Ngorongoro Crater

Posted by: Laura

Travel dates: 9.05.08-9.07.08

Our campsite was perched on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater was once an impressive volcano thought to be higher than Kilimanjaro. Due to an intense explosion a bazillion years ago, the volcano imploded creating a crater 2,000 feet deep with an area of 102 square miles. Today the crater is one of the best places to see zebras, wildebeests, hippos, buffaloes, gazelles, and of course, lions. From our campsite, you could look down at the valley and see the black dots of grazing animals.

We had just eaten breakfast and I went back to our tent because, of course, I wasn’t finished packing. Chris saw the elephant before I did. He had just brushed his teeth and was walking out of the bathroom when the elephant walked out of the trees and towards the tents. Yelling is the last thing you want to do when a wild elephant is standing thirty meters from you, so he just watched it.

I was in packing mode, so I didn’t see the elephant until he was in front of the tent next to ours, about 20 meters away. I only remember looking up at huge tusks. According to Chris, I looked around in panic, then stood up and ran Napoleon Dynamite style with my hands straight down. Once I was a safe enough distance away, I watched the elephant walk through the rest of our campsite.

I shouldn’t have been too surprised. The night before an elephant had walked into our campsite, walked over to the water spigot that supplied the campsite with water, and used his trunk to turn the faucet on. He drank until he was full, the walked off…and left the water running. Running away from an elephant is the equivalent of drinking ten cups of coffee. I was wide awake and quickly finished packing. We piled in our car to drive into the crater.

When we signed up for our safari, we were put in a group with two other girls, both living in New York. Megan, originally from California, is also on an around the world trip (see Mr. Louis other people do this too). Amanda had taken a few weeks off from work to visit Megan while they toured Tanzania. The four of us instantly hit it off. We spent the dead hours in the car comparing travel notes with Megan and cracking up at Amanda’s off-the-wall comments.

We descended into the crater down a steep dirt road. Within five minutes of entering the park we found ourselves surrounded by a herd of grazing wildebeests. The animals were accustomed to the car. A few glanced our way, but most of them just kept munching grass. I had never seen a wildebeest before, not even in a zoo. They are hilarious looking creatures because they all have beards, even the baby ones and the females. The zebras and wildebeests generally graze together, so our next stop was a herd of zebras. Megan and Amanda had been on safari for five days, so they waited patiently while we marveled at the fact that each zebra has a different set of stripes. Chris was snapping pictures like crazy, while Anwar, our guide, kept repositioning the car so Chris could get the perfect shot.

The Ngorongoro crater has one of the highest densities of predatory animals (aka lions). We drove up a small hill, which the lions often use as a lookout to stalk prey. We saw a group of jeeps near the bottom of the hill and figured someone had spotted something. Three lionesses and four cubs were sitting together. As we drove up, two of the lionesses and the older cubs started off to hunt. The others remained behind. We watched the lionesses walk across the grassy plain while the cubs bounded after them. As our expert guide backed the car up and drove down the dirt road to follow the hunting party, Amanda chanted excitedly, “Kill, kill, kill! I want to see a kill!” This cute, energetic girl was cheering for blood. I thought to myself that watching wild animals in the Savannah just brings out the best in people.

The “Big Five” is the name given to a checklist of animals that every safari goer hopes to see. The list includes lion, rhino, leopard, elephant, and buffalo. First of all, I find this list silly. It doesn’t include giraffes or zebras (maybe zebras aren’t large enough). After seeing both leopards and cheetahs, I like cheetahs better. When I first heard this list, I wondered how buffaloes made it into the safari royalty.  Then I watched two lionesses (and two cubs) walk about fifty meters from a buffalo. The sheer size of the buffalo came into context. The hunting pack eyed the buffalo, and the buffalo continued chewing and stared back as if saying, “Wanna rumble?” The lions decided to walk on. I decided that any animal that a lion chooses not to attack deserves recognition. The lions made a half hearted attempt at a small herd of antelope, then walked to a section of the park with no roads, so we were unable to follow them.

