Jambo rafikis (hello friends) and karibu (welcome) to Tanzania. Of all the languages I’ve encountered while on the road, I think Swahili may be my favorite because it sounds so joyful when spoken. In fact, I think it’s impossible not to smile when greeting someone with Jambo. Jambo kaka (hello brother) is my personal favorite and since I have 2 brothers I’ll be using this one regularly.
One word that we heard repeatedly while in Africa was mzungu (white person) and everywhere we’d go we were addressed as such. By now, I’m pretty used to people staring at me as the pale foreigner, but it definitely takes it to a new level when the staring is accompanied by pointing and the screaming of “WHITE PERSON!” There’s definitely an element of sideshow freakiness happening, but is that really such a bad thing? I think not.
On that note, let’s go ahead and jump right in to this post. I’m sad to say, but it’s time for me to say goodbye to my super fab tent mate, Birgit. She is teacher and is volunteering at a school in a tiny village in Tanzania. We literally dropped Birgit off on the side of the road where her friend was waiting for her.
Karis, our driver, was on the phone with Birgit’s contact trying to pinpoint her exact location, but it was actually pretty easy to spot the mzungu on the side of the road. Goodbye, Birgit, I’m going to miss you! I wish you the best of luck with your volunteering and hope that it is a great experience. I look forward to hearing all about it when you return to an area with cell or Internet service.
After saying goodbye to Birgit we headed on to a Maasai village located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Prior to the grounds being established as a conservation area, the Maasai roamed these lands with their cattle.
They are no longer allowed to live within the actual crater, but are permitted to live along the rim. As we were making our way to the village we encountered tons of Maasai herding their cattle, immediately noticeable in the distance by their brightly colored clothing dotting the landscape.
The warriors were extremely warm and friendly, greeting us with a traditional song and dance.
After meeting everyone we were invited inside to get a glimpse of life within in their village.
The men engaged in a jumping contest to demonstrate their prowess. Two men would participate at one time while the semi-circle of men surrounding them would make shrill and high pitched sounds to praise the most impressive jumps.
After watching the men, the women invited us to participate in one of their dances, which involved wearing one of their traditional necklaces and jumping up and down.
As you can see, the women are adorned with beautiful jewelry, which they make themselves. Body ornamentation denotes one’s position in society so the more blinged out the lady, the higher her status within the village.
After jumping our little hearts out it was time to head over to the school to meet the teacher and her students.
Next we were invited inside a Maasai home. This gentleman invited us inside his house to take a look.
Everyone was so incredibly warm and friendly, especially the children.
What a privilege to be invited into their homes and get a small glimpse of life in the village. As we were leaving the wind started to kick up and it seemed like rain was imminent. Thankfully everyone had their warm blankets (shuka) to keep warm.
A huge thank you (asanti sana) to the Maasai for welcoming us into their homes. What a special and unforgettable experience.
As if this day hasn’t been fabulous already it’s going to get even better because we are now entering…
the Serengeti! Needless to say we were all ecstatic for our safaris and had our fingers crossed for the big 5: lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino. Of course our list wasn’t limited to the big 5, but it’s a good place to start.
OK, that’s a nice warm up now how about some big cats?
And their babies?
We had our radio was set to the following station
and put out the leopard vibe by saying it out loud several times. You may think it’s corny, but it appears that the law of attraction worked. Check it out!!!
And now for my most money leopard shot!!!
Amazing!!! Next on the list of things to see was a Kill. I know it sounds gross, but we’ve all seen them on National Geographic and how insane would it be to see one in real life? Like before, we put the vibe out there by chanting kill, kill, kill over and over again in our truck. Yeah, I know how it sounds, but the blood lust just takes over. In fact, we even met this vegan lady at our campsite who claimed that even though she was a vegan and had been for many years, she was also desperate to see a kill. It’s weird and I can’t really explain it, but if you’ve been on safari before I think you know what I mean. I’m not a psycho…
No, really…
OK, let’s take a little break from the kill patrol and take in some spectacular Serengeti scenery.
Does anyone know the name of this bird?
It’s called a secretary bird because the black feathers on its head make it appear as though it has quill pens behind its ears.
Since we’re on a trivia roll here, can anyone tell me what the following animal is called in Greek?
Answer me!!!
If you said river horse, you are correct! Apparently it means the same thing in German as well.
Now for more of that gorgeous scenery.
The leopard channel definitely hooked it up because we saw another leopard. 2 in one day…not too shabby!
This lil’ guy is posing for the camera.
Our kill chanting didn’t yield any results today and do you want to know what I think about that?
That’s OK though because we ended the day with some great sightings of my favorite animal
and a beautiful sunset.
Time to head back to camp for some dinner.
