Zanzibar and Safari Time

I apologize for being so hasty and vague in my last post, as I realize the famed Zanzibar deserves to garner a little more time and explanation than I gave it. However, I also would like to tell you about the four day safari I just took across the Tanzanian wilderness while simultaneously keeping this post short enough so that you will actually read it. Therefore I will now embark to fulfill all these criteria as well as I possibly can.



The night before we went to Zanzibar was spent trying to find an English pub in Dar Es Salaam. We had heard rumour through some means or another that this pub had the best fish and chips going; Arsenal also happened to be playing that night and we wanted to watch Premier football in an establishment that payed proper tribute to the leagues nationality. The only problem we faced was that we didn't know the name of the place. Small problem, right?

Somehow through vague hearsay from locals we got the notion in our head that the place was called the slip away Pub. Now the slip away itself in Dar is some fancy hotel on the harbour front, surrounded by a gaggle of choice stores; essentialy a strip mall on the waterfront. Knowing this, we were fairly confident that a pub could be hiding within the confines of the shopping area. That was the beginning of a very long and fruitless search, with everyone we asked pointing us in a different direction fifteen minutes walk away. With much frustration then, we finally ended up in a local place called the Q-bar, with the game thirty minutes old, and my want for a beer peaking.

The beer flowed. After the game (a disappointing draw from Arsenal) the sports bar miraculously shifted into a dance floor that had a live DJ and every song you've ever attempted at karaoke available for requests. No surprise then, we arrived back at our hostel late and rather intoxicated, and again no surprise that we walked to the port and boarded a two hour ferry journey in rather rough shape. It was the 'fast ferry' that we got on, but I still don't think it was quick enough for any of our likings. The Ferry, like every thing in Africa, would not be efficient if the management didn't take the opportunity to cram it full, well past the number of seats. Therefore, we spent the next two hour journey on the back deck by the engines, inhaling the fumes, feeling the pitch of the waves and keeping our eyes closed and breathing slow.

Landfall was sweet relief, and opting for the closest place, we made for the Bandari guest house - only three minutes walk from the harbour. Fun fact, Zanzibar has it's own immigration and you get another stamp in your passport for landing on the island; thankfully they didn't take the opportunity to charge you for another visa or something - although I'm surprised they don't. Bandari is a quaint little hostel, that much like all Zanzibar is a touch on the pricey side, with large rooms and complimentary breakfast. Luckily for us, they were willing to haggle the price down, but unluckily for us, across the road from our windows sat the local garbage container, full of trash and rotting fish, which always wafted in a nice smell when the breeze came from the ocean.



The shining gem of Bandari however was the TV for the guests to use, which was located just outside our room in the common area. Now I realize TV isn't much to get excited about, but aside from football in bars, I hadn't watched a thing since the first week of January. The three of us proceeded to sit in front of it well into the night, while watching such trash as top chef and wipe out. Brilliant programming!

The island itself is beautiful, and was a pleasure to explore. Zanzibar town is interesting, as it contains the widely known attraction of stone town which is then surrounded by a more sprawling and modern city. Stone town was a flashback to Lamu, with its close streets and maze like layout. It is missing the donkeys though, and instead has people on scooters and motorcycles zipping around the tight quarters.



Where Lamu has the advantage though, is with the street hawkers. The people trying to sell things near the ocean side in Zanzibar are so persistent and annoying that even if they had something you wanted you'd be inclined not to buy, just because they're too pushy. There is a fine line, and they all cross it. I had the same problem last night when I returned from safari and a guy I had never met was trying to get me to come to his hostel. If you spend six minutes pestering me after I just got out of a vehicle, gross from four days of tenting and dusty roads, I'm not going to cooperate with you, not a chance. And no, Zanzibar salesman, I don't need a scarf in forty degree weather, no it doesn't make it better if you give me three for ten, that just makes me warmer, no chasing me won't help. Know your target market!

