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After a delayed flight into Dar es Salaam, I arrived at immigration at 3am. Here I was met with long queues were each person spent about 5 minutes at the counter answering questions, having all fingers scanned and having a picture taken. The woman was really sweet and listened to me babbling about my safari with a smile. It took so long that by the time I made it through immigration with a stamp that all of the flight's bags had been removed from the conveyor belts and were on the floor!
Here I met the first tour guide and driver and accepted that in Tanzania my name was to be Suzzane. I then had a 6 hour drive to the Sealous Game Reserve. At around 7am we stopped at a cafe in Kirbiti (roughly half way there), where we were served a chicken leg and chicken soup for breakfast which was a bit too early for chicken for me! This was also the first time that I was quizzed as to why I am travelling alone and why I don't have a baby already...didn't quite know how to answer that. I then found out that a mixed race baby is referred to as a ought point five (0.5) in Tanzania and was asked if I wanted one. Not sure if he was proposing we had a child or not but I quickly moved the conversation onto the upcoming drive to the safari reserve. Kibiti was where the tarmacked roads ended - we had 3.5 hours on dirt tracts left and unfortunately we were not in a jeep or off road vehicle but instead a simple hatchback...it was interesting. The Tanzanian's refer to it as the African Massage which I think is a very generous way of putting it - I felt like I had been beaten up by the time I arrived!
I arrived around 11am at Africa Safari Camp and my first safari was not until 4pm so I was able to go and get a shower and some sleep. The camp was beautiful and secluded and the beds and rooms were amazing!
The Boat safari was really cool - got to see some lizards and crocodiles as well as some very beautiful coloured birds and the big hippos.
The following two days I did the safari game drive and it was magical. Sealous Game Reserve is 2.5 times the size of Wales so is really big but it is also a lot quieter as most tourists go to the other parks in Tanzania. This means that you get a rather private safari experience and spend 8 hours driving around and never see the same area twice. I was really lucky that I saw 3 different sets of lions, 4 different sets of elephants, a group of vultures, countless giraffes, zebras, warthogs, wilderbeasts and antelope as well as seeing a buffalo. Also managed to spot a running hyena which was really rare there. It was absolutely incredible. I even saw a tree like Rafiki's tree but unfortunately no Rafiki. I will now look at the Lion King in a whole new light!
Everyone was so friendly there and the local village boys (Maasai) had torches to lead us back to their room. They were so sweet and super excited to chat. All the safari guides have studied wildlife at college so are really interested in the animals and really want you to have a great time. It was ace!
The things I learnt...
* Tanzanian's LOVE chicken all day, everyday!
* Simba means lion in Swahilli.
* Lions can eat 25kg of meat in one sitting.
* Zebras and Wilder beasts are friendly and often hang out with each other because the zebras have good eyesight and can see for 100m, whereas the wilderbeast has poor vision but have an excellent sense of smell.
* Often all animals will hang near a giraffe too as they can see in colour and for 200m. Thus if a giraffe is frightened and runs then they know they should too!
* Hyenas are cannibal and sometimes eat their own offspring! Also they eat the carcasses left behind from a lion kill.
* Vultures and hyenas have a great sense of smell. Once they have seen a lion kill, they will wait around until the lions have had enough. They then help themselves to the leftovers!
* Baboons and hyenas do not wait for their food to be dead - they will happily eat an alive animal...lovely!
* Sports bras are a must on African roads!
- comments
Cait Lol sports bras!! Sounds amazing! The bras and your travels so far - keep blogging! Xx