Seasons on the Move

Ngorongoro Crater – February 25

During the night, the buffalo in the camp brushed our tent as it went by. The buffalo was so close to our tent that Fab and I were woken up by the sound of it chewing. We had also heard hyenas, but this time they were further away and less chatty. We got up again before the sun and headed to the crater.

The road down into the crater was bumpy and well worn with deep ruts. At the smooth floor of the crater, we saw warthogs, hippos, buffalos, and hyenas. Thousands of flamingos stood in the shimmering lake at the far side of the crater, providing a blurry, cotton candy backdrop to the black and white stripes of the zebras sipping water from the shoreline. We came upon two male lions sitting by the side of road surrounded by safari vehicles. Amani jockeyed for position and we ended up with the lions sitting in the shade of our vehicle. If I had wanted to, I could have touched them. One of the lions even looked me straight in the eyes, no further than one meter away. I quickly shut the window and made sure I was out of swatting distance.

In the four days of safari so far, I had not yet seen a cheetah or a rhino. Fortunately, we saw both animals before leaving Ngorongoro. Unfortunately, the animals were so far away that they appeared small even in the binoculars. Even so, I got to see everything on my check list, including the Big Five: elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard. I gave Amani a pat on the back. He told me we would see them all and we did. I was pleased.

We left the park in the early afternoon and headed back to Arusha. We watched one group of people stand up out the open roof of their Land Rover as they cruised down the highway. They waved at all the passing vehicles and generally acted like twits. As our friend Jen Peters remarked once in India when a group of tourists were being rowdy, “Settle down and quit having so much fucking fun.” Everyone in our car laughed when it started to pour rain and the car had to pull over and close the roof. From the back seat, I heard Moses say under his breath, “Yes!”

Back at the hotel, Fab and I downed a few beer and recounted the safari. We ran into Verlon and Connie and informed them that we were off to Egypt the next day. They told us that they were happy the safari went well and that if they could help with anything else all we had to do was ask. We thanked them for their graciousness and then went up to our room and collapsed.

Serengeti National Park – February 24

We got up before the sun and headed out in search of animals. Amani informed us that there had been lions in the camp during the night, an event he conveniently watched from the security of the Land Rover. We drove out into the purple dawn, watching as the stars faded above us and the sky turned from violet to pink to blue. We saw hippos grazing on the grass surrounding a swamp, golden jackals playing under a tree, hartebeests and a topi standing around like statues off in the distance. We saw mongooses and hyraxes. Hundreds of buffalos huffed and puffed and threatened to charge when we stopped to watch them graze. We tracked down another pride of lions, again lazing about underneath and on the branches of a tree. Fab’s eagle eyes spotted a serval cat as we drove by it, something Amani found impressive.

We had a quick lunch back at the camp before heading back along the dusty road to Ngorongoro, past the thousands of wildebeests, zebras and gazelles. At the Ngorongoro camp, a couple of zebras grazed in between the tents, seemingly oblivious to the people around them. Later in the evening, a big buffalo, five feet at the shoulder, with sweeping horns parted in the middle like a dorky high school science teacher, wandered into the camp. Moses came by to tell us that we should not approach or look directly at the buffalo. “When they are alone, they like to feel strong,” he told us.

After dinner, Fab and I met a Canadian man from the Northwest Territories, who noticed our MEC backpacks and decided to say hello. The man, Rick, had taken his kids out of school and had been traveling around the world with his wife and family for the past eight months. We swapped stories and advice and talked about our mutual love of South East Asia. In the end, Rick bought my Ethiopian guidebook off me after we told him about the discount prices available on Ethiopian Airlines, their flexible routes and schedules and the general good time we had had in the country. I’m not sure Rick’s kids even understood how cool their father truly was.

Serengeti National Park – February 23

We got up at a reasonable time, had a pancake breakfast and then headed west towards Serengeti National Park. We stopped briefly at Ngorongoro Crater for a quick look and a couple of photos before winding our way down the straight, dusty road leading to the Serengeti. Literally thousands of wildebeest trotted out from the horizon, like an medieval army headed for war. Amani told us that wildebeest were scared of everything, which explained why they flinched when the vehicles drove by. Zebras munched on grass and hundreds of gazelles stood and watched the cars pass. A pregnant hyena slept in a pool of mud at the side of the road. At one point Amani pulled over the vehicle so we could watch a local Maasai dog chase down a young wildebeest. The wildebeest got away, but the dog had made it bleed. Amani told us that it would be eaten by hyenas by nightfall.

