From the lakes and plains of Kenya we had a big driving day across the border into Tanzania. We camped the first night we arrived on the shores of Lake Victoria at a scenic campsite called Tembo (loads of hotels and campsites are called tembo after the elephant). it was a bit weird though as we literally on the beach and lots of locals were eating & drinking next to our tents. it didn't feel that safe- especially when 2 locals decided to have a punch up! but all had calmed down by the time i went to bed. the beauty of a tent is that you get in, do up the zip and then don't worry about what is on the other side of the canvas, be it local african man, hippo or hyena!
The next day we drove to Serengeti NP. We had lunch just outside the park entrance in an interesting way - in a baboon cage. its a little room with caged windows and you have your lunch in there to stop the baboons stealing your food. which they do right out of your hands if you stand in the open. it was weird being on the inside being watched by the animals!
In the Serengeti we saw more game- by this time though i was back to being a princess and only wanted to see a leopard. we did see some lions and they were incredible...and all the usual zebras, wildebeest, etc.
I also threw caution to the wind here and booked to do a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti. It was totally amazing- such a wonderful experience and such breath taking views. my tent buddy, kate and i did it, along with about 30 others. there were 2 balloons with 16 in each. i expected to walk into an upright basket, open a little door, go in, and take off standing upright. not a chance. the balloon was lying down when we arrived at 5am, and we got in sideways, lying down and then they filled it up with air and we took off. it was the weirdest thing but really good fun! we floated over the park really slowly and quite low down so that we got to see all the game close up. we saw hippos, BJTs by the hundreds, zebras, giraffes and lots of birds..at one point we were so close to the tops of trees that we were on the same level as a pack of vultures.
the experience was topped off by breakfast under an acacia tree when we finished the balloon ride. we were thoroughly spoilt with tea, coffee, fresh juices, fresh fruit and a full breakfast. it made a nice change from eating on plastic crockery and having to flap our plates dry! (flapping is an amazing overlanding concept where you flap your dishes dry to avoid using germy tea towels. its pain stakingly slow and boring but it works. as does spraying everything, including your hands, with dettol.)
anyway, kate and i were the total country bumpkins as we took photos of ourselves washing our hands before the meal, with hot water being POURED, yes, poured into a bowl for us by a little man. i bet the rich honeymoonig couples in the queue behind us wanted their money back after being stuck with hicks like us!
That evening we went to the main lodge in the Serengeti and watched the sun set. Amazing. When we got back to the campsite we roasted marshmallows over the fire and listened to the lions in the distance. Times like this I really marvel at the landscape here- you get blase after a while when you have seen so many national parks ansd so many animals. but it is an amazing sight! we freaked ourselves out by checking for hyenas that were really close to the tents. yikes.
The next day we went into the ngorogoro crater. again, the landscape is stunning. i was excited just for the views of the crater as i have read so much about it, and it didn't disappoint. it is so vast and yet when you are at the top it feels so small. The best part about the crater was that we saw 2 cheetah, and they came really close to the truck and walked along side the jeeps for ages. the only downside is that as soon as one jeep sees an animal, about 15 others arrive so you are never truly alone and the poor animals are surrounded. :-( the cheetah were beautiful, sleek, elegant animals. the way they moved was just amazing. i have about 100 photos of them!
Nothing else we saw really compared though we did see a lot more game here, lions calling to each other to mate, hippos, elephants...
The next few days were pretty slow as the truck needed fixing so we spent a lot of time in towns, wandering around while Zoe went to the workshop. We spent time in Arusha which is much nicer than I expected, and Karatu.
We also did another masai village visit which was really good as we were shown round a museum of artefacts as well as a snake bite clinic set up to treat patients with severe snake bites (we were staying in the meserani snake park campsite which is right next to a snake and croc farm). the crocs were about 10 metres from our tents with only a wire fence separating us and them. surely they can eat through that?!?!
This is a good time to tell you about the food on the trip. i expected basic staple food of pasta and rice. it's a credit to our chefs, Denford and Patrick that they made us tasty, excellent meals every day. We had steaks (for the meat eaters), seriously tasty fish, pasta and vegetables, stir frys, indian curries....every day was a great meal. we also had a few traditional meals which were really good- ugari which is the staple food in Africa, it is maize. this was served with stews, vegetables, sauteed courgettes, peas and potato curry.....it was all so tasty and we ate so much!
One night we cooked for the chefs to give them a night off. We amde chilli con carne, guacamole, rice and pancakes for dessert. you can't beat a chocolate and banana pancake. And one of the girls in our group, a Brazilian girl, Andrea, made "brigadero" one night - they were SO good! they are round chocolate balls dipped in chocolate flakes or sugar. YUM. I have the recipe with me to recreate them at home.
From here we pretty much had 3 drive days down to Dar via Arusha and Moshi. We stayed outside Dar at a place called Mikadi beach which was pretty, but sadly we didn't have much time there as we had to take the boat early the next day to ZANZIBAR!
That deserves an entry all to itself so watch this space! I am almost at the end of my trip now :-(...even in recounting it i can't believe it went so quickly.
More soon..L x
