A honeymoon in Tanzania

Spotting zebras is good for a relationship, apparently. — TODAY picSINGAPORE, Sept 17 — “So where to for your honeymoon?” asked a friend.

“Tanzania!” was my reply in sheer excitement.

“Oh, Australia?”

“No, Tanzania in East Africa,” I clarified.

A sea of pink (flamingoes) at Lake Manyara. — TODAY picFor an island of urban dwellers more familiar with beach resorts, it is not surprising that most of us are strangers to Africa’s geography. (In fact, relatives and friends feared I would fall prey to the deadly Ebola epidemic in West Africa, or be kidnapped by the Boko Haram in Nigeria.) It is, nonetheless, vast and mysterious, and Tanzania was as intimidating as it was fascinating, especially to a first-time visitor. And, suffice to say, it is not your typical honeymoon destination. Even the locals and other tourists we met on our honeymoon were surprised at our decision to forsake luxury hotels for “glamping”, a portmanteau of “glamorous camping”.

Well, I did have a pact with my husband Ravi: He would plan the honeymoon and I would handle the wedding. My only brief to him was to make it an unforgettable, exciting surprise. And surely ticked all the boxes.

A pair of giraffe just 2km from our glamp site. — TODAY picWe were also born storytellers — too proud to settle for a typical experience — and had craved for unique stories to share at our future housewarming parties. Befitting of a newly-wed, we set out with great expectations, determined to see in close proximity the big five of African safaris — the buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhinoceros.

For added ease, we had engaged a local agent, African Odyssey, to arrange the internal flights, transfers, game activities and park fees. And as we were mostly booked on a full-board basis, we did not have to worry about food.

Of planes and plains

After spending a night at the Slipway Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s former capital, we set out early morning to catch our flight into Arusha, north of Tanzania, which turned out to be more of a harrowing experience than I would have liked. It was the tiniest commercial plane we had seen: A 12-seater with no barrier between the pilot in the cockpit and the passengers.

With fresh memories of recent aviation accidents, I started imagining the worse before my husband reassured me. “I’ve checked the history of Coastal Aviation, no incidents ever,” he said brightly.

Don’t you know it’s always the female, or in this case, the lioness who does most of the work? — TODAY picAnd before I realised, the beauty of Zanzibar’s shimmering waters quickly distracted me; the waves morphed into spots of sparkling crystals under the morning sun, crossing the spectrum from mint blue, to emerald to deep-blue sapphire. And every now and then, coral reefs would emerge and draw out the shades of the sea.

Shortly after making a pronounced right turn, we were greeted by the ruins of Stone Town, Zanzibar’s historical capital. A few travellers alighted in Zanzibar while we continued our flight towards Arusha, where our safari experience would begin.

“Dear! See the zebras?” I exclaimed. It was our first herd sighting on the plains. “See the giraffe there?” My husband Ravi challenged me, and had a laugh as I struggled to spot the lone giraffe. It was understandable how one could miss the sight of solo animals given the vastness of the savannah — each turn the plane took yielded fresh scenery of the plains.

After touching down, Ayoub, our guide in Arusha, took us to a local shop for a tastefully set-up lunch. Nothing too unusual for a meal: A salad of diced chicken, onions, tomatoes and avocados, pita bread and hummus, chicken mishkaki (the Tanzanian version of tandoori and kebabs) and samosas.

Ngorongoro Crater is within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is 10 times the size of Singapore. — TODAY picThe Middle Eastern and Indian influences date back as early as the first millennium, when Muslim Arabs and Indian merchants established trade routes to and from the country. The Omani Arabs also ruled the country by the end of the 17th century, after centuries of Portuguese control.

Lucky couple

Our maiden game drive was in Lake Manyara National Park, known for its postcard beauty that includes millions of flamingos lining across the horizon, which would explain why guides often picked the park as a soft introduction to the safari adventure.

