Written by Aus aboard ferry to Zanzibar, and finished on ferry back from Zanzibar
This entry will detail our activities and adventures in our 17th Country visited during this world tour - Tanzania. It's been amazing again, and we are already sad to have to leave Africa soon and the great group of friends we've made on this Acacia tour. We wish we had the time to continue south and see more of Africa, but further adventure awaits elsewhere, and we already have ambitions to get back here to see some spots we've missed.
Tanzania is home to some more of Africa's premier wildlife and safari hotspots, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, as well as the popular island destination of Zanzibar, and the highest peak in Africa, Kilimanjaro (AKA Kili). We had originally hoped we may be able to climb Kili, but upon further investigation we decided it was perhaps beyond our level of preparedness and would require cutting another one of our planned destinations outside Africa, so we gave it a pass for this trip. We did however get to see the rest of the country's big tourist draws, and each has been interesting to see. We are so pleased with our decision to travel Africa with other young travellers, as it has been so much better to be able to share these experiences and have some fun along the way. If you are considering a trip to Africa, I can easily recommend overland group travel, and don't worry at all about the camping part of it, it has been totally safe and much more fun than spending hundreds each night on expensive lodges.
After crossing the land border into Tanzania and obtaining our visas, we proceeded south to town of Arusha, which is I suppose a bit of a staging point for safaris to the Serengeti. We camped in a fairly decent site there called the Meserani Snake Park, where luckily the snakes were all caged and not much wildlife roamed where our tents were set up. We got an early morning start on on our way out to the Serengeti, and did a similar thing to what we'd done in the Masai Mara by climbing into smaller purpose built safari vehicles with pop-up roofs. These ones were a bit more rugged than the matatus and felt like true Safari vehicles. We were with Comfort Tours and Safaris for our Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater tour, and we camped in some pretty cool sites for the two nights we were out. The first day was mainly a long drive from Arusha to our campsite in the Serengeti, with a stop at the archaeological hotspot Oldupai Gorge, and an afternoon game drive on the way to the campsite. Our first stop was the Oldupai Gorge, which is an important archaeological site where many early hominid remains were found that have helped in identifying the path of evolution from ancient ancestors. It was a cool stop and it was interesting to learn about all the historically important and surprisingly recent finds, as well as the ongoing work in the area. We did not even realize it was part of our tour, so it was a bonus for us!
This entry will detail our activities and adventures in our 17th Country visited during this world tour - Tanzania. It's been amazing again, and we are already sad to have to leave Africa soon and the great group of friends we've made on this Acacia tour. We wish we had the time to continue south and see more of Africa, but further adventure awaits elsewhere, and we already have ambitions to get back here to see some spots we've missed.
Tanzania is home to some more of Africa's premier wildlife and safari hotspots, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, as well as the popular island destination of Zanzibar, and the highest peak in Africa, Kilimanjaro (AKA Kili). We had originally hoped we may be able to climb Kili, but upon further investigation we decided it was perhaps beyond our level of preparedness and would require cutting another one of our planned destinations outside Africa, so we gave it a pass for this trip. We did however get to see the rest of the country's big tourist draws, and each has been interesting to see. We are so pleased with our decision to travel Africa with other young travellers, as it has been so much better to be able to share these experiences and have some fun along the way. If you are considering a trip to Africa, I can easily recommend overland group travel, and don't worry at all about the camping part of it, it has been totally safe and much more fun than spending hundreds each night on expensive lodges.
After crossing the land border into Tanzania and obtaining our visas, we proceeded south to town of Arusha, which is I suppose a bit of a staging point for safaris to the Serengeti. We camped in a fairly decent site there called the Meserani Snake Park, where luckily the snakes were all caged and not much wildlife roamed where our tents were set up. We got an early morning start on on our way out to the Serengeti, and did a similar thing to what we'd done in the Masai Mara by climbing into smaller purpose built safari vehicles with pop-up roofs. These ones were a bit more rugged than the matatus and felt like true Safari vehicles. We were with Comfort Tours and Safaris for our Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater tour, and we camped in some pretty cool sites for the two nights we were out. The first day was mainly a long drive from Arusha to our campsite in the Serengeti, with a stop at the archaeological hotspot Oldupai Gorge, and an afternoon game drive on the way to the campsite. Our first stop was the Oldupai Gorge, which is an important archaeological site where many early hominid remains were found that have helped in identifying the path of evolution from ancient ancestors. It was a cool stop and it was interesting to learn about all the historically important and surprisingly recent finds, as well as the ongoing work in the area. We did not even realize it was part of our tour, so it was a bonus for us!
