The Rift Valley

We crossed the Kenya-Tanzania border on yet another nine hour bus journey, but with our previous experience we made sure we had the front seats with plenty of leg room and no other people around us. Entering Tanzania from the north, we could see yet more improvement in the road quality, vegetation and housing and had high expectations of the next place on our hit list. Arusha is a small city and is used by most travellers as a base for expeditions around the northern circuit of safaris and mountain treks. We weren’t planning on making any exception to this rule as we were all worked out and really needed some good time off.

Stepping off the bus we were welcomed to a sea of touts all shouting and grabbing us trying to offer a taxi ride, place to stay or safari trip, as if we wanted to go to his office straight after a nine hour bus journey and negotiate a good deal anyway! One guy said “just take my card”, so I did. He then proceeded to ask me where we were going to stay and that we should go with him to his office to talk about his safari packages. I politely thanked him, explained we were very tired and would get in touch with him via his company card if we were interested. He then aggressively said “give me my card back then if you’re not going to come to my office”. That’s how it started and has followed to be quite a common trait of a lot of the natives here; unfriendly and rude, unless they are getting some sort of financial gain from you, and even then it’s not a given. We ended up finding the budget but good value for money Arusha Tourist Centre Inn.

On the streets of Arusha we saw more of what we had seen lots of all around Kenya; odes to Obama. T-shirts, mugs, pens, flags, bus logos, street art- anything that has the potential to be written on had his name on it and it was great to see. His election has given so many of these people a role model better than the average G-unit dope head, and boy are they proud of it. I feel reading his autobiography just before coming out to Africa and actually being here has really given me good insight into his character and motivations and I respect him all the more for it.

We managed to get ourselves onto a last minute discounted safari to the world’s most famous and arguably best safari destinations; the Serengti National Park, Ngorongoro crater and Lake Manyara. We met our safari buddies- two ice cool Hungarian chaps and an extremely annoying and thick as two short planks American girl, who became quite difficult to put up with towards the end. We headed straight for the Serengeti through a variety of terrains ranging from rolling plains of savannah to colourful greenery with our guide and ranger, Cyprian and our personal Chef, Freddie. There we saw all the animals we had seen at Tsavo and more and at a much closer distance. The real gems were the lions stalking a pack of wilderbeast in front of our jeep and a leopard lazing in a sausage tree, with an impala carcass hanging down from an adjacent branch. We camped out in the bush with magnificent lush green landscapes around with giraffes, baboons and impalas grazing in the distance. There was no electricity and whilst in our tents at night, armed with only a pocket torch and trusty Victorinox pen knife, we could hear the sounds of lions and hyenas only meters away. Each early morning Freddie would fix us up some scrumptious fried eggs and fresh tomatoes for the boys with fresh fruit and coffee as a reward for not being eaten by the lions, before heading out on another game drive. On our way to the 20 km wide Ngorongoro crater we stopped off at its rim which offered one of the most spectacular and breath-taking views I have seen in a long time. There we saw many more animals including the endangered black rhino and cheetah and made our way to the often under-rated Lake Manyara, where we saw tree climbing lions and had a very close encounter with a herd of bathing elephants.

On the way back to Arusha, we stopped off at a small Maasai village. The Maasai culture centres around their cattle, which are considered to be sacred, and which provides many of their needs. This includes milk, blood and meat for their diet, and hides and skins for clothing. These people believe that their creator, Ngai has entrusted them with his sacred cattle to own and defend. Therefore they believe they have the right to any cattle they please, whether they ‘belong’ to someone else or not, making it a case of who can defend their cattle best. I guess it is for this reason we found them to be quite hostile and aggressive, but it was interesting to experience their dances, houses and schools.

After returning back to Arusha for a days rest, we set out to do a one day trek a third of the way up Mount Kilimanjaro through forest and moorland. Due to cloudy weather, we only got to see a small part of its famous snow-capped peak but the trek was tiring and rewarding nonetheless.

After all our budget bus journeys we thought we’d splash out a bit and take a luxury coach from Arusha to Dar Es Salaam. It started off very nice with air conditioning and soft reclining seats. I wasn’t feeling too well from the previous night’s episodes of nausea and vomiting and eventually settled myself into a comfortable sleep three hours into our eleven hour journey. I feel Hiba’s hand tap me on the shoulder and I begin to wake up. I here her say “Hubi, I feel sick”. Before both my eyes have fully opened she proceeded to vomit last night’s dinner and breakfast all over me and my seat! I shouted “Does anyone have a plastic bag?!?” to be met with stone cold and confused faces as if I was talking a different language. Oh wait, I was! So in a panic I said “A7had enda kees?” which brought even more confusion when I realised I was speaking Arabic! While all this was going on, poor old Hiba was continuing to vomit half her insides out onto my seat until I finally managed to get her a bag and some tissues, when she managed to stop vomiting, look up at me with a smile a say “I feel much better now”. Having to wait fifteen minutes drenched from head to toe in vomit until we got to the next service station, we quickly got cleaned up and fully changed into clean clothes before making our way back onto the cleaned bus to continue our remaining eight hours to Dar Es Salaam.

When we arrived in the busy and well developed port of Dar Es Salaam, we decided to indulge in a bit of luxury for all our sufferings and spent a couple of nights in a Penthouse suite overlooking the harbour with a Jacuzzi, WiFi and plasma screen to suit. We might get sick more often!

Our plans are to spend New Year’s on Zanzibar Island before heading out to Malawi for more work.

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year

Marwan