Eight days in Africa! - Over 50 hours of safari time!
- Over 1200 miles!
From the Kilimanjaro Airport to Arusha then southwest to Tarangire National Park then up to Lake Manyara National Park.
From Lake Manyara to the Serengetti National Park then back down to Ngorongoro Crater. We covered over 1200 miles (on one tank of gas) and visited 3 major National parks all located in the Northern part of Tanzania. We saw the "Big 5" and took over 3000 pictures! There were times when we were speechless at the sights that appeared before us. We wrote a song, laughed ALOT and learned from the two greatest tour guides ever, one of which used to drive for National Geographic! It was an experience of a lifetime! If you want to know more, then get a cold drink, sit back and walk with me through our journey in Africa!
Day 1: Arrival and Arusha
After flying into Kilimanjaro Airport, we drove about an hour to the city of Arusha where we spent the night in the famous Arusha Hotel. While we were in Arusha, we took a short walk around the center of the city. I would not recommend doing this unless you are in a large group and/or with a tour guide. Theft is prevalent in the city and when you immediately step off hotel premises, you are swamped with people trying to sell you stuff.
The primary reason we did the walk was to get a bit of exercise, see the famous city center clock tower (which is the center most part of Africa from North to South) and experience a bit of the local culture. After about an hour, we had enough and ventured back to the hotel! After dinner, we enjoyed a few drinks in the hotel bar, Hatari. If you are a John Wayne fan, you may recognize this name. The story is that John Wayne had drinks here at the end of each day when they were shooting the movie Hatari just outside the city of Arusha. While he didn't stay in the hotel, he frequented the bar enough that they eventually named the bar after the movie! We too enjoyed some drinks and the 90's pop music that they played in the bar. In addition, I got a personal tour of the hotel gardens by Paul who is in charge of the landscaping and plant life around the hotel. It really was a beautiful place and a great way to start off the trip.
Days 2 & 3: Tarangire National Park
Our stay in Tarangire National Park was 5 star all the way! Tarangire National Park is known for its large numbers of elephants, its tree climbing lions and the massive baobab trees. Before we arrived in Africa, we were informed that due to construction at our originally assigned camp, we were being upgraded to the Tarangire Sopa Lodge! I've stayed at lodges in the past but none of them compared to this facility. We each had our own concrete hut that had a large bedroom with an outside sitting area, a large bathroom with all the necessary amenities and there was a sitting area at the entrance of each hut. The service was great and the food was wonderful. There was a resort style pool surrounded by monkeys, beautiful birds, lizards, and other assorted wildlife.
The most amazing part was that while we were here, we were able to sit on the outdoor porch of our hut and observe a pack of elephants, water buffalo and gazelles that were less than 50 yards away. We didn't have TV's in the room but we didn't need them because we had natural entertainment the whole time!
So you are probably saying, "The lodging was great but what about the safari?" Well, let me tell you!
From the moment we entered the park and popped the top on our Land Cruiser to the moment we left the park, we saw hundreds of elephants and probably thousands of zebras and wildebeests along with monkeys, baboons, mongoose, warthogs, lizards and just about everything in between.
The giraffe sightings were frequent and both John and I agree that these are probably our favorite animals to watch. Seeing them up close just amazed us with their height and gracefulness. Their facial expressions are quite comical as well!
In addition, the landscape was so varied and included marshland, mountains and everything in between.
These pictures are just a few out of the hundreds of photos that we took!
On day 3, we received a real treat! We started out by heading to a different area of the park when the call came in over the CB radio that indicated there were lions and leopards resting by the marshland which was about an hour drive from where we were. The guides asked if we wanted to continue in our current heading or go back to the marshland and find the lions and leopards. I think it was universal in that everyone wanted to go see the lions and leopards -- so we did! Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for! Once the decision was made, our guides changed directions, turned up the speed and we were off! The next hour gave a new meaning to "off-roading"! We stayed on the park roads but keep in mind, they are dirt roads with lots of dips and bumps. The dust streamed in from the roof and windows and on occasion, we would almost bounce out of our seats because of the bumps and turns! Getting to the marshland and seeing the lions and leopards was well worth the drive though! Other than rhinos, hippos and cheetahs, we saw every major animal that we wanted to see while we were in Tarangeri and we would recommend this park to anyone with a desire to do an African safari.
