Safari!

Hello everyone and greetings from Nairobi. I had a great safari in Tanzania and now I am in Kenya, just relaxing a bit before I fly out tomorrow morning.

My safari started on Tuesday when I met up with a group of Europeans that were already out in the bush. They saw Lake Manyara and that was the one day I missed. We camped near the Lake and then headed out in our old but comfy Land Cruiser Wednesday morning. We drove to Ngorongoro Crater which is famous for its high concentration of predators, said to be the highest in the world. We climbed the outside of the crater, got a good view and then headed down into it.

At the bottom, we took off the roof panels. Our vehicle was equipped with three 'sun roofs', one running over each set of seats. So, as our trusty driver, Abrahim, navigated, all 5 of us stood up on our seats and enjoyed the ride. It was so much fun. We didn't sit down hardly at all during the day as our vehicle bowled along rough, dusty roads. And we saw a ton of wildlife. We saw 2 cheetahs from a long way off, plus the elusive black rhino, casually grazing about 100 meters away. We saw a bunch of lions, including a group of 4 (2 male, 2 female) laying in the savanna grass. We also saw 2 female lions fast asleep just 10 meters off the road!

Beyond predators, though, we saw a lot of prey. We saw some elephants eating in the acacia trees, zebras, water buffalo (done with the big 5!) and a huge herd of wildebeest. They were all over the road, just walking slowly toward one of the many lakes on the crater floor. We also saw Thompsons gazelles, impalas and antelope. The lakes were home to hippos, flamingos, storks and cranes.

We camped at the same campsite Wednesday night and I walked into town with Angel, one of the staff, to find some local fare. First I tried the red banana, one of about 80 different types of bananas grown in the area. Supposedly, this is the only place to find the red banana. It was good, a little bigger and sweeter than normal yellow bananas. I also wanted to try Banana Wine, the local brew. It is about 10% alcohol, similar to wine and actually very tasty.

Thursday morning we packed up camp and headed to Tarangire National Park. Here, we rode around in much the same fashion. The landscape was different, more hills and rivers, no lakes. It was also covered in huge baobab trees! Here, we saw tons of elephants. Whole herds of them! Once, we came across a family of 12 that was ambling slowly across the road. We just sat and watched as they passed by, from huge old elephants to tiny new-born babies. They were an incredible sight. We saw more lions, mostly just sleeping, but we saw two that were getting frisky under a baobab tree! Tarangire had zebras, antelope, gazelle, vultures, wildebeest and also lots of giraffes. At lunch, the birds and baboons were all very interested in our food. We ate quickly but some other groups got really harassed by the persistent primate attention.

All in all it was a wonderful safari. I got to see a lot of animals and some very cool landscape. I stayed in Arusha Thursday night and then headed to Nairobi on a bus Friday morning. Mike is busy hanging out with some Maasai friend he met in Karatu but I expect to see him sometime today. The road to Nairobi was terrible, very dusty and bumpy and under constant construction.

Saturday I explored the city on foot. I walked around downtown and then headed out to the suburbs. I saw a movie that afternoon, my first cinema in 7 months! It was quite the experience.

It's been rainy here so I relaxed on Sunday, went for an afternoon run and then walked around the government district in town. There are some very large, interesting buildings in Nairobi.

Today I plan to see the other side of this city. I am going on a walking tour of Kibera Slum. It is huge and famous, said to house over a million people, without any running water.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Accra to start my 3 month teaching gig. Wish me luck!
Cheers.