Tanzania (pt1): Karatu – Serengeti – Mto Wa Mbu – Dar Es Salaam

We left Nairobi early with our new group and headed straight for the border of Kenya and Tanzania. After another uneventful border crossing, we headed for the city of Arusha, where we stopped for lunch and got some local Tanzanian Shillings. Our stop for the night was supposed to be Mto Wa Mbu but there was a threat of not being able to access the Serengeti due to the amount of rain the area had been getting so we pressed on for another town, Karatu. The trip to Karatu was slow, with single lane road in places, and roads awash in others. At one point, we watched a bus get swept off the road and end up on a very precarious angle, absolutely chock a block full of very scared people. We went through that section anyway, with our overland Intrepid truck negotiating the heavy flowing waters much better than the local bus had. Was a wet night in the tent that night.

The next day we got up and headed for the Ngorongoro Conversation Area in 4WD landcruisers. We entered the caldera (i.e. the Ngorongoro Crater) and started a game drive, spotting herds of Wildebeest, Gazelle, Flamingo, Hyena, Hippos, a couple of warthog, two sleeping lions (right by the side of the road) and some Elephants off in the distance. We ate lunch by a watering hole inhabited by hippo before exiting the caldera and heading for our campsite in the Serengeti NP. On the road between Ngorongoro and Serengeti, we saw the start of the southern migration, with hundreds of thousands of zebra, and wildebeest in particular, all amassing for the trip south. It was truly an incredible sight. We arrived late due to rain and bad roads but fortunately our tents were already set up for us.

Our first day in the Serengeti started off sunny and we were supposed to be going for a hot air balloon ride but the company lost our booking and we had to delay a day. Instead, we went for a game drive out in the Serengeti where we saw our first Leopard (along with a couple of cubs), lots more lions (including a pride of about 15), more gazelles, hippos, babboons, topi, impala and hyena. We came back to camp and chilled out for a couple of hours, before heading out for another safari drive, this time in pouring rain. We hoped this afternoon rain wasn't a sign of a wet morning for our balloon ride the next day. More big 5 spotting was done in our afternoon drive, with several giraffe spotted in additional to the usual stuff aforementioned. Unfortunately, the elephants were proving elusive, which is a shame because they grow bigger in Tanzania than other parts of Africa due to the amount of phosphorous in the soil. As a result, they also have bigger tusks.

Another wet night in the tent but woke up (very early) to another lovely morning. We were picked up from our camp site in the dark and taken to the hot air balloon launch site. A total of 14 people were to go up in one balloon with our pilot, Jason, being the present Canadian Hot Air Balloon Champion. We had an awesome time ballooning over the Serengeti as the sun rose. It was very peaceful and we spotted quite a few animals, including a herd of elephants that had three baby elephants amongst them. We came to quite a wet landing with the basket tipping over on landing, which we were prepared for. We were greeted with champagne shortly after – it was supposed to come out to the balloon but the 4WD got stuck. We later got stuck ourselves trying to get out of the thick muddy roads. After touch down champagne, we were taken to breakfast, which was a full English breakfast with silver service and more champagne. The table was set up in the middle of the Serengeti, about 100m from where we passed a pride of sleeping lions. It was a magic start to the day.

We met the rest of our group after breakfast and headed back out of the Serengeti, on our way back to Mbo Wa Bu, our camp site for the night. On the way out, we spotted more elephant (although too far away to shoot with camera), more impala, gazelle, zebra and wildebeest. We even spotted three Cheetahs enjoying a fresh kill. We also got another chance to see the animals preparing for the migration. I previously said there were hundreds of thousands but I think realistically there were millions. The countryside was filled with animals as far as the eye could see in every direction. It was simply amazing to witness. We arrived at camp late afternoon and chilled out, with everyone taking the chance to have a warm shower after two days in the Serengeti without hot water.

The next day we had a guided tour around Mto Wa Mbu (translates to Mosquito Creek), checki8ng out the local artists (source of the Tinga Tinga paintings), wood carvers and tried some of their banana beer (nasty stuff) and banana wine (potent but not as bad). We then headed back to Arusha before heading further on to Marangu, which is where many people leave from when they start their ascent of Mt Killimanjaro, which we could see the top and bottom of as we drove past, but the middle was covered in clouds. Our quick overnight in Marangu included an upgrade out of the tent and into a proper room with ensuite.

The final part of this section of our trip involved an early departure from Marangu and just over 12 hours in the truck driving to Dar Es Salaam. We didn't see much of Dar, other than the traffic. We arrived at our campsite, which was right on the ocean's edge. The next day we are due to depart to Zanzibar, which we'll cover in our next update.