Our Safari with Ajabu Adventures begins

Mount Kilimanjaro from Moshi

We couldn't believe it!!

 Mount Kilimanjaro was out from under her cloud cover on our very last day in Moshi. We hadn't planned on eating breakfast, but we had enough time and several places that we had checked out were not open yet, so we were on the top floor of the Kindoroko hotel and had the most perfect view of the mountain. It only lasted for about 20-30 minutes so we couldn't believe our luck.
After a rushed breakfast we hurried back to the hotel to wait for our driver from Ajabu Adventures. Erick arrived to say some final goodbyes just as our driver arrived. The next part of our adventure was beginning.

Issa

Our driver, Issa, told us our first stop would be the Ajabu office in Arusha. Driving through Arusha we were impressed with how much bigger the city is compared with Moshi and that it somehow looked less impoverished than Moshi.

Ajabu Adventures is run out of the owner's home. It is in a huge, well protected compound with a large security wall (and gate) surrounding it.

Visiting the Ajabu Adventures office

The grounds and home inside were beautiful and well maintained. Judith and her husband Gert-Jan, greeted us and invited us in for coffee. Judith went over some of the typical safari grounds rules and wanted to know why we chose Ajabu. Apparently we are their first Canadian booking and they were curious how we found them.

After getting to know each other and the rules, we were off to Tarangire National Park for our first game drive.

As we were driving, we were pleasantly surprised at the huge amount of Massai that we saw along the route. They all wear traditional colours and those crazy sandals. We saw many bomas  that were clearly in use and designed exactly as we had seen them during our visit on the weekend. The Massai dance and info session may have been staged for tourists, however everything explained to us, including their living conditions seems to be true.

Issa was amazing—he is full of knowledge about the towns, the tribes, the animals and birds. He stops or slows down the car at any point just to make sure you see everything and get a great shot.

A Maasai Market Place

At one point he decided to turn off the road to drive into a Massai cattle auction market. It was full of hundreds of massai (very impressive). I think a few were pissed to see a tourist vehicle in their midst but we stayed in the car and just drove around.

We noted that there was a cell phone kiosk (probably Zain or Vodocom) and several Massia were gathered around the kiosk, probably buying phones. We have seen many massai with cell phones, bikes, even a few with motor bikes. Its very odd to see, as it definitely is not the traditional picture that many of us have of the Massai.

We finally reached the Tarangine National park, paid our entry fee and drove in.


A dik dik

 The very first animal that we spotted close up was a pair of "dik diks". Figures that would be the first animal we saw!

Some of the animals that we saw today...

Close up:  cheetahs, zebras, wart hogs, wildebeest

From far away: water bucks, elephants, giraffes


Zebras






When it was time to head off to our hotel, Issa drove us out of the park and then another 30 minutes across what seemed a barren wastelands on a tiny, dirt track.  We arrived at this amazing hotel, only to find out that it was the wrong hotel. Issa looked very worried, however we figured "oh, well lets get moving to the correct hotel", thinking we had an half an hour to an hour drive ahead of us! Little did we know we would be on the road for about another 2-3 hours in the pitch dark, back through the Tarangire National park (which closes to tourists at 6:00 p.m. every night).  After a bit of discussions at the gate they let us back into the park. We were still thinking this was a fun adventure, until 20 minutes turned into an hour, turned into 90 minutes. It was pitch black and knowing that we couldn't get out of the vehicle because of all the wild animals was kinda freaky. We were wondering at every corner whether or not on the next turn we may hit an elephant.

Chetahs

There seemed to be a lot of birds sleeping on the dirt road at night, so we had to slow down a lot to prevent hitting them. At one corner, we startled two giraffes that were at the side of the road. A couple of times we drove past roads signs so Issa had to back up to see them.

We eventually did arrive at the lodge—Kikoti Tented Camp—and we were stunned by the luxury and beauty of the place. We arrived at around 8:30 p.m. so dinner was just winding down. We were all tired and hungry but relieved to have arrived in time for dinner. What really turned the night sour was the fact that this particular lodge did not allow the safari drivers to eat with the guests.

We had all been planning to eat together to get a bit more acquainted and to talk about plans for the upcoming days.The exhaustion, hunger, lavish setting (which was such a contrast to how we had been living) and finally the anger about such a stupid rule about Issa not being able to eat with us, made a bad ending to a beautiful day.