chocolate temptation

and a final treat in Arusha...breakfast in the famous chocolate temptation....
and again as the guide book says...in Arusha you get everything you just need to know where to look....



best hot chocolate, best chocolate muffins and the like..yummy......we are in food paradise now....

my new favorite motto

how true....
so dear friends and family...be aware of this and nothing can go wrong in a relationship and interaction with me....however difficult the issue might be...

selfulfilling prophecies

and back in Arusha we had another proof of being careful what you wish from the universe....
when we drove into Arusha Harald said..I want to go to a place where I can choose my dinner from a menu!!!!! I dont care if it is African, Ethiopian, Italian, Indian but I want to have a menu to choose from.....

so we went to the Ngiri complex(where the cinema is) and sat in the garden....
and all of a sudden at least 8 waiters really sprang to us and put 8 different menus on our table.....
what a surprise and what an attack....but Harald had his choice and his menus...but not even in his wildest dreams would he have thought that he got 8 different menus at a time in just one restaurant......
typically Tansanian.....
you have different restaurants but only one place to sit and they bring you everything from the different restaurants....



so finally we had the CHOICE of food again..halleluja!
and the food was tasty as well......and tasted different than our safari food..but that was not too difficult....

safari highlights

as our safari is nearing its end we of course discussed the highlights.....
and we all agree the lions in the tree above us is still the number one highlight of the last 5 days...

craftsmen

and of course the village tour comprises of a shopping opportunity as well...
unfortunately the things were not really nicely made and far too expensive...
here the same rule as in China applies...never pay more than 30% of the indicated price...
but you definitely need to be in the mood of these tiring negotiations....

banana plantations

and on the other hand they do have 30 different bananas....
and get 30000 shillings for one branch..which must be around 12 kg.....you just calculate what someone in Europe pays for a kg of bananas and see the difference...and the big money does definitely not go to the farmers ....






and the red bananas are only grown for tourists .....
the locals eat the cooking bananas and fry the bananas or cook them in milk as a kind of potato purree or eat banana chips.....

and I do not have to tell you that the taste of real bananas taken directly off the tree is totally different than the taste of our supermarket bananas....

and others?

they just hang around in the village.....why are they not going to school???????

that really breaks my heart..if there is the possibility and then they are not sent? are not allowed? are not willing? to go to school.....



and of course we starting discussing how far they will be able to come in life and how lucky we are with our "starting base" Austria.....how far has an African child already been travelling until it reaches the point where every Austrian child starts from......
we did not find a solution of course to this dilemma...but at least we are now much more grateful for our education and upbringing than before....

visiting a school

and of course we have been to a primary school as well....
just look how many children they put into ONE classroom.....
but at least they can go to school......
but the learning techniques are the same as in Nepal and in India......
teacher pronounces something, children in a choir make a parrot and speak after them.....

lodging

do you want to live in something like that???????
so the junction lodge was really not that bad....

if they live from agriculture they live in Lehmhütten.....
and only if they work for a national park for the government in tourism they start to build a real house.
and as soil is free, you just "throw a stone" and make a fence around your land and it belongs to you....
so a lot of locals start building something to show that this is their land and then stop when they do not have any money any more...so you see a lot of half build houses or rather halbe baustellen or baracken....

village life

and everything is perspective....
I am not feeling well today....I am totally shocked......and do have a bad consciousness,....

watch that and you know maybe why......

we have visited a little village today .....
and I am totally shocked HOW they live......and I am sure this is a wealthy village as they do have this cultural programme and the help of the tourists so even worse....

they do live from growing rice (which then is only used as ceremonial food....for weddings and religious feasts.....can you immagine? you do all this work just for ceremonies and on "normal days" you eat maize puree???????)

so this is what most of them do for a living....and they are happy because at least they have fertile soil so that they can grow something at all...

and growing rice is really much work...you need to plant the seedlings BY HAND!!!!!! (of course done by women....)

sunrise in Lake Tarangire

so I do NOT tell you about all the negotiations and the stories we heard why we cannot change to another place and I do not tell you about the atmosphere between the guide and us and the rest of the party.....but I do show you how the next morning greeted us...



THAT takes away all possible pain ....physical and emotional doesnt it?????

the compensation

but while we were debating the options for our last night out for safari we have seen the most beautiful sunset ever while out in the wild.......
that of course - at least for me- made it all the more bearable....


isnt that beautiful????



ps from the first to the last picture .....5 min....so a very fast sunset...but still a very beautiful one seen at one of the worst places I have ever been to(maybe in India I have seen similar spots..but I tend to forget things like that very very easily....as a crap room for me is not worth remembering.....)

the worst experience in Tanzania

has a name.....Junction Lodge....
never ever say these two words in front of the boys.......you might hear a lot of details you do not want to hear......
the first place where everyone says NO, here I am not staying.....
which put our guide in a very awkward position.....
and again I could see how little a woman has to say in this country....

when I saw the rooms I was immediately asking if the lodge had rooms with normal (eg sitting) toilets as well: and got the answer "I do not think so...funny all the other tourists they prefer these standing toilets".....
I have never ever heard such a nonsense....but they always give you a story first- if you believe it, then the locals do not have any more trouble with you....

