Safaris in the Serengeti and Beaches in Zanzibar

September 22, 2018 / 3,774 Comments

“I like animals. I like natural history. The travel bit is not the important bit. The travel bit is what you have to do in order to go and look at animals.”
– David Attenborough

Tanzania Continues

My original plan was to write one giant blog post about Tanzania, and all of the uniquely fascinating places I visited here – Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the island of Zanzibar. This idea was great for a lot of reasons, the most important one being that I traveled with the same fun loving group of people through many of these places.

This idea, however, also doesn’t work for a lot of reasons. Kili proved to be too big of an event to share with another. By the time I finished writing my prior post on our week long hiking adventure, it was as though I climbed the whole mountain again. I was so mentally exhausted. I also blame my travel companions. I had so much fun with these ten friends old and new, that my writings are more rambling than usual.

You’re just gonna have to read more.

Therefore, I will pick up where I left off. Coming down from 19,000 feet.

Time for a Safari

Following Kilimanjaro, our travel herd spent a luxurious night NOT sleeping in a tent. No, we all slept in a real bed in a hotel in the town of Moshi near the base of Kilimanjaro. We took much needed showers and drank long overdue glasses of beer and wine. Only after being freshly bathed and putting on newly laundered clothes were we again ready to share a small vehicle together.

Let’s get in a truck and see some animals

From Moshi, we drove a few hours to Arusha as a better starting point to nearby national parks and conservation areas. This worked out well as we all probably needed another recovery day where the major activities centered around eating and bus napping. After resting up, our first attempt at African animal encounters was at Tarangire National Park. The guides added this stopover to our original itinerary to break up the long drive from Arusha to the Serengeti.

I found Tarangire the least exciting of the game parks we visited. It’s a large park but not the same endless plain expanse of the Serengeti, and much more dry and brown compared to Ngorongoro. Admittedly, my mood this day was also not aided by the fact that I was getting sick. I started getting congested and sniffling on my way up Kili. At the time I attributed it to the common issue of thin air and breathing in and endless cloud of dust. Nope. I had a cold.

While getting ill on vacation sucks, my ego can’t help but point out that I summited Kiliminjaro with a head cold. Rather than feel bad, I’m going to take that as an confidence boost and testament to my sheer physical fitness and endurance.

Visiting Tarangire was still a good introduction to Tanzanian animal life. The landscape was a scene of dry and brown grasses. But the views were sprinkled with our first spottings of zebra, ostrich, as well as a few elephants and giraffes. Even with my stuffy head and desire to sleep all day, I’d have to be one bitter cranky troll to not get excited about seeing a herd of elephants walking a few hundred yards away.

A Lone Ostrich
Elephant Crossing
A Zeal of Zebras

We spent the following night at a luxury lodge closer to the big game viewing parks. The lodge had some of the best food of our trip. The grounds were the nicest. They had a pool. Joyce got a massage. Following a week of tent living and driving in dust, it was an appreciated injection of luxury. As well as a reminder that we are a bunch of rich and spoiled westerners.

I say ‘we’ as a group….but in contrast to my nine compatriots, I’m unemployed and blowing my savings. I guess that makes me just irresponsible.

Hey, you only live once!

Full on Glamping

We spent the next three days on safari in and around Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park. Ngorongoro is a large conservation area centered around a crater created by a large volcanic explosion, and subsequent volcanic collapse. The result of this is something that looks like the world’s largest divot from the world’s largest golf ball in the midst of an otherwise mountainous backdrop. The volcanic ash in the soil also makes for a lush vegetation friendly landscape, making it the greenest of the parks we visited.

We got an initial glimpse of the Crater on our second safari day as we drove through to the Serengeti, and stopped back here again for a full visit on our last day.

It’s almost impossible to summarize the stunning animals and terrain we laid eyes on over the next few days. One day, our truck pulled up right next to a tower of giraffes. More than once we paused our caravan for elephant and water buffalo crossings. These types of moments were so common, it was as normal as stopping for a family of geese crossing the road. The one (small) difference being that most African animals can turn over your vehicle if they are ever so inclined. So you better freaking stop.

A lion walked right up next to our jeep one day.

We saw a group of hyenas carrying the severed leg of some poor impala off to the brush. The animal lover and former vegetarian in me was slightly disgusted. But I mean…how cool is that?

On another day, we came painstakingly close to seeing a leopard, spotting it’s freshly killed dinner stored in the branch of a tree. Mildly disappointed, we returned to the same tree the next morning to find the leopard casually gnawing at its meal. That’s some national geographic shit right there.

