Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda
Week 28 - May. 19th - 25th
day 190 - day in Dar Es Salaam
day 191 - Dar Es Salaam to Segara
day 192 - Segara to Arusha
day 193 - Arusha to Serengeti Plains, evening game driving
day 194 - game driving in Serengeti Plains
day 195 - game drive in N'gorongoro Crater, then to Arusha
day 196 - Arusha to Kenya border to Nairobi
Week 29 - May. 26th - Jun. 1st
day 197 - Nairobi to Eldoret
day 198 - Eldoret to Uganda border to Jinja
day 199 - day in Jinja
day 200 - day in Jinja - whitewater rafting!
day 201 - Jinja to Kampala
day 202 - day in Kampala
day 203 - Kampala to Kabale
I spent a couple of nights back in Dar Es Salaam lounging around and recuperating from the very exhausting experience of spending all day lounging around and recuperating on Zanzibar Island. About half of the group had come back to Dar with me while the rest stayed behind on the island to further enjoy its luxurious beaches and scenery. I might have stayed but I'd once again completely run out of money and decided it would be wise to return to the mainland. After a couple of days of driving we were in the town of Arusha, the gateway to the Serengeti and N'gorongoro Crater. Arusha should have also provided some stunning views of Mount Kilimanjaro but the entire area had been receiving some unusually high rainfall as of late and the entire area was cloudy, too cloudy to even see the base of the famous mountain. In fact we only managed to get a brief glimpse of the mountain when we were driving from Arusha to the Kenyan border just a few days later. But I was too much looking forward to the Serengeti & Crater trip to care about that anyway!The Serengeti and N'gorongoro Crater
If you've ever watched one of the numerous wildlife documentaries about African wildlife, about lions, buffalo, zebras, elephants and more, the chances are it was filmed in the Serengeti Plains or the N'gorongoro Crater. The world famous Serengeti Plains attract wildlife watchers from all over the globe to spot the incredibly abundant wildlife and the N'gorongoro Crater has the highest concentration of wildlife in the world contained within. So we knew that we would be in for an amazing trip when we set off for a 3 day/2 night game drive in the area.
It wasn't cheap, in fact it was really expensive, let no one tell you that Africa is a cheap continent to travel in! But none of us were complaining about the price as we prepared for the trip of a lifetime. One thing that we were worried about however was the weather. It was pelting down with rain and a thick low cloud covered the landscape around Arusha. Since the park was several hours drive away we hoped that it would clear by the time we reached the plains. Things were not looking good as we drove into the park entrance and began to drive; a thick fog prevented us from seeing anything. However by the time we made it down into the plains it had started to clear up and soon enough it had cleared completely, setting the scene for a perfect day of wildlife watching.The rest of the day, and the next two days were a blur of activity and excitement for us. Wildlife of every possible kind was spotted, elephants, lions, zebra, antelope, hippos, giraffes, hyenas, buffalo and wildebeest. Lots and lots of wildebeest! We even came close to some rock hyrax, small cute fluffy rodents about the size of a beaver that ran around our feet in the visitors centre. We got close to almost all of the animals that we spotted. We even saw a pride of lions, including lion cubs, tucking into a fresh kill. We would have given anything to have seen the kill but that would have been a rare event as they usually happen at the crack of dawn before the park even opens. One of the best shows of the trip was put on for us by a couple of hyenas and an enormous herd of wildebeest. The hyenas chased after the herd, causing them to stampede at incredible speed away from us, kicking up a massive cloud of dust as they went. The hyenas went away empty handed but it was still great fun to watch the chase.
When we reached the camp-site on the first night we were treated to something that I had taken for granted in West Africa but sorely missed since leaving South Africa: a campfire! It had been months since we were treated to one so we were glad to sit around it in a circle while our guides cooked our meals for us, quite a treat after cooking for ourselves for much of the trip. The next day we literally game drove all day long, spotting so much wildlife that I was worried that my memory cards would all fill up before we finished the trip. When we arrived at the second camp-site, located on the rim of the N'gorongoro crater, we were treated to quite a shock. Several elephants had wandered into the camp-site and were standing mere feet away from our tents which had already been put up by the guides earlier. Unsure what to do, several of the group were worried and were keeping their distance. I of course rushed right over to get a photograph near the elephants, though the armed guards at the camp-site told me not to get too close. Later on after it got dark the elephants returned, much to the alarm of several people who went to the toilet in the middle of the night! Then Sarah got attacked by a wild pig whilst she was in her tent! Apparently a pig was rooting around just outside the tent and then started ramming against it, trying to get inside! Fortunately one of the guards was able to come to the rescue and chase off the pig.
