Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater Safari: Eye to Eye with Africa's Wildest

Another whirlwind week of safaris and animals galore. This one was a little rushed, we kind of jumped right into the safari. For one thing it is low season and for another thing if we thought Zanzibar was bad for touts, apparently Arusha is the worst in Tanzania. This is for one simple reason, the Serengeti.

World famous for animals, Arusha, the base town has more safari companies than quite possibly animals in the Serengeti, so we knew people would be aggressive. We pretty much jumped off the bus and got touted right away. We figured what the hell, and since Arusha is kind of a busy, bustling and chaotic town and not wanting to have to wait a few days to get a group together for bargaining power we hoped a tour for the next day.

We joined a 4 day, 3 night safari with two other Canadians. The itinerary would be the first day and night we would go to the Lake Manyara National Park, the second day we would head to the Serengeti, the third day, after driving through the Serengeti, we would camp on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater and then do a game drive in the Crater on the final day.

The distances are large here, so we spent a lot of time in the vehicle. And, although our guide, vehicle and cook were good by budget standards, the highlights were definetly the animals! All three parks are located in stunning but entirely different surroundings. During the times that we were not viewing animals, we were in awe of the landscapes that surrounded us.

The Serengeti plains were formed when volcanic mountains errupted spewing ash over a great distance. They are extremely flat and with few trees, as only grasses can get root into the hard rock underneath the soil. The plains are broken by what they call kopjes, or rock magma that was pushed to the surface and cooled with the heat of the plains into interesting hill formations. You really can see where movies like The Lion King got its inspiration. And we weren't spared any of the stereotypes, we even saw a lion purched at the top of one of these rock cliffs much as you might imagine Simba doing in the movie (simba means "lion" in Swahilli).

Then there are the crater highlands. When the volcanoes errupted long ago they left a series of blown apart craters. The largest is the Ngorongoro crater which is more than 20km across and contains an astonishing amount of wildlife within its steep and lush walls. To get down into the crater you take muddy switchbacked roads, travelling from tropical vegetation at the rim to dry plains in the crater. It truly is stunning landscape.

Although we had seen most of the animals before on previous safaris, the experience here in Tanzania felt unique and exciting. The vastness of the parks, and the abundance of wildlife made for a memorable time. Some of our highlights included:

a leapord sitting in a tree

27 lions (including many big males)

Ngorongoro elephants with the largest tusks we have seen

3 black rhinos (we saw 3 out of the elusive 17 left in the crater and are quite luckyto have seen them).

hippos out of the water in the morning sunlight

a zebra fight

animal carcasses

The experience of the safari was definitely mixed. On one hand you see how big rich tourism is and there is something odd about flying by tiny mud villages in your Range Rover. But there are so many wonderful things that can't be described and one of them has to be the Masai culture. The Masai people still maintain their traditional dress, and while some try to hawk wares to weary travellers, the majority can be seen herding cattle in the plains. They have rights to herd and graze their sheep and cows, and it is fascinating to see tiny boys dressed in vibrant red blankets with amazing beadwork beating their cows with spears and sticks while zebras, wildebeast, elephant and giraffes look on. Their style of dress truly has to be seen to be appriciated, and even still it is hard to believe that it is not put on. In other countries you are only treated to traditional dress for special occastions or when they are trying to sell you something. Here the men, women and children all dress traditionally and aside from the vibrant blankets they were heavy beaded earrings (which cause huge wholes in the ears) as well as beaded crowns, necklaces, bracelets and giant anklets. They carry spears and sticks not for show, but for protection. It truly feels unreal and adds to the breathtaking scenery.

We spent a day after the safari in Arusha where we spent time watching the Rwanda genocide trials. That in itself as a fascinating experience. The trials have been going on now for more than a decade and while it might not seem like there is a lot to observe, it is interesting to see the speed of justice and just what hoops need to be jumped through to give everyone a fair trial and to clear all the wrong that was done.

We are now in Nairobi where we are going to jump on a tour for two weeks to Uganda and the DRC to trek to the mountain gorillas. The last few weeks in Eastern Africa have been crazy and hectic from 27 people jammed in to a tiny mini van (this meant we had to hang on to the outside while the driver flew over speed bumps and swerved in traffic) to crazy bargaining with touts. Nairobi seems to be no exception with dusty streets, a reputation that proceeds itself and people everywhere. It is hard to say you are tired, but sometimes it does start to wear on you the constant bargaining, always paying for rooms or food or anything. But, when your weary eyes take in the colour of the Masai beadwork and the wonders of the african savannah, you seem to find a little bit of peace amid all of the chaos.