APRIL 21, 2008 (Safari and Zanzibar)

Not to rub it in, but I just finished having a one hour full body massage for $8 and then swam in the Indian Ocean as I watched the most amazing sunset... We are in Zanzibar right now and it's absolute heaven. After a mentally trying (although absolutely incredible) couple of weeks, we are happy to be in a place where we can just kick up our feet and relax. I guess I last left off when we were leaving Rwanda. What an interesting experience that was! Although I was super stoked to be saving a few days by flying into Mount Kilimanjaro, I was more than slightly apprehensive about flying on yet another African airline. I was appeased when we purchased our Rwandair tickets in a very pristine looking office and even more impressed when the airport seemed very modern. I was told that we were flying on a 737, so I was also comforted by the fact that the plane was not too small........or so I thought.....I popped my standard lorazepam pill prior to our boarding call and as we walked out to the runway, I reached for the pill bottle to pop a few more when I realized that our plane was no more than a very small prop plane!! This is a nervous flier's worst nightmare! The plane only had about 20 seats and was probably made about 25 years ago! All I can say is that it took a lot of drugs and a lot of mental meditation for me to make it through that flight. When we arrived in the Mt Kilimanjaro region, Maggie and I went for coffee and took interviews for people who would like to offer us safaris. Yes, we took interviews. We literally sat in the coffee shop and one by one, people came in, gave us their sales pitch, we took notes, we thanked them, and then we excused them and welcomed the next company in. After a few hours, we came up with an amazing deal for a 3 day safari in the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, plus two nights of free accomodation in Arusha thrown in. We set out for the Serengeti with 3 other travellers...a girl from the UK and a couple who was from Canada/Norway. Everyone was really cool, which is very important when you are confined to a small landrover together for 72 hours! The excitement began the first day, as we entered into the Serengeti. No words can describe it. It is hands down the most incredible game drive a person could ever come across. We drove for hours through incredible savannah, with blue skies, lush vegetation and roaming animals as far as the eye can see. We were particularly lucky at this time of year to have caught the very famous wildebeast and zebra migration in action. Many people told us that we might only be lucky enough to catch the tail end, but we managed to see the million or so animals migrating from beginning to end. What a sight! There were wildebeast and zebras lined up for miles and miles...it was straight out of the Lion King! We also saw an abundance of giraffe, hippos, lions, hyenas and various grazing animals. By 6pm we were not permitted to drive anymore and so we stopped to set up our tents at a campsite for the night. We were confined to our tents as of 10pm due to the potential for predators invading our campsite. We thought our guides were kidding when they told us this until we had an encounter with a lion in the wee hours of the morning. The lion was heard breathing loudly and brushing up against the tents! Hyenas raided our garbage not long thereafter! Unfortunately, Maggie was quite ill on that first night, so we ran into a real problem trying to scream and wake up our guide because we were not permitted to leave our tents on our own due to the potential for being attacked by a lion! On the second night, we stayed at the rim of the crater and thought we would have less predator issues to worry about. We learned otherwise however when Maggie and I attempted a trip to the bathroom late at night, only to find ourselves staring face to face with a buffalo only a couple of metres away...note: buffalo are one of the most aggressive animal species in Africa! We had to lock ourselves in the bathroom and make an SOS phone call to our guide to come and scare the buffalo away. Later that night we were confined to our tents yet again as an entire herd of buffalo decided to raid our campsite! Day three was spent in the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater was once a volcano that collapsed and is now an incredibly diverse ecosystem that is home to a lot of wildlife and a lot of tourists! We spent the morning driving around the crater, observing elephants, flamingos, black rhinos, hippos, lions, hyenas, etc. etc. We even got to see lions shagging and an elephant's 5th leg!! Haha. After a fantastic time on safari, Maggie and I set off on yet another crazy bus trip and a boat trip to get ourselves to the island of Zanzibar as quickly as possible! The bus trip wasn't too bad, but the boat trip was horrid since we found ourselves herded below deck with a hundred other travellers, most of whom spent the entire 2 hour trip chucking into plastic bags. Thankfully, Maggie and I were not sick. We spent our first night in Zanzibar in the port city of Stone Town. What an incredible vibe this place has! It's literally the Middle East mixed with Africa. The narrow winding alleyways entice one to just get lost for a few hours, taking in the beautiful old architecture and inhaling the scents of the spice markets. We made friends with a local young man named Omar who showed us around the city and took us to visit his home in a local village. Of course, it was beach and not city that we came to Zanzibar to see and so we were anxious to get on a bus and head to the north end of the island where we currently find ourselves faced with expanses of white sand beaches, booze and good company. We plan to unwind here over the next few days, absorbing our experiences from the last few weeks, before we head back to Cape Town on Friday. Life ain't bad!! Haha.