Getting to Tanzania turned into quite an extended mission. Starting from the island of Rote, via Timor, Bali, Singapore, Doha where I should have met up with Rupert, Kelly and the rest of the Australian contingent, and then to Dar es Salaam and finally to Arusha. The entire exercise involved one boat trip, five flights and a total of about two and a half days. Along the way, I was nearly refused access to the Qatar Airlines flights, because I did not at that time have an exit ticket from Tanzania, and they didn't want to be held liable for getting me back somewhere if I was denied entry. I'd actually attempted to by a ticket, but Precision Air just took my money and issued no ticket. After I showed the Qatar airlines staff an email I'd sent to sort out this matter and signed a declaration that I could manage myself financially and they could not be held accountable, they gave me the boarding passes. In Tanzania, they never even asked.
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| Sleepy Monkey |
The Qatar Air flight from Melbourne to Doha was late, so the rest of the Australians missed the next flight to Dar by about 30mins, and would have to wait 20 hours to make the next available flight. With everything else I'd had to do in the preceding months, from leaving work, my brothers wedding in Bali, packing up everything in Perth in preparation for my extended travels and then helping Nat in Indonesia, I had given no thought at all to the Tanzanian trip. I was going to meet Rupert and Kelly in Doha, had organised to sit with them on the flight to Dar and would get a run-down of the plan at that point. Without them being there meant two things, firstly I had extra room on the flight and managed an hour or two of sleep, and secondly, I had no idea what the plan was next and no one to ask.
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| Rock Hyrax |
Fortunately Rupe was organised and my collection from Arusha airport was organised, they'd been told to look for a tall lone white guy, and found me just as I spotted the sign with the name of the guesthouse. During the day long layover in Dar, with nothing to do and no where to go, I decided to go and impose my company on the only other white person I could see. She turned out to be a doctor from Adelaide, which was too much of a coincidence so I asked if she was also there for the wedding, to a confused negative response. It turned out she was studying a Masters in tropical diseases and was also going to Arusha, for a two week training course in the hospital.
Zebra
The next day the 8 other Australians arrived, but not one piece of their luggage had made the connection in Dar, and one piece it turned out was still in Doha. We were heading off on 3 days of safari drives the following morning, and whilst we were assured of receiving the luggage that was in Tanzania, there was no chance that Agnieszka's bag was going to get there before we left, so an emergency shopping trip was undertaken.
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| Hyena |
We did 3 days of Safari from Arusha, one day went to Tarangire Nat. Park. It was quite dry through most of the area, but a lot of life along the river valley. We saw elephant, giraffe, lion, impala, zebra, baboon, wildebeest, some interesting birds, but not many species or numbers. Everything was a bit of a distance away and not much in the way of close encounters. I did however get a new animal for my sightings, a Rock Hyrax, which remarkably for it's size and shape, is a somewhat distant relative of the elephant.
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| Crowned Crane (found on Ugandan flag) |
Next day was Ngorongoro Crater, a place I'd heard much about, and I was very much looking forward to the visit. Adding to the previous days list was 3 black rhino, hippos, buffalo, hyena, and a couple of types of gazelle, no giraffes. Animals got a lot closer, and there were loads more of everything. I thought we were in for some action when we came across a couple of lion with the partial remains of a wildebeest, and gathering in the distance a number of hyena. But even when the hyena number grew to 16, and surely that many could harass two lions off their kill, there was none bold enough to lead the charge. They were so cowardly that a plucky little warthog showed no sign of fear wandering amongst the hyena as they dreamed of stealing food from the lions.
Later we had lions (different group) literally crawling under our vehicles for shade, that was after they'd been chased off their preferred resting location by a large bull elephant. The crater was very dry, I was expecting it to be much more lush, but we were there pretty much right at the end of a long dry season. The lake in the crater was greatly reduced in size and the water a long way from the nearest place we could get to. I saw about a dozen flamingo, but at such a great distance I needed good binoculars to make them out clearly.
The third day we went to Lake Manyara, which again was suffering from the dry season and only a small portion of the lake had water. We saw more of the same animals, plus vervet monkey, Sykes monkey, and I spotted a group of giant owl in the tree tops, hard to spot unless you are looking up in the trees for large birds. I had been hoping to spot an African Fish Eagle, but was happy enough with the owls. Lake Manyara as I said was largely dry, so the water was at a guess at least a km away. One small water hole had a number of hippo, some of which decided even in the heat of the day to leave the water and wander around for a little while.
At one point we'd stopped to view a couple of giraffe when something about the horizon seemed a little strange to me. There was a yellow band of sand, a brown band of mud and then a blue band way off in the distance of water, but above the water was a pink haze, and not looking like a normal mirage reflection I decided to have a better look. Once I focussed in the binoculars I would estimate that there was 50 thousand flamingo, but even with good binoculars they just formed a pink band in the distance with barely the ability to differentiate one shape from another.
We didn't do the Serengeti plains proper, so some time in the future I think I will have to return to Eastern Africa again, but that is a tragedy I will be able to live with I'm sure. Many were disappointed we didn't see a leopard, but having had a great leopard sighting in Botswana a few years ago I was much more keen to see a Cheetah, and equal in my disappointment there.
We returned to Christina House near Arusha for a surprise party of sorts. Before departing for the safaris we'd arranged a special night for Rupert and Kelly, with a big dinner, a guest group of Masai musicians and dancers, and a traditional Masai outfit for the bride and groom to be. I never did ask if Rupert had any challenges with customs bringing in the Asegai (traditional long spear for hunting Lion).
We were then off to Zanzibar, and the flight dilemma's were not done with yet, by missing the first Precision Air flight earlier in the week, the company decided, despite them being on the very next flight, to cancel every existing flight booking that they had. So after much negotiating "arguing" at the airport, the lovely folks from Precision Air said that they would have to buy new tickets if they wanted to fly to Zanzibar. There were two other airlines that got a bit of extra business that day, but Precision Air were not getting another cent.
