Safari-time! :)

Saturday – 12.04.2014

On Saturday morning, my parents still didn't have any suitcases and even though my mum can borrow my clothes, it's a little bit difficult for my dad to do so. There was only one solution left: buy a ridiculous t-shirt in a souvenir shop! ;) After that we were on our way to Tarangire! While we were in the car it was raining pretty hard. This was not what my parents had in mind when they decided to come to Africa! :p I warned them about it though. When we arrived at Tarangire, Frank (our guide) opened the office. At least that's what he calls it. A safari jeep's roof can go up so you can stand up and look around for animals. That's what Frank calls the office. Right after entering the park, Frank explained to us why a drive through a national park is called a game drive. It really is like a game: either you win or you lose. It's almost a lottery: you just have to be a lucky bastard and this week we were, we really, really, really were. Therefore, I warn you right now. If you keep reading, be prepared to be jealous ;)

Since we had first gone to the shop to buy my dad a ridiculous t-shirt, we only did a short game-drive before having lunch. It started of slow with a lot of birds and pumbas, or you can use the boring, English name: swines. From the moment we entered, we saw impalas everywhere and always in big groups. An interesting fact about them is that a group usually consists out of only males or 50 to 60 females and only one male. Frank and my dad differentiated on this topic. Frank said: “What a lucky bastard,” while my dad said: “Poor guy.” Who do you think is right? ;)

After an hour or two of spotting animals, we had lunch at a spot with a lot of kaketoes and monkeys. We learned the most important rule of lunching in a national park right at that moment. Keep your lunch box closed as much as possible. The ones having lunch at the table next to ours didn't know that rule (neither did we at that moment) and a monkey ran off with one of their muffins. Admit it, the muffin, the dessert, it's the good part!

When we had finished eating, we continued our game drive. And during it we saw some more impalas, but also ostriches, storks, eagles, a lonely zebra very far away, a troop of baboons, banded mangoes (very small animals that look like frets, but aren't) and an iguana. We saw toppies as well. It is the smallest antelope there is. It looks like a little baby, even when it's already an adult :) Last, but definitely not least: a family of elephants! They are such beautiful and peaceful animals, but when they feel threatened or they feel as if you're a threat to their family they become very protective. There was a big bunch of them and even some little ones! So adorable :)

In the late afternoon (around 5pm), we went to the tented camp we would be staying that night. We had to be at dinner before dark (here it turns dark at 7 already), because the camp is in the middle of the park and the animals can easily walk through it. During the night you can even hear the animals calling for each other. It is really amazing to hear the elephants, lions, etc. At one point there was a roar so loud, I thought there was a lion IN my tent.

Before the animals could keep us awake though, we had to have dinner and oh my, what a dinner it was! There were choices and they differentiated from each other. God, there was this lemon sauce that was sooooo good. You have to keep in mind that for the past two months, it hasn't been easy to eat different things. We always eat rice / pasta with vegetables, cheese bread or chips. Therefore, it felt like paradise for me to have all those options! Gosh, at the end of the night I thought I was going to explode and when they brought dessert, I could barely finish it! Come on! It's dessert. How can you not finish dessert? My parents had a really good time laughing at me and at one point all three of us where laughing so hard that even the hotel staff started laughing with us. The next morning the staff came to ask if there wouldn't be any laughing that day. One evening and we had already made a name for ourselves.

Sunday – 13.04.2014

On Sunday morning my mum and I sat outside our tents for a while enjoying the view (seriously though, the view was amazing!) and then suddenly a troop of baboons walked by, right in between our tents. Sooooo cool! I was sitting there and going: “Where's the camera? Give me the camera! Give it to me!” You could see the little baboons hanging on to the bigger ones, it was so cute! After the baboons an impala came by as well. They were all so close. That's what I call an eventful morning! ;)

5 minutes into our game drive I had a question for Frank that didn't have any relation with what we were doing at the moment. The night before after dinner we were escorted back to our tents by a ranger. So naturally, I wanted to know if it was really that dangerous to walk around the camp on your own at night. Then Frank told us that last year one of the employees was walking around with meat when he wasn't supposed to (aka at night) and he was killed by a lion that night. I was relieved I didn't know this beforehand I would have been extremely scared otherwise.

During our game drive we saw impalas again (naturally) but to be more specific, we saw one that was only several hours old. It was still learning how to balance and all. If you want to know what it looks like; it's kind of like a drunk man trying to walk. It's impossible for it to walk in a straight line. ;)

Not too far from the baby impala we saw some lions laying in the grass close by a carcass and some little cubs who were just finishing their meal. The vultures were already waiting for the leftovers. It was such a surrealistic sight. I couldn't believe there was only about 10 metres between us and the lions.

