Day Four - Sleepless Nights and Zebra

Last night was the worst night’s sleep ever! I had about 2 hours’ sleep until I was woken up by something moving around outside our tent. It sounded quite big, like a buffalo or wildebeest. Anyway, it was wandering around eating grass which, in itself, doesn’t sound scary written down but I was actually petrified! I was convinced that whatever it was out there was going to trample on our tent with us inside it. I put my headphones in and covered my head/ears with my fleece and tried to convince myself that it had gone away. I eventually drafted off into a broken sleep until around 5am when people started to wake up and move around the campsite.

A lot of other people left the campsite very early but we stayed for breakfast (toast, omelettes, sausage, pancakes and fruit). The food portions we have been given so far are huge and I feel terrible that we keep leaving food Fiteal says that I need to eat more and Juma told me that I won’t have energy to climb Kili if I don’t eat more.

Fiteal found it hilarious that I didn’t sleep last night and, through tears of laughter, managed to tell me that it was just a zebra outside my tenet so I didn’t need to be worried at all.

After breakfast we climbed into the Land Rover and set out for a morning of safari. Rather than listing the animals we saw, I’ve added some of my favourite photos below:

We came back to camp around 1p.m. for a lunch of quiche, salad, tilapia and chips. After lunch we had some time to rest – I think this was to Fiteal a rest from driving and to make sure that we weren’t out in the midday sun. At around 3 p.m. we went out again until 7 p.m. The evening safari was very successful. We saw some leopards and a pack of hyenas killing and eating a baby buffalo – we watched them for ages. We also got to see some beautiful lion cubs.

By the time we got back to camp it was dark and very, very cold so we put on a few extra layers and headed for dinner. The food was excellent again. We had hot drinks and chatted with Fiteal again before heading to bed. Now we’re back in the tent again last night keeps running through my mind and I’m starting to get scared again.

Hopefully I'll get much more sleep tonight as we have an early start tomorrow morning. 

Day Three Continued

I was wrong to be worried about the weather. Before long, we were sat a matter a metres away from two male lions who were hiding in the long grass. It was unbelievable to be so close to them. Fiteal told us they were only small so must have been quite young. I’m beginning to doubt what "wise Fiteal" is telling us because those lions looked huge to me!

Male lions hiding in the grass 

On our way to the campsite we were also lucky enough to see lots of Thomson Gazelles and Zebra – we even had to stop the car at one point to let the Zebra cross the road, they really didn’t seem to care that we were there.

It wasn’t long before the rain had stopped and we came across some more lions, this time they were much closer to the road. As the rain had stopped we were able to open the roof of the Land Rover so that we could stand up and get a better view of the animals. There was a mum, two adolescent males and a young female. The boys were play fighting right next to the road, it was so surreal to watch them play, seemingly unfazed by our presence only a few metres away from them.

Gorgeous lioness watching her brothers play fighting

"The boys" play fighting 

As we moved on, still aiming for the campsite, we could see a large group of vehicles just like ours grouped together in the distance. Fiteal turned off the road and headed towards the other cars to investigate what was going on. He explained that when rangers or tour guides find something unusual or interesting, they radio the others so that they can come and see too. There must have been about 15 vehicles all parked along the road looking at a sight, which according to Fiteal, was very, very rare – there was a Cheetah sat right next to the road eating it’s prey, a Thomson Gazelle. 

Cheetah enjoying it's dinner 

It was amazing, if not a little gross, to see that so close up and it was certainly not something I had expected that we would be so lucky to see. What also amazed me, was the number of vehicles and the number of people within those vehicles. One thing that isn’t shown in the brochures or in the films, is just how many other people are on safari at the same time as you.

 Everybody trying to catch a glimpse of the Cheetah 

When we had had enough of watching the Cheetah tear it’s dinner apart, we were ready to carry on for camp. This was much easier said than done. The volume of vehicles on this part of the road meant that the entire road was blocked. Vehicles were trying to manoeuvre around each other, inching forwards, not getting far and the reversing. One driver thought it would be a good idea to try to drive up the verge and go around everyone which backfired and he just got stuck, only being set free when another vehicle pushed him up the last bit of the verge using his bumpers.