Setting up camp in Arusha…
You can see the Acacia truck here…..we miss it and our great friends already…
One of many places on the way that was selling Tanzanian arts & crafts….
Stop for lunch…..keep your food close to your chest as the birds here are masters thieves, and one of our group lost her meal to a big bird called a black kite..
Oldupai Gorge…
The next attraction was the Serengeti game driving. It was really neat driving up through the crater rim and then into the great plains of the Serengeti. What a wild change in landscape! The Ngorongoro crater is in the middle between Arusha and the Serengeti, so we had to go around it en route to Serengeti. The vegetation there is so lush and tropical, it is very different from what we had pictured when reading about the African landscape. It is basically its own contained ecosystem, being a collapsed volcano it has steep walls which prevent many of its inhabitants from coming and going too easily, and it is home to several different habitats from lush forest to plains to lakes and marshland to grasses and savannahs. Anyhow, we were just stopping for a view the first day, with a tour to follow on the last day before heading back to Arusha again. Our main highlight was the Serengeti and the great herds that are currently there for calving season. We saw loads of young animals, namely elephant, lions, zebra, and wildebeest. All of these animals will be making the great migration back to the Masai Mara in a few months time, and will be joined by hordes of tourists and photographers who are here for a glimpse of one of Nature's great spectacles. We were visiting during the end of the shoulder season apparently, catching the last of the expected dry weather before the long rains of March thru May (although we still got a bit of rain and some great cracks of thunder in the clouds). Visiting at this time means that your chances for prime wildlife experiences such as kills etc are not very high, but we still feel we got to see quite a lot.
We had two days of one and a half days of game drives in the Serengeti, and like the Masai Mara, it is easier to tell the story with pictures than to drone on about it. So, I hope you like wildlife, because here's another batch of photos from our time in the Serengeti...
A few of the Acacia crew having a break from the trucks as we look out from the viewpoint above the Serengeti plains…
We had two days of one and a half days of game drives in the Serengeti, and like the Masai Mara, it is easier to tell the story with pictures than to drone on about it. So, I hope you like wildlife, because here's another batch of photos from our time in the Serengeti...
A few of the Acacia crew having a break from the trucks as we look out from the viewpoint above the Serengeti plains…
Your friendly neighbourhood round the world honeymooners….
Great plains
Having some fun at one of the rest stops…
2011: A Goofball Odyssey
Andrew and I enjoying the smug satisfaction that comes after winning a bet against four determined females…
Hope we don't run out of gas!
And cue the engine trouble. After witnessing 9 flat tires along the way, it all worked out for us after an hour or so despite some grim skies and crazy thunder that seemed like an omen..
More fun driving around the world’s greatest game park…
Zebras going for water….lots of zebras…
Truck life…
A mother elephant with a cub that was just a few days old…
Beautiful sunset skies…
We saw these two cheetahs stalking a herd of Impalas, but another jeep forced the cheetahs hand and they had to give chase before being close enough for a kill, so we got closer than we expected to seeing that..
A leopard with a freshly killed gazelle that he has dragged up the tree to prevent sharing with hyenas and other scavengers…
You don’t have to go to the Serengeti to see these bizarre creatures…..
