Sunday, March 25 (Day 9): Leaving the Serengeti and Tanzania

Mrosso said it would take them a day and a half on the dirt and gravel roads to drive back to Arusha. We thought about him and the drive several times while we were flying back to Kenya for our visit to the Masai Mara. Our destination lay only about 140 kilometers due North, but we had to fly nearly all day to get there. The problem was the bureaucracy: we had to cross the border from Tanzania to Kenya, and you could only do that (if you were flying) by going through international airports with customs offices and passport control desks. It required four different airplanes making takeoffs and landings at six different airstrips before we were at our destination; and we probably flew a total of about 1,000 kilometers! More on that in a bit.

First we left the camp, urging Mrosso to find us a "Chui!" on the way to the airstrip. He did his best, driving past every tree he could find and trying to spot a cat in the branches. No luck. Our plane was to pick us up at 11:00 AM, so we had time for a mini game drive on the way. As we neared the airstrip we still had plenty of time, so Mrosso drove us over to a Serengeti Welcome Center. This was a VERY nice outdoor display area on a kopje where the Great Migration was depicted and explained, the life cycles of the plains were examined, and examples of local plant life were labeled. There we saw some hyraxes very close -- almost tame -- and several bird varieties.

But eventually we had to get to the airstrip, so we reluctantly headed that way.

It occurred to me that during our entire time in the Serengeti we had not seen a single elephant! What made that seem unusual was, there had been plenty of evidence that they were around! We found very fresh elephant droppings on the road, very little cover in sight, but no elephants. We found trees and shrubs that had obviously been damaged recently by elephants - either pushed over, limbs broken off, or bark and leaves stripped off some branches - but no elephants. You would think it would be very hard for something that big to hide so completely, but we never saw one!

After a brief wait by a windsock and a mowed flat area in the middle of the grasslands, a twin Otter appeared, lowered its landing gear and swung in to land. Among our luggage was my Masai spear broken down into its basic three pieces. In Camp Michelle, Mrosso had helped me wrap it using cardboard from a carton of 1-litre water bottles we had bought, and some duct tape from Linda's luggage. Yes, she had brought a small roll of duct tape! This lady was prepared for ANYTHING! That cardboard and duct tape package lasted all the way back to Houston after rattling around through several other African countries! (In Linda's defense, the duct tape had been brought as a possible substitute for an ace bandage if her knee began to bother her and swell. Luckily that didn't happen, and the tape sure was handy as wrapping material!)

Our ride to Arusha just touched down. There was a ground crew present to keep the gazelles off the runway.

This is a good place to show you what Mrosso looked like. We said our good-byes to him and slipped him a tip that we hoped would be considered appropriate.

Eugen Mrosso. A truly professional driver/guide.

He had always treated us as his personal guests, making sure we were comfortable, doing whatever we asked, laughing at our jokes and bad puns (mine were the worst!), and making sure our Tanzanian experience would be memorable. Mrosso had completed technical training as a mechanic, then after struggling to make a living in that trade, had gone back to school to become a driver/guide . He told us that the required schooling was very inadequate, and that he had learned the wildlife and bird identification through self-study. He amazed us time and time again with his ability to see invisible animals and birds, and to identify them almost at a glance. He would then open his reference book, find us a picture of the bird he had named, and sure enough, it was the one we were looking at! A real professional, and a pleasure to be with for the entire week.

There were other passengers waiting for the flight, so all the luggage was tossed into a baggage area at the rear of the aircraft and we piled aboard. No metal detectors, no security, and the pilots flew with the flight deck door wide open. Also no flight attendants or drinks, but it was the custom on just about every airplane that a bowl of individually wrapped hard candies was passed around before takeoff and each passenger could take as much as he wanted.

Our first leg was to take us to Arusha, with one brief stop at Lake Manyara on the way. I began to feel shaky and a bit queasy on this flight, and couldn't figure out why. As a rule, I don't get motion sickness. I passed it off as nothing; it wasn't really bad. After a five minute stop to pick up a few people at Lake Manyara, we were back in the air heading East. As we passed over the cliff-like escarpment near the lake, I looked back and down at what looked like a waterfall. I quickly grabbed my binoculars and twisted around trying to get another look. The plane was bouncing just a bit, but in turning around and looking through bouncing binoculars I suddenly felt VERY nauseous. No, I never actually lost my breakfast, but it sure was unpleasant. Later that day I realized I had probably let myself get dehydrated to the point of sickness. We had been advised to drink at least 2 liters of water per day in the equatorial heat, but I had been skimping. Not for the rest of the trip, I didn't!

