Our Travels

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Wed, July 1: Last Game Drive and Travel Home

Karen walked out of our lodge door this morning and said she doesn’t want to leave – she wants to continue doing game drives. But alas, this is our departure day. Our guide had us leaving early so we could do one last mini game drive on the way to the airstrip (I have to be careful not to call it an airport). Even the little game drives are fun. Immediately down the road from our lodge, we see Elephants (RIGHT next to the road), Impala, Dwarf Mongoose, African Fish Eagles, one last lion pair, giraffes, zebras (of course).. Every day we go out, we see something different with the animals. It’s hard to leave.

We said goodbye to Joseph, our driver (but our tour guide Richard continues with us) and hop onto a 13-seat scheduled service plane back to Arusha. The airstrip in the Serengeti is what you would expect. A flat gravel airstrip and a shack and some bathrooms and some parking. Nothing more. It was a quick 50 minute flight to Arusha, where we head back to our original lodge for lunch and to rest for 3-4 hours. We had to repack and reorganize our luggage since only some of it went on to the Safari, while a lot of the stuff from the Amsterdam part of our trip stayed here at the Arusha Lodge. Now, we say goodbye to the Blog for this Shabel adventure and head out to the Kilimanjaro airport for our flights home. It’s going to be a very long trip with 21.5 hours of flight time alone. (through Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, then Amsterdam, then LAX) Then a drive back home from LAX. Fortunately, we have a long weekend waiting for us for recovery.

We hope you have enjoyed the blog and the pictures. We also hope this inspires many of you to find a way to take a Safari trip to Tanzania in the future. It will not disappoint.

He couldn't have been more than 10 feet from the vehicle

Topi

Dwarf Mongoose

African Fish Eagle (eating fish, imagine that!)

Our last lion sighting of the trip -- from a distance

Our 13-seater from the Serengeti back to Arusha

The same Elephant in the sun right next to the vehicle

Family shot in front of the Safari vehicle we have been with the entire time

Arusha Airport (where the Tanzanian president had just landed!)

Tuesday, June 30: Last Game Game Drives

Well, this is it. This was the last full day of game drives in the Serengeti and for our trip. The funny thing is, this was the slowest day for game sightings, although there was still plenty to see. Our day was divided into two parts – a morning drive and then lunch at the lodge before going out on a short afternoon drive. There is a herd of elephants that seem to hang out near the lodge and sometimes even go right through the grounds. We see them almost every morning and today was no exception. Today they were very close to the road and we. Watched awhile while pulled branches off a tree to eat. Jeff actually got some great video of them tearing off a huge branch. We also checked in on the resident Impala herd. It’s kind of funny. The guy and all of his girls are one side of the road and the bachelor herd is on the other side of the road looking on with envy…

The highlight of the morning was driving through a massive herd of zebra along an area of rolling hills. There were so many you couldn’t help but laugh. Intermixed with the herd there were also lots of Wildebeest and even a few buffalo. We have decided that Zebra and Wildebeest are the kamikazes of the animal kingdom. They wait until you are just in front of them before they decide that it’s time to run across the road. We have also decided that these two creatures are the noisiest ones too! They are constantly called out and snorting and kicking and making a general ruckus. We could have watched them all morning, especially the younger Zebra, they are brown and white and the youngest are really fuzzy, very cute indeed.

After that it was a while before we saw anything else, but as we have come to learn, sometimes you go for a long time with nothing, then see something really cool. In this case, we learned of a leopard that was hanging out in a tree. Unlike the other day, we were either more remote or many of the trucks were farther away and couldn’t get there quickly, because there were only a handful of trucks. This looked like a younger leopard and it was looking around a lot and sure enough, after a bit, it got up and climbed down to look for another perch! I was lucky and got some nice photos, even though he was a little farther away. As we were slowly leaving the area we were able to catch a glimpse of him again as he had climbed another tree.

As we got closer to the lodge we closed the windows and the top of the car because we were approaching Tse Tse Fly territory. Forget mosquitoes, these guy are the true menace of the Serengeti. Bigger than a housefly, they like to chase moving things and that includes safari trucks. It wouldn’t be so bad if they just buzzed around you, but the actually bite. I was lucky and didn’t get bit, but apparently it’s quite painful! So we made it back through fly country and along a very bumpy road and had lunch at the lodge.

We were not so lucky in the afternoon game drive. Richard and Joseph took us to an area that commonly has a lot of animals because you can drive along the river and many animals come down to drink. However, due to some rains a few weeks ago, the area is still very lush, so much so that the grasses were probably as tall as I am. You couldn’t see a thing! They were also worried that if we attempted to get to the river, our truck could get stuck, so we had to abort that path. It was a bit of a bummer because that was our last real chance to see some cool stuff, but in the end, we did get to see some really awesome scenery. By the end of the month, that area will be completely dry.

As a consolation we drove through a large herd of Wildebeest and their various hangers-on. These were the animals that should have been in the area we went to first, but they hadn’t moved on because the other areas hadn’t dried up yet! As we were leaving we were lucky one last time. I don’t know how he spotted it, but Richard saw what looked like a tail hanging out of a tree and once again we were able to see a leopard through our binoculars. This one was quite far away so I couldn’t even get a photo. So we were three times lucky spotting this rare animal – probably as he was selecting dinner from the herd of animals unawares nearby.

