So the past 5 days were spent in a safari vehicle. We drove to the Ngorogoro Crater, around the crater, into the Serengeti, though the Crater, and back to Moshi. It was a lot of driving! We saw a lot of amazing things and stayed in some pretty cool places.
Monday
We left for Safari at approximately 9:30 Monday morning. We had eaten breakfast and been introduced to our three drivers: Kakasii, Momo, and Peter. I was in a car with Natalie, Melissa, Ron, Sue, and Jerry. Our driver was Momo. He is awesome.
We first drove to Arusha, which is the third largest city in Tanzania. In order to get to Arusha from Moshi (the town we have been staying in), we had to drive on the trans-African road. This road extends from the Cape all the way up to Cairo. A clock tower in the middle of Arusha is the halfway point.
We stopped by a huge wood carving place. They sell all shapes and sizes of sculptures, bowls, etc. They were made of ebony, different stones, glass, and even recycled flip-flops. I managed to buy myself a ceramic mug!
Right next to the carving place was the Cultural Heritage museum. I know I've said a lot of things are great (because they all really are), but this place was incredible. As the name suggests, all of the artwork in this museum is inspired by the different cultures of Africa. The building itself was a glass bowl. It was all set up in spirals. The different levels had different themes. For example, the first spiral was wildlife, another was soul, and so on. I've never been much of an art person, but this museum made me want to collect art. Of course the pieces that Natalie and I liked were upwards of $3000.
We then drove a few more miles to a restaurant called Tembo Club. In Kiswahili tembo means elephant. That being said, the restaurant was shaped like the head of an elephant, the trunk extending down from the roof and eventually sprouting water into a water feature.
After lunch we got back on the trans-African to drive to Mto wa Mbu, a Maasai market. Chad had told our group that driving to the lodge would be smooth sailing in terms of road conditions. However, the main road was under construction and we spent most of the journey on dirt and gravel roads. These roads used to be considered the trans-African roads (from 1950) until the new paved roads were built in 1988. So we got to go on the "real" version.
On this part of the journey, while being jostled back and forth, up and down, Momo told us lots of facts about the area we were driving in and about Tanzania in general. He had an answer for every question. For example, the mountains we were driving through the Rift Valley Mountains, which start in the Jordan/Saudi Arabia area and extend down to Mozambique. Maasai (one of the main tribes that we have encountered thus far) live in the northern part of Tanzania and the southern part if Kenya. There are 125 tribes in Tanzania. The biggest and most widespread tribe is Sukuma.
There is only once place in Tanzania where all 125 tribes can be found and that is Mtowambu, our next stop. We stopped to go to a Maasai market where Chad has a few friends (of course!). I bought a couple souvenirs that I had to barter the price for! The first thing I bought was slightly overpriced but I got Chad to help me barter for a second. He then gave me another souvenir (a carved giraffe) that he got a vendor to throw in with something else. Finally, I bartered my own price on a ring (a good price too). One vendor came up to Natalie and I and asked if we were from America. When we said yes he asked if we would like to buy some Obama fabric. We thought he was kidding, laughed and walked away. As we went to leave he started waving fabric. When he held it out we could see that it was, in fact, Obama fabric.
After the market we began driving to the Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge. The Lodge is located on the Rift Valley Ascarpment, about 17,000 km above sea level. It's basically a Small mountain. The road was long, extremely bumpy, and very hilly. A couple times we thought the truck was going to start rolling back down the hill. But Momo is a great driver and never would have let it happen!
The Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge is insane. It was started 5 years ago. A couple from Holland had been doing different things in collaboration with other organizations to help out some of the poorer people in the area, but they felt like they weren't doing enough. They moved to Tanzania and opened this lodge. 50% of the money from the lodge goes to the children's home a little ways away that they also own. They have a farm and bakery to supply the lodge and the home with milk and bread. From the milk they also make their own yoghurt, cheese and butter.
As I mentioned before, this lodge is 17,000 km above sea level. Around it are other mountains that help create the Rift Valley Mountains and (obviously) the valleys between them. That means that the views are incredible. We arrived just as the sun was setting. The rooms are tents, each one standing alone. There are porches with a roof made of banana leaves (I think). On that porch is a huge tent. Mine and Natalie's tent has a HUGE double bed inside. Each tent also has a working shower and western style toilet (as opposed to African style, a hole in the ground known as a Choo). The workers at this hotel refuse to let you carry your own luggage to your room and while you eat dinner they bring hot water bottles to your tent and put them in your bed for you. During dinner at the lodge we tried to arrange a marriage between Momo and Natalie, but Momo was only offering 15 cows to Natalie and she wouldn't take any less than 80. Also, neither sets of parents were these which is unacceptable.
