TANZANIA
& KENYA Cheeseman Safari
23
July - 15 August , 2001 Written by Laura
Doug Cheeseman was my undergraduate biology professor at De Anza College in CA, USA and it was always my dream to join one of his ecology safaris in Africa, he & his wife have been leading them since 1978. In August 2000 we realized we'd be 'in the area' for the Tanzania & Kenya 2001 safari so we signed up. If you're interested in this type of safaris, check out their website at www.cheesemans.com. They lead amazing trips all around the world. Since each day was a hunt to see as much wildlife as humanly possible, I'm afraid writing what we did each day reads more like a wildlife checklist than an interesting comentary.
The map below is large, but its the only one that shows both the areas in Tanzania & Keyna where we visited.
Dar
es Salaam & Arusha, Tanzania --Pre-safari
On July 22, we bid the Phippses an
early morning goodbye from Durban, South Africa and hopped on
the plane to Dar es Salaam. We were on route to Arusha where
most safaris in Tanzania begin. I was very excited to even be
going to Dar es Salaam, the name is so exotic. Turns out the
city was less interesting than I had anticipated, it reminded
me a lot of India, just more expensive, but without really interesting
things to see. Granted we didn't have much time to give it a
chance, but I think I'd go straight to Zanzibar next time. Seems
most tourists do just that.
The next morning we caught an early morning bus to Arusha via the luxery Scandanavian Bus Lines for the nine hour bus ride to Arusha. It turned out to be the best bus ride we've taken the whole trip, all for $20 each (beats the $214 each airfare from Dar es Salaam to Arusha). We had very comfortable seats on a very nice bus, complete with clean bathroom, A/C and room for Aaron's long legs. We were served drinks and had a nice lunch stop with great, cheap, local food. Now that we were back near the equator, winter didn't seem to make much of a difference. It was hot and humid that day so I was happy to be in a bus with A/C. But best of all the drive was so scenic and beautiful. The landscape was so amazing, tall green plants growing in dark red earth on beautiful montainsides. Seeing wood & mud huts with people doing their daily chores without electricty or any sort of modern devices at all. The nine hours flew by. We were picked up by the safari company (the 'someone else taking care of us' had begun) and brought to the nicest hotel we had stayed in in a very long time.
The others on the tour didn't arrive from the USA until the afternoon of the 24th and since we had arrived a day before the safari was to start in case we had trouble getting to Arusha, we had lots of time to enjoy our hotel room. This room looked like what you would imagine while on safari in Africa. We had our own hut with thach roof (you could hear the lizards scurying across it) and a private balcony that looks out onto large lush colorful gardens and a lake. The hut has a stone floor, animal skin decor on the chairs & coffee table, complete with a huge draped mosquito net around the bed.
On the 24th we met up with Gail & Doug Cheeseman in downtown Arusha. They had brought from the USA our digital camera and laptop, so we got our toys back! We were nervous about camping with such equipment through southern Africa so we had our friend Steve take them back to the USA with him from the Seychelles. Needless to say Aaron was so pleased he could really write again, not having to use pen and paper anymore! We did some shopping in downtown Arusha, which turned out to be far more interesting & happening than Dar es Salaam. Back at the hotel I caught up with Doug while Aaron wrote. I was so happy to see someone from home!
Our group was 17 people for Tanzania, and 15 for Kenya, one couple had to miss the Kenya part. They were all Americans and lots of fun. About half the group were advid birders and many had been on one or more of the Cheeseman's safaris. Aaron and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone and being around our fellow countrymen again. Everyday we'd do game drives all day long or travel from one destination to another doing a game drive along the way if possible. We rotated among the four vans with pop-tops so we could stand up and get a better views & pictures. The four Tanzanian drivers, Yuda, Steven, Maulidi, & Amrod, were fantastic at spotting wildlife and we enjoyed getting to know them as well.
Quick note
about pictures for this Safari. We ended up with over 4,000 great
pictures, so it was pretty hard to choose which to include. I
tried to show a represenation of what we saw, but you'll have
to visit if you want to see everything
It was market day in Arusha
