We just got back from an exhausting 4 day safari adventure! It was amazing! We saw a ton of animals – lions, zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, monkeys, baboons, hyenas, hippos, and even a rhino! It was way WAY cooler than any zoo experience I’ve had. We had our own open-air safari jeep and we were driving right next to the animals in the middle of these parks! We had a great guide who found all kinds of animals – given you are in the wild, they are not in cages easy to find, sometimes you have to really search!
The first day we were supposed to fly to Kilimanjaro first thing in the morning. Well, thanks to Dar es Salaam and less-than-Precision Airways our flight was delayed 6 hours. We still got to hike the base of Kilimanjaro which was great – AND I got to see a waterfall and make coffee! That night we were in a somewhat-shady motel that had multiple poweroutages in a triple room which made for a series of funny stories!
The second day we drove to Tarangire Park which was the quintessential safari in my eyes. We were on a dusty plain with grains and baobao trees (which basically look upside down, very cool). Tarangire has many elephants and zebras, these are what we saw the most of. We also got to see giraffes and many birds. The park is large so we drove for 4 hours seeing different animals and scenery all the time.
The third day was Ngorongoro Crater. It is an absolute must-see if you make it to Tanzania. It is the largest crater in the world and home to the most diverse wildlife you will ever see in one place! We drove up the rim then descended down into the crater – some 600 meters – WOW! What a view! Our first goal was to see the wildebeests and hyenas which we came across very quickly. Next, lions! Our tour guide Abdul was very funny, he stopped and asked the zebras “simba wapi?” which means where is lion? Haha! But we did find them – hidden in the tall grass. There were two lionesses, two cubs, and a male lion! They were far away though so we were a bit disappointed. Luckily we didn’t give up because they got up and walked RIGHT past our vehicle heading to the river for water. I was right next to them (scary and cool). We also saw in the distance a rare rhino (most have been wiped out thanks to hunters). The drive around we saw ostriches, zebra, tons of birds, and baboons which have really funny butts. The highlight was climbing the outer rim again and pausing at the top just to look into the crater and take a few pictures. Magical!
Our last day was a drive around Lake Manyara. Here is where we saw hippos. They are HUGE! I mean HUGE! There was a big hippo pond near the Lake that hosts 15-20 hippos at least! We also saw giraffes down by the water, blue monkeys, velvet monkeys, some more baboons, and wildlife. This was a shorter day because we left at noon to head back to Bagamoyo, but well worth including in our adventure!
Pictures are posted on facebook so have a look, I posted just a couple here.
The first day we were supposed to fly to Kilimanjaro first thing in the morning. Well, thanks to Dar es Salaam and less-than-Precision Airways our flight was delayed 6 hours. We still got to hike the base of Kilimanjaro which was great – AND I got to see a waterfall and make coffee! That night we were in a somewhat-shady motel that had multiple poweroutages in a triple room which made for a series of funny stories!
The second day we drove to Tarangire Park which was the quintessential safari in my eyes. We were on a dusty plain with grains and baobao trees (which basically look upside down, very cool). Tarangire has many elephants and zebras, these are what we saw the most of. We also got to see giraffes and many birds. The park is large so we drove for 4 hours seeing different animals and scenery all the time.
The third day was Ngorongoro Crater. It is an absolute must-see if you make it to Tanzania. It is the largest crater in the world and home to the most diverse wildlife you will ever see in one place! We drove up the rim then descended down into the crater – some 600 meters – WOW! What a view! Our first goal was to see the wildebeests and hyenas which we came across very quickly. Next, lions! Our tour guide Abdul was very funny, he stopped and asked the zebras “simba wapi?” which means where is lion? Haha! But we did find them – hidden in the tall grass. There were two lionesses, two cubs, and a male lion! They were far away though so we were a bit disappointed. Luckily we didn’t give up because they got up and walked RIGHT past our vehicle heading to the river for water. I was right next to them (scary and cool). We also saw in the distance a rare rhino (most have been wiped out thanks to hunters). The drive around we saw ostriches, zebra, tons of birds, and baboons which have really funny butts. The highlight was climbing the outer rim again and pausing at the top just to look into the crater and take a few pictures. Magical!
Our last day was a drive around Lake Manyara. Here is where we saw hippos. They are HUGE! I mean HUGE! There was a big hippo pond near the Lake that hosts 15-20 hippos at least! We also saw giraffes down by the water, blue monkeys, velvet monkeys, some more baboons, and wildlife. This was a shorter day because we left at noon to head back to Bagamoyo, but well worth including in our adventure!
Pictures are posted on facebook so have a look, I posted just a couple here.
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