Gonna miss the rains....

Safari Day One

It's been so long since Africa now that I can't give a chronological order of things. I'll just start with the safari and see what I can remember from there.

We arrived in Arusha after a mammoth 23 hour bus trip (which I’ll document later). The bible we called the lonely planet informed us that Arusha was a dangerous place and at all costs DO NOT trust anyone. It turned out to be the exact opposite. We got off the bus, wearing the same clothes we had worn for 4 days now, looking like hobo's after a mud fight. No one would come near us. No taxis would pick us up and no touts tried to get us to buy a "discount safari" as we were told would happen. Instead we had to trek with our bags until we found a place. But when we found it, it was like we had reached heaven. Showers, hammocks, a restaurant and a bar with cold beer and this.....

A bus full of Swedish models. Heaven.

And this would be our bed for the night.


The next morning we set off on a three day safari with a dodgy looking tour company at a very cheap price (again, against all of the lonely planet's guidelines). The trip included the Serengeti, the Masai Mara and the Ngorongoro crater. Here's what we saw:
The trip started off with a trip to the local hippopotomus pool where over 40 hippos lay around in the water for the day. We couldn't get too close because aparently more people are killed by hippo's every year than any other animal. Looking at them lazing about in the water would not convince you of that, although, their yawn is pretty impressive. The next was the simple giraffe.
Our next sight was to be one of the best sights of the safari. An elephant strolled out from behind a tree and up behind him walked a giraffe. Our guide explained to us what a rare thing it was to see these two animals so close together. It was then that something even more special happened. Something that even made our guide, Miko drop his jaw in amazement.
Miko had been doing safaris for over 17 years and this was the first time that he saw these three animals in such close proximity. I think he was even more excited than us, he was smiling for the rest of the day.
Our next stop was to be at the fight between 2 male elephants. The noise from the clashing of heads would send a shiver up your back. The elephants were so edgy because a fellow elephant had died. I didn't know this but when they die the other elephants cover over the body with leaves and they actually shed tears!

Those were the excitements of day one. Stay tuned for more wildlife.