Night time by the ocean is also very cool. In my last post I showed you pictures of the locals coming to jump into the waters at sunset. While this is going on, the local fisherman from the island congregate just down the coast and set up the nightly fish market. Every night all the fishermen set up grills and tables to cook up fresh all their catch from the day which they then sell to me, the tourist, at a marked up price. It is delicious. They have all sorts of skewers and chunks of who knows what sea creature, which they let you select and then take to the grill and cook in front of you. This was the first time I tried octopus, and it was actually pretty good.



From Zanzibar town we decided to head up the coast to the north of the island: Kendwa Beach. We decided to get there using public transportation, and with all our bags, climbed into the back of a dalladalla along with eighteen other people. The dalladallas are basically flatbed trucks with two rows of seats, open sides and a roof over top. Unfortunately for us it started to rain just minutes into our ride, and the powers that be lowered tarps down the sides, making the inside very dark and stuffy. I don't usually get motion sickness, but something about being in a closed space with the smell of eighteen locals and no air flow set my stomach off. Thankfully I didn't puke, and we managed to go about an hour and a half for 2000 shillings (roughly a $1.30). We later heard that people had taxied to Kendwa for as much as $40 American, suckers.

The main place to stay on the beach is a resort called Kendwa rocks, which fortunately also contains backpacker priced lodgings. This resort provided the building block for all the other resorts and the small town to crop up around. It was again fortunate for us that this happened, as food and drink was mind boggling pricey at our lodgings and we were able to wander just up the road for a more wallet friendly alternative. Aside from that, the resort contain a beautiful white sand beach, and the ocean was also a much nicer temperature than the soup near Zanzibar town.

After two nights we returned to ZT and decided to head back to Dar and move inland. The coast of Africa is beautiful, but it is over the top hot and the air is always about 100,000% humidity. Even if you're showering you're sweating, and life out from under the room fans is no fun. From Dar we decided to head to Arusha, the safari capital, and left early to the bus station to head out.

The ride from Dar to Arusha is a long one, and took us about ten hours all in. We arrived in the mid-evening and got off the bus tired and gross only to be assaulted by a horde of taxi drivers and safari totes. Much to their surprise, they couldn't understand why I was less than friendly while they were hounding me and pulling on me as I tried to get my bag out from under the coach. Jess, thankfully, had taken the time to map out where we would stay and it was a short walked from the station - we still managed to get no less than five cards from five people for the same safari company along the way though.

The next day we set out to find a well priced safari, and eventually made our way to no other than the place mentioned on the millions of cards we had been given the night before: meru treks. After surprisingly little debate, we had agreed to head out the very next day on a four day safari, which included Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro crater and Serengeti national parks.

We left early morning the next day and arrived out our campsite on a ridge overlooking lake Manyara just after noon. After dropping off the cook and the gear, we headed down towards the lake's national park, with cameras in hand and spirits high. The park by the lake was beautiful, and we managed to see all sorts of crazy African beasts, including many giraffes (possibly one of the strangest things going).



There was a spot by the lake where you could get out of the vehicle (at your own risk) and walk around near the hippo pond. It was a surreal field being on foot in an African park, as even though it seemed quiet enough, you couldn't help but wonder what was lurking around the next bush.



The next morning it was time to head into Ngorogoro crater, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful places on this planet. The crater is a conservation area and not a park, and as a result the local Masai people are allowed to enter and graze cattle on the one side of the crater. As you can imagine, it was quite the site as you descended to see zebras, wildebeest and a man herding cattle all in the same field of view.



At the center of the crater was a giant lake, and as you descended, the mountains rolled up on all sides in breathtaking fashion, until all you could see was rolling plains spotted with large herds of animals and back dropped by green peaks.





We spent close to five hours in the crater, and in that time I managed to see the last one of the animals needed to complete the big five. The big five in Africa includes the leopard, lions, elephants, buffalo and the rarest of all rhinos. I was able to see all of those except the last during my safari in Uganda. Much to my pleasure then, at a fair distance, we had the luck to see two rhinos grazing!



