Mon 8th Aug '16 - Day 10

Nejo Palace Hotel, Arusha – Roika Lodge, Tarangire National Park

Today is our first day of safari and everyone is excited both for the animals but also getting back and doing something on the holiday. Although the rest yesterday was probably welcome there was also a sense of passing time when we could/should be doing something or seeing something on this once of a lifetime trip. Thankfully we already have the memories of the climb and the upcoming safari won’t disappoint.

We are told we’re going out in a long wheel base Toyota Land Cruiser many of which we’ve seen thundering up and down the main road. So we’re all surprised when a standard sized one turns up, not least because we can’t physically fit 7 of us plus bags in the car. Turns out someone had put petrol in the diesel engine so a replacement had been sent late. More time is then wasted whilst that new Land Cruiser heads off in to Arusha to find us a suitable vehicle. More Tanzanian timekeeping means John’s “early 08:30” starts materialises as a 10:30 departure in the end with driver David.

We creep through Arusha due to the density of traffic; a mixture of people, people pulling carts, donkeys, donkeys pulling carts, auto rickshaws, cars, minibuses, lorries. The roads of Arusha are lined with primary industry shops, with a surprisingly high number of bed and furniture makers and also coffin makers all displaying their wares on the dusty roadside. As an aside petrol is surprisingly expensive at $1/litre, only marginally cheaper than Australia. More exciting than the price we pay for petrol are the sweet potato crisps we tuck in to at this point which are instantly a firm favourite.

As we leave behind Arusha for the two-hour drive to Tarangire National Park the landscape empties in to vast dry plains dotted with clusters of mud huts with conical rooves. These are used by the nomadic Massai Tribes who wander these lands with their livestock. The land looks barren becase its never cultivated by the Massai, only used for passing grazing.

These ancient traditions are at contrast then to the modern day police checks we hit every thirty minutes, where most often the tourist vehicles are pulled over. The first time it happens someone asks about getting passports out but I quickly suggest otherwise. In fact, these are what John calls “mobile banking units” which is to say they’re there extracting bribes. USD $5/$10 is the going rate per check point. All this is included in the tour costs apparently, it’s just the way it works. Thankfully Driver David is clearly not fazed and hops out each time, disappears behind a police car and then is back in the car within a minute or two. He also not fazed by the fact his steering wheel has to be held at 90 degrees to the right to make the Land Cruiser drive straight.

One village we fly through is holding a market where the various tribes come together to trade animals and food before heading back to the forests and highlands in the distance.

Our first run in with nature’s beasts is to avoid a tortoise crossing the road.

Eventually we turn left off the main road and down a rutted road for 15 minutes before arriving at the gates to Tarangire National Park. Daniel and Jason have been before and recognise the giant boab tree that marks the entrance.

There’s no buying tickets online here so John joins a queue with all the other guides to buy passes for the day so we chomp on lunch provided by Nejo Palace in cardboard boxes – oddly an Indian themed lunch. We also take the opportunity to raise the roof of the Land Cruiser; this enables all of us to stand up in the vehicle, whilst the raised roof above us still provides shade from the sun.

We drive slowly in to the park eyes darting around looking for wildlife amongst the trees and dry shrubbery. We spot our first animal and look excitedly. Then there’s a giraffe. And wart hogs by a pond. In fact, there are animals everywhere. At least it seems that way. It’s as though it’s all staged so that we get to see all these animals up close. In reality the roads generally follow and head towards water safe in the knowledge the animals will too.

That doesn’t lessen the experience of seeing a herd of elephants pass in front of and behind the Land Cruiser for the first time. We generally follow the tracks and if you see a parked Land Cruiser (everyone is in Land Cruisers) or several it nine times out of ten means they’re looking at something.

At this point we realise how we’d all planned for the hike and not placed much emphasis on the safari. No one had the foresight to bring binoculars. The closest we have is David’s amazing camera which can double as part time binoculars. It also ensures we get some great photos whilst the rest of us are snapping away on iPhones.

The large boab tree seen at the entrance is found throughout the park – they look unusual; it’s as though a giant has plucked these trees out of the ground and then forced then back in upside down so all that is exposed is their roots.

After three hours of driving round we loop back to the entrance and then drive just ten minutes away to our accommodation Roika Lodge. The “bedrooms” are like glamping on an extreme scale. Daniel and I share a room; two double beds four poster with crisp folded back linen sheets draped with mosquito nets. The bath is a 10-foot-long carved out wooden hippo.

There are three main large wooden structures at the heart for a bar, games room and then dining. Just outside an initially inviting swimming pool becomes less appealing when we see small creatures swimming in there. Plus, the Massai who work here tell us that the wild animals come to drink and bathe in the pool. That’s right, this isn’t a compound, there isn’t a fence. We’re effectively in the park. In fact, after sundown when you want to walk to your hut you have to find a Massai to escort you, armed with weapon of choice in case any animal should appear. Whilst this seems fanciful the noises heard over night the elephant tracks in the morning on the path show us its real.

Dinner is taken after more cards in the bar served in chilled glasses. Castle beer becomes the number one choice and at $3 per beer it’s probably extremely expensive by local standards but in the chilled glass in the ornate bar with carved wooden benches and tables inside a national park it seems like a relative bargain.

Dinner is the most upmarket one to date, though Sean suffers from a bout of Delhi belly and misses out tonight. That doesn’t stop us eating like kings.