The Endless Plains

Jambo again from the beautiful Serengeti, which, in Swahili, means the "endless plains."

Before I left home,  I would have guessed that the highlight of this trip would have been our visit to the crater of Ngorongoro, which was absolutely wonderful.

I was just not prepared to be as awed as I have been by both the beauty of the landscape and the abundance of the animal life of the Serengeti.

At any point as we travel along,  chewing the brown dust from the road and enduring the ongoing "African massage," I've found that if I just look out my back window of our Land Cruiser and watch the passing herds of antelope and take in the majesty of the distant volcanic peaks,  I can't help but embrace the contentment of Hakuna Matata, a Swahili philosophy of no worries.

Those who know me pretty well would say that I am not known as one to be very philosophical or to dwell on introspection,  but I have to admit that I had one of those days  Thursday. As we worked our way west through the herds of thousands and thousands of wildebeest and zebra,  I couldn't help but think, with some surprisingly emotional depth,  of the series of circumstances that combined to bring me to such an amazing place.

I thought of my late dad, Angelo, who used to love to watch any kind of nature program on his television, and how I learned to appreciate the beauty of the out of doors through him, and to respect the creatures that live in places like the beautiful country of Tanzania. He never got an opportunity to visit the wilds that he loved from afar, so my reflections took me to a place that made me feel as if I was his representative here. I feel very blessed and honored.

So what, you ask, took me to such an emotional place?

Saw Lion Pride on the Hunt

The Serengeti is a place that is truly almost beyond description with mere words.  I can tell you that it is a place where the savanna grasslands continue limitless all the way to the horizon.  Or I can try to describe the noisy chaos of the migration,  with zebra braying and uncountable wildebeest gnuing at noise levels that fill the senses. Or I can attempt to put into words the thrill of watching a pride of a dozen lions put themselves into position to stalk an unsuspecting, but always wary, herd of zebra, only to have the plan sabotaged  by an overeager juvenile male who pulled the trigger just moments before the lead lioness could launch her well-planned attack. But nothing can replace the actuality of being here,  seeing it,  feeling it deep inside you. After a week here,  many of us are grasping our own insignificance in a world larger and more beautiful then one can ever realize without leaving the comfort and safety of their home environment.

(There has been an attempt to insert a short video below of wildebeests crossing in front of our vehicle,  but it doesn't work on my player.  Maybe it will on yours. )
 


As we have said and heard said so many times this week, even the multitudes of photographs that we have taken on our trek cannot begin to do justice, or give more than a mere token idea, to  what our eyes are actually seeing, to I what our brains are trying to grasp.  It is a wonderful experience, but as hard as I try, I cannot transmit to you the fullness, the depth,  of what we have gone through on this wonderful adventure, led by our intrepid guide and our eagle-eyed drivers.

Yesterday, as we transited from Serengeti Serena to our final refuge at Kira Wira in the western Serengeti, we experienced a myriad of sights and sounds. We continued  to witness the ongoing insistent forces of the migration, animals driven to greener pastures and fresh sources of water by ancient urges that even they can't begin to understand.

Elephants Enjoying the Mud

We have watched as families of elephants bathed and fed, and as groups of  giraffes consumed the leaves of tall trees, while young males from the same group sought dominance over one another by bashing head against neck so loudly that it could be heard from fifty yards away.

Today, as we relax by the pool at Kirawira,  overlooking these aforementioned endless plains, we have moved from the savanna grasslands to the savanna woodlands. The sunshine and blue sky, decorated by high thin clouds,  have warmed the air temperature enough to make one want to cool off in the  splashing water.

Our day, however, had started off in the brisk air of morning with a 5:15 wake-up call to our tents so that we would  be ready for our only early morning game drive, leaving the lodge at 6:00. We headed down the road in the pre-dawn stillness and watched the sun come up over the scrublands.

A Nile Crocodile Swallowing his Meal

At the spot where the road reaches the Grumeti River, the upside-down carcass of a crocodile bitten in half by a hippopotamus floated,  resting against the concrete dam created to provide a crossing for our vehicles. A still-living croc  was feeding on his former mate, biting and spinning to tear off the chunks of flesh while ten yards away, a pair of large hippos conjoined in the age-old tradition of creating more hippos. One could hardly ask for a more vivid representation of an African ecosystem to microcosm, life and death, all within a short space of both distance and time.

