I had to start a new post for Tanzania as I learned that it is not a good idea to use MSWord for writing and then pasting inside one’s blog, for it becomes corrupt and confused from the rich text.
This is the church / hostal / conference centre / restaurant / parking place in Dar Es Salaam, five minutes from the ferry to Zanzibar if anyone should need this place to stay, and store your bike securely ($20US/night, $8 for security tip)
I stopped here in Same, Tanzania for $25, breakfast is always included, but one gets tired of over-fired eggs and white bread.
Paused in Arusha to figure out the best and most economical way to get into Ngorongoro National Park and crater since it is not permitted to ride into the park. In the end I asked a couple of Tour operators if I could ride somewhere close and go in with a truck and driver. Yes, ride to Karatu and hire a truck there. So I decided to stay another night in Arusha, just to watch the football matches on Friday and Saturday, before heading out on Sunday. The Swahili time is no joke, for they believe the day starts when the sun rises, and is finished when it sets.
It’s been so, I don’t know, really cool when the odd Masai person herding their cattle on the side of the road with a huge hole in their earlobes hanging down, wearing their traditional clothing and carrying their significant stick, giving me a ‘thumbs up’ while riding by. Most just look, but every once in a while you see this dude giving you the sign, and it feels really good, like one of my friends back home in the middle of nowhere saying ‘Yeah man ride on’.
I don’t usually take pictures of road kill, but I couldn’t help but stop, turn around and look at this huge animal. I don’t know if it’s a Hyena or a Wild Dog, and of course I didn’t take a close picture of the whole body so I could look more closely now while I’m here wondering. There were a lot of birds annoyed with my interruption, so I took the pictures and rode away. Look really not at death, but the life in those jaws of teeth. It seems to me that this dog lived a day (later I confirmed it was a Hyena).
A while later I was waved over by a group of people standing by their car with a blow out. Yes I have a hand pump. Everyday there are tons of people on the side of the roads fixing their trucks, cars and such but they’re always prepared. This time however was the first time I was waved over, another time at a gas station, I pumped up a repaired tire for some guy’s car as the petrol station’s compressor wasn’t working. Anyway, it didn’t work cause their spare rim was all bent, and they were tubeless tires so the air wouldn’t stay inside. While I was thinking if my sludge would work, (liquid that seals punctures), they asked if I could take them to the next village or petrol station. I said I could take the tire but no room for a person, and then realized I would have to take both tires and rims and suggested first we should try and wave down another passing truck so that the man could go with his tires, and there was a lot of traffic on the road anyway. So a truck pulled over and off he went with his tires and rims, leaving behind a bottle of water donated from the truck for the three adults and one child (This was the second question I asked them when pumping up the tire, do you have any water? No was the answer, we are locals going on a small journey. Really, I thought?). When I went back to my bike, a small Masai boy who I’d seen earlier was standing in awe of my bike, but backed off afraid when I approached. I then took a picture of the car and then he asked me with a mumble and a gesture if I would take a picture of him. So I did. And then I invited him to sit on my bike and he reluctantly climbed aboard after the man left behind from the blow out translated. A second later the boy climbed down, and I gave him the change in my pocket and wished him good fortune in Swahili, ‘Bahatinzuir’.
After arriving in Karatu, I found out after riding to all the resorts and lodges in the village that there were no trips planned for the crater on Monday so I found myself with the idea of paying huge prices for a room, from US120-75, just to stay for a night and see if some other people showed up. Through this process I realized that the tour companies have this locked down, and it’s unusual for a single person to show up for a safari ride into the crater in Karatu, for it costs in US dollars, 50 to enter the park, 180 for the vehicle and driver, and 200 per vehicle to descend into the crater, all on me. So with no other persons to hook up with, who have previously booked all their accommodations, safari’s etc. with a tour company, all inclusive for who knows how much money, I was at a loss. I tried one last place and it was the poshest resort I had seen or been to. Danny the reception guy approached me, and after two hours of negotiations on and off, he and I stalling, trying to figure out other ways to both keep me there and make something from me privately, lunch included which was a nice favour of his when I already agreed to pay US6 for a shit cheese and tomato sandwich on white with chips, I ended up having a piece of chicken with lamb stew, green beans, carrots and potatoes for free. All the while I was listening to the odd tongue from staff who would walk by and suggest other alternatives for me like riding to the park gate in the morning to wait for an empty seat, or to ask the French couple if I could join them on their honeymoon into the crater, except they were continuing on into the Serengeti. In the end, via one of his phones, he hooked me up with a friend of his who was already driving a father and daughter into the park the day after tomorrow and that I could split the costs with them. So then it came down to the room price, which was really high in