Second Rest Day in Arusha

After a totally lazy first day, I actually had to do something on the second day. No just sitting around, reading magazines and eating bacon. Instead of that, Gizzy, Reiner and I headed out for a day safari to Arusha National Park. This was a lot better than I thought it would be. The whole park is set against Mount Meru, so the scenery seems especially spectacular.

We got to see bunch of animals. Girraffees (go spelling), zebras, warthogs and baboons were pretty much everywhere. It was pretty awesome to see those animals. I guess that I kind of know how people feel when they come to Australia and see kangaroos or sulphur crested cockatoos.

We also saw a bunch of colobus monkeys and blue something or other monkeys. It is odd to see things that look like little people hanging around picking food and fighting. While we were watching one groups group of Colobus monkeys, they suddenly all scampered up the trees to get higher. Then the alpha male started making the eeriest croaking sound. Hearing it, you wouldn't believe how little those guys are. It sounded almost exactly like the noise a Predator makes when it is hunting action heroes. A minute or so later, we heard the same croaking noise from the other side of the road. Our guide's guess was that the two groups had come too close together, and the males were croaking as part of a territorial display. It was a reminder of how strange and different Africa is.

We also saw an albino baboon baby. Pretty neat.

The only disappointment was that the flamingoes had already migrated. Apparently, they migrate when the lakes become too diluted by fresh water. The algae that they feed off doesn't grow so well in the fresher water and they have nothing to eat. It was still neat to go and look at the alkaline lakes where they normally are though.

We also missed out on the hippos. We drove around a bit looking for them, but couldn't find them anywhere. We did spend a bit of time driving around off the roads asking farmers where hippos are. If I were a farmer in Tanzania, I'd want to know where massively dangerous behemoths are. Getting your legs crushed by an angry hippo is one thing, but having it happen by surprise when you are collecting eggs in the morning would be even worse.

Another good thing was that it was massively relaxing being driven around in a car. It has been a pretty long time since I've been in a car for more than twenty minutes or so. It was so relaxing that I kept falling asleep on the way back. I was enjoying sleeping so much that it was kind of a hassle when we kept stopping to look at animals.

Our guide, Iddi, was a good guy. When he found out about my ESS, he took me to a clinic so that I could get some more tests done. For some reason, they call the test the "widow test". Bodes well. Good news is that I don't have malaria or typhoid. I got some stuff for my cramps and a mystery drug. I kind of think that maybe the mystery drug is going to turn me completely inside out. As long as I turn back the right way in time for getting on my bike, I'm fine with that.

Since I am going to be inverted soon, I figure that I might was well eat as much Indian as possible tonight. Will definitely be a nice change from the bananas and bread that I've been eating to control the cramps. By the way - I definitely recommend this as a good thing. I had no problems with my guts while eating those things, and a banana sandwich with salt (no butter unfortunately) is still a deliciously tasty proposition. Some people say that I didn't look too happy eating one of those sandwiches instead of pasta though.

No photos today, because Tanzanianets are a bit unreliable.

PS. Mystery drug seems to have helped.