The next morning we were up at the crack, but it’s not really a sacrifice when you can see a sunrise like this.
Within minutes we had our 3rd leopard sighting and it was our best yet.
Why was it so great, you ask? Can you say babies?
How about we get a look from another angle?
This mama didn’t like us looking at her baby.
Correction, make that babies. Aww…
I have to take a moment to give props to our safari driver, James. He was the bomb, leading the pack and always getting the prime angle for shots. Not only was he a hawk, spotting things that looked like rocks to the rest of us, but turned out to be cheetahs, but he was also courteous, moving our truck from the super mack daddy location to allow other trucks to get a piece of the action as well. Unfortunately not all trucks were so respectful, but ours was so I want to give a huge shout out to James and the rest of my truck buddies: Janet, Line, Rami, Yvonne and Caroline. I loved riding with you guys. Kill, kill, kill…
Not exactly what I had in mind, but still a good lion sighting.
It looks like we’re not the only ones eager to get in on the kill…
How about some more trivia and fun facts? Does anyone know the name of this animal?
It’s the Red Hartebeest and according to legend this social animal was too busy yapping it up with its friends instead of getting a prime place in line when God was handing out attributes so it ended up with ugly fur (I actually think it’s pretty) and unimpressive horns. One thing it does have going for it though is that it’s super fast and in Africa I think I’d rather have speed on my side than good looks.
I’m on a roll now with the fun facts and since I know you love them so much I’ll keep ‘em coming. What is different about these two ostriches aside from the color of their plumage?
If you noticed the reddish color of the male’s legs nice going. Now can you tell me why his legs are red?
If you think it has something to do with attracting the attention of the ladies you are quite the animal expert! It’s a mating ritual and this guy is pulling out all the stops here.
Janet was telling us that a man in love in South Africa is said to have red legs so keep that in mind, guys, when making your wardrobe selections.
OK, back to the wildlife.
Apparently this isn’t interesting enough for the king of the jungle.
Maybe we should spice it up a bit with some fetish action?
OK, so I didn’t quite capture it with my camera, but this lion goes on to lick his lady’s urine. Kinky? Actually…no. Apparently the male lion is able to tell if his lady is ripe for mating from the smell and taste of her urine.
It seems like this guy liked what he smelled and tasted.
OK, enough of those lions. James shot us around the rock to check on the rest of the pride. What did I say about James being a hawk?
Awesome!!!
OK, so another day without a kill, but we did get a rainbow at camp, which happened to be on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. I’ll take it!
That’s my tent. Could someone please pinch me…this is so cool!!!
OK, folks, we’re up bright and early again for our game drive through the Ngorongoro Crater so keep your fingers crossed that we see some good stuff.
Aww, it’s a baby zebra.
Some sickos might call this an easy target or the weakest link…geez, some people.
Besides a kill, another thing on our list was the extremely endangered rhino. As luck would have it, we happened to spot 3 of them. Sweet!!!
Minutes after seeing the rhino we got word that a kill may be happening so we zoomed over to the supposed kill spot, but it appears we were a bit too late…again.
These hyenas were eager for a piece of the action as well.
And a buffalo makes 5. Big 5…check!
A hippo out of water in the middle of the day…I’ll take it!
Time for a bathroom break. There are a few designated spots where folks are allowed out of their trucks and this just happens to be one of them. Stunning!
It looks like someone is interested in all the commotion.
OK, bathroom break is over. Time for more game driving and the word on the crater is that 2 lions are getting ready to mate so obviously we were all about it. Apparently mating lions will mate every 20 minutes so even if we missed this round we were guaranteed another show in 20. Boom chicka bow wow.
We took it as a good sign that the lions had zero interest in the zebras.
We waited for about 30 minutes and still no action so I guess these lions weren’t in the mood to get their freak on after all. Oh well. Maybe they wanted some privacy?
Sadly our time in the crater has come to an end. What an amazing experience! Even though this was as close as we came to seeing a kill,
I still had an amazing time. Plus, I still have some game drives in Kenya and Uganda so maybe a kill is still in the cards? Truth be told, i would probably be quite sad if I saw a kill so I won’t be heartbroken if it doesn’t happen, but we’ll see how it all shakes out.
Here are a last few glimpses of the crater. Stunning, isn’t it?
We stopped at some shops along the way and had a farewell lunch with our super fabulous drivers.
Time to head back to Arusha and our camp, which happens to be a snake park as well. No, the snakes aren’t slithering around the campsite. If that had been the case I think I would have made my bed on the truck.
Here’s our crew from the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater! You guys were exceptional safari buddies and even though we didn’t see a kill we still saw everything else on our list. All in all, I’d say it was just about perfect.
Our next stop is Kenya and then Uganda for the gorillas!! Woo hoo!!! See you soon, rafikis.
