Safari in Tanzania - July 2016

Following our epic climb up Kilimanjaro we (Nancy, Erica, Arden and myself), went on a 4 day Safari in Tanzania.  We were in Moshi after our climb and with barely time to rest the next morning we left for the Kilimanjaro Airport to catch our flight to Lake Manyara.  It was a toss up whether the flight made any sense for us as the flight was a couple of hours late and the distance to Manyara was only about a 3 hours drive.  Still we took the small prop plane (Coastal Aviation) for the 30 minute flight out to Manyara.  

The airport at Manyara was perched on top of the escarpment of the African Rift Valley.  At the airport we were met by our guide for the trip, Elias.  The entire trip was organized through the group Tusker but they sub-contracted the safari portion out to a company call Hoopoe Safaris. Again we were alone on the safari, just the four of us. We had a Toyota Land Cruiser with 4 seats in the back and a pop-up top to facilitate the wildlife viewing.  From the airport we set off down to Lake Manyara National Park - a small park in the valley below the Rift escarpment surrounding Lake Manyara.  

Our Guide - Elias

Our African Safari wildlife viewing started with the most uninspired of sightings - a local freshwater crab - barely visible beneath a rock in a small stream bed.  It was not what we were expecting in the way of African wildlife but, of course, that was only the start.  It got better as we progressed, very much better  Animals were everywhere - lots of baboons, warthogs, elephants, giraffes, and antelope - progress was slow as we seemed to stop at every turn to observe something new.  We watched an elephant destroy a tree - a wonderful animal but what damage they can cause to the vegetation.  

We had a packed lunch in a small picnic area alongside what appeared to be a Mormon family doing missionary work locally - that's just what Tanzania needs. One of that party was a young girl with blue hair - I made a wise-crack about spotting a blue haired human - which at least I found funny. Carrying on the tradition from the mountain, there was way too much food in the packed lunch.

Olive Baboon

We went out to Lake Manyara and saw lots of interesting birds - Yellow-billed Storks in great numbers, the weird looking Hamerkop, the beautiful little bee-eater.  To the ladies annoyance the guide discovered I had a love of birds and so he would stop for every single bird in sight. I loved it but I think the ladies would perhaps have liked to pass by some of those more mundane sightings.

Bee-eater

We had a long day traveling around the park and we were all quite tired by the time we left for our hotel/camp. It was a great first day and, despite the freshwater crab, a great introduction to the wildlife of East Africa.

As we left the park we drove up the side of the escarpment and then headed off the highway for a few miles of dirt road to reach our hotel for the night - the Kirurumu Lodge.  Although the lodge was a long way off the main road it was quite luxurious - perched on the edge of the Rift Valley escarpment with great views and wonderful individual cabins.  We availed ourselves of a beer as the sun set and then had dinner in the restaurant.  It was a pretty good meal by Tanzanian standards though we were “treated” during the meal to the local Masai tribesmen doing a song and dance routine - basically a lot of chanting with each Masai taking turns to spring up vertically in the air.   They like to jump, the Masai.  I struggle with those kind of local ethnic displays just for visiting tourists - they are so artificial.

Next morning we had the chance to walk around the bush area adjacent to the hotel.  We followed our Masai guide as we walked on a loop for a couple of miles.  The area is sparsely populated but we did walk through a family’s small homestead - pretty basic mud huts and dirt floors, a huge way away from the luxury that we had stayed in the previous night which physically was just around the corner.

How the other 95% live

After our hike we continued on to the Ngorongoro Crater (via the town of Karatu).  At the entrance gate to Ngorongoro there were 20 or 30 similar Land Cruisers all doing their permitting and paperwork for entry to the park.  It took quite a while for Elias to sort things out so we had plenty of time to kill observing the other human species waiting alongside us.  I actually met someone I recognised from Sacramento - Michael Carrol (someone I had run with some 10 or 15 years ago).  It is a small world.

Cape Buffalos

On gaining entry to the park we drove around the east side of the crater before descending down into the crater at the Lemala Ranger Post.  Once down on the floor of the crater we were treated to all sorts of wonderful sights - Grant’s Gazelles, Hartebeests, Wildebeests, Cape Buffalo, Thompson’s Gazelles, Elands, Bushbucks, Waterbucks, Ostriches, and way in the distance a Black Rhino.   Everywhere you looked there was something interesting to see.

Wildebeest

We saw our first lions - a small group of them lying around on the ground paying no attention to anything or anyone around them - apparently totally oblivious to our presence though I didn’t want to test that.  The males are quite lazy and the females are the more active ones who look after the kids and get the food. At this point we got a flat tire and Elias skillfully set about changing it. I wandered around outside under the pretense of watching for lions while Elias was busy changing the tire. The lions weren't interested in us, there being much easier (and likely tastier) prey wandering all around.

