We are in Africa

December 22, 2006

We go to the airport and stepped off the plane in the tropics after 24 hours of airports and flight time. Whew we were glad to be on the ground. The smells and sounds were overwhelming. We walked across the tarmac and into the terminal with the sights and sounds of Africa invading our thoughts and the occassional giant flying something buzzing our heads. There were thousands of insects around the lights above the tarmac, but mostly they stayed in the lights.

As we waited for our baggage, we could see mom and dad outside the gate area, so James went ahead through customs and hooked up with them while Martin and I waited for the luggage.
Once we had gathered our luggage we passed through about the most lienent custom declarations door and found mom and dad and Michael our guide. We headed out for our lodge. It was late but the exictement of being in Africa kept us chatting, that coupled with the dirt road, and the fact that cars frequently were on each others side of the road, it was a wild and crazy ride. Michael our guides was great at manuevering and soon we turned into the Kikogoni Lodge on the outskirts of Arusha at around 10 pm on Friday night. The lodge was situated in the middle of a coffee plantation and the rooms were hut style with a double and single bed in our room with mosquitoe nets around the beds. We were starving so after having our bags taken down to our cottage, we headed to the restaurant for some food. The restaurants we would find in each lodge were inside/outside type open air with beautiful seating areas around the bar and then a formal eating area. The food was a european/indian influence, the chef immediately brought us some vegetable baji’s and meat somosas as an appetizer, it was fantastic. We had the following dishes and shared: Medetaranian Lamb, Beef Tripe, a Fish dish and an Eggplant Canneloni, we tried each others and really enjoyed it. James was feeling a bit gunshy at this point and ordered some fried chicken but ended up trying everythin else and loving it.
Then it was off to bed as with a 9 hour time change and the traveling we were ready to collapse.

December 23, 2006

The sounds of the night were so intense. Insects, birds and bull frogs echoed in the night. Sometimes we heard the call of a monkey in the distance. James and I had trouble sleeping so we wandered out before dawn with flashlights and looked around. We watched the sunrise from the balcony of our room and just to the west we could see the cloud laden crest of Mt. Kiliminjaro and to our left the giant presense of Mt. Meru. Up at the lodge right before breakfast Martin captured shots of Mt. Meru and the local monkey populace and we just soaked up Africa!!! Mom and Dad met us for breakfast which was a full English fare style with Eggs, beans, toast, bacon, sausage and the most wonderful fresh fruit. We enjoyed the sights of the monkeys actually venturing into the edge of the dining area and perching on the back of a chair trying to be brave enough to grab some food. One of the mothers had little twins and one would try to sneak away and she would grab him by the tail and jerk him back. Some things don’t differ much between mothers of any species.... ;)

Michael came and picked us up to start our adventure. We headed into Arusha town for a briefing by the tour company, gassed up and headed through the crazy streets of town. The locals were on holiday starting from December 1st and going into January so there were Christmas bizarres going on and lots of activity in town. Dozens of lovely African women in both traditional and modern dress walked the town picking up Christmas gifts and fresh fruit and veggies. Little babies were tied in canvas on the backs of their mothers and/or siblings, men led goats and calves around for sale and there were all manner of agricultural items being carried, towed or driven around town.

Once we had concluded our town business we headed out going South West towards our first destination which was Tarangire (Tare – An – Gere – EEE) which means Warthog River. Mt. Meru really emerged behind us as a dominant presense but the cloud cover kept Kilimanjaro from us. The countryside is so lush as we drive and we start to see Masaii villages dotted along the landscape along with the people. Michael said there are several Masaii tribes and what we were seeing is what he called “Arusha Masaii” which is not the traditional Masaii people we would be meeting later. The Arusha Masaii built their houses of mud and sticks and the roofs were either corrugated tin or some type of native grass. Michael told us that a man shows his wealth by purchasing wives; the more wives the more wealth. A woman is worth around 10 head of cattle or $3000. Michael said the highest amount of wives he had heard of is 100. The man builds a hut for himself and then each of his wives gets a hut in the compound, some of the compounds we past were like little villages. It seems like some of these mean are awfully rich if not a little bit henpecked. It is interesting to note that the children work alongside their parents at a very early age.

The original plan was to stay deep in the preserve at the Kikota Tented Lodge, however due to the heavy rains we couldn’t get over the river so we headed for the Tarangire Lodge. The river is swollen up to 50 feet wide in places and the only way for us to have gotten to our original lodge was to walk across and shallow part of the river and get picked up by a different driver . We opted for the Tarangire Lodge.

