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Overlanding Through Africa
  • Happy Days Travel
  • Mark Wade
  • Happy Days Travel
  • Mark Wade

Overlanding Through Africa

This is the big one - the trip we have been planning since before the pandemic! We will be overlanding from South Africa 🇿🇩 to Kenya 🇰đŸ‡Ș passing through 9 other countries and taking four months. En savoir plus
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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    The doors and alleyways of Stone Town

    17 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ⛅ 26 °C

    Our next stop was for Nassor to explain to us about the different styles of elaborate wooden doors to be found in Stone Town. He told us how to differentiate between Indian doors with their arched door frames and Arabic ones that have square frames. He also said that the idea that the metal spikes found on Indian doors are to protect the occupants from elephants is a myth. This might have been true in parts of India, particularly Gujarat, but in Zanzibar, they are purely decorative.

    We also visited Stone Town’s Hindu temple. There are very few Hindus remaining in Zanzibar. Those that are still here are mostly elderly. However, many of their family members, who usually live and work in Dar-es-Salaam, return to the island at weekends and worship in the temple.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Stone Town’s Old Fort

    17 août 2023, Tanzanie

    Nassor took us to Stone Town’s old fort, which was built in about 1700 by Omani Arabs. It was later used as a barracks and a prison by the Portuguese, and later still as a repair facility for the Bububu railway. Today, there are lots of souvenir stalls inside, and very few references to the building’s history. Julius and the two Israeli guys used the large open grassy area within the fort’s walls for an impromptu game of frisbee (apparently, Julius never goes anywhere without his!).

    We continued our walk through the narrow streets of Stone Town, pausing to take photos of more examples of ornate wooden doors. We finished our tour at the Africa House Hotel, a former British gentlemen’s club. We thanked and tipped Nassor. The guys went off on their way, and Stacey and I stayed to have a drink while enjoying the sea view.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Old Slave Market, Stone Town

    17 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 28 °C

    Afterwards, we went our separate ways. I headed back to Shangani Street to return to the Freddie Mercury Museum. They let me go back in to re-shoot the video that I failed to take yesterday! I also returned my faulty cushion cover and exchanged it for another bag of coffee 😂.

    I then made my way back to the hotel where I had some lunch poolside with Mark. After lunch, he was feeling up to a walk, so we went the short distance to visit the Slave Museum and Anglican church. It was a stark reminder of man’s inhumanity to man!
    We returned to the hotel as we were both feeling rough!

    This evening, we ate in the hotel again as neither of us felt like venturing far. After dinner, we packed and got organised, ready for our next adventure starting in the morning.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Our last morning in Stone Town

    18 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ⛅ 27 °C

    We both woke up still feeling really rough! Mark’s ankle was better, but we were both still full of cold and sneezing like mad! The chlorine in the hotel’s water supply certainly doesn’t help. It’s so strong that it makes your eyes sting! We went to breakfast, and then, despite the fact that we knew we’d be early, we walked over to the Shangani Hotel, the starting point for our Intrepid Stone Town to Nairobi trip. We thought we knew where we were going, but we still managed to get lost! I think you would need to spend a long time here in order to really get to know the labyrinth that is Stone Town!!

    At the Shangani, we dumped our luggage and went off to the nearest ATM to top up our Tanzanian cash. On the way, we bumped into a guy selling sunglasses. Mark needed new ones as his were really scratched. He chose a pair. The guy asked for TZS75,000. After lots of arguing and walking away several times, Mark paid TZS10,000 for them!!

    We then went to the seafront for a coffee until it was time to go back to the hotel for our welcome meeting.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    The next chapter begins

    18 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ⛅ 27 °C

    Back at the hotel, we were met by Dullah, who had guided us when we were first in Stone Town two and a half weeks ago. There were five of us joining the tour here, along with seven who had come up from Cape Town. So, only 12 on the truck!! This was going to be luxury after being in a group of 20 for so long!!

    Dullah walked with us down to the ferry terminal, where we met up with Nash and the rest of the group. They seem like a nice bunch. We waited in the lounge until it was time to board. I was sneezing and spluttering all over the place. I was sweating and generally felt very uncomfortable! I’m taking lots of cold relief medication, so I hope I’ll feel better soon.