After dinner we sat around in the main lodge (which is mainly open air, but has tent sides for at night when it's cold). There is a big fireplace and this was the first opportunity our group had to really just sit and talk. When we were ready to go back to our tents we had to wait for someone to escort us. The escort showed up after about 5 minutes... With a gun. He walked three sets of us back to our rooms. He dropped the others probably 20 feet from their tents. Since I was freaking out and our tent is the farthest away, he walked us all the way to our tent and even unzipped it for us. He made sure I was inside before leaving. Asante sana! Thank you very much!
Tuesday
The first thing that Natalie and I tried to do was wake up for the sunrise. We didn't know what time it would rise so we guessed 6:50am. I didn't even get out if bed. We had missed it. We got packed and went to breakfast. After breakfast, Natalie and I got in Kakasii's car with Bryan, Nancy, Melissa, Sue and Chad.
The aim of the day was to get to our next lodge on the other side of Ngorogoro Crater. On the way we first passed through the city of Karatu. We next went through the Ngorogoro entrance. As soon as we got through the gates, we saw a group of baboons and their babies. As we drove up the hill, Kakasii showed us and few area on the side of the road that elephants had scratched their tusks.
We stopped on the side of the road for a few minutes to look into the crater. The crater is approximately 12 and 1/2 miles across. In order to see it we went out onto a half finished viewing point. There was no barrier in the way. Simply some planks of wood built out over the side of the crater. After stopping we drove around the rim of the crater.
As we drove around the crater we saw Zebra! It was so exciting. We traveled a little farther into some grassland and saw an ostrich and a few giraffes! It's so editing seeing all of these animals for the first time. The next stop was lunch, which we ate overlooking the Oldupai Gorge. The guide there explained to us that we were looking at the different layers where Leakey found the first remains of homosapiens. I don't remember much more than that because I was more focused on the view than what the guide was saying...
Next we went to a Maasai village, also on our way around the crater. The Maasai began a welcome ceremony with singing and "dancing." Some of the women gave some of the girls in our group necklaces and took our hands to have us join in. Chad gave Kristian one of the Maasai male's clubs and he also joined the ceremony. The male "dancin"g involves a lot of jumping to the beat of the music. In Maasai culture, the higher a male can jump, the better wife he can get. The women's dancing mainly included shrugging shoulders in a particular way to get their necklaces to bounce. They tried to get us to sing with them, and we joined for a little while.
After the welcome ceremony, we split into groups so that the Maasai could show us into their homes, which are very small. My group was me, Natalie, Ron, and Jerry. Our guide was named Emanuel. He has only one wife and one son, named Moses. Why do I say ONLY one wife? Well, Emanuel's father had 25 wives and 200 children. Emanuel said he learned from his father's "mistake" and that one wife was enough for him. Having multiple wives is very common in Maasai culture. Emanuel is currently in college in Arusha to become a doctor. He is studying to become a doctor so that he can help his tribe.
The main foods for the Maasai are milk, blood, and meat (although women are not allowed to have blood). The blood is usually mixed with milk, but they also may drink it straight from an animal they have killed. All of the houses in their village were built in community. It takes about 2 and 1/2 months to build all of the houses. Women do all of the work. They build houses, cook, and get water. Maasai men are "warriors." This means they guard the village at night from lions and other predators, predators that rarely attack. It used to mean that they fought other tribes, but tribes live peacefully now.
This Maasai village was made up of about 30-40 huts, but it was only two different families. Maasai only stay in one place for about 8-12 months. After that time they leave the huts they have built for others to use and move on with their cattle to find better grazing land. The Maasai culture has coming of age for both males and females. I did not learn about the females, but the males go into the brush away from the village for 3 months when they are about 12 or 13. They usually go in groups of 2-4. Back in the day, they boys were expected to kill a lion, but that is now illegal.
After leaving the Maasai village we drove into a grassland area. Apparently in the area we were in, drivers don't usually go off the roads because they are afraid of getting lost however, Peter, Cacasii, and Momo are so great and know the area so well that they can go anywhere. We found the skull of something (I think it was a wildabeast) and saw a herd of ostriches. Soon we saw impala, thomsons, and grant gazelles. Soon after, we got super duper up close and personal with Mr. Giraffe. Then we arrived at Ndutu safari lodge which is on the edge of a grassland area.
We had a lot of time before dinner so we decided to go game driving. I was in Momo's car with Natalie, Corky, and Jerry. We very quickly saw a few warthogs (Pumba!). As we drove down a hill and past a small watering hole I happened to look to the left. "ELEPHANTS!" I yelled really loud. There were two male elephants at the watering hole. We were quite far away at first, but we drove closer and were able to get some close up shots.