After we got to the lodge area, Michael suggested we do a game drive so we headed out into the park and immediately saw Baboon, Impala and Buffalo Weavers. The animals were so close to us we could reach out and touch them almost. There were dozens of birds including some mammoth ostrich. It is interesting to note that with ostrich where there is a male there is a female, they are always together. It was an amazing drive and James surprised us all when he saw our first Warthog – Martin was in the back camera clicking away. There were also many monkeys and dick dicks (small deer) along the way, but the biggest first day hit was yet to come when we spotted Elephants. At first they were far away, but then we rounded a corner and not 15 feet from the vehicle was a huge bull elephant. He was amazing to behold and all of us were a little awestruck by the site of him. After that we ran into several larger herds of elephants including baby “phants” and let’s not forget the giraffes!!!

What a great first day of game driving…. No big cats yet but we can find no fault in the animals we saw today.

Once back at the lodge, Martin and I walked out front and to our delight there was a huge bull elephant at the end of the drive to the lodge. We walked within 30 feet of him and were careful not to make sudden noises or movement. We watched each other until the elephant wandered off into the deeper bush.

As we sat back at the lodge, James is swimming with Grandpa and I am sitting on the veranda over looking the valley below, elephants are walking to the river and a huge herd of Impala are darting amongst the trees. The sounds of Africa are all around us as we sit and watch the sun slip down the horizon. Shadows drift across Acacia and Baobab trees and the sound of the Tarangire River rushing along its path mixed with the occasional call of the Green Velvet monkey surround us. Mom and Dad come to join us and we sip on a cool refreshing Kilimanjaro Lager while we wait for dinner.

Dinner, now that started out as quite the experience, due to the rain, there are many insects (far more then usual) and we ended up on the outside edge of the dining area. By the time the food course came, bugs were bouncing off my back like popcorn and mom had just about had enough when the creepiest bug of all landed on her, she and I both looked at each other and were like “that’s it!!!”. Our server Julieth took pity on us and moved us to a quieter spot more on the interior of the dining area. James commented that “hopefully we weren’t’ in the Cobra section”. Anything was better then the giant flying beetle section.

We were all beat by this time and we retired to our room right after dinner. The generators in this lodge shut off after 10 pm and don’t come back on until 6 am so it was flashlight power for bathroom breaks.

December 24, 2006

At 5 am I woke to the complete silence of the forest, not bugs or bullfrogs which had been the chorus we went to sleep to. Suddenly a huge flash of lightening and a thunderstorm rolls overhead (it was absolutely pitch black), it persisted for about 45 minutes and then as quickly as it started it was over and all the wildlife started up again. At 6 am our wake up knock came with our pot of tea. We sat on the porch overlooking the valley while birds and dicks dicks frolicked around us.

Breakfast is amazing, omelet’s, cold cereals, toast, sausage, bacon and beans. The fresh fruit and juices are so delicious. Michael comes at 8 am to start our days game drive. We will be out all day and enjoying a box lunch at a picnic site somewhere in Tarangire. As we headed into the interior of the park the first thing that greeted us was an enormous herd of elephants, too cool. Travel today is interesting if not a bit perilous, the roads were super mucky due to the rain (have I said that I use the term “road” loosly yet?). Consider it said at this point. Michael is looking for cats for us and in constant communication with other drivers. We come to a hill which doesn’t look promising but Michael attempt the climb regardless. Third try and we tip almost completely sideways into a pool of muddy goo. The other drivers come and help pull us out and Michael attempts a different path, we thought for sure we would make it but the ground is just too soft. Before we know it we are sunk up to the back door in the mud, this time we all needed to get out. My mom turned to a Masai driver and asked “are there snakes here?”, he replied “yes” and then seeing the alarm on my mothers face he said with quite the straight face “but I know where they all are”…. We all got a chuckle out of that, but I think mom quietly kept an eye out for anything slithering around us.

On a side note, Tse Tse flies bite hard, I now have 5 bits on each ankle, they are worse then black flies.

I think Michael was feeling bad that we couldn’t get on the route that he thought would take us deeper into the park and possibly see cats, however the trail we ended up on took us for an incredible Warthog encounter. Warthogs are my favorite of all the animals, they are so ugly and brutish, yet cute in their weird little warty way. We saw a mother and a bunch of babies as well. During the ride, I was trying to explain to Michael about the weather in Minnesota – Michael understands the dry season, the heavy wet season and the not so heavy wet season, Fall, Spring, Summer and Winter were pretty foreign to him since he has never traveled beyond the borders of Tanzania. Of course the conversation steered to weather extremes and as part of that we got into a huge conversation on the Celcius to Farenheit conversion and James was doing quantum physics trying to figure it out as we watched for more animals. All and all it was a pretty funny hour and it wasn’t until the next animal sighting that we stopped trying to figure it out.