Anyway, the next few hours of up, down, change planes and do it again were less than fun. Carol, on the other hand, (and Les and Linda, as far as I know -- both of them are pilots and own a Cessna 172) thoroughly enjoyed the flights. The airplanes were all small and flew at relatively low altitude, giving everyone a great view of the countryside. A couple of examples are below.

The top picture shows patchwork cultivated fields near Lake Manyara. The second one was taken farther East and shows two Masai villages with their distinctive circular construction and the cattle pen in the middle of the huts. One is in the upper left of the picture, the other in the lower right.

When we landed in Arusha, our next flight was waiting for us. It was a single-engine Cessna Caravan with seating for eight, and we were the only passengers. One pilot, no co-pilot, and the flight lasted fifteen whole minutes. But we were offered hard candies! We never climbed above about 1500 feet. Our destination was Kilimanjaro, Tanzania's international airport. Since we were leaving the country we had to go through passport control and Customs.

From Kili to Nairobi we were on a Kenya Airways plane. We had hoped to get a look at Mount Kilimanjaro out the right-hand windows, but the entire mountain was enshrouded by clouds and couldn't even be glimpsed. That was one of the very few disappointments of the trip, and not a major one. At this point I had realized that my problem was likely a lack of liquid intake, so I began drinking water and fruit juice frequently. Within a few hours I was much better.

In Nairobi we were met by Joyce and Joseph of Luke Travel and guided to our next twin Otter aircraft for the flight West to the Masai Mara. Since I dozed for much of this leg, not feeling good enough to watch the ground out the windows, I don't remember much about it. Carol told me she really enjoyed seeing that part of Kenya from the air, especially being low enough to really see details on the ground. We passed over the Great Rift Valley where eons ago there must have been some phenomenal geological upheavals and lots of volcanic activity. Many Masai villages could be seen, and not much cultivated land. There were scattered clouds and thundershowers, which the pilot tried to avoid as we continued West.

Approaching the area where we were to land, the pilot informed us that he was going to make an unscheduled stop at a strip called Mara Safari Camp, because someone had left some luggage there by mistake. We got the impression that, since this was a small airplane, and since this was Africa, stopping to pick up somebody's bags was a routine affair. We dodged a couple more rain showers and finally landed at 4:15 PM at Kichwa Tembo airstrip. We were booked into a tent camp called Kichwa Tembo (Swahili for "Elephant Head"). In fact, at the front entrance to the "lodge" was an elephant skull! Not your everyday hotel entrance decoration!

But we didn't go straight to the camp. We were met at the airstrip by Willie, our driver/guide for the Masai Mara. Willie told us we had time for a short game drive on the way to the lodge, and we said, "Great!" It was quite cloudy, and almost cool as we drove off across the fields.

I hadn't known this, but the Masai Mara is a region of Western Kenya that borders Tanzania to the South. In Tanzania, these plains are called the Serengeti, but in Kenya this northern extension of the same Serengeti is called the Masai Mara. It was very similar in appearance to the rolling plains we had just left, except here the Western boundary of the National Park was a long escarpment, or steep ridge rising from the plains and stretching North and South called the "Oloololo Escarpment" That is a Masai word meaning zig-zag. It's pronounced, "Oh - low - oh - low - low." (Easy for YOU to say!)

In the Serengeti of Tanzania, safari vehicles were required to stay on the marked roads. Mrosso had told us that if animals were spotted a short distance off the road it was permitted to drive over to them, be we never did so. Kenya was different! Here Willie took us in whatever direction he wanted, cutting straight across open country. Sometimes the roads were smoother (no termite mounds, big rocks or warthog holes in the roads -- well, not in MOST of the roads), but you could drive anywhere your vehicle would take you.

We quickly got our first sighting of wildlife - Giraffes! About a dozen of them, moving slowly across the grasslands under threatening clouds.

Willie noticed some elephants a little farther South, and drove toward them. We then saw one of the cutest sights on the entire trip. There was a baby elephant, probably less than one week old. We had to take several pictures of this little guy, and it was tough to get him out from behind Mama and in focus. Willie didn't dare try to get too close, knowing that Mama and the others would defend that baby from any perceived threat, including us!

We drove on and soon came to a "wash" that was almost completely camouflaged by the grass and flat land, but was at least 15 feet deep. It would definitely have swallowed up a Land Cruiser. As we drove along it to get to a crossing, we saw more elephants, some with young, completely hidden in its depths.

 
You could hide a lot down there! At right, I just had to put in another shot of the baby!

In with this group of buffalo was a mother and fairly small baby. The camera is looking the other direction, away from the escarpment.