10 OCTOBER 2010 - We're back
We're back in Tanzania. Hello Customs officers. Hello arguments with Immigration over the $50 USD charge for a visa that, according to the website of the Tanzania Immigration Authority, we don't need. It was pouring with rain to the point that, between putting the umbrella in the boot and getting into the cabin, we were soaked.
Even so, it's good to be back. Because Tanzania is one cool country.
We repeated that mantra over and over again - Tanzania is cool, Tanzania is cool - through roadside gastro stops in the dark, all the way to Musuma, where we drove all over town in a hunt for reasonably priced accomodation and palatable food. We eventually gave up, and paid for hot water, soft linen and BBC World News. It felt good.
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12 OCTOBER 2010 - Two nights in the Serengeti
Apparently it was a circus last night. Lions grunting, hyena over-running the camp, more hooves than behoves a national park. I wouldn't know. I had earplugs in to drown out the snores of the fat Spanish guy one tent over. And that's the story of camping at Seronera, the capital of the Serengeti.
To be honest, Serengeti underwhelmed. It was up against a Masai Mara at its peak. Either Masai Mara or Serengeti will go off, but with animals migrating between the two, they can't both be world-beaters at the same time. In early October, Serengeti lost out.
It's still beautiful. It's still vast. There are still large numbers of zebra and wildebeest and Thompsons Gazelle and all the other animals which we have stopped appreciating in our game glut. There were even 13 lions in a pride, including 5 cubs. It's a tribute to everything else we've seen, and especially the glory of the Masai Mara, that this doesn't get us raving. Serengeti was great, but it was lost in the long shadow cast from the north.
SC
13 OCTOBER 2010 - The descent into cliche (aka Ngorongoro Crater)
Ngorongoro needs no introduction. But in case you've lived under a rock and never watched National Geographic Channel for any longer than 2 hours (within which time you will inevitably have seen footage from Ngorongoro Crater), we'll give it one anyway.
The world's most famous wildlife congregations. Home to Olduvai Gorge. Early hominids. Louis Leakey. The Last Eden. The Cradle of something-or-other. You get the picture. Ngoronogoro is the shiznit.
We twisted and turned, but could not escape the park rules: we had to take a park ranger into the Crater in our vehicle. Despite promising to strap him to the roofracks with ratchet straps, we instead slotted poor Nelson into a tiny space in the back, and began the descent into Ngorongoro Crater. It was breathtaking. Long ago, a volcanic caldera collapsed, leaving a steep bowl of grassland, soda lake, flamingo and game. It felt bizarre to be there. The steep walls of the crater disintegrate into hills, the hills into plain, the plain into lake.
But it's still not the Masai Mara. Not in October.
At its peak, cloaked in green and swimming with unparalleled wildlife concentrations, Ngorongoro would be unbeatable. Even with most of the animals on holiday in Kenya, it was still magnificent. But for us, it was magnificent for the views, the landscapes, the we're-finally-here factor, and the two black rhino resting under some distant trees. One lion - asleep. A couple of hyena - asleep. Herds of Buffalo - resting. Wildebeest and other safari regulars - being boring. Ngorongoro will wake up again soon - when the rains fall, the green explodes, and the animals pour back in from the north - and I would kill to be there.
Alas, we'll be on Zanzibar, climbing Kili, travelling Lake Turkana, or dodging rock-throwing children in Ethiopia.
SC
15 OCTOBER 2010 - Toto is a liar
We drove past Kilimanjaro recently. It was intimidating. We are going to climb that?
More importantly, you have to be here to realise that there is absolutely no way that Toto could have seen Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus above the Serengeti. Kili is quite a distance from Serengeti. A whole generation mislead. Shame on you Toto.
SC
21 OCTOBER 2010 - Zanzibar, Happy Birthday Mark, farewell Lauren, welcome Greer Krige
A week on Zanzibar has restored body, mind and soul.