We stopped at a picnic site for our box lunch and Michael warned us that the Green Monkeys are quite aggressive and to not take our food out of the box, but rather eat carefully paying attention to local monkey populace. I was sitting next to James who was trying to organize his food into categories of I will eat this or I won’t eat this. He had removed his banana from the box and was doing the food shuffle when I leaned over and said “James you need to put all your food in the box”, but before he could reply a female with a baby on board leaped onto our table and snatched the banana away from James – the look on his face was classic. Then he tried to blame me for distracting him, to which I replied, “dude, she was getting that banana at any cost, you listening to me had nothing to do with it”, he shrugged and sheepishly decided that I was probably right.

After lunch we drove out in a different direction, it is so interesting to note that sometimes we are surrounded by wildlife and others we travel for a while without seeing a thing. Having said that, after we had traveled through empty forest for a while, we rounded a corner and Giraffes were everywhere. There were approximately 18 of them completely surrounding the vehicle. Some stopped to stare at us, others just went about their business eating from the giant thorny branches of the trees. There were males, females and babies, the males were easily identifiable by the ridge on their heads and by being so rich and dark in color compared to the females. Sometimes they would look around startled and we watched to see if they were being stalked but didn’t see any cats hanging about. Martin got some great shots of them running, it was so interesting to see, they look almost like they are in slow motion they are so big, but are actually moving quite fast.

During the rest of the afternoon we saw lots of other animals including an impala male with 30 females and young. It is interesting to note that Impala sometimes are a mixed herd of males and females but when it comes to mating a single male will fight off all other males around a group of females and protect that group. On the way back from the drive we came across another giant herd of elephants bathing and playing near the road.

One other amazing thing about the drive is the amount of birds we have seen, green love birds, gorgeous bright blue superb Starling, Black-shouldered Kite, Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver, Egyptian Goose, Laughing Dove, Vulture, Helmeted Guinea fowl, Kori Bustards and much more.

Back at camp Dad arranges for a change of lodging for him and mom as they had been in a “tented” room however the bugs had been unimaginable. Mom was struggling with them literally coming into the bathroom in droves while trying to wash and brush teeth. Upon looking out the window of our hut I noticed that the netting was completely missing off the back of the tented area around the bathroom so Dad talked to the management and got them moved next door to us in a hut.

At the main lodge area we upload the photos to the laptop, enjoy a Kili Beer , James makes more friends by the pool, he and Martin play and game of chess and another nice dinner is enjoyed. We talked about a good game of Farkle after dinner but everyone is beat and ready to head back and sleep since tomorrow is another early day as we head out of Tarangire, around Lake Manyara and to the Ngoro Ngoro Crater.

December 25, 2006

Christmas dawns with another brief rain and our morning wake up routine of a knock on the door and a pot of tea. Mom and Dad had a much better night in the hut next door, a bit more bug free, (not that we didn’t expect bugs, they are everywhere) but having a respite while you sleep is nice!!! We packed up and headed out for breakfast and then our trek to the NgoroNgoro Crater. Juliette our server was there this morning and she had left a wonderful Christmas Card to our family on the table. It was so nice. Plus can I say more about the breakfasts we are having. Yummo. Michael is waiting for us to start our next leg of the journey and we head out. On the way out of Tarangire we saw our first Jackal which was a treat. They are smaller then we expected but cute. Martin caught a picture of him putting his head above the grass. Michael mentioned that there was probably another nearby that we couldn’t see since they normally travel in a male female pair. We also had many Impala wishing us a good trip.

On the journey around Lake Manyara we saw a lot more of the traditional Masaii villages. Michael pointed out on one hillside a village with over 40 huts and said that this was one of the richest men of the Masaii and he had 40 wives. Michael explained that the Masaii way is that a woman costs around $3000 or 10 cows. Most girls marry no earlier then 16 and that woman wish for girls when pregnant because of their value. When children start their own families they pay part of their income to support their parents. If people do not have children they sometimes are reduced to begging when they retire because they have no retirement money.

Partway to Ngoro we stopped in the Mto Wa Btu Village and did a walking tour. Elliot was our guide and we set out walking through the village despite a slow drizzle. At the beginning we were on a paved street and walked past many huts made of a variety of materials, some finished and some not. It is interesting to be in “civilization” mixed with what we would consider 3rd world living, yet with a huge amount of modern technology as well (cars, cell phones and mudhuts). Elliot showed us some of the agriculture in the area, most people farm rice and bananas. We turned down onto a mud path to go into the heart of the village and some asked about the half finished mortar houses. Elliot explained that when you bring in your crop, part of the cash is for living and whatever is left does not go into savings but is invested in a better house. You buy all the building materials you can afford and do the next phase of work on your new home. Sometimes he says that it takes 20 years to build a nicer house. In the meantime villagers live in the mud houses that only take 2 months to build and the materials are all things you can acquire from the land since they are mud, sticks and the roves are either grass or banana leaves.

