Day Three (continued)

On the Tanzanian side it was the same story with border patrol and we were soon on our way again. Nightfall was approaching fast when Rob pulled off the road and went along a track until we were about 500m off the highway. Rob liked to camp out of villages so that inquisitive children and/or thieves would not disturb us.

My tent partner by mutual agreement was Corey and we set about finding a suitable site in amongst the acacia thorn ridden ground to erect our tent. We found a reasonable spot and moved our mattresses into the tent. I had bought a thermarest in London that was self inflating and supposedly durable. The Acacia thorns had made three punctures in it by morning.

Rob introduced us to the truck latrine shovels which would become important items on this trip. We had a quick lesson on adequate depth and suitable distance from the campsite. Rob cooked a tasty meal for us the first night but then our roster was sorted out. Cory and me would be cooking breakfast for everybody after our only night in the Serengeti. Not bad surroundings for our debut.

Day Four

The next day was clear as a bell and we took in the majestic vista of Mt Kilimanjaro in the distance. After brekkie we were off, and sped on to Arusha, one of the larger towns in Tanzania. We went into the township for a wander while Rob and Darren got more provisions. There were lots of souvenir stores selling carvings but Suzie and Lisa said they were cheaper and of better quality in Zimbabwe, so I held off buying anything for the moment.

After Rob picked us up we went to the Snake Pit which is a truckstop for overlanders. There is an actual snakepit there with lots of big and poisonous snakes to look at. The feeding of the snakes is not that pleasant as they throw poor unfortunate mice into the snake pits who are then chased around until the snakes bite them. The snakes sit back until the poison takes effect and then proceed to dig in.

That night was a good night for everybody to loosen up a bit more and become a bit more relaxed about the situation. We had a campfire joke session which was hilarious, and I learned quite a few good jokes that night, especially Craig's famous Elephant and the mouse joke. "Take it all" became one of the trips catchcries.

Day Five

The next day we headed off along the dusty trail to Ngorongoro Crater which is a famous wildlife area. The road (and I use that term with extreme doubt) gradually deteriorated and soon resembled the moon with craters everywhere. We soon learned that sitting at the rear of the truck was hazardous to your health if you did not have a good handhold and it was akin to a bucking bronco ride. We climbed gradually towards the end of the day and had a spectacular view over the savannah and Lake Manyara National Park.

We camped that night near the crater in hot conditions again. However the campsite had showers which became rare commodities in days to come.

Day Six

The day dawned overcast and after joining up with a local operator and hiring a few of their jeeps we drove along the road up the side of the crater to get a view from the top. The mist was too low and we had only a brief glimpse of the crater below. The jeeps continued further around the rim of the crater and we found the main entrance to drive down into the crater to hopefully see a bit of game. We also met the local Masai Mara tribespeople dressed in their traditional garb. They offered to have photos taken with them but at a hefty fee. The locals have got wise to the value of US dollars very fast.

We drove down to the bottom of the crater which now resembled a gigantic valley but which keeps all the animals trapped in their own world. We spotted all kinds of wildlife including lion, elephant, hippo, hyena, water buffalo etc. The lions seemed happy to park themselves in the middle of the road and get filmed by the dozens of jeeps that seemed to be there with us. One lion looked straight at me and looked as if he was preparing to jump up into our jeep and have me for his dinner, but he was actually eyeing the zebra directly behind us on the other side of the road. Unfortunately another jeep zoomed up behind us and scared the zebra away so we never got to see a kill.

We had lunch in a group of trees with elephants nearby and also vervet monkeys making their presence felt with repeated attempts at stealing our food. They are very distinguishable as they have blue testicles. After lunch we drove up out of the crater back to the truck and continued on our way as we planned to camp in the Serengeti that night. The Serengeti was going to be one of the highlights for me because of its mana and it being a name bringing back all sorts of childhood memories of watching those wildlife documentaries on the television.

The first view of it was surreal. We came around a corner and looked out on this stark landscape that seemed to stretch forever into the distant horizon. We were looking down on the plains of the Serengeti where the antelope live each day not knowing if it will be their last, and the lions roam as kings of the land. We dropped down gradually until we got to this old rickety sign hanging above the road and posed underneath the sign (truck and all) for a group photo. It was getting late in the day and we would not be reaching our campsite before nightfall but we didn't seem to mind. We were in the Serengeti.

We drove further into the plains and soon we were enveloped by the vastness of it all. The mountains gquickly shrank into nothingness behind us and we seemed to be driving in a landscape that would have no end. Everything looked the same and as we seemed to be the only people for miles and miles, I subsconsciously hoped that the truck would prove reliable. As dusk started to creep across the Serengeti, we were priviliged to witness an amazing sunset that bordered on the sublime. A deep orange glow in the distance provided an amazing backdrop to the herds of Wildebeest honking happily around us as we drove onto our campsite.

