Safari Time!! February 17th – 23rd, 2019.
Scott made the 25 hour journey to visit me in Africa! We met in the Kilimanjaro Airport and headed off to start our adventure. 🙂 We stayed in Arusha, Tanzania Sunday night. We relaxed and had a nice dinner before beginning our safari. It was so wonderful having him here!!
On Monday morning, Suddy, our guide picked us up at the hotel. We drove for a few hours until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. This park is the 6th largest national park in Tanzania and is famous for their iconic baobab trees. These trees have a massively thick trunk and can live for over 2000 years! Tarangire means “river of warthogs”. This park was very green and lush with a huge river running through it. Besides some cool birds, the first animal we saw was an elephant. It was so huge and very close to the car. He was giving himself a “dirt bath” to protect his skin from the tse tse flies. These flies are jerks because they bite. Their bites really hurt (horseflies on steroids). Both Scott and I flipped out about how close it was, little did we know what we were getting into. Suddy explained to us that this was a lone bull (young male) that had left his mother and was doing his own thing until it was time to mate. Males typically live alone, while females travel in large groups. The female groups are run by the matriarch who basically acts as a grandmother and also dictates if the male is suitable for mating.
We continued our drive and rounded a corner and there were elephants everywhere!! A group of elephants walked right behind us towards a small muddy pit where they rolled around and cooled themselves off. We pulled up a little further, parked in front of a tree and another group walked right in front of us. The group stopped and formed a circle around a baby and made sounds at us, to try and intimidate us. Once they realized we weren’t a threat, they continued toward the tree. Each elephant stopped and itched itself along the tree. It was so awesome to watch these huge animals use the tree to itch themselves! One was going to town and its ear shot past the tree and mud sprayed onto us!
We stumbled upon pride of lions hunting some warthogs. We watched patiently as the females slowly approached and surrounded the warthogs. One made a move and the chase was on. Unfortunately for the lions, the warthogs got away. They ran straight towards the young cubs that were watching from the shade close by. The cubs were too young and didn’t know how to hunt to stop the warthogs. Later we found a group of young male lions lounging around, waiting for the females to hunt and provide a meal. We sat and watched them sleep and play with each other for a long time.
After watching the lions, we began to make our way toward the lodge for the night. We continued through the park, taking in amazing scenery and thousands of elephants. Along the way we also saw a few giraffes, buffalos and antelopes from afar. The lodge was absolutely amazing.. far too nice for Scott and I; with a view of Lake Burungi which was sprinkled pink with flamingoes. We watched the sunset, drank local beers and Scott kicked my ass in cribbage.
The next day we headed out of Tarangire towards Serengeti National Park. Most of the day was spent driving. Along the way we drove through Ngorongoro National Park, which consists of a massive crater. It was one of the largest volcanoes in Tanzania that erupted and blew off the top. The top blew off and dispersed so much volcanic debris and ash that it created a vast field where only low grasses could grow; thus the Serengeti. Serengeti in Maasai (local nomadic tribe) means endless plains. When we arrived at the Serengeti, we passed through the entry gate and were surrounded by hundreds of zebras, antelopes and wildebeests. We even spotted a pregnant hyena.
We spent two days driving around the Serengeti. The landscape was much different than Tarangire; arid, short grasses and few trees. They typical tree you think of when you think of safaris/Africa is the Acacia tree. It is tall with a flat top/canopy. They also have trees called “sausage trees” that have huge fruits that look like fancy sausages hanging from the branches.
We spotted a few leopards lounging in the trees, relaxing between hunts. We saw a pride of lions feasting on their recent kill of a buffalo. I’m glad we didn’t actually see the hunt, I’m not sure I would have been able to handle it! We saw a large male lion limping to a resting spot in the shade. Suddy explained that he most likely fought another male to either protect or claim his pride. We drove past hundreds of hippos keeping cool in murky rivers, play fighting and splashing water on themselves to avoid sunburn. We saw thousands of zebras and wildebeests, grazing and playing. I’ve never seen such a massive volume of animals in one place!
We were even fortunate enough to see a cheetah family (a mother and 5 babies) running through the plains. One curious cub jumped on top of the spare tires of the Land Cruiser in front of us. Fun fact – Cheetah’s are not aggressive. They are very curious and quite often jump onto safari vehicles to see potential prey or just for fun. They aren’t interested in hurting humans.
Our campsite (glamping) in the Serengeti was wonderful. The sunsets were outstanding. You could hear and see animals roaming the fields close by. We had to be escorted to dinner after dark, to avoid any unwanted surprises.
On Thursday, we headed out of the Serengeti and back to Ngorongoro National Park. The drive between the parks was one of my favorites. There were beautiful rolling hills sprinkled with livestock, giraffes, zebras and villages. We stopped at one of the Masaai villages. They welcomed us with a welcome dance and song, showed us tribal dances and gave us a tour of their homes. The women are in charge building the homes in the village. Each village is made up of one big polygamist family. The number of cows/sheep that the male has dictates how many wives he can have. This village had around 10-15 huts.. which means this guy has 10-15 wives! (Sounds like a lot of drama to me). The tour was really interesting and informative.
That night we stayed in a beautiful forest camp surrounded by coffee plantations. When we arrived at our room, we saw elephants grazing on the other side of the hill!
The next morning we woke up early and headed into the crater. We dropped into the crater and could see a whole ecosystem right before our eyes. Every animal, local to the area, lives in this crater. The only animals that don’t are the cheetahs and leopards because they have a hard time competing with all lion prides in the crater. This crater also has a large lake in the middle of it, housing hundreds of flamingos. It was absolutely stunning inside the crater. It was one of the most scenic days of the safari. We followed a large male lion for a while; he sauntered around moving from the shade of a small tree to drink some water. After he drank some water from the stream, he walked along the road and leaned against our vehicle. I could have reached out and pet him if I wanted to.. he was that close! After, two baby wildebeest were lost from their mothers and got very close to the lion. They quickly realized they were not where they belonged and ran away. For a few minutes we thought they were going to be a nice snack for this big guy.
After spending the day in the crater, we headed back to Arusha to end our safari. We spent the night in Arusha and then started the next part of our trip.
Throughout the safari, Suddy thought us some Swahili.
- Jambo = How are you.. you also respond with Jambo
- Mambo = a younger greeting of saying Hi. Response is “Poa” which means cool. One of our waiters taught us “Poa, kachizi kama ndizi” which means “Cool, like bananas”. We loved that!
- Maisha Marefu = For a long life, cheers ( which our waiter taught us when I surprised Scott with a fancy dinner under the stars one night ;))
- Waheri = bye bye
Suddy was amazing. He couldn’t have asked for a better guide. His knowledge of the animals was impressive! He grew up and lived in Arusha and has been a guide for 7 years. He always pulled up to the perfect spot for the best views. He was absolutely hilarious and so wonderful. We loved him!!
Scott was fortunate to be able to stay here for two weeks, so after our safari adventure, he joined me in Uganda!
Red Rover 