On the way through the village we stopped and watched some guys carving wood objects. The story we were told is that they came from Mozembique which they left due to war. They were carving objects by hand and held them in their feet as they worked, just as their fathers had done. We joked later that a big truck comes and drops this stuff off on the days the “tourists” are walking through for show, but it sure was fun anyway. As we sat bargaining for the goods we wanted to purchase, I noted that there were all sorts of domestic animals like chickens and cows wandering around. Note, cows are much smaller in Africa…. We continued on the tour and as we walked children would surround us, little hands creeping into ours as the chattered away. Elliot took us into a banana plantation next. We found it interesting that banana plants only deliver one crop, as the crop is coming in you plant a new plant next to the old and once harvested you chop down part of the old one to give nutrients to the new ones. There are three types of bananas grown, one for cooking, one for eating and the other for making beer. While we were looking at a beer distillery a huge deluge of rain came down, Elliot tried to convince us to take shelter in the hut where they were brewing beer but based on the insect population, the heat and smell we opted out. A woman in a nearby hut offered us shelter and once in side her two room home it was interesting to note how clean and tidy it was despite the mud and conditions and there were modern conveniences like electric and radio. Again a surprising mix of modern technology and primitive living by our standards.

Once the rain let up we slipped and slid through more of the village before we finally told Elliot that despite that fact that the trek was excellent, we were ready to head back to our truck and some lunch. We had all pupped out and were semi drowned rats. Elliot radioed Michael who panicked and thought something was wrong and hauled hinders out to find us. We assured him we were ok, just need to get dry and eat some food. We had a picnic back by the truck and then headed off again.

Everyone is a bit quiet at this point, Michael asks us If we would like to stop at a roadside store so we do. The sales people were pushy but we all found some things that we wanted to bring along, so between the village and the roadside stand we got some souvenirs. It is funny mom was telling us later that they had brought a dealer in for her to look at the local gemstone, which she had expressed a passing interest in back at Bobby’s, woops she really wasn’t in the market. When we started heading up the side of the crater, I was a little apprehensive the roads are narrow really only fitting one vehicle yet a two way street and it was a ways down. We stopped at the check point to get into the crater and when Michael was in clearing the permits, we saw quite a few baboons and one actually leaped onto the truck and was looking at us. Pretty neat.

Once we were past the check point we continue up the mountain to the rim of the Ngoro Ngoro Crater. The crater is an ancient volcano that blew its top off millions of years ago and is now beautiful habitats both as you approach from the outside and within the crater itself. As we moved up the side of the crater, I did experience huge anxiety as I tried not to look down, the road (and I use the word road loosely as it was more of a dirt path) was only one car width wide yet it was a two way street. Yikes!!! I was really having a tough time of it, while everyone else was looking out noses pressed to the glass in abject joy of the view, I got quieter and quieter. As we got nearer the crest sometimes we turned and you could see the car directly below you, I lost it and had a mini breakdown as quietly as possible. I felt bad, poor James he was patting my back and trying to make sure his mama was ok. Luckily we got to the crater rim where Michael parked and gave a us a chance to look out and see. It was fantastic and I was able to get a grip. The view was breathtaking, it was unbelievable how clear it was and according to Michael normally there is more fog so we had such a treat viewing the crater before us.

It is neat to note that the crater used to be a mountain as high as Kilimanjaro, however during the same events that started the great rift valley the mountain blew, spreading ash all over the Serengeti and leaving in its wake the crater which was formed as the floor sank leaving the rim to form a natural enclosure 2,285 meters high.

We were at about a half way point between each end of the crater road and it was time to head to the far point to our South on the crater and our lodge (about 12 miles). The road continued to be narrow; however it had more brush and a sloping side during most of our journey to the lodge. On the way we saw many game trails and Michael told us about what animals came up from the crater and the fact that Elephant males come up the hill but females stay in the crater. We did see many birds and more baboons; it truly was yet another fantastic leg of our trip.

The Sopa Lodge at Ngoro is beautiful; it is more like a 5 star hotel. We check in and explore the main part of the lodge for a bit, the restaurant is a circular with a huge ceiling that comes to a point; it is set up for Christmas dinner, which promises to be excellent. We get to our rooms and change up and agree to meet up in the lodge in the bar area. The bar area is across from the restaurant; we shop a little and then go sit and have a beer. While waiting for mom and dad we meet a couple from Amsterdam and were chatting, he owned the top 3 radio stations in Amsterdam. Very nice family. Mom and dad joined and while we were relaxing waiting for dinner a group of Maasai came in and did traditional dances for us. It was great. Dinner was fantastic, there were Christmas crackers and lots of great food (add menu) After dinner we all retired for the night to get ready for another great day in exploring the crater.