The next day we descended into the crater for our final day of game driving before returning to Arusha. As expected the crater was absolutely packed with wildlife, you literally couldn't look anywhere without seeing something, huge herds of buffalo, zebra or wildebeest we abundant in ridiculous numbers and there were plenty of predators around ready to keep the population in check. The only two animals we hadn't seen yet in Africa were rhinos and leopards, two of the most unlikely animals to be spotted. The rhino is rare due to its endangered status and leopard spotting is rare not because the animals are but because they're so incredibly stealthy and cunning that they're hardly ever seen. Still we weren't complaining after such a spectacular show. Eventually we returned to Arusha, satisfied after having so much wildlife and after taking so many photos that it will probably end up taking weeks to sort through them all!So that's the Serengeti Plains crossed off my list! What’s next?
Uganda, Jinja and Whitewater Rafting
We left Arusha and headed towards the Kenyan border. We reached Nairobi and only spent one night there before heading off towards the Ugandan border. We would be returning to Nairobi and Kenya later on once we had finished the 'Milk Run' but until then we still had Uganda to visit and Gorillas to see, something that I had no doubt would be one of the highlights of the trip, if not the highlight of the trip or possibly even my life! First things first though we had a few things to do in Uganda before we would be reaching the gorillas. We stopped off in Jina which was right on the White Nile River. Our main reason for coming here was to take part in the fantastic whitewater rafting that was available on the Nile. Since we'd missed the chance on the Zambezi River due to the dangerously high waters we were glad to be able to take part here.
The trip took a full day and was well worth it. Initially it was a relaxing ride on some calm water and low rapids. We took the time to go over the basics and to even deliberately capsize the boat so that we could go over the procedure of how to flip it back again and how to get back on board. Soon we reached the serious rapids and that’s when several of the boats in our group started to get turned over in the frothing water. I didn't feel so bad about our boat capsizing due to the fact that it happened on grade 5 rapids, the highest grade of rapids that can be rafted, in fact I actually enjoyed the experience of falling out of the boat and being swept along on a thrilling rollercoaster ride through the churning, roaring currents. After parking the boats and enjoying a lunch stop we continued on our way, often deliberately jumping out of the boats and enjoying a dip in the Nile to cool off.Other highlights of the trip included a large rapid that involved going over the edge of a small waterfall, which I'm glad to say we got through without any incidents by the way! Later on we eventually reached the final and most dangerous rapids of the day, appropriately named 'A Bad Place'! We made it through without flipping although we did lose one passenger on the boat. I would have probably gone flying too but I was holding on for dear life so I remained on board (just)! Not all of the other boats were lucky! Several of them flipped and one of them was even torn apart by the rapids. Well perhaps 'torn apart' is overstating it a little but their boat was dismantled and stripped into several pieces, although the boats are designed to come apart like that so it wasn't really so bad. But it was a little bit of an alarming sight to see our fellow rafters come flowing past us, bobbing up and down in the water as their raft soared by in pieces.
After that latest adventure we drove to the capital city: Kampala. I enjoyed Kampala, it was probably one of my favourite capitals so far and we spent a couple of nights there. We tried to get Ethiopian visas, something we had failed to do in Nairobi but we couldn't get them in Kampala either. We would be in big trouble if we couldn't get these visas but there were still some options left open to us that we would have to try later. After a couple of nights in Kampala we drove to Kbale, a small town not far from Kisoro where we would be seeing the gorillas from.
Only a couple of days to go now until the gorillas!
ready to raft - from left to right:2 people we don't know, Lena, 2 more people we don't know, Sean, Jeremy, Me
going through the rapids!
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