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
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...
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