Arusha airport is a real hive of activity; on the tarmac at least. We hopped down from the Cessna and weaved through the many aircraft, following the ground crew who had taken our luggage. They chatted amiably about where we were from, the weather, the flight and Tanzania.
The walk was short and we entered a large tin-roofed building. Air-conditioning was supplied by open doors at both ends of the building. Fancy.
Through the exit was a large locked gate, where the guides for Arusha await fresh travellers. A few held ripped and dirty sheets of A4 paper with passenger names scribbled on them, though most were just waiting on an opportunity.
There was one, large khaki Nissan Patrol next to a tall man with a beaming smile who was to become a very good friend to us over the next six days - Salvatory. He held up a bright 'Roy Safari' sign (the firm he worked for and we booked http://www.roysafaris.com/home-page.html) which had our names printed on in large type. Our bags were taken over to our new transport and Salvatory supervised the loading, taking a huge amount of care over Phillipa's dress, as he would throughout our entire stay.
He then introduced himself and bade us welcome into the truck. Inside were bottles of water in holders next to our seats, and a mini fridge full of Coke, Sprite, water and snacks. He explained that this would be our personal vehicle, and that he would be our guide from now until he dropped us at Grumetti Airstrip in 6 days time.
Salvatory asked us about the trip as he pulled the jeep out of the airport and aimed us towards Arusha town - in turn we relaxed, stretched and popped open some cokes.
The road to Arusha was part paved, part mud. All along the way people thronged the edge of the road. Colourful dress was the order of the day, and whilst clothes might have been old and ill-fitting, they were clean, pressed and obviously a source of pride (the guidebook also highlighted this - Tanzanians hate sloppy / rumpled clothes).
We moved along the road at a slow pace, partly for Salvatory to tell us more about his home town and partly as traffic lines, laws and lights are non-existent. No-one was rushing though, and hands were waved and horns beeped in warning with a cheery smile. Everyone either knew Salvatory or wanted to chat and we stopped often in the road, a car on the other side with windows down and the driver happily gassing away. We always got a happy 'Jambo' from them too. We had been on the ground in Africa for less than 30 mins and we felt completely at home.
As we passed deeper into Arusha more and more markets sprang up alongside the main road. These are sprawling affairs, covering huge areas. Some produce was stacked on makeshift tables, but most was on the floor. But great care in taken in presentation - mangos and other fruits are piled high in pyramids and laid out in concentric circles and it creates a beautiful riot of colour against the dark dust and mud of the ground, and the stark grey of the wooden buildings.
What looked like Toyota Previas were everywhere. Each had been brightly painted, and many bore marks of favoured bands / films. We saw Michael Jackson plastered all over one, Scarface on another; even one with 'Reggae-Bastard Bass Beats' covering the back window... These are the famed Dala-Dalas - the local bus service. Many will buy these small people carriers, paint them up to reflect, well, whatever the hell they want, and then drive around, taking people up and down Arusha, to the airport even to other towns.
We hit the Roy Safari compound after about 20 minutes. The gates were a good 8 foot tall, and manned by a guard. He opened up a small hatch in the gate, verified the vehicle and guide and opened up. We got out, stretched and went in to meet Riwanda, who talked us through the whole itinerary of our trip. The room was large and cool, with a white tiled floor and comfortable settees interspersed with several desks and PCs. We were passed our flying doctor certs and our tickets for the Zanzibar to Dar flight on our final day as well as some awesome Roy Safari t-shirts :-)
We paused for a few photos and then sauntered next door to the African Tulip for lunch.
The setting was beautiful, with a small waterfall running through the restaurant, and here we got our first taste of Tusker (apart from a half at Akamba!). Hooked...
We left the African Tulip and headed back to the compound and into the Patrol. We made one stop in Arusha - to the main indoor supermarket... We stocked up on batteries (for the torches in the Patrol - just in case we had some late evening drives) and a few coffee milkshakes for Phillipa.
Back in the Patrol, Salvatory started us on the long drive to the Ngorongoro crater... We drove through numerous small towns, each a riot of colourful clothes, women with firewood on their heads, children hauling plastic tubs of water and baboons, baboons, baboons...
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| Coffee Plantation! |
We saw groups of women walking with fruit, and each holding a machete - these were to protect themselves from the baboons that wondered through the towns, bold as brass. On many occasions they would need to fight for the food they had gathered.
We heard 'Jambo' every time we slowed enough to hear people through the windows and got a hundred waves and smiles at every town.
Along the isolated stretches of road between each township we saw Maasai villages dotted around, tiny in the huge expanse of the plains. Maasai children were working late, keeping an eye on the herds in the bright afternoon sunshine.
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| Coming back from Church |
Salvatory stopped on the roadside and bade us hop out to see the termite mounds. He stepped up to check one over before getting us to pose nearby for a photo.
He told us after that he checked for large holes - a series of large holes will normally mean that predators, snakes in the main, will have entered into the mound and it can therefore be pretty damn dangerous to get too close.
We walked back from the mound, our feet scuffing the white powder-like dust and caught a small twister before hopping back into the Patrol.
Then... Ngorongoro...
We entered the main gate:
As a conservation area, it is a heavily guarded place, with very strict entry and exit times; to the crater itself as well as the main game area on the caldera floor. A quick toilet break - made difficult as baboons capered on the roof above us and then we were through the gate and onto a road surrounded by the lushest jungle vegetation I have ever seen. The ridge of the crater is 2000ft above the floor, and the whole ecosystem is different at the ridge and the floor.
It was getting dark, but Salvatory pulled over and sheperded us out of the Patrol and over a break in the trees on the right hand side of the road. We stood there, 2000ft up and saw the caldera laid out before us. Small dark shapes, looking like trees and woods were in fact herds of Wildebeest and Buffalo. The scale of the thing was breathtaking; 260 square kilometres, and 3 million years old...
We had just enough time to have a drink by the roaring log fire, some food in the restaurant above and then we were off to bed... Ready for our first Safari drive early the next morning...
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| Too dark to see on camera, but the whole crater stretches out in front of us here... |
Tusker baby... :-)
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