, lions steal about 2/3 of their meals from other predators. (And hyenas, who have a scavenger reputation, are actually fierce group hunters who kill about 2/3 of their own prey and only steal 1/3.) We never did see the "action" of an actual hunt.

Magnus threatened me at breakfast on day 4--I'm pretty sure he didn't hear Brad and I talking about him and instead misinterpreted something completely innocuous that I'd said. Frank didn't understand what he was talking about either. Frank talked to him, Brad avoided him, I turned on the charm, and the detente lasted the rest of the trip.

After lunch day 4 we headed back to the Ngorogoro Crater, where we stayed at a campsite (hot showers, zebras grazing, but not much else) on the crater rim. It was really cold. And instead of grunting gnus I got to fall asleep to the sound of a zebra chewing grass about 20 yards away.

The crater itself is about 2000 feet deep and covers about 100 square miles. The sides are very steep so for the most part animals don't just pass through. Apparently, almost every type of animal in East Africa can be found in the crater. Except my favorite, giraffes.

We woke up early (~5:45) to get there in time to maybe see some of the normally nocturnal animals. But it was really foggy and we couldn't really see anything. We wound up finding a black kite perched near the road at about 7:45, and it was almost 9 before we saw any animals, a lion from a distance. At 9:30 we finally came across the density Ngorogoro is famous for--a small lake with storks and flamingos and hippos, with zebras and gnus grazing and hyenas hanging about looking for an opportunity.

About an hour later came our most surreal moment--two male lions were walking down the road. We, and a veritable host of others, followed. We jockeyed for position, with one truck speeding ahead and waiting, then hurrying to follow when the lions got there. At times, the lions needed to weave between stopped vehicles to continue on. This lasted for almost 20 minutes. And I think our truck took more than our fair share of viewing opportunities--for quite a while we drove along, right next to one of them, matching his pace.

After some more driving around we stopped to eat our box lunches. They were mostly inedible, just like virtually all the other food we were served. We headed out, and finally, on our way out of the crater, we found a rhino, the last of the Big 5. We left and headed back to Arusha, arriving about 5pm yesterday.

This time, I tipped 10%. Again, I have no idea if that's right. I know that Brad paid $780 for the trip and Leif paid $560 for his 4 days. I "only" paid $550 (which I didn't happen to mention to them...). I gave the cook $20 and the guide $35. Frank had to work much less hard than Rafael (my Kilimanjaro guide) did, the food was terrible, and they were getting tips from 3 of us so I think I'm okay with it.

I have no contact info for Brad or Gunnar, which I'm fine with. I do wish I'd gotten info from the Canadian trio on a trip that largely matched ours--our table was next to theirs at the Manyara campsite, we ran into them quite a bit arriving at and leaving the Serengeti, saw them again in the crater, and I chatted with them for a bit just before we left for Arusha. They're climbing Kili starting tomorrow--good luck, Canadians!

Pictures are up. There's a lot, and the best have been added to my group of favorite shots from my trip so far.

Next for me: Rwanda. God forbid I'd be healthy at any point while in Tanzania--now I hab a cold. So, to avoid 2-3 (or 4 or 5) long days on a bus, which I wouldn't love even if I felt great, I'm gonna fly. I leave Arusha Monday, probably in Rwanda just 'til Wednesday or Thursday, then back to Kampala to say bye. And a week from Monday I'll leave Africa. Next stop: Athens.

Kwa heri,
sg