    Once on board, we went to sit up on the top deck and spent the 90-minute crossing chatting to Luke from Australia. We found we had lots in common. When we arrived in Dar-es-Salaam, we had a wait and then a scramble to retrieve our luggage. Having got it, we were shown to a very rickety old bus for the journey to meet up with our truck. We were stuck in traffic for a while, so the short trip took well over an hour. We met the truck in the car park of the same shopping mall we had stopped in before we went to Zanzibar. We had 20 minutes to use the loos and grab something for lunch. It was already 3.30pm, so we were well ready for something to eat!

    On the truck, we briefly met John, our driver, and Ibrahim, our chef, before setting off to our campsite for the night. The crew had stowed our bags on the back of the truck, so we just had to grab a seat and sort everything out later.

    It took just over two hours to reach Firefly Campsite, arriving there just after 6pm. We put our tents up as it was getting dark, and then at 7pm, the five newbies had an orientation meeting with Nash. Obviously, we knew most things, but there are differences in the way the crew do things compared to Laban, Henry, and Patrick.

    We ate at 8pm – pumpkin soup followed by beef stew and rice. The quantities seemed rather less generous than Henry’s were! By the time we’d cleared away, it was nearly 10pm. We retired for the night.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Driving from Bagamoyo

    19 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 25 °C

    We had a terrible night’s sleep! Between thumping music until 2am, screeching birds, revving motorbikes, sneezing and spluttering non-stop, and the early morning call to prayer at 5am, I reckon I slept for about 2 and a half hours!! We had to be up with tents down by 6.30am, anyway, so we gave in and got up at 5!!

    Breakfast was very low-key – eggs cooked to order served with white bread and margarine. We’re missing Henry’s cooking!!

    We were all ready earlier than we needed to be, so we were on the road by 7.10am. We had 310 kilometres to cover today to reach the Usambara Mountains. Due to the strict speed limits here in Tanzania, we were expecting the drive to take about 10 hours.

    We had a toilet and snack stop after a couple of hours and then pushed on, gaining altitude as we did so. The countryside was really green and lush. We crossed back and forth over a railway line and passed countless roadside stalls piled high with pyramids of oranges. There were acres and acres of sisal plantations and several factories where the plant’s fibres are made into ropes and twine. We also drove past vast areas of paddy fields, which looked stunning with their mountain backdrop.

    For lunch, we stopped at a roadside pull-in that had toilets, so no bushy bushy was needed! Ibrahim and four volunteers spent an inordinately long time chopping salad while the rest of us tried to avoid the biting ants that were everywhere – in the grass beneath our feet, and in the trees above our heads! When lunch was ready, I have to say we were disappointed. There was a meagre salad comprised of lettuce, grated carrot, and sliced tomatoes (just two tomatoes for 15 people!), and cold rice mixed with chopped pineapple. Where was the cooked meat? The cheese? I’m sure Intrepid give all their chefs the same budget. Once again, we were missing Henry!!    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Heading for the Usambara Mountains

    19 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 23 °C

    After lunch, we drove on into the Usambara Mountains. As we climbed higher, the views got better and better. There were stunning waterfalls and hair-raisingly narrow roads with sharp hairpin bends. We could feel the temperature dropping. There were crops growing on insanely steep slopes, making us wonder at the hard work required to plant, tend, and harvest them!En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Lawns Hotel, Lushoto

    19 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ⛅ 22 °C

    We were camping in the grounds of the Lawns Hotel in Lushoto, a former German colonial town. In those days, it was known as Wilhelmstal (William’s Valley) after Emperor Wilhelm II.

    When we arrived, we immediately saw another Intrepid truck, obviously being led by Laban. Before we could say hello, though, we had a tour of the camp ground and the facilities. Based on this, we decided to upgrade! After our sleepless night last night, we needed to get some rest. A double room with ensuite was only US$30 per night. We were here for two nights. It seemed a small price to pay for a decent level of comfort!

    After settling in, we went in search of Laban. It was lovely to see him again, and to catch up on all the news about our group who had gone on to Nairobi with him.

    We then went to the bar for a drink with some of our group. They all seem really nice, and we had a wide-ranging conversation before dinner. For dinner, Ibrahim had made a delicious courgette soup, followed by chicken curry with spaghetti. It tasted good, but I would have preferred my curry with rice!