12/26/06

Breakfast at the lodge had everything the other lodges had a more, we are gluts in these lodges.

Now we are off into the Ngoro Ngoro Crater which is the best self-contained safari destination in the world. We learned that it is the world's largest unbroken caldera, it is often referred to as the 'Garden of Eden'. Ngoro crater has some of the highest animal diversity in a pretty small area (30,000 animals). There is year round water and food so it sustains itself. We were excited to go into the crater and we were immediately rewarded once we got down to the basin by huge herds of Wildebeest and Zebra, literally hundreds of them. As we stopped to observe them Michael pointed out a pair of lions up on a rock ledge – Our First Big Cats!!!! We were all in awe. They were close enough that we could make them out and with a lens could see them beautifully, we thought “this can’t get better”, but Michael told us to wait and before long the female called to the male and he went over and gave her some lion lovin, when he was done he roared and then went back to his perch for a rest (typical man). What a neat thing, Michael said they mate every 20 minutes during the females season… Cool!

We continued into the crater and were soon rewarded with more animal sightings then we could almost comprehend. We saw the following:
Cape Buffalo, Antelope, Lion, Zebra, Wildebeest, Buzzards, Flamingos, Ducks, Elephants, Marabou, Warthogs, Ostrich, Eland, Cory Bustard, Tufted Crane, Thompson Gazelle, Hyena, Hardabeast, Black Kits, Golden Jackal, Cheetah, Black Rhinos and more.

As we proceeded further into the park we were rewarded with our second big cat sightings, a pair of Cheetahs hunting, we followed them literally within 20 feet, amazing, they ended up disappearing into the brush to wait for a kill after about 20 minutes. Not long after that to our left we saw another female Lion who had just killed a baby warthog – James got another National Geographic moment. It was very wet as we drove and it was perilous trying to get through some of the mud, but Michael brought us around to yet another trove of animals.

We stopped to view the Cape Buffalo, Zebra and Wildebeest, when someone in the truck realized there was a pride of 9 female lions just laying in a group in the center of all the activities. It was interesting, all these creatures hanging out together in kind of a symbiotic existence. Then one of the wildebeest got a little to close to the lions and 3 of the females began a careful stock of the animal, it seemed we might see another kills, however the beast suddenly got wise and moved out of the food zone.

Michael drove us on to Lake Magadi, which is one of the main water sources in the crater. The lake is alkaline so a good haunt for flamingos, the alkaline is actually what gives them their color. We saw two types, the larger with a ping bill which preys on invertebrates and the smaller recognized by a darker bill which eats the waters algae.

We circled back around and spotted the black rhino in the distance and then headed to another lake which was chalk full of hippos. This was our lunch stop and we had to be extra careful because like the monkeys before there were Black Kites at this location which liked to swoop down and steal people’s food.

After lunch we did more driving where we spotted the Giant Eland which Michael said was very rare. There were more zebra, hyenas, cape buffalo spottings and later in the afternoon we started our trek back up the crater.

We did some shopping back at the lodge and picked out souvenirs, got some postcards and just relaxed. We met up again in the lounge before dinner and enjoyed a glass of wine and talked with others staying at the lodge. Dinner was again a fantastic affair and we enjoyed winding down for the day.

12/27/06

Morning comes and the next leg of our journey is upon us. We are going to drive around to the polar opposite side of the crater and then descend into the Serengeti. Breakfast, need I say more….

We saw tons of baboons on our way around and other birds and wildlife. We descended the crater and had two stops on our way out to the next park. We were to visit a Maasai Village on the crater steps and then the Oldupai Gorge which is one of the most famous anthropological sites on the origins of mankind.

After we had been traveling for a time the jolting rhythm of the truck has made at least a few of us aware of the need to “go”. So Michael stopped the truck at an appropriate place for us all to use the “Bush” bathroom. Whew, that was better; off we go for our first stop.

The Maasai Village we visit is a chance for us to observe the lifestyle of the East African Tribe known as proud cattle herders. We enter the village and mom and I are pulled into a chanting dance with the women of the camp. We then go into the village itself which is all mud and stick huts protected by thorn and stick fences. Many of the Masaai men are jumping, and it is amazing to watch, James joins in to see how high he can go. It is so efffortlessly done by the men and we can't believe how high they get. It is interesting to not that the mens shoes are made from old tires. The village is obviously thriving on the tourist trade because all the women have their wares out for show and want us to buy. We are swarmed with people, surround by touches and gentle inquires to buy their wares. Marco is our guide and it is quite obvious that Marco is an old hat at this and knows how to pander to his crowd. He takes us around to the school house to observe the kids after we make our purchases. The kids do some songs and chants for us and we give them gifts that we have brought from the United States. Marco has us take them out of the packages because the other villagers will sell them out from under the kids if we don’t. Everything has trade value to the Maasai, they are a proud people and the experience is fun.

