Perpetual Tourist: Cube ditching in Africa: Krazy Kids go on a safari in Tanzania

My African adventure began way back in 2016 on Dec 14th (it's been a long time since I've been home!) when a bunch of us arrived at O'hare to start the very long trek to Tanzania. How long was the flight?... I have no idea but I'm sure I lost a day in there somewhere. Anyways, we got picked up at the airport (thank goodness for travel agents) and were taken to Andy's. No that's not the actual name of the lodge, but Andy was the boss and so his lodge shall forever be called that. It was basically a compound. Note: all lodges we stayed at in Tanzania were compounds: 4 high walls with barbed wire or broken glass to deter people coming in. I guess that's the only way to guarantee safety. Either way, Andy's was our unofficial home for our stay in Tanzania because we always came back there between excursions.

Andy's place

Our safari began 9am the 17th. We got picked up by Duma Explorer in 2 cars (a 4 seater and a 6 seater) by Kisimbo and Kawaga (yes it took me a few days to learn their names, but they're so cool!).

Duma trucks. Duma in Swahili means cheetah

We drove to Lake Manyara National Park to start us off. It was a very green leafy park (75% of the park is water) and there were moments where I felt like I was in Jurassic Park (if that helps you visualize). We basically got a teaser of all the animals we were going to see and was a great start. There were a ton of Baboons!! (I will later learn in Zambia that baboons are scary and not fun cute furry animals). At one point we were allowed to get out of the car (normally a big no no) and go stand on this bridge to watch water buffalo chillaxing in the swamp/their own poo poo. Let me tell you, I was definitely on high alert to not get eaten by anything! hahah. That night we stayed in another compound ( I mean lodge) just outside the park called Twiga which is giraffe in Swahili. Speaking of giraffes, by the end of the safari us KrazyKids decided we needed safari spirit animals and mine is the giraffe. :D

Without the safety of our cars

Day 2 of the safari started with a tease drive by the Ngorongoro Crater where we got to catch a glimpse of where we were going to go on Day 5. We did the typical stop and take a million photos from the look point.

The KrazyKoolKids

The crater in all its glory

From there we proceeded on a very long drive to the famous Serengeti National Park. I was really excited about this because it's the park that everyone talks about and is just so hyped up and boy did it not disappoint! It's 12,000 sq miles large and full of all sorts of amazing animals. Day 2 was the day we saw our first cats! The lions are ultra lazy! Hahah, they will sit under the same tree all day long because it's so hot. So we drove around the park all day and our guides were on the radio communicating with all the other guides sharing the locations of what they spotted. That's how we knew where the lions were because they were actually really hard to spot laying under a tree. We also saw a cheetah preparing/thinking about hunting. I was really excited to see a cheetah run, but I think the wind wasn't in her favor and the prey got away unharmed.

Cheetah on the prowl

Compared to the Myanara park, the Serengeti was really dry since it was dry season. The grass looked like yellow straw and it was really hot during the day. Because of that, the animals didn't do much during the day, and were mostly active at night. But we still saw so many cool things.

That night we checked into what will go down as the coolest tent I've ever stayed at. It was called Kiota camp (look it up on FB!!!) and it's in the actual Serengeti Park (ie there is no fence and all the animals have free access to us and all of our snacks and the only thing blocking them is a piece of canvas). The camp was made up of a few huge tents; one was a welcome lounge with a bar and couches and wifi. The other was a dining tent for up to 20/25 people. There there was a toilet tent and a mini gift shop!!! The first words the hotel staff said to us were "Welcome to the middle of now where!!!" I just about died because it's so true! The camp has 10 tents for guests to stay in that held the beds, a desk, a 2 sink vanity, a toilet, a shower, two closets, a patio, and enough room for Jayla or Arielle to do cartwheels ( I cannot do a cartwheel anymore!) Like these tents were huge and beautiful! I think I almost cried. It was luxury in the middle of the animal kingdom. Oh and we had to get walked to and from the tents at night by a hotel staff member who we had to call via walkie. Apparently, there are wild animals in the camp and they want us to be safe. Hahahah. Well none of us actually believed this but fast forward to the night of day 3, some of the KrazyKids while walking were told that 14 hyenas hang out by the camp, and they saw two of them on the path by their tents!!! So yes, I slept with hyenas just outside, and a leopard. Really!?!? Is that real life! :D But so cool! Everyone should go to Tanzania just to stay at this camp. I'm in love. Kiota has my heart! hahah PS Kiota in Swahili means nest.

The rooms

The lounge

Nature's television... ie the fire

Day 3 was also spent in the Serengeti (you basically get a 48 hour pass upon entering) On this day we saw a fresh kill!! It was a water buffalo. When we approached it a hyena was chowing down. After every bite, he would look around making sure the lions weren't coming back for round two (the lions were just under a nearby tree feasting on a baby buffalo that they must have killed along with the mom). At one point, a lioness got up and went to the buffalo and the hyena booked it. The lioness then sat down and just started chomping away. We were so close we could hear the ripping of the tendons and meat. It was so cool!! I think it was also this day where we ran into a huge heard of zebras gazelles and wildebeests. At one point the herd was all around us and it was just incredible. I've never been just surrounded by that many zebras. It was stripes everywhere you looked. There a tone of babies too! Some of which were sleeping on the road and were started awake by our car. Honestly, it was so freaking adorable!!

Zebra heaven

Hyena chowing

Day 4 was the Serengeti in the am followed by a long drive back down to the Ngorongoro Crater. On this day we got charged at by a bull elephant that did no like us being that close to his family. It was a bit scary since an elephant his size can flip a safari truck with his trunk. Our guides were ready though and started the car and booked it out of there real quick. We also saw a male lion walking around which was awesome. Previously we had only seen two male lions sleeping. Fun fact, the lions in the Serengeti live about 5 years less than the ones in the Ngorongoro crater because food is harder to come by in the Serengeti and the conditions for living are harsher. So in general I think the lions all looked a bit skinny and bony. We also saw some lionesses try to hunt a gazelle without success. But since some of them moved to go hunt, the others were soon to follow and we got to see 14 lionesses and cubs walk right by/through our trucks! They were so close, if i would have stuck my hand out the window, I could have petted one. :D It's very cool being that close to such beautiful animals.

Just walking through

Babies!

So fierce

The big elephant behind us was the angry bull

The bull in action

Skinny lion

Day 5 was the long awaited Ngorongoro Crater that we saw on Day 1. It's a nice mix between dry and lush forests all mixed in one. The Crater is the world's largest, inactive, intact, and unfilled caldera which was formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself 2-3 million years ago. It's 2000 ft deep and the floor you can drive around on is 100 sq miles. We spent the day looking to spot one of the 40 black rhinos in the crater (rhinos are really popular for poachers and their populations are really low if not critical everywhere) and towards the end of the day we succeeded. It was actually pretty funny. We were at a potty stop when our guide heard on the radio about the rhinos, so we jumped in the car and sped off. When we got there, there must have been a line of 20 cars looking at the rhinos! I think everyone in the park heard the radio and booked it over! It turned out to be a mom rhino with a teenager son/daughter. They were pretty far away but it was still cool cuz we can now say that we saw all of the big 5 (lion, water buffalo, rhino, leopard, elephant). They are called the big 5 because they are the hardest 5 animals to hunt on foot (back in the day when hunting was still allowed)

So that concludes my safari. It was pretty darn cool and memorable. I will never be able to go to a zoo ever again after seeing all the beautiful animals in their natural environment.