Zebra Beans and Bananas
Trip Start
Nov 07, 2005
1
57
75
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Arusha / Serengenti / Ngorongoro Crater,
Tanzania
Thursday, August 24, 2006
"Observing how people worked and lived their lives is one of the objectives of travel. It sometimes made me feel bad and fairly useless."
We picked up another 2 newbies in Nairobi - 2 Brits, Jo & Ruth - making a total of 29 people on a 28-seater truck, then headed towards Tanzania through the quietest border control I've ever seen. There was an absence of hawkers thanks to the strict "No Hawking" signs (apart from those few who were rebel rule breakers rich enough to pay the fines) and I even had to search quite hard to find a dodgy currency changer - almost unheard of - they're normally flapping their wads of cash right in your face.
The Kenyan visa overstay fiasco went without a hitch. Either they didn't realise or didn't care.
Driving to Arusha we passed a one-van carnival: a Heineken truck with music blaring out and 2 people on the back dancing, with loads of people following behind. As if this wasn't strange enough, the 2 people on the truck were wearing George Bush and Saddam Hussein masks, which prompted huge cheers from us, although I still don't understand why.
We stayed at a campsite called Snake Park, which to Marcus' disgust housed the rescued limbless creatures. He couldn't get his head around why someone would want to rescue his worst enemies but did face his fears and go to look at them from a distance. He did look like he was about to wet himself though.
We picked up yet another overbooked passenger, Aussie Damon, meaning Ruth had to share a tent with myself and Claire, which was a bit close for comfort so we didn't get a whole lot of sleep.
The next 3 days we were off to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater for game drives, hopefully to see some big cats other than lions. We were split into 5 groups to go in Landcruisers, as the roads were too bad to take the truck. So Claire, Morgan, Jules, Luke, Andrea and I set off in 'Girraffe No. 9' (Yes, giraffe had 2 r's. There was also Cheeter and Buffallo) with our driver/guide Malky.
It soon became clear that having baked beans for breakfast had not been a good idea, as Morgan and Luke filled the car with their rotten farts, almost killing Malky before we'd even begun.
The first day was a lot of driving to get to the parks so we didn't see all that much, except for 2 adult lions and 2 cubs right by the side of the road, but surrounded by about 10 ither vehicles so it was hard to get a good look.
We bush camped that night, and after dinner, which someone jokingly said was zebra, beans and bananas (prompting Claire to question what exactly zebra beans were) we went to bed surrounded by wildlife, and I kept waking up because I was sure there was a hyena right outside our tent.
It was up at 6am for another game drive the next day but we still had the problem of overcrowding: as soon as one car spotted something they radioed everyone else and within minutes whatever animal it was, was surrounded and it felt like a zoo. And this wasn't even peak season in the Serengeti.
Despite this, we saw some amazing stuff - a cheetah crossed the road a few metres ahead of us, we spotted 3 more cheetahs asleep in a bush at the roadside, some more lions and cubs and all the usual antelopes, gazelles etc.
We were on our way back to the camp for lunch, looking for a suitable toilet stop when Julia shouted out "Cat!" and when we turned to see what she was pointing at, Malky ascertained it was a leopard. We'd been praying to see one but they're so elusive that it was rather unlikely so we were ecstatic. We were soon surrounded by everyone else but were too excited to care.
Back at the camp most people were buzzing about what they'd seen apart from a couple of groups with crap drivers and no radios so they'd missed out on some stuff including the leopard. A bit of competition arose though with some people getting arrogant and boasting which really lowered my opinion of them.
Making our way back towards the crater we stayed at another scary campsite where I swear I heard a lion eating a dog during the night but couldn't find any remains in the morning.
I asked Malky which of the 2 parks he preferred - the Serengeti or Ngorongoro Crater - and he chose the former, saying the latter was boring. Excellent news.
He had to take it all back later though, after we saw a pride of lions straight away with 3 cubs, cheetahs, elephants and the remains of a fresh kill. The lionnesses and young males had had their fill and walked right past the car - close enough you could've touched them - at which point Malky told Morgan it might be a good idea if he stopped sticking his head out of the window. The rest of the carcass was being polished off by a male lion, surrounded by hyenas and jackals who kept at a safe distance and everytime the lion glanced at them they averted their eyes and pretended to be doing some chores. As soon as he moved away they swarmed in and withing a couple of minutes there was nothing left. One hyena even took the hair of what used to be a wildebeest.
They ran around fighting over the remains and cackling and even Malky had to admit that today had been anything but 'boring'.
After 3 days on a stinking fart-filled landcruiser I was beginning to crave my own space and fresh air. As Andrea pointed out: "The conversation the last 3 days has been about sport, farts or penises."
On the way back to Arusha we stopped at a Masai village. No one particularly wanted to go as it was all a bit of a touristy set up but apparently we had already paid $10 each for it so we didn't have a lot of choice. It was interesting in a way but you always feel a bit invasive going into villages and houses in a tour group and they'd obviously seen so many tourists that they'd lost any kind of enthusiasm for it and just wanted to sell us as much stuff as they could at extortionate prices.
In retrospect I suppose I didn't help matters by giving in and buying a bracelet.