Hippos at the crossing

My final post from Tanzania should be published no later than Saturday evening, as we say goodbye to our new friends, both from home and from Tanzania. I wish more of our friends from home had decided to join us on the short extension into Kenya, and we will surely miss our drivers, Prosper, Davis, and Filbert, and our master guide Robert Marks Moshi. Robert has assured us, however, that he knows, Eddie, our guide in Kenya, well, and that we will be in good hands.



Thursday's Sunset from the Porch at Kirawira

Off to the Serengeti

Jambo,  again.

We left the cool Tuesday morning of the Ngorongoro rim at 7,000 feet,  and headed west toward the Serengeti. Half an hour into the trip, coming off the mountain, we saw our first giraffes,  feeding a little way off the road,  then stopped to see some Maasai camels being herded by a man who turned

Maasai Talking Stick

out to be a cousin of Robert, our guide. Robert explained the purpose of the Maasai talking sticks they were trying to sell us,  and soon almost all of us had to have one. Yes, even me.

We continued our trek west,  visiting the dig site of the Leakeys at Olduvai to see the birthplace of one of the very early modern man. Turning off the main road at Nduto to try and track down the elusive cheetah,  our three cars spread out across the savannah, thinking that surely one or another would come across one of the solitary cats.  But the radio stayed silent. No cheetah reports to share. As we searched we came to a low,  marshy area,  and started to cross to see if our luck would be any better on the other side.


Before we knew what happened, our car was stuck in the mud of the marsh. We tried to push it out, no way. The other vehicles came to rescue us, and one of them  promptly got stuck, too. The third car attempted to pull out our second car,  but the cable broke and the car went in even deeper. Our drivers are very experienced,  and it paid off for us.  They were able to jack the cars up,  fill the hole with some big stones, and finally pull out our car.  Then they did the same to car number two and got it out.  We re-loaded all our gear back into the cars and headed off to lunch in the middle of the savannah, and then on to the main entrance to Serengeti National Park.

Lionesses on Duty

During that time we stumbled across two groups of plump lionesses relaxing in the afternoon, digesting their kill from the night before.

Pride Rock

We entered the Serengeti NP and soon came to Pride Rock,  you know,  from the Lion King. And sure enough,  there was a pride of lions sleeping up high on the rock.  The rock is a great example of a  kopje (sounds like "copy"), a special rock formation unique to this area;  they are scattered throughout the Serengeti, and they are absolutely wonderful.

We continued our game drive on into the park, getting our first idea of what the Great Migration must look like.  There are zebra and wildebeest everywhere,  thousands and thousands of them.  They are noisy and chaotic. And these are just a small portion of what has separated from the main herd.

I have to tell you a little bit about our lodge here, the Serena Serengeti. Each building is again styled after an African hut, and the view from the room is a vast panorama. It is so secluded and so much in the middle of wild lands that, after dark,  if we want to go from our rooms to the restaurant or vice versa,  we are to call reception and request an escort, an armed escort.  We were told last night that there were both a hyena and a lion on the property.  I just counted over thirty elephants from my balcony.

Two lions sleeping in a tree

Wednesday’s game drives continued the amazing sights from the day before. We are still seeing herds of elephants, various antelope species, more zebras and wildebeests,  lions enjoying their rests and others a short honeymoon,  and then stalking the nearby zebra herd.

Cheetah with Prize

But the most jaw-dropping part of the day was finally seeing our first cheetah. And not only did we see it,  but we were able to witness first-hand its blinding speed and ability to focus on the task at hand.  Despite the distraction of quite a few safari vehicles, she ran down a small Thompson’s  gazelle to share with her cubs. As many times as I have watched this scene play out on my television screen at home, I could never have imagined the speed and grace and drama involved in the chase and the capture when seen in real life.  What an experience!  What an awesome day!


And the day wasn't over yet. After I thought I was done with today's entry,  we headed for the restaurant for dinner, only to be told that we were going out for a supper in the bush. It was unbelievably cool to be out under the brilliant blanket of stars here, eating a barbecue dinner served on linen with all the trimmings. We were serenaded by the Maasai music group by a roaring campfire. And were watched over the whole time by guards with guns to make sure we weren't disturbed by any local creatures.

Tomorrow we leave the east/central Serengeti and head to the west,  to maybe catch the larger part of the migration, maybe a river crossing, we'll see.

Our final lodge in Tanzania is at a Serena camp known as Kirawira Luxury Tented Camp.  We've been told that it's the greatest of the Serena properties.  Can't wait to see it.

Asante Sana again for checking the blog. I’m hoping to have an update for you Friday.

