Tanzania, northern parks - April 2010

Arusha

And now the itinerary: April 21, Arusha Arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport around 14.30. The luggage is there, not a given. They come to pick us up and take us to the office to settle up, we had paid 1000 dollars in advance. Obviously in dollars and in cash. Then they accompany us to the Hotel they had booked for us, veryyy cheap... just to acclimatize. It's called Annex Hotel. Free afternoon for the city, the market is very close, in fact that neighborhood seems to be all one big market. We retreat at dark also because the city is very poorly lit. Dinner at the Annex, a good experience. Quite cool in the evening, cloudy and humid.

Arusha National Park

April 22, Arusha National Park We leave at 9 for the first game drive. In half an hour we're there, the climate is cool and cloudy, it always seems about to rain, but it doesn't rain. The guide introduces us to the Ranger who accompanies us for the walk that should be three hours but will be just two... the man is a man of few words, calm and armed, so we're calm too, in the park however there are no lions, we gave him a 5-dollar tip. After seeing buffalo, zebras, wildebeest and antelopes we return to the entrance for the "picnic box" lunch. Then game drive until evening where we see the Ngurdoto Crater, full of grazing animals, and the Momella Lakes. It's all very green, and also some flowers. We also see the Colobus monkeys, the bicolor monkeys, very shy.

Return to camp, the impression is good, the tents are already set up and we have dinner together with other tourists in a common area, the weather improves, but the goose-down sleeping bag is a good idea.

Tarangire National Park

April 23, Tarangire National Park We leave after breakfast. An incredibly good road, paved and with lines on the ground. We stock up on water in a big European-style supermarket, and here if you've forgotten something it's the only chance to shop. To be safe we took 12 bottles of one and a half liters. We arrive at the Kigongoni Campsite, nice and clean, we unload everything and while the cook prepares the camp and dinner we enter the Park. Elephants, elephants, elephants. Small, big, alone, in a group, calm, angry, bathing, drinking... and lots of annoying sandflies that I think are the "sleep disease" flies, we douse ourselves in Autan. There's the Tarangire river full of water with zebras, buffaloes and various types of antelopes. From a high observation point we see a lively "discussion" between a buffalo and an elephant. A few relaxed lionesses.

In the evening we return to camp where everything is ready. Still cool and cloudy.

Tarangire National Park

April 24, Tarangire National Park-Mosquito River After breakfast still in the park, we have lunch in a reserved area, in the shade of gigantic acacias, even though it isn't fenced off, where among other things a big motionless snake can be seen, perhaps a python, but everyone is calm so we too decide not to worry. In the late afternoon we return, we help pack up and in about an hour of good road we're in a lively village, translated as Mosquito River, and we spend the night in a room of a real "resort" with a private bathroom and pool, dinner is still prepared by our cook but we eat in the common restaurant hall, there until late we chat with truly UFO-like Korean tourists. Quite a few mosquitoes until eight, then the cold chased them away...

Lake Manyara

April 25, Lake Manyara National Park After breakfast we realize that the Park is really close and the road is still good. Lots and lots of birds, to judge by the photos afterwards we have enough to fill a book... We also see a couple of leopards in the trees, but still quite far away. The lake is a green expanse, we see the flamingos, many of them. Our guide takes us where we ask, except where it's forbidden, and only once did he tell us to do it "the Neapolitan way" by taking an unmarked trail... In the forest near the Rift Valley quite a few baboons always very busy. We stood still watching a waterhole with hippos for at least an hour and we finally felt like we were in National Geographic documentaries. Our guide, also thanks to the radio, took us where we could see the animals that might be "in action", moreover he had with him a bird atlas that was truly useful.

Almost saw a leopard. The sky had clouded over a bit and we put on our jackets, but it didn't rain. In the late afternoon on our return, together with the Koreans we took a tour of the town, in the market and among the stalls to buy some stuff to bring home, there was even an internet point. Dinner and sleep again at the resort.