Our next stop was the hippo pool, where we watched these giant creatures sitting in the water trying to escape the unrelenting heat. Poor Chris was stuck in the car with three other girls who would cheer each time the hippos yawned and laugh hysterically when they rolled over to cool their backs and showed their pink stomachs. I had asked Anwar to find a baby hippo. When we pulled up to the pool a cute little hippo was floating around.

We ate lunch near a different lake, where we could see hippos in the distance. Chris mentioned that he knew most of the animals because they were hanging on the wall at his family’s farm. After seeing the horrified expressions on Megan and Amanda’s faces, he quickly explained that his grandfather and uncles had gone on a hunting trip in the 70’s (when it was legal). He attempted to explain the hunting culture of the South. They are now both excited to come visit us when we get back to the States.

After lunch we saw another pride of lions taking an afternoon nap, more zebras, wildebeests, elephants, and a hyena before our jeep climbed back up the dirt road and back to our campsite. The sheer number of animals you can see in the crater in a matter of a few hours is amazing, and the scenery is fantastic.

I found out that Amanda was a runner as well, so the two of us went on a run before dinner. Our guide instructed us to stay in the campsite, so we ran around the perimeter. I didn’t mind running in circles because I was so thrilled to have a running buddy. We spotted an elephant at the edge of the camping area and made a detour to avoid getting too close to it each time we passed it. I have dodged puddles, bikers, cars, other runners, the occasional deer, but this was my first elephant dodging experience.

Chris’ mom had sent us Uno cards in a care package, so Megan, Amanda, Chris and I broke open a bottle of wine. After reminding ourselves of the rules, we played a vicious game of Uno. Chris won the game within a few minutes. Megan, Amanda, and I battled it out for second place. Megan fiercely threatened to rip apart anyone who dared to challenge her for second place. She had to settle for third place after I got second.

While safaris are one of the most expensive activities on our trip, it was an amazing experience. We used Arunga Expeditions (www.aruexpedition.com). Our guide Anwar Abdallah was fantastic. Please request him if you go on a safari. He was informative and answered all our questions. He would definitely win Mario Cart because he was able to maneuver between other safari cars and get us great views without blocking anyone else’s view.

Due to technical difficulties, we will have a delay in posting our Ngorongoro pictures. These pictures are amazing, so please check back for updates.

A Little Spice!

Posted by: Laura

Travel dates: 8.22.08-8.31.08

There is a difference between travel and vacation. Travel is an active endeavor, requiring patience and time. It fills every moment with planning and discussing trip details, internet researching, and budgeting. At the same time you are trying to take in your surroundings and learn about different cultures and people. Now this isn’t to say that you can’t learn about other cultures on a vacation, but a vacation is more self oriented. The purpose is to relax and escape from stress and life. You eat out in restaurants rather than cooking your food in a dingy kitchen and sharing two stove eyes with six other travelers. You have to take mini-vacations during your travels because otherwise, no one would last long on the road.

This is the traveling part of our story. We crossed the boarder from Malawi to Tanzania heading towards the island of Zanzibar. Another traveler had suggested that we take the train from the border town of Mbeya to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. The train cuts through a national park, so it’s possible to see wild life on the journey.

When we went to the train station to buy our tickets, the lady told us that the train was going to be late. Instead of the planned departure at 2:00pm, we would be leaving at 7:30 that night. No problem, good to know. When we show up at the train station at 7:00pm, we are told that the train will not be leaving until 3:00am. This is an awkward time because we didn’t want to leave the train station and check back into our hostel and pay for another night just, and have to get up at 2:00am and get a taxi back to the train station. The hundred or so other people waiting for the train were spreading blankets out on the floor. A friendly Tanzanian showed us an area of the train station with seats where we were able to push some chairs together and stretch out. At midnight, we heard rumors that the train was not showing up until the next morning, but there was no one at the ticket window to confirm this information. We didn’t want to leave and miss our train, so we stacked our bags in the corner and went to sleep.

The train arrived the next morning at 8:30am and we left the station at 9:30am. Our delayed departure time also meant that we would be traveling through the national park at night and miss the animals. Twenty four hours later (note: this is two days after we started traveling) we reached Dar es Salaam where we bought a ferry ticket to Zanzibar to start our much needed vacation.