A crane…the national bird of Uganda…
Masai people roaming miles from anywhere, near the edge of Ngorongoro conservation area, where they are permitted to live
The skies were always threatening, but we had minimal rain…
Zebras in the hyper vigilant “You watch my back, I’ll watch yours” position
At the end of day two we camped on the rim of the Ngorongoro, which was a really cool campsite overlooking the crater. It was insanely busy there considering it was shoulder season, but we made due and had a great campfire where we all shared jokes and stories. There was a full moon and it was just a really cool feeling to be in camping out in the wilds of Africa. At all these safari campsites we were told about some of the local inhabitants whom we may see during our stay, which included snakes, scorpions, elephants, zebras, hyenas, monkeys, lions, and pretty much every other creature due to the lack of fences. We were lucky not to have seen any of these things, but we did hear some hyenas off in the distance. In my opinion, the camping only added to the whole wild experience, and we definitely think its the way to do safaris in Africa as opposed to insanely expensive wildlife lodges. Here's a few photos of our camp at the crater rim..
The next morning we got to do the much anticipated game drive in the Crater itself, which was really cool. We descended the steep one-way descent road and onto the crater floor, where lush greenery and loads of wildlife awaited. There were loads of Wildebeest and Zebras, as well as boasting the highest density lion population in Africa. We drove through a forest where we saw a large group of Baboons playing and engaging in all manners of social and anti-social behaviours, and we saw the huge flocks of pink flamingos on the lakes. The whole place just seemed like it was a different world. Kim compared it to The Land Before Time, and it really did feel like a place where time had stopped many millennia ago. It was just purely natural, with the only sign of modern influence was one toilet and of course the many safari trucks roaming about. To help illustrate, more photos.....
Looking down from the crater rim….
Lots of baboons doing all sorts of things in the forest…
The huge herds of wildebeest, which you can see many of here, but this is just a tiny fraction of the whole herd we could see all over the place…
An Eland…
Wildebeest…
Baboon central here we come….
Hey there Handsome! This is a hyena…..not the nicest looking creatures around.
A full pride of lions…
Before moving on I had a few points about the Masai people who we saw so much of during our time in Kenya and Tanzania. They are of course not the only tribe, but they are one of the most numerous and likely the most famous. They are quite interesting and manage to carry on many of their traditional ways that seems impossible given the access to and proliferation of information and modern technology etc. They are nomadic, and live in temporary structures composed of acacia branches and dung. They are polygamous, and men may have up to 5 or more wives depending on how many cattle he can afford to give away as dowries. Wives each live in separate houses, and when the man gets sick of one, he moves on to the next. Women are okay with that apparently, and all we met seemed perfectly happy in this way of life. There are many rituals for men such as hunting lions as part of becoming a ‘warrior’, and of course the traditional tattoos obtained during circumcision ceremonies which occur at adolescence. Their diet is still made up of a lot of blood and milk. I could go on and on, but the most impressive thing is that they carry all that on and still wear all traditional dress etc. in today’s society. Kind of admirable that they have resisted cultural assimilation, whether or not you respect the actual practices.
Before moving on I had a few points about the Masai people who we saw so much of during our time in Kenya and Tanzania. They are of course not the only tribe, but they are one of the most numerous and likely the most famous. They are quite interesting and manage to carry on many of their traditional ways that seems impossible given the access to and proliferation of information and modern technology etc. They are nomadic, and live in temporary structures composed of acacia branches and dung. They are polygamous, and men may have up to 5 or more wives depending on how many cattle he can afford to give away as dowries. Wives each live in separate houses, and when the man gets sick of one, he moves on to the next. Women are okay with that apparently, and all we met seemed perfectly happy in this way of life. There are many rituals for men such as hunting lions as part of becoming a ‘warrior’, and of course the traditional tattoos obtained during circumcision ceremonies which occur at adolescence. Their diet is still made up of a lot of blood and milk. I could go on and on, but the most impressive thing is that they carry all that on and still wear all traditional dress etc. in today’s society. Kind of admirable that they have resisted cultural assimilation, whether or not you respect the actual practices.
After our visit to the crater we proceeded back to Arusha and got set for a few days of overland travel bound for Dar Es Salaam where we caught the ferry to Zanzibar. We also celebrated the birthday of one of our traveling companions, Andy, who had an incredible zeal for the the more refined points of the German language, which he was delighted to share with the many German speaking people on our tour. It was a great night, featuring a game of 'never never', and involved some shots of Springbok, and a few of the local beers 'Kilimanjaro'. The beer slogan was quite brilliant actually...."If you can't climb it, drink it!"