One very angry tourist stuck on the grass verge!

Fitael told us we needed to get to camp before dark so we headed off and reached camp in plenty of time to get the tents set up. I’m pretty worried about the camp site as it’s in the middle of the Serengeti and there are no fences! Even more worryingly, Fitael has set up our tent right on the edge of camp and set his tent up in the middle! On one side of the camp is a block of toilets, which upon closer inspection consists of 2 showers, 2 toilets and 2 squat toilets (essentially just holes in the ground). On the other side of the camp are two separate “blocks” one is the kitchen and the other is the dining cage. I say dining cage because that’s exactly what it is – a cage. Apparently the fencing is needed to keep the animals out. In all honesty, I’d much rather they were able to get in there than in our tent. 

The campsite

Sean insisting he was "helping" get the tents set up

Me relaxing before realising our lives were in danger! 

After setting up our tents, we went into the dining cage where various groups of people had set up their tables and chairs. Juma had laid out hot drinks and freshly made popcorn for us which was delicious. We were then joined by Fiteal for a three course dinner courtesy of Juma.We started with pumpkin soup which was following by spaghetti Bolognese and dessert of fresh fruit and another round of hot drinks. Whilst eating dinner the “mobile safari bar” arrived. This was a large refrigerated truck which drives between the different campsites in the evenings selling alcohol and other refreshments. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos because it was pitch black and, under no circumstances was I going outside and drawing attention to myself with the flash on my camera - we all know lions are attracted to camera flashes. 

The dining cage, with kitchen in the background behind it

Most other groups headed off to their tents but used the opportunity to chat to Fiteal more (we haven’t figured out why yet but Juma doesn’t seem to be eating with us). He insisted on scaring the living daylights out of me by “being honest” about the dangers of the campsite at night time. He said that sometimes lions come into the camp but it’s not common (although he said that finding a cheetah eating near the road was rare, but we saw that!). According to Fiteal we can hear lions that are about 6-7 km away and we would definitely know if one was closer. I’ve actually hear a few lion roars whilst I’ve been writing this which is making me feel slightly uncomfortable. Other, more common visitors to the campsite include hyenas and buffalo – which is the animal that Fiteal is most afraid of because they charge and trample for no apparent reason.

So, after those lovely, reassuring thoughts we both ran across the campsite to the toilets whilst there were lots of people still awake and walking around the camp before retiring to our tent (where I feel no safer). Rather conveniently, we are as far away from the toilets as possible so I’m hoping that, as I’m really tired now I’ll fall asleep shortly and not wake up until the morning * Fingers crossed *

Day Three - The Real Lion King

I've decided that, for the purposes of the blog, I'm going to split my diary entry for day three into two posts. There's two reasons for this: 1) I wrote a lot on this day, most of which is quite dull and I'm not ready to lose readers just yet, and 2) I'm pretty chuffed with my photography skills on the safari and would like to share some of my photos with you guys. 

Day Three - Part One

We were meant to be ready to meet Fitael at reception and leave at 8am. That didn’t happen.

I didn’t wake up until 7am, then spent far too long in the glorious warm shower. We then had to re-arrange our bags as we had everything we needed for the full three weeks however, we only needed to take what we would need for the four day Safari and everything else could be left behind at the Lodge. (As a side point, it’s worth mentioning that packing for a trip this big is really, really difficult and I’m going to do a separate blog on what we found useful to take and what was a waste of space).

We eventually left our room at 7.59 to find the Canadian guys sat outside reception still waiting to be picked up, having been told to be ready for 7.30. This put my mind at ease and I assumed that Tanzania runs on the same AMT (African Maybe Time) as Ghana. I was wrong. So very wrong. Fitael was already there waiting for us and found it hilarious that we weren’t ready yet. He said he didn’t mind waiting for us so we ran to the breakfast room, grabbed some toast and bananas to take with us (Sean managed to grab sausage, beans, toast, pancakes and a banana which, to this day, I still have no idea how) and returned to our vehicle. Fitael had packed our bags into the big Land Rover he had collected us in yesterday and introduced us to our cook for the next few days, Juma.