As darkness enveloped the land, we spotlighted the area in our search for lion. We found two gorging on a kill and watched them feast with their eyes glowing in our torchlight. We eventually arrived at our campsite and met the ranger whose duty it was to guard us against wild animals attacking, but he assured us that the animals were more frightened than of us than we were of them. That reassured almost no one.

After dinner we checked out the area in groups. The toilets were away from the campsite and were of concern to everybody especially when we could see eyes shining in the bushes near the toilets. This trepidation was compounded when we heard a lion roar from quite a close distance. It sounded like it was just down the road from the campsite,but we had been told that a lion's roar could sound the same as if it was 10kms away instead of 100m. That was all very well but didn't explain the glowing eyes of some animal up the road when we shone our torch up there. We thought it was probably a hyena but when there was another almighty roar from that direction, twenty two pairs of legs sprinted to the back ladder of the Whale in the shortest possible time. I have never made it up that ladder so quickly and so sure of step. I had the presence of mind to grab my camera..... just in case. Rob the driver dived headlong through the cab window. Sure enough, only a matter of seconds late a lioness strolled into our campsite, padded past the fire and the tents, bellowing once or twice, and then sauntered off into the night.

Oblivious to all this excitement was our Heather, who was quietly reading Elephant Song by Wilbur Smith. She was more than a little shaken to hear that a lion had just walked by her tent, and that she was only separated by one of the world's great predators by a piece of canvas and a zipper. Well, that shook up our poor Kylie just a bit, and even though it was the turn of Corey and me to sleep in the truck ( because we were cooking breakfast the next day), she insisted that she had to stay in the truck rather than a flimsy tent. Kylie and me shared the beach while Corey slept on the floor of the truck. Kylie had heard that leopards were great tree climbers and was adamant that the canvas covering of the beach be pulled over. That made it a very warm night indeed, and I sweated more than my usual amount in the already warm conditions.

It was a bizarre night all round as the sounds of the wild creatures outside were all around us. The whoop of the hyena was accompanied by the hissing noise of the warthog and distant lion roars.

Day Seven

As Corey and I got brekkie organised, the roar of a lion close by put the wind up us a bit, and we were a little bit apprehensive that we could be something else's breakfast. Luckily the lion wasn't interested in us that day and we were undisturbed. Darren the driver greeted us with the news that he had seen the silhouette of a hyena outside his tent that night. Nobody reported having a good nights sleep.

After breakfast, we went searching for game from the safety of the Whale. Our first contact was with a buffalo that seemed to be on sentry duty for a whole herd of buffalo. He snorted and stamped at this strange red animal approaching him but didn't charge us, as buffalo are prone to doing at short notice. We headed to the outcrops of rocks that are supposed to be the haunts of lions as they provide a great view of the savannah for them and we managed to see a few resting in the shade. We weren't fortunate enough to see a kill even though there were herds of wildebeest and zebra in the vicinity.

We all wanted to find a herd of elephant so we sent our best spotters to the top of the truck to find us some. We had the call from above that there appeared to be a big herd in the distance so we sped off in the direction reported, hoping that the roads would get us near them. The roads took us reasonably close to the targets, close enough to establish that the elephants were in fact a whole bunch of grey boulders. Rob said we had run out of time and had to press on to our next campsite, meaning we had to abandon the search.

After a few hours of travelling we entered an area that seemed like the rest of the scenery but held an unpleasant surprise for us. I was reading a book at the time and this fly landed on my leg. I shooed it away and it landed on Kim who was lying down asleep. Moments later she yelped and jumped up. We noticed a small dollop of blood where the fly had been. The bloody buggar had bitten her. Soon there were flies everywhere attacking us like giant mosquitoes. We had driven into a Tsetse fly belt!

These vicious flies were renowned for attacking the livestock of the locals and carried a disease known as sleeping sickness, so the farmers had to find areas that were not inhabited by the flies.

Meanwhile, war had broken out with the flies and it had turned into a bitter struggle. Armed with a sandal in each hand we endeavoured to terminate the lives of these flies as quickly as possible. I had managed to be bitten while smacking another fly and these beggars pack a punch. I collared one on the floor and had added it to my kill tally when lo an behold, the devil got up and flew away. I couldn't believe it. A New Zealand blowfly couldn't have withstood one of my full-blooded blows with a sandal, but I had only stunned this demon momentarily.

Others in the truck were having similar experiences and we developed a new respect for these critters. The Battle of the Serengeti was going badly. Blood was being spilt and it was mainly on our side. Just as we were becoming resigned to the fact that we were going to have the life sucked out of us by these vampires, the flies suddenly disappeared. We had simply driven out of the Tsetse Fly belt and were safe. Hooray!

After another few hours driving we arrived at the shores of Lake Victoria, the main catchment for the Mountains of the Moon (the Ruwenzoris), which were the source of the Nile.This is a big #@!$&%#!! of a lake. Over 500 kms in length and 250kms across, it is like an inland sea. We arrived at our campsite, which was actually a gravel pit - a sign of things to come. These gravel pits were ideal for camping in according to Rob our driver. They reduced the amount of insect life, especially mosquitoes and ants ( which can be of high nuisance value if encountered in large numbers) as there was a lack of water and plant life in a gravel pit, which these little critters thrived on.

