Taken with Tanzania

Jambo!

That's Swahili for hello. I'm back from my African safari, so it's time for an update. In the last few days I passed through Addis Ababa airport (which now replaces Donetsk as the worst airport I've ever been in), Kilimanjaro airport, Arusha town, Oldupai Gorge, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro crater. A few highlights and random thoughts:

- my first impressions of Africans was that they were incredibly friendly, socialable, and hospitable. Also, fairly disorganized and not prone to suffer many rules. I wasn't sure why exactly we started boarding a 4:30 flight at 3:00 buy when I saw these characteristics in action it made perfect sense. Sheer poetry in motion, we managed to take even more than the allotted 1.5 hours. From the seeming inability to understand the colored stickers on the boarding passes when asked to embark in a set order, to the seat belts that came off as soon as the flight attendants who had just asked them to be done up walked past, to shiny suit guy who absolutely refused to move to his assigned middle seat until the pilot came back and threatened to have him removed, I was already enjoying my first cultural experience before even leaving Dubai. 

- now I really am a loooong way from home. About 14000 Kms as the crow flies, surpassing my previous best (Ayers Rock) by 500Km, and within 2000km of the practical earth-bound limit of Madascar. (The theoretical limit is apparently Kergulen Island, which involves spending $20,000 to take a multiday boat ride to an island full of nothing. Not gonna do it). 

- it takes about 9 hours to drive the 400km from Arusha town to Serengeti, mostly because it's nothing but dirt roads from the Ngorongoro conservation area entrance gate. Not gravel. Dirt. My guide said it is called the African massage. I think it's motivation to lose another 5 pounds. Or get a sports bra. 

- enroute we stopped at Oldupai Gorge - an archeological site where the oldest hominid remains have ever been found. Some 2 to 3 million years old. The "museum" holds some of the most primitive stone tools and partial skeletons ever unearthed, and you can't help but be awed as you sense the ancient past while over looking the gorge. 

- once you hit the Serengeti gate, it would be difficult to overstate the vast multitude if animals. Picture the largest herd of deer you've ever seen. Multiply it by 100. Then place 100 of those all over an open prairie as far as the eye can see. Convert it into wildebeests, then add 50% more in the form of zebras, gazelle, and a sprinkling of other animals, and, well, you might be close. Words, and even pictures, really cannot describe it, the great migration is something you simply have to experience in person. 

- here's the list of animals I can remember seeing: wildebeest, zebra, Thompson gazelle, grand gazelle, impala, toapi, heartebeasts lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, black rhino, cheetah, savo cat, hyenas, jackals, dik dik, white stork, black stork, guineau fowl, hoary bastard (I did not make that name up), crowned crane, egrets, hippos, water buffalo, cessafly, baboons, vervet monkeys, warthogs, flamingos, ostrich... That's all I can remember, but I'm likely forgetting a few. I think I saw just about everything but crocodiles, which I don't mind cause I've seen those before. The rhino we just caught on the way out of Ngorongoro crater at the of the safari, completing the Big Five. Ditto for the cheetah, which was the last of the big cats I needed to see. My guide said I was lucky to see all that, especially the leopards. He said most of his safaris never see those, but we caught 3. It was at a bit of a distance, and they were sleeping, so I was far more struck by the lions, but the look on the faces of other drivers when he told them we saw three clearly showed how rare that was. 3 days later he is still talking about how "luck you are" (no typo). 

- I didn't get to see anything kill anything. But I did get to see a gazelle chase an ostrich for several hundred yards. And 2 waterbuffalo smash heads. And a male lion move in on another lions mistress. Beat him out but she wasn't having none of that. 

- Ngorogoro crater has incredible views from the rim, and seems almost like Disney must have built it after you do the 600 meter plunge inside. I enjoyed the Serengeti game drive more because it felt more special when you managed to spot something non-hoofed-herbavorial, but it is pretty cool to be able to see wild cats, warthogs, hyenas, and several different types of herds just hanging out together all in one shot. Plus there are 25 black rhinos there, compared to only 8 in the whole Serengeti, so a stop there is almost mandatory to see them. Sad how close they are to extinction. 

- speaking of which, there were several moments where I felt a tinge of the loss for North America's great wild herds. The Serengeti plains are virtually indistinguishable from Saskatchewan (I actually felt like I was home at times), and I imagine our now defunct animal kingdom used to look a lot like this too. Sad face. 

- I sunblock here like a hobbit eats: breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies... It doesn't slow down till the afternoon rain clouds roll in. 

