I woke up this morning fully expecting another day of great adventures in the park. We had said we were going to Manyara National Park, but I was told at breakfast that we might just travel down some other roads outside the park boundaries to see if we could track down some giraffes on our own since it is the only big animal (except the rhinoceros) that we haven’t seen. We had to get up early to go giraffe spotting, but it was still going to be another day for safari.
As it turns out, we woke up early in order to go back to our home in Arusha sooner and return the vehicle we were driving. The road that we went “giraffe-searching” on was just the main highway to go home, and we went past the national park we were supposed to visit at around 100 km/h with clearly no intention of entering. My spirits dropped quite a bit when I realized what was going on, but I tried to keep a smile on my face and be positive about our giraffe hunt.
A few people spotted giraffes way off in the distance, but nothing more than small yellow dots on the horizon. I was getting pretty moion sick from watching out the side window so I switched my attention to the horizon out the front window and let everyone else do the spotting.
As I was intently staring at the road, I saw a funny looking tree that I swear had a peculiar angle to its trunk. I thought it slightly resembled a strange long-necked animal and was altogether quite funny looking; not surprising however given the many awesomely awkward baobab trees and other flora here. I saw the tree catch my host brother’s eye too, and before you knew it we were parked on the side of the road within 5 feet of the most enormous, male giraffe I’ve ever seen. He was just chilling, eating a nice road-side breakfast in the tree tops minding his own business. I got to snap some cool pictures of him, and in less than 3 minutes we were on the road again. We could now put a tick in the box for spotting a giraffe and move on with the rest of our day.
As we approached Arusha where we had left our personal truck two days before, my host siblings and I stopped at a snake park to pass the time while Victoria and Godfrey went to go switch out the cars. I was slightly relieved that we had something interesting to do while we waited, and got a kick out of looking at all the snakes in cages, some big alligators with bloodstained teeth, and some very cute baby turtles.
The best part was getting to put a real live snake around my neck and pushing my frightened host siblings to do the same. I don’t know why they weren’t interested in doing the same -- the guard said she only gets hungry once a week.
After finishing up at the snake park we went across the street to the Masai cultural museum. I was very happy to get a tour from a real Masai and get to learn a lot more about their culture. I will include a separate entry for this experience at a later time since I find this tribe to be particularly interesting.
At the end of the tour there are real Masai dwellings with women selling various arts and crafts. I have no money and am desperately in need of an ATM but have unfortunately been SOL for a few days now given either the absence of time or machine along our safari. I was feeling pretty bummed that I couldn’t buy anything directly from the person who made it, but my hopes were raised when I saw that the gift shop in a different part of the museum had small sticker in the window indicating they take Visa card. I found that pretty unusual given that I haven’t been able to pay for anything with credit card since my stay at the Holiday Inn on the first night, so it was more disappointing than surprising when they told me that the machine was broken.
Not wanting to torture myself anymore by staying in the gift shop I went outside to see what everyone else was up to. It turned out they were talking to a Masai that was offering camel rides behind the museum and had just sent someone to retrieve two of them from the field.
When I think camels I think the Sahara desert, but I guess why not have them in Tanzania? In short, these guys were tall and awesome. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but it was super cool to see them up-close in personal. While waiting for my turn to ride them I was trying to figure out how they ever inspired a brand of cigarettes. It still baffles me but I imagine it probably has to do with their too-cool-for-school facial expression.
The two camels took their good old time coming down from way up in the sky as they took a sitting position on the sky. The process was so labored that I figured it must be hurting them or something. Actually, they were probably just thinking about how stupid the exercise of sitting down, standing up, walking 50 yards in a circle, and sitting back down is again and again.
In any case, Suzie and I got to ride together on the camel with me up in the front and her holding onto me for dear life. The guy told us to hold on tight and lean back. Before we knew it the roller coaster ride had started and there was absoutely no stopping it. I wish I had a video to show you the whole thing but you literally get thrown from front to back, thinking at one moment that you’re going to be flung off his hump onto his neck and the next that you’re going to be flipped off his backside for a 20 foot drop to the ground. The camel also takes his time standing up with a bit of a stutter, giving you enough time to wonder whether he’s about to collapse, buck you off, or continue the labored process of standing up.
Once you’re up on him it resembles something of a horse ride with an exaggeratedly rhythmic, bumpy pace to it. Being on his hump you are quite high in the air, to the point that we had to shout down to the Masai dragging Mr. Camel along by a rope to ask him about our new four-legged friend.
After maybe 3 minutes of walking in a circle we prepared ourselves for the descent. We both had the anticipation of coming up to the edge of a big waterfall as he sat down, this time feeling more like someone forgot to put on the brakes during a climbing belay than anything else. My stomach slowly found its way back into place after a brief visit with my throat as we dismounted and sat down to watch the others take their turn.
Given that there were an odd number of us, I actually got to go twice. The second time I rode on the back with my older brother on the front. The back proved to be a lot tamer than the front, except my little arms were almost ripped out of their sockets while trying to reach around my host brother to grab the hand holds in front.
After the rides I asked if it was okay to go up and pet my camel friends. I was trying to ask if there are any special rules for camels to avoid spooking them or getting hurt, but the guy seemed to indicate that everything was AOK. I guess the camel I chose to pet first was a little jealous that I had taken both of my rides on his sister because as I reached up to pet him he turned at lightning speed to bite me.
I’m glad to say that (1) he missed, and (2) that the misinformation was from the camel’s owner instead of the man at the snake park who put the supposedly harmless snake around my neck. I think that if the camel had actually bitten me (and he opened his mouth enough to show me that he had a very nice set of teeth) I would have preferred that he take his best shot spitting at me, but I think it worked out for the best in the end.
While pulling myself together after the camel ride I felt my money belt strapped to my stomach. I am particularly fond of it since it adds a few extra layers of chubbiness under my shirt, but is definitely worth the extra security. Anyway, I remembered that I had money stuffed in there with my passport for safe-keeping and for potential use on my travel back to the States. The dollars are useless pretty much everywhere I go since I haven’t been to many touristy places, but the gift shop prices were all listed in dollars. I was so excited at the discovery that I almost spent all of my lunch money at the store buying some very cool hand crafted items. Luckily I was able to bargain with the cashier for a $13 dollar discount – just enough for a good snack during my layover in Amsterdam in 2 weeks.
If we hadn’t forgone the day’s safari I wouldn’t have been able to hold the snake, chat with the Masai, ride a camel, or spend too much money on gifts. I did get to see a giraffe up close and personal, more or less completing the checklist of awesome African animals and certainly can’t complain about the incredible experience I had in Ngorongoro crater the day before. While I would love to go back to the national parks some day, ideally during a more active season, I am still very lucky to be on this 3 month safari even if the national park section lasted only one day.
Beautiful pics and story, Chelsea!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it all worked out (isn't that the way, in Africa time? :-)
Mabruk, as the Imams might say ... ;-)