Mark and Lauren headed to the beaches in the north. I hung around in Stone Town, where I was fortunate enough to find a group of locals who could teach me Swahili slang so that I can now say important things like "cool bananas in the freezer". I loved every minute of Stone Town. The night food market at the waterside gardens, Bieber fever at bad nightclubs, trying to sell useless stuff to touts. Zanzibar Pizza. Getting lost in the rats warren of the old city at 1am with my laptop, passport and cash on me.
The diving at Stone Town was okay, but it was time to get a bit more serious, so I headed north to Matemwe Beach. Matemwe is beautiful, but I was more focused on what was in the channels round Mnembo Island, just offshore. Mnembo really delivered.
My dive at "the Aquarium" was so good that I’ll break with self-imposed tradition and reproduce my logbook entry in its entirety:
"Rolled into the azure; 22 metres to white sand, coral outcrops, small boulders. Straight away - a thigh-sized green moray eel. Schools of yellowtail going beserk. Frank points out a 2 metre white tip shark resting on the bottom. It scoots away as I approach; okay, because now there is a turtle. It’s hard to see it in the clouds of anthias and pink and purple damselfish. We’re only 6 minutes into a one hour dive... Another big moray. A turtle under a rock ledge. 1m+ brown and white fleckled grouper is lying on a rock - he weighs more than I do - disappears into the haze but is replaced by two more. A ridiculous school of batfish glinting in the tropical light; even more than I saw on outer GBR. Another moray. Blue fin trevally. Titan triggerfish. Purple pufferfish. We’re very close to the NDL, so we swim to 9 and poke about for cleaner shrimp, nudis, and pink clowns, shedding air-heavy Pom dive buddies on the way. Safety stop on an underwater mound that is carpeted with anemones; it’s obscured by a damsel cloud so thick that I can’t tell what is swaying anemone and what is fish. All I can do is shake my head and giggle in the reg. Even Frank can’t stop grinning when we surface. Standard topography meets wild fish & invert cover, laced with a heady dose of luck. A surprise entry onto my top 10 dive list. Zanzibar, who knew?"
We reunited back in Stone Town on the 20th for Mark's birthday, where Lauren was very sick but valiantly lasted out the evening. Mark is now very, very old.
Lauren flew out to Nairobi, bound for Aussie shores, on 21 October. A big welcome to Greer Krige, who flies into Dar Es Salaam to join us today, the 22nd. I can't recall if we talked her into the attempt on Kili, or vice versa, but I'm pretty sure we are all fools.
SC
We're back in Tanzania. Hello Customs officers. Hello arguments with Immigration over the $50 USD charge for a visa that, according to the website of the Tanzania Immigration Authority, we don't need. It was pouring with rain to the point that, between putting the umbrella in the boot and getting into the cabin, we were soaked.
Even so, it's good to be back. Because Tanzania is one cool country.
We repeated that mantra over and over again - Tanzania is cool, Tanzania is cool - through roadside gastro stops in the dark, all the way to Musuma, where we drove all over town in a hunt for reasonably priced accomodation and palatable food. We eventually gave up, and paid for hot water, soft linen and BBC World News. It felt good.
SC
12 OCTOBER 2010 - Two nights in the Serengeti
Apparently it was a circus last night. Lions grunting, hyena over-running the camp, more hooves than behoves a national park. I wouldn't know. I had earplugs in to drown out the snores of the fat Spanish guy one tent over. And that's the story of camping at Seronera, the capital of the Serengeti.
To be honest, Serengeti underwhelmed. It was up against a Masai Mara at its peak. Either Masai Mara or Serengeti will go off, but with animals migrating between the two, they can't both be world-beaters at the same time. In early October, Serengeti lost out.
It's still beautiful. It's still vast. There are still large numbers of zebra and wildebeest and Thompsons Gazelle and all the other animals which we have stopped appreciating in our game glut. There were even 13 lions in a pride, including 5 cubs. It's a tribute to everything else we've seen, and especially the glory of the Masai Mara, that this doesn't get us raving. Serengeti was great, but it was lost in the long shadow cast from the north.
