well time for our first update. it seems so long ago since we arrived in africa yet its only been just over a week or so. initially we were in nairobi which was nothing special excpet for dirty& smelly & really like most other citys.
we met up with our tour & the real fun started when we set off from Nairobi to head down to Arusha in Tanzania. A few hours into the trip we strted to see little Masaai villags popping up in the middle of nowhere. And Masaai men out hearding their cows. Its just mind blowing to see these guys that we have heard & seen so much about in real life.
Arusha was awful. The minute we arrived in town we were swamped by hundreds of people truying to sell us junk. It doesnt pay to have manners in places like this. we felt like pied pippers walking down the street with no less than 15people behind us following. You cant do anything without it costing money. You cant stop to ask directins as they always somtething in return. You just got to put your head down & walk - ignoring them all (not always easy)
From there we made our way into the Ngorogoro Crater for our first gilmpse of animals. Can i just say - WOW. I felt like i had walked into a David Attenburgh show. I dont htink i will ever forgot getting my first glimpse of an elephant munching away the grass...several hippos wallowing in the water. And the best find of hte day - a cheetah that was stalking an impala. Was amazing. We spent about an hour tracking it as it did a circle around....crouched low so it couldnt smell him. However dinner for him was a slow process & eventually we had to move off & leave him to it. But at one stage he got within 10m of the truck. Was a fantastic way to start our animal watching.
The following day we moved on into the Serengeti. Oh My God. It was like a dream. have to constantly pinch myself to make sure its real. there was just so many animals. there was literally thousands, prehaps hundreds of thousands zebras & wilderbest stil around from the migration. truly was an amazing site. Major highlight - finding a sleeping lioness within 3m of hte truck. She completly ignored us, had a good yawn before wandering off across the road. Her partner we could still see, but he was more off in the distance, prehaps 30m or saw. But she was just stunning. the power & grace.
we sat in the truck & watched the sunset. had a drink up in a lodge, sitting outside on the warm rocks listening to the lions roar - does life get any better??
we got to camp in the serengeti, no gates, no guards. just a thin piece of tent between us and any animals that might be hungary. = )
Next morning we set off for Uganda.....
