January 14, 2009

Kilema, Tanzania

(Harling Globetrotters Adventure – Part Two)

 

Lake Manyara National Park

 

 

The Harling Globetrotters adventure — three Victoria mamas and their girls — begins with the compulsory safari, one that is at once modest and spectacular and that Stephanie has painstakingly organized on our behalf.  She’s chosen a safari guide whose knowledge of the wildlife, birds and fauna is humbling (he tells us later that all guides in Tanzania must follow a two-year diploma program to be certified), and we put ourselves in his hands for the next three days.  He takes us through three national parks – Tarangire, Lake Manyara, and the Ngorogoro Crater – each with distinct ecosystems, despite their relative proximity to one another. 

 

Up first is Tarangeri where the more than 300 elephants we encounter, including the ones that trumpet

angrily as we cross their path, are proof enough that this park boasts more elephant per square kilometer than any other in Africa. We see dik dik, and zebra, an occasional giraffe and ostriches.  The park stretches on and on, through forest and valley, and it takes a full day to cover only a small portion of it.  We stop for a swim and a beer at the (posh) Tarangire Lodge, and then motor to our somewhat more humble but still comfortable Fig Lodge hostel for the night. 

 

The next morning we are out by 8:00 am for the short drive to Lake Manyara.  Though smaller, the park still holds many elephant and zebra, but it’s the hippos and giraffe that take our breath away. It is also our first real introduction to tsetse flies, large flat brown insects whose bite rivals that of Ontarian horse flies.  We search frantically through our memories for information on sleeping disease and prevalence, especially after Stephanie’s impressive histamine reaction.  But Boniface, our guide, assures us that he has never heard of anyone suffering from sleeping disease in recent years, and we sleep peacefully that night (albeit under mosquito nets!).

 

Sleeping Hippos in Ngorogoro Crater

After a 5:00 am wake-up call and breakfast of boiled eggs, toast and peanut butter, we hit the road again hoping to be the first to reach the crater.  We reach its rim at sunrise just as the light hits the mist creeping across Ngorogoro.  Formed millions of years ago, the volcano has long since been dormant and is now home to a surprising variety of African wildlife.  It takes us an hour to wind down a deeply rutted road and we begin to trace a path across the caldera.  It is here that we see our first rhinos (at a distance), and our first lions (right up close!). 

Despite the 10-hour stretch in our hired safari jeep, even the children are mesmerized by all they see. They watch, fascinated, as a hungry-looking cheetah takes off after a very clever fox (who escapes), and laugh hysterically when they discover that the lioness they’ve named Hailey turns out to be a male.  Lions, hyenas, giraffe, hippopotami, baboons and animals I’ve never heard mention of before – we are thrilled to see them all and snap over a thousand photos between us.

 

The safari experience is a once-in-a-lifetime affair for us.  The changing landscape, from the tangled baobob and acacia trees to the sepia plains of the Serengeti, is distinctly African and is easily as impressive as the animals themselves. 

 

Tarangire National Park

You can see what we saw in just a few weeks, just as soon as we sort through our photos!