One funny side note of the visit is that there was a herder up on the hill with his friend and some of his cattle talking on a cell phone. I imagine there is either a generator somewhere or they have an ability to use the Safari guides trucks to charge the phones. It is an odd combination of rustic and modern on the slopes of the Ngoro Crater. Before we leave Marco kind of hits on my and we exchange email of all things, I haven’t heard from him but I hardly expected to, he was funny.

We moved on from the village and stopped at the gorge, it was neat for me because I had just finished an anthropology class so seeing the findings of bipedal man was so cool. The gorge itself wasn’t that dramatic, but just the idea of being there and enjoying being on site and part of the Great Rift Valley was amazing. The museum itself had all the artifacts found on the site in replica so extremely cool. We also saw an excellent lizard. Bathrooms are interesting, sometimes there is a regular toilet, but often times it is two shoe marks over a hole, I prefer the "Bush" bathroom. Did I mention that we have passed so many Wildebeest and Zebra in migration that they hardly seem interesting to talk about anymore – but they are - we still love them!!!
We have lunch at the gorge and start to move on to the predator rich Serengeti Plains. The vast plains with the beautiful Acacia trees and interesting rock outcrops, along with rivers and small lakes are spellbinding. We are heading for the Ndutu lodge and are traveling on little more then mushy plains; the “road” is almost impassible because of the rains, so Michael is forging a path for us. We forge for several hours seeing Hyenas and other game as we travel. We pass into a brush and forest type area on the way to Ndutu, which is on the southern edge of the Serengeti and convenient to that, Oldopai and the crater. It is situated under a canopy of the giant acacias overlooking Lake Ndutu which is another soda lake and rich with Flamingo. Once close to the lodge we come up behind another safari truck and there is a giant bull elephant to our right, the truck in front of us tries to pass by and the elephant bluff charges the truck, it was awesome. Michael is taking a much more careful approach which includes not getting us charged.

We drive into the lodge and meet Louis the owner, we take a minute to settle in and then browse through the shop. This is where the Warties come in; we found two brass warthogs which had our names on them. Mom thought about it and went back later to purchase the warties; we just had to then figure the logistics to get them home. Martin and I walk out the front of the lodge to see a huge bull elephant 30 feet from us, Martin moved towards him for better photos so being behind the lens he wasn't really paying attention to where he was going, so I had to remind him from in front of the lens to keep a distance so we didn’t get trampled. We were on his turf after all.

In the lounge we were hanging out enjoying the view and having a cocktail before dinner where we met Elaine and Scott from Barstow, this was a dream vacation for them too and we enjoyed talking about our experiences. Dinner was yet another fantastic meal. We talked about playing some cards or Farkle but everyone was a bit tired so we went to bed.

At Ndutu the lights go off at 10 pm and don’t come back on until morning. So we had our flashlights and laid reading and talking about the day. We were woken in the night be the most intense thunderstorm which ended as quickly as it began, and again the forest went completely quite and then once it passed all the nightlife fired back up just like in Tarangire. We had an elephant pass in between the tents during the night and some other wildlife milling about.

12/28/06

A pot of tea is delivered to the door in the morning which is great. We have learned that people like Jane Goodhall and Hugo van Lawick have stayed in the Ndutu Safari Lodge which is so neat. We met up with the family for breakfast; mom and dad have made a new friend in Carol the biologist, she lives in Amsterdamn I believe. This has been my favorite lodge for that so far. We trek out for our next game hunt. We saw marabou stork, which is a scavenger and look for big cats, no luck yet. There are lots of Giraffe as we travel and we see another animal a Red Duckard. We are traversing with some other trucks and have seen great herds of migrating wildebeest and zebra mixed in with many giraffe, but the quarry of the day is big cats. As we traverse across a dry streambed, our truck gets stuck, it takes a group of many men and dad’s directions (hahhahaha) to get us out In the meantime, I am chatting with Elaine and we are watching a dung beetle at work. Once freed we continue our quest.

We had decided earlier to have lunch at the lodge so we headed back there to enjoy that and then out for a second pass. We were traveling with the big group again because cats had been seen, suddenly one of the trucks veered and excited chatter came up between the drivers, we drove over to an Acacia tree and there beneath it were 3 males, 3 females and 4 babies, we parked within 5 feet of them. They look so different from what you see in a zoo, they are grizzled and battle scarred, wild basically. They were all full from the wildebeest carcass to our right, each belly distended with food. They groomed, played and slept under the African sun. We stayed for a quite a while and just enjoyed the whole scene.