    Afterwards, I was on wash-up duty, and Mark should have been on flapping, but they were showing the Spurs game in the bar, so Jordan subbed for him. When we’d finished, we joined them in the bar to watch the rest of the match. Spurs beat Man United 2 – 0, so Mark was a happy man! Laban came to watch the end of the game, so we were able to say our goodbyes before retiring for the night. He is such a nice guy. We wish him nothing but happiness in his life!    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    A village hike

    20 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 18 °C

    We had such a good night’s sleep and woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead. We had a 7.45am breakfast ahead of an 8.30am hike and village visit. Breakfast was African doughnuts with syrup and bananas – good for me, but Mark only had coffee!

    At 8.30, our local guide, Steve, arrived to lead us on our walk. Only one of the group opted not to go. We had been told it would be 12 kilometres, and it had been described as a ‘mild hike’! In reality, it turned out to be 16.8 kilometres with lots of steep slopes to negotiate. We did it, but Mark was struggling with the pain in his leg. Had we known it was so long, we would probably have opted out. Having said that, it was enjoyable.

    Steve proved to be a good guide, particularly when it came to the flora and fauna of the area. The Usambara Mountains are sometimes referred to as the ‘Galapagos of Africa’ because of the number of unique species found here. We certainly spotted a number of different chameleons that are not found anywhere else on earth. Steve was also very knowledgeable about the huge variety of trees we were seeing, both the indigenous ones and those introduced by colonials.

    Historically, the Usambara Mountains were inhabited by Bantu, Shambaa, and Maasai people, but in the eighteenth century, a Shambaa kingdom was founded by Mbegha. The kingdom eventually fell apart after a succession struggle in 1862. German colonists settled in the area which was to become German East Africa, and after World War I, it became part of the British mandated territory of Tanganyika.

    We hiked up to the Irente viewpoint, named after a German lady who lived in the area in the 1800s. She farmed 200 hectares in the mountains. When she died, she left the land to the Lutheran Church, who set up several schools in her name.

    The views were spectacular!! I managed to fall over. Luckily, I fell to the right. Had I fallen to the left, I could have toppled off the cliff top and fallen 1500 metres to my certain death!!

    We walked through stunning landscapes, where every square metre was planted with fruit and vegetables. Being a Sunday, we saw church services going on, as well as Muslim ceremonies and festivals. It was lovely to see the Christian ladies dressed in their Sunday best and the Muslim ladies in their colourful hijabs. The bright patterns contrasted perfectly with the vivid green foliage of the surroundings. We also walked through a pine forest that seemed incongruous compared to everywhere else. It was all very interesting.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    A local lunch and dancing

    20 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ⛅ 23 °C

    For lunch, we stopped at a family home. They had prepared a selection of local dishes for us, including a bean stew, boiled yams, stir-fried carrots and green peppers, roti, beef stew, and a dish of mashed bananas and potatoes. We had watermelon, bananas, and avocados for dessert. We also got to try the local beer, brewed from sugarcane, and the local gin, which they make by distilling the local beer! It smelled of rocket fuel and was rather potent, but didn’t taste too bad when mixed with ginger beer!! The food was all very good.

    After we’d eaten, the family sang, drummed, and danced. Obviously, we were encouraged to join in! I avoided it by being the official videographer of the group, and Mark assumed the role of photographer!

    Following lunch, the walk got tougher with lots of steep inclines and one particularly treacherous descent. I know I wasn’t the only one who was glad to be back at the campsite in one piece!

    We got back at around 2.45pm and caught the last few minutes of the Women’s World Cup Final. Unfortunately, England lost 1 – 0 to Spain. It’s still not coming home! 😂 After the match, we stayed in the bar on and off until dinner time, chatting to our fellow travellers and generally putting the world to rights.

    Dinner this evening was a tasty curried vegetable soup, followed by a very tough lamb stew served with spinach and fried potatoes. At the post-dinner briefing, we fed back to Nash that the walk was harder and longer than he had led us to believe and that he should have been more honest with us beforehand. I don’t feel that he took our comments particularly well!

