...and in English, it means an African adventure watching native animals. This week, we got both!
The start of our second week in Africa took us to Arusha, where some of Africa's most well known adventures begin (i.e. Kilamanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater). The ride into Arusha was amazing with the imposing figure of Mt Meru constantly on our horizon.
Our first day in Arusha we spent visiting another of the charities that Egmont Trust supports, Ace Africa. We will update you with a special blog on this soon. Given Arusha's reputation as the departure point for many safaris, we decided once we arrived that we should see if we could work something into our plans. We messaged Ben Morison from Far & Wild (www.farandwild.travel). Ben has been a massive source of knowledge on all things Africa has supported and assisted us through the various planning stages of this adventure. Ben also happens to be a massive Egmont suppporter himself, and so it’s been the kind of partnership that dreams are made of! We asked Ben about Tarangire National Park, as it's entry fell right on our planned route, and he was immediately keen for us to check it out. Ben spoke to Diamond at his ground agent tour company Kearsley’s Safari (www.kearsleys.com) and before we knew it, the plans were in place for two nights in Tarangire. Diamond fully lived up to his name: we really needed unique and tailor made as it was an unusual ask for a tour: two smelly, hungry cyclists, an unknown arrival time (given our peddling speeds are heavily terrain dependent) and two heavy bikes to carry along for the ride. Despite the very particular requirements, everything went flawlessly and exceeded any expectation we could possibly have held. This is no doubt down to the 70 years of wisdom behind this family run company with a total focus upon providing the ultimate guest experience. The next day we rode the 100km down to Tarangire National Park in no time, no doubt propelled by the excitement of a safari adventure. It ended up being more than we could have ever dreamed. From the second we met Sebastian our guide (on the road from Arusha) we knew we were in for a real treat. We would come to learn that Sebastian is knowledgeable, funny, kind and has an infectious and over-flowing love for his country and the animals that call it home.
Within minutes of piling the Surlys into the safari vehicle and trundling into the park came our first encounter - elephants! So close you could almost touch them, just going about their business having lunch. Talking of...our rumbling tummies did not go unnoticed and we were quickly treated to an all you can eat buffet (too much for a hungry cyclist to fathom) with the most spectacular views over the whole park. Like gleeful children on Christmas morning, we could not believe our luck.
Things just kept getting better when we arrived at the beautiful Sopa Lodge. Two people have never felt more pampered by a warm shower that isn’t hanging over the toilet. We had propelled from cheap and (not always) cheerful to luxurious in the space of a heartbeat. The staff at Sopa were second to none - friendly, engaging and ever attentive. We felt like royalty as we sipped our beers and laughed at the ridiculousness of the past few hours. The full day on safari was nothing short of magic. We are pleased to have the photos to remind us that it did in fact happen. The most amazing sightings happened as a result of Sebastian’s intuition - a slight movement in the grass told Sebastian that lions were around. The lion seemed to be pretty far away but Sebastian’s patience paid off. He manoeuvred the vehicle and told us to wait. Before we knew it a huge lioness popped out of the long grass and prowled behind our car. Then another followed directly behind her. Then another! And yet another! Four of them strode confidently past us as we were holding our breath. As they climbed a tree it became more apparent that the last two were much younger and watching them clamber ungracefully up and down the tree was a treat.
There were too many animal encounters to record, but with each and every one, from the smallest bird to the biggest elephant, we gained from Sebastian an insight and understanding into the very character of the animal. Leaving the next day was a painful experience (not just as a result of the little lesson Sebastian taught us about our potential choice of terrain for the coming days in Tanzania...). We had fallen in love with the animals, the people and the true African experience. The only thing that got us through was the knowledge that we would most definitely be back in Tarangire on another adventure. Life in the saddle hit us pretty hard after that. Heavy rain and some decent hills, with the second 100km day being the heaviest climbing yet (elevation gains of over 1,800km). Luckily for us though we have perfect new roads to ride on - we know of others who rode the same route only a couple of years ago on dirt.
Next up we hit the capital Dodoma before getting into the Southern Highlands .