Lake Manyara

April 26, Lake Manyara-Serengeti National Park We leave after breakfast, we say goodbye to the Koreans, then we drive all day to reach the Serengeti, along the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, I don't understand why you can't go around it, since it's all flat... Anyway the good road suddenly ends at the entrance to the Conservation Area and becomes a dirt track with impressive potholes... you proceed at a walking pace. Windows closed because of the dust that penetrates right under your clothes. After the 2000 meters of the crater, you go back down, but the road doesn't improve. We stop for the "picnic box" lunch at the entrance to the Serengeti, an oasis of civilization in the middle of the savannah. There's a bit of a crowd at the checkouts, so we stay put for more than an hour, but at least we let our stomachs settle after the jolts of the road...

We set off again and the track towards the campsite is our game drive, in fact we immediately spot antelopes, zebras and an impressive number of giraffes that curiously were all going the same way. Detour for a tip-off on the radio and off to see a pair of young male rhinos, quite rare. While we're stopped I turn the other way and see a cheetah sneaking away. That's the Serengeti. A group of lions was eating what remained of a wildebeest... and the usual hippos were goofing around in the waterhole, always along the road. We arrive at Seronera Camp. While we take a shower, clean bathrooms, they set up our tent and prepare dinner. You eat in an area protected by a net to keep away animals looking for food. Few mosquitoes. At night it's better to go out with a flashlight and look around carefully, the camp isn't fenced.

Serengeti

April 27, Serengeti We wake up early and head north towards the Grumeti river, we already see from afar some vultures flying in the same spot and we head there always accompanied by the radio. We see many herds of wildebeest and zebras on the move, they are huge but not boundless as we expected, the guide tells us that it's a sort of rearguard and that with the little time we have we'll have to be lucky to see something of the animal migration. We arrive at the river, or one of its tributaries, since it isn't very big, and indeed we see it being forded by many animals, with binoculars the crocodiles can be seen waiting. We are very excited, but on TV they show you everything very concentrated, in reality the timing is nature's, so we only saw one zebra seized and dragged under. Some lions were watching, but you can tell they weren't hungry and they didn't move the whole time.

In the evening we return, and we see other leopards and hyenas, the trip was long but it was worth it.

Serengeti - Ngorongoro

April 28, Serengeti - Ngorongoro Conservation Area Early wake-up, breakfast, one last game drive, then we head back for a quick lunch, we break camp and off to the Ngorongoro. More herds, more lions, more leopards, a couple of little jackals, etcetera etcetera... Goodbye Serengeti and your endless plains. We already know the road, it's the same awful one as on the way there. We arrive in the evening with all our internal organs scrambled, we pitch the tent, we dress like Eskimos and take a stroll around Camp Simba. It's gorgeous because it's right on the edge of the Crater with a breathtaking view and all the sounds of the savannah live: trumpeting, roaring, screeching, the noise of breaking branches... the camp is surrounded by forest that slopes down toward the crater, and out of the forest come buffalo heads, elephants that come to drink at the cistern by the bathrooms...

All in all the evening was pleasant because, with the cold, we all stayed together until late drinking with other Canadian and Australian tourists, and then there was the irresistible, hysterical laughter coming out of every tent at every suspicious noise... Anyway, nothing happened.

Ngorongoro-Eyasi

April 29, Ngorongoro-Eyasi, Breakfast, a few wrecked faces. We set off early, still heavily dressed, down a steep and crazy road down the ridge; once we get down we immediately realize the place is very popular with tourists and the traffic starts getting on our nerves right away... we try to avoid the most beaten tracks, though it's true that, being a relatively enclosed place, we have more chances of seeing more action scenes; in fact, late in the morning we see a hunt by three lionesses that have chosen their prey from a herd of wildebeest. Gnamm! Around them there were at least fifteen cars... The Park is truly very beautiful, green and full of red and yellow flowers, with herds and predators, quite different from the endless expanses of the Serengeti.

