Arusha to Zanzibar: Part 2 – A Wild Safari

There are two ways to tell the following part of this story. One is to go into the agonizing detail of how ‘Wild Things’ safari company nearly ruined a once in a life time opportunity, and frankly depress the hell out of you and myself. The other is to gloss over that part and focus on all the great bits. Now as those of you who know me will know, I am not good at letting people treat me like crap and get away with it, and I know that there are some people who may find reading the gritty parts in more detail. So, in order for those who would like to know the details of what went wrong – and for fair warning for anyone who ever considers using this company please read the description I wrote (comment number 9) on the Trip Advisor website here: (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293747-i9226-k4432017-Wild_Things_Safari_REVIEW-Tanzania.html)

So on with the rest of the story (well the better bits at least)…

When there is a meeting which joins together a group consisting of conservation practitioners, researchers, academics and wildlife enthusiasts, what better way finish it all off than a once in a lifetime trip to two of the most iconic national parks in Africa – Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. The final night of the conference was great fun, with good food and great company with those who we had gotten to know over the previous week.

Our Safari Camping Crew

 

The next morning we were up bright and early to head off on our safari. Day one was Lake Manyara National Park. We arrived at lunchtime, had some food and started our drive into the park.  It is a beautiful park and once we made it down to the river we saw zebra, buffalo and lots of hippopotamuses. We had a lovely afternoon and our guide Adam was great fun.

 

The next day we started to make our way to the Serengeti. On our way we stopped at the Oldupai Gorge (also known as Olduvai Gorge), one of the most important prehistoric archeology sites in the world, where Louis and Mary Leakey made their incredible discoveries, the first discoveries of Homo Habilis and fossilized footprints of man. There was a fascinating museum and we were given a lecture on the site and work done in the area.

We then drove into Serengeti national park. On our way to the water (the first destination on most game drives as this is often where animals are spotted), we say a couple of cars by a rocky outcrop. When we arrived we saw a male lion sleeping atop the rocks. As we continued to watch another male lion was spotted and then a female, soon after a couple of cubs were spotted. Then from the long grass beyond where we were sitting three females appeared, and as they walked towards the rocky outcrop we counted the cubs that were following. Soon we had  2 adult males, 4 adult females and 14 cubs around and on top of the rocky outcrops.

Adam suddenly noticed that we had been watching the lions for a lot longer than we had realised, as it was already gone 5.30 and we had less than an hour to make it to the gate (we had to be out by 6.30pm). We rushed across the park, and down to the river, as we drove across the river we noticed it was full of hippos. They looked incredible in the setting sunlight. After a little bit of gentle persuasion Adam let us stop for a while to watch them and take photos.

The following day we set off early back across the Serengeti (how cool does that sound!). On our way I noticed I was missing my compact digital camera. I headed back to the camp with one of our drivers, but unfortunately the camera (and all the photos from the last two months that were on it) was gone. We then caught back up with the others and made our way to hippo pool, which was, not surprisingly full of hippos! And a couple of crocs thrown in for good measure. It was brilliant to watch them feeding, fighting, and waiting to watch the baby hippos pop up.

  

Afterwards we followed a tip – there were rumors of a leopard. I was so excited, if we saw it, that would be the first I had ever seen in the wild. Soon enough we were at the picnic site, where the leopard had been spotted and within minutes I was watching a leopard drinking from the water tanks on top of the toilet blocks – not quite the situation in which I thought I’d see my first wild leopard. As the picnic site is one of the areas in the park where people are allowed out of the car it was an exceptionally rare opportunity to be able to watch the leopard without being stuck within a vehicle. To make the whole experience even more amazing, as we watched the leopard wader through the grass and climb into a tree we realised not only was there one leopard, but she was an adult female with two cubs. It was wonderful to watch them and we did so until they disappeared into the grass.

 

After leaving the picnic site we headed for lunch. Afterwards we continued our drive around the park seeing hyenas, zebra, wildebeest hartebeest and much more. It was such an incredible day, we then drove to the top of the Ngorongoro crater to set up camp. Whilst eating our dinner we noticed a group gathering by the water tank. When we got over we saw that a huge bull elephant had wandered into the campsite and was drinking from the tank. Whilst most of us watched from a safe distance, there were a few stupid individuals who got way too close. The bull got rather agitated, but luckily no one got hurt and he soon left the campsite. We finished our dinner and headed to bed, after what had been one hell of an amazing day.

 

We woke early on our last day, had a quick breakfast and headed down into the crater. It is incredible. I cannot quite find the right words to describe the phenomenal landscape that surrounded us. The crater is so huge, it’s easy to forget you’re in one once you reach the bottom. The sheer numbers of animals was astonishing, and we saw so much in such a short space of time. Including a black Rhino (another ‘wild’ first for me), which to begin which refused to move, so looked simply like a pile of rocks, then when we did see it standing we were given a special water-works display! 