Lioness and Cubs

We stopped for lunch near a small lake where we saw hippos or at least hippopotamus noses and eyes as the popped up from time to time to take in air.   After lunch we spotted more lions, this time a lioness with a couple of cubs - very cute.

Grey Crowned Cranes

The birds of course were spectacular too - Grey-crowned Cranes, Kory Bustards, a Sacred Ibis, the most wonderful Superb Starling, Shrikes, Rollers, Weaver Birds, etc.  The list was long.

The appropriately named Superb Starling

We drove around for the rest of the afternoon seeing more wonderful things - Giraffes, Elephants, Jackals, Hyenas….

An old solitary Elephant

At the end of the day we headed up the west side of the crater wall to our camp for the night, the Kirurumu Pakulala Tented Camp.  This was a more primitive camp than the previous night and everything was housed in large green tents - it looked like a military camp.  However, the facilities were great - each tent had a bed and then at the back a shower, toilet and washbasin.  If you wanted a shower they would heat up water and then someone would pour it into a tank behind the tent so that you had running warm water.  The person would then wait dutifully by the back of the tent in case you needed more water. We were the only 4 in the entire camp, leaving us to wonder how they make money.

The food also was pretty good - a nice 3 course dinner.  As night fell it got quite cold.  I think we were at around 7,500 ft on the crater rim.  Fortunately for us when we got to our tents we found we had hot water bottles in our beds - one of the most comfortable and cosy nights I had spent for a long time.

Oldupai Gorge

After breakfast the next morning we headed out towards the Oldupai Gorge where Dr. Leakey found traces of early man (Oldupai is the correct spelling but because of some mistake many many years ago it is often referred to in the west as Olduvai Gorge).  At the Oldupai Gorge they were in the process of building up a more substantial visitor center but there was a fairly primitive museum and a viewing area.  The discoveries they made there are, of course, quite amazing but the site is not all that spectacular and the museum was pretty basic.  They had a plaster cast of a section of fossilized footprints of the early hominids and that was quite remarkable but the exhibit of the Japanese man’s bicycle on which he retraced the steps of early man as he spread around the world - that we could have done without.  This is such an important site that they really need to do a better job.  Construction is going on so perhaps they are planning to do that.

Masaii Youth

We continued on to the Serengeti National Park.  At the entrance to the park, as before there was a long wait at the gate whilst our guide did the paperwork to gain entry.  The entry to the park is on the main road through the park from Arusha to Lake Victoria.  This must have been the road I crossed by bus back in 1973 when I was traveling in the area - it is still a dirt road but the buses looked a little better than the ones I rode in. I do remember being in the front seat of the bus next to the driver with a great view of the plain and all the animals wandering around. That was an epic trip.

Elephants

In the Serengeti we had even more wonderful sights - more elephants (groups of 40 or 50 of them), giraffes, leopards, lions, elands, topis, dikdiks, hippos, Thompson’s gazelles everywhere and, of course, a wonderful array of birds.

Giraffe - the most elegant mover

The camp for the night was the Kirurumu Serengeti Camp.  This was on a site called Moru 5 - there are a series of Moru sites around a region in the south of the park and they rotate the camps among these sites so that they don’t overuse a particular area.   Again it was a tented site with the same bed in front, shower, toilet and washbasin in back.  Again we were the only 4 people in camp.

We enjoyed a beer by the campfire watching the sun go down over the plain.  The camp was located among rocks, in a rocky rise called a kopje, and was really quite wonderful.  Since there were wild animals around the folks that ran the camp made a big deal about getting escorted from our accommodation tents to the dining tent and not to go wandering around in the bush.  We thought this was a bit overly dramatic as the distances were not too far.  However, in the night you could hear lions roaring somewhere out there and that made us more wary.

Zebras

Next morning we got up early and set off at sunrise to see what we could see at that time of day.   We did see a couple of cheetahs stalking some antelope up a hillside.  They were being backed up by hyenas following along to see what action they might get involved in.   As far as we could tell, it was not a successful hunt.

Leopard lazing in a tree

One way of spotting leopards in trees is to look for their tails. These hang straight down in a fashion that clearly distinguishes them from the branches of the tree. Otherwise their camouflage is pretty effective.

While driving alongside a small river bed, we did spot quite a rare cat - a serval.  The serval looked like a rather large house cat crawling in the reeds and grasses at the water’s edge.  He or she was very well camouflaged.  Apparently they can jump over 6 ft and pounce on their prey.  They are quite secretive and we watched for quite some time but he/she wouldn’t show him/herself again.

