After the first few days of eventful game driving we made the trek to Tanzania...roads in Africa are rough and constant road blocks and detours...anyways..i've seen almost all of the Big 5 - buffalo, elephant, lion, leopard and still searching for the elusive rhino. We got to our campsite in Arush, which is adjoined by a snake park. No real crazy snakes and I didn't get an opportunity to wrap one around me so pretty disappointing. The next morning we had to get up early for our 2 night excursion to the Serengetti. Sleeping in the tent has taken a little getting used to as well as the constant mosquito repellant to avoid malaria.
After a 3 hour drive we arrived at the Serengetti...at the entrance where the truck stopped to pay our fees, a baboon came running down the hill, jumped through a window into one of our trucks and snatched somebody's lunch box....classic site and i'll have to get someone who was able to take a picture to send it to me. As we entered we were greeted by a lion couple in the middle of mating season. We hung out for a few minutes and watched them mate...unbelievable! Lions mate every 15-20 minutes during this time and one of the other trucks decided to sit around and wait for the second session...each session lasts about 5 seconds! Continued our way in and saw the wildebeast migration...spectacular site with tens of thousands making the migration south to avoid the rainy season...mixed in there were zebras and buffalo, but i didn't see any lions taking advantage of the easy prey. We made our way to the campsite which was an unfenced area in the middle of the Serengetti. Was awaken in the middle of hte night to a few hyenas who decided to scavenge through our dinner in the trash can near teh kitchen area so of course I didn't leave the tent....
The next day we had another game drive on the way out....spotted leopards, giraffes, more zebras, hippos, crocs...too many to list. On the way out we passed more of the migration and saw the same lion couple...only they had moved to the other side of the road. We made our way to the Ngorongoro crater which was formed ages ago by a collaped volcano. We camped atop the crater and I had a crazy incident with my clothes. Our Land Rover had to change batteries during our time in the Serengetti and some of the battery acid leaked onto my clothes...thinking it was rain, i let it pass, but as I sat near the campfire, my clothes started dissolving away...check the pictures...ha! Anyways, we sat around, had a few beers in the cold weather atop the crater since we had an early game drive the next day. On this drive I caught a glimpse of the rhino, saw flamingos along the sodium lake...the crater is the most densely populated game area in africa and i'm definitely coming back! On the way back to Arusha we stopped at Olduvai gorge..one of the oldest places on earth where human remains have been found and also where they found Lucy. Learned about some history and saw the excavations in progress...looks like they got a lot more to uncover.
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2 comments:
Really glad to see you'll be able to post some stories from the africa trip. I've been following along the trip, must say it sounds like you've been having a great time. I might end up going on a surf trip after all, waiting to hear back from a friend with a house in CR to see if I can go down in two weeks. keeping my fingers crossed. So you know 9-3 Panthers are facing the 9-3 Bucs on Monday night. Should be the biggest game here in Charlotte since the playoffs.
Dude,
That baboon incident sounds hilarious. You have to get someone's picture of that. You are lucky you didnt get that acid on your skin, that would have sucked. Thats pretty cool you have gotten to see all of those animals. Your trip sounds amazing so far. Keep us posted.
PS. You are so missing out on the Panthers this year, but i guess it probably isnt as cool as the seringetti (sp?).
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