    Later, we had coffee with Ibrahim and discussed his time with Intrepid and our overlanding experiences. It was a nice way to end the day.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Driving to Arusha

    21 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 25 °C

    We didn’t sleep as well last night, mainly due to the noisy occupants of another overlanding truck that was parked just outside our room. We had a 6am breakfast ahead of another long driving day to Arusha. We had no need of an alarm! The 5am call to prayer from the mosque next door did a more than adequate job of waking us up!!😂

    Breakfast was pancakes, bananas, and syrup. Again, OK for me, but Mark just had coffee for the second day running.

    We were packed up and on the truck by 6.45am. We retraced our route back down the mountain before turning right onto the main road heading north. We were driving across the plains with mountains on either side of us. The railway ran alongside the road, and we drove through lots of sisal plantations and several busy villages.

    We had an interesting bushy bushy stop amongst cacti and thorny shrubs fully exposed to passing traffic!

    Later, we stopped for a roadside lunch, but at least we had toilets and a shop to buy drinks and snacks. Once again, lunch was disappointing – a meagre salad of white cabbage and grated carrots, cold pasta, and lukewarm baked beans with added green peppers and peas. Weird!!

    After lunch, we continued on towards Arusha. At one point, we were stopped from continuing by police. They stopped all the traffic to allow convoys of important people to pass through. We were sitting there for about an hour! We passed Mount Kilimanjaro but, unfortunately, the top half of it was covered in low cloud. Close to our campsite, we drove around the slightly smaller Mount Meru. This time, we were able to see most of it!    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Meserani Snake Park

    21 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 27 °C

    We arrived at Meserani Snake Park, our home for the night, at around 5.15pm. This campsite is an overlanding institution, run by a South African lady from Durban, known to everyone as Ma. Her and her husband started the camp from scratch in 1993. She now runs the place with the help of local staff, her husband having died, and her children having settled in the US.

    Having looked around and declined the offer to visit the snake park, we decided against an upgrade and went to pitch our tent. It’s the busiest campsite we’ve been on in terms of the number of overlanding trucks here! We counted seven!! By the time we’d put up our tent, the camping area was full of identical tents!! Luckily, we’d camped on the edge of the area so we could easily identify which tent was ours. Those in the middle had fun finding their accommodation later! 😂

    Once we were set up, we went to the bar where we chatted to Ma while we enjoyed a cold drink. She’s a real character. She showed us her ‘stupid book’, where she notes down all the daft questions overlanders ask her! There were some classics in there, including ‘How many different animals make up the big five?’!! We told her about the traveller on our previous leg (who shall remain nameless!), who asked the guide if rhinos give birth to live babies!! She said she’d add it to the book! We found an entry from ‘Katie from Dragoman’ – I can only assume it’s the same Katie who led our West African trip. Her anecdote was about a Sarah from the UK – I hope it’s NOT the same Sarah who joined us on our leg from Cape Town to Vic Falls! She had been on several Dragoman trips, though, so it could be her!! 😂

    Mark was chatting to Ma about motorbike racing. Her brother is Kork Ballington, four time world champion from the same era as Barry Sheene and Giacomo Agostini. He was racing when Mark was stewarding at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Ma was very proud to show us a copy of Kork’s autobiography, ‘Ballington Uncorked’. There were some great photos in it that brought back lots of memories for Mark!

    We stayed in the bar until dinnertime. Ibrahim had prepared cucumber soup to start with. Mark said it was delicious. I passed on it, given my aversion to the said vegetable! 😂 Main course was stir-fried beef with turmeric rice. It was very tasty.

    After dinner, Nash gave us the briefing about tomorrow. There is another hike to some caves and a waterfall. He told us that it is more challenging and longer than the one we did yesterday. Given that we found that one tough in the heat, we have already decided that we will give tomorrow’s a miss. Nash said he could arrange extra rangers to guide people back if they found the hike too much. He said we would have to wait on the truck if we didn’t walk. We don’t mind! We’ll get caught up on some photos and things while we’re waiting.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Flamingo Lodge, Karuta

    22 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 25 °C

    I didn’t sleep particularly well. The road next to the campsite was really busy with trucks pounding up and down all night. We had to be up at 5am anyway, so when zips started being opened at around 4.30am, we got up too! At least, after all this time, we’ve got the putting up and taking down of the tent off to a fine art. I think we got it packed away in less than five minutes this morning!

    Breakfast was Spanish omelettes with corn bread, a vast improvement on the last couple of days.

