Archive for ‘Eleanor’

Blog posts by Eleanor

Going to Nairobi

After the Serengeti we drove to Lake Victoria. We stayed at a fun campsite that had lots of really big rocks on the lakefront to climb on. There were lots of rock hyrax, and a naughty vervet monkey jumped on the Taniwha!

Then we went to Kenya. The border crossing was ok, but they wanted to scan our clothes boxes when we left Tanzania. That was a bit weird!

In Kenya we found a good supermarket but when we came out we couldn’t close the door of the car!!!! Daddy had to tie it closed with a ratchet strap!!

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We stayed at a camp above the Masai Mara. There were lots of zebra and giraffe there. We saw lots of animals on the plains.

Can you see the funny looking cow?

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Then we drove to Nairobi. Daddy was worried about the door falling off when we were on the dirt road. But then we got to tarmac and it was better. We drove through the great rift valley. It is about 50km wide – that is 10 park runs! It is where the african plate is breaking apart 2mm every year. There were lots and lots of trucks climbing the hill out of the valley.

We are now staying at Jungle Junction in Nairobi. It is a campsite where lots of overlanders go – but at the moment we are the only ones here! There are friendly dogs though.

There is internet, so if you would like to Skype me, then tell your parents to talk to my parents.

 

Serengeti Park

After the crater we went to the Serengeti National Park. We had a big queue to get in, because there were lots of safari groups. It was also very expensive.

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On the way to our camp we saw lots of spotted hyenas. Our camp had lots of little tents for some safari groups. We were the only roof tent. There were some kiwis there too, Daddy gave them a light to help them put up their tent.

I had a good sleep, but Mummy and Daddy didn’t. That was because they heard a lion roaring. It started far away and got closer and closer. They even heard it rustle in the grass and then it roared right outside the tent! I am glad I didn’t hear it!

The next day we wanted to go driving, but we couldn’t open the boot of the car. Mummy and Daddy had to take everything out through my seat and Mummy squeezed in the back, and we still couldn’t open it. So Daddy took the car to a garage. He said it took 5 men to get it open! We were worried he had marooned us!

When he came back the door was better and we did a little drive. We went to a hippo pool and saw lots and lots of hippos. They were very smelly and made lots of farting noises.

We saw lots of animals, especially wilderbeest and zebra. In July they all come to the plains of the Serengeti and try and cross the river together. It is called a migration. They cross together to try to not be eaten by a crocodiles. We only saw 3 crocodiles, and the river was quite dry. Can you spot the croc in the river?

We also saw lots of lions! We even saw lion cubs. There were also lots of horse flies. We haven’t seen any tsetse flies though. We could tell where there was something to see because there would be lots of safari trucks stopped.

These are my other favourite photos!

We didn’t see any rhino’s, cheetahs or leopards, But we made up a song: (to the tune of ‘we’re in the money’)

Give us a rhino,

A white or black one,

Give us a Cheetah

Or a leopard in a tree.

Because of the door, we spent 2 nights in the park. Daddy wasn’t happy about the state of the roads, especially because you pay lots of money. On the way out of the park, we saw a big fire burning.

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Ngorongoro Crater

We went to the Ngorongoro Crater. We got up really early to get to the park gates. It was very expensive and we wanted to spend as much time as possible. It was still dark when we got there and Daddy got the tickets. There were lots of other people queue too. When we got in the gate we saw some cape buffalo!

We had to drive up to the top of the crater rim, and we looked over the top. Ngorongoro Crater is a volcano. Scientists think the volcano was as big as Mt. Kilimanjaro, but it erupted and collapsed on itself, making a big cauldron called a caldera. It is really big. The walls are 600m high and its area is 260 km².  The view was good. There is one steep road to drive down and one steep road to drive up. There were lots of safari cars, but it was no problem for the Taniwha!

There are lots of animals inside. The only animal that is not in the crater is giraffes, because it is too steep for them to climb down. I also learnt that the lions in the crater are really big because there is lots of prey. The lions chase off any other lions that try to come in the crater.

These are the animals we saw:

  • Antelope
  • Cape Buffalo
  • Ostrich
  • Elephant
  • Wilderbeest
  • Hippos
  • Zebra
  • Hyena
  • Jackal
  • Baboons
  • Lots of lions!!

I have chosen my favourite animal photos. There were also lots of safari trucks….

We left the crater at lunch time. Mummy and Daddy wanted to go to the Olduvai Gorge, but it was too expensive. I learnt that there are lots of early human bones and footprints found there.  Then we drove to the Serengeti Park…

 

Mr Mzungu

Today we went to a Masai museum. The Masai is a type of tribe like the Himba in Namibia, and the San Bushmen. The Masai live in Tanzania and Kenya. The men wear red check blanckets.  The women wear bead bracelets and necklaces. Ourguide had shoes that looked like they were made from car tyres!

We saw how they made their houses. They use acacia branches as a frame, and cover it with mud, ash and cow dung. The women look after the house and the men look after the animals. Men are allowed to have lots of wives!

They only eat their own cows and goats. They don’t hunt wild animals to eat. But he told us they drink cows milk and blood.

My favourite room had models of girls on one side and boys on the other. It showed their different outfits.

At the end Daddy bought a t-shirt that says Mzungu. That means white person. We thought it should really say: That’s Mr Mzungu to you! I tried on some necklaces too.

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Then we drove to the crater. We went past Lake Manyara and saw lots of storks in the trees. The bushes below the storks were all white because of the stork poo!

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To Arusha

After we went to Zanzibar, we got a boat back to Dar es Salaam. The boat rocked a lot. Some people were sick and it was very smelly. It took ages to get back to the Taniwha, because we went to the wrong place and then we took lots of detours to try and find the right place.

Then we drove to Mt. Kilimanjaro. This is the highest mountain in Africa, it is 5,895m high. But we didn’t see much of it, because it was always covered in cloud. We drove pretty much all the way around it. We couldn’t climb it because Genevieve and I are too young, and because it is too expensive. People live all around the mountain, and there were fields of pine trees, corn and potatoes.

We stayed at a farm called Simba Lodge Farm. There were little mini blue cars that Vivi and I liked to play on. You had to pedal them. We also bought lots of fresh veges! We could see Mt Meru, which is 4,562m high.

Then we went to Arusha. We went to hundreds of different supermarkets, but they aren’t like English supermarkets. Mummy and Daddy said they were very expensive and didn’t sell all the things they wanted. We went to a market and bought lots of fruit from some ladies. We had to speak Swahili!

Then we went to stay at the Meserani Campsite. We went to the snake park there. It was very good. The guide showed us lots of snakes like: pythons, cobras, adders, black and greeen mambas and grass/water/sand snakes. There was a rhino snake with a horn, and one that had eyelashes! He told us all about their venom. They are the only place in all of Tanzania that keeps all the anti-venom here and if you are bitten they treat you for free. They had pictures of a python that ate a security guard who fell asleep, it got caught on an electric fence.

They had some spotted owls. He said that people here believe that if you hear the owl cry, then something bad will happen to you. They had a white backed vulture and a goshawk. They also had some nile crocodiles and some slender snouted crocodiles. There was a nile monitor, and lots of fruit bats in the tree.

They had some tortoises and we got to hold them. The tortoise hid its head and legs and then poked them out. At the end we were allowed to hold a grass snake. Daddy put it round his neck. I was scared, so I just held its tail.

Tomorrow we are going to a Masai Museum, then we are heading to the Ngorongoro Crater!