Entering Tanzania

Having seen extreme poverty as we drove through Kenya to the Tanzanian border, we were quite surprised to find that Tanzania seemed to have progressed slightly further. The roads were smooth tarmac instead of the bumpy sandy, rocky earth and the huts were brick as opposed to mud. That's not to say that the people were any richer, but 'life' seemed to be happening here, people were getting on with their day to day life. In Kenya crowds of people sat chatting as there was simply nothing to do. Here, there was a purpose.

We drove for many more hours into the Ngorongoro Crater region, navigating the mountain that would lead us to our hotel at the top of the mountain.

The picture below shows the view into the crater. This was created many, many, many years ago by a volcano. The crater that was left behind is now a conservation area FULL of all kinds of exciting wildlife.

We spent a whole day investigating/driving, which although was exhausting, gave us a great treat.....lions, zebra, gazelle, warthogs, hyena, ostrich, flamingo, buffalo, wildebeest, elephant, monkey. The list could go on. The only animal we were disappointed not to see on this day, was rhino. Our driver insisted there was one in the distance, but my binoculars didn't convince me!

The above photograph is probably one of the least unlikely we took; to see a hippo out of the water, feeding during the day is rare, particularly with rather a lot of the lake on his back!

One of the scariest moments happened on the evening of this particular day. It had become tradition (ok, so it was only the 2nd night!) that after the evening evening meal, we would retire to the bar with some other members of our safari group. Sarah and I eventually decided we'd had enough and bedtime was calling (bearing in mind it was probably only about 8.30pm!). We walked outside towards the pathway that would lead us to our room. Once outside we were greeted by a line of hotel 'guardians' (at least that's now what I liked to call them) one of whom proceeded to walk with us to our room. He had a rather large walking stick - I assumed he had a bad leg (duh!) and commented to Sarah how nice that we were being escorted....hmmmm....at that moment we heard a very low, loud and close grunt. No, not from 'guardian' but from the most enormous buffalo I have ever seen in my life (though, maybe that's just because they've always been in the distance when Ive seen them before?!)

"Jambo Buffalo" Guardian said, pointing the wooden stick in the direction of the hedge (Jambo meaning 'hello'). Sarah and I grabbed each other and attempted to pick up the pace. Guardian was surprised at our reaction, though we explained that the most wild animal you would probably meet in our country was a roaming sheep! "Don't worry. You in my country now. Buffalo my friend". Hmmm, not so convinced. That grunt was certainly not friendly. Needless to say, we locked the door behind us very quickly!

Next installment. Sarah and Dawn visit the Massai Tribe.