A Tanzania diary

Written by Charlotte West

There was a huge sense of anticipation that night throughout the group, there’s no way you can describe it. You couldn’t help but think of this almost ‘judgment day’ which we had been preparing for, for over a year. Are we going to make it?

Kilimanjaro

The sun rose about half an hour before I reached the crater rim and although we hadn’t yet reached Gilman’s point it was absolutely stunning, to see the sun rise up from behind Mawenzi with all the cloud so far below was extremely awe-inspiring and although I was very tired this filled me with a great sense of motivation.

I gave it my all and followed a guide on my own at a quite rapid pace which surprised myself.

When I finally got to the crater rim, I didn’t really know what to do. To be honest it wasn’t really what I thought it would look like, the crater was very wide and had some glacier on the inside. I took a while to take it all in.

Due to my sudden increase in pace I stripped some layers off and sat down but I got cold again very quickly, as not only was it around –15 but the wind up top was extremely chilling.

The second person arrived about 5-10 minutes afterwards, it was very tranquil and I spent the whole time admiring the scenery.

I was extremely happy to see 99% of the entire group reach the top  (especially my oldest sister as it was her birthday) and it was very emotional for some.

After some tea, those who felt fit enough carried on to Uhuru peak while the rest went down. It took a further hour and forty-five minutes to reach the summit and I was absolutely shattered. After some very quick photos, most were keen to get off the mountain so we set off again at a much faster pace...

Tarangire

And what can I say?  Tarangire, July 2006 appeared to host the mother and toddler group for elephants! Almost every ten minutes we would stumble into a new herd always with at least one adorable baby hiding in the midst.

This abundance of elephants was due to the migration from the massai lands to the park, and this caused a huge inflow of elephants traveling in one direction. This in turn resulted in one very intimate moment with one lone male who decided to take the less demanding route of using the road as a footpath as opposed to the bush.

Consequently he casually wondered upon us traveling in the opposing direction and as you can imagine this led to a very anxious standoff, with us being the more anxious of the two and more trying to inconspicuously blend into the environment rather than make a point.

After a while and a rather thorough inspection, the elephant again decided to take the less demanding option and side stepped around the car leaving us in his dust and awe.

As well as elephants we encountered hundreds of impala, zebra and gnu, cape buffalo, giraffe, baboons, warthog, and a wide variety of very beautiful and colourful birds.

On our last trip to Tarangire we opted for the safari lodge, but this time we took a more reclusive option and stayed at the Maweninga tented camp around the side of Tarangire hill. The tents were extremely beautiful, and the main dining tent had an amazing view onto  Lakes Burungi and further over Lake Manyara, with a campfire area and seating outside. The camp was extremely peaceful and the views onto the lakes and surrounding park were bewitching.

Selous

We were staying in the Safari camp and I still don’t quite know how, but we ended up staying in the private camp for the first two nights. This was a bit of a honeymoon haven but I couldn’t really think of many places better to spend your honeymoon.

The tents were absolutely gorgeous. They were stunning. They had huge outdoor showers and a porch with a view onto the lake. The first few days we did game drives, and we also tried the boat safaris, and fishing which were both fun, new experiences.

Selous was awash with crocodiles, hippos, giraffe and many other wonderful creatures. We then did a walking safari, which was incredibly interesting. It was also quite a nerve-wracking experience at some points, such as when an elephant is about 12 meters away from you on foot.

The fly camp we stayed at that night was also extremely lovely. The beds and tents were great, and still extremely comfortable considering we were really out in the bush on our own.

When we returned to the main camp the next day, we were taken back to the quite comical ‘air strip’ and got our flight to Mafia Island, again via Dar es Salaam.

Mafia Island

When we arrived at our resort at Mafia called Pole Pole, we were shown to again very pretty bungalows with a lovely view out onto the beach.

That night we were offered many different activities like diving, visiting Chole Island next door, snorkeling ect. We took up some of the less ‘strenuous’ options like visiting Chole and snorkeling but told them that we wanted to keep the activities light!

The beaches were very beautiful and Chole was a very interesting island, playing a quite important role in the slave and trade triangle. The snorkeling was very beautiful and we saw many different types of fish and coral without having to go too far down.

Personally I would have loved to do some diving but there wasn’t enough time!

After a nice wind-down to finish of our holiday, we were taken back to Dar es Salaam on a tiny charter plane, and from there caught our flight home!

Arriving back in England was, well a serious downgrade! game without being surrounded by mini-buses.

Will, Oliver and I had a great safari.