Sunday, July 30, 2017

Safari Weekend by Nathan and Will


Saturday morning breakfast was at 7:15, and we hopped in the 3 safari cars at 8. The cars were very spacious, holding about 10 people each. It was a 3 hour drive to Lake Manyara National Park. We stopped on the way to shop in Arusha. We arrived to the entrance of the park and we all got out to eat lunch. It was a beautiful day, the temperature was around 80 degrees and it was sunny. After lunch we got back in the safari cars to start our journey through the park. Our 3 cars traveled in a caravan, and the tops of the cars opened up to allow us to stand on the seats to watch the animals. The first animals we saw were the monkeys and baboons. Very soon after we all spotted an elephant in the brush about 50 feet away. Everyone was excited to see it and taking pictures, even though the view wasn’t that great from our location. We kept going and saw the zebras next. There were 3 zebras around 30 feet away, and many people were surprised by their small size. We continued on to a clearing with water and saw thousands of birds and many hippos in the water. More baboons roamed the flat land with a couple gazelles and zebras. Next we went back into the forest. After rounding a corner, we saw an elephant up close for the first time. It was about 20 feet away and it wasn’t alone. We watched as more elephants came closer to the cars. One was a baby. They ate off the trees we could almost touch from our cars. One elephant even crossed the road between us. Everyone was very excited and people were getting lots of pictures. Eventually we moved on down the path. After driving for a few minutes, we saw the giraffes. They were obviously very tall because we spotted them over the tops of the trees. The giraffes were stretching to eat leaves off of the very tall trees. They are Caitlyn’s favorite animal, and it brought her to tears to see them in person. After the giraffes, we made our way to the exit of Lake Manyara National Park, and saw more animals along the way. After leaving the park, we drove about 15 minutes to our campsite for the night. Each tent had a straw roof over the top, along with two small beds inside. The campsite was connected with walking trails, and there was outdoor seating for meals and bathrooms with showers. We had free time for a while before dinner, and then we ate around 7:15. We shared the camp with some others, and we met some people from England and Belgium. We then went to bed around 10 because we had an early morning coming up. Breakfast was at 5:30, and the safari cars left at 6. We had to get up this early because it takes an hour or more to get to the crater, and it is better to see the animals earlier in the day. The weather was complete opposite of the day before, with the temperature being about 50 degrees and cloudy with wind. We entered Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. It was created after a volcano erupted and collapsed. We drove up the mountain and down into the crater. It is the home of thousands of animals that we could see roaming around on our way down. After our descent, we first saw lions at a distance. Near the lions were also wildebeests, zebras, and gazelles. We drove further, and saw hundreds of zebras and wildebeests. We finally arrived at the hippo pool, and saw more hippos than before at a closer distance. Shortly after, we saw lions from about 50 feet away. There were around 8 females in a group, all sleeping. There was one male that we saw up close, but it was also sleeping. We left the lions and went to a picnic area to have lunch. After lunch, we saw many more animals that we had already seen. We saw one more lion, sitting on a large fallen tree. We then ascended back up out of the crater and started our 5 hour drive back to Moshi.

No comments:

Post a Comment