The crew from our jeep

Wildebeest by the crater wall

 

After spending the morning in the crater we drove back to the campsite and packed up the tents and our things. We headed to the waterhole for lunch and were joined by a Yellow-Billed Kite. It was eyeing up all our foods, and  when treated to some of the chicken from one of our packed lunches it thrilled us all with some brilliant flying acrobatics and some wonderful photo opportunities.

Eating on the wing

 Once we had all finished our lunch and packed up we drove back through the rest of the park and made our way back to Arusha. We got back pretty late, and after a rough plan for dinner Seline and I headed back to our hotel room to wash and change. By the time we were ready for dinner it was past nine, we made our way to the restaurant where we had planned to meet the others at for dinner only to find that it was closed. As we couldn’t get hold of any of them, we decided to try a restaurant that a friend from Mombasa had recommended. Although we were exhausted the food was incredible and we had a really lovely meal, and it was the perfect end to our stay in West Tanzania.

Arusha to Zanzibar: Part 1 – A Mountain, God, and the ATBC

Apologies to you all for the recent silence over the past few months, things have been a little hectic, so in the next few weeks I will try to get things back on track and make sure that you are all up to date with all my adventures. So here we go!

On the 9^th June I travelled by bus from Mombasa to Arusha, the trip in itself, as with most bus trips in Africa, was exciting. We saw some incredible scenery, drove through parks, past Elephants, and at one point there was a question as to whether or not the bus had abandoned us all at the boarder, however, after about 10 hours I finally made it to Arusha to the wonderful sight of Seline - an old friend from my MSc. After checking me into our hotel we spent a while catching up, then  went for dinner and got an early night in preparation for our first trip – a safari by Lake Natron, and a Climb up the mountain of God!

The trip was great… most of the time J We stayed in a wonderful location next to a massai camp. On our first day we went for a walk through the valley in the local hills, and down to a wonderful waterfall. The scramble down was great fun, and once at the bottom we were below a stunning waterfall which created a natural Jacuzzi below (although a little cool), it was fantastic. On our way back we met the kids from the local village, and with great crys for chocolate, once they worked out we didn’t have any it gave me a chance to practice my Swahili and them the chance to practice their English. By the time we had made it back to camp the tents were up, with mattresses, pillows and massai blankets, and there was an afternoon snack waiting for us. That evening we got a relaxed and got an early night knowing what faced us the following day. The next day we went on a game drive to see the lake and the local birdlife. We saw some incredible birds, but only when we reached the lake were we told that the thousands of flamingos (which is what we had expected to see) were not there and had migrated north! We were all a little disappointed, but had enjoyed the day anyway.

A child we met along the way to Lake Natron

Sunrise over lake Natron

The camp was surrounded by many Bee-eaters

One of the waterfalls along our way
The Jacuzzi was behind this one, however this smaller one did
have it's own waterslide!

Some of the kids who lived near the camp and I on our way back

That night we got a very early night in preparation, and were up at 10.30pm to drive to the base of Ol Doinyo Lengai, a live volcano and a rather big mountain! When we set off there were 4 of us with two guides. We had been assured from the start that although it would take us a long time it was an easy climb. The start was fairly simple, a little uneven, but nothing any of us had any issue with. An hour in we had our first loss, one of the team decided it wasn’t for them and headed back to the car. Undeterred the rest of us continued. About ten minutes later we hit sand. Sand was not what I expected miles inland, up a mountain in Tanzania. This wasn’t just a little sand, but rapidly it appeared that we were climbing a giant volcanic sand dune, at this point it also became apparent that there were minor issues with communicating with our guide. Finally we managed to communicate with him our concern, and he announced that it was sand all the way to the top – when managed to ask if most people made it to the top he happily announced “Oh no madam, only the fittest Massai men make it to the top. It is very, very hard”. By 2.30am sitting on the side of the Mountain of God we admitted defeat. Two hours later we were back at camp, crawled into bed and fell to sleep a little disappointed, but more so, very, very tired.

Seline in our car by Lake Natron

Massai boy and his dog

On our return to Arusha we had just enough time to shower (oh dear God! The colour of the water still disturbs me to this day), change and head out to the opening night of the 2011 ATBC-SCB annual conference. It was a lovely evening, where we met a wonderful group of people who we would spend the next few days getting to know and learning from over the course of the conference. The following 4 days were such a great experience. I went to a fantastic array of talks, met some funny people, some interesting people, some inspirational people, and made some great friends. I learnt a lot, both about the kind of work that I do, but also about the range of research that people across the tropics conduct. I got to present a poster, and along with receiving some great feed-back I also managed to impress (which is always a relief at these things). But a conference is not just about work, there were excursions to the local market, where I discovered I have a rather severe Tinga-tinga addiction, and I can haggle very well in Swahili as well as English! Seline and I joined a bunch of researchers from Brazil and together (along with whomever we could convince to join us), we sampled the wonderful range of restaurants Arusha had to offer.

