Tanzania
Tanzania: My accommodation was on a beach just outside Dar Es Salaam. I had to cross by ferry in my Airport taxi and felt very “Lady Penelope” with everyone staring into the taxi. The ferry was very crowded. Tanzania has such a multitude of peoples, Africans, Indians, Arabs and all wearing their various Turbans, Saris, Burk has, Moroccan dress, Muslim black scarves and western dress. The Indian Ocean has wonderful sand and the sea is green. I sat and read my book on my hammock with my glass of wine and thought “this is the life”. I took my life in my hands and travelled independently across the ferry with the crowds to Dar to take photos (watch out camera) of the fish market. Some amazing fish like Gigantic Tuna, Shark, Baraccuda and some friendly bantering and a few strange looks but the women did not like their photo being taken so I had to be careful and respect that. I took a snorkelling trip to a lovely island with clear white sand and watched the fishermen catching octopus. We (Karl a burly Berliner who is the Conductor of the Berlin Opera Orchestra) were shown old German fortifications from the Second World War.We also visited a cave that the slaves were kept in while waiting on the boats to take them to their new homes. I also learned about the Bismarck Treaty when Germany, Britain, Spain and Portugal divided up Africa. A dolphin swam beside our boat which was fabulous for me (especially as I hardly saw any fish but loads of coral).
I then joined the tour group Adventure Travel and travelled by train to Selous National Park. Along the way we saw a lion, Zebras, Giraffes, Monkeys, Impala and Elephants as the last two hours of the journey was in the National Park. We were in a first class carriage and at every station we were sold Oranges, Cashew nuts or apples. At Sable Mountain Lodge our Bandas were Eco friendly with wooden floors bamboo roofs and were wonderful. We were in the middle of nowhere. The water from the shower feeds the waterhole for the animals after going through some type of processing. It was pitch black after 7pm. We were driven our bones shaking by land rover over lumpy, bumpy, muddy roads and it was hard to sit in your seat for more than a minute.. I did learn that Hippos excrete suntan lotion on each other, an Elephant smells with its trunk and are blind, Hippos are veggie and Zebras run together and confuse the predator with their stripes which is where their camouflage comes in. Zebra poo has a line through it and is a rectangle so it looks like a domino! The Impala hide by hanging round termite mounds. Termites eat the bark of a tree and build a home on it so that they don’t have to go far. They then create a fungus that they live on. This way they destroy trees. Wildebeest- Africans say that God made them with the left over bits as they are very strange and when they run away they run in all different directions and confuse each other. Giraffe females’ horns are fluffier and males are taller and giraffes can run at 35 miles per hour. The boabab tree is enormous and hollow. Poachers will live in the tree for up to five days and poach at night. The fruit of the Boabab tree makes Tartar for tartar sauce.
The nice thing about this National Park is that we could go off road with the land rovers and get very close to the animals.
The Elephants and the lions haunted old river beds and we were once on top of a group of elephants when the lead elephant (mother) check the air and we saw her trunk float near us. The lead elephant goes in front of the troop and checks the area for safety. She smelt us and the whole troop of mothers and children left the area. Another time we were off road just the driver Hannah and I when we came upon a mother and young child as well as some giraffes and as we were downwind of them we stopped and looked at them for about ten minutes. When we switched on the engine to go the mother elephant took exception to being startled and decided to chase us. We drove very quickly through the undergrowth trying very hard not to overturn or run down any trees I could not relax until we were on a proper road as we could have tipped over at any time! She even cut us off as she knew our likely route. We thought we had outrun them (three charging now) when we saw that they tried to cut us off before we hit the road and they were still coming, This went on for about ten or fifteen minutes and I did start to worry about what would happen. The Elephants being blind were following our diesel tracks as they have an amazing sense of smell. Would they just overturn our vehicle or give it a good kicking or would they come after us too or would we have time to climb a tree. Luckily the question did not arise and we outran them. I live to tell the tale!!
