Friday, May 20, 2005
Honeymoon in Africa - Northern Circuit Safari, Day 1 of 8
20 May 2005 Northern Circuit Safari, Day 1 of 8
Moshi, Tanzania
Moshi, Tanzania
I awoke this morning, after a breif sleep, at about 6am. V was sound asleep still. The birds outside the window were extremely busy and talkative so sleep was not an option once dawn came. I got up and looked out the window and then watched these little yellow "weaver birds" working diligently on thier hanging nests. The tree outside the window had at least 10 nests and several birds working on them. The weaver bird had a black head, gold body and was roughly the size of a finch. Another type of bird, probably a barbit (red head, white breast, blackwings), was also busy on his hanging nest. It was interesting to watch them enter and exit the nests, since the entrance was at the bottom of the nest through a special tunnel that they weave to make it difficult for predators to get in. They also like the very end of branches so that the black momba and other snakes cannot easily reach them.
We went to breakfast at about 8-9am, and enjoyed it. Some eggs, fresh bread, some homemade jams and good strong Tanzanian kehawa (coffee) or chai (tea). After breakfast we loaded our things into the Land Cruiser and headed out on Day 1 of our safari.
Tarangire National Park, Tanzania
First stop: Tarangire National Park (pronounced tar-on-gear-ee), which was about a 3 hour drive from Moshi and our lodge. This little park is home to hundreds of birds and some elephants and giraffes. Some big cats are present but they're rarely seen here. On our drive in we saw a small herd of free roaming zebras on the Masai steppe (free roaming because they live outside the boundaries of a national park).
Upon arrival at the park, the first thing we saw, while standing up and out of our Land Cruiser sunroof, was a group of Impalas. These are deer sized animals with long sweeping horns. The herd was most likely a bachelor herd of males. Next we saw an umbrella acacia tree chock full of storks
and 3 eagles (one was a Steppe or Tawny Eagle and the other 2 were Black Kites). 
We spotted our first African Elephants sometime thereafter. It was a group of 6 or so, with 2 young adult males and 4 juveniles. We stopped along the roadside to observe them for 10-15 minutes.
We stopped for lunch at about 1pm at a picnic area overlooking a valley. We were mostly done when a rain shower forced us back into the truck. With that headed back in the direction we came and spotted another group of 4 elephants, all standing under an umbrella acacia, trying to keep dry. About 10 minutes pass and we spot another group of 6 elephants quite close, within 50 yards of the road. They were milling about, happily throwing dirt on themselves, and another one tearing at a small thorn acacia tree, as they often do. We heard the cracking of the trunk of the tree when the elephant succeeded in breaking it into to pieces. The sound was loud and quite clear from where we watched.
After a short time, we departed the Tarangire NP. Once we exited, we departed northwest towards our next destination: Ngorongoro Conservation Area (pronounced ing-gor-on-goro). We travelled about 2.5 hours longer on good pavement, passing some small towns along the way.
Locals were often on the roadside carring things, either by foot or on bike. We also saw many Masai; the men (warriors) were usually talking in groups or walking along the roadside, the boys would be tending goats, and thge women were usually hauling wood or water and usually on thier heads. the Masai areeasily recognizable with thier red or purple cloths. which are quite like a kilt, plus another cloth draped across the shouled.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania
At some point in the mid afternoon, we both drifted off to sleep for about an hour. The ride was smooth at this point and the jet lag set in hard. I awoke at the gate of the Ngorongoro CA. Baboons
were running about looking for trouble or food. Yohannes went into the office to pay the entrance fee and suddenly a large male baboon jumped into the window of the Land Cruiser hoping to steal some food. Afraid we'd soon have a babboon literally on our laps (a very bad situation) we both yelled at him and I quickly took a hand towel and gave him a couple of sharp snaps across the snout. The second one convinced him to leave, and as he left he gave a look that seemed to say "ok, see you later". When Yohannes said keep the windows closed he was not kidding. With that we decided to hit the bathroom at there and we left the truck. Somehow we missed closing a window (dumb) and when I returned and opened the door of the truck, I was greeted by the baboon, sitting in the truck on the floor quickly stuffing Haribo Gummi Bears, one by one, into his mouth (these were Viktoria's and they were supposed to last the whole trip). The baboon had them all over the floor and had about half of them eaten. I tried to convince him to get out of the truck but he just looked at me, only mildly concerned, and he continued eating... actually he picked up the pace a bit. The vision of that baboob stuffing the gummi bears into his mouth, double fisted, is a hilarious one. If I only thought to bring the camera with me so I could have gotten a photo of this guy. to make him leave I had to walk around the other side of the truck (thus clearing an exit for him, which I had blocked by my poresence in th eopen doorway) and then bang on the opposite window. Again he looked at me with little concern and continued eating. One of the rangers had seen what had happened and was walking over to the truck and managed to scare him off. Once we scared the babboon out we looked at the mess: a half eaten, 2 pound, bag of gummi bears. When V returned (she missed all this) we told her the bad news: she was not impressed. Realizing he just ate about 1 pound of gummi bears she proclaimed directly at the baboon: I hope you get diarrhea!The incident behind us, we passed through the park gate and immediately started ascending the crater rim on a red clay road, leaving the tarmac behind us for the next 6 days. We were approaching 2100 meters or so, and were now in a semi-tropical rainforest area. It was markedly cooler and it felt slightly damp. By the time we reached the rim, the temperature was probably 20 degrees F below the temperature in Tarangire NP (it was about 80 degrees in TNP and my guess was it dropped to 55 or 60 degrees F at the rim). An elevation gain of 2000 meters makes a huge difference.
Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania
We made our way to our lodge for the night: Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, located precipitously above the crater rim, with a spectacular view of of the crater floor below.The Ngorongoro Crater itself is technically a caldera, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=39) and a so called Wonder of the World. The are is a mini-ecosystem below more or less contained within the walls of the caldera, and the view from the top of the rim is simply stunning.
(http://www.africanencounters.com/Tanzania/ngorongoro.htm).
The Wildlife Lodge has a large outdoor patio outside the restaurant which looks down into the caldera offering unbelieveable views. I expected the place to look much smaller than it is, but even though the opposite wall is visible, the distance is deceiving; and, since the rim is 2000 feet above the floor and it looks like no animals are there.
However, this again is an optical illusion, because once you start examinging the floor you start noticing dots of animals, then herds of them. The first thing we noticed was a herd of Cape Buffalo, then "eagle eye" Yohannes actually spotted a black rhino standing in a clearing. Only when V and I used binculars could we actually see the extremely rare animal. The perspective is much like viewing ants from a rooftop; visible but immediately noticable and very small.
We ordered a few Serengeti Lagers and sat on the patio watching the nightly clouds drift over thetop of the crater wall and then roll down the inside of the crater wall. You can imagine that this was very relaxing way for yours truly to pass the time. When the clouds decended about 500 feet below the crater rim, the warmer air below dissolved the clouds before our eyes. 
Around 6:30pm we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset over the lush green of crater, bathed in golden twilight.
We finished off the evening with another Seregeti and a very nice meal then returned to our room for the evening. The room afforded the same view of the crater floor as the patio. The temperature at night fall was no more than 50F with a slight breeze and a bit of a mist. 50 degrees? This is Africa? Considering the heat and humidity we left behind in New Jersey, I'll take this weather happily!
Journal entry made on 20 May 2005 by Jeff Mergler, Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, Tanzania.
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