This is pretty much the only day during my whole trip to Tanzania that I didn't care for. We had spent the last two days exploring incredible areas and seeing beautiful animals. This day lacked animals and structure. Zara definitely over sold this day in their review and it didn't work out as they had stated. In hindsight, we really should have added a day to the safari which would have allowed us to get to the Serengeti, but hindsight always makes those decisions easier.
We left our glamping campsite and caught the last views of the crater. We went back to the previous hotel where we waited for awhile for our guide to show up. We were driven near a coffee plantation and then "hiked"/walked to a nearby reserve. We hiked through this to see a waterfall, which was incredibly small since it was dry season. The highlight of the day was getting to see an elephant cave. It is incredible the elephants travel to this cave everyday to scratch their tusks against the cave to get minerals. I couldn't help but think about Lion King and the elephant graveyard. Thankfully we didn't visit an elephant graveyard, but that didn't stop me from continuing to sing Lion King songs. We enjoyed our box lunches under the shade of trees near the cave.
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| The walk up to the elephant cave |
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| You can see the elephant tusk marks. |
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Sorry Fred but I had to post this. He used this stance to safely get down the hill
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We then walked a long way in the heat to reach a cultural center/someone's house. They had us volunteer to try on local clothing and explained parts of their culture. We were all exhausted and hot by this time, but it was interesting to hear. I don't have the pictures of Katie and I in local clothing and balancing the containers on our heads, but I will say that I wasn't good at it.
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| Having fun with it |
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| They are ready to get married. |
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| And the guys were able to try on wedding attire too. What a good looking group. |
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| Corinne looks great in this outfit. |
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| Hanging out in a traditional hut. It was small, dark, and hot. |
After a lot of walking in the hot sun (and not seeing animals), it was time to head back to the hotel. We didn't have a room at the hotel we were supposed to be at, so they took us to a different hotel. This hotel didn't have a spa (which would have been nice), but it had a pool and a bar. A few of us enjoyed some quality pool time before dinner.
Ready for Home:
Holly, Corinne, and I basically had our own house at the back of the property. We had a random person walk in thinking it was there place (they quickly closed the door and left). The story of the trip though was Holly screaming from the bathroom. A lizard was hanging out in the toilet and created a nice surprise for Holly. From that point on, I checked the toilet before using it. This was the night that I was happy to enjoy one more day and head home. I started thinking about good air conditioning, hot showers, clean housing (aka no bugs), no dirt, and beds that don't need mosquito netting around them. I was loving the trip, but everyone hits a point where they are thinking about home. This was the night I realized I was ready for home after enjoying one more day of exploring.