Zanzibar is old Arab trading port, also known as the “Spice Island” because of it’s exportation of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and saffron. The Arab influence is seen in the winding narrow alleyways of Stonetown and the minarets that announce the call to prayer five times a day. We checked into a nicer hotel than we normally do, then went to get our clothes machine washed (remember we’re on vacation). It is impossible to give directions to anywhere else in old part of Stonetown. None of the alleyways have names and they all look the same. A guy at our hostel was nice enough to lead us to a laundry place. It was at least a twenty minute walk. We dropped our clothes off and our guide started leading us back. I was trying to dodge bicycles and carts in the streets when Chris whispered to me, “I think we’re going in a circle.” A few minutes later, we popped out exactly where we had entered the maze. The guy was very embarrassed and apologized a thousand times. If we get nothing else out of the trip, at least Chris will come back with a sense of direction. Don’t worry, my sense of direction is still the same, nonexistent.

During the day we walked around town dodging shopkeepers who aggressively welcome you into their shops. We sampled coffee with different spices and ate three great meals a day (another sign of being on vacation). At night we ate at the outdoor fish market where each fish vendor sets out a table of fish kabobs: tuna, sword fish, barracuda, shrimp, crabs, lobster, spicy lobster. Then you can also get sides of samosas, coconut bread, and veggies. You point to each kabab you want and the cook throws them on the grill. Then you go to the sugar cane cart. This guy puts a stalk of sugar cane through a grinder, you watch this healthy juice flow into your cup. He adds a hint of ginger, then hands you your cup of sugary goodness. I drank so much sugar cane juice that I gave myself a stomach ache.

No vacation is complete without some beach time. After a few days of Stonetown, we headed an hour north to Kendwa Beach.

Zanzibar is known for its beaches, and for good reason. We chose Kendwa beach because the tide is always high enough to swim. Many of the beaches have such low tide, that you can walk into the ocean for a half mile and be in calf deep water. While there are many upscale resorts at Kendwa, there is also a budget friendly backpacker place called Kendwa Rocks.

Every morning I went for a run to another beach and watched the local women fishing by walking into the water with nets. The early morning has low tide, so they could walk out waist deep. The women were so far out that when I brought Chris back with his camera, they just looked like tiny black dots in the turquoise water. You can go on snorkel tours and dolphin watching tours, but we decided to just sit in the sun. There are also boats to other islands, but I didn’t want to leave our beach. Every time I looked at the water, I almost thought it wasn’t real. The temperature was great so that Chris, who normally can’t sit still for more than an hour before he starts to go into heat stroke, relaxed for hours at a time. We spent three days on the beach, then headed back to Stonetown.

When we were in a bookstore in Stonetown, Chris picked up a Bradt Guidebook to Zanzibar. He happened to read about an island near Zanzibar where they had a turtle sanctuary, which was not mentioned in our guidebook. Prison Island is a thirty minute boat ride from Stonetown and has the world’s second largest species of turtle (the largest is in Galapagos). The island used to have a prison, but it has since been turned into a hotel, a voluntary hotel not a compulsory one.

If you show up at 10:00am or 4:00pm, they hand you a stalk of spinach when you walk in the gate and you get to feed the turtles.  The turtles love this stuff. Now turtles are not the fastest creatures, but when they see you with green leaves in your hand, they all start lumbering toward you and stretching out their necks. The turtles are not indigenous to the island but were brought over from the Seychelles Islands in the late 19th century. Our guide told us they are somewhere between fifty and a hundred years old.

As we walked around the sanctuary, we saw a separate fenced off area where they kept the baby turtles that were only a few weeks old and a few inches long. Once the turtles reach a year old, they move to a different fenced off area. When they are large enough, the turtles roam freely around the sanctuary. You are allowed to pet the adult turtles. You can just walk right up to them and rub their necks.  As a backpacker, I carry everything I own almost everywhere I go, so I have to admit I empathize with these guys. After an hour of taking pictures and feeding them spinach, we went back to the mainland.

We ended up staying in Zanzibar for ten days, a slightly excessive vacation, but worth every day. We took the ferry back to Dar es Salaam and got back into travel mode.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF ZANZIBAR

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF PRISON ISLAND TURTLES