Tanzania, Africa – 1986 (on Safari)
Our trip to Africa in the summer of 1986 will be divided up into three parts. Our 3 week trip included a week on safari, a week climbing to the top of mount Kilimanjaro and a week on the coast. This post will concentrate on our safari. I took with me my newly purchased Nikon F3hp with a 60-300mm zoom lens and my Lecia M3 along with 25 rolls of slide film. A mixture of Kodachome 64 and Fujichrome 400. You can see in the pictures the grainy results from the 400ASA film. After the photos on this post is the written diary Audrey created on our trip.
July 18, 1986 – Toronto
Departed for London after a severe thunderstorm (note from2014 – I still remember that drive to the airport – lightning and extreme rain fall!). Dan and Suz saw us off – and we ended up running into the Ruginis’ who were also heading for London – their flight was delayed 3 hours due to the weather. Met up with Frank & Daniella no problem, although had a bit of fun checking in due the large number of ‘attendees’ for some passengers.
July 19 – London, England
Checked our bags right through to Nairobi – hope they get there!
Sitting on the plane a t 9:37pm waiting to take off – over an hour delayed. We spent the day in London – saw BigBen finally and walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace. Lots of preparation going on for the Royal wedding. Then on to a pub for lunch with Yorkshire beer. After a jaunt through Piccadilly we went in for a proper tea and scones. Incredibly they allowed us in for service (not without second looks however). Finally we took the tube back to the airport and spent the remainder of the day waiting in a variety of rooms to suit any taste. I’m feeling a bit of a throat infection coming on – hope nothing comes of it!
July 20 – Nairobi, Kenya
Now in the airport in Nairobi. The view flying in was very good with mostly clear skies. Quite cool here although sunny (11C at 7:30am).
We spent our first money today – needlessly… $20US on airport tax. Turned out we walked out of the terminal and into the departures area. There was a very scary situation when they decided to pull Mike & I aside for a full security check. I was rather concerned they would find my hidden cash and it was getting very tense (full search pending), when an emergency call came through and the security guard had to head off to deal with that – so we got off easy with only the $20 payment – it could have been MUCH worse! Getting tired of travel – especially of sitting around waiting for flights – 2 more to go…
July 21 – Arusha Hotel 7, Tanzania (cool and overcast, sun in the afternoon)
Lots has happened. Got to Dar es Salam and discovered that Fran’s pack was not there. It could take a while for it to be traced. Otherwise Frank (and some stuff for Daniella) from the Kibo hotel for our climb. We met with Patrick to finalize plans for our trip. Still not sure about the third week plans. We spent the day generally recovering and walked into town in the morning and then out the road in the afternoon. Taking pictures is a bit of a challenge here (they don’t like their soul to be taken in your photos – unless you pay them of course and they love the ‘US’ dollars). Hope the animals are more co-operative J
Formal dress for dinner is expected – not really equipped for that I’m afraid…. And we thought getting served proper tea was a challenge! Will have to mend the mosquito net tomorrow – then off to safari at Lake Manyara to capture some wildlife on film – and eat zebra!
Asante et cette tout
July 22 – Lake Manyara, Tanzania (clear and sunny/hazy – hot but not extreme)
FANTASTIC day!!! We saw ostrich, Thompson gazelles, zebra (distant), wildebeest, giraffe, baboon, elephant (distant), and more. Several interesting birds and trees (the rubber trees are huge!). We left the hotel 77 this morning and walked through Arusha again. Bought some postcards in town and sent them in Arusha. Our room here has a very nice view out over the Lake from the Rift Valley. The Masai people still insist on payment for pictures. If they see you taking photos from any distance they come running and ask for money – if you don’t pay them they throw stones. Our driver, Shoa is fantastic and very friendly. He is from Kilimanjaro. His English is quite good and he is amazing at spotting game. There are limited hours of hot water and lights are out at 11pm – so off to bed now – tomorrow should be a full day.
July 23 – Serenora Wildlife Lodge (morning cloudy, then clear and hot – cool in the high altitudes)
Another great day. We saw repeats of yesterday and LOTS more – a total of 50 odd recorded varieties of birds and mammals (I am recording them in the field guide). Lots of amazing birds in Lake Manyara Park – no lions or leopards though. We left Manayara around 2pm with a 200km drive to Serenora. It took us till after 5pm to get to the park gate after a rough and tumble speed drive to make gate before it closed at 6pm. We did manage to stop for our first view of dik-diks – the y are the smallest of all antelopes at only a foot in height. Hope to see more of them. Mike has still had trouble sleeping – mostly the super soft beds he thinks. Hope he does better tonight. The air here is very dry and I find my sinuses are dry as a bone – and the dust doesn’t help. No hot water for showers tonight, not sure if this supposed to be or not? Lights will go back on a 7am – and off again at 11pm. Mike is out right now taking more moon photos – can’t wait to see the slides! I hope they turn out half as well as the experience in person. This lodge is built on a kopje (a LARGE one) and is well disguised from the animals. Actually there are lot of rock hyrax here and we saw a waterbuck also. Shoa is staying nearby tonight. The drivers have their own lodge – last night he stayed at a guest house in the local town. Tomorrow we head north into the Serengeti. We failed to notify the front desk in time to get a boxed lunch for the road, so we need to have a large breakfast I guess. We had Dodomo red wine with dinner tonight. Not too bad actually, tastes like home made. Hope to see lions tomorrow….