Inside the Serengeti, we drove around through the tall savanna grassland looking for big game. I remembered what my dad had said when I told him we were going to the Serengeti, “shit, it looks like southern Saskatchewan”. And it did in a way, except for the exotic animals and the acacia trees. We saw waterbucks, buffalo, giraffes and hippos. We saw African wild cats, a close relative of the common house cat which the Egyptians domesticated thousands of years ago. We also saw a leopard, apparently never an easy feat, sleeping in a tree. I wish it was more exciting than that, but it wasn’t. It was just a leopard. Sleeping. In a tree.

We pitched our tent at the camp in the early evening and then supped in a caged dining area. We were warned not to take any food into our tent and that, upon going to bed, we should not venture out during the night to use the toilet. In the middle of the night, both Fab and I were woken up by the yipping and yapping of hyenas, not off in the distance, but startlingly close to our tent. We could even hear their footsteps. We could also hear the lions roar which, thankfully, was off in the distance.  

Tarangire National Park – February 22

We had a new safari companion when we got picked up in the morning. Tamai, a young Japanese girl traveling by herself in Africa, sat smiling in the back seat of the Land Rover when hopped inside. We also had a new guide, Amani, a soft spoken man with a large scar across his forehead, and a new cook, Moses, a chilled out yet slightly dangerous looking man who wore Oakley Razorblade sunglasses and kept a toothpick planted in the side of his mouth.

We set up camp once again at Panorama, where I was welcomed with inquiries about the state of my stomach. We quickly dropped off our gear and then headed towards Tarangire National Park, famous for its wealth of elephants and Baobab trees. Amani opened up the roof after obtaining the park permit and we were off. We saw dik-diks (basically miniature deer), impalas, and Grant gazelles. We lunched by a group of giraffes, no more than 10 meters away, and then went off in search of elephants. We found the pachyderms in no time. Amani shut off the car in the midst of at least twenty elephants, including several calves. Amani told us to remain quiet. A bull elephant who, according to Amani, was “feeling strong” came right up to the side of the vehicle and started flapping his ears and trumpeting after Tamai dropped the lens cap to her camera. The grey tusked beast swung his trunk at the open hatch of the Land Rover, causing us to duck down and Amani to start the car and speed away. 

We got our first glimpse of big cats towards the end of the day. Amani led us to a pride of lions laying in the shade of an acacia tree near a narrow stream. Most of the elder cats just laid there, but a cute little cub stumbled about in the undergrowth before growing tired himself and stretching out for a nap. Cats are cats, no matter the size or shape. Fab took nearly one hundred photographs, looking at me with a wide smile and making sure I was appreciating it as much as she was.

At night, Fab, Tamai and I sat around drinking tea and cold beer. A group of acrobats came by the camp to skin a few schillings off the tourists, their act consisting of balancing Coke bottles on various things, doing summersaults and clapping their hands. Within two minutes, all the tourists had left. We went back to our tent and chatted with Tamai. She shared some of her vanilla flavoured cigarettes with me and showed off her Hasselblad camera.   

Arusha – February 19-21

I laid in bed for three days trying to recover from the trauma back at the Panorama Camp, surviving on bottled water, pasta and Ciprofloxacin. What a momentous three days it was: Fidel Castro stepped down, Pakistan went to the polls, Belgrade erupted in riots over Kosovo’s recent declaration of independence and the maid at the hotel had to wash my dirty undies. Surprise! In between snippets of CNN World, I watched “Straight Talk Africa”, a political commentary show, streamed from what seemed like cable access television in the United States.

Lake Manyara – February 18

After throwing up through my nose – cinnamon rice, lentils, beef – the night before, I woke up to more unpleasantness.  What I had thought was innocent passing of gas ended up being something else entirely. Yes, I crapped my pants. From what I could tell, more than once. Even if I wanted to make it to the bathroom, more than 100 meters away, I wouldn’t have been able to. It’s not easy to wake up your wife and tell her that you have poop in your underwear. Easily the most demoralizing event of my entire adult life.

