Sunday, August 05, 2007
Flat tire in the Serengeti…with no tire iron?!?
I highly recommend taking a safari if you are ever in this part of the world. Of course riding over rocky, washboard roads for hours at a time better be a passion if you do choose to go on safari. Luckily I love this type of thing so I enjoyed the hell out of the whole experience.
We started in the Lake Manyara park that is a couple of hours out of Arusha and thankfully over a fairly decent tarmac surface. Here we met a couple from Calgary who are the in-laws of a guy from Cranbrook that I was a year ahead of me in school and a good friend of the Wilson twin’s older brother. We had a short chat with them while Hamisi, our driver, paid our park fees and we were soon on our way.
Hamisi soon blew our minds with his spotting abilities. He was driving through a jungle type environment with over-hanging trees and lush greenery everywhere. All of a sudden he slammed on the brakes and pointed to the treetops a hundred feet in the air, “vulture,” he said matter-of-factly. He told us which tree and we all stared for ages and finally spotted this little bit of grey, sleeping vulture. How he saw this I don’t know. I think it may be a fake that the guides have climbed up and planted there just so they can amaze the tourists with their abilities right off the bat. But he proved himself time and again, so I may be wrong.
We drove deeper into the park and saw blue monkeys right by the roadside and soon came upon a gang of baboons chowing down in a low tree. We stopped to take pictures and observe their behaviours. They were eating a seedpod from the tree that looked similar to a soya been pod only longer and thinner. They chucked a bunch of these onto the roof of the truck and we were afraid, especially because of the rotten smell, that they may also throw – or simply drop – something less clean onto us. When we could no longer stand the smell and the disgusting appearance of the Baboon butts, we moved on to find more animals.
We were soon granted the privilege of viewing the largest land mammals, Elephants. These creatures are amazing to see and watch. We watched them saunter in small groups through the woods and across the road. We were mostly watching females, when all of a sudden an enormous male stirred up some dust and made a terrible noise on the road ahead. He proceeded to chase a smaller male a few hundred meters through the woods, trumpeting and crashing though trees as he went. “Very dangerous!” said Hamisi. We silently agreed, with signs of awe all over our faces. The pictures of the Elephants are great but still do not do justice to their awesome presence.
Soon the woods gave way to open wooded grasslands where the Giraffes appeared. These animals are funny looking as you know and even more so in person. They stood with the beautiful backdrop of lake Manyara and had their pictures taken with grace and poise…hahaha. They were quite geeky looking but fun to watch and we watched for some time. There were twenty or more throughout the day and scatterings of Zebras as well. We were all thrilled to see Zebra as they seemed to be the favorite animal to that point. I myself preferred the Elephants but what do I know.
The day flew by and before we knew it we had to head up to the lodge at the precipice of the Manyara valley. The view from here was breathtaking! Abby loved running on the grass yard as we enjoyed the view and Nik and I enjoyed a beer under a…grass roofed structure while B&B took a swim. We spoke to a couple of guys from South Africa who were in Tanzania on mining business but taking a break for a safari. They were loving their trip and explained a bit about all the mines in Tanzania. There are many diamond mines around the country as well as a few gold mines. They said that the movie Blood Diamonds is not far from the truth throughout Africa. They were interesting if not a bit arrogant. But, we soon finished our beers and headed for the room to relax before dinner.
The meals on the safari are buffet style with a large variety of vittles and desserts to temp those on the most strict of diets. Of course no diet stood in my way and I ate more than I have eaten in the entire time I have been in Tanzania. And boy those pounds added up…oh actually they didn’t!! They came off in small numbers. I came back from 4 days of heavy eating – we’re talkin’ three helpings of main courses, mainly meat, and five to seven desserts with each dinner, 4 sausages, 3 eggs and a heap of bacon for breakfast – and no exercise, with 4-6 less pounds on my butt. More on this later…
From Mayara we started for the Serengeti via the rim of Ngorogoro crater. This was a good drive on tarmac up to the gates of Ngorogoro park. We then continued along a breathtaking mountain road through a dense jungle with some nice views back toward Lake Manyara. We passed a rare accident along the way between a large truck and a safari vehicle. It appeared that the larger vehicle had been in the wrong place around a tight, blind corner and ran the safari vehicle into the trees. This is a very bad thing in the parks and each vehicle would be levied a fine for the accident. The fine is not much, about $200, but here that is a lot of money. There are other fines in the parks; $50 for driving off road, $50 for not getting out of the park on time, $20 for driving on the wrong side of the road, $20 for feeding grass to a carnivore and $500 for taking a compromising picture of a philandering elephant.
