A safari in Africa usually includes an attempt to spot the “Big Five”. This includes seeing an African lion, an African elephant, a rhinoceros, a leopard and … a Cape buffalo. ‘Wait!’ I hear you cry. ‘A buffalo? Not a cheetah or a hippo? Or even a giraffe?’Nope. The fifth animal that you must see on safari in Africa is definitely the Cape buffalo. I did not make this up. Why a buffalo?The term ‘Big Five’ was actually coined by game-hunters and…
Right next door to the hotel where we stayed in Stone Town – Emerson on Hurumzi – is a small museum dedicated to the Princess Salme. The Princess was one of 36 children of the Omani Sultan, which at the time also meant ruling over Zanzibar. In fact, her father liked Zanzibar so much that under his rule, the capital of Oman was moved from Muscat to the island. Her mother was a ‘slave’ wife or concubine. Luckily for Salme,…
Stone Town on the whole was a little bit of a disappointment. Lonely Planet describes it as ‘a magical jumble of cobbled alleyways … (which) make it easy to spend days wandering round and getting lost’.In reality, it felt more than a little tired, with the once fine buildings in desperate need of some TLC and the ‘jumble of cobbled alleyways’ filled with small shops selling the same tourist fare for over-inflated prices.Down along the seafront, pushy salesmen tried to…
‘Do you know what my problem is?’ I asked James as we walked through the streets of Stone Town, Zanzibar. ‘You have an unhealthy obsession with doors’, he retorted. Now, I can’t actually remember what I was referring to, when I asked the question, but James’ response was pretty spot on. While in Cartagena, Colombia, I kept taking photos of door knockers. Meanwhile, I spent a disproportionate amount of time in Stone Town, taking photos of doors. You have…
A visit to the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania wouldn’t be complete without visiting the hippo pool. This is one of the only areas in the Crater, where you can get out of your vehicle. If there for a picnic breakfast, you can eat outside, basking in the early morning sun. However, later in the day, the kites are known to be circling and so you’ll have to stay inside to eat. You can still get out for a wander though,…
Our safari in Tanzania was with Kudu Safaris. We had four days with them (although the fourth day was really only driving back from the Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha) and visited Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We were in a 4×4 Landcruiser with 6 seats in the back. Every seat is next to a window, so nobody is stuck in the middle. Not that this mattered, as we were the only ones booked…
I guess they weren’t at home then? At best this sign symbolises false hope. At worst its an outright lie. I can’t remember where I first read that a Tanzanian safari could include seeing the climbing lions, but it got inside my head. And reading our itinerary before we left, I saw again that one of the national parks we were visiting was famous for its climbing lions. So I told everyone that that was what I was going to…
Bigfoot or a black African Rhino While this photo looks like some forged, far off, out of focus picture that people bring out to show the existence of Bigfoot, I can absolutely assure you that this a genuine photo of a Black African Rhino. I promise. Even if James did accuse it of being a hippo when he first looked at it through the binoculars, our guide was quick to correct him: ‘no no that is a rhino, my friend’….