    We were on the road by 6.30am, heading for Karuta. We drove through lots of villages, all busy with stallholders setting up for the day and schoolchildren on their way to school.
    We arrived at the starting point for the hike at about 9.30am. Nash was encouraging everyone to go and listen to the rangers as they described the options that we’d have when it came to the walks. We’d already made our minds up, so we stayed on the truck. I’m so glad we did because, when the others were being briefed, Ibrahim and John told us that we would be going with them to pick up a bit of shopping and then going straight to the campsite! That’s not what Nash had led us to believe, and I bet there were a few disappointed people in our group when they saw us driving off!

    So, we were at Flamingo Lodge and Campsite by 11am. The campground was grassy and the showers looked OK. There was also somewhere to sit with power points, so I could get some work done. We decided that there was no point in upgrading just for the one night, so we picked our spot and pitched our tent. We then both had showers before the rest of the group turned up, and we got some washing done. Afterwards, I worked on my trip notes. It was a far more preferable way to spend the morning than trekking up hill and down dale! 😂

    When the others got back, they said the walk wasn’t as long or as hard as the one the other day. I was still happy with our decision not to do it!

    Ibrahim had made fried chicken, chips, and salad for lunch, the best so far!!

    After lunch, we had a lazy afternoon sitting by the pool with Jordan and Luke. It was nice to switch off for a few hours.

    Later, we had beef stew with rice for dinner. We were all having problems charging our devices. There was a bit of a problem on the truck first thing this morning, and a couple of people reported that their adaptors and leads were smoking in the sockets. It appears that most of us have damaged leads as a result! It couldn’t have come at a worse time – just before we are spending a couple of days in a bush camp!    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Driving to Ngorongoro

    23 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 17 °C

    We were up at 5am this morning, with instructions to have our tents down and be ready for breakfast at 6. We all complied. Unfortunately, Ibrahim overslept!! When he finally showed up at about ten past six, we all had to rush to get our breakfast and pack our lunches ready for our 6.50am departure. We all mucked in to be ready in time. I was pleased to see there was cooked meat and cheese, as well as salad, to put in our sandwiches.

    We had two 4x4 vehicles for the next few days. Nash introduced us to the two drivers, Amos and Mankinga. We chose to go with Mankinga and, boy, did it prove to be the right decision!

    We loaded all our personal stuff into the vehicles. Our tents and sleeping mats were being transported with Ibrahim and all the kitchen equipment in a third 4x4. Apart from us, we had Ray, Luke, Juan, and Orly in our car. Nash travelled in the second car with the rest of the group. John stayed behind with the truck. He will drive to our next campsite on Friday, and we will meet him there.

    We were ready to go a little later than planned. We stopped in the local town to use the ATM and stock up on drinks and snacks as we would have no opportunities to buy anything else once we entered the park.

    We then drove on to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It was a cloudier morning than we have had previously on this trip. As we drove, we chatted to Mankinga and got to know him a bit better. He is the grandson of the local tribal chief and was born and brought up in the area. His grandmother was the first female tour guide in Tanzania! She inspired Mankinga to love wildlife and to follow in her footsteps.

    We had to stop at the gate to get our permits to enter Ngorongoro. The name is Masai for ‘bowl’ due to the shape of the Ngorongoro Crater. Once in the conservation area, we climbed a spiral road to reach the rim of the crater. There was dense forest on both sides of the road and thick fog as we ascended, meaning that we could see very little.

    We were in a queue of safari vehicles all entering the park at the same time. Most of them stopped at the crater viewpoint. We didn’t. You couldn’t see anything!😊

    It takes about an hour to drive around the rim. It’s a very dusty and very bumpy ride! As we approached the entry to the crater itself, the sun started to break through, and we were able to see the thick, lush vegetation all around us. Before starting our descent, we saw a family of warthogs, several giraffes (you don’t find them on the floor of the crater as there are no trees), and two herds of zebra. The cloud and fog lifted enough for us to see into the Malanja Depression, where there are Masai villages. The people make a living by herding cattle and goats.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Exploring the Ngorongoro Crater

    23 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 19 °C

    The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest inactive, intact, and unfilled volcanic caldera. It was formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed in on itself two to three million years ago. It is 610 metres deep, 19 kilometres in diameter, and its floor covers 260 square kilometres. Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500 to 5,800 metres. The crater floor is 1,800 metres above sea level.

