The Serengeti is the place to be

I have arrived back in Arusha safely, having not been eaten by the big cats or trampled by buffalos or elephants. I was a bit worried when seeing Tanzania was so green that we would not see much game as in game parks in southern Africa, the animals disperse throughout the park and don't need to visit waterholes when the vegetation is green and moist. Most viewing is done at waterholes and these are especially busy in the dry season. However, this is not the case up here because the animals go on migration every year. Vast herds of wildebeast, zebras and buffalo and their attendant predators migrate down from Kenya late in the year to the lush pasture in the Serengeti and give birth in February. Because the Serengeti soil is on a relatively shallow lava base, grasses can grow but the hard underbase stops trees taking root, except where there are streams, so the area of flat grasslands is huge ( big sky country ) and at the moment has millions of animals are far as the eye can see. A really spectacular sight. On our first afternoon in the park, we saw a a pride of lions, 2 cheetahs and a leopard which crossed the road inches from the front of our safari vehicle, as well as heaps of giraffes, elephants and gazelles ( mainly Thompsons and Grants ). Then on our one full day driving around we sighted more lion prides ( though no full grown males ) , a leopard with her cub playing in a tree, another leopard, hienas, hartebees, toppis, and other animals I have probably forgotten at this moment.

Adjacent to the Serengeti is the Ngorongoro conservation area where the wild animals mix with the Maasai people ie it's like a national park with traditional farming included. The Maasai are allowed to graze their cattle and goat herds with the wild animals and they live in fenced villages throughout this area. They mainly still can live their traditional lifestyle and still wear traditional clothing. We did pay a visit to one where they performed some dances and the gave us guided tours around their village and talked about their lifestyle. Their diet is based on meat, milk and blood ( extracted from live cows ). Once becoming Maasai warriors, having killed a lion singlehandedly, they are permitted as many wives as they can afford. A wife is exchanged for cattle. Each wife lives in her own mud hut with her children ( and any baby calves or goats ). Really interesting and not nearly as touristic as I expected. It is a hard life and many do leave if they can get a good education and job or start a business in the outside world. I met one chap who had his own motorcycle repair business near one of our early campsites.


Ngorongoro is a caldera or collapsed volcaco, about 20kM across with a year round water supply ( a large lake in the centre ) . Inside this crater is a marvellous array of animals in a really small area. The crater rim is about 500 m above the crater and we camped the night on the rim. Wild buffalo grazed around the tents during the night and an elephant was just outside the campsite. Indeed the campsite within the Serengeti was also unfenced so any wild animal could pop in for a visit. Apparently a hiena did visit one night but I didn't hear it.


On the lake in Ngorongoro were large flocks of flamingoes. This time we got to see hienas up close, a pair of lions copulating right beside the road and a old male lion resting beside a recently slaughtered buffalo as well as lots of rhinos though these were some distance away from us and could only be seen clearly through glasses.

The roads within the parks are quite rough and nearly everyone travels around a long wheel based 4WD Toyotas with a safari company. There were 14 in our tour so we had 2 vehicles as well as a support car that carried our supplies, camping equipment and support crew. Indeed, we did seem to have too many support staff with a tour leader, 2 driver/guides, a cook and assistant cook and supply vehicle driver who looked after the tents ie putting then up and down for us in each camp. The most valuable was the driver/guide and we had a very good chap...knew heaps about the animals and how to find them and then be a bit aggressive in positioning the vehicle amongst all the others so we got as close to the game as possible! Sometimes the presence of the tour leader was a case of more is less as when he was in our vehicle, we had less room and he insisted on occupying the front passenger seat ( the prime viewing site ). Equipment standards were excellent with relatively new vehicles and brand new camping equipment. Maybe we were the lucky ones at the beginning of the equipment replacemet cycle. I seemed to be the odd one out when it came to assessing food quality as all the North Americans seem to rave about the food whereas I thought it very ordinary and not nearly as good as we had in Botswana/Namibia where 1 cook managed to do much better in much shorter time periods. I did think they might have provided us with some game meat. Maybe another example of more is less!!


Also having 10 out of 14 from North America we did tend to have quite a bit of mutual backslapping and I think the tour leader tended to cater for this, asking all the time if everything was good. A bit over the top for us folks from the other part of the world but overall an excellent tour.

The other 5 tour members who joined us in Arusha were a Canadian solder serving in Afghanistan ( though if I had to guess his nationality I would have been 95% sure he was America ) , 2 American women from DC and 2 lads from London ( another 2 musicians!). For the 2 vehicles, one was all Canadian (they had all been togther on a 1 week Kenya tour ). No dramas on tour, everyone got along fine.


Most of the local Tanzanians are friendly though in high tourist spots the souvenir selling can be a bit intense.


I'm taking a shuttle bus this afternoon to Moshi and start the "trek" tomorrow.

