Meserani Snake Park
September 3, 2005 
After our driver Simon had gotten us safely out of the Crater, he drove the four of us to a cramped overlander tourist campsite in a nearby town to rejoin our group. At least five trucks like George were parked there. It was swarming with campers very like ourselves.
Fortunately, this was not where we were stopping for the night.
We tipped Simon and then bought piles of snacks and drinks at the campsite's little grocery store before leaving though. I am growing addicted to Tanzanian ginger beer...
From here we made one more stop before stopping for the night: a view point over Lake Manyara which is apparently famous for its local tree-climbing lions.
Is it true? I don't know. And why would these lions climb trees and not others? This curious tourist would like to know.
It was here I first saw baobab trees in the distance, their limbs looking curiously like they have been planted upside-down with their roots spreading into the air.
And then on to our campsite at Meserani Snake Park!
I was excited about camping here because of its enormous collection of reptiles, some of them among the most poisonous snakes in Africa! There were pythons, boomslangs, mambas, cobras, and adders, as well as less fearsome snakes.
These were mainly housed in large glass reptile cages, but there was also an assortment of large lizards like monitors and some tortoises housed in walled outdoor pits. In one pool there were baby crocodiles who managed to look both cute and menacing at the same time.
Most fascinating to me were the dusty wire-fenced bomas housing the adult crocodiles. The animals were about nine or ten feet long and for the most part eerily immobile. Some lay with their mouths open so that you could see right past their prehistoric-looking teeth into their pale fleshy throats.
This was my first close look at crocodiles on this trip. The one we saw in the Grumeti River on safari looked much more like a floating log than the reality of these enormous animals with their armoured hides.
At the other end of the crocodile paddocks there were pools for the reptiles to swim in and these were backed by waist-high white-washed walls.
On the other side of one of the white walls? Well, that's where Jeff and I set up our tent actually. Very late tonight I crawled out of my tent to shine my flashlight into the dark pools. Eyes glowing yellow-white glided below me in the water.
While walking in the reptile zoo before dinner, my family and I met some locals from the nearby town of Arusha. The girl was called Gilda Godfrey and we admired her intricately braided hairstyle, while one of the fellows (Nelson Osward) talked to me about crocodiles and translated the signs in Kiswahili by the crocodile pens.
Usiweke mkono na usitupe mawe. Ndani boma ya mamba. : basically it means, please don't be a stupid idiot and try to pat the crocodiles because you are sure to regret it.
Mamba is the word for "crocodile".
Later, back in Canada, I corresponded a few times with Nelson by email.
After our driver Simon had gotten us safely out of the Crater, he drove the four of us to a cramped overlander tourist campsite in a nearby town to rejoin our group. At least five trucks like George were parked there. It was swarming with campers very like ourselves.
Fortunately, this was not where we were stopping for the night.
We tipped Simon and then bought piles of snacks and drinks at the campsite's little grocery store before leaving though. I am growing addicted to Tanzanian ginger beer...
From here we made one more stop before stopping for the night: a view point over Lake Manyara which is apparently famous for its local tree-climbing lions.
Is it true? I don't know. And why would these lions climb trees and not others? This curious tourist would like to know.
It was here I first saw baobab trees in the distance, their limbs looking curiously like they have been planted upside-down with their roots spreading into the air.
And then on to our campsite at Meserani Snake Park!
I was excited about camping here because of its enormous collection of reptiles, some of them among the most poisonous snakes in Africa! There were pythons, boomslangs, mambas, cobras, and adders, as well as less fearsome snakes.
These were mainly housed in large glass reptile cages, but there was also an assortment of large lizards like monitors and some tortoises housed in walled outdoor pits. In one pool there were baby crocodiles who managed to look both cute and menacing at the same time.
Most fascinating to me were the dusty wire-fenced bomas housing the adult crocodiles. The animals were about nine or ten feet long and for the most part eerily immobile. Some lay with their mouths open so that you could see right past their prehistoric-looking teeth into their pale fleshy throats.
This was my first close look at crocodiles on this trip. The one we saw in the Grumeti River on safari looked much more like a floating log than the reality of these enormous animals with their armoured hides.
At the other end of the crocodile paddocks there were pools for the reptiles to swim in and these were backed by waist-high white-washed walls.
On the other side of one of the white walls? Well, that's where Jeff and I set up our tent actually. Very late tonight I crawled out of my tent to shine my flashlight into the dark pools. Eyes glowing yellow-white glided below me in the water.
While walking in the reptile zoo before dinner, my family and I met some locals from the nearby town of Arusha. The girl was called Gilda Godfrey and we admired her intricately braided hairstyle, while one of the fellows (Nelson Osward) talked to me about crocodiles and translated the signs in Kiswahili by the crocodile pens.
Usiweke mkono na usitupe mawe. Ndani boma ya mamba. : basically it means, please don't be a stupid idiot and try to pat the crocodiles because you are sure to regret it.
Mamba is the word for "crocodile".
Later, back in Canada, I corresponded a few times with Nelson by email.
posted by Spider Girl | 9:17 PM
2 Comments:
Great pics, Spider! Those crocs looked like they were posing for you.
"reality of these enormous animals with their armoured hides."
Doesn't get much more 'real' that that I suppose!
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