We woke the next morning fairly early and had a typical camp breakfast of cereal and pancakes and then headed off on the road. We had a few stops for the supermarket, internet, and a cultural heritage centre that was unfortunately just some shops, and then had a long stretch of driving to our halfway point between Arusha and Dar. We stopped at a very eerie campsite next to a river and were the only ones there this time.....it felt like a good setting for a horror film, but luckily the only incident was the sighting of a tiny snake that quickly slithered away. The next morning was another early start before making our way to Dar Es Salaam to rest for the night before taking off to Zanzibar. The driving was long, but it was nice to be ale to see some more of the country side and the people, especially of the tourist track. We thought it was interesting when we found out that the phrase “Hakuna Matata”, made famous in the Lion King, is an actual phrase that we heard often in Kenya and Tanzania to mean, “relax, don’t worry, everything will be fine”. Not everyone was friendly though, with many people threatening to throw rocks if they saw your cameras, and many people flipping the bird and wagging their fingers in disgrace at our desire to photograph their beautiful country. It's puzzling what motivates that, as you would think that with such amazing tourist attractions in this country that must generate very significant amounts of government revenue, you would think that the population would be generally welcoming of tourists, but in our experience most people here outside of the tourism industry were not happy to see us, but we never felt at risk for our safety, despite the presence of armed guards at many locations. The only places where were a bit on edge was in big cities, but that is true in most big cities around the world. And there were some very nice people, especially those in the tourist industry, and of course the children are great, at least the young ones before they learn that their parents hate you and therefore they should too.
A couple of the shots we did manage to ‘sneak’ from the bus…
We stayed at a nice little campsite right on the beach in Dar Es Salaam, and good thing too because without the strong breeze the heat would have been unbearable. We saw temperatures up to 41 degrees Celsius. I did not think much of the city of Dar Es Salaam, but it was right on the beach and is the biggest city in Tanzania, so it's likely to be visited in most tours of the country. It is possible to fly direct to Zanzibar, but we were more interested in the company of our friends than we were in the potentially time-saving flights, so we caught the early ferry with the rest of our crew waking up about 4AM to ensure we caught the first ferry. Once we had gotten over the initial state of shock that the body goes through when waking at that time of day, we were all quite pleased that we had done it, as it allowed a full day in Stone Town to explore the many small streets and shops, as well as join a 'spice tour' that was much more colourful than expected thanks to a good guide. We finished the night off with a sunset drink at Africa House followed by getting adventurous with some Zanzibar cuisine at the local night market.
Zanzibar is known as the 'spice island', and has an interesting history owing to the many different groups of people who have set up shop there over the years, mainly the Arabs from Oman, the Indians, and the British. Most people around this part of Tanzania are Muslim, due to the fact that many years ago following the abolishment of the Arab controlled slave trade, a wise president advised his people to not seek violent revenge but instead to marry Arab women (or so were told). If that is true, then this is a great success story in terms of everybody living together in peace. There are many Arabs and Indians here who all seem to get along quite well with the African Muslims. Despite many warnings about walking alone and after dark etc., i actually found Zanzibar to be one of the more friendly and chilled out places we’ve been in Tanzania. We really enjoyed Stone Town and could have easily spent more time there, but like most of this trip, we always have something else to look forward to when moving on, and this time leaving Stone Town meant getting to the beach at Kendwa for my 29th birthday. Before moving on, here are some photos of Stone Town....