    At the gate to the crater, we stopped for toilets and to pop the roof of the 4x4 so that we could get a better view. As we started our descent, we began to get some sense of the scale of it. It was still a little hazy, but we could make out the circular floor and Magadi, the salt water lake in the middle.

    We stayed in the crater for about three hours. We saw so much wildlife. It was truly mind-blowing. We saw:

    • Grant’s gazelles
    • Elephants
    • Lionesses
    • Lots of zebra drinking at the point where Lake Magadi changes from salt to fresh water
    • Oryx
    • Impala
    • Hundreds of wildebeest, including a couple of juvenile males who were butting heads
    • Several beautiful crested cranes, the national bird of Uganda
    • Hippos, both in and out of the water. Some of them had babies. (Hippos have a 243-day gestation period.)
    • Warthogs, which were much paler than the ones we have seen before. Warthogs are called ‘pumba’ in Swahili, meaning ‘stupid’. The collective noun for them is ‘sounder’.
    • A flamboyance of flamingos
    • Thompson gazelles, identifiable by their big ears
    • A jackal
    • A spotted hyena
    • Several glossy ibis
    • A blacksmith lapwing, so-called because its call sounds like a blacksmith hammering on an anvil.
    • A pair of kori bustard
    • Secretary birds, whose diet is mainly made up of snakes. They kick them to death before eating them!
    • A pair of ostriches
    • A group of three veteran buffaloes, older males who can no longer keep up with the group. They stay together for safety.

    At several places, there was a long queue of jeeps trying to see individual animals. In these cases, we didn’t wait. Mankinga took us somewhere else where we could see something equally good.    En savoir plus

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  • Overlanding Through Africa

    More wildlife as we left Ngorongoro

    23 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 22 °C

    There were clouds hovering over the rim on one side of the crater, whereas the other side was clear. It was a curious phenomenon watching the clouds rolling over the rim and down towards the floor of the crater, evaporating as they did so.

    We stopped for lunch by a small lake, which was full of hippos. We were advised to stay in the car to eat our picnic so as not to attract the attention of scavenger birds. We did get out to buy an ice cream, though 😂.

    After lunch, we drove out of the crater. The road was very steep and winding and extremely dusty. Along the way, we saw:

    • Herds of wildebeest and zebra
    • Impalas crossing the road
    • A solitary buffalo
    • Lots of gazelles
    • Loads of elephants (close up!)
    • Large giraffes eating small trees and then crossing the road in front of our car    En savoir plus

  • Overlanding Through Africa

    Entering Serengeti National Park

    23 aoĂ»t 2023, Tanzanie ☀ 30 °C

    We had a toilet stop not far from Olduvai Gorge, one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, often called the ‘Cradle of Humankind’. We spent a few minutes reading the information boards.

    Soon after, we crossed the ‘border’ between the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. The landscape changed immediately! There were no trees! We proceeded at speed along stony, bumpy tracks through wide open spaces. The 50 kilometre per hour speed limits in the park don’t seem to be enforced!

    Established in 1940, the Serengeti (meaning ‘endless plains’ in Swahili) National Park stretches over 14,763 square kilometres. It contains over 1,500,000 hectares of virgin savanna. The Serengeti is well known for the largest annual animal migration in the world. Over 1.5 million blue wildebeest and 250,000 zebra, along with smaller herds of Thomson's gazelle and eland, migrate northwards. Unfortunately, we were about two weeks late to witness the spectacle! Perhaps we’ll catch the tail end of it in the Masai Mara next week.
    The national park is also home to the largest lion population in Africa. Sadly, it is under threat from deforestation, population growth, and ranching.

    Once we were in the heart of the Serengeti, we started spotting more wildlife. We saw:

    • Ostriches
    • Oryx
    • Impalas
    • Gazelles
    • A superb starling that we photographed in a car park. We had stopped ostensibly to use the toilets, but we had to wait while the two members of our group who are doing the balloon ride tomorrow had their safety briefing.
    • Some topi – this is a common African antelope, also known as a tsessebe or sassaby, with a glossy reddish-brown coat and purplish-black and yellow markings. It was another new species for us!
    • Elephants    En savoir plus

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