Animals in the Serengeti are apparently used to putting on a show. That leopard was unfazed by a half dozen trucks and a hundred tourists gawking at it. It’s breakfast took first priority. I can relate to that.

Village People Pitstop

Our only break from animal spotting was to visit the village of a local tribe residing in the Conservation Area. It was…strangely interesting. The tribe sang for us, danced for us, and paraded us around their village to show their homes and school.

It was all very well choreographed, down to the children standing up and reciting their numbers as soon as we walked into the classroom making it apparent that they are used to hosting tourists. Still, we appreciated their willingness to take the time to show and explain some of their customs to our group. It’s always intriguing to learn about the way of life of different peoples. Mainly I learned that women do most of the work in the tribe. They build the homes, repair the homes, cook the food, make jewelry for tourists to buy, raise and teach the children, etc. Men get to take multiple wives, and enjoy the experience of circumcision as a young teenager to mark their transition to manhood.

Visting the local School
Sitting around the fire in a woman-built house of dung and sticks

While it’s not a set of social rules I would prefer, and the circumcision ritual would likely scare away most male friends I know, it was fascinating if nothing else.

Wrapping it Up

By the end of the safari we had seen all of the Big Five animals (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Water Buffalo, Rhino) except for the Rhino. Alas….the Rhino was not meant to be. On our last day of Safari in Ngorongoro someone said they spotted a Black Rhino on a distant hill. I looked through a set of binoculars, but only saw a small black dot on a hill. I wasn’t sure if it was plant, animal, or just a dot on the lens. I don’t think that counts.

Not to fret. I still built up an entire collection of animal selfies to last me a lifetime. Those trapped in a truck with me also got a great collection of animal portraits for their walls. I’m lucky I have photogenic friends that appreciate my random camera snapping.

To top off the trip, we spent each night glamping it up in luxury tents right in Serengeti National Park. Here we enjoyed nightly beers, popcorn, campfires, and four star dining. You can’t get much better than that.

Things I Learned

Game drivers have eagle eyes. They can spot animals barely visable to the human eye hundreds of yard away, hidden by two feet of grass and brush. Is there a tiny rock underneath that tree over there? No fool. Obviously that’s the left ear of a lounging lion cub sleeping 200 yards away behind a bush.

I learned hippos are lazy, lazy creatures. At least during the day. The only time I saw one move was during lunch next to a small pond one day, where a few horny horny hippos initiated an unimpressive 45 seconds of mounting and grunting. Even Hippo Lovin’ looked lazy. Our guide had to keep telling me they weren’t dead. They also don’t respond to taunting. I tried.

DO
SOMETHING

Hyena’s, much like humans let loose on a Chinese buffet, can eat themselves to the point of regretful sickness. Our truck pulled up right next to this poor fool, and he barely moved a muscle.

Bucket showers aren’t so bad. As long as you’re ok with showering on one side of a canvas tent wall, and shouting to a faceless man on the other side when you need more water. The water was actually hot. This puts it leaps and bounds above many cold showers I’ve endured in places with concrete walls and indoor plumbing.

One Last Job

As we drove back to Arusha for our last night before going our separate ways, I was sad to be leaving the group shortly to head back out on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met some great people in my travels and made great new friends. Traveling solo makes you more inclined to strike up conversations with strangers and sign up for tour groups trusting you’ll meet someone new. But I really enjoyed spending two weeks where I didn’t have to go through the introductions of where I’m from, where I’ve been, and how long I’m traveling, forty five times over. It’s like you’re on a first date every day. Sometimes its fun, and sometimes you want to fast forward to the part where you’re comfortable around each other in sweatpants, eating a snickers bar for dinner, and drinking wine straight from the bottle.

Just me? Sure, if you say so.

Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed spending these two weeks with people I already know are fantastic travel companions.

BUT…..before leaving Arusha our group had one last task to accomplish together.

Taking down Vinisha’s hair.

I’ve personally never contributed to unbraiding someone’s extensive work of tiny braids and extensions before. Whoo…I learned it is some WORK. I have a lot more appreciation for what women of color do to maintain a good hairstyle. It took the help of a half dozen people (including one hotel staff member) working through dinner, drinks, and breakfast the next morning to fully unleash that mane.

Vinisha Keys, no more.

You can see a hotel staffer in the background picking up the hair we just pulled out of Vinisha’s head

On our last morning I got dropped off at Arusha airport to catch a tiny plane to the island of Zanzibar off the eastern coast of Tanzania. I was the only one flying out of Arusha. The rest of the group had evening flights out of Kilimanjaro airport.

