Tanzania

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• published: 11 Jul 2015
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Our big finish trip to Africa before leaving London. Way back almost a year ago when the Ebola epidemic hit east Africa I doubted my wife's vision of this trip. Now wow. Traveling from park to park. I will list them all as I get better wifi here in the bush. Animals so far: Impala, water buck, wildebeest, dik dik, zebra, water buffalo, giraffe, elephant, warthogs, vervet monkeys, blue monkey, mongoose (white eared and a tiny kind and a medium sized kind), hyraxes, crazy lizards, stork, ibis, crane, ostrich, secretary bird, eagles, hawks and then at night we saw a pair of stripped hyenas, black eared fox, porcupine, jackals, genet cats and bush babies! Then we saw a black rhino! And hyena, lion, leopard, green mamba, crocodile, hippos, Eagles, kites, storks, go-away birds, crown crane, Thompson gazelle and grants gazelle and and and. The game drives have been spectacular. Seeing the beginning of the great migration where the Zebras lead the Wildebeest has been so cool. The last couple of days outside of the Serengeti park in Grameti hills conservation are we were joined by an ex-poacher. This area has less controls than the park so we were able to get out of the vehicle and walk about (with caution) and see nests up close as well as tracks. The animals behave differently too. We were driving along a dirt rutted trail and I spotted a lion behind a bush just off to our left. In the other parks the lions looked at cars as no big deal. This one was much more tweaked out by our presence, then we found his brothers close by. We drove into the high grass following him. At one point he disappeared and suddenly reappeared when we almost ran over his tail. Wild is the word. Only about 2km away I saw some people. We drove over and found 3 women and a boy making charcoal. They were more concerned with the buffalo they saw the day before. They are even more unpredictable. The girls listened with eyes wide as the women told our guide about the societal abuse of women in the Ikoma tribe where if a man did not beat his wife she would leave home and go home to tell others that he was not a real man enough to be with. These women all bore the scars of abuse on their faces and bodies. The women do most of the work as was evidence by what we saw while the men mostly just got drunk. Our ex-poacher additional guide told us about how boys are indoctrinated into poaching access to meat from a young age. This is changing with education programs and stiff punishment for poaching. Life in prison for killing a giraffe. A year for killing a Wildebeest. That said we hear stories about the big game poaching that is endorsed by the ministers who pocket the money from China and the general lack of promotion of ecotourism by the government. For a country with so many natural resources it is shameful to see the people living is such squalor. This is Tanzania. Fri 26-Jun-15 Arusha : Rivertrees Sat 27-Jun-15 Tarangire : Mawe Ninga Camp Sun 28-Jun-15 Tarangire : Mawe Ninga Camp Mon 29-Jun-15 Ngorongoro Karatu : Bashay Rift Lodge Tue 30-Jun-15 Southcentral Serengeti : Olduvai Tented Camp Wed 01-Jul-15 Serengeti : Dunia Camp Thu 02-Jul-15 Serengeti : Dunia Camp Fri 03-Jul-15 Serengeti Grumeti : Grumeti Hills Sat 04-Jul-15 Serengeti Grumeti : Grumeti Hills Sun 05-Jul-15 Serengeti Grumeti : Grumeti Hills Mon 06-Jul-15 Rubondo : Rubondo Island Lodge Tue 07-Jul-15 Rubondo : Rubondo Island Lodge Wed 08-Jul-15 Rubondo : Rubondo Island Lodge Thu 09-Jul-15 Rubondo : Rubondo Island Lodge