Tanzania & Zanzibar 2012

Having travelled to South Africa and later to Australia to celebrate my 50th, it was hard to decide what to do for Jonathon's. I gave him a choice - polar bears in Canada or safari in Tanzania. As you can tell from the heading, He chose Tanzania (after much deliberation).

We booked through Sandra and the team at Frontier Travel and flew direct to Dar Es Salaam with BA (Norbert - 767) then took a Precision Air flight to Kilimanjaro (Norbert - not sure but it had ATR 72 and H5 - PWD on it and it was a prop plane). We left the heavy rain, thunder etc in London and arrived in Kili to dry, sunny weather.

The best view of Kilimanjaro was from the BA plane and our first real sight of where we were going.

As with other holidays, I've split the pages so they don't take forever to load in so please click on the page you'd like to see. We took so many animal and bird photos that I've put most of them on separate pages as well. I've tried to take a few "movies" this year as well so they are on another separate page - you'll need Flash installed to see them.

Antelope & Wildebeest

Birds

Cats (non-Lion)

Elephants

Fox, Hyena & Jackals

Giraffe, Zebra & Warthog

Hippo, Rhino & Buffalo

Lions

Primates & Hyrax

Reptiles

We drove through a lot of countryside!

The corn had been harvested and the straw was waiting for the cattle. Other crops included bananas and coffee. We also saw a lot of goats and cows being herded along. The picture of cows below gives a good idea of how dusty it was.

We called into Arusha for lunch (very nice) then off we went through more vast landscape to the camp.

Arusha is a growing town (seemed quite big to me already) and Kevin said he was glad it was Sunday because it's really busy in the week.

... and one for Lions. There are a lot more photos on the relevant animal pages, some of the Lion ones are more gruesome than others.

The pretty little bird is a Little Bee Eater and the pretty little antelope is a Dikdik. I'll add a few more pictures to this page but most of them that we thought we're good enough for the website are on the relevant animal pages.

Apparently the Baobob tree is one of the trees most associated with Africa but I think of the Umbrella Acacia Tree (left). Another common tree is the Sausage Tree (here).

Guinea Fowl

Waterbuck

We saw some "one-offs" so I'll add these as we go along. First off, a Black Backed Jackal.

Jonathon and Kevin ventured out of the truck a couple of times. First to see a Pearl Spotted Owl (tiny thing) and then to photograph an African Python.

This is one of Jonathon's more arty photos from our time in Tarangire!

One of my favourite things to see in Africa is the way lots of the animals mix in together. You very often see Wildebeest mixing with Zebra - the story is that the Wildebeest can sense the rain and the Zebra have the sense to know what to do about it!

Having watched some Lionesses dismember a Hartebeest, it was time to wander back to camp. Delighted to see a Leopard on the way home. J's camera had to come into its own with all its fancy settings - all I got was 2 eyes in a sea of black!

Day 3 was not such an early start as we were moving on. One final drive though Tarangire before we hit the road.

We came across a family of Baboon. Again, most of the animal pictures are on the separate pages.

Jonathon was very comfortable in the jeep but soon jumped up when there was something to photograph!

Yellow Billed Stork

Marabou Stork

All the butterflies on the left are male. They were sipping the urine, whether for salt or something else we don't know.

We were pleasantly surprised with how many birds of prey there were for us to see during the course of our trip. The one on the right is a Martial Eagle - not sure what kind of bird his lunch was though.

We enjoying seeing green again. Whereas Tarangire was very dusty, Lake Manyara National Park is very lush due to an underground water source.

Finally for Lake Manyara National Park, a few general views

We finally arrived at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where we were to stay for the next couple of nights.

Home for the next two nights was the Sopa Ngorongoro Lodge. A much larger place, akin to a "normal" hotel but with magnificent views from our room (see left), as it was on the rim of the crater.

Another early start and down we went into the crater. It's 12km diameter (so huge) and looked "empty" from the top but there were thousands of animals when we got down there.

JC taking pictures of Hippo at the picnic spot at breakfast time. We couldn't get out of the truck at lunchtime when we returned here - apparently nobody had told the Lions that this space was for humans so they were enjoying a drink when we arrived!

There is a Larie forest in the Ngorongoro - beautiful trees that shine bright yellow in the sunlight.

The pink strip in the distance in the left hand photo was the nearest we go to seeing Flamingo - not a good time of year for seeing them as it was so dry.

One of the big treats of the holiday was a sighting of a mum and calf Black Rhino - an endangered animal. Kevin explained that each Black Rhino in Ngorongoro has a ranger responsible for checking up on it on a daily basis.

Day 5 saw us on the move again, this time towards the Serengeti. We stopped for our picnic at the gate to the park and were accompanied by mice and birds. They probably felt quite safe there.

Hildebrand Starling

There were some dramatic views / landscapes as we travelled through the Serengeti National Park to our next camp, Dunia.

Day 6 was another early start (despite it being Jonathon's 50th birthday!) We had a special day in that we saw Leopard, Cheetah and Lion all in one day - quite amazing.

The sunrise welcomed us to the day with the trees peeping through the mist.

It had rained the night before and the remaining raindrops looked lovely on the Acacia spikes as did the cobwebs all over the place.

We had Jonathon's birthday breakfast near the boulders above.

This gives an idea of how big some of the boulders were. Caused by volcanic activity these mounds of rock sare known as Kopjes.

Jonathon & Kevin tried to make music on the Gong Rocks.

I was busy taking photos of this Agama Lizard until he looked a bit cross and I then backed off!

JC & Kevin weren't the only musicians that day - the crew at Dunia baked Jonathon a birthday cake and sang some traditional songs to him after dinner.These are a few members of the "Dunia Male Voice Choir"

Day 7 and we were on the move again, this time northwards bound to Sayari camp and the Mara River. We visited the Lobo Area on the way and saw loads of wildlife.

Klipspringer

Another kind of tree on the left - this time a Fig Tree. By process of elimination, we decided that the plant on the right is a Maerus Edulis - they were springing up everywhere.

We arrived at Sayari in the evening, dusty as ever. No bucket shower this time and plenty of hot water (but we were already missing the team at Dunia).

Dining Room

Reception, Lounge and Bar

Not a bad sunset before the rain arrived. We thought it had rained at Dunia - it wasn't even trying. Both nights we were at Sayari it absolutely threw it down!

 

The main purpose of our visit to the Northern Serengeti was to try and see the Wildebeest migration over the Mara River. This seems to be a bit of a misnomer because they seem to cross one way one day and then back again not many days later, only to cross back to Kenya thereafter ... backwards and forwards with no apparent logic at all.

Yes, we saw a crossing. It was exhilerating and horrifying in equal measure. We felt really sorry for the Wildebeest that didn't make it - either from being attacked by a Nile Crocodile, getting washed downstream, getting trapped on the rocks or for any other reason.

A special picture for Norbert. We had a Tanganyika Flying Company, 12 seater, single prop plane from Kogatende Air Strip to Arusha then a Precision Airlines flight from Arusha to Zanzibar (same plane as we had earlier in the week to go from Dar Es Salaam to Kilimanjaro - see above).

Next stop Zanzibar.