SC
13 OCTOBER 2010 - The descent into cliche (aka Ngorongoro Crater)
Ngorongoro needs no introduction. But in case you've lived under a rock and never watched National Geographic Channel for any longer than 2 hours (within which time you will inevitably have seen footage from Ngorongoro Crater), we'll give it one anyway.
The world's most famous wildlife congregations. Home to Olduvai Gorge. Early hominids. Louis Leakey. The Last Eden. The Cradle of something-or-other. You get the picture. Ngoronogoro is the shiznit.
We twisted and turned, but could not escape the park rules: we had to take a park ranger into the Crater in our vehicle. Despite promising to strap him to the roofracks with ratchet straps, we instead slotted poor Nelson into a tiny space in the back, and began the descent into Ngorongoro Crater. It was breathtaking. Long ago, a volcanic caldera collapsed, leaving a steep bowl of grassland, soda lake, flamingo and game. It felt bizarre to be there. The steep walls of the crater disintegrate into hills, the hills into plain, the plain into lake.
But it's still not the Masai Mara. Not in October.
At its peak, cloaked in green and swimming with unparalleled wildlife concentrations, Ngorongoro would be unbeatable. Even with most of the animals on holiday in Kenya, it was still magnificent. But for us, it was magnificent for the views, the landscapes, the we're-finally-here factor, and the two black rhino resting under some distant trees. One lion - asleep. A couple of hyena - asleep. Herds of Buffalo - resting. Wildebeest and other safari regulars - being boring. Ngorongoro will wake up again soon - when the rains fall, the green explodes, and the animals pour back in from the north - and I would kill to be there.
Alas, we'll be on Zanzibar, climbing Kili, travelling Lake Turkana, or dodging rock-throwing children in Ethiopia.
SC
15 OCTOBER 2010 - Toto is a liar
We drove past Kilimanjaro recently. It was intimidating. We are going to climb that?
More importantly, you have to be here to realise that there is absolutely no way that Toto could have seen Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus above the Serengeti. Kili is quite a distance from Serengeti. A whole generation mislead. Shame on you Toto.
SC
21 OCTOBER 2010 - Zanzibar, Happy Birthday Mark, farewell Lauren, welcome Greer Krige
A week on Zanzibar has restored body, mind and soul.
Mark and Lauren headed to the beaches in the north. I hung around in Stone Town, where I was fortunate enough to find a group of locals who could teach me Swahili slang so that I can now say important things like "cool bananas in the freezer". I loved every minute of Stone Town. The night food market at the waterside gardens, Bieber fever at bad nightclubs, trying to sell useless stuff to touts. Zanzibar Pizza. Getting lost in the rats warren of the old city at 1am with my laptop, passport and cash on me.
The diving at Stone Town was okay, but it was time to get a bit more serious, so I headed north to Matemwe Beach. Matemwe is beautiful, but I was more focused on what was in the channels round Mnembo Island, just offshore. Mnembo really delivered.
My dive at "the Aquarium" was so good that I’ll break with self-imposed tradition and reproduce my logbook entry in its entirety:
"Rolled into the azure; 22 metres to white sand, coral outcrops, small boulders. Straight away - a thigh-sized green moray eel. Schools of yellowtail going beserk. Frank points out a 2 metre white tip shark resting on the bottom. It scoots away as I approach; okay, because now there is a turtle. It’s hard to see it in the clouds of anthias and pink and purple damselfish. We’re only 6 minutes into a one hour dive... Another big moray. A turtle under a rock ledge. 1m+ brown and white fleckled grouper is lying on a rock - he weighs more than I do - disappears into the haze but is replaced by two more. A ridiculous school of batfish glinting in the tropical light; even more than I saw on outer GBR. Another moray. Blue fin trevally. Titan triggerfish. Purple pufferfish. We’re very close to the NDL, so we swim to 9 and poke about for cleaner shrimp, nudis, and pink clowns, shedding air-heavy Pom dive buddies on the way. Safety stop on an underwater mound that is carpeted with anemones; it’s obscured by a damsel cloud so thick that I can’t tell what is swaying anemone and what is fish. All I can do is shake my head and giggle in the reg. Even Frank can’t stop grinning when we surface. Standard topography meets wild fish & invert cover, laced with a heady dose of luck. A surprise entry onto my top 10 dive list. Zanzibar, who knew?"
