the land of endless space

in august last year i promised you "pictures and stories from exotic islands, equatorial glaciers and national parks teeming with large game". one and two have been ticked off, so it's time to deliver on the third and final aspect of that promise.

phuong and i went on a 5-day safari as the well-earnt relaxation branch of our tanzanian adventure.

with us were cosmos, our wonderful driver and guide, and yusuf our cook, in a safari van whose top popped open so that we could stick our heads out and gawk at the animals.

we were under the impression that we would be joined 2 dutch people, but had no idea as to their age or gender. phuong wanted the dutch to be two hot straight chicks. i wanted them to be two hot gay boys. in the end we compromised on one hot gay boy and his best friend hot straight chick who would turn up with their insatiable sexual appetites, find us irresistable, and the rest would be discovery channel all day and all night long...

.

where was that damn magic lamp when we needed it?

instead, on the second day, we ended up being joined by a guy called zdenek. 3 guesses as to where he was from. so whilst it wasn't exactly the sort of work-out for my lips and tongue that i desired, zdenek's borderline refusal to speak english meant that my czech skills were really put to the test.

on our first day, the road to arusha national park provided beautiful views of the massive ice and snow covered crater of mt kilimanjaro in the distance.

we were smitten with our recent experience, and had to stop the car on a number of occasions just to get out and gaze at the mountain-god-beauty. phuong in particular was transported to another level and it was a pleasure just to behold the gallery of awe-struck facial expressions that crossed his face. we both agreed that the climb had been uber-amazing, and were glad for each other's confirmation of the experience, as alone it would have seemed too improbable, too dreamlike, too wonder-fucking.

geo-history lesson. 8 million years ago, africa's continental plate crashed into eurasia's, and as they pulled apart, africa almost snapped in two, creating a giant rift valley that stretches from the dead sea to mozambique. one of the many volcanoes that formed was ngorongoro, which spewed forth megatonne upon megatonne of ash and lava. this flowed westward, creating a vast open plain of super-fertile soil too thin to hold trees (the serengeti plain), and the largest volcanic crater in the world, which collapsed in on itself, only to be later filled with lush green grass, hordes of wild animals, and rabid groups of safari-struck tourists (the ngorongoro crater).

i won't labour over the details of each day. but suffice to say: imagine stopping your car because 33 giraffe had decided to cross the road? watching a group of 28 elephants playing in patches of mud and tearing down trees? a leopard lounging languidly on a tree branch? a lioness peering out at you through half closed eyes from atop a rocky outcropping, as dozens of vultures circle overhead? or over 60 hippos snoozing, shitting and fighting in a river at whose edge you're sitting? even the world-famous werribee zoo couldn't prepare us for it.

serengeti comes from the maasai word meaning 'the land of endless space', and there were times when we could only see grass and sky - not even a single tree or any other feature - all the way to the horizon, 360 degrees. it was that that really overwhelmed the senses, even more so that the animals.

the reason the serengeti national park and ngorongoro conservation area are so important is that they specifically protect the area used by the wildebeast on their annual migration - the last great animal migration in existence. over 2 million animals participate in this movement - south during the wet, and back north during the dry.

we were lucky enough to witness it on our last day - hordes of wildebeast running through the plains to join their cousins that grazed the land all the way to the horizon and beyond.

at night we slept in designated campsites which were visited by the odd elephant and lion, heightening the safari experience. there were little drop holes to shit in, but the smells that emanated from them induced central chest pain radiating down both arms, and were best avoided.

in the evenings, zdenek taught us new czech card games and we played these as the african sun set over the serengeti and the myriad giant insects emerged to suck our blood and drink our beer.

on the way back to arusha on the last day, we stopped at the olduvai gorge - a site where many of the earliest fossilised remains of human ancestors have been found: up to 2.5 million years old. even more exciting was a discovery at nearby laetoli of 3.5 million year old hominid footprints, which show a foot shape, great toe position and arch possessed by only one animal on earth today - us.

we looked at the cast of part of the footprint set (in its entirety it stretches to almost 30 metres). it shows two sets of footprints side by side, and a third set inside one of the others, where a third, medium sized hominid walked exactly in the footsteps of the first, larger one. to look at the actual footprint that one of our own ancestors made 3.5 million years ago is mindboggling.

of greater concern is that the fossilised remains of plant and animal species in the same ash layer are almost identical to the plant and animal species living in the same region today, some 3.5 million years later. but these plants and animals are now becoming extinct because of what current hominids are doing to the planet. sapiens sapiens? i don't think so. have we got any idea of what we're getting ourselves into?

we arrived back in arusha, and so concluded our tanzanian experience. it was time for the next adventure: kenya.

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pic 1 - phuong gawking out of the gawking wagon

pics 2,3,6,7,8, 10, 14, 15, 16 - animals animals animals!

pic 4 - wildebeast all the way to the horizon

pic 5 - the team on the ngorongoro crater - cosmos, phuong, yusuf, zdenek and ondrej

pic 9 - the land of endless space

pic 11 - the wildebeast migration

pic 12 - the sign says it all

pic 13 - serengeti sunset