The Safari

I'm pretty sure it's the same for you, but since we started thinking of our African trip, the quintessential activity that came to mind had always been the safari. After much research and some great tips from our friend Jasmine, we opted for a 5 days camping safari with a custom itinerary via lake Natron, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater.

Lake Natron
The greatest thing about lake Natron was the jaw dropping scenery on the way there. During our long 6 hours journey, we were able to appreciate some very nice views of volcanoes, some still active, Massai people with their colorful clothing, great plains of bright green grass and the Rift Valley Wall that rose to the horizon.

Although the main reason to get there was to see the millions of flamingos that should have been in the lakes in Kenya, we were once again disappointed. Still there were about a hundred of them, which was enough for Gen to be all excited and run with them in the mud.

The question will always remain for us, though: where are all the flamingos gone?

What we didn't realise was that, with all the driving involved, we would not be spending much time at the lake itself. Only a couple of hours before we had to set up camp for the night.

Our campsite that night was quite nice. We had the whole place for ourselves and we got to experience the great culinary skills of our chef, Erick. We were spoiled that, even though we went for a budget safari, the cook that was following us was able to prepare very fresh, tasty and plentiful meals. Actually, after a few days, we were thinking that he was fattening us in order to feed us to the lions!

Dining was made an even better experience with our guide & driver, Raymond, telling us stories of his previous adventures where he saved a lion stuck in a toilet cubicle or had trouble sleeping because another one was roaring all night next to his tent.

Serengeti
It's hard to describe how we felt as we entered the Serengeti National Park in late afternoon after another long day on the road. I guess what impressed us the most were the things that all those documentaries didn't really manage to convey: the vastness of the place, Sirengit means endless plain in Massai language and it actually stretches as far as the eye can see, with some rolling hills and a few acacia trees dotting the landscape; or maybe it was the smell of those flowering acacias; or the intense storms we could see forming up in the distance under our sunny sky, which would smell of damp earth as we were coming up to it.

Let's not forget about the animals. In this vast wilderness, we were not expecting to see them as close as in a zoo. It was even more surprising when we stumbled upon them right next to our Land Cruiser. Just by traveling the 80 km to our campsite, we saw two male topies fighting ten meters from us, an elephant that crossed our path under the rain and a pride of 5 lions laying right next to the road, looking very relaxed.

The next two days were even better for animal spotting. For the interested biologists amongst you, here is a short list of what we saw: at least 50 lions, elephants, giraffes, hyenas, buffaloes, one leopard sitting in its tree, two cheetahs, tons of hippopotamus, crocodiles, topies, hartebeests, Thomson's gazelles, Grant's gazelles, impalas, klipspringers, dik diks, rock hyrax and so many birds that only Gen can remember the name of. 

Even though our guide was an expert in all animals and birds, he was mostly interested in finding the rare ones for us. I think it was a kind of competition between guides and as soon as one spotted a mating lion for example, you would hear the two-way radio come to life and soon after, twenty vehicules were surrounding the couple.

It wasn't until our last day in the park, as we were about to exit Serengeti, that we got to see the major attraction: the actual migration. Basically, it is a group of wildebeests and zebras, millions of them, that travel hundred of kilometres every year in search of good grass and water. At the time of the year that we saw them, they were at the southern end of their pilgrimage, all spread out across the plain as far as the eye could see in every direction. So impressive!

Ngorongoro Crater
As we have told you before, we opted for camping every night during our safari in order to save costs, as opposed to fancy tented camp or lodges. Honestly, compared to our little mishaps in the Simiens, it was very comfortable. The tent and sleeping bags were good and we didn't get wet or cold. The facilities were also adequate and we were able to enjoy showers and proper toilets at every stop. The only place where it became a little bit annoying was at Ngorongoro National Park where the government only allows one public campsite so that all the tour companies end up in the same place. It wasn't really a problem for us, but our cook had to do some elbowing to get some cooking space.

Ngorongoro Crater is actually a big bowl in the extinct volcano with a lake in the middle. Due to this, it gets the animals to be much closer together and is therefore great if you missed any in the previous parks. It's where we saw the last of the "big five": lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhinoceros. It's called like that because they were supposedly the five most dangerous to hunt during the old days of trophy hunting. Anyway, it turned out that we were quite lucky with our sighting of the black rhino as even Erick said that it was the first time in five years that he saw one that close.

Conclusion
We would like to include some tips that we learned during this "lifetime experience". Maybe it will help you when you plan yours.

Safari is fun but expensive. Our best tip would be to bring enough USD to cover the cost. It's very hard anywhere in East Africa to pay with a credit card and inserting your debit card 10 times in an ATM to get a huge pile of local currency, especially at the 25$ per transaction your friendly Australian bank charges, is not very economical.

There are lots of operators, so it's not easy to choose. The most important thing is to have a good guide as he will be the one spotting the animals and sharing his knowledge about them. We were very lucky to find Raymond.

Thanks for reading this long entry. I hope the thousand words will make up for the few images we can post on our current internet connection. Check for more on Flickr soon!

A few flamingos (pink patch in the background) and Geneviève, with millions in her head! 

Sunrise over Serengeti. Yes Rob, another sunrise shot from Gen. 

Being surrounded by a pride of lions. 