An example of a Tinga-Tinga
Not one that I was lucky enough to buy but a great example

All in all the first week in Tanzania provided a wealth of adventure, excitement, and had been both productive and entertaining. A great start to what we hoped would be a great trip.

End of an Era...

Yet again, I must apologise for my significant lack of contact over the last month! Gosh, that is bad. This post is going to be a short(ish one), to fill you in on the adventures between my last post (just after my birthday) and leaving for Tanzania (at the beginning of June).

The week following my last post was packed as always. A mix of doctors, cinema, shopping and even a visit to the gym. The highlight of the week however was finding out on the Tuesday that my research permit had finally been approved and issued, so after another payment - by this time I am not surprised when I find there is always a new payment that needs to be made round every corner - they agreed to send it to me by courier.  After a little mix up and confusion I was assured that my permit would be available for me to collect from Mombasa on the Monday, which meant that I could finally apply for my Pupils Pass, and then finally officially start doing my work! So as I headed in a packed car down to Dinai for the week-end I was in a mood for celebrating, and everyone else was hyped up with the excitement for Diani Rules.

Diani Rules was one of the craziest week-ends I have had in a very long time. From the moment we arrived the drinking and games started. With blindfolded targets, volleyball with a football, touch rugby, ultimate frizby and 4-way tug of wars as just a taster of the games run all day for 2 days. Most of the ‘competitors’ being under the influence of more than a couple of beers and judges happily taking bribes, it was a hilarious few days. Although the true aim is to loose (as then you get the best prizes), it appears that everyone’s competitive spirits still take control, with some (Uganda Civicon...Ahem!) taking things a little too seriously, so the games are full on and quite ridiculous as no one listens to the rules and barely anyone is in a fit state to be competing! Needless to say I had a fantastic week-end, and with our team coming second in the group, went home with possibly the ugliest cap I have ever seen, and the new nickname of ‘Emma-gizer’!

The 'Vajazzles' (or at least those alive at the time). oh, and two policemen???

Taking our supporting roles very seriously
- except McGuiness had just been tackled into the sand!

On our way back home we stopped off in town for me to pick up my post, and what a wonderful way to return it was. Not only did I finally have my research permit in hand, but I also got a parcel from home with my birthday presents!

The long awaited for - Research Permit!

The following week and a half was again packed. I went with my friend Sinead to go to one of the clinics where they treat children with physical disabilities – it was incredible to see the bravery and strength of the children. I also attended an activity day run by my friends charity “Why Not” which works on getting children with physical disabilities the treatment they need. Unfortunately the beginning of June saw the departure of Sinead, one of the people I had gotten closest to whilst in Kenya. So with a sad farewell the week ended a little low. However, for me this meant the opportunity to throw myself into work, as due to being one of the most entertaining, and exciting people I know, it was safe to say that I had gotten a little distracted from work by hanging out with Sinead J So with her departure, although it left me rather lonely, I found a lot more time to be getting on with work.

Sinead's Farewell

I spent the next week working hard, going through all my notes and background work, writing everything up, and putting together my poster for the upcoming conference in Arusha. Although rather stressful, by doing the poster I managed to process through a lot of the background work I had done, and was really able to pull everything together, which was great to do, and gave me a real sense of the amount of information I have already on the work that I am doing.

Screen-print of my poster
-it looked better in real life!

As well as saying goodbye to Sinead, the first week in June also saw my farewell to Bombolulu. With the decision made that I would be moving to Kilifi for my work, it made sense that my departure for Tanzania also meat my departure from Bombolulu, giving me the push I would need when I got back to sort out moving to Kilifi.

So by the 9^th of June, I had gotten my permit, sent in my application for my Pupils Pass, said goodbye to Sinead, and moved out of Bombolulu. So as I made my plans for heading to Tanzania, I knew my life in Kenya and the life of my project would all change on my return.

When It Rains It Pours

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I think it would be a bit of an understatement to say that over the past couple of weeks I have been a little bit busy. I will try and keep this as brief as possible I promise.