July 24 – Serenora (clear sky in morning for first time, a very hot afternoon on the plains)
Today Thompsons gazelles are grazing about 50 yards outside our window. Yesterday the baboon troop passed by our window no more than 10 feet away. It is very peaceful. After another ample breakfast, we headed out around 8am. Quite early on, Shoa spotted a cheetah. We watched him for the better part of an hour as he stalked gazelles who were aware of him. (post note 2014 – this is my favourite memory of the safari). We saw several lions. One group of 5 females were quite hungry and Shoa figures they should be ready for a kill tonight. Again, lots of amazing birds, some very colourful. We mostly spot them by the water pools which run like green rivers through the brown Serengeti. We returned around noon, ate and are now about to nap for a half hour or so and then out again around 3pm. It is too hot to see much before that. We have yet to spot leopard or rhino and several antelope. Mike has taken some good pictures this morning, hope they turn out!
This afternoon we drove out to the hippo pool. We saw lots of animals, only a couple of new ones. I spotted a white-tailed mongoose and Mike saw a mother jackal with 3 pups. There were several vervet monkeys and some shy dikdiks. We also caught a glimpse of bushbuck but they seem very shy. There were small green parrots, and field mice which weren’t in the field guide. I am very pleased with how many of the birds are identifiable. Hope to verify what I have ticked off by the pictures. I am still hoping to see a rhinoceros – Shoa says at Ngorongoro we should see them. We had a beer with Shoa after the drive this afternoon. He has 2 daughters and a small ‘garden’ where he grows (i.e. his wife grows) coffee, bananas, cabbage, maize, onions and more along with several animals. He is going to see about getting some good coffee for us. This is the picking season – perfect timing for Daniella’s father who roasts his beans. Tomorrow to Ngorongoro crater via the Olduvai Gorge – very historic !!
July 25 – Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge (very cold – day was cool in the crater)
The day started with warthog, vervet monkeys, gazelles all grazing outside our window. Breakfast was followed by a drive to the crater / Olduvai. On the way we saw a cheetah – very well camouflaged in a rocky kopje and Daniella spotted a lion in another one. At Olduvai we had a short lecture followed by a tour of the museum. Our lecturer was actually with Mary Leakey when she discovered the set of 3 footprints. From our vantage point we could see 4 digging beds – going back to 1.9 Million years ago. We could be in the very place where the Leakey’s camp was set up, which was where the homo erectus and homo habilis skulls were found. Our lecturer will be going in August to a dig in Laietoli where the footprints were round in hopes of finding some skulls. Weill have to keep our eyes open to hear of anyt finds!
We had an offer to drive to the dig area where Zinjanthropus was found, but time was too tight since Frank wanted to get his camera checked out. Supposedly you can find a hundred animal fossils in 10 minutes in the gorge – very different from home! Frank had his main camera jam in the morning drive to the Olduvai and despite borrowing Mikes spare, he was anxious to get his fixed.
In the afternoon we picked up our guide and headed down to the crater bottom. The sides are very steep and dense jungle – it was quite the nerve wracking drive. It was surprisingly cool at the bottom. Lots of very nice flowers and plant life on the drive down along with moss covered trees. At the bottom we saw our first masses of animals – wildebeest. We also got to see the lake edged with pink flamingos – fantastic colour! Even in the haze of the crater, they shone out brightly. We drove around the bottom of the crated not spotting a lot else – our guide was very particular about not disturbing the animals by getting too close. We did encounter a female lion guarding last night’s kill – a wildebeest. And then we got to the highlight of the crate – a rhino with her baby Noel. He was born on Dec 25 last year. We were fortunate to get quite close – let’s hope the shots turn out (I say once again). There is just soo much pressure on Mikey to get good pictures). We left the crater and had dinner at the lodge followed by coffee / tea in the lounge – it was more like a ski resort with everyone huddled around the fire. Tomorrow on to Tarangire. And oh yes, Frank’s luck didn’t get any better; his backup camera jammed when we were leaving the crater. Mike has leant him his Leica and Frank will try to get his fixed in Arusha – I hope his luggage shows up and he manages to get his camera fixed – it would make for much less stress and make life easier all around….