Day 4: Lake Manyara National Park
On our drive over to Lake Manyara National Park, we had the opportunity to visit a true Maasai village. Despite government programs created to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, the Maasai people have continued their age-old customs.
Traditional Maasai lifestyle centers around their cattle which constitute their primary source of food. A Maasai religious belief relates that God gave them all the cattle on earth, leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes is a matter of taking back what is rightfully theirs.
The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better therefore the men have multiple wives, upwards of 8 or more and may have 8 or more children per wife. Their method of getting a wife is also interesting. It is apparently related to each man's ability to out jump the other men in the tribe. We experienced their jumping abilities first hand when we participated in one of their traditional dances. One of the tribe members tried to get John to jump but he explained that he had bad knees and couldn't participate. I think the real reason he didn't want to jump is because he decided that one wife was plenty and didn't want to leave Africa with a second one! We also found it interesting that the men in the Maasai tribe are born and raised to be warriors. They don‘t marry when they are young but instead they stay in the woods.
This is the reason why there is a great age difference between husbands and their wives, because they are not allowed to marry until they are older (when they have become "elders“) while the women marry when they are young. One of the young men in the tribe showed us the hut in which he was raised and also told us about their lifestyle as well as answered lots of questions.
Their huts are completely constructed by the women and contain a small sleeping area for the parents and a really small area for the young children. Per our discussions with the young warrior, we were informed that once they reach a certain age, they leave the hut and sleep outside.
He also mentioned that they do not eat any vegetables, grains or anything other than beef. It is also common for them to mix cow blood with milk and drink that for their meal. There are other customs that the Maasai observe that are better left to wikipedia to explain! While visiting the Maasai, one of our group members traded a precious Bowie knife for several Maasai items including a warriors knife and talking sticks. After participating in a dance, hearing stories about their traditions, watching them light a fire using friction and taking lots of pictures, we set off for our next stop, Karibu Migunga tent camp.
I really enjoyed this camp. The tents were built on wooden platforms with a covered sitting area in the front and each had running water. After getting settled and having lunch, it was time to head into Lake Manyara National Park. A majority of the land that makes up Lake Manyara National Park is located in a narrow strip running between the Gregory Rift wall to the west and Lake Manyara to the east. During the wet season, Lake Manyara, which is an alkaline or soda-lake, can cover up to 77 square miles but during the dry season, the lake becomes nearly nonexistent.
The lake is also known for it's massive flocks of flamingos and surrounded by a wide variety of bird life, more than 400 species of birds are said to live in the park. While in the park, we encountered lots of baboons, saw a blue ball monkey and observed some of species of birds that the park is known for. A half day safari here was sufficient to give us a good feel for the park. After leaving the park, we returned to our camp site, had dinner and enjoyed some time by a campfire. The next morning, we departed for the long drive to the Serengeti!
Days 5 & 6: Serengeti National Park
Growing up in the country, I've driven on my fair share of rocky, dirt roads but the drive to the Serengeti beats anything I've ever been on. For the first hour or so, the roads are good but once you get past the Ngorongoro Visitor Center, it's all she wrote! You better hang on to your seat and everything in it! After several hours of driving on a washboard with potholes the size of the Grand Canyon, we finally reached the entrance to the Serengeti National Park.
Immediately upon entering the park, we realized why it is the one of the most famous wildlife sanctuaries in the world and known for the greatest concentration of plains game anywhere.
The animals were everywhere! Gazelles, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, animals of all sizes just lined the road. Just before arriving at the check-in center, we spotted our first male lion. He was a good distance away but this was the start of a wonderful day with the exception of John getting stung by 3 African honeybees!
The original plan was that we would head straight to the campsite and get settled then go out on a game drive. Our plan quickly changed when we came upon several lions and some cheetahs that had just finished eating. Little did we know that we would see 25 lions that day alone along with many other beautiful animals.
We didn't arrive to the campsite until well after 2:00pm and the camp had not prepared lunch so they had to quickly throw together a meal! It was the first time I had ever had tuna spaghetti! It wasn't bad just a bit different! So after moving into our tents and eating our tuna spaghetti, we headed out for our afternoon game drive. For the next couple of days, we saw some amazing sights and made may wonderful memories. We drove upon two cubs feasting on a zebra that a lioness had killed.
