A green day in safari land
My holidays normally consist partly of a safari and it never gets boring. I have been to Enduimet times, but not during rainy season. Now, January normally isn’t rainy season, but El Niño changes all things, also in Tanzania. While normally Enduimet is dry, hot and dusty, on Sunday, we had a totally different experience. It was green, cool and even so wet that road turned into little streams.
We left Moshi early morning to have ample time for a great game-drive with Caracal Tours & Safaris. The drive to Enduimet is about 1.5 hours. While driving there, during ascend on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, we entered into some very foggy areas. I have never seen this on this normally hot side of Mount Kilimanjaro. When reaching the gate of the area, we saw the plains below in the sun, so we were not worried about any troubles.
We drove slowly into the area and came accross zebra and giraffes. Also, we met with the beautiful Generuks, or giraffe antelopes. They look a bit like impala with long necks, but their unique feature is that they can stand on their hind legs to reach the highest parts of the bushes for some tasty leaves. While driving more down, we encountered with other antelopes, like the grant gazelle and thomson gazelle. We also met with some wildebeest on the way. Giraffes were seen at many places and there were quite a few young ones that look funny with their gedrongen necks.
While driving, baba Mia suddenly said: “Who sees the elephant?” The kids got excited and found the elephant, that later turned out to be six elephants. Six beautiful bacholor bulls, young and ole combined. As they were quietly grazing and browsing, we felt comfortable enough to leave the car and feel one with these friendly giants. I can’t explain you what an amazing experience it is to be among these beautiful animals. We stayed there for a while and continued to ‘our’ tree for a bush picnic lunch. While wind was blowing through our hair, giraffes were down the field, we enjoyed sandwiches with avocado, chees and, yes, hagelslag.
After the lunch, we drove the same way back, as we were worried that the ongoing way would be too swampy to cross. When driving back, we found the same six bull elephants enjoying a bath in a huge muddy puddle. We loved seeing them enjoying the mud and water that helps them to cool down and get rid of annoying bugs. We watched them for about half an hour and wished even to stay longer, but the lodge was waiting us. While driving further down, we found the road completely under water. Maasai were wading through the water, so baba Mia felt safe enough to drive through it. For about 1km, we drove through the water which was more than knee-deep and then we continued to the lodge.
Enduimet keeps amazing me. it’s pure, it’s real and it’s magical.