July 26 – Tarangire Tented Camp (very foggy at Ngorongoro, hot here – clear and sunny)
The drive out of the crater was tricky in very dense fog through winding forest roads. Eventually it broke up once into the open ground. We stopped outside of Manyara to see the Mankonde art. We bought a batik. F&D bought spear. It is more expensive for carvings here than at Meru – may get one there. Next we drove a friend of Shoa’s back to the tarmac road, but first we stopped at another market. Talked to a “sew-er” bit. His English was very good and he tried to convince me that I should learn Swahili – it does seem quite straight forward and easy to pronounce. Next we arrived here. The tents are great! We have a private table out front, a section with our beds and a dressing area within the tent then out back there is a concrete pad area for the toilet / sink and shower. All is covered with a thatched roof – very British. The view is out over the park – elephant, zebra and other in full view under the rubber trees and at the watering hole.
Our afternoon drive through the park gave us our first view of masses of running zebras and wildebeest (more photo pressure on Mike).We saw lots of elephants from a distance and a few skulls. Shoa says that one is likely from a fight with another elephant. Saw my hornbills today (had been hoping for them) and a new type of eagle – tawny eagle. We saw a larger group of Eland – they are quite shy so hard to spot. On the way out we passed 3 elephants and sat watching them for quite some time (Shoa caught some zzz’s). when they tried to cross the road in front of us, one of them got quite upset with us. She was getting ready to charge – Shoa pulled Mike in from the roof window as he sped off. Shoa figures they have likely encountered poachers before and so won’t let you get too close.
It’s very peaceful here. I could stay for a year or two – I’d like to see the rains and the migrations. Ah well, off to dinner now (just napped for an hour) – I’m pretty beat today!
July 27 – Mount Meru Hotel, Arusha (warm & sunny – cooler later in the day but a warm evening)
For the 2nd day we awoke to no animals – but today the view was good and there were lots of birds. At breakfast Mike had liver (!) and even seemed to enjoy it – it tastes very different here not surprisingly. Our morning drive through Tarangire was uneventful except for a couple of baby elephants (smallest was about 8 months) and a massive herd of elephants (about 100 or so). I spotted several different hornbills, most which were not in the guidebook. We turned up at Mt. Meru for lunch and unfortunately they had “lost” our reservation. We met with Patrick and Abdul for drinks around 5 or so and discovered that Frank’s bag is still lost. We had dinner at the New Safari Hotel next to Patrick’s office – it was quite good. Mike had chicken, I had Nile perch. Afterward we went to the Cave Disco for drinks and dancing. Mike got to dance with a girl who was a great dancer (Abdul was more worried about that than I was! (note 2014 – turns out that his concern was that the girl had a ‘bad disease’ – and we suspect now that she may have had AIDS).
Abdul and Patrick hope to send us promotional info when we return to Canada for Taurus Tours – in return for our cheaper fare hire. The slides should give a good promotional presentation. We returned here around 11:15pm – now to get to sleep since we must get up early. Tomorrow is the last day we will spend with Shoa – hope it’s a good one at Arusha National Park.
Addendum – on the ride home from the disco we got to discover another Tanzanian experience – we ran out of petrol!
July 28 Mount Meru Hotel, Arusha (rain in the morning, warm and overcast the rest of the day)
Today we finished our safari with Shao. We went early to get Frank’s camera fixed but with no luck as the repair man did not seem to know what was wrong even though he pretended to. Then we went back to pick up our box lunches and on the Arusha National Park. It rained a little on the way there – the first we have seen. On entry, we saw Colobus monkeys and later on Blue monkeys. We also added spoonbills to our list of birds along with a couple of obscure ducks and egrets. Nothing was in the small Ngorduto Crater when we went by – sometimes there are zebras and their typical companions. Next to Momela Lakes where we saw lots of birds and some aquatic pig-like animals bathing in mud. There were lots of immature flamingos – they are not as pink or it would have made a magnificent sight. At lunch we discovered our mysterious lunches were not so great….liver again. There were some monster beetles flying around where we were eating and lots of magnificent butterflies. Should also mention that everyone was feeling the effects of too much cola last night. On returning from the park, Shoa took us in to get some coffee – very fresh – direct from the trees. I hope we can roast it properly.
Then off to change our flights and talk to Patrick. Tomorrow at 8amish we head for Kibo – time to start preparing for the climb. We had a drink with Shoa to say goodbye and gave him an envelope and a pen. We promised to send him a photo of himself. Daniella has his address – we hope he receives it “okay” (as the kids say). Well after a short rest we are off to dinner (Mike is rather hungry having skipped his liver lunch).
Just returned from dinner – we are quite sure our stuff was moved and a drawer was left open – then we gave ourselves a scare with the sliding cupboard, but all seems in order so guess it’s okay. Early to bed at 9pm to get ready for tomorrow.