The weather has been almost as crazy as me these past few weeks and the rain has been chucking it down. However there has been a lot of sun too and a little rain couldn’t interrupt my recent stride, or sprint. I have been quite manically busy (just a shame it’s not all been for work). Following my last post I have been all over the place – quite literally. I made my way up to Kilifi to go and see the Coastal Forest Conservation Unit, who I will be working with a fair bit over the next couple of years. The guys there are great and really know their stuff, and more importantly know what they do not know, which is surprisingly important and very hard to find out here. We had a very productive meeting and I was given a report to read through and some great contacts of people who had done work on the Kayas which might be useful for my project. After the meeting we arrange for me to come back later in the week for one of the staff members to show me round the Kaya forests in the area, so that I could get an idea of the locations and accessibility of the sites.

Butterfly by one of the Kayas

Instead of heading back to Mombasa and then coming back up to Kilifi later in the week, Warren, one of the guys I met at the St George’s dinner offered to put me up in Kilifi for a few days. His place (well his Dad’s place) is incredible. They own one of the largest dairy farms on the coast, so have an extensive amount of land. Their house is beautiful, with incredible views of the creek which is even more stunning when you are swimming in their pool! I had a comfy bed, warm shower, swam each day, ate good food, played with the dogs and got quite a lot of work done. That is a life I could certainly get used to...

A moth that landed on me when working on the terrace

Windows - the cat who thinks he's a dog

Pool looking over the creek

Of course Warren wasn’t about to let me stay on the farm and not have a look around and get to know the place. So I joined him on a couple of trips around the farm checking up on cattle and staff. I was even made to drive the 4x4 whilst they loaded up the truck with sisal – a plant that is used for its fibres (kind of like hemp). Whilst showing me around Warren told me about the eco-friendly stuff they were already doing like collecting the cow manure and using the methane to power the dairy barn, and his plans for the future, such as agro-forestry projects using slow-growth woods. The place is great, and it was wonderful to see people in the farming industry taking environmental issues seriously and really trying to work out how it applies to them and what they can do that will be both economically beneficial to them, but also in the interest of preserving their surrounding environment.

Once I got back to Mombasa I had one day before I was whisked away on a Safari to Tsavo East. It was fantastic. We had a great group of people and saw some amazing things, including Lions, Crocodiles, Hippo and a Cheetah! We spent the night camping, cooked sausages and schmores on the fire and had such fun.

We watched the sunset, and the sunrise. I did a bit of the driving, and we spent the majority of two days laughing, hanging out the windows of the cars looking at animals. It was quite possibly the best couple of days in Kenya to date (or at least till that point!). We got back on Sunday evening, and after lunch with the guys I then headed into town to go and get the night bus to Nairobi.

Our Safari Group

Sunrise

Cheetah!

I spent 3 days in Nairobi meeting with botanists from the National Museums. Again they were so helpful. I have been given data on plant species, advice and contacts to get in touch with. The head of the herbarium, Dr. Malombe is a great guy, and I found out that one of the guys who has given me some of the most important data that I will be using for my species analysis is actually one of my friend’s Dad! Kenya is a very, very small place. I also met up with a friend from the UK who was out in Nairobi working with the MEAK charity (http://www.meak.org/) who were out performing life-saving heart surgery on children from around Kenya. The work they do is incredible, and I spent a fascinating evening listening to their stories about the patients they see, the hospitals they work in, and the incredible things that they do.

After collecting the data I headed back to Mombasa. After a minor incident in a tuk-tuk which involved a man-hole, my shoulder and a metal bar I finally caught up with the others. Then the rest of the week was busy preparing for my birthday party! It was a BBQ with the joint themes of Naughty and Nice mixed with Tree huggers. Some of the costumes were very impressive and the night was fantastic. I knew about half the people there (about 50 turned up), but I got to know pretty much everyone and apart from one or two minor injuries (or mementoes as I like to think of them) a great night was had by all.

Some of the guys in their fancy-dress

On the Saturday after chatting to my Dad, we had a big fry up and then spent the afternoon working off our hangovers in the water wake-boarding (I was not quite as good as the last time, but put it down to the bindings being too big for my feet), and in the evening when to a friend’s fundraiser for the Rhino Ark Charitable Trust (http://www.rhinoark.or.ke/) which involved eating a 3 course meal and spending the night dancing and drinking at Il Covo – it really was quite gruelling J

Me wake-boarding!

You would have thought that by Sunday I was ready to collapse, and I was. However that is not the Mombasa way! On Sunday we had a group bonding session for Vagazzles... This is the team that I am in for Diani Rules next weekend. In short it is a charity fundraiser which involves lots of teams, games and drinking. More to follow on that shortly. However, Sunday I feel was a minor taster. Lots of messing about by the pool, frozen T-shirt contest which we won (obviously), many people being up-ended into the pool, and a lot of laughter. It was quite possibly the best way to end what was a quite fantastic weekend.