Destinations

We left the crater this morning and headed back to Arusha where will catch or flights the following day.  I had a picture taken of Jabshir, our guide and driver, while we stopped at the entrance to the park.

On the way, we stopped at a Cultural Heritage Site.  It had a lot of things for sale but I learned long time ago, there are a lot of things that you think you want but when you get it home you wonder where you are going to put it and what was I thinking when I bought this?  I decided to buy local coffee, teas and spices.

We took the same route back to Arusha that we came on.  As we passed an area, the guide pointed out a stand on the side of the road that said :Hillary Clington”.  They had tried to paint over the “g” in Clington but it was visible. I had noticed at the Ngorongoro crater there were pictures of Hillary and her daughter Chelsea.  I wondered if Hillary had stopped at this cart/store as she passed through. Continue reading →

Ngorongoro Crater is a conservation area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The conservation area including the highlands and the crater covers over 3,500 square miles.  The crater itself is close to 20 miles wide. This is considered one of the best known wildlife viewing areas with a a concentration of lions, elephants, rhinos, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests and buffalo. Since no hunting is allowed, most of the wildlife isn’t shy and walks very close the the safari jeeps.  At one point, a male lion marked his territory on a jeep. Continue reading →

After breakfast, the group departed for Ngorongoron Crater and a last viewing of game along the Serengeti plains.  On the way to the crater, we stopped at Olduvai Gorge (pictured above).  This should ring a bell if you ever took archaeology 101 or learned the evolutionary theory.  It is in the gorge that  Dr. Lewis Leakey and his wife Mary found humanoid remains of an early form of man along with a lot of an artifacts dating back to two million years ago.  It is nicknamed “The Cradle of Mankind” Continue reading →

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What an overwhelming day!

Let me say that the day and so far this trip ended up being beyond anything I expected.  This the rainy and low season for Tanzania.  It is also the coolest. That means, temps have been in the 70’s, very few bugs, not a single mosquito and no crowds.  Did I mention lower prices?  I struck gold!  So I have to sit through a thunderstorm for a few hours. I love thunderstorms.

Today we saw baboons, blue monkeys, giraffes, storks, black faced monkeys, impalas, zebras, wildebeest, hippos, wart hog, hyenas, lions, leopards, white headed vultures, Thompson gazelles, dik diks, elephants and ostriches.  There were too many too list them all. Continue reading →

After breakfast our group climbed back into our jeep and we set out to see the Lake Manyara National Park.  As we first entered the park there were trees filled with storks. Not just one or two storks but a dozen or more storks in each tree.  As with the previous day we not only saw the storks and baboons but we also saw two different types of monkeys where were trying to the stork nests for an easy meal of eggs.

The vervet black faced Monkeys are easily recognizable by their bright blue testicles.   Continue reading →

I woke up early after a good night’s sleep and had a relaxing morning at the hotel.  The large hornbill birds outside woke me up at dawn.  It reminded me of when I worked a couple of projects in Hawaii and the birds announced the arrival of a new day.  I looked forward to hearing them every morning.

The Serena Mountain Village Hotel has vast gardens with plenty of plenty of tropical fauna and wildlife to explore.  I spent the morning sitting near the lodge looking at the various birds including the hornbill which looks like a black and white version of the toucan.

At different times, various members of the group joined me out front of the lodge where we began to get to know each other.  There were six of us, four of us were in IT, there was a retired attorney and we all found the safari through “Living Social” – an internet deal.

After we met our ranger/driver Jabshir.  We climbed into a jeep and headed out to Lake Manyara. Arusha was just a stopping point before heading deep into the Serengeti. Continue reading →

“Jambo”, I kept hearing it over and over again and I thought somehow this was an African version of my name, but I couldn’t figure how they knew my name.  In my tired  jet lagged haze, it occurred to me – it means hello.  Remember the Lionel Richie song “All night long?”  We are going to have a party all not long…. …. Jambo Jambo

It wouldn’t be long until I had my second lesson in Swahili – Hakuna matata at least I knew what that means.

My father always wanted to go to Africa but somehow he never made it.  Taking time off of work, kids at school, bills to pay.  When he finally retired my mother didn’t like the idea of going overseas and then it was his turn to worry about upcoming medical tests along with pending treatments. He never made it to Africa. Continue reading →