Off on Safari

We issued a tricky ultimatum to 1 of our girls this morning. Luckily they made the right choice and we didn’t end up leaving her & Daddy behind in Muheza. 

It was a fragile exit – we needed to be at the petrol station at 7.30 for the 8am bus – but as always when energies are directed at negotiating children out the door we ended up leaving some things behind…like the carefully chilled water I had popped in the freezer, the charger for the camera (please let the battery last for this trip, the time it shall be used most), a pair of binoculars, oh and we didn’t open the calendar and get the bag of snowmen jelly babies I had sneaked from one of wonderful Christmas packages.

Some days I think I could give Kofi Annan a run for his money on the negotiation front but not this one. Nonetheless we got to the petrol station at the appointed time and then waited (not without some anxiety as to whether I’d booked us on to a real bus on that day & time). We waited, and waited and started to worry we were in the wrong place……a couple of phone calls and a walk over to the bus station reaffirmed that we were in the correct place…until we finally saw the bus with the correct name…pulling into the bus station (where we were not). Only 45 mins late.  A few mins later and after much flagging by the bus ticket man & our hospital car driver our bags were shoved on & we were shoved through the door. They give you approx. 10secs to get in your seat before it screeches back out into the bedlam of motorcycles. Thankfully we got bottoms on seats & heaved a big sigh of relief. I firmly put all thoughts of road safety to the back of my mind (Tanzania doesn’t have the greatest safety record with buses…and when you see how fast they drive & how they overtake you’ll see why).

Tahmeed Luxury Coach was well worn but certainly luxurious compared to most of the normal buses. Aircon to 27c, tvs from the ceiling with loud Tanzanian pop music & gyrating scantily clad women, tvs in the backs of seats (1 in 4 which worked….M got to watch a movie and B got to watch Minions) and large reclining, if a little worn, seats. We got a pee stop after 2 hours, a bus change in the middle of nowhere half way through – the coach abruptly pulled off road & we were instructed to climb out  & swap buses with passengers coming the other direction. 7 hours of road later we arrived in Moshi. The landscape certainly changed along the way, with the verdant Usambara mountains and piles of plums for sale giving way to vast arid expanses and finally a cloud covered horizon beyond which lurked Kilimanjaro.

We disembarked into the chaos of Moshi bus station, trying to deduce who was the safari organiser that was meant to be meeting us. You are literally bombarded with questions, offers of taxi and all manners of things to buy. We found a corner of shade, called him and awaited pick up.

In amongst all this my phone has died….it has not got a great track record of crashing when the batter gets too low. This time it felt like it was going to spontaneously combust and although M has seemed to have managed to reset it I now have to wait until we’re back in Muheza to use my English sim card to set up my Whatsapp again. So for the moment I haven’t been able to receive messages for 48hrs and shan’t be able to communicate until we return back to our house on Sunday afternoon (23^rd). So don’t panic if I haven’t replied!

We had a night in Moshi, where a miscommunication re sleeping arrangements saw me sleeping like sardines with the younger 2 in a very small double bed. I can’t really call it sleeping, but more like a hot yoga deep meditation session in which I occasionally got whacked round the face. It was a relief we had planned an early start with our driver collecting us at 6am.

I am writing this in a Lodge at the edge of the escarpment to the Rift Valley. Tomorrow Ngorogoro awaits. Today however was a magical first safari day….all the girls unanimous in their enjoyment, not only of zooming round with us all hanging out the top of raised roof landrover, but with the stunning vistas and wildlife. B declared it her most favourite thing in the whole world to do.

Tangarire national park lived up to it’s reputation for Elephants and Baobab trees. I could have watched elephants all day, such majestic animals and so many of them, so close up. But we also loved our first experience of giraffes, zebras, impalas & warthogs plus all the splendid coloured and shaped birds including vultures, storks, ostriches and swallows! Our driver was diligently hunting down big cats for us and we managed 2 distant sightings of lions, although too far for much enthusiasm from 5 year old who really just wanted to keep showing Gerry the giraffes. Monkeys caused trouble at lunchtime – we were prey to their lunch stealing tricks and then enjoyed watching the same befall any newcomers to the picnic areas. They beat seagulls in the pasty stealing stakes. And on our final drive leaving the park our driver was stunned to find us, not 1 but 3 leopards (though M thinks 4) to watch.  L was busy finishing off her chicken leg from lunch, much to B’s consternation that the leopards might hop into our car for it.

I now have a lot of photos to cull, the girls are worn out…as are we…..but ready for another early start tomorrow to dip down into the famous crater. Photos to follow….(or have a look at M's: follow the link to the surgeon's musings)