Our first safari

I have more musings on the hospital and daily life and also Matt needs to help post ( he writes in a daily journal on paper) but wanted to take a few minutes to write about our experiences out in the wild!

First on Friday we decided to get out of the house to a proper dinner at the Machweo restaurant at the Onsea house hotel. And of course I found the fanciest restaurant in a hotel haha not quite intentional. It was quite the experience. So looking on google maps it seemed to be 2 km away. We were going to walk but decided to splurge for a cab. The driver first tried to tell us it was far and then we went back and forth. His English was not great at all. Then as we were driving he tried to take us to another hotel. Then he tried to turn the opposite way from what google maps said. Then it turns out Google maps lied. So now we were all lost. I was getting so frustrated bc the whole point was to see " the best view in Arusha" and sunset was getting close. We were all trying to keep cool but at the most heated part of the convo he just abruptly stops for gas! Ugh. We tried to call the hotel but the man didn't speak Kiswahili. Then we found someone there that could. Finally the cab driver knew where to go but it was way far. Then we got stuck in a standstill by construction for 15 mins. We wished he would do all the illegal maneuvers that the other cars were doing to get around it but for the first time in history a cab driver played by the rules. We finially arrived up the mountain to about 15 mins of the tail end of the sunset and it was amazing and worth everything. The hotel was luxurious and serene. We had cocktails before dinner. It was a very different part of Tanzania than we had experienced. We were like , we really can't sleep here tonight? The dinner was good, the chef was Belgian and it was all Europeans dining blowing smoke around. It was  cheap for a multicourse dinner and wine pairings but very expensive for Tanzania. The food was good but not amazing. But we had an enjoyable night out and maybe in the future we will do a more comfortable trip and stay here

The next day was safari to Tarangire national park , home to the most elephants in the world per square meter. It was about a 2 hour journey and we had nelsons brother Bryson as our tour guide and our own private safari vehicle. I didn't realize the tops go up to be able to stand up and look around... Was very fun. On the way lots of things to see on the side of the road notably markets and where the Maasai live. Their bomas or village huts were easy to spot. The beauty of the Maasai men in red checked cloaks and herding sticks in contrast to the Savannah as they herded the animals was stunning ..sometimes just a red dot in a sea of green. Kids probably as young as 4 seemed to be in charge of their own herd with nary an adult in sight. Crazy to process.

The park itself was huge, exactly as I've pictured with green safari grass , big termite mounds and huge baobob trees like the tree of life from Disney. We saw Pumbas, baboons, Impala. So excited when we spotted two lionesses and I freaked out when I realized they got a  pumba. It was shrieking and not dying fast! Then they each. Took an end and pulled and it kept screaming. People were covering their ears. As an animal lover I was upset but also realized the lions had to eat. Just wished the death was quicker. Then I was disappointed we didn't see elephants here at the biggest elephant park...like really? But after driving for an hour we found like 40 of them in the trees and grass just hanging out! Day made. I loved the picnic lunch spot wherr monkeys roamed. They tried to get Matt's lunch when he stepped away! They even went into someone's truck bc they didn't close the top. They were after the food for sure. The box lunches we got were very interesting and pretty inedible a piece of old fried chicken ( Matt said tasted like cat food), a doughnut, a crepe, cookies, an apple, and a samosa. Didn't eat much of that!


We then left to stay at an overnight camp called panorama. It was five (!) dollars a night. We stayed in a decent tent but it didn't get great airflow. We left the flaps open ( exposed mesh) but all night I was worried I'd turn and an animal would be right next to me. It wasn't til the next day that I actually saw baboons roaming around and read a review about scorpions. Our tent was equipped w small beds but it reminded me of the field museum Egyptian beds made out of wood w no padding. Ouch. We had brought our sleeping bags thank goodness. The view of the lake and mountainside was stunning and we watched both sunrise and sunset while there. At night there was food and drumming.

On Sunday we went to lake manyara national park. Totally different topography...very lush and green like a rainforest. We saw different animals such as gnus, water buffalo ( so cool wading through mud) and like a billion baboons ( they were roaming in colonies, in the grass and in trees always getting in our way) we saw hippo in the creek and one even very close to our truck. We saw giraffe and finally zebra. And the best part was the elephants blocking our road eating the trees. Very unexpected. They walked towards us and I got scared bc they were so big but then they just looked at us and made their way into the trees. We saw blue monkeys and a baboon even climbed on the hood of the truck. We didn't see the famous tree climbing lion ( they adapted after bad conditions on the ground in the past) but they are rare. The actual lake is In the distance and you could see all the millions of dot that are the famous flamingo.


It is crazy to experience something and see animals in the wild that weve just read about and seen in zoos. Overall a fantastic weekend and excited for next one.