Safari in Tanzania

July 2017

After the intense experience of climbing Kilimanjaro, I relaxed the next week on a safari camping experience. Some of the same hikers continued on this leg of the trip, along with new arrivals.

Leaving Arusha, we visited three protected areas while on the five day safari. We started at the Lake Manyara National Park. During these first days, we also had the opportunity to visit two communities, Mto wa Mbu and a Maasai village. Next we spent three days in Serengeti National Park which covers almost 6,000 square miles and protects millions of animals. Last we visited the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, unique in providing protection for wildlife and balancing the human and environmental interactions with the Maasai communities residing outside the crater. We camped in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro, sharing delicious meals with our group, keeping an eye out for wildlife in the campsites.

Mto wa Mbu

Mto wa Mbu is a community of over 18,000 inhabitants from over 120 different tribes. A couple of the residents took our group on a cultural walking tour. They shared the history of the community and its way of life. We learned all about the farming of bananas and the local irrigation system. We tried banana beer, although I wouldn’t recommend it. The thick, fermented alcohol wasn’t my favorite. The tour ended with a delicious spread of Tanzanian food and we sampled the beans, rice, ugali, veggies, plantains and several stews. Yum yum.

Maasai Village

Our tour also included a visit to a Maasai village outside of Arusha. Here families reside in houses made of mud, sticks, grass and cow dung and meals are prepared in a single kettle over the fire. Maasai culture revolves around cattle. Daily life involves taking the cows to graze, gathering firewood and water and preparing meals. Their diet consists of milk, blood and meat from their cows and, in some villages a few fruits and vegetables.

G-adventures and the Planeterra Foundation sponsor community projects in many of the countries they travel including this Clean Cookstove Project in the Maasai villages. The project provides training and funds 75% of the materials to women in building the stoves and then they forward the teaching onto others. Juma gave us a tour of a few houses. One house used the traditional cookstove, filling the home with smoke. With the improved stoves introduced by the organization, the families, particularly the women breath easier and less firewood is needed. A few women showed us a stove and chimney in progress. The children slowly started to follow our group around, shy at first but quickly losing their apprehension. They enjoyed the cameras, wanting their pictures taken and quickly running up to see the screen. We were thankful for the opportunity to learn about their culture and visit this community.

On Safari

We had such luck in spotting so many animals in their natural habitat. While on the safari drives, our group was divided into two safari vehicles with wildlife experts in each one. Our view from the windows or the pop up roof gave us an upclose look into the life and surroundings of these magnificent creatures. Visiting during the dry season allowed us to see more animals; with smaller water holes dried up, animals congregated near the remaining pools. Here’s what we spotted…

Elephants

We saw many of these massive creatures on our drives, some right in the middle of the road. Given that these enormous mammals spend 18 hours a day eating, we pretty much just observed them chomping down on leaves and branches or slowly wandering towards more leaves and branches. Lots of leaves and branches. The best elephant sighting: one zigzagged right through our group campsite. It avoided all the gear and tents and hung out by the bathroom building while munching on few bushes for the next twelve hours. Impressively agile for such a massive animal.

Lions

Our safari luck continued with the lions. We saw lions sleeping in the shade, devouring a wildebeest carcass and mating. Our first day out in the Serengeti, our two vehicles came around a mound with fourteen female lions laying around. They stretched out, some licking their chops, one rolling over like a big kitten. The absolute highlight was coming across a pride with two males, three females and three cubs. We spent two hours just watching them play, nurse, bounce and roll around, drink water and then walk out into the savannah.

Mongoose

We paused to watch a pack of mongoose. All of a sudden, something startled the rodents and they scurried together. They gathered tightly together, each standing tall and alert, looking outwards. Their heads doing quick, quirky nods searching for the danger, their eyes darting around, scanning the savannah. As quickly as they united, they determined the crisis had passed and dispersed.

Giraffes

Several of the giraffes we observed seemed almost curious about the vehicles, peering towards us. Throughout the safari most other animals basically ignored the vehicles, having learned through experience that the people watching them weren’t a direct threat nor had anything to offer them. Giraffes are truly majestic creatures, gracefully ambling across the savannah.

Baboons

The first animal that we saw up close in Lake Manyara was is a troop of baboons. They played on and along the road, only slightly curious about the vehicles driving through. Perched on logs, pairs of baboons focused intently on grooming their companions and ridding them of dirt and lice. Out on the Serengeti another troop ran parallel to our trucks, eventually crossing the road in front of us in an orderly line, including a baby riding on the back of an adult baboon.

Cheetahs and Leopards

In general while on safari, if you notice several vehicles stopped together you can assume that there is something intriguing to observe. At first we thought the cluster of trucks were all taking in the incredible sunset. However, the spectacle was even cooler than anticipated. A leopard circled a large tree, then climbed up to its high branches. There, he feasted on the carcass he had hunted and dragged up for dinner. Later, after we left, he would likely push the remains off the branch to fall below to the awaiting scavengers. We also spotted a few cheetah, mostly resting in the shade. One coalition of cheetah was quite close and we watched them nap, move around and eventually meander away into the savannah grasses.

Scavengers

Hyenas, jackals and vultures. These animals are the scavengers of the Serengeti, surviving off the the kills and leftovers of other animals. Vultures peered from the tops of trees, waiting for other animals to die. We saw jackals and hyenas as they crept around the lions feeding on the wildebeest carcass, one daring hyena even successfully stole a piece of meat. Daily, clans of hyenas hover for the leftovers of others’ kills and also hunt their own meals, everything from wildebeest to insects. They are some of the hardiest of animals on the savannah because of the diversity in their diet.

So many animals!

There were a few animals that we saw at every turn. There are over 200,000 zebras in the Serengeti and we saw several dazzles of zebras on the trip. And yes, a group of zebras is called a dazzle. Some grazed near our campsite, crossed the paths near our vehicles and embraced in their typical zebra hug. They do this to keep lookout and also for the social connection. Over a million wildebeest migrate through each year and we saw hoards of them parade by, play around and make mooing sounds just like cows in Wisconsin. We saw many from the numerous gazelles of the Serengeti, some with the twisty antlers and a few of the smallest, called dik-dik. We were lucky to catch glimpses of crocodiles, birds and cranes, warthogs prancing, massive water buffalos trudging around, ostriches sitting in the road, and hippos lazily wading in their pools.

The Big Five

Many people travel to the region in hopes of spotting The Big Five; lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhinoceros. We were lucky in seeing so many animals up close and on our final morning drive, we completed the safari checklist with the elusive black rhino. Twenty six of these critically endangered animals live in the Ngorongoro crater and we were lucky to catch one walking quite close to the road. As is typical for the solitary rhino, we saw one grazing on grasses of the crater prairies. What luck to see all these beautiful animals, up close in their natural habitats!