Zanzibar is known as the 'spice island', and has an interesting history owing to the many different groups of people who have set up shop there over the years, mainly the Arabs from Oman, the Indians, and the British. Most people around this part of Tanzania are Muslim, due to the fact that many years ago following the abolishment of the Arab controlled slave trade, a wise president advised his people to not seek violent revenge but instead to marry Arab women (or so were told). If that is true, then this is a great success story in terms of everybody living together in peace. There are many Arabs and Indians here who all seem to get along quite well with the African Muslims. Despite many warnings about walking alone and after dark etc., i actually found Zanzibar to be one of the more friendly and chilled out places we’ve been in Tanzania. We really enjoyed Stone Town and could have easily spent more time there, but like most of this trip, we always have something else to look forward to when moving on, and this time leaving Stone Town meant getting to the beach at Kendwa for my 29th birthday. Before moving on, here are some photos of Stone Town....
Big group shot of the Acacia crew (Back: Aus, Andrew, Christof, Candy, Sabrina, Jamie, Raymond; Middle: Marietjie [our tour leader], Teresa, Fiona, Julia, Judith, Sara, Karen, Alison, Nikolina, Fredrik, Faith; Front: Kim, Andy)
Spice tour in Stone Town with the hilarious Ali T.
We got some nice free clothing accessories out of the tour….
We also learned a bit about the darker side of the island’s history, and this monument commemorates the location of the old slave market, where slaves would be kept in small cells for a week, half dying of starvation or suffocation, before being auctioned off to the Arab slave masters.
Leaving Stone Town was another early morning, but luckily not ridiculous like the day before. We were all psyched to get to the beach and chill out there for a couple days. It was a beautiful beach with nice white sand and clear turquoise water. We were all very impressed. The place we stayed was called Sunset Bungalows and also exceeded our expectations. The staff were not overly personable, but food was good (especially the pizzas), and the rooms were comfortable and even featured air conditioning, so were living in relative luxury to what we had been used to camping. I spent my birthday sunning and swimming on the beach, had a few cocktails in the evening, and danced the night away later on, alongside friends and a few Masai! As it happened, we bumped into the Absolute Africa truck we had travelled Rwanda with, and got to see many of those familiar faces again too, so that was pretty cool.
I had lots of help in my celebrations from all of our friends we've met here on the trip, and it was an excellent birthday all around. The hardest part of it for me was being away from home and my friends there who also share birthdays with me, but we each had great birthday celebrations anyway, so no big deal. I certainly wouldn't trade my time in Zanzibar to be at home! Another girl on the trip had a birthday the day after mine but she was not up for a big celebration so my night ended up being the big night.....it was so much fun.. The rest of our time at the beach was spent just enjoying the sunshine and beautiful setting. Here are some photos of our time at the beach and my birthday celebrations...
The beautiful setting at Sunset Bungalows….great spot for a B-day….
Girls being girls..(L to R: Jenna, Sara, Candy, Kim, Teresa, Karen, Fiona, Faith)
Birthday cake and all,
Tanzania’s next best dance crew…
Dancing with the locals, including apparently Masai warriors…
Kim and I are now unfortunately on our way out of Africa, but again though we are sad to leave, we are excited about our next adventure, this time in Jordan. We have been a bit nervous as obviously the region has seen some chaos lately, but our government advisories do not warn us against travel, and third party accounts from travellers who have been recently say it is all safe and good to go. The biggest potential wrinkle is the we fly with Egyptair via Cairo in order to get to Amman, so we are crossing our fingers hoping that we do not get stuck in Cairo. Should be a 2 hour changeover, so here's hoping that's the case. We will hopefully be able to post again following our time in Jordan.
Hope all is well with our friends and family and well wishers wherever you are.
All the best.
The Knotty Travellers
Addendum:
As you may be worried due to our travel in a troubled region, please take comfort in knowing that we have safely arrived, our flights went without issue, and Jordan is incredibly safe (we feel safer than in Africa’s big cities). So we are now officially ‘Out of Africa’, as the title suggests.
We had such a good time in Africa that we had to put the whole experience to music, so for your viewing pleasure here is a little 4 minute snippet of our time in Africa….(There is an extended 20 minute version featuring more photographs of our Kenya and Tanzania tours with the Acacia group, that you can find by downloading the file here: http://hotfile.com/dl/107817850/5296e12/Cut_4_-_Full_trip_under_20_mins.wmv.html)
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