For those not members of facebook yet, photos can be found @ these links for a while :
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141691&id=656590962&l=89dfd7ab7e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141704&id=656590962&l=d07290dca9

It's Monday so must be Tanzania

Flights to Nairobi went well, on time and only 1/3 full. Received nearly $150 VAT refund leaving South Africa. For some unknown reason I got into Kenya without needing a visa. Everyone else paid $50!! Will be in a group of 14 on the 1st tour. Have met 9 so far. The rest join us here in Arusha. There are 3 Canadian couples, with one couple being the daughter and partner of another couple. There is also a single French Canadian from Montreal. They have already done a week trip in Kenya together. My room -mate and I joined in Nairobi. Harri is 1/2 way through a 1 year sabbatical from his job as a music teacher as well he turns 50 soon. He has a wife and 3 children back home in Finland. Seems a good guy.


Last night all the Canadians went out for dinner with the guide from their previous trip so it was just Harri & I and our new tour leader, a 35yr old Tanzanian. Went to Carnavores, a vegetarian restaurant.... no only joking. It was a bit of a tourist trap where you consumed all the meat you could eat. Mostly the regular meats with some osterich meatballs ( good ) and crocodile ( awful ). Quite expensive so not a good start as far as our tour leader is concerned.


Today's trip by a 24 seater bus was really just a postioning drive as we get proper safari vehicles tomorrow. The 268kM drive was over some terrible roads though there was much road reconstruction as well as new roads being built . I think the cycle this time is being " donated" by the Chinese who will be extracting their pound of flesh or more accurately tons of minerals from the deal. I say cycle as I suspect aid donors build new roads but nobody pays for maintenance so they disintegrate and the cycle starts all over again.


Got brief glimps of the massive massif Kili today. From afar, it's huge!!!


Many of the local people in the area we drove through wear their colourful traditional clothes, mainly red colours in Kenya and purple here. You know these if you have seen pictures of the Maasai people. Both sexs wear flowing blankets and with lots of earrings and necklaces.


The wet season has lasted longer than normal this year, after devastating droughts in recent years, so the countryside is green with lots of acacia trees.


Will not have internet access for about a week.

The Big African

http://www.gapadventures.com/trips/tanzania-wildlife-adventure/DTWA/2010/

http://www.gapadventures.com/trips/kilimanjaro-trek-lemosho-route/TDTKLN/2010/

This is where I am headed tomorrow. Leave home about 5 am after waking up every hour or so to make sure the alarm clock is working and on the way to the airport will worry if I have secured everything at home.

Flights are Cape Town - Jo'berg - Nairobi and return.

I probably will be out of internet range most of the time though it should be available in Arusha and Moshi.

I am traveling under my own steam for a couple of stretches by local bus between Arusha and Moshi and then Moshi back to Nairobi.

Back on anti-malarial tablets again!

Will be back home 3 Feb.

Into the wilds of Cape Town

Turned an exercise of collecting a new camera into an expedition out onto the other side of Cape Town yesterday as well as to save R76 in delivery charges. Took a taxi into town and then a bus out through the poorer and industrial suburbs of Salt River, Maitland and Milnerton to reach Century City adjacent to the N1 highway leading north. This complex of grand business park, one of the poshest shopping malls in Africa and extensive residential development, much of it highrise, is relatively new as it wasn't here last century. The shopping mall is another one of those places that if you woke up from a deep sleep here, you would never guess you were in Africa.

You must have plenty of time to use the buses here as service frequency is low...some times only running once per hour but strangely there was no direct taxi service.


Prior to Christmas, I met a university student from Jo'berg whose parents worked for one of the partners in the development of Century City. Obviously a very wealthy man. Mickey's father did some sort of security/driver job and his mother was a housekeeper for the man's daughter and her young family. The developer and his family flew down to Cape Town for Christmas/New Year and Mickey's family drove the merc down for use here. He put them up in a comfortable hotel in Green Point though they did have childcare responsibilities as I know Mickey was taking the kids to the aquarium one day. I asked him about safety in Jo'berg and he said as they live "on the job" in the best part of town, it wasn't really a problem but did say that on his very first day going to university, he was held up by a kid with a gun and given the ultimatum....your cellphone or your life. Mickey did what he now admits was stupid and took off and didn't stop running until he got into a taxi. He now uses a didn't route to get to varsity.

Update Derivative

Within 2 hours of writing yesterday's blog, Sylvia appears back on the scene. She also does jobs in neighbouring properties. I did my best in the nicest possible way to tell her she is no longer required as I will be going away.


Ta..da..daa daaaaaa

All sorted out and passport back in my hands.


I did my last training climb of Table Mountain yesterday as well as to re-work in my hiking boots. The mountain put on a beautiful scene, with the perfect table cloth. However, this did mean the top was covered by a moist cloud and very high winds. The siren blew as I reached the summit, meaning the cable car would cease operations in 15 minutes. My knees complain too much on climbing down these days so I had to rush across to the top station to get the 2nd last car down. On the road below, I met a nice family from Brisbane here on holiday. On the penultimate climb last Friday, I guided a group of English tourists up the mountain...2 girls 17 days into a 7 month backpacking trip around the world and an older man teaching in Chile. However, one of the girls asked if I had any snacks as she was feeling faint. On asking if she was diabetic, she replied that she often feels faint....and here was a situation where there was not an item of food between the 3 of them, attempting to climb up 1000 metres past warning signs about the dangers of using this particular route. I gave her half my lunch ( an apple ) ...the mind just boggles.

