Arriving in Tanzania

So we were put on a plane to Nairobi and told that we can’t take any water on board in Jackson’s bottles – Brilliant – Great start!!

Anyhow the flight was remarkably uneventful and somewhat boring. Jackson at least got to sleep across 3 chairs at the back of the plane with me (Matthew –I am the idiot writing this email) cramped on the floor making sure he didn’t fall off. He was a star, not a whimper out of him and he really liked the landing part of the flight.

After 4 hours, we got off at Nairobi (without the pram). Not a bad airport if you enjoy walking in the longest straight line in the world. I got to sit down next to some people with what I would call a rather sweet/sour, somewhat bushy, somewhat I have never had a bath in my whole life kind of aroma around them. Tiff carried Jackson 698m back down the terminal to find a baby changing facility, which actually ended being up a flight 36 steps to another floor.

Boarding for Kilimanjaro started early, to our relief, only to find that we were just moved a few feet into a room, with no toilet or anything in fact where we could sit for an hour and twiddle our thumbs – Ah Yes Africa!!!!

The flight to Kilimanjaro was extremely cramped. Think of a bus through Mexico, like you see in the movies……..

Landing at Kilimanjaro was a real joy. First off the plane - it took us 45 minutes carrying Jackson (still no pram) and filling out 9 forms paying $150, having our photos taken and then last to go through customs and been asked what is in my bag – oh the joys of Africa Travel – still we do it!!

We then drove an hour to the hotel in Arusha, which was very comfortable, bar the mosquitos. We had a delicious curry while we unpacked our entire luggage into 2 small bags for our 5 day trip to 3 lodges starting the next day, which has actually ended up being a 4 week trip – still haven’t got back to Arusha yet.

We took a 3 hour drive to Lake Manyara Game Reserve, where we were met by the George from Lake Manyara Tree Lodge. The drive up against the Rift Valley was absolutely beautiful. Driving past the underground waterfalls in the forest with the biggest (African) trees I have ever seen. We saw new species – Blue Monkeys and Olive Baboons, plus a few great birds. After a 4 hour drive and a delicious picnic lunch next to the salt lake we arrived at Tree Lodge.

What an amazing place. We stayed in gorgeous tree house with the usual king-size bed, even Jackson had his own bed, luckily we took his mattress along. The outside shower was my favourite, as were the sounds of the birds in the forest.

The food was absolutely amazing, with special tandoori ovens in the boma to make naan breads for every meal, home made ice cream and curries, special after dinner home made treats – we were in awe and the service was out of this world and according to Tiff so were the iced vodka tonics

We alternated drives, so one of us could look after J. Between us we saw great game – Defasser waterbuck, different to the ones down south, loads of mud bath hippos, big ellies, a million dagga boys, heaps of zebra and white bearded wildebeest – eastern race, Kirk’s dik-dik plus some other cool stuff I can’t remember now.

After 2 special nights at Manyara, we drove another 5 hours to Manyara airport and got a road transfer to Ngorongoro Crater Lodge which was another 1 hour. Bear in mind Jackson did not have his car seat so had to hold him all the hours we were driving. He really is a good traveler though and didn’t give us too many headaches over the 94hrs of road traveling.

We stopped at a viewpoint overlooking the Crater and I was amazed. It is kinda surreal, just a bowl of sunken mountain teaming with wildlife. Had it still been a mountain it would’ve been quite large, but the 21km 1 18km crater floor seems quite small, especially with a big salt pan right in the middle of it.

Crater Lodge is out of this world – no seriously – it is absolutely bizarre. It looks like a few ramshackle igloo mud huts from the outside, but on the inside you have banana leaf roofs, chandeliers, leather wingbacks in front of the fire accompanied by a sherry tray with crystal glasses, wall to ceiling glass doors with a wooden balcony overlooking the crater. The main guest areas are busy with antiques, mirrors, chandeliers and banana leaf roofs. The food was amazing as was the service, but it definitely isn’t our style – far too upper-crust and stuffy for us.

On the crater floor, which takes one hour to get down into, we saw Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, tons of zebra, white bearded wildebeest (western race), 2 black rhinos (grazing??) a cheetah, a few lions, hippos, serious flamingos, new birds, a big tusker, hyenas, golden jackal and some other stuff I can’t remember.

After 2 nights at the crater we drove back to Manyara airport and then had a 4 stop ‘short haul’ flight to Grumeti. Jackson on our laps again off we flew, again he loved the landings and spotting the animals as we got closer to the ground.

1 night at Grumeti was cool, basically had a staff drive, staff dinner and spent a night in a funky tent next to the hippo pool. Next morning early early, we drove 6 hours through the Serengeti to Klein’s Camp via Seronera airport. Jackson loved the drive, but had to be held the hold way – tiring for mom and dad again. The drive was very cool though, saw loads of wildeez, zebras – no migration happenings though – lions, a million dagga boys, gazelles, topi, Coke’s hartebeest, 20 million giraffe etc….

