Saturday 24 May 2014

Ngorongoro Crater and The Serengeti

We spent 2 and a half magical days in the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park and the experience was amazing.

We drove through rain and fog to reach the crater, we saw hundreds of different types of animals, scenery you only see in documentaries, Masai Mara people with their cattle and even got to see some lions mating.

My Serengeti experience was also amazing with everything from fun photos at the entry gate, a sunrise hot air balloon ride, a leopard sleeping in a tree, herds of elephants, more lions, hundreds of hippos and an experience of a lifetime.

There are not enough words to describe the magnificence of the crater and the Serengeti so will let the pictures do the talking.

Hugging a Giant Boabab Tree
Masai Mara men in the Ngorongoro Crater
Buffalo in the Crater
Baby Hyena
Floating Zebra
Thousands of Pink Flamingo
Lone Zebra amongst the Wild Flowers

A view over the Serengeti
2 Female and 1 Male Ostrich (the male is Pink to attract the females)
Sunset
Amazing full moon from our camp site

A stunning male lion looking up to us in our Hot Air Balloon
Breakfast with some passing by Zebra after our hot air balloon over the Serengeti
Lazy Leopard - he sat there for the best part of the day


Lilac Crested Roller
One of the many herds of elephants we saw in the Serengeti
Amazing Sunset
The amazing landscape of the Serengeti

One of the 3 baby lion cubs in the Serengeti


Our Group
Pride Rock
A view from the Hot Air Balloon
Our Balloon Shadow


Monday 19 May 2014

Tanzania

I have almost completed a full circle arriving back into Tanzania where my journey initially started.  It was exciting to arrive back into Tanzania which has a soft spot in my heart.  We had a lot of long driving days whilst in Tanzania with a lot of land to cover to get us to the other side of the country and over to Dar el Salaam.  Most of our days were spent on the truck driving anywhere from 8-12 hours a day, we saw a lot of villages on the side of the road and lots of street markets which were very colourful and crazily busy.

Tanzania from the truck on one of our many long driving days.
One of the roadside markets where we picked up some fresh produce for lunch.
We stopped beside a field of sunflowers for lunch and couldn't resist some photo fun.
On the 8th May we left our campsite in Dar el Salaam and boarded our ferry over to Zanzibar, the ferry ride was good and only took about an hour and a half.  We arrived at lunch time, had a quick bite before taking a walking tour through Stone Town.  Stone Town is an amazing city, very old world and historic, it would have been an amazing city in its prime with stunning architecture, narrow cobblestone street, bustling shops and all near the beach.

A view from the ferry as we left Dar el Salaam.
Stone Town with its amazing views and stunning architecture
Stone Town is full of cobblestone streets and winding alleyways.
The spice markets, also located in this complex is the meat market, fish market,
fruit ad veg market and general curios
After just one night in Stone Town we headed north to the beach area and our beach bungalows for 2 nights, despite the rain the beach was amazing and so were our bungalows, it was nice to ditch our tents for a few nights and live it up with a little luxury.
Our resort for 2 nights
Due to the rain a group of us decded to spend our free day at the beach back in stone Town, it was just over an hours drive from where we were staying and worth the ride.  We spent the day exploring Stone Town further, relaxing in cafes and soaking up the bustling town whilst shopping for curios, we were also lucky to have sunshine and blue skies while in town, the others that stayed at the beach said it rained for the best part of the day.  We arrived back at the bungalows late afternoon and decided to go for a swim, the water was so nice and warm (being that it is the Indian Ocean) we decided to hang around the waters edge and watch the amazing sunset.

Me and team Canada
Stunning waters of the Indian Ocean - Zanzibar
Zanzibar sunset
After 3 amazing days in Zanzibar it was time to head back to the mainland, we suffered through a grueling 3 hour ferry ride where half the ferry suffered sea sickness before reaching our camp for the night to recover.

The 13th May saw us head off to the base of Kilimanjaro where we camped for 1 night, it was wet, cold and cloudy whilst at the camp so we were not able to see the mountain but went for an early morning hike the next day to try anyways.  The rest of our morning saw us take a walk through a small village where Intrepid work closely with one of the school, we met a few of the teachers and were told about the work they do and how Intrepid helps support it all.  It was a very interesting and informative day.

Views out to Mount Kilimanjaro on our early morning hike

The day ended when we reached our campsite for the night about an hours drive outside of Arusha.  It was this campsite that our Serengeti journey was to begin from, and being that it is the Serengeti it gets a post all to itself – stay tuned.

Malawi

Our next port of call was Malawi, we had a long drive arriving at our campsite late afternoon.  The campsite was great and we set up our tents just a few meters from the beaches of Lake Malawi, it had a bar, loads of water sports (for those crazy enough to go into the lake) and someone to do our laundry for us, it was a little piece of heaven.  The campsite was busy for our first night as there were 4 different tour trucks, our second night was much quieter.

Most of us spent the day relaxing at the beach, working on our tans and watching the world go by whilst gossiping on the beach and in the bar.

Lake Malawi from our Kande Beach campsite


Lake Malawi Sunset
Lake Malawi Sunrise
After 2 days at our camp site we departed and headed for a different site to get us closer to the Tanzania border.  Our campsite was again great and located on the beach.  

Some of the kids we passed along the way to our next camp site
One of the small villages we passed travelling between campsites
We had a little more free time when we arrived so a few of us decided to visit the local Witch Doctor and have our futures told.  We walked through the local village to get to the Witch Doctor and got to play with some of the local kids which were all so excited to see us.

We also had a chance to visit the local markets which was predominantly filled with wood carvings and some smaller jewellery pieces, it was nice to interact with the guys that run the shops and have a chat with them.
The beach at our 2nd Campsite on Lake Malawi
The Local Witch Doctor

One of the little locals
Some of the local kids skipping with pumpkin vines
All in all it was a nice relaxing few days in Malawi before our long days of travel into Tanzania.