Later in the day, as we were about to ascend from the crater and head to the nearby campsite, we made a quick stop at the only bathroom in the whole area. The bathroom is located in the only wooded area of the park, and featured black faced vervet monkeys jumping and playing as you walked into the facilities. As we were heading back to the land cruiser, our driver was looking very anxious and waved at us to "get in the car, quickly!". As we got in, he pointed down the road towards a lone bull elephant that was making its way up the lane towards us.

Turning on the vehicle, our driver took us over to the side of the clearing away from the elephant. The elephant instantly turned and again started walking towards us. Coming close, again our driver started the vehicle and tried to maneuver around the far side of the giant beast. That is when it charged! Hitting the gas and shifting like a madman, the vehicle just lurched out of the way as the giant animal came withing feet of charging the back end of the vehicle. We rocketed down the road in disbelief as the elephant gave a few meters of intense chase and with a trumpet of defeat, turned back. It was one of the most scary and awesome things I've ever seen.




That night we camped on a flat area located on the rim of the crater. The conservation area sprawled out underneath us as we had dinner and went to our tents to retire for the night. In the early morning was when I first could hear the hyenas. From what sounded like the edge of the campground, you could hear them communicating with each other in brief yelps. We're told they come for the leftover food, but I'm just glad they didn't decided to test the durability of the nylon tents.

The following day we headed to the Serengeti for the last two days of our safari. The Serengeti is also gorgeous, but in a much different way then the crater. The endless plains of grass seem to sweep off endlessly in all directions like a green ocean that you can't see the end of. Spotting the terrain is rocky outcroppings and lone Acacia trees that provide a change from the overwhelming vastness of the gigantic grasslands.

On our way towards our campsite we got very lucky. Seeing two land cruiser parked a ways away, our driver turned on his radio to find out what they were looking at. As we got closer, we got a very good look. Sitting in a tree, munching on something very much dead, was a leopard. Circling fifteen feet below him, waiting for the scraps, was a single hyena! Although the cars started rolling in after us, we had about ten minutes of really good viewing before the area was packed with cars and the leopard decided he was done. It is rare to just see them, let alone have them sit there eating in front of you! So cool.



One of the more inconspicuous animals on the Serengeti in terms of looks is the Cokes Hartebeest. However, with a name like that, I refused to believe that they were not being sponsored from the world power Coca-Cola. Therefore I decided to take the time to make this advertisement, and perhaps Coke will decide to reimburse me at a later date:



That night we stayed at a campsite located among a copse of trees. Much like the restroom station in Ngorongoro, the area was spotted with monkeys, and baboons coming in an out of the grounds was not uncommon. We even had the chance to see one of them turn on the facet and start drinking! However, I guess it had never heard of conserving water, because I was the one who had to walk over and turn off the water when he had finished. Just after night fall is when the lions first started calling out in the distance, and we went to bed with the sounds of the wild thick in the air.

Our last game drive was the following morning, and was no less amazing than any of the others. In the cool morning air, the sun was rising as we made our way around the park before breakfast. We managed to see another glimpse of a leopard, thousands of buffalo, packs of hyena and even a group of a hundred or so wildebeest running past - which we were informed was part of the great migration that is just beginning.

After breakfast we packed up and prepared to head back to Arusha. However, before we were free and clear of the park, we saw the one animal that I had wanted to see the most: cheetahs! As we were approaching the main gate out of the park, two male cheetahs were lazily strolling along the road, and did not seem at all concerned when we pulled up next to them. You can never take a bad cheetah photo, and I think I took too many. Such beautiful creatures, and definitely my favourite as a kid.



The rest of the trip was uneventful, and upon returning we were given free lodgings in maybe the nicest rooms I've stayed in in Africa. Unfortunately, apart from the free night, they were too pricey for our blood and we moved out this morning. Looks like Moshi is tomorrow, and with it a view of mount Kilimanjaro.

Sorry for the length,

Thanks for reading,

Sean

This Post is Late... but, I saw a Leopard!

When blogging is going smoothly, and updating is consistent, the act of writing these posts can be a lot of fun, and quite relaxing. However, whenever I am actually busy enough to find myself postponed from posting, and activity and excitement is omnipresent - then blogging picks up an annoyingly frustrating quality. To be specific, the longer I go without posting, the more content I have to sift through to decide what is important of the everything that has happened. So, with much deliberation, I feel like I have made a suitable list of the essential points in regards to my goings on of the past couple weeks:

This is going to be long.