Michael really wanted to find a black leopard so we traversed the game park looking for more sightings. During this time, we ran into Elaine and Scott so Martin took their Christmas photo for this year for them. It was fun. We stood on an out crop over looking a valley full of Giraffe, Zebra and yet more wildebeest. Some of the terrain we went over was quite treacherous but Michael always seemed to get us through. Martin finally got his only sunset shot as we headed back since it had been overcast most of the time.

Back at the lodge the Wartie purchase was complete and we were planning on how to get them back stateside. We were having a discussion on this at the lounge with Carol, Elaine and Scott when we decided it would be fun to all have dinner together. We combined our tables and broke bread it was great. During the meal Carol the biologist turned us on the Yoghurt pills which can settle your system, both dad and I were having some problems and the yoghurt pills helped, thanks Carol!!! While we were at dinner there was a Genet in the rafters which is like a cross between a cat and a raccoon, the lodge is famous for them.

After dinner we taught Elaine and Scott how to play Farkle, they are convinced to this day that we made the whole game up as we played. Fun was had by all, there was a campfire outside and everyone was relaxed from a long day. We retired to the sounds of the Serengeti around Ndutu Lodge.

12/29/06

Breakfast and a farewell to friends. Carol the biologist is leaving early and she has the warties in her truck with her, they will travel together to Arusha where we will ship them back stateside once we get back to town. We have dubbed Carol’s truck the warthog express. We give our hugs and best wishes to Carol, Elaine and Scott and go out to the game trail again. We will game in Ndutu for the morning and then head across the Serengeti. We immediately saw dick dick and then down around Lake Ndutu large flocks of flamingo, we tried to hit some deeper game trails but it is too wet. Additionally someone spotted two jackels and then we found another long male lion under some brush, Michael said there was a female nearby with a kill based on the buzzard activity.

By lunchtime we wondered out of Ndutu back onto the vast plains of the Serengeti, we had to wait to cross “officially” into the plains until our permit allowed us to. We traveled 28.3 miles across little more then grass ruts before we actually got to another “road” or dirt path and headed towards the gate to pass into the park officially. As we headed towards the gate yet another pride of lions were on our right with plenty of marabou storks hanging for scraps. I noticed another animal which Michael identified as a Topi – it was similar to a Hardabeast but not quick the same, we also saw reebok and buchbuck which are similar to gazelle but not gazelle. Whew lots to remember.

Once we pass the “official” gates to the Serengeti, Michael begins a game drive in earnest on the way to our last lodge which is the Mbuzi Mawe and situated far into the heart of the Serengtis amongst the Kopjes which are beautiful rock croppings scattered amongst the landscape. The rains have made game trails hard to get through but Michael is in pursuit of the leopard which is the only one of the big five we have not spotted. I think everyone is tired, being in safari truck is very intense, you are constantly holding for purchase as you cross over rough terrain, it has been 8 days of traveling like this with little to no good roads and it is tough going. We do see a lion eating a baby hippo and an ever changing landscape as we wind into the Serengeti. One of the trees mom notices is slightly different and we learn it is a yellow acacia which is in the same family but definitely different.

Gazelle and a couple of Jackals cross our path we hunt but no leopards. We arrive at the tented lodge and make our way to check in, the lodge is light and airy with an open flow. The guest tents have their own en suite facilities and a private veranda; this of all the places feels the most wild to me.

Mom is tired of having her hair in braids so we spend some time clipping them out and just relaxing as we talk about our journey so far.
When we go up to the lodge, there is a band playing called the New Jambo Band which is neat, we look for postcards and James desperate for contact from the outside world tries to get online, but to no avail since the satellite is blocked by clouds. We had another excellent dinner and played Farkle with mom and dad, it was extremely relaxing.

During the night there is a cape buffalo outside our tent, you can hear him breathing and snorting, in the morning I hyena walked by our window. I pulled a 16 inch centipede off the side of the tent and set him free in the woods away from us. We have many baboons around the lodge during breakfast, more wildlife then you can imagine.

12/30/06

So today is our last game hunt, we take box lunches with the intent of eating out again, the rivers are very swollen and some of the bridges are washed out so getting to some of the trails is impossible. We see many Giraffe, Ghizelle, a waterbuck which is similar to a hardabeast and two jackals sitting in the road. There were also some elephants with no tusks which is interesting. Mom and Dad are tired and have had enough of the game trail, everyone wants to go back and take a break from the drizzle and have lunch so we do. Mom and dad decide to just be done for the day, so Martin, James and Jac go back out with Micheal in search of the elusive Leopard. Many more sightings of hyena and we saw a male Swala fight for his batch of females. Michael did take us to a hippo pool, it was so full the hippos were having a hard time of it but we did watch one emerge from the pool, they are huge!