We’re really lucky as both Fitael and Juma are very friendly and knowledgeable. Throughout the whole drive today they’ve been really chatty and informative. As there’s only me and Sean on the Safari, we have loads of room in the Land Rover which is made to seat 9 plus the driver and is surprisingly comfortable.

We drove through Arusha town and then seemed to stay on one straight road for the rest of the day. The highlights of this long, long road can be summarised as the town that sold red bananas (also the same town that we picked up some binoculars from Fitael’s mate) and a very steep climb up the side of the great rift wall. The views from the top were stunning but before we knew it we were back down the other side again.

The wildlife along the long, long road can be divided into two categories – the goats, sheep and cows that the Masai people heard along the side of the road and the hundreds of dead dogs in the middle of the road! Fitael “explained” that, for some unknown reason, the dogs mate in the middle of the road at night which results in a lot of them getting run over (possibly one of the most bizarre things I have heard and hence the reason “explained” was in inverted commas!)

We soon reached the gate for the Ngorongoro National Park and, after a short stop to sort out the relevant paperwork and permits, we made our way up to the crater ridge where we stopped for a few photos. We didn’t stay long as we will be stopping there again in a couple of days’ time, which, given how breath-taking the views were, I’m now very excited about. We came down from the crater ridge and continued along the same long, long road again.

Gateway into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Looking down into the crater from the view point on the crater rim

Looking across the crater

The next place we stopped was Oldupai Gorge which, rather excitingly, was down another road which forked off the long, long road. We had, what I would describe as, THE biggest packed lunches ever made. We had one lunch box each which contained two cheese sandwiches, two hard boiled eggs, a piece of grilled chicken, a bag of crisps, a bag of groundnuts, a muffin, a chocolate bar and a carton of juice. Now, those of you who know me, will know that whilst I eat a lot, I eat small amounts throughout the day and often get over-faced by large portions (or, if you believe my work colleagues, half a baguette). Needless to say, Sean was well fed today.

We ate lunch looking out over the gorge and then listened to a talk about the history of the area – it was very interesting with the various excavation sites, camps and finds which were initially made famous by Louis Leaky and his wife Mary. (Having just Googled the gorge, whilst typing up this entry, Wikipedia informs me that Oldupai Gorge is one of the most important paleonanthropological sites in the world – impressive heh?)

View across the gorge

The different soil and excavation levels

Picnic area where we ate lunch 

We continued again on the long, long road (I’m starting to wonder why I named yesterday’s entry “Travelling, travelling and more travelling” and not today’s) until we reached the gate for the Serengeti National Park. Once again we stopped so that Fiteal could sort out the paper work, permits etc. Just before we reached the gate I realised that I hadn’t packed the notebook that we had been using as our diary so, at the gate, we went into the visitors’ centre and Sean bought us a posh $15 notebook which we are both sharing for the next couple of days. Whilst we were at the gate, it started to rain and the views from the vantage points were somewhat limited by the cloud and the rain. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little disappointed at that moment in time. I’d come on safari with a picturesque vision of clear blue skies, sun and lots of animals – so far we’d had Masai goats and cows, dead dogs and rain.

Rainy views across the Serengeti

To be continued...

Day One (continued) and Day Two - Travelling, Travelling and More Travelling

Having arrived at our hotel for the night, I've finally been able to steal the pen and notepad back from Sean. I can see that this is going to be an on-going problem.

The flight from Manchester to Doha was comfortable and we watched a couple of films. We had dinner and a glass of wine and, before we knew it, we were only 2 hours away from Doha. I then made the error of taking my Doxy (Doxycycline as an antimalarial) without food. I have learnt from numerous previous trips to high risk Malaria areas that, unless I take my Doxy tablet with food (and I mean literally half way through a meal) I feel very sick. So I then spent the last hour to an hour and a half feeling like I was about to throw up. Not at all pleasant.

