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Neil and Robin
Africa Wild

Karibuni

Monday - 12 Aug 2002
Tanzania


Serengetti Sunset

Tanzania

A little Swahili jingle that goes a long way ;)...

Jambo (Hello)

Jambo bwana (Hello Sir)

Habari gani (How Are You)

Mzuri sana (Fine Thank You)

Hakuna matata (No Problemo)

*Note: "Mambo" is actually the hipper version of Jambo. "Mambo Poa" the better response. "Poa kachizi camandizi" (phoenetic spelling) means "cool like a banana" and is always a hit with the locals. Come to think of it, disregard the song above unless you really want to sound like a tourist...well, like us ;).

Our first decision in Arusha turned out to be a wise one. We opted to stay at 'Backpackers Paradise' a couple of miles out of town, and its luxury safari lodge atmosphere did not disappoint. Okay, we didn't actually stay in the luxury part but the backpacker rooms at least shared the same grounds, giving the illusion we were staying upscale.

We immediately decided to organize our plan for the next two weeks. Lucky for us, we seemed to be the only travellers shopping for safari packages that day. This meant we were swarmed by touts at every turn, all believing that they were the solution to all of our travel needs. We quickly took shelter at WS Safari which did turn out to be our 'one-stop-mountain-climbing-safari-shop.'

The next day, Neil's sister Anne headed out to tackle Mt Kilimanjaro and we soon left to face our own 'mini-Kili', Mt Meru. On making our way to the trailhead we went through our first game park, Arusha National. We got up close and personal with Giraffes, Buffalo, Baboons, Zebras, and had our own armed game warden to protect our newly formed group of six trekkers.

We started with a jolt. Just after one of our travel-mates shared a story of her friend's buffalo attack, we had our own close encounter with the beast on the trail. This created quite the commotion. As the front of the line yelled "run", they bolted past us in a blur. The buffalo stood his ground for a moment, gave a final snort of steam for effect, and left the scene content with his work. The group soon came out of hiding, laughed nervously and pushed each other ahead to lead the way. The climb was wet and muddy the first day, but the next two days cleared to provide an incredible view of Kilimanjaro. Luckily, we stayed in huts where our gear could dry at night. With 14 hours of trekking on our final day, we were exhilarated at the summit and then again (maybe moreso) when we arrived back at the base!

Hobbling around the next day, we felt good about our summit experience knowing we had pushed our limits. A day later, Anne arrived back from climbing Kilimanjaro and burst our bubble with tales of her more challenging (to say the least) climb to the top.




Up Close and Personal

Anne was still hobbling around when we left on our 5-day safari. The good news was that we wouldn't have to be too mobile in the safari jeep. At our first stop, Tarangire, the animals almost seemed to come to us! We saw a multitude of elephants of all sizes put on a hilarious show of washing and scratching themselves. We even got to see a lion eating its fresh kill, rolling around like a house kitten and napping in a tree Lion King-style.



We had to work a little harder in the Serengeti to find the animals, but they made it all worthwhile when we did. We had a few more unforgettable lion encounters including a pair of Lionesses with their cub up close and personal at the water-hole, a couple of stoic males looking as majestic as could be under a tree, and a full pride strutting through the great plains as a family of Cheetahs attentively and quietly looked on.

Our Serengeti dawn drive gave us one of our more vivid memories when we got so close to a Cheetah and her three cubs playing that we felt like we could jump right in and join them. Our other sightings included a Black Mambo, a Serval, Hippos, Hyenas, Zebras, Giraffes, Buffalo, Wildebeests, Baboons, Gazelles, and the ever-present Guinea Fowl to name a few....unfortunately the nocturnal Leopard continued to elude us for the week ;(

Perhaps surprisingly, our safari included a pit-stop at the Cradle of Humanity - Olduvai Gorge. After a half hour there pondering the footsteps of early civilization, we felt historically enriched enough to get back to our Wild Kingdom thrills!!

The story of the week though, actually occurred around One in the morning in our Ngorogoro Crater camp. A rifle shot went off that sounded like it went through our tent! Curiousity and our bladders got the better of us and we ventured out only to be directed 'don't go to that toilet, that's where the elephant headed'!!. After a 'this will be much funnier when we get home' conversation we managed to get ourselves back to sleep.

After the below freezing temps of Ngorogoro, we were all too ready for the serious beach-time awaiting us in Zanzibar...




Masai Warriors During Coming-of-Age Ritual

Click HERE to see more Tanzania pics...


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