Next we drove out to the marshes where we saw another safari truck parked. We heard rumor from the people at the lodge that there were some lionesses chilling in the marshes and sure enough, there they were! There we 4 lionesses and 10 lion cubs. Because it was beginning to be evening, the lions had just woken up from their naps and the cubs were just beginning to play. We sat and watched them for about an hour. As we sat and watched the lions, the two elephants we saw before came into view behind the lions. They walked straight behind the lions and into view of our cameras! It was incredible. If we thought that was good enough, a fox showed up. While the lionesses didn't end up chasing the fox, we watched them prowl a little.
We went back to the lodge and got ready for dinner. After dinner, Corky fixed the sizing settings on my camera so that I could take more pictures! When Natalie and I returned to our room, she went to shut the curtains and jumped back. I asked her what was wrong and she told me there was a huge spider and it was moving fast. Here's the thing, Natalie likes bugs. Spiders don't scare her. So for Natalie to get freaked out I knew there was a problem. She picked up a cup to trap it and then decided the cup wasn't big enough. Natalie went to get Aaron from the lodge to kill the spider for us (he was an Eagle Scout). Up to this point, Natalie had told me not to look at the spider. While she was gone I stood as far away from the curtains as I possibly could. And then the spider ran out from behind the curtain. I kid you not, this spider was the size of a soup spoon. Luckily Aaron was able to kill it for us. It took me a while to fall asleep though...
Wednesday
This was our official first day of Safari. The day we went into the Serengeti. Of course as we started out I played Circle of Life loud enough for the entire car to hear. Peter was our driver and the rest of the passengers were Natalie, Ron, Marilyn, Linda, Tom, and Sue. Even before we got into the Serengeti we saw flamingos (who are pink because of a bacteria they eat), marabusto storks (a meat eating bird), a secretary bird, a jackal downwind of some Thomson (meaning he may have been trying to pick off a little one), a lone hyena, and then two more hyenas (they need 10 or 15 to enable to hunt).
Also before entering the Serengeti, we had a little car trouble. Peter tried to drive up a hill, but it had some ruts in it and we ended up sliding back and forth and not being able to get up this hill. Peter had been the first car, so Kakasii and Momo laughed at him and Cacasii decided to show him how it was done. Kakasii managed to get his tired stuck in the Rutland nearly flipped his car. The right front wheel was a couple feet off of the ground. The drivers decided it would be a good idea for everyone to get out of the vehicles so we got to watch them try to figure it out. They ended up having to try a rope to Kakasii's car and pull him out using another car. After getting the car unstuck, we still had to get up that hill. Luckily this time all cars made it without a problem.
Soon we came to the entrance of the Serengeti. While the drivers checked us into the park, we climbed a giant hill. From the top of this hill all you could see in any direction was miles and miles of grassland. This is where Serengeti gets its name. Serengeti is Maasai for endless field. As soon as we got into the Serengeti we saw giraffes. Then we saw 2 male lions walking back in the direction we came from. They were quite far away and Peter told us that their pride was probably back where the hill we climbed was. A little while later we passed a rock that looked a lot like pride rock from the Lion King. Natalie and I were busy singing the Lion King soundtrack. All of a sudden Sue yelled "Stop!" Between the two rocks that looked like pride rock were two young male lions sleeping. On one of the rocks a little closer to us was a young female lion. According to Peter, these three lions were siblings.
We soon saw a wildabeast crossing the road, some zebra and another female lion. We also saw a dead hyena in the street. Peter told us the hyena was probably killed by a safari car or some other truck. When I said that was sad he said, "yeah, it is sad. But as a driver you have to make the decision to swerve and maybe kill the 7 people in your car plus myself or to hit the hyena. I would have hit the hyena too." Soon we came across an area where there were 13 cars looking at a tree. In that tree was a female lion who was watching the herd of zebras passing by the tree. She was downwind of them so they did not know they were there. She was waiting for a straggler to pick off at the end of the herd. When the opportunity didn't not arise she turned her attention to the herd of thomsons on the other side of the road. She climbed down the tree and headed into the grass. After about 10 minutes she disappeared into the grass. Peter said it may take a few hours for her to decide to pounce so we left after about half an hour.
Next we saw baby elephants and zebra, a cheetah (but it was very far away), a lion laying on a log, and a leopard in a tree. After lunch we went to a hippo pool where hundreds of hippos were lounging in this pool. It smelled really bad. A little ways away from the hippos was a crocodile lying on the bank of the pool. Soon we saw more zebra, a plane taking off on a dirt strip (in the Serengeti!), baby elephants, more lions, some warthogs, and hartbeast.