Jay


Thursday AM postscript: I was awakened slightly early this morning by an angry elephant somewhere nearby,  roaring and trumpeting.  Pretty cool!

No, not charging, just eating.

My Day in Ngorongoro Crater

Let's start by saying it was an awesome, exhausting day.

All the animals in the crater came out to greet us,  probably because everyone in our car, guides and all, has been singing the Jambo Bwana song before and during each game drive. We've had two game drives, and have easily seen the "Big Five" and then some. We saw a leopard the other day, and on this drive added the rest: lion, cape buffalo,  elephant,  and,  yes,  (6) rhino.  Today was just a great day for seeing wildlife in Ngorongoro; we are, in the words of our guide,  Robert Marks Moshi,  "blessed. "

I have to tell you about the one most amazing aspect: A lioness, asleep by the side of the road. Vehicles were pulling up right next to her,  I mean, two feet next to her, people were taking pictures and talking quietly, and she never budged. She opened one eye once,  lifted her head two inches to see what was going on, and promptly went back to sleep. UNBELIEVABLE!

The Lion Sleeps Today

Rather than go on and on about the day, and because I'm really tired, I'm just going to share a few pictures:

Green Mamba along the road

Our First (of many) Zebra

The beautiful valley west of the crater

Panoramic View of the crater from the entrance gate

Our "crew" singing for us at lunch

Puumba sings, "When I was a young warthog"

Cape Buffalo

A black-backed jackel looking for some action

Three juvenile male lions

Asante Sana again for checking.  Tomorrow we head west, to Olduvai to see the excavation site of some of the earliest human life, then to Nduto, hoping to see some cheetah, and then into the Serengeti for the first of four nights. I know it will be amazing, but today is sure going to be hard to beat.

Jay

On The Rim

O    M    G  !!!!!

After all I had read about this place,  after all the videos and TV shows I had watched about it,  I thought that I would be pretty well prepared for my first view of the crater at Ngorongoro. Boy, was I wrong!  As we climbed the road towards the rim,  we were told that there was a viewing area,  but that it was often in the clouds so that there was no view. We came around a bend and there it was, clear as you could possibly ask for. Most people think they're ready to see the Grand Canyon for the first time,  but they're not. This is like that.  It's far bigger,  far more grand than you think it's going to be. It's absolutely incredible.

First view of the crater

But I'm getting ahead of myself.......

Relaxing at Gibbs Farm

We left Lake Manyara and headed west at a leisurely pace. After one more souvenir store stop, we headed to a little paradise called Gibbs Farm in Karatu for a quick tour of the coffee plantation, followed by another excellent lunch. There was time after to relax on the lawn with a beautiful valley below and the western mountains stretching off into the distance.

The wedding party

After lunch,  we stopped for another cultural encounter. After learning about the Maasai yesterday, it was time to learn about a different tribe, the Wairaqw,  who were actually ancient enemies of the Maasai , who were always trying to steal their cattle. We learned,  in a rather odd progression,  how they make beer, how the women learn to carry a calabash on the heads (including attempts by a couple of our ladies who did quite well), dressing the Wairaqw bride and members of the wedding party,  and a tour of the hut used by the family.  It was very interesting, and a great break in our traveling.

Let's head up the mountain

Finally we arrived at the entrance to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where we had a quick orientation, arranged our entry into the park, and headed up the hill. We came to the viewing area that I started to describe above, and it took my breath away. Huge! Impressive!  Fabulous!  I grabbed the binoculars and immediately spotted a herd of elephants in the crater far below, in addition to more herds of buffalo and wildebeest.


They eventually forced me to leave the viewing platform and get in the car so we could get to the Serena Ngorongoro Hotel,  where my room awaited with still another incredible view of the crater floor from the balcony.

As we await the call to supper, I'm sitting in the bar writing this while we are being entertained by a group of acrobats accompanied by African drum music. The bar is packed, everyone is having a great time, and the acrobats are really talented.

We descend into the crater in the morning.

I'm sure I will be awake early.

Full report tomorrow evening...

Great First Game Drive

Jambo, again, Rafiki (Friend)!

Davis' Land Cruiser

So we have had an interesting two days.  We left our hotel in Arusha in a van driven by our driver for the week, whose name is Davis. Our group is in three Toyota Land Cruisers provided by Ranger Safaris. They are very comfortable,  and need to be,  as we will be spending a lot of time in them.