Things got more exciting on our drive to the Ngorongoro crater, the world’s largest caldera — the result of a collapse of land after a volcanic eruption — located within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO heritage site. Spanning over 8,300sqkm (that’s over 10 times the size of Singapore), the crater covers only four per cent of the conservation area. Living outside of the crater are several tribes, including the Maasai (pronounced as ma-a-sai) tribe, a semi-nomadic people that inhabit across southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.

The drive to reach the crater was excruciating as we struggled with changing temperatures, from a cutting cold at the high altitudes of at least 3,000 metres above sea level to the warmer climate down in the crater at around 1,500 metres below.

Comfy and cosy at the Kimondo mobile camp. — TODAY picBut just before we were about to fall asleep from the tiring, jolting drive, a large elephant with huge tusks emerged from the dense foliage and tried to cross the road.

“Wow, wow, wow. See that!” Ayoub exclaimed. “He’s a big boy!” The elephant, which must have overheard our guide, took a few more steps, swung its tail as if as an invitation to watch him, and started pooping. Then he peed and pooped again, all right in front of our jeep. “You’re a lucky couple you know? It’s a good sign. Not everyone sees the elephant in action — plus, in full view!” Ayoub said, giggling. Oh, the irony.

More rare sights

If Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro crater were our appetisers, the Serengeti was undoubtedly the main course. It was here we crossed paths with lions, rhinos and leopards.

We spotted two cheetahs on our first game drive here. Typical of an introvert-extrovert pair, one was lazy while the other attention-seeking. As the less-than-bothered brother slept in the shade of a tree, seemingly oblivious to at least four truck-like vehicles and countless binoculars and cameras pointed at him, the other seized the opportunity to hoard the attention by climbing up the tree.

A quick look-see of Stone Town, Zanzibar, before we were off to the great African plains. — TODAY picWe returned to our “glamp”, the Kimondo camp where a shock awaited me. Firstly, I was not ready to spend four nights in a mobile camp, even if it was “glamping”, but I hate walking on grass, which was unavoidable given the set-up.

But the warmth of the guides and the camp manager, Richard, helped me overlook my discomfort. It also helped that this was where we enjoyed skies clear enough for us to star gaze, and where we were surprised with a candlelit dinner in the wild, set up by the Kimondo team. Of course, this was not your regular camp site. Kimondo was luxurious, complete with a king-sized bed, dressing tables and a toilet bowl with a proper sewage system in place. We even had hot showers water for the showers. Not that uncomfortable, after all.

We took on another six game drives over the next three days and were deeply impressed by how sharp-eyed our guides were. We sighted rhinos, which was a rare opportunity, as they have grown wary of humans. We were told there were only seven rhinoceros in Serengeti’s Maasai Mara area.

The king of the jungle, though, proved more elusive. It was only into our third-from-last game drive that we spotted a pride taking shade from the sweltering heat and scorching sun. It couldn’t have been choreographed better: The majestic male then stood up with a deep roar, stretched, walked to the front of another truck and lapsed into a comfortable spot in its shadow.

Sunset over the savannah. — TODAY picIt was now sitting just 10m to 20m away from us and we snapped away with our point-and-shoot. We also spotted another lion asleep nearby, and two lionesses sitting next to her four cubs. Now we were left with the leopard, the most elusive predator.

After spending a fruitless morning driving around the boulders for at least three hours, we headed to the plains where a leopard’s kill had been spotted on a tree. We camped at the site waiting for the leopard to return. Hours went by before we saw some signs of movement. In a flash of an eye, the leopard leaped up the tree and lay hidden. It was only the next morning at our final drive to the airport where we detoured to the same tree and saw the leopard up on the tallest branch. Its kill hung loosely in a different position; the leopard clearly had its fill overnight.

Buoyed by the fact that we got to see all five, I couldn’t help but reflect on the experience and how this visit to the safari offered a glimpse of what married life could be: Unpredictable, sometimes out of my control, but one that is ultimately rewarding. — TODAY