Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the inaugural blog post of my new website. Even though I’ve been traveling quite a while, this is my first trip to Africa and I’m really excited about it so let’s dive in…

There’s really not much to Arusha itself other than being a jumping off point for the famous northern safari circuit. It’s a bustling market town with some hotels and restaurants and LOTS of safari companies. The parking lot at the Kilimanjaro airport is filled with giant safari jeeps and the road into Arusha provides excellent views of Mt Kilimanjaro and the equally impressive Mt Meru, interrupted occasionally by Masai locals, herds of goats and of course the ever present safari jeeps. I, however, get to ride in (drumroll, please) a minivan. 

Holy Crap… I climbed Mt Meru!!!

My trek up Mt Meru begins with a drive in my trusty minivan to Arusha National Park. Riding along the bumpy dirt road in a minivan is understandably not fun, but when a baboon suddenly runs across the road in front of us I’m feeling a bit better and more alert. A few minutes later we see a bunch of zebras in a field and… what minivan? It finally sinks in, I’m in Africa! I’m given lunch at the main gate and eat while a blue monkey watches from the other side of the bench and baboons scurry all around. Crazy! Then a dozen or so trekkers and an army of guides and porters, led by our armed park ranger, Fredrich, head off for the Mariakamba Hut, our camp for night one.

Day two is a difficult four hour slog up the steep, but beautiful forested slopes to our second camp, Saddle Hut, nestled between the summits of Mt Meru and Little Meru. After lunch and a couple hours of rest, we hike up to Little Meru before sunset for some awesome views of the Meru summit and Mt Kilimanjaro off in the distance. 

Day three we’re woken up at 1:00am to begin the final ascent. To say hiking up the steep ridge line in the dark and cold middle of the night is challenging would be a gross understatement, but seeing the sun rise up from behind Kilimanjaro makes it all worth it. Mt Meru was once an active volcano. One side, however, was collapsed in what must have been an earth shaking explosion leaving the unbelievable view you get today from the summit. That very impressive ash cone surrounded by a massive crescent shaped ridge. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Well, as many hikers and climbers often say, the summit is only the halfway point, so back down to Saddle Hut for some well earned lunch and a short rest we go. Then back down to Mariakamba Hut again for our last night. Let’s just say I slept ridiculously well. 

The final day we descend back down to the main gate to finish our trek. But wait! First, we MUST get ambushed by a herd of giraffe. Ho-ly-crap!

See all my pics from Mt Meru here.

Tarangire National Park

Next, my three day safari begins with a day in Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is most well known for its massive amount of African Hefalumps and it didn’t disappoint. Hefalumps were pretty much around every turn along with large numbers of antelope, zebra, wildebeests, and occasional giraffes and ostriches. Because it’s the dry season here, the riverbed is mostly sand, but that didn’t stop the hefalumps from digging down deep to slurp up the water hiding below.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro is a really famous safari area. It’s an ancient volcanic caldera filled with animals year round. Basically, it’s a big bowl of animal crackers. The usual zebras, wildebeests, and antelope were present as well as tons of Thomsons gazelles and some great buffalo sightings. We saw two prides of lions. One was too far off for decent pictures, but the second was very close, just on the other side of a small stream from us.

Other highlights were the jackals, the hippos, the multiple close encounters with hyenas, and even a rare rhino sighting, albeit at a tremendous distance! I’m loving the new spotting scope I brought with me, though. 

Empakaai Crater

After Ngorongoro, we dropped off the three other tourists I had spent the last two days with and me and my guide, Mussa, headed north to a campground near the village of Nainokanoka for a cold night in a tent. Early the next morning we grabbed a very nice AK-47 wielding ranger and drove the long, bumpy and dusty road to the Empakaai crater. The terrain along the way was breathtaking! Endless pastures dotted with Masai settlements, Masai shepherds with their herds of cattle and goats grazing amongst hundreds (probably thousands) of zebras. 

Once at the crater rim we hike down the extinct volcano to the salt water lake populated by lots and lots of flamingos below. Along the way the ranger spots some leopard tracks heading up from the beach from the night before. Awesome! Mussa says he heard hyenas cackling last night near camp too, but I must have already been asleep because I didn’t hear a thing.

See all my pics from the northern circuit here. That’s it for this post, but I’m just getting started in beautiful Tanzania so stay tuned…