Arusha

Africa is an enormous continent with a very sub-standard infrastructure, so traveling overland means a lot of long hours spent on shaky roads. At the same time though, traveling overland is a great way to see the classic African landscape and to spot a few cool things along the way.

After a massive breakfast at the Hotel Boulevard I piled into Gap Adventures' giant jeep-bus hybrid safari vehicle with the 21 others on the tour and headed for Tanzania. Before today all I had seen of Africa was the mountainous landscape of Northern Ethiopia and the cities of Addis Ababa and Nairobi. I was excited to finally head South towards the Serengeti and watch the city disappear behind me to leave the dry East African plains in it's place. Whenever I've pictured Africa I've always thought of tall yellow grasses and stubby trees with wide green canopies. After spending the day driving through exactly what I've always imagined I now feel like my African experience is much more legitimate. Now all I need is to spot a herd of elephants and giraffes, maybe a few rhinos and a cheetah, some wildebeests, and a leopard; then I'd really be in business. A lot of that should come tomorrow when I go wildlife spotting in the Serengeti.

After crossing into Tanzania we stopped on the side of the road for a short lunch. Elbie, our tour guide for the next 20 days, pulled out a fold-out table and some giant boxes of food and we all helped fix some sandwiches and a salad. A few Masaii tribal men wandered out of the distance and stood silently by our truck watching us eat for about a half-hour. Now that I'm in Africa that experience seems so normal, but I know that once I'm back home I'll look back at everyday things like that and remember them as being really incredible. I stared right back at the Masaii. The brightly colored blankets that they were wrapped in, their small facial tattoos, their spears, and their giant ear piercings were just as fascinating to me as our truck and picnic table were to them.

Further down the road our driver, Henk, slowed the truck as we approached a wild ostrich. I've seen ostriches so many times before in zoos and I've even wandered freely with them in an enclosure in the Singapore Zoo, but pulling up to the giant bird trotting along in the wild just like deer do back home was something really amazing. Henk stopped the truck and the animal stared right back at us just like the Maasai did only an hour earlier. I can't imagine how a big truck full of white tourists could be a novelty to anyone, but if it is then I'm glad to be part of it.

In Arusha we stopped at a local grocery store to load up on bottled water and treats, then headed to a “Cultural Heritage Center”. It's funny to me how businesses that appeal to tourists always try to disguise themselves as something else to lure people in. The Cultural Heritage Center was really a giant, expensive gift shop. A lot of the things were fun to look at and I guess it was worth the thirty minutes that we spent there. They had hundreds of giant ebony statues of tall giraffes, Maasai tribal women, and girthy elephants. The shop was also a wholesale dealer of Tanzanite stones, a few of which were valued at over one million dollars. Our group gathered around as the manager of the place opened a wooden box containing one such stone that was bought as an investment by the American outdoor sporting goods wholesaler Cabella's. The million-dollar gem was, of course, massive, absolutely flawless, and perfectly dark purple - all characteristics that make Tanzanite exponentially more valuable. The only other place I've ever been so captivated by a rock was at the Tower of London where I saw the British Crown Jewels behind several layers of glass and a metal rail.

We arrived at camp at 6:00 and hauled our tents and bags out of the truck to set up for the night. Tomorrow I visit the Serengeti. I've been counting down the days for about a week now, and that says a lot considering what I've seen during that time. Spotting wild game in Africa has been a dream of mine for years. It's almost unbelievable to me that I'll realize the dream starting tomorrow morning.