Happy Birthday to Me!

After 3 flights and about 24 hours in all I landed in Arusha around 9:00 last night. By the time I got through customs and to my hotel it was 10:30. I was SO TIRED but couldn’t sleep. The A/C left a little something to be desired and I knew I had to get up early. (At the risk of being an ugly American, this place is kind of a dump!). I had booked a walking safari and game drive and was getting picked up at 7:00.
James was my tour guide. Totally forgot to get a picture of him! Nice kid but between my crappy hearing and his very thick accent I really struggled to understand what he was talking about! So I did a lot of the old mmm-hmmms and head nodding but didn’t pick up a whole lot. It did give me a chance to get a first look at Africa. What I saw reminded me of some Caribbean countries we have been to. Just kind of random placement of ramshackle shanties. Lots of people hanging around. James said they were looking for day jobs because unemployment is very high here. I did see several women walking along the road with those huge baskets on their heads. And many, many school kids in their uniforms of all different colors. Of course the girls were all in pleated knee length or longer skirts and the little boys with their ties on. Very formal. I had assumed that Islam would be the major religion here, but James told me that Christianity is much more common, except for certain areas such as Zanzibar. The school uniforms looked like what we would have seen the Catholic school kids wearing 50 years ago in the states. I found myself wishing that I was on foot rather than in a car. I could have gotten pictures that captured the feel of everything.
We got to the park and checked in with the rangers. For some reason I had 2 of them assigned to me- Eric and Emmanuel. Eric carried a rifle in case some of the animals decided to charge 😰😰. We began walking in the grasses of the savannah. Everywhere you looked you saw herds of animals- giraffes, buffalo, zebras; flocks of egrets who feed off of some organism on the buffalo; warthogs who travel in family units- Mom, Dad, and kids. (I just can’t help myself. The first few times I saw warthogs I HAD to start singing that song from Lion King! “When I was a young warthog….” The rangers looked…confused? But I know that you, dear reader, were singing it too!)
I was hoping to see elephants but apparently they are more likely to hide in brush. The closest we got was seeing fresh elephant pooh. We saw lots of pooh of every sort- pooh pooh everywhere. In fact, here’s a fun fact. Giraffe pooh looks like little bunny turds. That’s because they feed up high- off the acacia trees- and really don’t get much water. In order to drink they have to get down on their knees to reach the lake. Ouch! So I guess dryness leads to little packets of pooh. Who knew? Trot that one out at your next dinner party!
We hiked up Mt Meru (the second highest mountain in Africa) for a bit and over to a beautiful waterfall, where the rangers and I had a regular ol’ photo sess! We now have a little group on What’s App!
That was the end of the walking safari part. Then we went back to find James and he and I went to sit by one of the lakes and have lunch. We saw several of what James identified as hippos in the water, although they just looked like big rocks to me. Apparently they don’t come out of the water until evening when they step out to forage for food. And you do NOT want to get in their way when that happens!
James pointed out an area that looked like a pink sandbar in the lake. Upon further inspection, it was made up of pink flamingoes. So cool!
So…by this time I was really ready to head home and sleep. However, James had a job to do and he was gonna do it come hell or high water! So we spent another hour or so driving over a really rough road to see the crater which, according to James, had more animals living in it. I mean- it was really pretty but the only animals I saw were buffalo, which we had already seen lots of. “Let’s head back”, said I to James, growing increasingly direct. Then as we were almost to the exit gate, James points out a building. “It’s a park museum. You wanna go in?” NOOOOOO!, said I.
And so we came home.
Cynthia, my trekking partner, gets in tonight. We are doing another tour tomorrow and then.Saturday.Da da da dum!!!!. We hike.
Today was a very nice birthday indeed.Read more