Corey and me cooked dinner for everybody, which was mainly a vegetarian stirfry (we were getting low on supplies and due to stock up the next day) and no one seemed to spit anything out or discreetly scrape food off their plates behind them. We even got a compliment on the gravy, so that was somewhat of a relief. Maybe we wouldn't poison everybody after all.

Day eight

Today dawned fine and we drove into Mwanza, a port town where we would be catching a ferry across Lake Victoria. Unfortunately, when we arrived we found that the Truck Ferry was out of action, and the truck would have to drive around the lake to stay on schedule. We had the choice of taking the passenger ferry over and waiting for the truck to get around or stay with the truck. We decided to stay with the Whale.

While in Mwanza I bought a foam mattress to fit in the tent as I was sick of waking up on the hard ground due to my mattress deflating during the night. A couple of the other guys had bought mattresses in Arusha and they swore by them.

We again camped in a quarry. However, Robs anti mozzie theory didn't seem to apply here as they still seemed to be around in large numbers. Craig had splashed out on a big bottle of Johnnie Walker and proceeded to drink the contents that evening. It was hilarious. Sarah had the foresight to tape some of the babble coming out of Craig's mouth. It was great entertainment the next day listening to it all again. During the night Craig threw up all over his mattress, or as he called it, "having a dip". It was a great night to lie down out in the open and look at the stars. There seemed to be so many more than what I was used to seeing in New Zealand. Ted was a bit of an authority on star constellations and pointed out the Big Dipper amongst others.

Day nine

The next day we continued travelling around the lake. The road was really rough and made for a bumpy journey. The day was quite uneventful and lots of reading and sleeping was the order of the day. We camped in yet another gravel pit. Corey and me made the decision to leave the fly off the tent during the night as it had been so hot sleeping lately.

The night was clear with the stars shining brightly. There seemed to be little possibility of rain, and it hadn't rained all trip. Bad decision, as at about 3am, the taps were well and truly turned on. At about 4am, the water was seeping in everywhere, as the tent had been pitched in an area that seemed ideal for water to accumulate in ever increasing volume. We had to abandon ship, and make for the truck. The tent was soaked, as were Corey and me.

Day ten

I got up early today as Corey and me were on fire duty. We couldn't get a fire going as it was too wet so we used a gas burner. I needed to offload some cargo before we started off down the road so went and found a private place in the high grass nearby. Besides getting quite wet, I was attacked by giant African ants. These things can bite. Luckily, I didn't get any major bites in the nether regions. I found one ant in my shirt. It had been biting right through it.

After dealing with the ants, we continued onto Bukoba, the town where the ferry was heading to.The roads were a lot more treacherous because of the rain and had turned muddy and slippery. We had to be careful we didn't go for a slide as that would end the trip pretty quickly if we went over a bank.

The hotel in Bukoba where we would be staying ( yes, a rare treat on a camping trip) had a certain charm to it. Cory and me got a big 3-room apartment on the top floor. The mosquito net on my bed was riddled with holes and the sink and bath in one of the rooms had no running water. The men's toilets downstairs didn't work either. Everyone had a huge load of washing to get done so the washerwomen were in great demand. Hey, we were all quite weary by this stage and the last thing we wanted to do was our washing. Besides, the rate was very reasonable. However, my washing was not wrung out properly and was hung up dripping wet, and in the end did not dry in time. It also looked like they didn't use washing powder.Never mind, not a big one.

I had a look around Bukoba later the same day but didn't see much of interest. We had dinner in the hotel lounge after a couple of after 5's, and then most of the group came up to my room and we had a bit of a session, finishing around 2am. I got fairly munted on Primus Beer which was the local drop and is particulary potent. A big lightning bolt struck a tree next to the hotel rooms but I didn't hear a thing.

Day Eleven

The following day, we left Bukoba for Uganda. After three hours travelling on crap roads, we had a bit of an accident. Sitting up top of the truck, we were drying out some mattresses that had gotten wet, when a low telephone wire snuck up on us and struck Paul in the upper lip. He was very lucky he didn't get it around the throat. I managed to duck out of the way in time.

We arrived at the border and went through to the Ugandan side. Due to tense relations between Tanzania and Uganda over the years, the borders are separated by a large area known as no man's land. It was about two hours drive to the Ugandan border, but we didn't make it in one go. We got bogged down in a mudpatch and it took 3 hours to extricate ourselves from the situation. Initially, a few of the guys dug away under the wheels so we could place blocks to get some leverage. After completing this task after about 3 hours, another truck came along and happened to have a tow rope so they just pulled us straight out. click here for Uganda

Tanzania continues on the Tanzania2 webpage following on from the second visit to Kenya.