Afri-freaking-ca!

Donna and I recently took the trip of a lifetime, a safari in Tanzania on Africa’s central east coast. We visited Tarangire National Park, with multiple herds of elephants; Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which features the renowned Ngorongoro crater; and Serengeti National Park. Serengeti, like Ngorongoro, is a UNESCO World Heritage site; it is home to some 1.5 million migratory wildebeest, 400,000 zebra, 3,000 lions, and many other herbivores and predators.

After much research, we booked our 10-day excursion through Micato Safaris. It was a great choice. We were pampered with luxurious accommodations, incredibly up-close animal sightings, and vast amounts of fascinating information. It was a life-changing experience that greatly exceeded our most optimistic hopes.

We arrived in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro International Airport after a 10,000-mile, 26-hour journey, and were greeted by our remarkable tour director, Joseph Mushi, and a driver. We hopped into the rugged Toyota Land Cruiser, a ubiquitous vehicle in the parks that would be our transport for the first part of our journey. We made the 90-minute drive to our first destination, the beautiful Arusha Coffee Lodge in Arusha, a bustling city of 600,000 people and a hub for safari goers like us as well as climbers and hikers of the beautiful Mt. Meru and spectacular snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro.

We spent a relaxing day at the lodge prior to the commencement of the safari, took a tour of the working coffee plantation, and ate well. We were anxious about what lay before us: what animals would we see, would we get along with the others in our tour group, would we suffer side effects from the malaria pills we were required to take (stomach issues being chief among them) or contract sleeping sickness from the ever-present tsetse fly?

Our worries turned out to be baseless. We saw at close range more animals than we ever imagined, including the so-called Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino). The other three members of our group – Canadians Tracy and Deb, who are about our age, and Deb’s niece Amanda – quickly turned into close friends with whom we would spend hours talking over wine about issues big and small and laughing almost without pause. And none of us suffered more than relatively mild symptoms, whether from the malaria pills, ingesting unpurified water, eating foods or spices unfamiliar to our digestive systems, or tsetse bites.

Donna and I came with the goal of seeing the exotic animals but left with so much more: new friends, perspectives on cultures very different from ours, a greater appreciation of the blessings we owe to simply being born in an affluent country, and much more. I’ll report on the experiences that altered our perceptions of social equity and challenged our notions of cultural heritage in a future installment.

But first, the animals!

First stop: Tarangire National Park

The park is a three-hour drive from Arusha, mostly on unpaved roads. We were fortunate to have with us an expert driver named Julius, which freed Joseph to spot animals and teach us their habits and behaviors. Many other tour groups, we learned, are led by a single guide who must divide their attention between driving through often treacherous terrain and being effective guides and communicators.

As we bumped along the trail leading to our lodge that is situated inside the park (throughout the safari, paved roads were about as common as the endangered rhino, and we were often jostled like coffee beans in a roaster drum), we saw many zebras and elephants. On arrival at our camp, Tree Tops, we got settled into our rooms – as the lodge’s name suggests, each “room” is actually a large treehouse (to keep us out of reach of things that may want to devour us) with wide vistas and every amenity.

We reconvened in the dining room and had a gourmet lunch overlooking a watering hole, not more than 100 yards away, frequented by the park’s inhabitants. We were entertained by elephants, zebras, gazelles, and baboons enjoying a free drink and a bath. After lunch, we set out for our first game drive in the stout Land Cruiser and almost immediately encountered several families of elephants, buffalo, giraffes, and many, many zebras.

We returned to the lodge, recounted the day’s events over cocktails, then were treated to a fine meal. Elewana, the company that operates Tree Tops, also manages the coffee lodge and another in-the-park camp we stayed at, Migration Lodge in Serengeti; an obvious focus of Elewana is food. At all three properties, the meals were world class.

Speaking of meals, one night we heard roaring and other ferocious sounds that our guide confirmed the following morning was a nearby lion attack of a buffalo. On other occasions, we saw elephants and buffalo lumbering very close to our treehouse toward the watering hole. These events explain why after dark the lodge requires guests to be escorted by a staff member.

The next day we made two game drives, and saw perhaps 100 elephants, many more zebras, waterbucks with their long beards, stately giraffes, and two lions at very close range. We also saw the comical warthog, or pumba, with its long curving tusks and erect slender tail, which in small groups or alone will race in one direction toward nothing in particular, then quickly change direction, in pursuit of some other imaginary target.

We were anxious to see an African sunset, with the vast horizon and iconic acacia trees, but Joseph was evasive when we asked whether we would be back from our afternoon game drive in time to experience it. As we drove along on the trails, sunset was fast approaching and we were far from camp. Then to our surprise we stopped at a clearing on a summit facing west. Joseph and Julius unloaded folding tables and chairs, coolers with wine and beer, and snacks, and treated us to an indescribable “sundowner.” The view was beyond beautiful.

