Where we have been

It's early morning on the Chobe River. A bright orange sun is slowly rising in the eastern sky casting a beautiful mirror imagine on smooth water. A few birds are signing and some hippos are returning to the water after a night of grazing on the land. Looking further, out past the banks, a large herd of Cape Buffalo is grazing in the grass. Aside from the birds, the only sound is the lapping of water against the hull of the boat and some early risers chatting on the back of the deck while they have their morning coffee. After all the flights, the waiting in airports, the bouncing along on rugged roads, the early morning wake up calls, this is about as perfect as a travel experience gets.

We have one more day on the river and then it's off to Victoria Falls and the end of the African part of the trip.. For the past thirteen days we have lived in the rhythm of nature, not man. We have gotten up when the sun rises and have gone to bed earlier than we ever would have imagined, exhausted by the days activities. We have gotten closer to and seen more animals than we ever would have thought possible or safe. We have forged new friendships and have learned much. It is coming to an end all too quickly.

The trip started against the backdrop of Mt. Kiliminjaro towering 19,000 feet over Amboseli National Park in Kenya. You've already met some of the animals at the park, but have not seen the Mountain. The skies were not conducive to great photography, but when you are there all one can do is shoot and post process. Here's the best I could do under the circumstances.

The park itself is 151 square miles and lies at the border of Tanzania 150 miles south east of Nairobi. It is home to all of the animals one comes to Africa to see except for the leopard. It's lush and green in parts, as it's swamps and streams are fed by the cool, clear, waters from the snows of Kilimanjaro and yet it also has vast tacks of dried up lake bed that shimmer in the sun. It is home to the Maasai people of whom I have already written and was the area of inspiration for Hemingway when he wrote about Africa.

We left Amboseli early in the morning after a two night stay and embarked upon a three hour journey over a rutted, gravel road to the border crossing at Namanga, Tanzania. Here we had our passports stamped to exit Kenya and then walked two hundred yards to buy our visa's for Tanzania, meet a new driver/guide and head off to our next stop. We were thrilled to find the two hour trip was on a two lane asphalt highway.

Our first stop in Tanzania was the town of Arusha for lunch. It's a regional center who's main distinction is that it is the half way point on the road between Cape Town and Cairo and it has a monument to prove it.

After lunch, we got back in the Land Cruisers and headed for the Escarpment Luxury Lodge, high above the Rift Valley overlooking Lake Manyara, where we were greeted with cold towels, a fruit drink, and the staff singing a welcome song.

This is an important geological site as well as an archeological one. The rift is over 2,500 miles long and was caused by the shifting of the African tectonic plates. It is also home to one of the earliest humans: homo erectus. Even more important, though, after almost eight hours of travel, was the sight of our comforable looking, thoroughly modern room. It was regrettable that we were only staying one night.

 

 

 

The next morning we were on the road by nine headed to Lake Manyara and more rutted gravel roads. It was also to be the first time we encountered the reality of survival or not in the animal world

This hippo has a large wound right at the water level about a third of of the way back from it's nose. We watched for fifteen minutes and it did move except for blinking it's eye. The other two vehicles in our group came by at much later times and found it in exactly same position. Our guide surmised it was bitten in a fight with another hippo and he was uncertain if the hippo would mke it. The next picture shows what's left of a hippo after that didn't make it. The scavenging system in nature is very efficient.

There are a lot of animals around the lake and as soon as you'd run across a carcass, you would quickly find something more pleasant to look at.

A small gathering of wildebeest

Thousands of flamingos.

The lake itself.

We then left the lake and headed for our next stop, the Manor at Ngorongoro and if anyone can correctly pronounce Ngorongoro correctly, I will buy them a drink. Ngorongoro is one of the largest calderas in the world.

We will continue "Where we have been" in the next post, Since I started writing this morning, I have been out fishing for the ferocious Tiger Fish, had lunch, and chatted with our new found friends, besides trying to find time to write. Now we have to start preparing to pack for tomorrow when we leave this floating paradise for Victoria Falls. We are always moving on this trip and while we are staying in some pretty nice places we don't seem to have much free time, but then even if we had, posting would have been near impossible. While we may think the Internet is or should be ubiquitous, it's hardly a top priority in the bush.

 

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