this posh resort with excellent food I might add. Anyway, eventually he came down in price from $109 to $80, including three meals per day with all the other stuff I won’t use anyway like the pool for example. Oh yeah, he kept trying to slip in what he called, ‘Interest fee’, and each time I called him on it, but let him have his way for a while before feigning confusion. In the end I said I couldn’t afford to stay here in the first place, and secondly the park fees are outrageous, and thirdly I wasn’t going to pay an imaginary fee to him for phoning a business associate on a cell phone. As it turns out, we agreed that I wouldn’t pay him, but rather tip him when all was said and done. Danny said exactly, ‘How much can you afford to pay for the room? How much more can you afford to come down was my answer. I am going to close my eyes and say that I can give it to you for $80’, he said. Later he came to my room after I’d just had a hot shower in a week, and said he had his friend on the phone. This went back and forth for a while, each time Danny hanging up and then quoting some price while making a small mistake in his attempt, and then me realizing kind of like a first date when you’re trying your best to discover; he trying to capitalize on what he didn’t think I had caught, and over and over again he kept calling the guy back until finally the guy wanted to speak to me personally. He told me in a clear, step by step process how much I was to pay and I agreed at $180 all inclusive, including the $50 park entrance with a boxed lunch that Danny had already promised me from the hotel. In the very end, Danny left forlorn, but I will tip him well for his work, as no one else in the village had any options for me whatsoever, and going back to Arusha and staying in the motel and shopping around for what I think would have been more at least, Also, I’d had enough of the motel I was staying in before, even though it was just right. Overall it was a fun exercise, because Danny is just trying to make a buck, and yet still providing me with a better alternative under the circumstances which he was able to recognize and follow through with. He’s a good business man, and I think he can still make some money some how like when I pay him for staying here if I pay with cash, since like I said most of these bookings are package deals made in other countries with money crunchers working their calculators, this deal is a one on one so I’m pretty sure he can slide something into his pocket, as like I said, hardly anyone shows up here without a booking. All and all, this stint in Karatu cost me one month in fuel, riding everyday.
I watched a report on Aljazeera regarding the upswing in the Evangelist movement in Kenya. Self-appointed pastors receiving money to heal people with AIDS, poverty and everything else one can think of. Even one lady, who had already served one year in prison for fraud (healed a father’s daughter from HIV positive for 800US, tested in Bible Hospital, negative HIV, then later the father took his daughter to a public hospital to find she was still positive, the answer from the lady was it was because he had lost faith and it wasn’t her fault), was still receiving money again for her healing powers as I speak. And today at lunch here at Bougainvillea Safari Lodge, while literally being served by five staff members, each one holding a course for me to dish myself, (never have I experienced such treatment, they’re begging me to clean my room and change the sheets and I keep saying, No it’s okay, everything is fine), I was flipping through stations on TV and came across a program dedicated to Evangelism, and it was so blatantly deceitful and poorly executed with four pastors speaking in English (with Swahili translation), well, I just can’t believe many of these people, poor to begin with, were lining up to have their destiny’s changed, the front row paying the most. Crazy. Anyway I asked one of the young men serving me, ‘Do you know this program? Yes, they help the people. Is it good? I asked. Yes, but you must pay.’ What?
The next morning, 5am, off to Ngorongoro National Park ….
I got a kick out of these two males, hanging out by the side of the road, completely chilled, like they were expecting us the one dude said to the other too tired to sit up, ‘I’m gonna do a punker look this morning for the tourists’.
I had spoken to a tour guide the day before and he had mentioned that they saw two male lions eating a wildebeest, so maybe these were the two.
From Norway, Tom and Taya(not spelled correctly).
And DC the Rastafarian from Karatu.
Just before we came across this sight, I had mentioned to DC it would be cool to see a hunt since we’ve seen some lions …. and then we came across this …. it looks like the jackal is the target but not really. DC explained the Jackal just hangs around for the kill.
The Pumba got away, diving into a hole.
The mother lioness had chased the warthog into the direction of her cub, but he was too slow. He really looks like some sort of hybrid lion ….
Later at the picnic site I counted 40 trucks, not including the ones coming and going.
Later we saw a Cheetah in the distance and waited for quite some time before giving up on a hunt. Then Tom said, it sure would be nice to see a Hyena, and sure enough on our way out of the crater DC spotted one ….
The next day, feeling sick to my stomach for spending so much money in three days, I promptly rode away from Karatu, stopping in Arusha for some fuel before heading to the Tanzania/Kenya border. I wasn’t expecting dirt/rough road as it didn’t say so on my map, but I encountered a lot, just as much as tarmac. However it was good dirt, just wasn’t prepared for the extra time, I planning to reach Nairobi before dark to watch the Germany/Spain semi-final match.