How can I describe our arrival at Klein's – overwhelming – is a word that comes to mind. All the staff and I mean all the staff were there to greet us with waving hands. We came up the hill and the whole parking entrance was filled with people. We then had to go and shake everyone’s hands. I was given a carved stick by an old Maasai and told that it would be my stick to chase cows off the concession.

We met everyone and it felt like we had been smiling at our wedding. Our jaws were sore. I think Jackson was immediately hailed as a hero and the new blue-eyed boy (literally).

We settled into a lunch with the regional director and then went for a sundowner up the kuka hills with the managers from Klein's and Crater. What a view overlooking the Serengeti and Klein's concession.

We were scheduled to stay in a guest room for 2 weeks and the next day we settled into the handover and were busy busy busy, hence no communication from us for so long.

The handover was great, super hectic and seriously eye-opening. At the end of it all we had a good laugh and learned a lot.

Besides all the admin, the last 2 weeks basically consisted of – herding cows (thousands of them), a couple of meetings with the Munyakiti (chief/chairman) and the rest of the village counsel at the local village under a tree at our place, playing soccer and getting so badly injured I couldn’t walk for 2 weeks, in fact am still battling 3 weeks later, a few game drives, a few sundowners, and a few more meetings.

We have also seen the whole 10000ha concession looked over the boundary to the Kenyan border and Maasai Mara. I have also burned about 6 cattle bomas and as of yesterday we should have a cattle free concession, thanks to some work by Andrew, myself and the Munyakiti.

Tiff and I will get a chance to get out a lot over here and plan on taking Jackson for a game drive at least once a week. Speaking of which, he is so cute, pointing at everything and walking between tables and couches and bed and tables, and he pulls the most amazing faces and is just loving life.

The game here is amazing. There are 2 resident prides of lion (1x23 & 1x7) with a huge black maned lion, which we still need to see, a resident leopard with 3 cubs, plus a few others, a number of cheetah, eland, defasser waterbuck, impala, coke’s hartebeest, topi, warthogs, serval (seen one already), a million daggaboys, 2 main herds of buff, ellies, thompsons and grants gazelle, reedbuck, mountain rhebok, giraffe (Maasai race), huge tortoises, scrub hares, unstriped mouse (as opposed to the striped one) and some other stuff I can’t remember.

Guests so far have included all types, incl. an Arab from Dubai who has 7 wives and loved Tiff but told her she was fat. He also told a honeymoon couple they were fat and would only get fatter each year. He then abused a Swedish guest and said that he went to a rubbish school because he can’t even speak English, so the Swede shouted back at him saying he is nothing special and is where he is because his mother gave him money. Tiff then called the Askari’s (security) to escort everyone to bed…….aaaah the joys.

We have started upping our guest delights here at Klein’s and really getting stuck in with the staff and different departments. We have been on our own the last week and felt very much in the deep end, but things are settling down, now that we have 2 main staff members back and will be getting an accountant in Feb to help with a lot of the admin, freeing up our time for the lodge, the guests and the land.

Our house is on top of a beaut hill – there is a lioness close by with cubs, so not ideal, but we will be careful. The house is very run down, it leaks, wind blows right through it and the floors are slate, so it is very cold and we have a donkey boiler for a geyser. But we have a 3 plate gas cooker and a small fridge so can cook our dinner if not hosting. I am getting the deck re-done, cos it is basically ply wood and Jackson needs a place to play outside where he will be safe and I need a place to braai and Tiff needs a place to read.

Last night was our staff xmas party. Tiff was hosting dinner and I was baby sitting J, but had to make an appearance. In fact I had to ‘open’ the party with a speech and then be the first served at dinner (I made a school boy error by eating at home first). I was lucky enough to be dished up goat and rice. I think the goat had wondered into Angola and been killed by a landmine and then sun cooked in a dry pan for 3 days on the back of the donkey that brought it into this country.

We also had chips (delicious), salad and chicken – served out of a black bin bag – yes you read it correctly! There isn’t a knife in this world sharp enough to cut through the skin of the chickens they cook here. I asked if I could take a couple more home, cos I was thinking of building a bigger house and felt they would help propping up the roof.

I left after a beer to go home and Tiff arrived after dinner and did some jiggy with the staff - apparently their dance style is a lot like sex with clothes on.

To cut a long story short – our staff are great, the area is great and it will be fun refurbing the camp to it's rightful standard……..and we will be happy here, as long as we don’t get too involved in the land politics.

Lotsa love
The 3 Steyns