Our first day we drove to Lake Manyara and spent a half day in the park. The drive up was actually really interesting because the Serengeti area is where the Maasai people live. They are the image of Africa you often see in National Geographic with their dark robes in shades of red, blue and purple that are draped around their bodies like Moses; simple sandals; and tons of bulky white earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. We saw groups of Maasai boys by the side of the road in white face paint, which means they had just been circumcized. We also passed by a village that we learned was actually one family. This one man had 90 children! He literally had to build a school just for his children. At one point we pulled over to the side of the road to check on the car (this was a frequent occurence) and we saw this young child standing nearby and staring at us. As we sat there he slowly got closer and closer. At this point I was accustomed to people coming up to us asking for money or trying to sell us things so I expected him to do the same, but he just stood there, staring. It was a strange feeling as I sat there staring back at this little boy dressed in his traditional robes; I felt like we were from two different planets.
Lake Manyara is mostly forest so it is a bit harder to see animals there, but we did see a lot of baboons. Often we came around a corner and they were all gathered in the middle of the road causing a safari-style traffic jam. The road through the park leads to this beautiful lake that is fed by hot springs. Standing in the massive lake were thousands of flamingos which you could see from miles away as a pink blur along the horizon. There was a lookout point for the lake where we could get out of the car and where the hot springs that fed into the lake bubbled out from under the rocks. We were able to touch the water, which was shockingly hot at about the temperature of a cup of tea.
Day 2 we drove from Lake Manyara, past the Ngorongoro crater to the Serengeti. I had this really surreal moment at one point when we were driving past a Maasai village in a valley next to the crater. We were rocketing over these rolling hills and there was this Maasai shepherd wearing deep purple robes that were blowing in the wind as he stood at the top of a hill looking out over his flocks. In behind him the lush green valley stretched out for miles dotted with herds of cows and goats right next to wild zebras, ostriches, giraffes, and buffalos. I honestly could not imagine any place being more beautiful.
We spent the day driving around the Serengeti in search of animals and found a leopard as well as an endless supply of elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelope, wart hogs, and buffalos. The way you see everything is through the roof of the car (which is pushed up) while you stand on the seat. It probably wasn't the safest as the roads are obviously quite rough, but I definitely think that hanging on for dear life with the wind flying in your face is part of the experience.
The Serengeti plains themselves are so vast they look like they stretch on forever. In the evening, just looking around you see elephants beside you, zebras and antelope all around, and hippos in the nearby lake; everywhere around you are these amazing animals. And looking to the horizon that is blurred from the far-off rain and below the clouds with the sun shining through like the heavens are about to open up. All of this while your flying over the Serengeti bouncing up and down like you are on a wooden roller coaster with your head out the roof and your hair flying in the wind. Its hard to fully explain the feeling in words. It is another world out there.
We spent the next two nights camping out in a campsite in the middle of the Serengeti. There are no fences so the only thing that keeps the animals out is their fear of humans. This does not hold true at night when everyone is asleep and all is quiet and dark. I made it a general rule not to drink anything near bedtime, but one of the girls got up to go to the washroom in the night but re-thought the idea when she spotted some hyenas nearby fighting over the garbage.
Day 3, which was our second day in the Serengeti, we saw a baby hippo and two cheetahs lying in the road, but the lions were hands-down my favourite. There was one female sitting on a termite hill that we got so close to that we could actually see a blood stain on her neck. It was actually kind of scary. We noticed there were two groups on either side of the road and one standing apart and carefully staring at a large group of zebras nearby, which our guide, Muksin, thought meant that they were preparing to hunt. We really wanted to see it happen so we waited for a while, but didn't see much so decided to move on. After spotting a few more animals, we decided to go back and check on the lions one last time before we went back to the campsite. One lion was still eyeing the zebras, but the rest seemed disinterested so Muksin didn't think it was going to happen. We stayed there for our last half hour anyways and entertained ourselves by watching the zebras getting spooked by the nearby cars. They were wading into the hippo pond and then when a car would start they would all come frantically running out. The second time it happened they were even more frantic and continued running running across the field, stirring up dust. I was trying to figure out why they were so intensely over-reacting to the car noise when one of the girls yelled, "oh my god there is a lion in there!" As the dust settled we saw it looking disappointed and hungrily staring at the zebras who had moved a surprisingly short distance away (about two street lengths), but were looking very concerned. Just when we thought that was the end of it, out of the dust we spotted another lion approaching. And another. And another. And another. They started circling the zebras and sitting down at intervals that were amazingly purposeful and organized. It was really interesting to watch them interact from so close up. You think of them as such vicious animals but they are actually very affectionate with eachother. In the end we didn't end up seeing them take down any zebras, but it was still pretty cool.
On day 4 we woke up early to see the sun rise over the Serengeti and drove to the Ngorongoro crater to spend our last day. Our Range Rover reached a new level of failure when it created a new exhaust pipe through the gear shifter. This was dealt with my stuffing wads of toilet paper into the cracks and then dumping a bunch of water on it. It wasn't exactly out of the mechanic's textbook, but I actually think it worked for a while. Despite the two broken back doors, one broken window, and the requirement to pour water into the engine every hour or so, it was pretty amazing they could still keep the 20 year old SUV running after years of driving on the rugged terrain (we got two flat tires over the course of the four days).
The Ngorongoro crater was amazing. I tried to take pictures but it was so huge that they were just a little stupid. You can't really capture it; I think you just have to be there. It makes you feel so small.
There are only about thirty rhinos living in the crater but we did manage to spot one from a distance. Even further away we spotted a cheetah and as we were driving away I kept looking back at it. I really felt like it was coming towards us, but it was hard to tell since it was so far away. Then it turned and even though it was only a dot in the distance, we knew without a doubt that it was a cheetah because nothing else could run that fast. Apparently they can get up to 120 km/h; this one must have been close to that.
On the way out of the crater, you first drive through a spooky looking forest that looks straight out of Snow White: dark, knobby, leafless trees with branches that curl out every which way. The rest of the drive looks like an enchanted forest. The trees are all dangling and sweeping the ground and everything is green and covered in tangled vines. With that around us and the Ngorongoro crater stretching out beyond we barreled up the side of the crater at 70 km/h with our heads waving in the wind, praying to god as we whipped around the cars that we didn't slip off the narrow dirt road. By the time I got home I had muscle pains in my hands from gripping the sides of the car, my hair was in a mess that took over an hour to brush out, and my whole upper body was covered in dirt from the wind (my hair brush turned black): totally worth it.
Pictures at: Safari pictures
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