On to the next Tanzanian destination.

Zanzibar

I flew to Zanzibar in a tiny 12 seater plane. I’ve been told it’s a Cessna Caravan something or another. I didn’t verify this information, but it sounds right. I’ve never flown in one of these planes before, at least not commercially. It was quite a different experience than flying in a big jet. Surprisingly, I really freakin’ loved it.

Besides the plane size, what’s different about this travel experience? Well, I still went through airport security. Some things never change. But instead of a jet bridge, there’s a fail proof system of walking up to the plane the airline employee points at across the tarmac. There are no assigned seats, and no flight attendants. Also no separated cockpit. The pilot sat a few seats up from me, and I got an eye full of his view along with the instrument panel. A teenage kid sat next to him, after asking if he could sit up front. That’s certainly very different. I also pulled my own luggage straight out of cargo at the end of the flight.

So yeah, this was certainly a new and unique travel experience for me. And what a cool way to fly! Plus, what a cool place to try this kind of air travel. Just check out these plane window vistas. Amazing, right?

Stone Town
Ocean Vistas

If Zanzibar sucked, at least I got to experience this unforgettable flight to get there.

Stone Town

I spent four days in Zanzibar, based in the main city called Stone Town. I won’t say Zanizbar was a complete bust (did you see those pictures??). But I will say I would approach it much differently if I ever went back.

The first thing I didn’t realize is that the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar are no where near Stone Town. I was previously aware that resorts were scattered around different parts of the island. But I didn’t realize it would take a $70 cab ride, one way, to get to a decent beach from Stone Town. That’s in USD.

Now, I’m unemployed and budget traveling. By the time I arrived in Zanzibar, I was also feeling lazy after climbing Kili and being on Safari for the last two weeks. Thus, I didn’t go to the beach. I’m too cheap and too lazy. No big deal. This Northerner is too pale for serious sun time anyway.

Stone town is a fascinating enough place in itself. It’s not that big, and easy to walk around. But it’s also easy to get lost. The city is a maze of narrow alleyways, unexpected turns, and sudden dead ends. There’s absolutely no logic to the layout that I could decipher. To make it more confusing, most streets have similar looking shops and street vendors. So just when I thought I was getting the hang of the lay of the land, I’d accidentally find myself on the opposite end of town.

Thank god for google maps.

Streets of Stone Town

Exploring Around Town

So if I didn’t go to the beach, then what did I do while in Zanzibar? Besides being lazy. Well I walked around town, through the local markets and shops. I saw Freddie Mercury’s house. Did you know he was born in, and spent several years of his childhood in Zanzibar and India? Or that his birth name is Farrokh Bulsara. His family is Persian. I did not know these things. But I do now.

I learned quite a lot about Zanzibar’s dark history. Its location off the coast of East Africa earned it the un-honor of being a major slave trading hub. I toured the slave museum in downtown Zanzibar which gave a through if tragic overview of the history. Tourists can also opt for a tour of the nearby Prison Island which a short boat ride from the mainland, but I didn’t fit this into my visit.

Much of the current day population of Zanzibar is obviously descended from slaves. The slave trade in the island was dominated by both Arab slave owners, as well as many African slave owners. I found this a fascinating lesson of history. It’s easy to disregard human rights abuses as being in the past and caused by racism and ignorance. But in every culture, in every historical era, there are unchecked abuses of Power that lead one human being to think think they’re worth more than another. It’s nothing new and it’s examples are certainly not lacking in our current world history either.

The story of Zanzibar also contributes to the area’s current culture and architecture. The island is a mix of African and Arab in look and population. It reminded me of a mix of Morocco and Tanzania together.

Beautiful Moroccan-like Doorways of Zanzibar

City Sights and Lazy Days

While in Zanzibar, I also took a few days to recharge. I took leisurely morning strolls around town. Of course, I stopped for a few hours each afternoon to do my favorite thing – sit in a cafe drinking coffee and writing this damn blog.

I checked out the local crafts and walked the beach line. I’m not even ashamed to admit it, I also rented and watched Lion King in my room. If you spent the prior week seeing lionesses and hyenas in the Serengeti, and hearing people say Hakuna Matata to you, you’d watch it too.

Basically I took a few days to recharge. I don’t know if I’ll ever be back to Zanzibar. There are too many places to see in the world and too little time to see it all. But it’s a place I wouldn’t mind going back to again. There is a lot of the island I didn’t get to experience beyond just the corner which is Stone Town. Sometimes you can’t see everything. I feel lucky to have experienced even a small taste of this beautiful and interesting island.