“We are leaving at 6.00am shape” were Deo’s instructions as we parted company the previous evening. Serena Safari lodge doesn’t allow guides to eat with the guests, so for the first time in a week I had been on my own for dinner and it felt a bit odd.
If Deo was secretly relieved to have a break from my constant squeals of excitement and never ending questions - he never let on.
I was actually rather relieved that he wasn't there because a woman at the next table made a thoughtless, stupid remark - guaranteed to cause offence and everyone nearby heard it.
All the restaurant staff had decided to surprise that table with a wonderful song and a small cake. I thought it was someone's birthday, but by the shocked look on their faces, that clearly wasn't the case. So there had either been a huge cock up or it was for something else. It turned out the four of them had been staying there for a few days, which virtually never happens ( for most, it's a single nights stay, going to or from the crater) and the team had decided to do something lovely to say thank you. The guests were obviously pleased but I detected a, little embarrassment as well and after the restaurant manager had explained it all to them, they wanted photos. One of the men stood up next to the manager at which point, the lady with the camera said " Could you move along under the light, it's hard to take a picture when there is Black face and a White face together". There was a sharp intake of breath from the people who had been watching the whole event and I muttered "surely she didn't just say that". A young man nearby obviously heard me and replied "Oh she did - Unbelievable".
The manager was professionalism personified and just smiled gracefully, but it felt like a huge put down after all the trouble she had gone to.
As the lady in question was quite elderly (probably about my age) she probably didn't mean any harm, but I just wish people would think about what they are saying, because the way it came across was - the colour of your skin is spoiling my photo.
Anyway back to the day ahead.
As instructed, I was all packed up and waiting by reception ready to leave at 5.50, (I like to be on time and by now I knew it would take at least 5 minutes to stow my luggage, Deo’s luggage, the hamper and get all the camera stuff in position).
Today we were getting a breakfast box each as well as our lunch hamper and I had been quite looking forward to this. I’m not a massive fan of eating first thing in the morning and my plan was to turn the contents of my box into more of an elevenses snack.
Sadly, my digestive system had finally decided it had had enough of the vast quantities of rather spicy, very different food i’d been consuming all week and wasn’t playing nice.
An upset tummy on holiday isn’t very much fun for anyone, but for someone who only has half of their large intestine still intact, it’s a disaster of gargantuan proportions. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice to say - constipation has never been an issue since the op and never will be again.
I had come prepared with some super strength tablets from the pharmacy, but had already given half of them to Deo, when he was suffering earlier in the week. So I just had to hope those I had left would work well - and quickly, otherwise the contents of my breakfast box were never going to see the light of day and we were going to spend the whole morning hunting for a bathroom rather than wildlife!!
We packed the land cruiser in record time and were off.
Serena safari lodge is the closest accommodation to the gate and I think Deo was determined that we would be the first ones into the crater that morning.
Unfortunately, another early bird had beaten us to it, but second wasn’t bad going.
The view of the crater from anywhere around the rim, is pretty spectacular and once you get down to the floor, it’s equally beautiful.
It has flat plains, lot’s of watering spots for the animals, a wooded section and some hilly parts near the walls.
As the sun rose to bathe the crater in gorgeous early morning light, there were small herds of wildebeest and zebras dotted around. I saw another lone hyena
and a pair of jackals giving each other a bit
of a wash.
I was a bit confused by the hyena, because I had always thought they lived in packs and so far, I’d only seen solitary ones. My guide confirmed that I was right about them staying in packs, but apparently it’s quite common for individuals to go out scavenging alone.
Deo headed for the hills, stopped at a high point and started scanning the area with the binoculars. “you get a much better view from up here and I will see what I can find”, he said.
I was looking as well, but I couldn’t even see any tiny blobs - perhaps we were too early - even for the animals.
Deo asked if I was ready for breakfast and I said I would give it a go, but to be honest, I felt that eating anything, this far from a working loo was way too risky. So I continued to admire the view while he emptied the contents of his non vegetarian box in record time.
I’d seen a couple of large blobs off to my left, and after watching them for a minute, I thought I might know what they were, but didn’t want to show myself up - yet again!
Deo had glanced over mid sausage “ Ostriches” he said. “A male and a female and he is chasing her”.
Despite getting closer to us, they still looked like blobs to me, so I grabbed the bins and everything came into focus.
Mr Ostrich was hell bent of having his wicked way with her, but she was having none of it.
He was running flat out, but she managed to stay a safe distance ahead. Now she may just have been playing hard to get or maybe she wasn’t in the mood, either way, he flapped his wings and gave up.