After that we saw some giraffes. They were pretty close to the car. One of them was standing in the middle of the road and we couldn't get past him, but we didn't mind. I could have stared for hours! It was only 4 or 5 metres away from us. From that moment on we saw quite a lot of giraffes. Strangely enough they can hide between the trees easily. You would think they are too tall for that, but no, it was always a surprise when they were suddenly in front of us.

Right before lunch we saw a lioness again. We were blown away. She was so gracious. Her posture told us she was ready to hunt. Frank told us that lions live in groups, so if there's one there are more not too far off. And he was right. It didn't take us more than 3 minutes to find the little cubs lying in a tree. They were smaller than the ones we saw in the morning. Usually lions don't live in trees, but they often hide their cubs there, so other predators can't reach them.

During lunch we had a beautiful view of a swamp with a lot of colourful birds, who were waiting for us to drop some food. Luckily, there were no monkeys to steal our food this time around! After lunch, the first thing we saw (besides impalas) was an family of elephants. It was bigger than the one of the day before and there were more little ones. We were all staring at the left and taking a billion pictures when we heard some shuffling next to us. One of the elephants had strayed from its family and was standing on the right side of our car, only a couple of metres away. Elephants communicate with their stomachs (don't ask me how it works, I only caught the gist of it :p) and this one was apparently yelling for the other ones, because his family kept coming closer.

We were on our way to the exit, when we noticed three small cubs laying on a rock. Are they lions? No, that wasn't it. These had black spots.... They were cheetahs! :D Apparently you don't get to see them a lot and definitely not cubs. We had been staring at them for a while when they jumped up and ran off. Frank told us their mother probably called for them, so we tried to spot the mother as well. She was a real beauty! :)

After winning the lottery of game drives, we were on our way to Karatu. To get there we had to pass the view point of Lake Manyara, a park we would visit later in the week. I thought we had a good view of Lake Manyara from Hill Mahaha and okay, that is true, but still, now I was blown away entirely. This was beauty on a completely different level! While we were there we exchanged a small bottle of water for a necklace. A couple of guys had been selling souvenirs there for an entire day already (in the sun) and they were getting dehydrated, so we got a necklace and they got water ;)

From then on it wasn't very long anymore before we reached Bougainvillea, our hotel in Karatu. Funny thing was that one of the guys working there originally started Endallah Secondary School. The school was founded by three Tanzanian people and three Belgian ones (from Mechelen). Therefore he was also familiar with Getamock and the Belgian organisation they work with. He was very enthusiastic when he heard that I teach there and offered us popcorn. I decided I like the guy ;)

That evening my parents' luggage arrived as well. Yay! No, not yay. Seriously. Their suitcases were damaged and several things were stolen. I was not a happy camper that night.

Monday – 14.04.2014

The next morning we had to wake up early. Not to rush to a park, but to go to the police and file a complaint for the theft. After that we went to Ngorongoro preservation park. It is a preservation area that reaches from the Ngorongoro crater up to Serengeti. When you enter the preservation area, you haven't entered the national park (the crater) yet, but you can see it and wow, what a view it is. It's the kind of things all the magazines show when they want to attract people. With binoculars you might even see some animals down in the crater. From the view point we still had quite a drive ahead of us before we could enter the crater. Even then there's a lot to see though, mostly masai bomas. A masai boma is a collection of masai huts in which a man lives with his wives (one per hut). Then we finally got to the crater, which has a diameter of approximately 18 km (something we calculated after Frank had told us the area of the crater was about 260 km²).

Upon entering the crater the first thing we saw where lions eating a carcass. Last time we saw the carcass and we saw the lions, but now they were still eating. On top of that it was the first time we saw a male lion. We hadn't been in the crater for 5 minutes and we already knew that this game drive we'd be winning!

Right after you enter the crater, you don't know where to look first. My dad compared it to a supermarket: whatever you want, it's there! We saw quite some lions; eating, sleeping and having sex! They came really close to the cars as well. It was pretty damn cool :) I might make it look like there were a lot of lions, but they were almost invisible because of the hordes of wildebeests and zebras. I was so excited, because in Tarangire we saw only 1 zebra and now they were everywhere! Literally everywhere. Sometimes they were blocking the road and they ranged from adults to newborns :) They looked so soft and cute!

It was also in Ngorongoro that we saw our first hyenas, buffaloes and hippos. There even was a hippo pool and we saw them enter it with a big splash. By the way, they look fat and lazy, but they can walk 60 km per hours (I'd want to see you try that) and in the water they're dangerous enemies; they can attack viciously. About 20 rhinos live in Ngorongoro, which is a very low number compared to a couple of years ago or compared to the amount of the other animals. We saw two of them and we knew we were extremely lucky. Unfortunately, they were pretty far away.