We did a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti where we met a wonderful couple who had gotten engaged on their trip. We experienced "talking showers" which was the attendant asking if we were ready for him to load the water and raise the water bag so the water would run down the pipe into the tent for our 10 second shower. We had hyenas invade our tent camp and on one occasion, they ripped through the tent that contained leftovers from the day before. This was a good lesson to never keep food in your tent!
We saw a crocodile stalking a herd of zebras getting water but the zebras scared themselves away before the croc could close the deal.We also stood within 50 feet of a pack of hippos. They were disgusting!
Finally, the sunsets in the Serengeti were magnificent!
Days 7 & 8: Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The last stop in our trip was the Ngorongoro Crater which is actually a caldera. It was neat to drive 2,000ft down into the crater. While driving around the crater we saw all varieties of animals and from a distance, we saw the last of the big 5 - the rhinoceros. Apparently, the rhinos do not like lots of attention so they stayed in the field and a far distance from the roads and people.
While visiting Ngorongoro, we stayed in the Ngorongoro Crater Forest Camp. The camp was awesome but the road getting to the camp was the worst of the entire trip. As a result, the morning of our first game drive, me, John and Angela opted to hike the 8km path from the camp to the road. It really was a very enjoyable hike and we had 2 guides to show us the way! We hiked through the coffee bean plantations and up and down hills that contained corn fields and other crops being raised by the locals. It took us almost an hour and half to hike to the road but we learned that this is a very short hike compared to some of the distances the locals walk to visit their friends and family or even go buy groceries and supplies. Our time in Ngorongoro was short but provided a very scenic ending to a wonderful trip!
Day 9: Departure Day
We departed Ngorongoro early on the last day and headed back to Arusha where we gathered once again at the Arusha Hotel for lunch and a debrief with the tour organizer. After lunch, we sang our "Africa Song of Happiness" to our safari guides, Venance and Adam, and then departed for the airport. The flight back to Doha went well and we got home at 1:00am that Sunday morning. We couldn't have asked for a better group to go with. Our guides were great and each location was unique and memorable. It truly was a trip of a lifetime!
Our season started off with a really difficult game against Qatar University who had a roster full of Qatar National Players. Needless to say, they were quickly eliminated from playing the season because the agreement was that none of the teams would include national players on their rosters. Even though we did not win many games, we progressively showed improvement and the girls played hard throughout the season. We are all looking forward to next season now that we have a little experience under our belts. We still have much to learn and will have to incorporate a bit more conditioning in preparation for next season! 
Maersk Oil & QP Challenge Race
At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to put together a team to compete in the Maersk Oil & QP Challenge Race scheduled for late November in the Zekreet Peninsula to help raise funds for diabetes research. It was our understanding that TAMUQ tried to field a team in 2012 but couldn't find interested individuals given the amount of physical effort required. As a result, we opened registration to both former and current students. We had over 35 people who responded to our initial email so efforts began to narrow down the candidates to the top 5. We did an initial evaluation day which narrowed down the field to 11 candidates then we organized a GPS orienteering challenge and a Pentago tournament which helped us decide on the final 5 plus an alternate. The TAMUQ Challengers participated in the race on November 16th - 17th and did very well. They placed 9th out of 27 teams and received strong praise for their classy presence throughout the race. They exceeded expectations and set a great example for future teams. John had the privilege of being a course marshal and was able to snap a few pictures along the way!
Thanksgiving Celebrations
We were privileged to be invited to 3 family Thanksgivings and also attended the annual TAMUQ Faculty & Staff Thanksgiving. For our fifth Thanksgiving celebration, we helped support a gathering to honor our troops here in Qatar. We had over 100 servicemen and women with whom we shared a Thanksgiving feast. It was great to meet many of them and hear their stories. It was a beautiful day by the pool and a real treat to be able to say thank you for the work they do and the protection they provide. We could truly sympathize when they talked about how they missed their families back home. In the future, no matter where we are for Thanksgiving, we will always look back and remember these times and be thankful for all of our friends both here and at home!