We reached the top of the crater rim at around 10AM and quickly snapped some pictures before heading down the other side of the crater and into the Serengeti. We passed some amazing scenery along the way including rolling plains, Masai villages and wandering herds. By the time we reached the main gate to the Serengeti we were hungry and while Hamisi paid our park fees we hunted down a table under the Acacia trees. The starlings were as hungry as us even though they appeared full and showed us this by crapping on me, Bob and Betty. So this started our Serengeti experience shitty way but we remained optimistic, finished eating, changed our clothes and mounted the cruiser and were on our way.
The Serengeti is the Africa that I think of, or thought of in Canada; flat, grassy plains with the odd acacia tree and Gazelle bouncing around. I know there were also a few Cheetah hiding in the grass but at this point we hadn’t seen any. What we did find along the long road was a flat front tire. I asked Hamisi if he needed any help and he surprisingly accepted. Bob and I jumped to his side in the park, where no one is aloud out of the vehicle. We quickly found that there was no Tire Iron (spanner) in the vehicle and set to removing the spare with a well-worn 21MM box wrench. Bob and I managed to push Hamisi out of the way and figured out the best way to make this worn out tool work. Hamisi removed the jack from the rear of the Cruiser and set it up under the bush bumper. He took the water bottle that had been sitting on the bumper the entire trip and lubricated the jack with the water inside. We began to attempt to remove the wheel nuts with the box-end wrench but didn’t get far before another safari vehicle stopped to see if we needed help. The driver quickly produced a tire iron and we set to work. We had the spare ready to go on in short order and I lifted it into place and gave it a good push. This nearly took the truck off the jack and everyone screamed at me. I chuckled inside at my good luck (it didn’t fall). We cranked it on and returned the tire iron to the other driver. I thanked him and he said, “you may be coming to my aid in twenty minutes, Hamna Shida!” The funny thing is, we didn’t think too much about the hiding Cheetah or Lions and they thankfully didn’t think too much of us.
We started in the Lake Manyara park that is a couple of hours out of Arusha and thankfully over a fairly decent tarmac surface. Here we met a couple from Calgary who are the in-laws of a guy from Cranbrook that I was a year ahead of me in school and a good friend of the Wilson twin’s older brother. We had a short chat with them while Hamisi, our driver, paid our park fees and we were soon on our way.
Hamisi soon blew our minds with his spotting abilities. He was driving through a jungle type environment with over-hanging trees and lush greenery everywhere. All of a sudden he slammed on the brakes and pointed to the treetops a hundred feet in the air, “vulture,” he said matter-of-factly. He told us which tree and we all stared for ages and finally spotted this little bit of grey, sleeping vulture. How he saw this I don’t know. I think it may be a fake that the guides have climbed up and planted there just so they can amaze the tourists with their abilities right off the bat. But he proved himself time and again, so I may be wrong.
We drove deeper into the park and saw blue monkeys right by the roadside and soon came upon a gang of baboons chowing down in a low tree. We stopped to take pictures and observe their behaviours. They were eating a seedpod from the tree that looked similar to a soya been pod only longer and thinner. They chucked a bunch of these onto the roof of the truck and we were afraid, especially because of the rotten smell, that they may also throw – or simply drop – something less clean onto us. When we could no longer stand the smell and the disgusting appearance of the Baboon butts, we moved on to find more animals.
We were soon granted the privilege of viewing the largest land mammals, Elephants. These creatures are amazing to see and watch. We watched them saunter in small groups through the woods and across the road. We were mostly watching females, when all of a sudden an enormous male stirred up some dust and made a terrible noise on the road ahead. He proceeded to chase a smaller male a few hundred meters through the woods, trumpeting and crashing though trees as he went. “Very dangerous!” said Hamisi. We silently agreed, with signs of awe all over our faces. The pictures of the Elephants are great but still do not do justice to their awesome presence.