Driver's licence renewal forms with all the required statutory witnessed documents ( by a local police officer ) , photos and money are on their way to Brisbane. Let's see how smoothly this one goes!!

Will collect a new camera tomorrow.

Housemaid's Knees and Updates

Sylvia, my maid appears to have run away. She told me before Christmas that her husband had died the previous year and his family had requested she return to his village as they were preparing something for his grave. She told me she would contact me when she was going to return but alas no word from her as yet. So back to the old regime one practices in richer countries of DIY. I have another guest arriving whilst I am away so I must get the place clean and tidy before I depart Sunday. However, I do have a plan to partly solve this issue when I get back.


Update on passport : from the PO website, the track & trace system indicates it arrived at the PO Sea Point depot Friday night and I expected it to be delivered yesterday. So if it is not delivered today, another trip ( with silly hat ) to post office.

For those who can remember the "Dell experience" ( as described near the beginning of this blog ) the numeric keypad on my laptop is playing up and getting help from Dell is turning out to be as difficult as earlier efforts.

My Queensland driver's licence expires March so I am about to commence the journey on getting this renewed from afar. First step will be finding a police officer to witness signatures. 

I am about half way through my 6 month stint here in Cape Town and have decided to skip the UK when I leave in April and go straight through to Trieste in Italy and then on to warmer climes.

Race in South Africa

Race has always been a factor in South African life. During the apartheid ( state of being apart ) years, keeping the races separate was the aim of increasingly draconian laws. Mixed marriages were prohibited and interracial sex was made illegal. Each South African was required to carry an identity document with an associated race classification. This determined where the holder could live, travel, play, learn and work or even do toilet business.

 I will mention race in future stories and use the common classifications that are acceptable to use today. Other very derogatory terms were used during the apartheid years but the terms white, black and coloured are in common use now and are acceptable. I thought I might describe these grouping as the term "coloured" can be confusing for those who have not been to South Africa. These are as I understand them and may not be as accurate as say coming from a local.

Coloureds are the majority race here in the Western Cape province of which Cape Town is the capital. Coloureds can be divided into 4 subgroups : mixed race , Indians, Malays and other Asians. Most in the Western Cape are mixed race and most have been "coloured" for many generations i.e. coloureds have married coloureds. Indeed if you ask many coloured people "what is your ethnic background?", the answer will usually be "coloured". They may have no idea when the actual mixing of races occurred and it may have been centuries ago when the first Dutch explorers and settlers arrived. Indians and Malays were imported into South Africa as reliable slaves/workers by early colonial governments. Indeed Gandhi spent time in Natal prior to becoming famous. Those of Indian descent are more common in Kwazulu-Natal province but there is a large number of descents of Malay workers in Cape Town and most of these are muslims.

Whites can be divided according to language, Afrikaans and English speakers, being in general descents of the very early Dutch ( Boer ) and later English settlers and administrators. They can in general terms be thought of as being on the right and left of the political spectrum respectively.

Blacks, by far the largest group within the country can be divided into many tribal groups. The largest are Xhosa ( the X is a click sound ) and Zulu. Both the first two presidents of the new South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki were Xhosa from the Eastern Cape province of which Port Elizabeth is the key city. The current president Jacob Zuma is a Zulu from what is now called Kwazulu-Natal province of which Durban is the capital on the Indian ocean coast. Some other tribes are Tswana, Ndebele, Swazi, Shangaan, Venda & Pedi.

There are also many "immigrants" in the country, both legal and illegal from other African countries as well as a large number of refugees.

Despite the end of apartheid with the first general election in 1994, most people still seem to marry within their own tribal/racial subgroups.

Today, you see many young people socialising within mixed racial groups but very rare to see older people doing the same.

Heart Attacks

Two incidents this week could have provoked heart attacks, both happened on Monday. On going down to the Post Office to check on the whereabouts of my passport ( it was supposed to be getting a Tanzanian visa ) I noticed the realestate office which is holding 2 months worth of my rental bond had cleared out of their offices with just a "To Let" notice on the door.

A quick trip back home and telephone call revealed that they had just moved across the road and were still in business...phew!!

However, the passport story saga continues. I sent the passport to the Tanzanian High Commission in Pretoria by registered post with equally registered return envelope on 14 December. However, on Monday this was still uncollected at the Pretoria post office. After very many attempted calls, I managed to find someone at the High Commission that would collect the mail and have it processed. This has apparently happened and it is on it's way back to Cape Town though I found out today that the tracking number originally provided has now changed and hence why the Post Office had no trace of it when I checked this morning.

I leave Cape Town for Nairobi 17th ( hopefully !! ).

Just some of the joys of living in Africa.