- I was so incredibly exhausted after my sleepless night/4am flight (really ms flight attendant? Was the hot towel so important you had to wake up for it??) that I fell asleep shortly after arriving at my hotel and didn't wake up until my 6am alarm. 13 straight hours. 

- driving in the country side, you pass by numerous flocks of sheep, goats, donkeys, skinny cows, and Masai herders. Often, they are only 8-10 years old, some as young as 5. I hope some of my pictures turned out cause its quite a sight. Ditto for the women walking around carrying large loads on their heads without needing any hands to balance it. One thing to see it on tv, but so surreal to see it in person. 

- most memorable moment was the first night in our camp lodge. By "lodge" I mean permanent tents. And by "permanent" I just mean really big and only moved every few weeks. Anyway... I woke up in the middle of the night hearing what I thought was branches breaking and heavy footsteps. A friend just told me about his safari and seeing a couple bull elephants by the camp, so I thought it was either that or giraffes, and hopped on top of the toilet to peer out the roof of the bathroom. Nothing. Went back to bed. Heard it again! I was not going to miss this so I grabbed my headlamp, threw on my shoes, went to the door, paused briefly to wonder if it was really, really stupid to be going outside alone at night, then tentatively did it anyway. Before I got around back to check the noise, I was greeted by the reflection of three sets of eyeballs not 30 yards away. The one closest to me crouched behind the grass. Hmmm, not good. All the jungle cats hunt at night, and the lions often in threes. I scanned the rest of the area then looked back to find the third set of eyes back up, and seemingly a bit closer. Then it crouched again. Interesting. Looked away. Then back. Same thing, a bit closer, then crouching. Ok that's enough! I headed back inside, did up the zipper, shuddered, and then did not get out of bed until again until light. My guide said he heard a lion roar each night, and the camp manager said a lion killed an animal only 70 yards away from the camp last month, so it's possible, though not likely, that's what it was. We also heard hyenas and jackals all during dinner, and after seeing both in daylight now I would estimate what I saw to be more hyena-sized. That's what my guide thinks it was too, and he swears they are not dangerous to humans. I'm inclined to believe that but glad I didn't get closer to find out. Shuddering again. 

- incidentally, the next morning I found out that sound was just a flap at the back of the tent when the wind caught it a certain way. Definitely not worth dying for :P

- you do not mess around with shower time at camp. You tell them what time you want it in the morning, and they show up promptly at that time with a few gallons of hot water that they dump into a canvas bag above a wooden crate in your bathroom, then say "good morning, shower's ready." Every minute you linger in bed, the water gets cooler. Once in, it's a race against time to finish washing cause once it's gone, it's gone. By the time it falls to your shoulders it feels only lukewarm, so it keeps you moving pretty quick. The tickle of small growth under your feet helps too. By day two though I was kinda enjoying the morning rhythm. I actually thought I was going to be staying in a more "permanent lodge", but to be honest I totally loved the experience. The scenery was breathtaking, with a herd of taupi frequenting our front doors, and spending a few days that close to nature felt good for the soul. If you are on the fence about doing a safari in your lifetime, I cannot encourage it enough. 

- food here is typically eggs and beef bacon with grilled tomato for breakfast. Lunches are packed and you generally get a cold price of meat (chicken leg, tough beef), something brownish (quiche, onion cake), bread and butter, fruit, cookies, juice box. Dinner is usually a soup that could rival Marcel, then meat, mashed potatoes or baked fries, and some vegetables. Nothing you will write home about (except I just did) but decent quality, and too much quantity. 

- oh there was actually 1 even more memorable moment. The dirt roads here become mud roads when it rains, and the back roads to the non-permanent camps are essentially then just slip and slides for jeeps. It rained especially hard last night, and we did significant portions of the drive out surfing sideways. Imagine driving through a parking lots of black ice with bald tires. Now imagine the parking lot is full of trees you have to avoid, and the "roads" in between often have just 2 foot wide runners for your tires, with washed out ruts more than a foot deep everywhere else. Factor in that you have to keep your speed up or risk getting stuck, with a good chance no one will drive by for a few days. In the jungle. It made the desert safari seem like go karts. Oh, and seatbelts here are not only optional, but often omitted. Neither Freddy nor I had one. Safety fail. I tried to capture some video of the experience but I'll be honest, I spent most of the time just hanging on. When I get a chance to post pictures from my camera, you will see why. 

Spent last night in Karatu now, just outside Ngorongoro park, at an extremely nice hotel (country lodge). Back to Arusha today for some much needed laundry (my white cargo pants are now brown), then off to Egypt Friday. What an amazing trip. Happy face. 

PS. Actually wrote this while still in Karatu. Back In Arusha now. Will post later with details of today.