Safari!

I've never really had an intense desire to go on safari but since I'm spending 6 weeks in Africa I figured I might as well take advantage of my location and go for it. Everything fell into place this past weekend when two fellow volunteers and I teamed up with a woman from England and a woman from Ireland to go on a 2 night/3 day trip.

The first day we hit up Terengire National Park, also known as the little Serengeti. Things started off extremely quickly as our car was almost immediately surrounded by a wildebeast and zebra stampede, reminding us that this is the time for the wildebeast migration. The rest of the park did not disappoint, and we saw TONS of animals, including: giraffes, ostriches, elephants, baboons, lions, impalas, warthogs (pumba), and lots of birds. At one point we were sitting by a stream completely surrounded by all of the animals. It seemed kind of like Noah's arc as more and more just kept streaming around us, totally oblivious to our existance.

The next day we headed to the Ngorogoro crater which is a conservation area and a UNESCO world heritage site. It was reached by this insanely winding road along a cliff that our driver insisted he must zoom along (otherwise there is too much dust). The drive was beautiful and punctuated with alternating views of the crater and masai villages. Our first viewpoint stop was perfectly timed with a couple of masai crossing the road with their herds, their bright red cloth providing a stark contrast to the light dirt of the cliffs. On the crater we saw all of the same animals as yesterday (except for giraffes because of the altitude) and more. At one point there were a couple trucks stopped at a point in the road. We went up to see what was going on and there was a large female lion laying on the road panting extremely hard. At first we thought she might be pregnant but that was not the case....which leads to the most exciting part of the day. Continuing on we saw a young male lion eating a wildebeast! It was pretty disgusting but also amazing to see. It turned out that the female lion had killed the wildebeast for her son and she was exhausted from the hunt so that's why she was lying on the road. Crazy crazy nature. And yes the pride of lions were staying in this one rocky area just like Pride Rock in the Lion King! And there were hyenas, very very ugly. Lunch was eaten by a pretty lake filled with hippos. Apparently hippos are quite dangerous and generally kill more people in Africa than lions so we kept our distance. We were also lucky enough to see a rhino later in the day. Sadly they are extremely endangered and there are only 25 in the park. Overall the day was amazing! One of the girls I was with took a couple videos (including the lion's meal) so hopefully I will be able to get my hands on those.

The last day (today) we went to Lake Manyara. It was very pretty, but there were a lot less animals than the other places we'd been. It also seemed a little more touristy, and at some points you felt like you were at the zoo. What I loved about the other two parks was that you were actually in the natural environment and there was nothing contrived, or man made (except for some rest stops).

I arrived back in Moshi, covered in dust and exhausted but very satisfied with my adventures. Tomorow I start as a computer teacher, doing Excel. It will be different from last week when I was filling in for the business teacher, discussing SWOTs with the students. Later!

The lion eating the wildebeast!