Tanzania Part 1

We left the Seychelles on July 16 on Kenya Air, which seems to be a good airline. We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya about 2.5 hours later and waited for our plane to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (we found that people often call it "Kili"). The flight was only about 1 hour, which is good because we were not convinced that the interior of the plane would hold together much longer than that. (It was not not a Kenya Air plane). It seemed very strange to be in Nairobi and hearing flights to Khartoum, for example, being announced. Places like that seemed mythical, and yet we saw real people boarding planes to go there! Of course, maybe they feel the same way about Memphis or Portland. In any case, we arrived safely in Kili. We saw Mt. Kilimanjaro from the plane and from the ground. It does still have some snow on top!
At the Airport we had to pay $100 each for our tourist visas (cash- though there was a young couple on the flight who were apparently allowed to pay with Tanzanian Shillings at about 1300 to the dollar when they said they did not have that much cash in $). We did not have much cash, but saved enough to pay the critical expenses. We were met at the airport by a couple guys from our tour company, who took us in a big Toyota Land Cruiser to the town of Arusha, which is the usual jumping off point to several parks in northern Tanzania. We stayed at the Arusha Coffee Lodge just for a short night as we go there about 8PM and left about 7:15AM the next morning.
A little more about how we arranged this trip. In 2007-2008 we made a great trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong. Our local travel agent in the US had done very well for us on some trips in the past, but she felt that Asia was outside her realm, so she connected with another agent in the US who specializes a little more with Asia. That agent also knows more about Africa, so we contacted her a few months back to arrange this trip. She, in turn, dealt with an company in Africa which also works with some big name companies who do these trips for more money. It was expensive enough as it was. However, everything was well organized and top notch! The guys delivered us to our hotel and then picked us up in the morning to go to the local airport. They helped us check in and gave us a package of materials to give to our guide on the other end of the flight. It all went smoothly. As we went along we found that everyone was expecting us and, periodically, they checked on where we were to make sure we were not too late. It bothered us that we did not have plane tickets for what turned out to be 12 flights within Tanzania and Kenya, but they had our names on a list at each plane, so we flew without problems. We heard a few people having problems, but the people on the ground seem to figure something out.
Tarangire National Park was our destination on the 17th. This park is most well known for the large number of elephants . We did see a lot of elephants! They came in small groups and large groups, young, old, babies, huge and small!
Early July 17 we left Arusha for Kuro airstrip in Tarangire National Park. We were the only 2 people on a 13 passenger plane. Us and our pilot- Shawn. No co-pilot or crew. Just us. Janet was nervous about the small planes but found it was actually fine. This plane was only about 8 months old- only slightly younger than some of the pilots we had. About 20 years ago Jim took 3 flying lessons before having to stop due to lack of time. After just those 3 lessons he found he was able to take off and land a small plane- maybe not really well, but well enough to survive. So, we thought we'd manage. On one full flight there was a passenger in the co-pilot's seat. It turned out that he was a private pilot who volunteered to sit there in case the pilot needed him.
On arrival at Kuro we were met by "Ernest" - a lively and likable guy who was our guide for the next 2 days and then again later for a couple more days- he was great. He loaded our bags into the big land cruiser with extra sturdy suspension and 2 spare tires. It was about 9AM and after watching our plane leave with about 6 people leaving the park we were amazed to see Zebra all around! Were headed off on our first "game drive". It is customary to do these in the morning- as early as possible and then again in late afternoon. Many animals just rest during the heat of the day.
Tarangire is "woodland savannah" -that may not be spelled right- but it means a lot of open areas, but also a lot of trees. We saw lots of "Baobab" trees- like in one picture- they are strange looking things to our eyes. We learned that they do not have annual growth rings, so it is difficult to judge their ages, but some live more than 2000 years. They are scattered all over the park and look almost like they might move themselves around! We also learned that Acacia trees form the bulk of the tree species and these are food for all sorts of animals - including Giraffe and Elephants.
As we drove we saw one amazing sight after another in that it was the first time we were seeing truly wild animals roaming freely about. As we drove along one road Jim saw the back end of a leopard running away from the trail very fast. Ernest immediately said that he is "with lucky people- we will see a lot!". He turned out to be right. The leopard disappeared before we could take a picture, which is too bad. We saw a large family of elephant and started to follow roads to catch up to them, but we did not. However, we did see a group of Giraffe- one of which was only about 2 weeks old and still had part of its umbilical cord attached.
As we explored it seemed more and more amazing as we went. We spotted a very pretty bird with a bright torquiose underside. Ernest said it was something like a "lilac breasted roller". We saw it eating something which Ernest said was a scorpion. It eventually swallowed the whole thing. We took pictures but did not think too much about it at the time. That evening a guide for another group said he'd like to have a picture of this bird eating a scorpion. Now that we are back and have had some time to "blow-up" some of our pictures- here it is attached!
We went to Swala Camp in Tarangire. This is a fairly isolated place that has just been renovated. They did a great job! We had lunch at the camp and then went back out in search of leopard around 4PM. We did not see Leopard, but we saw a Puff Adder in the road. We also drove on some roads where the elephants had knocked down some trees to make it hard to pass through. We saw lots of interesting birds.
We saw many DikDik. These are tiny antelope or deer- the picture shows 2 males looking like they are about to butt heads in a test of strength- which is exactly what they were threatening to do! However, they both apparently thought better of it and decided to back off. They are very cute animals- probably not more than 18 inches tall.
Swala Camp is near a swamp and also near a water hole that was being carefully guarded by elephants. The elephants would roam away to eat, but always leaving several family members behind to chase away others who might take the water. There were Waterbuck who could not get to the water, so they came to the camp's pool and drank! The pool is new and while they have dug a ditch around it and made a wall, we watched, along with camp staff, as some of the waterbuck figured out how to get to the pool water. We were all fascinated.
We returned to camp about sunset, had a very good dinner and then slept well after our first day of "safari".