Its at this point that I realized I was in the wild of Africa that you so often see in books and I made haste back to our truck, as I wasn’t sure what else I may run into at the bathrooms.
As we got on our way, not even 3 feet into the park, we ran into a family of baboons playing, drinking and grooming each other. Although we maybe grown women we were as delighted as kids to see this and the camera’s started clicking as we wanted to get ever picture we cud.
We couldn’t help yelling “over here!” “look at what this guy’s doing” “oh my god, this is amazing!”
Just as we stared tiring of the monkeys and baboons antics, we heard the crunch crunch of bushes being moved aside and an elephant came sauntering out of the forest, right unto our path and stopped next to our truck. She was so close we could have reached out and touched her! We were told that there was a male still in the forest but he never came out for us to see.
Everywhere we turned there were animals to marvel at, impala’s sprinting with their fancy bounce across our path 1 by 1, an elegant giraffe eating the leaves from a tree with thorns so long they looked like sewing needles, and hippos basking in a pond, one of the few watering holes left in the park because this is dry season and a drought is on. Driving along the plains with its dried stubby grass dotted with zebras and wildebeest we were surprised to learn that in Jan, after the rainy season, it is a lake and the barren lands are lush and green and teaming with more wild life than we were currently seeing.
At the end of the day we drove to our lodge at the edge of the Ngorogoro Crater, another name that was heavily influenced by the Maasai’s, where we had beautiful views of the crater we were to visit the next day. Because the crater is so high up it was freezing and we were happy to cozy up to the fireplace with a glass of wine and our coats. Let me tell you, don’t be fooled that because you’re in Africa its hot, we had many days/nights when it was down right cold and my colleges wud don their down jackets while I would snuggle into my wrap.
Day 2
The next morning we were up dressed and at breakfast by 6:30 to get an early start at 7am we went out onto the balcony of the lodge to have an early morning view of the crater but we were enveloped in such fog that everything looked eerie and we couldn’t see anything at all.
As we were to learn our driver/guide Bonny was very knowledgeable not only about the history of the parks but also about the animals and birds and could spot an animal from miles way! As Marina became fond of saying, he has African eyes…lol
Bonny informed us that Ngorogoro got its name from a Maasai business man who made cow bells and sold them to the people of the villages who lived in and around the crater, the ringing of the bells around the neck of the cows would make the sound Ngaruroro and this is how the crater eventually got its name. When Bonny told us that story my understanding was that this was a long time ago before the crater became a national park and that the Maasai’s had since relocated, I mean come on, how crazy would it be to have Maasai’s living in a National Park, but when we looked up the very next second we were face to face with 2 Maasai men, walking their cows and goats down to the watering hole to drink alongside the gazelles and zebras! I just sat there staring with my mouth wide open, (good thing there were no flies around), and thought, lions, I know there has to be lions around!!
We spent the day traversing the many trails in the park, our guide Bonny pointing out many things to us, feeding us tidbits of knowledge, like the heaviest flying bird is the Kori Bastard, when a warthog runs he keep his tail up and when they burrow into a hole they go in backwards, he would also point things out to us that we would not have been able to spot on our own in a million years , like the cheetah that was so blended in with the grass and rock that it was lying on sunning itself that it took us about 5 mins with Bonny constantly giving us directions as to where to look before we saw it.
Throughout the day in the crater we spotted many different animal, some we had not seen the day before, Thompson and Grant gazelles, jackals passing in and out among the animals, buffalo’s grazing, a family of crown cranes digging for seeds wildebeests and even a wildebeest carcass, I guess he became food in the circle of life.
When on safari, everyone wants to see the BIG CATS and we were not disappointed. We came across a traffic jam in the afternoon, and were told that there was a lioness out there. She was so completely blended into the backdrop that we almost missed her. If it wasn’t for her movements we would not have seen where she was laying in the crevice among the grass, he coat was so closely matched.
We left Ngorongoro, very happily satisfied with the animals that we saw thinking after the lodge and the crater that it couldn’t get any better than that, ooohhhh, we were so wrong!
Day 3.
