Lions and tigers and goats, oh my!

Ever since we found about the possibility of moving to Tanzania—and even before—I’ve imagined what it would be like to take my kids on a safari. I wanted them to see and appreciate first hand the animals they read about in books or see on TV or at the zoo. I wanted them to see how exciting it is to look off in the distance and see a giraffe grazing from a tree top or a lion pounce on a gazelle. The grasslands are so incredibly beautiful—wide open spaces with a million shades of brown. I’ve carried that memory since I was living in Kenya. Back then I used to walk every day to the training center where I was learning Swahili. I walked across a gigantic open field near the town of Naivasha right in the middle of the Great Rift Valley. Far in the distance I could see Lake Naivasha and occasionally a pink splotch—thousands of flamingos stopping to feed or rest. But what I really loved was walking past the zebras. Frequently in the field were small groups of zebra grazing on the grass. They were almost as common as squirrels and I never tired of watching them. I don't know what it is about zebras that I like; I don't have any sort of romantic notion about them being intelligent or nurturing--basically they're just fancy donkeys. I guess I just like them because they're so darn cool looking. And even after two years of living there, I still had the urge to shout “zebra!” every time we passed one on the road. So it was with a lot of anticipation and expectation that we planned for our first safari in Tanzania. We decided to go to Mikumi National Park. It’s the closest park to Dar es Salaam about 200 km away which means it can take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours depending on traffic. And all in all, aside from a few bumps in the road (literally and figuratively) it was a wonderful trip.

Most of the folks I know with kids here always comment on their children’s flexibility—how they can roll with the punches and are used to traveling. Long trips are par for the course in Africa. There isn’t a speedy way to come to Tanzania (just ask my mom about her 12 hour flight between New York and Dubai) and once you get here the infrastructure is so miserably non-existent and the traffic so unbelievably bad that a trip across town at rush hour practically warrants a Valium just for contemplating it at all. Traveling in Africa requires a huge does of patience (and the aforementioned Valium) and my kids sadly have neither. Quite honestly, I hate taking road trips with my kids. In the US I would gladly volunteer to drive just so I could get out of “chairing the entertainment committee” (ie—playing referee, fetching cereal bars, finding ways to pass the time, etc). So the thought of piling three kids, my mom and my husband in a car for three days of non-stop driving without the benefit of McDonalds, DVDs, or hell even bathrooms was a bit intimidating. I’m not going to lie…there were a few moments, particularly at the end, where I would have rathered walk home by myself, barefoot over broken glass than listen to another second of whining but it was all worth it. Taking my kids on safari was so cool. I loved it all—even the miserable parts.

Most of the trip to Mikumi was uneventful. The scenery was pretty—rolling hills, coconut trees, and plenty of goats. The road was good (by African standards) though it was jam packed with endless lorries trucking goods from Dar’s deep water port to the rest of Tanzania and on to Zambia and the Congo. This is a bit problematic since the “highway” isn’t much bigger that your average two lane country road and people here either drive extremely fast and terrible or extremely slow and terrible. Getting stuck behind a string of lorries is maddening. There’s a whole complicated system that drivers have for communicating with each other which I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand. Basically the vehicle in front will put on their right turn signal to indicate that you can pass and their left signal if you cannot. You need someone in front of you to signal because the road is so narrow that you can’t check yourself without playing chicken.

So much of our trip to Mikumi was spent dodging careening 18 wheelers, goats, bicycles, mothers with babies and the occasional motorcycle and warding off the never ending “are we there yets”. It was only after we had been traveling for about 4 hours that the scenery changed and shortly after that we passed the entrance to the park. Mikumi is Tanzania’s third largest park and the Tanzania-Zambia highway runs right through the middle of it. There are no fences--just a vast open space. But as soon as you cross into the park everything changes because there are no people or villages or goats or anything except endless scrub brush known as miombo. The miombo is really quite beautiful and while it isn’t exactly like the flat-topped acacia trees on the National Geographic channel, it’s pretty darn similar. And Amy if you’re reading this (she’s an ecologist who studied in Tanzania for 2 years), please be nice and tell everyone that my description is accurate—even if it’s not.

So while all the adults in the car were oohing and aahhing over the scenery, the kids were pretty unimpressed. But then we saw a gazelle. We slowed to a complete stop on the highway and took about 15 pictures of a barely visible buck. The kids shouted and were pointing. Then we saw more. And more. We passed some closer to the road. Then we saw a baboon sitting on the road.
A few minutes later I finally saw a zebra. It had been 11 years since I last saw one in the wild and better yet I got to share that experience with my children. They’ll never know that it was such a special moment for me but that’s par for the course in parenting.

Unlike at Serengeti Park and Ngorogoro Crater, Tanzania’s most famous safari destinations, there are only a few lodges and camping sites at Mikumi. We decided to stay at Vuma Hills, a tented camp located inside the park. We were given two really nice permanent tents—complete with comfortable beds, porches with beautiful views, and hot showers.
We were definitely not roughing it. The kids were thrilled to have their very own tent (though Bob ended up staying with them at night). The tented camp had a tiny pool which was ice cold (it is winter, after all) but that didn’t stop the kids from jumping in.

The following day was our main day of game drives. We booked a guide at the park entrance and set off. Our goal was to see lions however we knew it would be unlikely as they are not common in Mikumi and it was also the “burning season”. This is the time of year when small fires are set (I think by the park rangers) as a way of making new grass. I must admit is was a bit unsettling at first to be driving past numerous brush fires which came right to the edge of the road, but no one was concerned whatsoever. The only problem was they tended to drive away the already reclusive lions. We did not have to drive long before we started seeing wildlife. There were tons of birds which thrilled Benny to no end. We saw giant vultures, hornbills, tiny beeeaters, beautiful kingfishers, lilac breasted rollers and lots of guinea fowl. We saw large herds of impala, wildebeest, and a few buffalo. And many, many giraffe and zebra. Everyone had their personal favorite. My mom loved the elephants. One time we saw one that was literally standing on the edge of the road. We needed to continue down the road and this thing wasn’t moving. So Bob decided to just drive past. We paused when we were very close (maybe 5 feet away). I thought our poor guide was going to have a heart attack. She was shouting at Bob to go fast because elephants can (and do) charge people—especially if they have young. So maybe it wasn’t the brightest thing to do but it was still way cool.

Later that day we stopped at a small pond full of hippos. Ironically this is the one place in the park where you are allowed to stop and get out of your car. It’s ironic because hippos are far more dangerous and aggressive than all other African wildlife. So we figured what the hell…we’d already braved the elephant, may as well check out the hippos too. Poor Josh was terrified and stayed in the car the whole time (maybe he shouldn’t read so much) but the rest of us had a lovely time looking at the hippos.
(Believe it or not those "dots" in the middle of the pond are hippos--about 4 or 5 adults. You never want to see a hippo on land). We also saw a crocodile and a gigantic monitor lizard. In the end, we saw and did everything we had hoped to do…except see the lions. The guide told us no one had seen any in a week. So we’re thinking we’ll need to venture up to Serengeti so that we can get our fill of lions.