Safari

No visit to Africa would be complete without a safari trip. In Swahili, 'safari' means 'long journey'. Now it probably means a trip to a park (which is easily bigger than Singapore) to view and take photographs of animals in their natural habitat. 

During my 6 weeks stay in Africa, I went to several reserves and parks in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. The most fruitful of all was perhaps the one with African Trails (www.africantrails.com) in Tanzania. It was a 6-day safari trip through Lake Manyanara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park.

R: Stella, the Managing Director of African Trails, sent me to the hotel
L: Hellen, who was on leave, also came to say hi

Unlike Kilimanjaro trekking, most safari companies do not seem to pair up strangers unless they are specifically requested to (as evidenced by the many vehicles with lone passengers or couples). In my case, with African Trails, I was alone with a guide/driver, Martin and had a 4x4 (which is way better than a van or a truck) to my own disposal.

The advantage to this arrangement would be the ease to control timing and pace for the game drive. There is also no need to jostle for prime spots in the vehicle if there are not many of you. The disadvantages include less pairs of eyes to help spot animals (in my case, Martin had a radio to exchange tips with other guides in the park and he would stop along the way to do the same with other guides we meet) and loneliness (fortunately there were a lot of things and animals to keep us occupied and Martin would also provide a lot of useful information about places, plants and animals). 

This is a sneak preview to some of the animals I saw in Tanzania while I sort out the rest of the photographs (shot with an old point-and-shoot camera):