There were new birds too today - the scary looking secretary bird, the colorful hoopoe, and the equally colorful and quite majestic saddle-billed stork.

Secretary Bird

Saddle Billed Stork

We stopped for a packed lunch/breakfast on top of a large kopje overlooking the plains below.  Again there was so much food we couldn’t even get close to finishing it all.  I bumped into Michael Carrol again here - I guess we are all following pretty much the same route through the parks.

Lioness

In the afternoon we saw more of the same large animals - elephants, giraffes, Thompson’s gazelles, etc.  The most impressive thing on the bird front was a pair of brightly colored Lovebirds - they were spectacularly beautiful.

Lovebirds

We headed back to camp for a siesta before taking another trip out in the late afternoon/evening.  We didn’t see anything new on this trip but we were still excited to see the elephants, giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, etc.  We were also getting much better at identifying the various antelope varieties and the birds.

Lions lazing in the shade

Later that night a solo American joined our camp - we had first bumped into him on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro where he appeared to be struggling a bit.  We found out later that he had never camped or hiked before in his entire life - he just jumped right in at the deep end and went up Kilmanjaro - that may be foolish but you have to admire it.

We were woken the next morning early with the news that a rhinoceros had been seen near our camp so we all piled into the Land Cruiser and went off in search of it.  We prowled around for an hour or so but the rhino must have gone into hiding and we didn’t see it.   During our stay the rhinoceros was the only large animal that we didn’t get a close look at.  We saw one far away in the distance in Ngorongoro but we never saw one close up.

Back in camp for breakfast we were startled by the waiter scurrying into the dining tent shouting “Lion, Lion”.  We all jumped up as a lioness casually strolled between the dining tent and the kitchen tent and through our camp site.  It was within 10 feet of us but it didn’t seem to pay any attention to us at all.  We, on the other hand, were transfixed and hardly took a breath until it exited into the brush.  Apparently they did not have a gun in camp and I suppose they just figured there were more of us than a solitary lion could handle and there were certainly much easier food sources for the lion out there on the plain.  The camp attendant's desire to accompany us as we moved around camp now made much more sense.

A Leopard munching on a Thompson's Gazelle

This third day in the Serengeti was to be our last.  We drove to the north-central part of the park.  Again all the usual suspects were abundant.  We did stumble across a leopard up a tree with a freshly killed Thompson’s gazelle.  The leopard was making a meal out of the poor gazelle and seemed to be totally oblivious to our presence below the tree.  I took lots of gory pictures of the leopard shredding the gazelle’s carcass - this is really life on the African plane - for many animals it is a dangerous existence with often gruesome and fatal consequences.

The Hippo Pool

The Hippo Pool

We visited a pool where there were simply dozens and dozens of hippos.  They were all lying side by side in this shrinking pool of muddy stinking water snorting and flicking their tails to wash water over their backs (presumably to keep them cool and insect free).  The whole place was quite smelly but what an amazing sight.  The hippo’s tail is apparently quite strong and muscular.  It is quite short relative to its body but with it the animal can flick water over its entire body.

Bateleur Eagle

The coolest bird of the day was the colorful and impressive Bateleur Eagle.  

In the middle of the afternoon we headed for the airstrip near Seronera  to catch our flight back to Kilimanjaro.  Not far from the airstrip was a visitor center/museum that had a display of life on the plains and the various stages of the annual migration routes.  After you have seen the real thing we didn’t really feel that the museum was that inspiring.  The museum was also a little shabby and run down.  We could have passed that up.

Airport at Seronera, Serengeti

At the airstrip there were a couple of small planes (one of them a flying doctor taking a patient to hospital somewhere).  We boarded our Coastal Airways plane (a single prop Cessna) for our 1 hour flight back to Kilimanjaro.  Before we took off, a jeep drove down the dirt runway to make sure there were no animals in the area that could interfere with our take off.

At Kilimanjaro airport we were again met by the Tusker representative and driven back to our hotel in Moshi, the Bristol Cottages.  We dined in the hotel that night and didn’t really feel like going out on the town (there’s not much town to go out on anyway).

The next day we really only had the morning to wander around before the ladies left on an afternoon flight (Qatar Airlines through Doha).  I had a later flight just after midnight (Turkish Airlines through Istanbul).  We did have a fine coffee and cake at the Union Coffee Shop.  Perhaps the best place we found to just hang out in Moshi.

It was a wonderful safari, it was a wonderful Kilimanjaro climb, and we were all very happy with our Tusker tour company and their sub-contractor for the safari Hoopoe Safaris.  I won’t be back to climb Kilimanjaro but I would come back to explore more of Tanzania.  

There are more photos of the safari here and if you want more birds their photos are here.