Africa - here we come!!

Friday 6.8.2010 and Saturday 7.8.2010
06.55 Departure time from Oslo Gardermoen, an early start on our trip but a long way ahead before we reach our destination. No problems with checking in and off we went. The route was Frankfurt, Addis Ababa and then Kilimanjaro international airport. We had a couple of hours to kill in Addis Ababa so we had time to experience the local food and look at some souvenirs. Managed not to buy anything though. Good girls!

We almost went all the way to Dar es Salam which was the final destination of our flight, but luckily we woke up on time and asked a couple of questions… We got our visas and even all our bags – happy times!

3 am: Arriving at the Outpost lodge in Serengeti Rd, Arusha, after a taxi trip from the airport. Lots of rain but our taxi driver told us it was “only for tonight” so we crossed our fingers for that and then went to sleep.

At around 11 we got up and went downstairs for breakfast at the Mambo café. There we met some people from England, Norway (!) and Canada who arrived from their Kilimanjaro climb. Out of the six people, four made it to the top. One of them was blinded the last km but still kept on going. Another had Star Wars hallucinations and fluids that had built up and came out of her eyes – she had to quit. They all started telling stories of -20 degrees and strong winds, headaches, chest pressure, sickness, stomach problems etc. I think we were all a bit taken back by how extreme this trip really is, but fortunately they all agreed on it being a great trip all in all and something for us to look forward to. I think it’s great to hear their stories regardless of how bad they are and to get some good tips on what to do and not to do and also what we can expect.

After breakfast, we went with one of the GAP tour guides to see the city of Arusha. We saw general street life and the market as well as historical monuments, “the middle of Africa”, several Coca Cola signs and the museum of the famous stone Tanzanite. The most expensive visit was definitely the latter… Beautiful, beautiful stones!

The pressure to buy paintings, fruits or other home grown and home made products was quite intense at times but our guide, Peter, was quick to push them away. When coming back to the hotel, we enjoyed a few drinks by the pool before a meeting with the group to prepare us for the great safari trip ahead. I can’t wait to see some animals (hopefully up close and in action) and the famous African savannah.


Sunday 8.8.2010
Start of the day at 7.00 with breakfast and a good chat with our new safari friends. First destination for the trip was the cash machine and then money exchange. It’s difficult with large dollar notes here, but unfortunately they didn’t have dollars today so I guess we’ll have to manage with what we have. Tanzanian schillings are also a possibility but it’s hard to know how much we’re going to spend here so it’s easier to stick to the good old USD.

After a pit stop at a souvenir shop with happy rooms (rest rooms) and a changing of a tire, we were on our way to the lake Manyara national park. Along the way we saw a marathon race with people running barefoot or with flip flops only! We also saw some funny looking trees and giraffes and zebras! We were all excited to see our first flock of African wild animals :)

We arrived at our camp, Twiga camp, in the town Mto Wa Mbu. Our tents were already put up by our assistant guides and we went directly for lunch. Really good food made by our cooks. Pretty westernized food though, but better than expected.

After lunch we headed for a walk in the village. We visited a banana plantation growing the rare red, and the more common yellow bananas. We also saw how the local people lived, very interesting and a bit sad as well because of the low standard. Building a brick house takes 10 years and is expensive so most people live in wooden huts. After this we went to see a rice field. Many people also live from rice production – a bit surprising to me. Across the street was an orphanage. We stopped by and the kids were really happy to see us and sang a few songs for us. It was very touching to see these young kids who had lost one or both of their parents, mostly to AIDS we were told, playing and singing in this tiny little room. They did also finish off with a song basically begging for money which many of us thought was a bit unnecessary but hopefully the money we gave will be used for something good to benefit them directly.

At the banana plantation, we were promised to taste the local banana beer. We walked through what we would call many people’s yards and back yards and into a place where they made this brew. It was served in a plastic mug and passed around the whole group. It tasted sour and hade some sort of grains in it so I would rather recommend one of the other local beers instead, for instance the Serengeti or the Kilimanjaro.

Then there was time for our afternoon game drive. We drove off into the bush and saw baboons, vervet monkeys, water bucks, a Black Mamba snake, Zebras, Giraffes, Hippos, elephants, Dik Diks and lots of different birds. Some of the animals were a bit far away but it was fun seeing them anyway and I hope we will see more of them up closer in the next few days.

Back at camp we had our last hot water shower for a few days (barely water at all though) before a lovely dinner and an ice cold beer. At nine, it was time to hit the tents. Me, all by my lonesome. I thought I would be too scared to sleep in my own tent, but it feels pretty good here actually, at least for tonight. Less comfort awaits us in the nights to come apparently, and a higher probability of getting stepped on by an elephant or something… Good night & sweet dreams… :)