We drove on to our next stop, camping just outside Tarengire State Park. When we left Ngorongoro we decided to do a bit of shopping at the souvenir shops getting all the stuff that you wonder what the hell were you thinking when you get them home. We were late getting to our camp site along a bumpy dusty road, but truthfully, it was like many other roads that we had traveled during our month’s stay, except there was absolutely no lights anywhere around, we were being driven deeper and deeper into the forest, making twist and turns that had me wondering if we were lost as there were no sign post to guide us and at times I wasn’t even sure if we were still on the “road.” Ever so often the headlights on the truck would go off, plunging us in complete darkness, and Marina, having much confidence in our driver would say, its ok, Bonny can still see, I guess she must have been right because we got to the campsite in 1 piece.
We walked in, and were greated by our private staff, 2 Maasai’s who were to guard us, our night and walking safari guide Chris, our waiter Nathalia, and our chef, whose name I didn’t catch. We were taken to our respective tents to wash up and get ready for dinner and as usual it was unbelievable. The tent was made of green mesh that when you blew out the lamp you could see thru and there was a huge king size bed made of polished wood, in the middle of the room with royal blue satin sheets and a beautiful navy print cover that was so soft that I wanted to skip dinner just to snuggle into it. A bed fit for the queen that I am J Draped over the bed, was a mosquito netting so huge, you had to get out of bed to pull it back, it was like a scene out of a movie.
Our meal was by lamp light, sitting under a thatched roof hut with the sides open to the savannah, hearing the animals out in the dark, eating off china with knifes and forks was just surreal! We were served a 1st course of soup, and rice and veggies with what Amy said was the best roasted pork she had had in a long time, although our waiter made a joke that it was warthog, at least I think it was a joke….haha!
I sat there thinking that this juxtaposition of eating off fine china while sitting out in the wild was something that just could not be topped…but I was so wrong!
Day 4.
While in this country every experience I’ve had I’ve said, this is the best experience, this cant be beat but every time, something comes along to beat it. When I saw Kili for the 1st time with its white capped peak hovering above the clouds I said this cant be beat, when we climbed the Pare Mountain I saw the views of the valleys on either side, I was sure there couldn’t be anything more lovely, at the 1st state park seeing the animals roaming free and how majestic they were I felt this was it, and at the crater with its fog and Massai watering his cattle at the same watering hole as the gazelles and zebra I thought there was nothing more amazing but waking to a family of elephants at 4am silhouetted right outside my tent so close I could touch them, munching on the grass and the leaves of the trees, listening to them chewing I knew nothing could get better than that. I laid there wishing I had someone to share this moment with while zebras barked in the background and eventually being lulled back to sleep by the chewing of the elephants.
I woke the next morning to a family of zebra’s (after a while you start to say, oh, its just a zebra as they are so common place you start to take for granted they are around), having breakfast on the short grass of the plains, I opened my tent doors, lifted my mosquito net got back in bed under my warm blankets to soak up the beauty of a view like no other, feasting my eyes on miles of savanna and trying to take in that I was a part of all this, that’s when the hyena ran by and I jumped up to close the flaps on my tent!
The bathroom was totally outdoor, a half circle of sticks and plaster that encircled my toilet and the same for my shower. The toilet faced the savanna, and by the way there is no door, so while sitting there you have no choice but to look out on zebras, ostrich running by, hyenas, and any other animal and birds that happens to pass by. My Maasai guide came to fill my shower bag with hot water for my morning shower, and let me just say, you haven’t lived till you’ve showered standing out on the plains of Africa surrounded by animals and bird song.
Headed out on our last day of Safari to Tarengire National Park not 20ft from our camp site we came across a small herd of elephants, Bonny our guide told us that elephants were responsible for spreading the seeds of the baobab trees from South Africa all the way to Tanzania as they eat the fruit and “drop” the seeds along the way during the migration. The baobab trees were tall and round, we say 1 with a hole in the trunk so big our jeep could have fit nicely inside with room to spare and we still would not have taken up half the tree.
Our night safari sounded very exciting and we were lucky enough to see an ardvark, chased it with our truck, bush baby, an African hare and a spring hare, who gets its name from the spring it has in its step, it hops along like a mini kangaroo, and zebras, but throughout it all my favorite part of the night safari was the sky, being able to drive along looking up at the moon, the stars and the milky way. Everything so clear and unpolluted by lights, it really makes you feel how small our little blue ball is in the vastness of the universe.
I really enjoyed my time out on the savannah with my colleagues, my time spent listening to the night sounds, looking up at the stars and being at one with nature, but most of all I enjoyed being lulled to sleep by the munching of the elephants and being able to be at peace with myself.