I’m tempted to say “typical” , but I don’t want to offend my male readers so lets just agree that miss ostrich must be a 400 meter star of the animal olympics.
Once it was clear that her pursuer had given up, she dropped her head and had breakfast, a delicious concoction of mixed grasses.
He wandered off putting on a nonchalant air as if to say, “she was nothing special - plenty more ostriches in the crater”
And there was.
Looking up from the bins, I could see 2 more blobs in the other direction and mr ostrich was determinedly heading their way.
The 2 newbies were both stationary. She was busy eating ( it’s very easy to tell the sexes of ostriches apart by their colouring) and he was standing perfectly still watching her every move.
I’m not sure if he was waiting for the right moment to chat her up, but if he hung around too long, there was going to be a contender for her affections, as Mr Ostrich was getting closer by the minute.
“Will they fight”, I asked Deo. “No - the smaller male will just run away”.
Well they all looked the same size to me, but I suppose in the Ostrich world, millimetres count for a lot and in fairness, they were too far away for me to make a proper assessment.
Anyway, Deo was right and as soon as the first (bigger????) male made his intentions clear, the other one took off. Unfortunately for both of them, so did the object of their affections.
There she was, enjoying a nice early morning breakfast and all of a sudden her peace and quiet was shattered by the flapping of wings and the sound of ostrich feet thundering across the plain.
These girls are either tremendous athletes or the male’s larger size is due to him having too many beers down the pub with his mates, because once again, she easily outran him.
No sexy time for you, Mr Ostrich.
This second chase was too far away for my camera, but the bins gave me an excellent view.
After a another scan around the plains below, Deo said he hadn’t spotted anything - well that was a first. I asked him if he was looking for anything specific. “ Oh you know - lions - the usual”.
Actually I think he was looking for rhino, in the hope that on my final day - we would complete the big 5. Later he told me the rangers know where they are, but they never share that information with the guides.
After cracking a little joke about how much would we need to bribe them to tell us, I made it crystal clear to Deo that I was only kidding. If you were able to pay to see the Rhino ( illegally or otherwise) that would make this wildlife conservation area, no better than a zoo or a man made safari park.
As I’ve said before, the whole experience is about seeing wild animals actually in the wild; It’s their home and we have to remember we are the guests.
On our way down towards the plains, we passed some pretty streams and several water holes. It’s easy to see why the animals love this place so much. There is water here, all year round which is a tremendous bonus in the searing Tanzanian heat.
A large hippo was out of the water and ambling along in plain view. We watched him mosey around for a bit, eat a bit of grass and then make his way down a steep bank, disappearing back into the water below.
Immediately after, I spotted a small group of warthogs and this time, was able to watch them up close, without a sneaky lion waiting to pounce nearby. Of all the animals we had seen, I’d developed an unexpected affection for these little fellas. They were very odd looking, but I loved their fighting spirit in the face of adversity and most importantly the way they cared for their young. Deo showed off his ability to mimic a warthog ( he can do nearly all the animals) and after listening carefully, said he thought their were piglets in a hole. The mum (presumably) was hovering around the hole and kept putting her head down there. She would wander away to eat a bit of grass, then scuttle back to the hole to check all was well.
Deo confirmed was I was afraid of - if there were lions in the vicinity, the piglets were going to be toast.
Fortunately a combination of Deo’s fantastic eyesight and me with the bins, confirmed that the piggies were safe. For now. Phew!!
Making our way across the plains, I got a photo of vultures on a tree and some great shots of a large bird which (after several attempts) I was able to remember as being a Crown Crested Crane.
Then there were the Zebras. Thousands and thousands of zebras all heading in one direction.
“They are going to drink” announced Deo, “lets follow them”.
When we got near the watering place - a small river, Deo stopped the car and I stood there transfixed.
What an amazing thing to witness. So many zebras either on the bank or actually in the water, drinking their fill and then moving on so the next group had access.
During my safari there were many truly magical moments, but this one will stay firmly imprinted in my memory. I actually started to well up a bit and just kept saying “wow” over and over again.
We eventually moved on and I was able to get some lovely close ups of zebra as they were walking right next to and in-front of our vehicle.
By now, I was feeling the urgent need for a bathroom and Deo said we could go see some more hippos and make a loo stop all at the same time. Perfect.
This large pond/small lake was nothing like as frenetic as the hippo pool in the Serengeti. The odd fight broke out, but as there were far fewer hippos and a lot more space, they all seemed to be getting along quite well.