Fab made the decision to postpone the safari, something I gratefully thanked her for. I was in no condition to go on. I felt sorry for Fab, she had been looking forward to the safari all trip, first the problems in Kenya interfered, now it was my bum. Bembo made arrangements to take me to a doctor. I was promptly taken to a clinic in the middle of nowhere and tested for malaria (in Africa, look to malaria first). Fortunately, the malaria test was negative, but the stool sample showed that I had round worm and an acute bacterial infection in my stomach. I guess I shouldn’t have been eating all those salads and drinking all that fresh juice in Ethiopia. Who knew?

In an ironic twist, I was unable to return to Arusha because George W. Bush was in town on his “Farewell Africa Tour” and all the roads leading into the city were closed. Instead, I had to try to recover in a hot and humid heavy canvas tent at the Panorama Camp. Out the screened window, I watched as our driver, Filimon, leaned on the hood of his stationwagon, smoked cigarettes and swilled Coca Cola. I drank as much water as I could and kept my butt cheeks firmly clenched.

By the time the road into Arusha was re-opened, I was a shell of a man. I felt light and empty inside. Two cooks from the camp took advantage of my situation by hitching a ride on our dime back to Arusha. Fab tried to argue with them, but they simply smiled and crammed into the car. Filimon just shrugged his shoulders and put the car in gear.

Back in Arusha, the hotel we had stayed at previously was booked out. The soldiers brought in to protect Bush had taken all the rooms. As I sat slouched and pale faced in the hotel lobby, Verlon and Connie came in. They had heard that I was ill and wanted to see if I was alright. I told them that the rooms were all full and that we had no place to go. I was being dramatic and feeling sorry for myself. They offered to move out of their room so I could have a bed, but by that time Fab had come back having already found a room at a nearby hotel. Verlon also said that he could arrange for me to see the “best doctor” in Arusha, an apparent connection made through their smuggling operation. I declined his offer, but said that if I wasn’t feeling better by the morning that I would come and see him.     

Lake Manyara – February 17

I woke up feeling very strange, exhausted, wrong. Probably jet lag, I thought. Bembo, our guide for the safari, picked us up in a Land Rover just after eight in the morning. We made a stop at the bank so we could take out the remainer of the cash owed to the safari company and then picked up some groceries. I felt off, so I passed on the cigars and whisky, my Hemingway fantasy dashed due to health.

We drove out to Lake Manyara, stuffed in the Land Rover with Bembo, David the cook, and Andy, a nurse from Australia who had left his wife back at home to travel in Africa. We dropped off our bags at Panorama Camp and had a quick box lunch. I had to force the food back. My appettite had vanished. I had been fighting off sleep all day long. I felt like I had been up for days.

After eating, I had a little burst of energy, so Fab and I set up camp in a canvas tent overlooking the surrounding valley. Down below, we could see Lake Manyara spilling out off into the distance. In front of us, a large pack of olive baboons sauntered around the perimeter of the camp looking for scraps of food.

We registered with the park headquarters in the early afternoon. I walked around the visitor’s centre, a well-groomed area set up for picnics and nature presentations. Large displays highlighted the park’s animals and history. There was also a smaller display about the John Wayne starrer and Howard Hawks directed “Hatari” which was filmed in the area.

The game drive took us through the park’s twisting, red dirt roads. Aside from the abundance of yellow billed storks perched in the acacia trees and the baboons back at the camp, our first glimpse of African wildlife was a bachelor group impalas. From there it was easy pickings: hippos at the hippo pool yawning and grunting, elephants sucking water and eating grass, wildebeest and buffalo standing around in the fields, giraffes peeling leaves off of trees with their long tounges. All of this within 30 meters of the vehicle, although one giraffe got within 15 meters and an elephant was close enought to reach out and touch. Fab was like a little school girl. I was considerably less giddy because I felt terrible.

Back at the camp, I tried to eat dinner but gave up after forcing down half of what was on my plate. I decided that an early night would do me best so I returned to the tent. Fab stayed behind to revel in and recount the day with Andy. Within in an hour, I was throwing up (somehow through my nose and mouth at the same time) and my stomach felt like it was full of needles. Not a good start to the safari.