Soon the woods gave way to open wooded grasslands where the Giraffes appeared. These animals are funny looking as you know and even more so in person. They stood with the beautiful backdrop of lake Manyara and had their pictures taken with grace and poise…hahaha. They were quite geeky looking but fun to watch and we watched for some time. There were twenty or more throughout the day and scatterings of Zebras as well. We were all thrilled to see Zebra as they seemed to be the favorite animal to that point. I myself preferred the Elephants but what do I know.
The day flew by and before we knew it we had to head up to the lodge at the precipice of the Manyara valley. The view from here was breathtaking! Abby loved running on the grass yard as we enjoyed the view and Nik and I enjoyed a beer under a…grass roofed structure while B&B took a swim. We spoke to a couple of guys from South Africa who were in Tanzania on mining business but taking a break for a safari. They were loving their trip and explained a bit about all the mines in Tanzania. There are many diamond mines around the country as well as a few gold mines. They said that the movie Blood Diamonds is not far from the truth throughout Africa. They were interesting if not a bit arrogant. But, we soon finished our beers and headed for the room to relax before dinner.The meals on the safari are buffet style with a large variety of vittles and desserts to temp those on the most strict of diets. Of course no diet stood in my way and I ate more than I have eaten in the entire time I have been in Tanzania. And boy those pounds added up…oh actually they didn’t!! They came off in small numbers. I came back from 4 days of heavy eating – we’re talkin’ three helpings of main courses, mainly meat, and five to seven desserts with each dinner, 4 sausages, 3 eggs and a heap of bacon for breakfast – and no exercise, with 4-6 less pounds on my butt. More on this later…
From Mayara we started for the Serengeti via the rim of Ngorogoro crater. This was a good drive on tarmac up to the gates of Ngorogoro park. We then continued along a breathtaking mountain road through a dense jungle with some nice views back toward Lake Manyara. We passed a rare accident along the way between a large truck and a safari vehicle. It appeared that the larger vehicle had been in the wrong place around a tight, blind corner and ran the safari vehicle into the trees. This is a very bad thing in the parks and each vehicle would be levied a fine for the accident. The fine is not much, about $200, but here that is a lot of money. There are other fines in the parks; $50 for driving off road, $50 for not getting out of the park on time, $20 for driving on the wrong side of the road, $20 for feeding grass to a carnivore and $500 for taking a compromising picture of a philandering elephant.
We reached the top of the crater rim at around 10AM and quickly snapped some pictures before heading down the other side of the crater and into the Serengeti. We passed some amazing scenery along the way including rolling plains, Masai villages and wandering herds. By the time we reached the main gate to the Serengeti we were hungry and while Hamisi paid our park fees we hunted down a table under the Acacia trees. The starlings were as hungry as us even though they appeared full and showed us this by crapping on me, Bob and Betty. So this started our Serengeti experience shitty way but we remained optimistic, finished eating, changed our clothes and mounted the cruiser and were on our way.
The Serengeti is the Africa that I think of, or thought of in Canada; flat, grassy plains with the odd acacia tree and Gazelle bouncing around. I know there were also a few Cheetah hiding in the grass but at this point we hadn’t seen any. What we did find along the long road was a flat front tire. I asked Hamisi if he needed any help and he surprisingly accepted. Bob and I jumped to his side in the park, where no one is aloud out of the vehicle. We quickly found that there was no Tire Iron (spanner) in the vehicle and set to removing the spare with a well-worn 21MM box wrench. Bob and I managed to push Hamisi out of the way and figured out the best way to make this worn out tool work. Hamisi removed the jack from the rear of the Cruiser and set it up under the bush bumper. He took the water bottle that had been sitting on the bumper the entire trip and lubricated the jack with the water inside. We began to attempt to remove the wheel nuts with the box-end wrench but didn’t get far before another safari vehicle stopped to see if we needed help. The driver quickly produced a tire iron and we set to work. We had the spare ready to go on in short order and I lifted it into place and gave it a good push. This nearly took the truck off the jack and everyone screamed at me. I chuckled inside at my good luck (it didn’t fall). We cranked it on and returned the tire iron to the other driver. I thanked him and he said, “you may be coming to my aid in twenty minutes, Hamna Shida!” The funny thing is, we didn’t think too much about the hiding Cheetah or Lions and they thankfully didn’t think too much of us.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Why we don’t stay in local Guesthouses
So we came to Arusha yesterday with B&B and our friends George and Adam. George and Adam were staying in a local guesthouse, while the rest of us were at the Outpost, a mid-level hotel in a nice neighbourhood. This is, by local standards, quite expensive, but at the low end of the spectrum of acceptable accommodations by western standards. It has TV, a pool, a decent restaurant and clean, good-sized rooms. Also, I guess I should mention that there is a hot water in the rooms and a good shower, oh and mosquito nets. The guesthouse has a bed in the room and I suppose a light. No mosquito net and no bathroom.