In my last post, I left you by saying that we were getting ready to have a goodbye party. However, unlike most goodbye parties, this one was to feature outfits composed of trendy buys from the Kisoro market place. Not much needs to be said. Things got messy. In a vote for best dressed, a tie was announced between Richard and Darja.

Richard, standing on a chair at one end of the table, was sporting the ensemble of a decade long past. His bright purple, sleeveless, nylon vest was glistening in the moonlight, while underneath it, just poking through the unthreaded zipper was a t-shirt that clearly said "Desert Storm, these colors don't run!" while a gaudy flag waved patriotically below.

Opposite him, posing proudly on a chair at the other end, was Darja. The best I can describe the dress she found is like a slap in the face. I'm not sure what earthly beast puked up this ribbon adorned chunk of fabric, but apparently that same beast donated it to Africa - because it was for sale at the market. The joke we made was, unfortunately for her, that it was standard Slovenian Sunday best, and she violated competition rules by bringing it from home.

After a close call, Darja won. The competition was pretty irrelevant, because everyone got equally destroyed, but an honourable mention goes out to Mike, who managed to assemble a 'classy' looking suit and touched it up with ladies plastic shoes.

After the party, and before we left Kisoro for good, we managed to clean up the last of the Ugandan Virungas. Mt. Gahinga, the smallest of the volcanoes in Mgahinga national park, was the last of the three for us to climb - and we didn't feel right to leave a job unfinished. So with much planning and hum-haing we set off early on our last day at the park to complete the set.

Gahinga lacks the sheer size of Muhavura, and the novelty and beauty of Sabinyo, yet seems to have forged its own identity that is just right. The climb up was rather nondescript, reminiscent to the beginnings of Muhavura in how it was a steep climb through bamboo forest. Our guide made us stop a bunch of times, but my least favourite among them was when he wanted to show us a hive of African honey bees. As he stopped us to see the bees, he simultaneously parked us over a nest of fire ants. About the time that people started jumping around to get the ants out of their pants, was when I got stung in the head. At least we made up some lost time as we spent the next five minutes running up the hill.

However, regardless of some of the climbs' lesser points, waiting at the top of the modest 3400m summit is a rather pleasant little swamp. It seems almost absurd to find it up there, as it is just so out of place for a mountain top, but it did allow for a string of beautiful and goofy photos before we had to start back down. This climb also marked the start of my cough.

Later that evening, we said our final goodbyes to the town and district of Kisoro and headed off in a private cab towards Kibale and Lake Bunyonyi. Thinking myself pretty smart, I managed to walk off with a pretty neat souvenir. I found out through rumour and hearsay that Ugandan flags were purchasable at the local school supply outlet, and went about getting all the staff at the the community camp and the hostel to sign it. I'm not sure why, but they all seemed so thrilled to just be allowed to participate in something so simple. They felt good, I got a really neat signed flag.

Arriving in Kibale around 9 pm, we checked into a classy little hostel called the Edirisa. The Edirisa contains a cultural museum that it claims is the purpose for the building - but as far as I can tell nobody goes to it. That evening we had a meeting with some Slovenian contact of Darjas' who had arranged to hook us up with a canoe trek around lake Bunyonyi on the following day.

My feelings about the trek are mixed. First off, the normal 90,000 Ush price tag was waved for us as we were to be guinea pigs in the planning of a new guided trek. This was good. However, I've found out in the past bit that I don't have the stomach for contrived, heavily guided 'cultural tours' that are basically human safaris. Furthermore, the title of one day canoe trek is a little misleading, as we spent less than one of the nine hours in the canoe. This meant that there was about eight hours of hiking around a lake, the day after I climbed a volcano, and with a cough that was worsening. Those are the downsides.

