27 June 2023: Part 3 - Serengeti

27 June 2023 - Serengeti 

It's been a minute... Work got crazy, then I ended up moving to another position, and then I've been swamped, and then we had a baby... Just, wow.  BUT!  I do want to finish blogging about Tanzania before it's over a year old, so, with any luck, look forward to some more frequent posts in the next few weeks.

Apparently I promised another post about this day, and I'm not really sure why... However, this was such a unique evening, maybe I felt like it should get it's own post.  After we left the Massai Village, we had a LOOOONG drive to get into the Serengeti.  When you look at this on a map, it doesn't seem nearly as crazy as it is.  Keep in mind, there are no paved roads, and the distances are far.  We pretty much put the pedal to the metal to get in before dark (when it would be dangerous to travel).  It was a very bumpy ride, and we were pretty much the only safari vehicle crazy enough to be out that late, so we had the run of the place.  We did stop by the Serengeti airport to see if my luggage arrived, which it hadn't.  

When it was almost sunset, we finally arrived at Sound of Silence.  Note the wildebeest herd.

Honestly, this was a pretty cool place.  It is a glamping tent camp with it's own restaurant.  Dinner was served in the tent above, but take a look at the dining room...

Below is our tent from the inside.  Good thing JT was journaling, because I pretty much would have forgotten all of the little details by now if I hadn't written them down.  

Anytime we needed to leave our tent at night, we had to radio on our walkie-talkie to get an escort with a spear.  Not sure what our chances were vs. a lion, but, it's the thought that counts.

So, probably the part I was thinking of... this was THE MOST EVENTFUL night of the entire trip.  So, you noted the herd of wildebeest, right?  So, imagine sleeping somewhere between a herd of cows and herd of goats.  Lots of bleeting and grunting and shuffling around.  It was unbelievably loud.  I actually recorded it, and I'll try to get that audio on here below.  Now, add on a big thunderstorm!  Now, add on hyenas circling the tent making all kinds of noise.  I wasn't able to sleep very well, but as soon as I started to doze off, probably around 2-3 a.m., JT starts screaming.  So, as I try to untangle myself from my mosquito net to go over and help, I'm completely exhausted and disoriented.  Apparently it was just him talking (er screaming) in his sleep, but that sent a chill all the way to my bones, so, no sleeping after that!  But, it's ok... because the next full day in Serengeti was one of the most amazing days of all time!

27 June 2023: PART 2 - Maasai Village

 27 June 2023 (Part 2)

Sorry for the delay in posting - busy life, and it took me forever to wade through the photos of this day.  When we were leaving the Ngorongoro Crater, we asked our guide if we could stop by a Maasai Village.  This is definitely a must-do when in Tanzania.  The Maasai historically occupied the Ngorongoro Crater, but were moved out when it became a National Park.  However, villages still dot the areas outside the park.  You pretty much see Maasai through all of the area between Arusha and the Serengeti.  Usually it's boys, between 6-12 years old herding cattle, or women doing the washing in ponds along the road.  They are semi-nomadic, in that they will move to different villages with their herds throughout the year, but will always return at some point.  

The village we visited agreed to give us a "presentation" for $50 USD paid directly to the chief.  All in all, considering their way of life is threatened, it seemed like a fair price for the experience.  They did a traditional welcome to the village, draped us with traditional clothes, and brought us into the village and a home to explain their way of life.  They also put us to shame with their traditional jumping dance.  Gotta do more box jumps.  

They began with the official welcome from the chief, a dance, invited us to jump with them (all of this is on video from our guide), then took us inside the boma.  A boma is basically a make-shift fence of thorn bushes (thorns are nearly 2 inches long) to keep the village safe.  Once inside, they took us into a hut, where we could see how a family lived, then showed us how to make fire on a machete blade.  After the requisite plea to buy some of their crafts, we also visited the schoolhouse, where the children were learning a few words in Swahili and English.  On the way out, we saw some playing the game Mancala (called Enkeshui), which they do claim to be their original game.  

It is interesting that the young boys do the herding of the cattle.  They do practice polygamy still... Their food is mostly meat, but they also drink the blood of the cows as well.  If you look closely, they do mark their skin on their faces as children with hot metal, which gives a very warrior-like look to some of them.  I really should have written this earlier, as it's hard to remember everything... but nonetheless, this was a very fantastic visit and one of the highlights of the trip!

The guide said look, white Maasai...

Mancala

Inside the school house

This little one was helping point at the alphabet as the kids said it.

Making fire.

