Into Africa

 

Africa is a truly huge and varied continent. We all know that it is enormous, but we are often fooled by the traditional maps of the world into thinking that other continents are as big. In truth, Africa is as big as all of Europe PLUS all of India PLUS all of the United States. 
That is big.
It is Africa's size and varied climate that has led to it being the cradle of evolution on land, most notably human evolution. That and the effects of tectonic plate movement.
Tectonic plate movement has ripped Africa appart, leaving the incredible Rift Valley as supreme evidence. This valley runs the entire length of Africa and smack in the middle of it is Tanzania.
In itself huge (four times the area of France) Tanzania hosts huge numbers of wildlife, varied in the extreme.
We were to spend 10 days there, heading first to the crazily huge volcanic crater on the edge of the Rift Valley called the Ngorongoro Crater, through the plains of the Serengeti, passing the Mara River, then finally traveling the entire width of the country to the extremely remote Mahale National Park on the banks of Lake Tanganyika.
Phew. What a trip. Way too large and varied a trip for one blog.
So I'll try starting at the beginning...

Getting to deepest darkest Africa is somewhat easier than it was a hundred years ago. A couple of years of travel has been squished into less than one day. We flew from Toulouse, via Amsterdam, straight into the heart of the continent near Kilimanjaro.

Slightly worryingly, there was no one there to meet us. 

In many African airports this would fill me with fear. Here in a small airport in the middle of everywhere, it was just a minor inconvenience. The locals were amazing and helped us organise a taxi to our overnight stop. The company organising our trip have since fallen over themselves to try to compensate us, including expensive champagne and bumping up the accommodation during our stay.
All forgiven, although I must admit to a few paranoid thoughts as an unknown taxi driver took us to a remote destination in the pitch black, over a road that should not have acquired the title 'road' but would have been better called 'off-road'.
Were we heading to to our certain doom? Had the hotel been better organised than our reception?
Thoughts of...

'Relax' said the night man
'We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave!'

...ran through my head.

Instead, the accommodation sufficed...

 
However, there was only one bath... How we suffered...

We found ourselves in the Arusha Coffee Plantation Lodge

 

Thus refreshed after a night's sleep, we awoke to break fast and to meet our guide for the next few days, the incomparable Ian, a guide we had used on our previous trip to Tanzania.

Loading ourselves into his truck, we set off on our safari,

 

heading for the Ngorongoro Crater. 

Passing out of Arusha gave us chance to see the local colour

 

and the local transport system

 

As this was a few hours drive, we broke the trip with a stop at the Lake Manyara National Park to check out the local wildlife. 

Here's a link to the pictures I took there..

Tanzanian Safari - Day 1 (This link takes you to a photo album on the website Flickr. No membership required!)

Arriving late at the rim of the giant crater, we awaited the promised stunning views of the giant crater.

All will be described in the next exciting episode...

(Spoiler, the views were rubbish...)