Possibly the best trip we've ever been on. A picture is worth a thousand words as they say. I have done my best to write about our experience, but you can also link to the best of my photos by clicking on the photo right.
We traveled to Tanzania with another Alumni tour through McMaster University. This group was limited to 30 people from Canadian Universities. When the brochure came in the mail, there was no hesitation to our decision to go. Although it was an expensive trip, it was worth every penny, or US$.
It's a long way to Tanzania from Fort Myers. A migration in itself. We flew from Fort Myers, to Atlanta, to Amsterdam and finally to Arusha. (Seriously, there isn't another routing, I checked). Arusha is Tanzania's third largest city, located at the base of Mt. Meru, the second highest peak in Africa, and close to the highest, Mt. Kilimanjaro. The planeload of tourists who disembarked here was either going to climb the mountain or go on safari. Since safari is the Swahili word for journey, we were all on a journey of one kind or another. Perhaps both for some lucky ones.
Kilimanjaro International Airport is too small to handle the large planeload of people comfortably passing through customs. There was the usual chaos of visa purchase, customs clearance, luggage retrieval and lastly, finding the driver waiting for you in the throng outside. Lucky for us, we were met by Erasto, a good looking Tanzanian in charge of our group, as soon as we set foot inside the terminal. He expedited visas and customs clearance, and once at our buses, cold towels, cold drinks and cold beer awaited us weary travelers. We have arrived.
The next morning we departed for Arusha's domestic airport for our flights into the Serengeti. 12 seater Cessnas, with a single engine and single pilot, flew us to the Seronera airstrip. It is just a dirt landing strip in the middle of nowhere. We could already see animals from the plane, as excited as little kids would be going to Disneyland. Little did we know what was going to greet us upon landing.
The Great Serengeti Migration is the movement of vast numbers of the Serengeti's wildebeest (2 million or more), accompanied by nearly equal numbers of zebra, and smaller numbers of Grant's gazelle, Thompson's gazelle, eland and impala. They move in an annual pattern which is fairly predictable, migrating throughout the year in constant search of fresh grazing and, it's now thought, better quality water. The precise timing of the Serengeti wildebeest migration is entirely dependent upon the rainfall patterns each year.
Changing weather patterns change the path of the migration. Leaving the airport, we found ourselves in the middle of a huge number of wildebeest (literally 10's of thousands), zebras (in the thousands), and gazelles and impalas. As far as the eye could see. It was no surprise to also come across a pride of 17 lions, snoozing in the shade of a tree, tummies full. A leopard was similarly dozing in the crook of a tree. Food on the hoof never far away. Elephants grazed so close to the road you could almost reach out and touch them.
In February the animals should be further south, but because of drought, they moved north to find grass and water. Wildebeest females were very pregnant, and had juts started calving. They can wait up to 3 weeks for conditions to be just right. The young are ready to run within an hour of birth and by birthing at the same time, they insure that some of the young survive the predators. Zebras follow a similar pattern of birthing in January. Safety in numbers is the motto for survival here.
So, here we are, within the first hour of landing, ticking off almost all the boxes on our animal checklist. Cameras are clicking, jaws are dropping. It is so amazing it seems unreal. The usually short drive to the hotel took 2 hours because we just had to stop and see everything along the way.
For the next seven days we bumped along dirt roads in search of or in the midst of nature at it's finest. Roads in the national parks are unpaved, keeping development to an absolute minimum. Fortunately the hotels don't have to be minimalist as well. You can enjoy luxury accommodation in a style that blends in with the environment, minus the air conditioning.
Our driver, Asterick, was a fount of information. He obviously loves his country and his job. I would think babysitting tourists would wear a bit thin at times, especially some of the more obnoxious ones you can get. Unfortunately we had one of those in our vehicle, but we chose to ignore him and focus on the experience. The wildlife outside of the vehicle was far richer and more interesting.
The vehicles are Toyota Land Cruisers with seating for six and a pop up roof to create an outdoor observation level. Plus shade. The animals don't associate the vehicles with food and go about their daily business around them. The two lions strolling along the road in the photo right seemed completely oblivious to the traffic jam they'd created with vehicles descending on the sighting from all directions.
You wouldn't think that riding around all day would be tiring but it was. It was hot, fortunately a dry heat, and we drank a lot of water. The food was great at the hotels, catering to western clientele. Game is not featured on the menus. Lamb, chicken, beef or fish are. Dinner also featured great conversation, getting to know our 28 traveling companions from across Canada. Universities represented on this trip were U of Alberta, Saskatchewan, McMaster, Queens and McGill. Lots of fun and new friendships were being forged on this Safari.
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