We reunited back in Stone Town on the 20th for Mark's birthday, where Lauren was very sick but valiantly lasted out the evening. Mark is now very, very old.
Lauren flew out to Nairobi, bound for Aussie shores, on 21 October. A big welcome to Greer Krige, who flies into Dar Es Salaam to join us today, the 22nd. I can't recall if we talked her into the attempt on Kili, or vice versa, but I'm pretty sure we are all fools.
SC
TANZANIA DIARIES - VISIT 2
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22 OCTOBER 2010 - Arrival of the Krige
It must have been an interesting initiation for Greer, in the car park of the YMCA in Dar. "Here is your chariot. Isn't she beautiful. Oh wait, why is the exhaust loose? Hand me that roll of wire, and give us a minute..."
It must have been an interesting initiation for Greer, in the car park of the YMCA in Dar. "Here is your chariot. Isn't she beautiful. Oh wait, why is the exhaust loose? Hand me that roll of wire, and give us a minute..."
Next was a lesson in negotiable traffic fines. Within 60km of leaving town, we got stung for speeding again. Mark rapidly empties Steve's wallet of all but 20,000 shillings as he pulls up.
"Jambo!" [insert miscellaneous pleasantries]
"How fast were you going?"
"What's the speed limit?"
"50."
"Then I was doing 53."
"No. You do 65!"
"Maybe, but I was slowing down. It's fine! No problem."
"No, my friend! You must pay a fine of 50,000"
"That is too much. I have paid 10,000 before."
"Ehhh! 10,000. This is not enough."
"Yes. 10,000. We are in a big hurry, so I will pay a smaller fine to you now, because I do not have time to get a receipt."
"No receipt?"
"No, Is not necessary" [hands over 20,000]
"Asante" [handshakes and smiles all round, and we're off.]
We drove for 8 hours today. For that entire time, we had Greer convinced that, due to low traction on mud tyres and the high centre of gravity of the car, we needed to lean into each corner to avoid tipping over and dying in a blazing vehicular inferno. It was a day-long game of reverse-corners.
A day later, we were in a cab, heading for the centre of Moshi to get quotes on Kili treks, when we spot Glenn and Corrin's big Toyota chugging the other way. Roadside reunion: hugs, laughs, and loud wonderings about why Glenn cut the birdsnest short. He is like Samson; cut his hair and he loses his powers. Happy days - our 5-person Kili team is good to go!
"Jambo!" [insert miscellaneous pleasantries]
"How fast were you going?"
"What's the speed limit?"
"50."
"Then I was doing 53."
"No. You do 65!"
"Maybe, but I was slowing down. It's fine! No problem."
"No, my friend! You must pay a fine of 50,000"
"That is too much. I have paid 10,000 before."
"Ehhh! 10,000. This is not enough."
"Yes. 10,000. We are in a big hurry, so I will pay a smaller fine to you now, because I do not have time to get a receipt."
"No receipt?"
"No, Is not necessary" [hands over 20,000]
"Asante" [handshakes and smiles all round, and we're off.]
We drove for 8 hours today. For that entire time, we had Greer convinced that, due to low traction on mud tyres and the high centre of gravity of the car, we needed to lean into each corner to avoid tipping over and dying in a blazing vehicular inferno. It was a day-long game of reverse-corners.
A day later, we were in a cab, heading for the centre of Moshi to get quotes on Kili treks, when we spot Glenn and Corrin's big Toyota chugging the other way. Roadside reunion: hugs, laughs, and loud wonderings about why Glenn cut the birdsnest short. He is like Samson; cut his hair and he loses his powers. Happy days - our 5-person Kili team is good to go!
