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Aggies in Tanzania - Oct 2013

Angela Green '08 December 9, 2013 3:57 AM

Aggies on Safari in Tanzania Africa

Mia and Frank Villarreal
Melissa Villarreal Pontiff ‘98
Kelli Campbell ’99 and John Campbell ‘95
Jake Keller '15 and Angela Green Keller ‘08
Adrian James ‘14
Brenda Mooney ‘89
Cindy Richmond ‘86
 
Ten Aggies and eight days in Africa!  Over 50 hours of safari time: From the Kilimanjaro Airport to Arusha then headed southwest to Tarangire National Park on up to Lake Manyara National Park; From Lake Manyara to the Serengeti National Park then back down to Ngorongoro Crater.  We covered over 1200
miles and visited three major National parks all located in the Northern part of Tanzania.  We saw the "Big 5" and took over 10,000 pictures! There were times when we were speechless at the sights that appeared before us.  We wrote a song, laughed A LOT and learned from the two greatest tour guides ever, one of which used to drive for National Geographic!  It was an experience of a lifetime! If you want to know more, then get a cold drink, sit back and walk with any of us through our journey in Africa!

Day 1: Arrival and Arusha

After flying into Kilimanjaro Airport, we drove about an hour to the city of Arusha where we spent the night in the famous Arusha Hotel.  While we were in Arusha, we took a short walk around the center of the city. I would not recommend doing this unless you are in a large group and/or with a tour guide.  Theft is prevalent in the city and when you immediately step off hotel premises, you are swamped with
people trying to sell you stuff.  The primary reason we did the walk was to get a bit of exercise, see the famous city center clock tower (which is the center most part of Africa from North to South) and experience a bit of the local culture.  After about an hour, we had enough and ventured back to the hotel! 

After dinner, we enjoyed a few drinks in the hotel bar, Hatari.  If you are a John Wayne fan, you may recognize this name.  The story is that John Wayne would have drinks here at the end of each day when they were shooting the movie, Hatari, just outside the city of Arusha.  While he didn't stay in the hotel, he frequented the bar enough that they eventually named the bar after the movie!  We too enjoyed some drinks and the 90's pop music that they played in the bar. In addition, a few of us got personal tours of the hotel gardens by Paul who is in charge of the landscaping and plant life around the hotel. It really was a beautiful place and a great way to start off the trip.

Days 2 & 3: Tarangire National Park

Our stay in Tarangire National Park was 5 star all the way! Tarangire National Park is known for its large numbers of elephants, its tree climbing lions, and the massive baobab trees. Before we arrived in Africa, we were informed that due to construction at our originally assigned camp, we were being upgraded to the Tarangire Sopa Lodge!  Many of us have stayed at lodges in the past, but we each commented that none of them compared to this facility.  We each had our own concrete hut that had a
large bedroom with an outside sitting area, a large bathroom with all the necessary amenities and there was a sitting area at the entrance of each hut. The service was great and the food was wonderful.  There was a resort style pool surrounded by monkeys, beautiful birds, and other assorted wildlife.  The most amazing part was that while we were here, we were able to sit on the outdoor porch of our hut and observe a pack of elephants, water buffalo, and gazelles that were less than 50 yards away.  We didn't have TV's in the rooms but we didn't need them because we had natural entertainment the whole time!  So you are probably saying, "The lodging was great but what about the safari?" 

Well, let me tell you!  From the moment we entered the park and popped the top on our Land Cruiser to the moment we left the park, we saw hundreds of elephants and probably thousands of zebras and wildebeests. The giraffe spottings were frequent and seeing them up close just amazed us with their height and gracefulness. Their facial expressions are quite comical as well! All agreed that each of us had our favorite animals to watch. We also lucked out and observed lions and leopards. In addition, the landscape was so varied and included marshland, mountains and everything in between.

On day 3, we were received a real treat!  We started out by heading to a different area of the park when the call came in over the CB radio that indicated there were lions and leopards resting by the marshland which was about an hour drive from where we were. The guides asked if we wanted to continue in our current heading or go back to the marshland and find the lions and leopards.  I think it was universal in that everyone wanted to go see the lions and leopards -- so we did!  Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for! Once the decision was made, our guides changed directions,
turned up the speed and we were off! The next hour gave a new meaning to "off-roading"! We stayed on the park roads but keep in mind, they are dirt roads with lots of dips and bumps. The dust streamed in from the roof and windows and on occasion, we would almost bounce out of our seats because of the
bumps and turns! Getting to the marshland and seeing the lions and leopards was well worth the drive
though! Other than rhinos, hippos and cheetahs, we saw every major animal that we wanted to see and we would recommend this park to anyone with a desire to do an African safari.

Day 4: Lake Manyara National Park

On our drive over to Lake Manyara National Park, we had the opportunity to visit a true Maasai village. 
Despite government programs created to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, the Maasai people have continued their age-old customs. Traditional Maasai lifestyle centers around their cattle which constitute their primary source of food. A Maasai religious belief relates that God gave them all the cattle on earth, leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes
is a matter of taking back what is rightfully theirs. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of
cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better therefore the men have multiple wives, upwards of 8 or more and may have 8 or more children per wife. Their
method of getting a wife is also interesting. It is apparently related to each man's ability to out jump the other men in the tribe. We experienced their jumping abilities first hand when we participated in one of their traditional dances. One of the tribe members tried to get the men in our group to jump but each kept at least one foot on the ground.  I think the real reason they didn't want to jump is because each decided that one wife was plenty and didn't want to leave Africa with a second one!

