Zanzibar and the Game Parks
 

Long all day drive through southern Tanzania. The first of the true 'African game' we saw, these just standing by the side of the road.

Finally arrived in Zanzibar, with time to relax on this lush tropical island. 

From Zanzibar, back to Tanzania and off to the Serengeti, passing Kilimajaro on the way. 38 degrees on the plain where we were, and snow at the top.

Here we had a look at a Masai village and drove around a small park at the entrance of the others. It was interesting to see the Masai actually in a traditional village, as we had seen them previously strolling through the cities in those same red robes. Apparently they are in high demand as security guards.

Then we switched to Landrovers and continued on into the parks, the famous Serengeti and the Ngorogoro Crater.

This area is basically a large area of prairie, ideal for grazing animals, which the tsetse fly historically made uninhabitable for livestock (We had 1! of those nasty flies in the truck, and it nearly made it unihabitable for us. Think of an extremely fast, hard biting horsefly that can't be killed by a swat). Thus farmers never took over the area and it was left as ideal habitat for the multitudes of zeebra, wildebeast, giraffe, and various antelope. These in turn attract the lions, cheetahs, leopards and hyena that the area is famous for.

Prior to this was the all-important junk food stop. Pringles and chocolate never tasted so good.


While the Tanzanian government charges a fair amount for park entry, none of that seems to go into road maintenance. The Land Rovers pounded themselves (and us) to pieces on washboard for hours. Several of the females on board commented ruefully on the need for a sports bra at this stage.


Ngorogoro crater. 


Typical acacia tree scenery. Ahh, Africa.


Baboon we were warned would rip our arms off if we got too close. (We stayed away)


And that was pretty much it. I'd throw a bunch of animal pictures up here but this page is getting big enough the way it is. We saw lots of lions, cheetah, zeebra, wildebeast, baboons, giraffe, hyena, even a leopard and a rhino. You know what they look like. Everyone was pretty happy, as you can see.

And that was pretty much it. Once out of the game parks we crossed the border to Kenya, where the trip ended in Nairobi. Africa being Africa Encounter had to put us up in a whore house as their regular place was full (beds all bowed to the middle, ha ha), and several of us got sick with malaria. Still, a very good trip overall.

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