After a nice cup of coffee, a few cigarettes and several trips to the bathroom, we were ready to move on.
Elsewhere, we had seen herds of animals, but never on this scale. There were literally thousands of wildebeest, zebra and buffalo all heading somewhere. I got some good photos, but they simply cannot convey the spectacular nature of what we were seeing.
In another post I mentioned that they call the wildebeest the spare parts animal and promised to explain. Ramadan at the Serengeti visitors centre had told me what it means, but I couldn’t remember, so Deo ran through it again for me.
A wildebeest appears to have :-
The body of a hyena,
The legs of an antelope,
The stripes of a zebra,
The tail of a giraffe,
The mane of a horse,
The face of a baboon and
The horns of a cape buffalo.
What an amazing way to look at things.
On our way out of the crater we stopped by a watering place frequented by loads of different birds. Deo named them all, but sadly I can’t remember any of them. So for the bird lovers amongst you, here are a selection of photos - maybe you know what they are?
Now came the part I was dreading - The drive out of the crater.
Deo already knew about my morbid fear of driving on roads with long drops and no barriers, and was fully prepared for my reaction.
This road was going to be long, very steep and very narrow ( fortunately it’s just one way) with massive drops to the crater floor at every turn. Basically my worst nightmare.
Deo was brilliant. He drove slowly despite there being a few vehicles behind us and warned me which side of the car was going to be on the edge, so that I could move around in the back. There was absolutely no possibility of admiring the view, I just made a detailed examination of the sheer walls of the crater and I sweated and hyperventilated throughout the whole agonising 15 minutes it took us to reach the top.
Once we were back on the main road that skirts the rim, I thanked him profusely. I know he can drive that road with his eyes closed and usually does it in half the time, but as he had said on many occasions, he just wants me to be happy. Well there was no way I was ever going to be “happy” driving up that road, but by taking my paranoia seriously and doing his best, I din’t have a full blown melt down, which was great ( for him and for me).
So that was it.
The end of my wonderful, amazing, spectacular, phenomenal, brilliant, awe inspiring, incredible safari.
At the beginning I thought this would be a once in a lifetime experience, but now I’m not so sure. It’s time to start saving my pennies because I definitely definitely definitely want to do it again.
After clearing the main gate, and doing the paperwork, we had a long old drive back to Arusha.
Deo suggested we make a stop at the beautiful souvenir place where I had bought my tanzanite necklace to have our lunch and I agreed as I had an idea for another little pressy for someone ( don’t get excited friends and family - we’re not talking mind blowingly expensive gem stones here).
I made my purchase and joined Deo outside in the picnic area. My insides were still not up to eating the enormous lunch provided by the hotel, so I picked through my breakfast box instead. I felt a little better, but didn’t want to risk eating too much.
In the car on the way to Arusha, I had a little doze and fortunately Deo didn’t. I woke up with a start and immediately asked him If I’d been snoring. Knowing me, I probably had, but always the gentleman, he said I’d been perfectly quiet.
After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived back in Arusha and as we pulled up back at Christina House, I felt really sad.
The boys rushed out to take my luggage and Deo and I exchanged contact details. He said he thought it would probably be him taking me to the airport the following morning, but it wasn’t confirmed, so we had to say our goodbyes, just in case.
I promised to send him the link to this blog, gave him a big hug and thanked him over and over again.
Once inside, I gave him a final wave and reacquainted myself with the Christina House team.
I explained that I wasn’t feeling too clever and so despite ordering dinner before I left a week ago, I asked it would be possible to just have some soup and an omelette.
They said of course and offered to bring it up to the lovely seating area on the balcony so I could eat and make use of the great wifi at the same time.
Christina had some visitors sitting in the lovely garden but she still found time to pop up to see me, give me a hug and explain there had been a bereavement in the family . The visitors were all friends and relatives who had come together to support each other and it was lovely to hear them all chatting and laughing together.
For the rest of the day, I wrote another blog post, repacked all my luggage to get the main case under the 23kg weight limit for my next internal flight, had a lovely shower, and finished my lovely dinner. The electricity went off a couple of times, but apparently this was right across the area and it came back on fairly quickly, so my iPhone torch wasn’t needed for long.
As I settled into the enormous comfy bed ( after fighting my way through the regulation mosquito netting) I was full of anticipation for the next part of my trip - swimming with Whale sharks on Mafia Island.
I just had to get through another day of travelling including 2 more flights. Hopefully, unlike every other previous occasion, this one would go smoothly!!! We can but dream…………