We make one last try for further game trails but the road we came in on has completely flooded over and no one can get over from either side, you should have seen the drivers trying to figure it out. We are tired and happy, we tell Michael not to worry let’s just go back we have seen plenty. Once back we invite Michael to join us in the lounge for a drink. We thank him so much for a wonderful adventure and give spend some time showing him the photos. We truly felt well taken care of during our journey and got the absolute best from Michael. He was trying to talk us in to coming back next year, which we would gladly but one has to save for a trip like this unless you have fantastic parents who offer to take you – thanks mom and dad – we loved every minute. Micheal retired for the evening and we headed for dinner.

At dinner we finally had banana soup! It was great.

Sat in the lounge again for a bit winding down and then headed to our tents for our last night in the wild.

12/31/06

It is our last day. We are going to do a mini game ride as we head to the airstrip today. Dad takes fall outside his tent but is ok, you can tell that this has been a whirlwind trip, we are still reeling from all the sights. We have breakfast and chat with Ci, Marsha and the old Florida retirees we met who are hysterical, the travel together a lot.

Then we set off for our last ride with Michael, we will fly back and he will drive which will take him at least a day to get home. It feels sad to leave him. We do game spotting on our way, lots of wildabeast and zebra, a hyena, various birds and a jackal two – it never gets old. When we come up around the corner to the “airstrip” I am not surprised that it is little more then a grassy flat area with a windsock. While getting out of the truck, Jac cracks her melon on the truck and is bleeding, you have got to be kidding right. A couple of planes come in to pick up the Florida folks and others. Then suddenly another plane buzzes the airstrip, apparently to make sure there are no cape buffalo on the landing field. I mean what would win, the 16 seat plane or the cape buffalo, it would be a coin toss. Our captain is Gabrielle and we taxi out and then take off in the grass over the edge of a bluff, it is CRAZY. We fly to the next stop and pick up more people taking off and landing on little more then grassy fields, I enjoy it but feel for Martin who does not like to fly much. The views over the Ngoro crater are stunning, it is hard to believe that days earlier we had been driving through there, you can even see the rim road we came across on. Gabrielle is going try and land by Lake Manyara but thinks it might be too wet, the way we check is to actually go in for the landing so he can look at the field. What??? – line of site landings, - where's air traffic control - whew we don’t land and he takes us to Arusha airport.

Our new drive Adam is waiting for us, we miss Michael so much but Adam is certainly nice. Although he is a CRAZY driver, this is my bane but I can live with it. He takes us to mom and dads hotel and we are delighted to find that the Wartie express made it and the two hogs are ready to go home with us. After a bit of lunch we explore Arusha with Adam, there is celebration in the air for new years, people are walking around in revelry all the woman in beautiful costumes. Others heard goats and cattle for slaughter for the feasts. We haggle for a few more souvenirs and then head back to the hotel. We hang out by the pool and have a cocktail, James swims with more new friends. We meet Noel and June two new adult friends, they live in the Netherlands but Noel is from Africa, another neat conversation and such a nice way to end the day.
Mom and dad are staying but it is time for Martin James and I to head home. Adam takes us to the airport, we see Mt. Meru snow capped but have not seen the elusive Mt. Kilimanjaro the whole trip, I am kind of upset over this, but suddenly the clouds start to break and I am convinced we will see it, no one else believes me. Then suddenly the clouds lifted and there it was bathed in a glorious sunset, it was amazing and made the end of my trip complete. We stopped and just drank in her beauty.

We run into the AOT group at the airport and James helps Milly with her luggage. Martin breaks down and buys his walking staff which he had been talking about. It is time to board the plane, we wave goodbye to Tanzania and begin the 24 hour journey home.

1/1/2007

Happy New Year!!! We made it home and already are pining for Africa. It is hard to describe how the atmosphere suited us but both Martin and I are convinced that we are both better served in that exact climate. Maybe it is the location to the equator we are not sure but we want to recapture that and we plan to on a trip in the future. We all came back tired but refreshed.

What a trip – we can’t wait to do it again only this time we are staying for a month!

Mom, Dad, James and Martin - this trip wouldn't have been complete without you all. It was amazing and I loved every minute of it with you guys. Thanks!!!

Out of Africa

Jambo (hello in Swahili) welcome to our blog.

Go to this site to check out the attractions. www.journeytoafrica.com This is the company we booked the trip through. They are excellent!!!


Well the journey to Tanzania is almost here. We are so excited to go on this adventure. We are going to try to use our blog site to journal this fantastic trip so stay tuned for daily news and photos, if we can get internet connectivity that is. If not we plan on posting it all upon our return. Only 9 more days until we leave. We posted a couple of pictures from the NgoroNgoro Crater which is part of our trip. Lions, Black Rhinos, Flamingos, Elephants, Leapards etc. It is 12 square miles of wildlife.

Mom and Dad we can't wait to see you!!!! This is going to be fantastic.