When we stopped to leave the Serengeti so we could check out, we all had a look at Natalie's face. It was absolutely covered in dirt! After seeing her we all washed off our faces with baby wipes. Natalie and I stood up and sang all the way from the Serengeti to the hotel. Ron told us later it was the only time he has seen us act like teenagers. We asked if that was a good thing or a bad thing and he said "it just is the way it is." At dinner I was feeling really dizzy and I thought it was from hunger. After dinner I felt the same so I called it a night and went to sleep at 9:15pm. I thought I was catching something but luckily I felt great when I woke up the next morning.
Thursday
This was the day to go into the Ngorogoro Crater. I was in Kakasii's car with Natalie, Kristian, Ron, Melissa, Chad. On our way to the entrance we saw a hyena den on the way. A few parents were milling around and then one of the cubs stuck his head out of the den to see what was going on. He stayed there for quite some time looking around and posing for pictures. There was fog everywhere as we descended into the crater we could only see fog. It was absolutely freezing. Chad said that the weather would get better as the sun burned through the fog.
We soon saw more wildabeast and buffalo (getting us to 4 out of the big 5). Then we saw a hippo out of the water which is very unusual to see. Hippos overheat very easily so they spend most daytime hours in the water. The fact that hippos were out of water shows just how cold it was, especially by African standards. A little later we saw some hyenas that were stuck in between water and safari trucks. The baby hyenas were crying. It was a really annoying and sad sound. It sounded like they were screaming. In between the hyenas and lunch we say more hippos out of water, zebras, wildabeast, and one wildabeast came rig up to our car.
For lunch we stopped at one of the only places in Ngorogoro that you are allowed to get out of the car because of predators. Kakasii used the rope that tied our lunches together and tried to wrap it around Peter's neck. He didn't realize that Peter was holding a knife. A few minutes later when Chad was looking at Peter's knife, Kakasii came up behind him and tied Peter's arms to his sides. Peter did a quick donkey kick and his foot made contact with Cacasii's gut! About 20 yards from where about 40 safari cars were eating, a lion was just lounging in the grass. It's a good thing she wasn't hungry for lunch!
Next we saw some zebra going to a water hole, am elephant skull, a baby wildabeast nursing, and some birds in a nest. Chad also pointed out our lodge on top of a 2000 foot cliff. Next we saw 4 rhinos completing the big 5! The big 5 are rhinos, leopard, lions, elephants, and buffalo. The 4 rhinos were quite far away but 2 of them walked a little closer. We sat and watched the rhinos for about an hour, long enough for Chad and Ron to fall asleep! To get out of the crater we drove through an acacia forest which was pretty spectacular.
About 500 feet from the entrance to our lodge was an elephant standing in the road. He was just chomping on some leaves. The lodge for that night was the Ngorogoro Wildlife Lodge. It looks over the edge of the crater and each room is set up to have a great view. The lobby is all carved wood and mirror mosaics and hanging for the ceiling are hundreds of glass balls in rows. The lobby also had a huge balcony with fixed binoculars to look into the crater. Dinner was the best food I had in a while. While the lodge was incredible, it was also freezing. Chad said that the entire day was the coldest he has ever seen it. Natalie went to the front desk to ask for extra blanket which made a huge difference.
Friday
Friday morning we left the lodge around 8:45am. It was pretty much driving all day. Peter's car became the youth car. it was me, Natalie, Aaron, Kristian, Raechel, and Anna. We stopped at a T-shirt shack in the morning for souvenirs and Peter helped us hand out candy to some kids. It was still freezing and it soon began to rain. There was a lot of traffic in Arusha and we ended up getting to Kakasii's house about 2 hours late. We did still get to meet his wife Brenda and three of his kids. His son Godson is 21 and his other two, Ellie and Max are twins that are almost 2. Kakasii handed me Ellie early on and she was scared of the amount of people in the house so she clung to me for the rest of the time we were there.
Next we went to lunch at Arumeru River Lodge. After lunch we drove the rest of the way back to Moshi. At this point came the unfortunate time that we had to bid farewell to our wonderful drivers. It was sad. Peter and Kaksii both promised to visit us at the orphanage so we'll see what happens. We had about an hour to chill at the hotel and then we went to dinner at El Rancho.
Next week
Tomorrow morning we fly to Bukoba by Lake Victoria. We will return on Monday afternoon. Tuesday is the day that Natalie, Raechel, Anna and I head to the orphanage and the rest of the group return to the US. I'll update again when we return from Bukoba!
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