The best part of the day and maybe the whole trip was awaiting us back at the lodge. Since this was our last night, a farewell party was arranged for us. We walked out onto a patio that overlooked the Serengeti while a troops of musicians and dancers treated us to traditional African music. We were poured champagne and relaxed and soaked in the view of the expanse below us. You could make out the herds of Wildebeest and Zebra that almost looked like ants from our vantage point. So we drank and had appetizers with Richard, our guide and Joseph, our driver all while the sun was setting over the Serengeti – the traditional “sundowner”. We were also presented with gifts! Josh received a model of our safari truck that looks just like the one we drove. The roof even pops up! We also reserved traditional cloths that people wear as wraps. Men, wear it like a skirt and women use it multiple ways. They showed me how to wrap one as a skirt and another as a head scarf (which I wore to dinner!). It is hard to put into words the beauty of it all; the light hitting the plain, the music, our own private little pocket of luxury. It will not soon be forgotten. I guess you can say that Tanzania has stolen a little piece of my heart – I am finding it very hard to leave here.

Cute little guy!

Leopard Spotting

Serengeti Selfie!

Zebra herd pano

Serengeti Pano

Elephant family goes to work on a large tree

Our farewell "Sundowner" with Joseph (left) and Richard (right)

The setting for our Sundowner

I spy a leopard!

Now spot it from this distance!

Lilac Breasted Roller at rest

Changing trees

Vervet Monkey

Wildebeest herd

Lilac-breasted Roller in flight

He just looks like, "Hey. Don't mess with me"

Watching me watching you...

Family time

Monday, June 29, 2015

Monday, June 29: Serengeti Cats and Patience

Today was a full day Safari from 8am until 6:30pm. It was a day to search for the cats and go to some remote areas that require a full day of driving. One thing I can tell you is that paved roads have been long gone for about 5 days now. We are on dirt roads all the time. It is hard to imagine the days of smooth driving anymore. The park has a few main dirt roads that they maintain. Then there are several other paths that are not maintained but get you to other areas of the park. However, the driver is not allowed to make their own new path.

Today did not disappoint. However, we learned quickly how large the Serengeti really is. It can be an exercise in patience. We would drive over an hour sometimes without seeing anything substantial. However, patience would be rewarded each time with a spectacular find. Josh is very interested in animal pack behavior for the various species. He spends a lot of time talking with our tour guide about how the lion hierarchy works and the elephants, etc. Our tour guide is very patient with him (and us) and makes sure all our questions are answered. He is a very seasoned guide and a former game warden at several of their national parks so he knows his stuff very well. Josh was especially interested when he found out that elephant females announce that they are in heat to elephant bulls miles away.

Today was partly to mostly cloudy and in the upper 70s. The clouds really make it feel nice out. It ended up raining near one of the mountains later in the afternoon and it started raining at our lodge at dinner time (7:30pm) and is still raining now a few hours later. This is unusual since this is the beginning of the dry season. Their rainy season ended about 3-4 weeks ago. One thing that’s unusual is that our lodge is in the middle of the park without any protective barriers. So, the lodge has to work hard to keep the wildlife from drinking from the swimming pool in the middle of the dry season. Also, since there are no barriers, animals can roam freely on the lodge grounds. So after dark, you are not allowed to walk around the lodge grounds without an escort. So, we have to call for an escort to/from our room to get to/from dinner. So far we haven’t seen any large animals – just a few smaller ones. Although I heard some elephants came fairly close the other night.

The animals here are used to vehicles so most don’t really mind them – like the lions. We can drive right up to them and they look up and then flop back down to rest. The zebras and wildebeests are skittish and insist on cutting off the vehicle whenever possible – a skill Josh has apparently passed on to the local animals here. There are much fewer insects than we expected. Maybe it’s the time of year we are here. But there are almost no mosquitoes and other insects. Except the Tse Tse flies that are in one section of the park. Those guys can bite so we have to swat them away quickly – even the driver was swatting them away a lot.

Ok, onto the animals. It was a big day for cats, especially lions. (no cheetahs today unfortunately) We saw 3 prides of lions. One in the trees. One on some rocks. And one cooling off in some mud. We were parked right under the tree so we were right next to them. And we were also able to pull up right next to them in the mud. Like I said earlier, they don’t mind the vehicles so we can get really close to them. We were very fortunate to see two of the lion cubs climb the tree to get to their parents.

The big goal today was to see the elusive and solitary leopard. And sure enough we ended up seeing him later in the day. However, with all of the vehicles there trying to get a view of him, it was difficult to get a good shot. But Karen ended up getting some good ones. The leopard actually crossed the road and went in between some of the vehicles without any worries.

Josh was very excited that we were able to get very close to Elephants as well. The best was at the end of the day when an Elephant walked right in front of our vehicle and stopped in the road to munch on some bushes. I was able to get some video of them but I can’t upload them until I get back.

Some other animals and birds we saw were: Impala, Dik Diks, Topi, Hartebeast, Warthogs, Crocodiles, Egyptian Goose, White backed Vultures, Bateleur Eagle, HAmmerkop (hammerhead stork with a huge nest!), Hippos (one crossing the road!), Giraffes, Wildebeests (duh), Terrapins, Ostrich, Rock Hyrax, Servals, Elands, and Buffaloes.

Enjoy the pictures. Karen had a tough time trying to narrow down all of the shots today.