Aside from remarkable game, Tarangire is renowned for the ancient Baobab trees that can reach close to 1,000 years of age; the acacia trees with their flattened canopies; candelabra trees; massive eight-foot-tall termite mounds, the visible part of which, like an iceberg, is only a small fraction of the unseen mass below; and hundreds of species of spectacularly colorful birds like the iridescent blue super starling and parrot varieties.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The next morning, we drove to Neptune Ngorongoro Luxury Lodge, just minutes from the entrance to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is the most opulent, luxurious place at which Donna and I ever stayed. Each apartment is a standalone suite and overlooks the hills leading up to the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. Our suite was enormous, with a massive bedroom, balcony, two working fireplaces, an equally large sitting room, and both rooms were filled with beautiful African artwork. The grounds were manicured gardens, and the lobby was splendid.

The park features the incredible Ngorongoro crater. Much more so than the other parks we visited, Ngorongoro is like a U.S. national park, in that it is crowded with visitors. We arrived at the entrance clogged with perhaps two dozen other groups, waited for paperwork to clear, then made our way, like a caravan of elephants, up to the rim so we could descend on the other side to the crater floor.

The crater was formed about 2.5 million years ago by the collapse of the cone of a large volcanic mountain after it erupted. The mountain is estimated to have been comparable in height to Kilimanjaro’s 18,000-ft. elevation. The resulting floor, said to be the location of the origin of humanity, is 100 square miles and surrounded by a rim about 2,000 feet above. The floor has multiple ecological areas that change between the wet and dry seasons. 

We visited at the very beginning of the rainy season. A swampy area, for instance, is inhabited by hippos, elephants, lions, and other animals. At a massive lake in the middle of the floor we saw the tops of wading hippos, thousands of pink flamingos standing at the water’s edge (and then take off in a beautiful pink cloud), many other birds, and elephants, zebras, buffalos, and more. There are also arid plains. In a forest area we saw, from perhaps 100 yards away, a magnificent rhino, said to be one of only a few dozen in the enormous park due to poachers, who have decimated the rhino population because the horn, said to be an aphrodisiac, can fetch $1 million on the black market.

A lion face-off

The many guides cooperate with one another: If one spots something of interest, he or she will let others know via CB radio where to find it. In this way the guides are like the hyenas that communicate (in ways we don’t understand) and work together to stalk, isolate, corner, and attack prey as a team.

As we were driving slowly along one of the dusty red (because of the pulverized lava rock) roads on the crater floor, our guide got word of a male lion confronting a smaller male in his territory. Our otherwise cautious, conservative driver turned into Tom Cruise and floored the Land Cruiser. We were pushed against our seats like those rocket sleds NASA used to use to create high G forces as he raced to the designated area. When we arrived, there were many other vehicles stopped along the road to watch as the larger lion walked toward the smaller one, then began trotting, then went into a full run, narrowing the gap between himself and the young whippersnapper. As the pair moved, our driver slammed the Land Cruiser into reverse and weaved at high speed around the parked trucks to get to a better vantage point. It was exhilarating.

The big cat’s aim was not to attack, but to chase away the smaller male, which he accomplished. However, had the smaller lion not beaten a hasty retreat, there would have been a battle royale. I desperately hoped for such a confrontation, although the others in our group didn’t share my bloodlust.

Around noon, after more incredible sightings, including a lioness and her son lounging by the side of the road and an enormous bull elephant blocking the road while he leisurely snacked on tree branches, we drove through a picnic area crowded with tourists, and proceeded to a secluded area with a large tent. Our tour group had arranged for a catered buffet lunch for the five of us, complete with traditional African food, outstanding wine, the works. The accommodations -- linen napkins in fancy rings, linen tablecloths, heavy silverware, silver chafing dishes – were in stark contrast to our wild surroundings, including a dazzle of grazing zebras not twenty yards from our tent.

After lunch, we drove to other parts of the crater’s floor and saw much more wildlife. We made the teeth-crunching ascent to the rim and stopped at a scenic overlook, where Joseph somehow spotted three more rhinos from extremely far away. We got out our binoculars and confirmed. We returned to the lodge exhausted and thrilled at what we had seen.

The next morning, we drove to the Lake Manyara Airstrip to board the small single-engine prop plane to Serengeti National Park. We suspected that security wasn’t as rigorous as in the U.S. when we noticed that the metal detector we walked through wasn’t plugged in.

A bit about toilets

Toilet facilities are an area of focus for sixty-something-year-old tourists on hours-long safaris in remote, undeveloped areas. Joseph rated toilet facilities, or “washrooms,” on a scale of one to five. A toilet at a lookout spot near Tarangire that we used a couple times earned 1 star: The Gents and Ladies toilets (always Gents and Ladies) consisted of a hole in the ground. The toilets at the Lake Manyara airstrip, in a standalone building 40 yards from the “terminal,” were rated at 3 stars – actual toilets and running water. Many were attended by the African equivalent of a squeegee boy. He would see you heading for the washroom and follow (or lead) you there, wait by the sink, wipe it with a dirty rag and offer the rag to you to dry your hands in anticipation of a tip.

