Kilimanjaro – Mini Safari

Wednesday June 28, 2023; Day -1

I again spent long periods awake overnight, this time starting around 2am. When we got up somewhere around 8 in the morning, we had another nice breakfast on the hotel’s patio dining room, again with coffee, fruit, and a small custom omelet.

After breakfast we met Nasibu, our friendly guide and driver for the day. After filling our water bottles, we piled into his Land Rover for a slightly shorter drive to the entrance of Arusha National Park. The Land Rover felt enormous with just the three of us aboard.

We parked near the gate to collect the required permits, and Jason and I got out and took some pictures of a giant metal elephant sculpture near the gate, not knowing at the time that it would turn out to be the only elephant we saw on the whole trip.

After we got back into the truck, Nasibu raised the roof and we drove through the gate and into the park. It felt like we were on a “real” safari at last!

A few minutes later we come to the edge of a broad plain dotted with groups of zebras (a “dazzle”), some warthogs, buffalo, and a lone bird.

Moments later, a few giraffes ambled into view and I was glad that I brought the long lens for my Canon camera, although Jason’s Galaxy S23 also has an amazing zoom capability. Best of all was our guide’s binoculars, especially when stabilized on a beanbag atop the rim of the Land Rover’s roof. (Later back in the States, I learn that the Swarovski 12×42 NL Pure Binoculars retail for $3400. Eeep!)

Perched in the back of the Land Rover, I loved the look of the road winding through the forest behind us.

Driving on, we encountered some monkeys in the trees and parked for a long while to watch some small baboons, one of which was eating a dik-dik (small antelope) he’d caught, apparently a rare sight.

Not long after we stopped again to watch some crazy-billed birds shouting and swooping through the trees alongside the road.

We parked at a ranger station to meet the park ranger who would join us for a short walking tour out to a 28-meter tall waterfall. Our path started with some cool-but-ominous displays of skulls:

…but we soon walked away from the road, following alongside a bubbling stream.

We watched a pack of buffalo from under 20 meters away, our rifle-toting ranger showing only the slightest concern.

We dodged (not all of us successfully) some massive piles of buffalo poop on our way across the plain on our way to a short hike up the hill. The climb was my first real off-roading in my boots, and it went well; the sun beat down on us and I finally sweat a little. Not long later we arrived at the waterfall, which cast off a pleasantly cool mist:

On our way back to the ranger station, the ranger pointed out some soft leaves (“toilet paper”):

…and got a close look at some warthogs:

…and unusual looking trees:

After eating large boxed lunches in a small dining area next to the station, we got back into the Land Rover to continue our tour. In short order, we stopped to watch 23 giraffes (a “tower”) munching on trees.

After watching the giraffes and marveling at the beauty of the plain for a long while, we set off again. Soon we were four-wheeling through a few muddy pits and around a downed tree covering the dirt road, up to the top of a crater and dismounting to look around from Mikindu Point.

At a few spots, the Land Rover rocked hard from side-to-side almost like we were on a roller coaster. We encountered a few more monkeys on the road on our way out of the park.

On the drive back via the main road, Nasibu pulled over just before the hotel so he could point out the barest glimpse of Kili above the clouds– only a tiny dark smudge until we retried with the binoculars.

Finally back at the hotel around 3:45pm, I had another coke and two local Lagers (Kilimanjaro and Safari) and filled out some postcards I bought at the hotel’s small gift shop… I do hope that they arrive some day.

Not long after, we headed to the dining room for our tastiest meal yet, lamb over rice with vegetables.

At dinner, we both checked out each new arrival in the dining room, excited that our trek mates would soon be arriving.

A Thomson guide stopped by our table to tell us that our group would be briefed sometime around 9:30am tomorrow. We returned to the room around 8:30pm for yet another hour of sorting and repacking before lights out.

Tomorrow would be a very exciting day!

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