The Safari, Our Last Day, and My Last Blog

Hey there. It's been a while. We got back today from our 3-day safari, so I guess I should tell you all about it. I'll start by saying that the safari was, indeed, awesome. However, I had a general preconception about safaris that wasn't exactly the way things are. Let me explain. I was thinking we hop in a safari truck with a guide and go blaze trails in the African wilderness, risking life and limb in pursuit of wild beasts of myth and lore. In reality, it's much more different. We did hop into a safari truck, and we did have a REALLY cool guide (his name was Saloom...or something like that. He was half-Maasai, half-Indian, and about 6'5", 230lbs.). The first day, he picked us up at our hotel after we had a quick briefing with Aker, the white dude that owns the company. We drove about 2 hours to Tarangire National Park. I'll describe that place briefly. It has a river that never runs dry, so during the dry season (it's the dry season here, by the way), a whole bunch of animals come into the park to drink. We arrived at the park mid-morning, Saloom filled out papers, and we were on our way. The first thing you notice is the gravel roads. We weren't blazing any trails...they had been blazed already by like a bulldozer or something. The next thing you notice is all the other safari trucks. I mean, there were times when we were literally in "traffic" out in the bush. You'll see one truck stopped looking at something, so everyone wants to go over there, next thing you know, theres like 20 trucks looking at a zebra or something. The third thing you notice is the weird feeling that all of this feels very fake and set up. Yeah its a national park and yeah the animals can come and go as they please, but it feels like you have this dude with this truck driving you through a big zoo. Like they see us coming and call ahead to say "ok, here come wazungu, let the animals out of the cages." After a while you get used to it, but the Disney feeling never really goes away. On the whole, though, Tarangire was very cool. We saw all kinds of animals, from zebras to wildebeasts to giraffes to elephants to more zebras and baboons and then more zebras and then we even saw zebras. There are times, though, and this is true of all the places we went to, where there aren't any animals, and you basically drive around in this truck looking at trees. After Tarangire, we headed to the tented lodge that we would be staying in for 2 nights. It was about an hour and a half away, and by this point we were WAY out in the bush. It was really cool, though, because the lodge, the Ngorongoro Crater (day 2 park), and Lake Manyara (day 3 park) are all located on the East African Rift...basically in the mountains. The mountains were very, very cool. They looked a bit like Europe, despite all the African-looking stuff. A tented lodge, if you don't know, is basically giant tents with big beds and hot showers and front porches. It was very luxurious. There were a few Americans there, but mainly Europeans. We had dinner the first night with a girl named Courtney, who is from Baltimore but lives in London for her job. She arrived a dinner alone, so we invited her to sit with us. Her friend, it turned out, got bumped from the flight and would be arriving the next day. Courtney herself was very very funny, and the 5 of us had a great night laughing really loud and playing cards at the bar (the bar was more of a veranda on the edge of the cliff looking out over Lake Manyara and the desert and mountains beyond. Oh, and we could see every single star.). We woke up the next morning early and continued our safari to Ngorongoro Crater. The Crater formed when a huge volcano erupted and collapsed on itself. Because of the steep sides, it has become a huge isolated ecosystem of over 20,000 different kinds of animals...or thats what Saloom said. We did see a LOT of animals though. We had a lion sit right next to our truck, and even saw some lions hanging out by a buffalo they had just killed. Also there were zebras! And some elephants, giraffes, hippos, etc. And wazungu. Lots of wazungu. We stayed at the crater all day, then went back to the lodge for another night. While the girls rested, my mom and I took a walk with one of the Maasai guards as he explained all of the medicinal qualities of the plants that the Maasai used...so that was pretty cool. Then we had another dinner, slept again, and woke up early this morning to go to Lake Manyara, a short drive down the mountain. Basically this park encompasses this huge salt water lake and the surrounding jungle/plain area. By this point, we were used to all the trucks and the more common animals, and really just wanted to see a leopard. I'll say right now that we never saw a leopard, and in general, didn't see much of anything at all. We spent most of the trip joking around with Saloom about whether or not guides make up all the stuff they tell us. Oh and we talked about fat Americans. We spent a half day at Manyara in order to get back to Arusha. We got back here to our hotel (same one...different apartment), and the girls went out to do some shopping while I stayed in and read and took a shower. At 7ish, Emily and Meghan (the founder of TFFT) picked us up for dinner. We went to Pepe's, an Italian/Indian cuisine, and had a lovely dinner, recapping the entire trip. Tomorrow morning the two girls will pick us up and we will drive to Moshi, a smaller version of Arusha about an hour and 15 minutes away. We are scheduled to go on a coffee tour on the side of Kilimanjaro for 3 hours, and then we will head to the airport and get ready to head back to the US. Our flight leaves the airport at 8:50 pm, heads to Dar es Salaam to pick up those folks, then flies to Amsterdam, then to Detroit where we have a 3 hour layover, then to Charlotte and home. We've definitely had a great time, but we are also ready to go home. 2 and a half weeks in Africa really does feel like about 10 years. It will be nice to eat American food and not have to turn on the hot water 30 minutes before taking a shower. Don't worry though, we have PLENTY of pictures. See you on the other side. Kwa heri for good.