We loitered around a waiting area until it was time to board. Our pilot, a young Chicagoan, deftly steered the plane over some mountains and delivered us to Lobo Airstrip in Serengeti National Park. Lobo Airstrip wasn’t as fancy as Lake Manyara, and neither were its toilets.

Serengeti National Park

Joseph accompanied us on the 45-minute flight and Julius drove our Land Cruiser back. We were greeted by a new driver, Sirili, an employee of lodge operator Elewana, who had set up a table with refreshments. He was chattier than the reserved Julius, with a wry sense of humor, and extremely knowledgeable about Serengeti – probably as familiar with it as the incomparable Joseph.

Our new home for the next two days, Serengeti Migration Lodge, lies deep in the park. We stayed in large tents right among the wildlife. The accommodations were the definition of “glamping,” with a large, comfortable bed, walk-in shower, overstuffed chairs, desks and tables. Zebras and buffaloes were often right alongside our tent, and we saw elephants, giraffes, a hippo, a lion and more from our deck. I also watched a four-foot-long, bright green snake slither three feet beyond my feet across the deck and disappear into some vegetation next to a tree. I immediately consulted the internet and determined that it was a green mambo, a highly poisonous, often lethal reptile. I mentioned it to our guide, who assured me it was actually a harmless spotted bush snake. I didn’t see no damn spots, though. And I am not a fan of snakes, venomous or not. Nor of spiders, of which I saw a very large, scary one on the outside of our tent that probably could have killed the snake and me as well. But I digress.

Sleeping was interrupted by the incessant skittering of cute, groundhog-like hyraxes as they ran across the top of our tent and by the sounds of nearby animals crunching along by our tent. A little lost sleep was a small price to pay for the experience.

The 7,000 square-mile Serengeti, which aptly means endless plain, is off-the-charts beautiful, enchanting, and awe-inspiring, as is the wildlife it supports. The stupid and butt-ugly wildebeest, which is said to be God’s last creation made from the leftover parts of other creatures (the head of a grasshopper, the tail and mane of a horse, the horns of a buffalo, the legs of an ox, etc.) has done something right, because there are 1.5 million of them in the Serengeti. They migrate clockwise around the plain in a 500-mile circle, following the rains. I think we saw all of them. It was like watching a cattle drive in a western movie, except there are no cowboys driving them – they just do it on their own.

We saw hundreds of elephants, even larger than those we saw elsewhere because of the nutrients the Serengeti provides, and hundreds of buffalo; a thousand or more chill zebras in herds intermingled with the wildebeests. The zebras often are seen in pairs side by side and head to tail, so they can see enemies coming from any direction. Sirili explained that zebras and wildebeests have a symbiotic relationship, or in his words, they are friends with benefits: The wildebeest thinks lions or other predators will be attracted to the zebra’s stripes and will leave the wildebeest alone, while the zebra thinks the wildebeest will be too stupid to run.

We watched a pack of nasty hyenas, known as Africa’s housecleaners, trotting toward some weak prey we couldn’t spot. Unlike other predators, like the big cats that “kill to eat,” hyenas “eat to kill,” meaning they devour their prey while still alive. We also observed jackals, ostriches that seem could only have been dreamed up by Steven Spielberg for a science-fiction movie, and, as we were crossing a shallow river in our Toyota Land Cruiser, a crocodile for just an instant before it turned and made a splash as it submerged into the murky water.

We saw the kori bustard, the world’s largest flying bird (though we didn’t see it fly). We saw secretary birds, which eat snakes (good for them), and hammerkops, which make enormous nests that can weigh 125 pounds. We saw many stately, giraffes Sirili called magicians: you spot one, then another appears, then another. We visited a pond where maybe 20 hippos, including three big bulls, were wallowing (hippopotamus means river horse because their dense mass enables them to walk or run underwater). We saw lions galore, usually napping and unbothered as we drove to within a few feet of them. We saw the full spectrum of antelopes: from the tiny dik-dik to Grant gazelles and Thompson gazelles, impalas, reedbuck, waterbuck, topi, eland. We saw hard-to-find, beautiful cheetahs and leopards. We saw dwarf mongooses and lion cubs. And more, so much more.

I have spoken about our incomparable guide, Joseph Mushi. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things safari, an engaging personality, and an uncanny ability to find game. He shared with us some of his techniques: smelling animals (after a while, Donna could smell elephants from a good distance) or their dung; watching for other nearby animals looking in the same direction; spotting vultures circling overhead, attracted to the scent of fresh dung; identifying paw/foot/hoof prints in the dusty roads and trails. These supplement Joseph’s keen eyesight, which is his superpower. As we would be driving, he would regularly look up and instantly point to a distant animal we had missed. He also has an innate sense, developed over 20 years as a park ranger (he showed us the scar on his head from the arrow of a poacher he once pursued) and tour guide, to “feel” the presence of a hidden animal.

We were sad when it was time to say goodbye to guides Joseph and Sirili; our new friends, Deb, Tracy and Amanda; the warm, friendly people of Africa; and the beautiful continent itself. I hope that someday we'll return, but if not, we will never forget the incredible experiences we had and were able to share with each other.

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