Robert’s Tribal Colors 

Our first stop was at a place to see a demonstration of how Tanzanite is mined and produced, and, of course, to sell us some. A couple of our group bought some but it was a bit rich for what was left of my budget (rarer than diamonds), so we moved on.

We headed west and south from Arusha on a road that had miles under construction and had quite a few "diversions" on to what was supposed to be a graded parallel. The road was dusty and REALLY bumpy. Davis told us it was our first (of many) "African massages." Not very comfortable,  and a bit tough on the back,  but many of the roads we will be on this trip are not paved,  so hakuna matata,  I guess.

We had a great picnic lunch under the shade in a banana plantation at Mto Wa Mbu ("Mosquito River"), moved on to climb the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley,  overlooking Lake Manyara National Park . The damage from the floods from last month is still very evident, but there have been enough repairs to let traffic through,  albeit at a snail’s pace. And there was where we saw our first "wild" animal, a baboon,  of course.  Then there were five baboons,  then ten,  and so on.

That first baboon 

We arrived at our latest home away from home, the Lake Manyara Serena hotel, another great spot in a stunning setting at  the top of the grade.  Each room, again, is designed in a truly African style.  The decor for this one is baskets:  basket ceilings,  light fixtures, etc.  Very cool.

And they have the most amazing infinity pool.  Because this lodge is built on the edge of a huge cliff, the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, and the pool is right on the edge,  the pool truly disappears into the horizon. So we arrive at the hotel,  check in, and then Robert takes us on a nature walk around the grounds, accompanied by a couple of guards, just in case the wrong animal wanders by. We have had a bushbuck (antelope) visit while we were at the pool, and a family of baboons descend upon the lawn during breakfast.

Our Leopard,  Courtesy of Jan Spooner

After breakfast,  we load up the vehicles and head out on our first game drive,  several hours at Lake Manyara NP.  During our incredible drive today we saw more baboons,  blue-back monkeys,  warthogs,  flamingos, hippos, wildebeest, impala, glimpses of each of two different elephants, and the highlight of our day,  a beautiful leopard, sleeping in a tree, spotted by our eagle-eyed driver, Davis the Great.

What a day!  Many visitors never see a leopard, and we see it on our first game drive!!

Back to the hotel for a quick lunch (I'm done raving about the food.  Suffice it to say that each meal is terrific!),  and then Robert , who is himself a Maasai chieftain, took us to visit the nearby village of a Maasai friend.

We were treated to a Maasai welcome song and dance, the famous warriors' dance that includes a leaping contest straight up into the air, a lesson about how the women construct their huts from mud, cow dung, and water, and finally a tour of the chief’'s hut, where the fire pit inside both warms and provides smoke to keep the mosquitoes away. We bought some hand-made souvenirs at outrageous prices (just consider it a donation), and listened while the village pre-schoolers demonstrated their mastery of the ABC song.

As we headed back up the escarpment one last time,  we felt satisfaction that we had had a very rewarding day.

Sunday morning brings check out here and a drive to the rim of the world famous Ngorongoro Crater, which should be one of the true highlights of the week.

Asante Sana, again, for putting up with all these words. I hope I am giving you a true picture of how awesome this experience is. Hope all is well with you all.

Jay

Arrived Safely

Jambo, again.

Here I am in Tanzania, hard to believe I'm actually here.

It all started at O'Hare. Waited in line to check in at United, only to panic when they told me that I had no reservation. Turned out to be just be a wrong code entered by our travel agent, but, wow, what a scary start.

Got to DC with no further issues, and checked in Wednesday morning at Ethiopian Air for our long flight to Addis Ababa. Lovely flight with all the great new features on the Dreamliner, except for the guy in front of me who thought it was his responsibility to test the reclining abilities of his seat. I swear he was up and down at least 150 times, spilled  the water on my tray three times.  Then the cute little six year old Ethiopian girl that was sitting right behind started kicking my seat every time  I started to doze off. Aaaaaagh! So I read some of my Kindle books and watched two movies. The food theu served on the flight was really good, what a contrast from our United cattle car flight. Flight totals: 2 hours from ORD to Dulles, 12.5 to Addis, and another 3 to JRO, a total of almost 7000 miles. (The time here is 8 hoursr later than Chicago. So, as I sit here typing this AM it's 8:00 Friday, and some of you are just going to bed at midnight  Thursday.)

Arriving at JRO, Mt. Kilimanjaro Int'l.