Now it's starting to get quite hot, even though you can see the clouds coming in from the edge of the crater; we have our "box lunch" on the shore of a lake full of birds, which attack you from above if they see you eating... then in mid-afternoon we head back, we take everything down, load it all up and set off again; we barely have time to catch our breath on the paved road before we turn onto another dirt track toward Lake Eyasi, the landscape is very varied, in some places it's reminiscent of Tuscany... Then the savannah returns, sometimes yellow and sometimes green. The road passes through groups of miserable huts, and the children chase us for short stretches, the poverty is immense. We stop chatting and the windows are closed both because of the dust and to try not to see and hear those suffering lives, after all we're just tourists...

We arrive at dusk in a fenced-in clearing that could even be called a campsite, to tell the truth it looks like a parking lot. In the middle, a dreamy acacia tree, and we pitch our tent underneath it. I had read in our "diary/guide" that the bathroom was "unusable", well, it really was! But we accepted it as a way to better understand the local situation. Later, 4 other German tourists arrive, but they weren't very sociable. Dinner, and we go to bed early; our guide Roman, if there are villages nearby, goes to drink a beer and say hello to his friends.

Lake Eyasi

April 30, Lake Eyasi We wake up before dawn, and together with another local guide we go to "look for" the Hadzabe. This is because they don't live in villages and are constantly on the move. The trip takes about an hour of non-road, it seemed like we were advancing at random, among large patches of lake and little streams crossing it, but evidently we were wrong because at a certain point we stop, get out, and behind a bush they introduce us to the small tribe that will take us hunting. The impact is strong, also because they look pretty bad to me, I don't know if from malaria or chronic bronchitis, and in a few seconds they light the fire with sticks and put the embers in a nice big joint full of marijuana, and the sun has just risen! Meanwhile the guide explains the customs and traditions of this tribe, which closely resembles the Bushmen we had already met in the Kalahari in Namibia.

Chiara hands the women the food package the guide had recommended we bring, while the children make bracelets and necklaces. The Germans arrive, eyeing the joint greedily rather than listening to the lesson. Then the "hunt" begins: the Hadzabe run through the bush, we follow them, the guide keeps talking, every so often they shoot arrows: surreal. I soon find myself covered in thorns. Then we stop and they break some branches for us to taste the honey inside; so as not to seem picky I think I even ate a few little bees; then they have us try lighting the fire with sticks too, and miraculously I manage it! They take my ember and off goes another joint of marijuana while they cook the birds they've hunted, a little taste, like eating sparrows, and we go back to the "camp", which is actually where they sleep on the ground and behave like true happy primitives.

Then a little show for tourists begins, though they don't seem cunning enough to make it look truly fake. We danced with them, tried their bows, ate their food, bought their little necklaces and smoked their weed: it's hard not to leave them some money... The Germans would have bought even their shoes, which were actually pieces of tire... And in the end we felt very much like tourists who'd been taken for a ride. We ask Roman, our guide, if we could visit something real, and he makes a phone call and stops in a nameless village along the road, talks to someone, and we visit a school for a few minutes. An unforgettable experience and above all a real one. We say goodbye to all the children one by one and leave $20 with the teacher, hoping it goes to the school's funds.... We get back on the nice paved road and stop for lunch at the resort near Lake Manyara.

Now the road to Arusha is a real luxury... As we approach the city we start to feel annoyance at the traffic and "civilization". The guide takes us to the usual Annex Hotel, which now seems like the Hilton to us.

Arusha

May 1 Free morning in Arusha, where we visit the "souvenir" market and finish emptying our pockets. The people are friendly anyway, once you free yourself from the pushy vendors. Then, as an unplanned surprise, Roman invites us to lunch at his home and his wife prepares local rice-based dishes that are quite different from the ones we ate during the safari; their kindness is truly disarming and we're almost embarrassed; in the early afternoon he takes us to Kilimanjaro airport, this ride wasn't included in the price and we paid for it separately. Then the journey home....