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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.
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