Anyway, the bottom line is we arrived at Mt. Kilimanjaro Airport on time (the mountain was mostly obscured by some high clouds, darn it), flew through the visa and customs process, I saw my first African sunrise over the Red Sea from the plane . I am south of the equator for the first time in my life. And last evening, I saw the Southern Cross for the first time, lotsa firsts, huh?

Arriving at Arusha Mt. Village

Our guide, Robert Marks Moshi, met us at the airport and gave us our safari orientation on the lawn at our hotel, Serena Mountain Village in Arusha. This place is stunning. All the rooms are done in the style of a Masai village, little huts, as you can see in the photo. The food at dinner was fabulous and our breakfast buffet this morning had more choices than a person could make. The coffee is great, strong and flavorful, grown nearby.

Our day today will be a relatively short one, as many are still adjusting to the time change. On this gorgeous morning, we are going to go to a place to learn about tanzanite, a gem found only here in Tanzania, then on to a real Maasai village cultural stop, an outdoor lunch at a local farm, then on to the Lake Manyara Serena Lodge. No animals today, just an easy, relaxed time, then an early game drive on Saturday in Lake Manyara National Park.

Asante Sana again for checking my blog.

Two Weeks To Go

Jambo, Rafiki!

It's difficult to believe that my departure date is less than two weeks away. I think I've settled in on what I'm taking with me, keeping in mind that there are some limits on weight and size of bags. I will be able to have one soft-sided duffel (my football gear bag, reassigned to travel duty) and a backpack. I've purchased extra memory cards for my camera, and have practiced taking photos and short videos of animals during my zoo volunteer hours. Even though it's a little older, my Fuji digital still takes great pictures. I'm hoping that the zoom will be good enough for what I'm going to need. I used it to take the video below.

One of our critically endangered African Black Rhinos at Brookfield Zoo:

My new passport has arrived and I have all the travel documents, flight times, etc. The overseas part of the trip is on Ethiopian Airlines, and they are flying the new Boeing Dreamliner. I'm looking forward to seeing the latest in air travel. Visas will be purchased as I enter each country.

The traveler's medical issues have all been taken care of, with jabs for Yellow-Fever, Hep A,  and Tetanus/Diphtheria, a regimen of pills for Typhoid all finished, and prescriptions for Malarone (malaria prophylactic), a Z-Pack, and Imodium all filled and ready to go.

I was able to meet with Chris Panek at the zoo, and he seems like he'll be really great to travel with, and it's even been worked out now for us to have our own rooms in most locations. There are sixteen people going on the main trip to Tanzania and six of us going on to the extension trip to Tsavo West and Amboseli National Parks in Kenya. Most of us are meeting for a dinner together in Washington, DC, the night before we depart. I'll be interested in meeting them and seeing the other personalities that will be together for a couple of weeks.

Isis, BZ's beautiful lioness

I've been reading everything that I can get my hands on about the areas that I will be visiting, and have watched every TV show and YouTube available about big cats, elephants, cape buffalo, rhinos, etc. I've really learned a lot. By the way, one of my favorites has been the Big Cat Diary, originally a BBC series that is re-run every morning on Animal Planet. These folks give us a great idea, especially over a period of time, of what life in the Serengeti (actually, they're in Masai Mara, but close enough) is like for the lions, cheetahs and leopards they follow on a daily basis. You can tell that they really love following their favorite cats.

On the literary side, I have started reading Hemingway's The Green Hills of Africa. It's clearly from an era different from ours today, with little enlightenment toward conservation issues or tolerance for native cultures. Ol' Ernest is not an easy read, almost all dialogue, but I'm managing, finally, to make some headway. It's little hard to identify, though, with someone who is trying the kill the rhino with the biggest horn, especially when they've already killed one rhino. He's not interested in the ivory, just the trophy.

The details of my visit with my old pals from Jefferson Middle School, Maureen and Joanne, have all been worked out, and I'll be staying that night at the same hotel just outside of Moshi where they are going to be, rather than trying to run back and forth to Arusha, which got complicated and expensive. I'm hoping that all will work out and that our van going from Arusha to the Kenya border crossing will not forget to pick me up the next morning. The Stella Maris Hotel at Mailisita is right on the same road on which they have to travel, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

If you need to contact me while I'm gone, please use email, or, for texts, because normal texting rates to Africa are so nuts, please use my new TextNow number, 972-876-7905. Thanks.

Next report, hopefully, May 23, from Arusha Serena Mountain Lodge, Tanzania.

Until then, Kwaheri, and Asante Sana for following my blog.