Cheetah striking the pose. 

Serengeti migration. Look closely, there's a million of them! 

Black Rhino. 

Délicieuses montagnes

Premièrement, un gros merci pour vos commentaires. Ça fait toujours plaisir d'avoir de vos nouvelles.

Pour quitter l'île paradisiaque de Zanzibar, on a pris le traversier pour la métropole de Dar es Salam. On a trouvé la ville très peu attrayante et, après une seule nuit, on avait besoin d'un changement de paysage. On s'est donc dirigé vers la petite ville de Lushoto situé dans les montagnes d'Usambaras. Ce n'est pas une destination touristique importante, mais ça s'est avéré une étape très agréable.

Après la chaleur suffocante de la côte, le climat frais montagneux nous faisait du bien et l'odeur de la forêt d'eucalyptus nous rappelait l'Australie. Le mieux est qu'on a pu faire de la randonnée par nous même. Oui, oui, sans guide obligatoire qui coûte une fortune, comme la plupart des autres activités en Tanzanie!

On est passé par des petits villages sympathiques pour aller apprécier des points de vue spectaculaires. En chemin, on a fait la connaissance de Joseph, qui nous a fait rencontrer quelques résidents locaux très fascinants: des caméléons! Trop mignons.

Comble de bonheur, pour le dîner, on s'est retrouvé dans une ferme où on a pu se procurer un pique nique délicieux. Tous les aliments, incluant deux sortes de fromages, étaient produits localement.

Tant qu'à être heureux dans les montagnes, on a décidé de prolonger le bonheur en se rendant à Moshi, au pied du fameux mont Kilimanjaro, la plus haute montagne d'Afrique. Ayant autant d'aptitude à monter des montagnes qu'une vieille chèvre handicapée, on s'en est tenu à observer la montagne à partir de petites plantations de café indépendantes, situées au pied du mont. Notre tour était organisé par la coopérative des fermiers indigènes locaux. C'est une bonne initiative qui permet de produire des revenus supplémentaires pour la communauté, dont les membres sont de la tribu Chagga. Leurs plantations sont toutes petites et pour survivre ils doivent aussi cultiver des bananes et autres légumes. Les bananiers sont utilisés pour faire de l'ombre nécessaire pour les plans d'arabica. Un bon arbre de café produits environ cinq kilos de grains par année, vendu pour environ 5US$. Notre guide possède 300 arbres, ce qui était déjà plus que bien d'autres fermiers locaux. On a fait le calcul et pour une bonne année, son revenu brut est de 1500$. C'est très peu considérant les efforts nécessaires pour parvenir à la récolte.

Note to our foodie friends, despite instant coffee being the norm in Tanzania, it's possible to enjoy a very good cup of freshly roasted and locally produced coffee. The Union Coffee, a café that would please the Melburnians, is another initiative of the cooperative of native farmers. Of course we spent a lot of time there, enjoying fresh coffee and good food.

Villages autour de Lushoto.

Caméléon à deux cornes.

Pique nique à la ferme de Irente.

Plantation de café sur le versant du Kilimanjaro, en arrière plan. 

Dennis, fermier Chagga, rotissant du café.

Zanzibar

Désolé pour les entrées en rafales, mais, contrairement à ce que l'on s'attendait, c'est beaucoup plus difficile d'avoir accès à Internet au Kenya et en Tanzanie que ce l'était en Éthiopie. Ça doit être à cause du réseau cellulaire plus développé que les hôtels ne prennent pas la peine d'offrir le wi-fi. Tout cela pour dire qu'on a eu le temps de préparer plusieurs entrées avant de les publier, donc n'oubliez pas de descendre plus bas pour les lire.

Pour notre première escale en Tanzanie, nous avons opté de demeurer sur la côte et de visiter l'île de Zanzibar. Ici aussi, il s'agit d'un centre de commerce historique. Stone Town, avec son influence Swahili, fait penser un peu à Lamu, mais sur stéroïdes! Au travers des ruelles tortueuses se cachent le palais du Sultan, le vieux fort portugais, la cathédrale anglicane et le marché de poissons. Ça en fait une ville vraiment intéressante à explorer.

La raison principale pour notre séjour à Zanzibar était de faire un peu de plongée sous-marine. Pour se faire, nous sommes  allé à Matemwe où se trouve la plupart des centres de plongée pour l'atoll de Mnemba. Nous avons été impressionnés par la clarté de l'eau et la faune sous-marine. Entre autres, nous avons vu un poisson-grenouille et notre plus grosse tortue de mer. Nous étions logés dans un sympathique bungalow tout près de la plage. Je dois avouer que même si nous ne sommes pas nécessairement des fans de plage, il y a quelque chose d'intéressant à marcher nus pieds dans le parfait sable blanc pour se rendre au centre de plongée le matin.

Une chose qui nous a marqué à Zanzibar, et même partout en Tanzanie, c'est qu'ici, il y a beaucoup plus de voyageurs. C'est peut-être dû au fait qu'il n'y a pas d'avertissement de sécurité en Tanzanie. Quand même, c'est intéressant de rencontrer d'autres personnes et d'échanger sur les bonnes places à aller.

Vieux fort de Stone Town. 

Atoll de M n'embarque.