After a long day, we went to a lodge where we were not allowed to leave the paths. These were guarded by the masai, because sometimes the animals come up to the rooms. And that night something happened. It was the first night I was truly cold since I had gotten to Tanzania. Seriously, this is no joke. I even got out of bed to put on socks. As they say here: 'Baridi sana!' (very cold)

Tuesday – 15.04.2014

On Tuesday morning, we made the long trip (2 hours) from Ngorongoro to Serengeti. We never left the preservation area to do so and during our drive there we saw an awful lot of zebras, buffaloes and wildebeests. When we finally reached Serengeti my mum, dad and I went to the view point, while Frank arranged us leaving Ngorongoro and entering Serengeti. Whilst on the view point another guide pointed out to us that there were 2 elephants close by. A little bit later, when we were back at the entrance, we saw 2 more elephants crossing the road there. They were on their way to the two other ones. :)

Right after entering we saw leopard laying in a tree. I was in complete awe. After that we saw something Serengeti is famous for: a lion in a tree. Frank told us it as actually pretty rare to see, even in Serengeti. Lions don't like climbing trees. They prefer to stay on the ground, because in trees they are visible for others and therefore more vulnerable.

Another thing Serengeti is famous for is their kopjes. Those are big constellations of rocks/stone in wide open plains. They were formed millions of years ago, when liquid filled spaces in the earth. The liquid became hard as stone (aka it became stone) and everything around it eroded away.

We were already on our way to our tented camp for the night when the most exciting things happened. First of all, we saw a dead zebra lying around and we were wondering what happened when we suddenly saw the lion nearby. He had killed the zebra (and we had missed it :( ), but now he was scared of the cars and didn't dare to come closer again. So we went back a little with the car and then the lion jumped out to take the zebra into hiding with him. From then on we couldn't see him anymore, so we went back on our way.

It wasn't a lot later that we saw another leopard in a tree. This time it was a lot closer and.... It was holding a dead impala (again we missed the part where they caught it). He pulled the impala further up the tree. I still don't know how it was physically possible for the leopard to do so. They are incredibly strong creatures. When the leopard started his feast meal, we restarted our trip again. After this experience the rhino is the only one of the big five in Africa we didn't see up close. The big five in Africa are the 5 animals in Africa (obviously) that are the most difficult ones to hunt by foot. They are the lion, the cheetah, the elephant, the black rhino and the buffalo. We had seen them all and we still had one park to go! ;)

Then we encountered our last happening with animals of the day. For me, it was the most breathtaking one. There was a lioness lurking in the high grass, while a little bit further a group of zebras was grazing. She kept watching them for a while and Frank told us she had already chosen her prey. Then she stormed to the group, causing the zebras to run away in every possible direction. Unfortunately, the lioness didn't catch anything but it resulted in an incredible experience (and an amazing video ;) ).

And then we really continued our trip to the tented camp. We had an eventful dinner. Well, only a little bit. There was a cockroach in my spoon, so what did I do? I switched it with my dad's. (duh!)

Wednesday – 16.04.2014

The next morning we visited the hippo pool. While we thought they were fighting, it turned out they were actually playing. Humans call it rough housing and as kids, my brother and I were not allowed to do it... There was a big group of hippos and apparently it was one family. A little bit further, on the rocks, there was a crocodile laying in the sun. We wondered which of the two would win in a fight. Turns out, it is a close cut. Sometimes the hippo, sometimes the crocodile, but usually they stay out of each other's way.

Then we went back to Karatu to go to Lake Manyara, which you can see from the school grounds of Getamock Secondary School by the way ;) Every moment of our game drive there were monkeys close by and this time, opposed to in the other parks, it weren't baboons. We saw velvet monkeys, blue monkeys, etc. There were mostly smaller ones with very, very, very long tales.

This was the first park were we didn't see any lions, but we knew this would happen beforehand. We did see a lot of flamingos, giraffes and a huge amount of elephants. The elephants were everywhere: far away, close by and even in the middle of the road. At one point there were two elephants standing right in front of our car. We were quite close, but had to be careful not to get too close to them. If that were the case, they have a tendency to become aggressive. We had to wait for them to get of the road (not that we minded being stuck there and having to watch them). When they finally left the road and we wanted to pass them, the smallest one of the two suddenly turned around and trumpeted loudly at us. Immediately, we were all very still and Frank was ready to make a quick escape if necessary. Thankfully, the elephants left and then so could we.

On our way back to the exit, we finally saw baboons and lots of them. You had big ones, big ones holding small ones, small ones holding tiny ones, tiny ones screaming because they were scared of the big ones, … After taking lots of pictures of the adorably small and tiny monkeys we made ou way to Arusha where we would spend the night.

At the lodge, we had dinner and suddenly there were several acrobats who were announcing they were going to put on a show. At first my dad was sceptic, but then they started. It was insanely impressive, almost as impressive as the animals we saw, almost ;)

I hope you didn't die of jealousy while reading this!

Bye, bye Belgium! :)