We arrived in Doha just before midnight but despite this, we were still hit by a wall of humid heat as we stepped off the plane and bundled into the airport transfer bus. Airport security was painless and, after taking a quick photo of Sean with a dinosaur, we found some seats to set up camp for the night as our next flight wasn’t until 7am. Needless to say, neither of us slept very well. Why is it that, even though you have an alarm on, your body won’t let you sleep when you have an important wake up call? I managed to have an hour’s sleep on the floor underneath the chairs with a scarf over my head.

Our next flight was from Doha to Dar es Salaam. The flight went really quickly but, unfortunately, I was sat next to a guy who smelled quite bad and kept elbowing me throughout the six-hour flight. On the other side of me was Sean - what's that saying again?....oh yea, stuck between a rock and a hard place! After watching another film and sleeping for a little bit, we were soon landing in Dar es Salaam. 

Quite a lot of people got off the plane but nobody else got on so we had plenty of space to spread out once we set off for Kilimanjaro airport. Looking around the plane, it was apparent that most of the people who were flying to Kilimanjaro Airport were here to climb the mountain itself with lots of whispers about walking boots being worn in (or not!) and altitude sickness. Listening in to everyone else's conversations and sensing the excitement in the air made me realise that we're actually about to do this - we're here to climb the highest mountain in Africa! The flight to Kilimanjaro Airport was 45 minutes but it only felt like 5 with fantastic views over the plains of Tanzania.

When we stepped off the plane at Kilimanjaro, the heat hit us like a wall – it was so hot! I knew immediately that Sean and his super pale skin are going to struggle here. Luckily, we had both printed out and completed our visa forms before we left the UK (something I would recommend to save time once you arrive in Tanzania) so we got through immigration quickly and with minimal fuss, the only difficulty being me trying to stand in the right spot for my photo to be taken at the passport desk. Epic fail on my part when trying to identify my left and right.

Kilimanjaro Airport is tiny so it didn’t take long at all for our bags to come off the plane and into the luggage collection area. You could actually see the guy picking the bags off the trolley and putting them on to the conveyor belt – that reminds of something that happened in Doha Airport that I forgot to write about yesterday. When we got on the plane at Doha I was sat by the window and saw my bag fall off the trolley as they were putting the bags on to the plane. I genuinely thought it was going to get left there so went to tell one of the air hostesses who just looked at me slightly strangely and reassured me that they knew how to do their jobs! (Upon reflection that probably wasn't interesting enough to have written down.....)

Anyway, back to our arrival at Kili Airport….we were greeted by Fitael (who, admittedly, we called Fritelli for the first three days. He’s even referred to as Fritelli in my hand written diary but I feel it would be disrespectful to call him by a made up name now that I actually know what it is. Well that, and I don’t want to look like an idiot!) After a quick change of clothes in the back of the huge Land Rover we were ready to set off for Arusha. I was really surprised by how similar Ghana and Tanzania look (I appreciate that it quite a generalisation and it may be more accurate to say Arusha and Accra but you get the point).

It took the best part of an hour to get to our destination for the night, L’Oasis Lodge, where we have a massive self-contained double room. For some strange reason we have three beds in the room but I’m not going to complain about that. I’m very impressed with the fact that we have hot water in the bathroom as this is the thing I always miss the most when in Ghana.

We dropped our bags off in our room and headed to the bar to meet Achmed who was already there talking to two guys from Canada who are also here to climb Kili with Base Camp (Base Camp are the company we arranged the whole trip through and, in all honesty, looking back over the trip now, I could not find a single fault with them. If you’re considering it, you should definitely check them out http://www.basecamptanzania.com/ )

Achmed bought us all (me, Sean, Logan and Ryan) a few beers which was an excellent welcome. We tried Serengeti as well as Safari, the latter being my favourite so far. The food at the Lodge was really nice and, on Achmed’s recommendation, we all had some variation of curry. Talking to the other guys who are here to climb Kili has really started the excitement but first we have four days of safari ahead of us. Climbing into bed after 36 hours of travelling feels like bliss but we have to be up early tomorrow as Fitael is coming to pick us up at 8 am and we need to sort out what we are taking with us and what is being left here. Time to call it a day I think – Good night!