so of course I did not believe it and sent my male delegation to negotiate....and suddenly they had other rooms with normal toilets....

can you see that in this country sometimes I tend to lose my patience??????

the alternative....

so as soon as somewhere there was a sign saying "shop" we were already in....
stocking up on twix, snickers and bounty....
even when the chocolate tastes a little different than at home as they do not always store it right so somethimes you need to throw the chocolate bar away immediately after buying as it has not been stored in a cool place.
but at least it gives you calories and it takes away the hunger feeling....


so whereas we have been stuffed while on the mountains we have always had this knot in our stomach while on safari......
and this knot is easily satisfied with whatever kind of chocolate...and redbull......
so unfortunately the real Safari food- and not the 5 star touri sandwiches and the African dinner is not really delightening our soul ....neither is is delightening or filling our stomach...
would be a good diet....which we all do not want to go on....so chocolate it will be until we go to Zanzibar.....

safari food

we have been very surprised when our tour operator said that Emanuel our mountain cook cannot go on safari as he "is not a safari cook"
our question so what is the difference between a safari and a mountain cook has only been responded by blank stares......as if everybody knew the difference and the difference is anyway crystal clear...well it was not for us....
NOW after 5 days with a so called safari cook we know....
a mountain cook offeres loads of food and food is always more than enough on the table whereas a safari cook - or at least our safari cook cooked just as much as so we could not really complain....but it was always too little food and always the same taste and not very tasty at all......
so it was rice with vegetables and pasta with vegetables ...but always the same taste and far too little.....
and no variety ...
and we had the impression that he divided one egg to the whole party......
so we were constantly hungry the last 5 days..........

the biggest tree ever

I am not very tall am I?

this is how you feel in Africa all the time in nature..you are just a very tiny part in this huge country and in this vast landscape.....

my favorite animals - elephants

besides giraffes, I just love elephants and in Lake Tarangire you can spend hours observing how they drink, bath and enjoy water....
do you know that elephants cannot drink with their Rüssels? they can only take on the water and must then put the water into their mouth....looks really funny....

and they are so cute......like Plüschtiere...

famous trees

and this is what Lake Tarangire is famous for as well...
the water saving big trees....they are massive and can store water in the rainy season to be used in the dry season...very impressive trees.....
like comic strip trees.....
just imagine what these trees could tell you....

size comparison

so this is no was the head of an elephant.....
just look at the size differences!
the Redbull can (yes you get Redbull here everywhere....in some bars even in classic and light...if Didi Mateschitz would like the labelling?????) is nearly as big as an elephants tooth...or better the elephant´s tooth is just massive!

not even talking about me besides the elephant´s head...not even visible....

Lake Tarangire impressions

all you want to see in Africa is here...
massive migration, herds of big and small elephants, animals bathing in the lake, big and small giraffes and lions......and many more animals you have never seen.....

check that out...you can imagine that we have been very busy just watching left and right....in order not to miss anyhing...

Lake Tarangire

the perfect place to feel in Africa.....

this is the place to realize that you have already had a lot of pictures inside your head how Africa "should" look like...

lake Tarangire is lake a stand still picture of Out of Africa or other Hollywood films on the pioneers coming to Africa....

in Lake Tarangire you realize the size of the country, its dryness, its open spaces and the massive migration and herds of wild animals best....

I am very glad we did 3 different safaris...all 3 very interesting and very different..






Located 120km from Arusha, Tarangire is the sixth largest park in Tanzania. The beautiful Tarangire National Park stretches southeast of Lake Manyara around the Tarangire River. It is just a few hours drive from the town of Arusha, Tarangire is a popular stop for safaris travelling through the northern circuit on their way to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. It is the vast number of Baobabs that first capture the eye as you enter Tarangire national park. The gently rolling countryside is dotted with these majestic trees, which seem to dwarf the animals that feed beneath them.

The Park owes its name to Tarangire River, which flows across the area. It is characterized by dense vegetation of acacia and mixed woodland, the area around Tarangire River however, is dominated by huge baobab trees and old doum palm trees to a lesser prominence, as well as black cotton grass.

Tarangire also has regions of quite dense bush, but with high grasses and huge old baobab trees instead of the green forests of Manyara. The land is hilly and dominated by the impressive valley of the Tarangire River, which attracts good numbers of migrant animals during the dry months, especially between July and September.

Wildlife Safari Attractions In Tarangire:

The unique aspect of this Park is the annual animal immigration that takes place during the dry season. Tarangire National Park has some of the highest population density of elephants anywhere in Tanzania, and its sparse vegetation, strewn with baobab and acacia trees, makes it a beautiful and special location. The park extends into two game controlled areas and the animals are allowed to move freely throughout.

During the dry season, particularly between August and October, Tarangire has one of the highest concentrations of wildlife of any of the Country’s parks. Large herds of zebras, wildebeest, hartebeest and in particular, elephants can be found here until October when the short wet season allows them to move to new grasslands.

Tarangire offers unparalleled game viewing, and during the dry season elephants abound. Families of the pachyderms play around the ancient trunks of baobab trees and strip acacia bark from the thorn trees for their afternoon meal. Breathtaking views of the Masaai Steppe and the mountains to the south make a stop at Tarangire a memorable experience.