The tour started bright shiny, and we were to leave the hostel by no later than 8:00 am, so that we'd have lots of time to make it to the lake from Kabale for the 9 am start. Promptly at 7:15, with a menu promising faster than normal (15-20 minute) breakfast wait times, I ordered my breakfast: eggs and sausages. At exactly 8:15 am, still without breakfast, the waitress, Agnes, returned to tell me there were no sausage. I went without breakfast, hurray!

Leaving the launch site at 9:30, we headed across the bay to the landing site; and the started of our 8 hour trek over land (sans canoe). Stops included a sing song at the local nursery school (really fun), a lecture from a local healer (75% of his random bag of plants were anti-witchcraft) and finally weird lunch and craft time from a local family. Although the healer was a laugh, the crafts time was actually a bit of a hoot; but not because I did any crafts.

While everyone was trying to weave silly bracelets, I was lying off to the side in the sun, unknowingly making myself a target for pillaging by the children. As I was looking through some photos I had taken, one of the girls started reaching for my camera with her grimy hands and quickly relieved me of it.
Once that had happened, everything on my person became fair game, and my sunglasses were quickly confiscated. Then, once they learned that my sunglasses were obtainable, they went off and took EVERYONES sunglasses. I created monsters. However, the one that yoinked my camera did take some cute shots before I managed to relegate it back to proper safety.

After another quick spin in the canoe on turbid waters, and a dinner consisting of the best crayfish masala ever made, the day was under wraps, and we were taken back into Kabale. Not yet satisfied with the lake, as our introduction was under artificial pretences, Jess and I decided to head back out the next day and live it up a little bit. Using bodas, we flung our full packs over the handlebars and chugged back out to Bunyonyi in the early afternoon. The hostel we chose was a small little place called crater bay cottages. We were trying to meet up with Mike and Richard who had headed out the day previous in lou of the canoe trek, and that was the spot they told us to meet them.

Crater Bay cottages, as the name suggests, contains cottages - which were the first things that the reception staff tried to entice us with. After a price tag of 64,000 was stated, we assured them that it was in their best interest to think cheaper.

"We have tents for 15,000 a night"

"Um. Ten thousand?"

"..."

"..."

"OK."

So that is how Jessica and I ended up staying in Ugandan surplus army tents for four nights on the side of a lake. It is just a funny coincidence, as it turned out that Richard had a similar conversation the previous day that went something like this:

Staff: "Rooms are 15,000 a night"

Richard: "Anything cheaper?"

Staff: "You can have the discount, but you have to ask for it."

Richard: "Can I have the discount?"

Staff: "Yes, we can give you the room for 10,000"

It should be this easy everywhere.

Lake Bunyonyi is one of many freshwater lakes in Uganda, but unlike so many of the others, it is free of the ever-unfun Bilharzia worm, and is interestingly enough the deepest lake in Uganda; second deepest in Africa, and third in the world, as we were informed, measuring somewhere near 6,500 feet deep. One fun sign on the side of the changing room informed us with an extra zero and an ominous skull and cross bones that the lake was in fact 65,000 feet deep and that swimming was at our own risk; so 'pliz' be careful. This sparked many fun debates as to what may exist at the bottom of a lake that punctures the mantle of the earth.

Everything was not all fun and games though, as my cough had developed into a full blown cold by our second day in the district. I wish cold was accurate, but in reality I felt more like death warmed over. When we went for dinner the first night, I found myself mid-evening lying on the dock shivering while the others played pool. The real scary part is that when I went through the checklist of symptoms, 90% banged head on with the onset of malaria. Fearing for my well being, I did the only thing possible from a man at a resort in a region with terrible health care: I relaxed and swam and drank my heart out until the sickness had no other option than to accept defeat and realise it would not ruin my good time.

Four days and one massive night later, I was feeling a lot better. I'm pretty sure I just picked up some crazy African flu bug, and even now I still have some remanent of the cough. Amen it wasn't malaria though.

As we packed to leave the lake, we began planning for our next destination. The consensus of the group was for us to head up to Queen Elizabeth national park, and we agreed to travel to Kasese, where I am currently writing this. The problem with Kasese however, is that no guide book likes to tell you how to get here, or vaguely references it as impossible. As a result, it took a lot of asking and searching before we managed to get dropped off in the taxi park next to a minibus that we were assured was heading this way. Spoiler alert, it was.

