Habari za safari

I'd never really thought seriously about doing a Safari while we were here in Tanzania. It was something that I thought we probably should do, but wasn't that excited about the prospect of an all inclusive package deal to crowd around some poor animals and pay an exorbitant price for doing so. But we did. The exorbitant price was about $200, which was the cheapest we could find for a two day Safari to Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater.

Our 8am pickup turned into a 9am (expected of course) departure, with various stops along a convoluted route through town picking up unexpected passengers. A couple more stops at souvenir locations to 'pick up ice and coal' before we got to Lake Manyara. On arrival at the gate to the park (Safari parks are a bit like drive-through zoos) there was another small delay before the roof went up and we began our Safari in earnest.

The first animals spotted were the ubiquitous baboons. We probably would have taken photos of a dog had there been one - such is the state of mind when in a Safari park.

Next up were some gazelle (still a bit boring at this stage - saw some birds of some kind too but I just wanted to see big, angry, hungry, dangerous animals). After some more driving I was beginning to think that all the animals had packed up for the rainy season and gone to Algeria. Then, as we rounded a corner we surprised a luncheoning elephant in the bushes. Startled, it spun around and charged towards the middle of the Jeep, right were I was standing.

All I could do was take a couple of steps backwards and brace myself for impact - all the while I felt like I was looking deep into the eyes of the charging elephant. There are stories of elephants flipping Safari Jeeps, luckily (actually unluckily in my mind) this was not to be one of those stories. Mr Elephant halted inches from the car before backing up again and plodding off into the bushes. It wasn't long until we passed another elephant standing with it's back legs crossed in very camp fashion.

That was the highlight for me - so I'll summarise the rest quickly.

Animals we saw in Manyara:

• Hippos mating
• Buffalo standing
• Giraffes staring, eating and running
• Zebra thinking, and
• Lions sleeping in trees

Animals we saw in Ngorongoro:

• Elephants trying not to forget things
  
• Hyenas sulking
• Warthogs wallowing
• Wildebeest feeling awkward
• Zebra crossing
  
• Storks waiting to collect babies
• Flamingos being boring, and
• A pair of female lions trying to sleep while surrounded by 8 Jeeps
  

The other highlight was another nearly injurious event. After a little while of the Jeep driving over some particularly bumpy road I decided to sit down (as everyone else already had wisely chosen to do). Perhaps five seconds after I had pulled my head down did the elevated roof suddenly de-elevate and slam down furiously. The roof remained in that position for the remainder of the journey.

We are now in the middle of our first border hop into Kenya for the purposes of renewing the Tanzanian Visa. Apparently we can obtain Residency status as 'missionaries' (HA!) - which we will do before this Visa expires. The original hotel we were booked into advertised Internet (for my Uni assignment) and Fitness Centre (for my gym addiction) - which turned out to be an Internet cafe that we had to pay for and a Health Club around the corner from the Hotel. So we moved to another hotel - actually paying a bit more and still having to pay for the internet - but in principle we had to leave the previous pack of fibbers. So I've just had my first shower with running water in 3 months - I'm happy with our bucket showers - but I do feel a bit cleaner having had a good scrub.

Interestingly, Nairobi has 23 Fried Chicken and Chips shops per square metre - all of them packed with hungry kuku eaters. The chips are also the best I've had yet in Africa.

Five hour bus back home to Arusha tomorrow. More roof to be built.....