In the morning, Iris briefed us about our 8 day safari of the northern circuit game parks. Beginning at the nearby Arusha National Park, we drive to Taragire National Park, Lake Mayara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and finally the Serengeti where we would fly back to Arusha Town. We were introduced to cheery Philemon, who would be our guide and driver for the next week. We had an extended 7 seater Landcruiser all to ourselves.
Arusha National Park is 27 km from Arusha town. Philemon took us on an afternoon game drive, sharing his vast knowlege of the park and its inhabitants. Within minutes of entering the park, we come across a herd of giraffes. A creature borne from pure whimsical genius, and as curious of us as we are of them. There are just no words to describe the thrill of seeing your first animal in the wild. We were like 3 year olds, our jaws on the ground staring in awe at our first giraffe or elephant. We also saw zebra, buffalo, warthogs, black and white colubus monkeys, black faced monkeys, a bandit mongoose and flamingos. Plants of interes: the African Sausage Tree -- a shade bearing tree with podlike fruit that resemble bratwurst. Also, our favorite, the Baobaob tree with an immensely thick trunk and appearing to be growing root-side up, known to live thousands of years although no one can
actually verify exactly how old any one baobaob tree is....there is no way to tell as it does not have rings in its trunk to count. The trunk has a high water content (in a draught, elephants hack at the trunks for water) and if cut down, the entire tree collapses on itself and dies. Legend has it that God threw one of them down to earth in a fit of anger and it landed root side up and continued to grow that way.
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| Mt. Kilimanjaro through the clouds |
We also managed to catch a glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro, usually hidden behind a veil of clouds. This is where Philemon began saying that we were lucky and we took that as a good omen.
Last but not least, we learned a fair number of Swahili words from Philemon and began shamelessly brandishing our new vocabulary whenever we had the chance. That evening we returned to the Arusha Bungalow for a to-die-for home cooked meal by Rosie the cook. Roasted chicken, chard and rice and a bottle of wine to celebrate a successful first day.
For photos of our safari, please go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31967627@N00/sets/72157594423386516/