Though there was no surprise in the trip as far as unwanted destinations go, the surprise came from the vehicle itself. These minibuses are nothing spectacular; containing four rows of seats, each with a fold down jumper seat such that approximately three riders could be on each bench, the estimated number of total passengers for a fully loaded bus is twelve. The ride was only 160 km, which should take about 3-4 hours, and if it didn't stop much, we'd get there quickly.

Reality Check: Mid ride we had an estimated twenty six people in that glorified van. The total travel time was about seven hours. We stopped for EVERYTHING.

Forget it, Kasese time! Kasese is a town that I would say is fairly typical of what I am coming to expect from East Africa: couple roads, handful of banks, power intermittently and a grocery run by an Indian man. The big difference? The big different between Kasese and every other place I've been to so far is that it borders on Queen Elizabeth national park; the first park to fit my stereotypical view of Africa as sweeping savannah plains spotted with trees and copious wildlife. It is awesome. Even as we were driving across the park to Kasese in our wheeled sardine can we almost hit an elephant! COPIOUS, CONSPICUOUS, UBIQUITOUS WILDLIFE!

No surprise then, that we were quick to head out on safari. This morning at 5:30, picked up at our hostel by a driver, we headed out into the park for our day of awesome. Five minutes down the road, in the distant glow of the head lamps, our driver claims to have seen a lion. We're ecstatic! We haven't even left the public paved road cutting through the park, and already we have lions! But then:

Driver: "Oh! No, no! Not lion! Leopard!"

Sure enough, as we drove closer, it was a clear as day leopard stalking along the side of the road. Unfortunately I was unable to take a picture due to the lighting, but car or not, I was all of ten feet from a sweet big ol' kitty. After a little bit of head light on/off cat and mouse it finally decided to take its leave of us; but the tone for the day was set. When you see leopards five minutes in, the rest is gravy.

Sure enough, the rest of our early morning safari game drive proved fruitful. We saw a herds of cobs and buffalo, scampering warthogs and a lot of lions. The highlight after the leopard was a particular male lion. His back leg was lame and he was separated from his pride, as if he had been cast out. To add to his misery, he was being harassed and chased endlessly by a single hyena, which pursued him around a bush and out of site.

After the game drive, we headed further into the park to a section of forest that reminded me exactly of the Amazon in South America. While there we managed for a reasonable price to track and ultimately find chimpanzees. Although I loved seeing the gorillas, this trek made me resent that whole ordeal (look at my blog called Gorillas! for clarification). For 1/10th the price and 1/3 the time commitment I was able to spend an hour with another of the worlds great primates. They are truly amazing beasts.

To round off the day we proceeded back towards Kasese and entered the plains area of the park near the channel between Lake George and Lake Edward. For a reasonable price, we managed to book a boat safari up and down the channel between the two lakes. It was here that we got to see the giants of the waters; hippos and crocodiles were around in an endless abundance. I never realized that hippos existed in such numbers, but my god, they are everywhere!

On the drive back to town we were reflecting on out days viewings, and lamenting on the fact that the only thing we really didn't see many of were elephants. We pleaded with our driver to take us to a spot with elephants, and he acquiesced to take us to the one spot he knew where they liked to go to drink. Sadly, there were none there, and we headed back to town in defeat. That was until about ten minutes later, when the driver slammed the breaks and excitedly squealed: "Elephants!". True to his word, on the side of the road, ten feet off, eating the grass, was a herd of elephants. I'll say it again, when you start with a leopard, everything else is gravy.

With the exception of a quick stop at the equatorial line, that essentially brings you entirely up to speed. The line is pretty non-descript, just a little sculpture saying "Uganda's Equator' but apparently the placement is so precise that water spinning out of a bucket will be in different directions on either side, and straight in the middle.

Heading to Fort Portal tomorrow, lets see how many we can get in the bus!

Thanks for reading,

Much Love

Sean