So anyway on to the real reason we stay in a hotel. George and Adam came by today to say goodbye to B&B, who flew out today. They had a great story of their night at the guesty. At 5 AM Adam awoke to loud noises outside the room. He woke George, “Georgey, Georgey wake up!” he cried. “What do you think all that noise is?” It turned out that two men had been robbed in the guesthouse. Their cell phone and 520,000 shillings in Zambian funds were no longer in their possession. So, what would you think would happen in such a situation? Think for a moment how you would react in a small Super 8 Motel if you heard that someone had been robbed. HMMM.
I suspect whatever you are thinking is not what happened in this situation. The guests of the guesty formed a little gang and searched all of the rooms. When nothing was found they searched outside, thinking that the culprit would now he was caught and maybe throw the items out the window. After finding the phone, without the SIM card (the chip from a cell phone) they went to the room above the window. In this room, the occupant of which drive a new car had a good job and had in his possession the large sum of over 800,000 Tz Shillings, the mob found a SIM under the bed and upon further searching by the 20 or more people, the missing money. The mob confirmed that the SIM card was from the missing phone decided that the man in the room was the thief. Two of the men in the gang (who stayed in different rooms) roughed the guy up a fair bit. After the beating they took the stolen money, the cell phone and all of the guy’s money and walked out of the room. The crowd figured they were off to call the police. However when the two guys did not return and the police did not come it became clear that it was a scam.
The two guys picked someone who appeared rich, devised a plan to set him up with a weary mob, and pounced quickly and left even quicker. A sad story but it is reality. You won’t see that on Survivor.
So anyway on to the real reason we stay in a hotel. George and Adam came by today to say goodbye to B&B, who flew out today. They had a great story of their night at the guesty. At 5 AM Adam awoke to loud noises outside the room. He woke George, “Georgey, Georgey wake up!” he cried. “What do you think all that noise is?” It turned out that two men had been robbed in the guesthouse. Their cell phone and 520,000 shillings in Zambian funds were no longer in their possession. So, what would you think would happen in such a situation? Think for a moment how you would react in a small Super 8 Motel if you heard that someone had been robbed. HMMM.
I suspect whatever you are thinking is not what happened in this situation. The guests of the guesty formed a little gang and searched all of the rooms. When nothing was found they searched outside, thinking that the culprit would now he was caught and maybe throw the items out the window. After finding the phone, without the SIM card (the chip from a cell phone) they went to the room above the window. In this room, the occupant of which drive a new car had a good job and had in his possession the large sum of over 800,000 Tz Shillings, the mob found a SIM under the bed and upon further searching by the 20 or more people, the missing money. The mob confirmed that the SIM card was from the missing phone decided that the man in the room was the thief. Two of the men in the gang (who stayed in different rooms) roughed the guy up a fair bit. After the beating they took the stolen money, the cell phone and all of the guy’s money and walked out of the room. The crowd figured they were off to call the police. However when the two guys did not return and the police did not come it became clear that it was a scam.
The two guys picked someone who appeared rich, devised a plan to set him up with a weary mob, and pounced quickly and left even quicker. A sad story but it is reality. You won’t see that on Survivor.