27 June 2023: Ngorongoro Crater

 27 June 2023

This morning, we started off with a breakfast at the lodge, then drove into the Ngorongoro Crater.  The Ngorongoro Crater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is actually a caldera, where, at some point, a volcano collapsed into a gigantic bowl.  Due to the steepness of the walls (2,000 feet high), many animals are either unable or unlikely to leave the center of the crater.  The floor is approximately 100 square miles, and hosts lots of wildlife, including all of the big 5.  

Our drive in was very interesting.  As a guide myself, I am sometimes privy to insider knowledge, so I could appreciate the smirk our guide gave as we drove through thick (pea soup) fog all morning.  We were discussing whether or not we'd be able to see anything... As it turns out, the crater rim is usually like this, and the floor of the caldera was nice and sunny.  

Within minutes of arriving into the crater, we encountered a pair of lions napping by the roadside.  We also had a distant sighting of one of the rarest animals - a black rhino.  We saw the hippopotamuses wrestling in the water, as well as the flamingos, and a variety of gazelles.  Probably our most exciting moment was watching a pair of male lions stalking the gazelles, but... unfortunately no national geographic hunt happened while we were there.  As for the "hunt" of wildlife, because it was all very contained, we could spot animals over a mile in the distance, so it made for a very exciting day.  I have another post about this day coming up, so I wanted to get some safari pics online, and I'll post the second half soon!

The fog on the way in was incredible.  

These guys appeared out of nowhere...

And all of a sudden, the clouds cleared as we got into the caldera.

I thought this was especially cool watching the clouds come over the edge of the caldera. 

This was one of the pair of lions just napping near the road.

This was the closest I have ever seen the Cape Buffalo.  They were pretty common here!

This coffee stop (yes, cappuccinos made in the crater) was the only time we were allowed out of the vehicle.  Something about lions...

We really thought we'd see some action here when these guys approached some gazelles, but... all they did was stalk for a while.

The clouds around the rim cleared on our way out, so we got an amazing overview of the crater!

26 June 2023: Tarangire National Park

 26 June, Arusha to Tarangire National Park.

Today, we began our Safari.  Let's start with this - I was a skeptic.  I have been to plenty of reserves, every National Park in the USA, and Disney's Animal Kingdom.  I felt like I have seen every animal I really ever need to see, and probably up close (albeit, fast when you're on Disney's Safari ride).  I have even been on Safari in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.  All that to say, I wasn't originally planning to do a safari, but because JT had never done one, I thought we should tack a quick one on.  Little did I know how much more plentiful the wildlife would be in these parks!

Our day began with checking out of our nice hotel and jumping into our Toyota LandCruiser for the next few days.  Here's a few images of our drive from Arusha to Tarangire.  Sorry if the images don't display well or in order - the editing tools on blogger are pretty primitive.

When we arrived at Tarangire, there were some termite mounds and elephant bones in the check-in area...  Here's JT for scale.

Tarangire National Park.

Tarangire is an interesting park.  When you buy a day or two day Safari from Arusha, this is the place you go.  It isn't famous like Ngorongoro or Serengeti, but it does have its own charms.  One of those being, you do see the famous Baobab Trees (the Africans call it the Tree of Life).  They look upside down in dry season, when they don't have any leaves up top.  On the way in, our guide, Samuel, asked what animal we most wanted to see.  After a week of Safari in South Africa and Botswana, hoping to see everything, the Leopard was one of the Big 5 that I had not seen.  (Sidenote - Big 5 are the ones that were considered the hardest to hunt back in those days, but even moreso these days as many are much more rare due to hunting and poaching - Elephant, Rhino, Leopard, Lion, Cape Buffalo)  Within a few minutes, we had already checked Leopard off of our list!  

One of our favorite moments of the trip was learning who the real king of the jungle is... NOT the lion.  We got to watch an elephant chase away a lion (from a distance).  So, definitely that elephant was our favorite animal in Tarangire.  Afterwards, we continued on to our lodge, which had an infinity pool (freezing cold) overlooking Lake Manyara.  As part of the experience, they had a few Maasai chant and jump with us over some popcorn before dinner.  All in all, a great introduction to Africa!  Lots of photos below!

This lion started out in the tree, then jumped down, crossed the road right in front of our "Jeep"... I didn't get any good road crossing photos because I didn't want to scare her, but, this was our first really close animal encounter.  

Here is the real king of the jungle, chasing away the lion.

Below is a hollow Baobab tree - this one is called the Poacher's Hide - where they could climb up inside the tree to hide from the rangers.

This is another of our favorite finds - the dik-dik, or the miniature antelope.  This was the last one we saw... alive.

Positive and negative about the Safari in Tanzania... we were barely ever allowed outside the Land Cruiser except for bathroom and lunch.  However, the top popped open, so, it was a great open air view of the wildlife.  At least for me, but probably both of us, one of my favorite things was riding standing up through the savannah!