We also found it interesting that the men in the Maasai tribe are born and raised to be warriors. They don‘t marry when they are young but instead they stay in the woods. This is the reason why there is a great age difference between husbands and their wives, because they are not allowed to marry until they are older (when they have become "elders“) while the women marry when they are young. One of
the young men in the tribe showed us the hut in which he was raised and also told us about their lifestyle as well as answered lots of questions.  Their huts are completely constructed by the women and contain a small sleeping area for the parents and a really small area for the young children.  Per our discussions with the young warrior, we were informed that once they reach a certain age, they leave the hut and sleep outside. He also mentioned that they do not eat any vegetables, grains, or anything other than beef.  It is also common for them to mix cow blood with milk and drink that for their meal. There are other customs that the Maasai observe that are better left to Wikipedia to explain! While visiting the Maasai, one of our group members traded a precious Bowie knife and a pair of SaltLife sports sunglasses for several Maasai items including a warrior’s knife and talking sticks.

After participating in a dance, hearing stories about their traditions, watching them light a fire using friction and taking lots of pictures, we set off for our next stop, Karibu Migunga tent camp.  We all really enjoyed this camp. The tents were built on wooden platforms with a covered sitting area in the front and each had running water.  After getting settled and having lunch, it was time to head into Lake Manyara National Park. A majority of the land that makes up Lake Manyara National Park is located in a narrow strip running between the Gregory Rift wall to the west and Lake Manyara to the east. During the wet season, Lake Manyara, which is an alkaline or soda-lake, can cover up to 77 square miles but
during the dry season, the lake becomes nearly nonexistent. The lake is also known for its massive flocks of flamingos and surrounded by a wide variety of bird life, more than 400 species of birds are said to live in the park. While in the park, we encountered lots of baboons, saw a blue ball monkey and observed some of species of birds that the park is known for. A half day safari here was sufficient to give us a good feel for the park.  After leaving the park, we returned to our camp site, had dinner and enjoyed some time by a campfire. The next morning, we departed for the long drive to the Serengeti!

Days 5 & 6: Serengeti National Park

Many of us grew up in the country and we have driven on and ridden on our fair share of rocky, dirt roads but the drive to the Serengeti beats anything we’ve ever been on.  For the first hour or so, the roads are good but once you get past the Ngorongoro Visitor Center, it's all she wrote! You better hang on to your seat and everything in it!  After several hours of driving on a washboard with potholes the size of the Grand Canyon, we finally reached the entrance to the Serengeti National Park.  Immediately
upon entering the park, we realized why it is the one of the most famous wildlife sanctuaries in the world and known for the greatest concentration of plains game anywhere.  Serengeti literally means “Endless Plains” and is considered to be one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world.  The animals were everywhere! Gazelles, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, animals of all sizes just lined the road.  Just before arriving at the check-in center, we spotted our first male lion.  He was a good distance away but this was the start of a wonderful day.

The original plan was that we would head straight to the campsite and get settled then go out on a game drive. Our plan quickly changed when we came upon several lions and some cheetahs that had just finished eating. Little did we know that we would see 25 lions that day alone. We didn't arrive to the campsite until well after 2:00 pm and the camp had not prepared lunch so they had to quickly throw together a meal. It was the first time I had ever had tuna spaghetti! It wasn't bad just a bit different.  So after moving into our tents and eating our tuna spaghetti, we headed out for our afternoon game drive. 

For the next couple of days, we saw some amazing sights and made many wonderful memories. We drove upon two cubs feasting on a zebra that a lioness had recently killed. Four of us took a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti where we met a wonderful couple who had gotten engaged on their trip. We experienced "talking showers" which was the attendant asking if we were ready for him to load the water and raise the water bag so the water would run down the pipe into the tent for our 10 second shower. We had hyenas invade our tent camp and on one occasion, they ripped through the tent that contained leftovers from the day before. We saw a crocodile stalking a herd of zebras getting water but the zebras scared themselves away before the croc could close the deal. We also stood within 50 feet of a pack of hippos.  Finally, the sunsets in the Serengeti were magnificent!

Days 7 & 8: Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The last stop in our trip was the Ngorongoro Crater which is actually a caldera. It was neat to
drive 2,000 ft down into the crater. While driving around the crater we saw all varieties of animals and from a distance, saw the last of the big 5 - the rhinoceros.  Apparently, the rhinos do not like lots of
attention so they stayed in the field and a far distance from the roads and people. While visiting Ngorongoro, we stayed in the Ngorongoro Crater Forest Camp. The camp was awesome but the road getting to the camp was the worst of the entire trip. Some took the opportunity to hike through the coffee bean plantation for a tour and learned how coffee is grown, roasted, and packaged. We agreed that this was our new favorite coffee and purchased all of the coffee available that day. Our time in Ngorongoro was short but provided a very scenic ending to a wonderful trip!

Day 9: Departure Day

We departed Ngorongoro early on the last day and headed back to Arusha where we gathered once again at the Arusha Hotel for lunch and a debrief with the tour organizer.  After lunch, we sang our "Africa Song of Happiness" to our safari guides, Venance and Adam, and then departed for the airport.   The flight back to Doha went well and we got home at 1:00 am that Sunday morning. We couldn't have asked for a better group to go with. Our guides were great and each location was unique and memorable. It truly was a trip of a lifetime…Aggies in Africa!

Gig'em!




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