It's all about the animals.....

How's this with your morning coffee? For our first game drive at Amboseli National Park, we had to be ready to go at 6:00 AM, but were rewarded with a most magnificent sunrise. The standard routine on safari is to go out early in the morning and then again just before dusk. There is no use going out at other times because as the day heats up, the animals look for shade and places to rest. This is especially true for the big cats. Lions are so lazy they rest or sleep twenty hours a day. Giraffes, on the other hand, sleep the least of any animal, just two hours a day. Here's two other tidbits: lions are the only cats that don't groom, are usually infested with lice, and generally smell. Giraffes are the only animal to have never been seen bathing. Hygiene aside, if you want to see animals, you have to be on their schedule.

So, with barely time for a cup of coffee, we climbed into the Land Cruiser and were off for a morning's game viewing. Our sleepiness quickly disappeared as we sighted our first animals. Two magnificent young bull elephants engaged in a test of strength.

They pushed and shoved each other back and forth. When they separated they pawed the ground. This went on for about twenty minutes until the smaller one went bounding off defeated. What was really funny was that the whole time those two white birds just watched and hopped around to get out of the way. One has to wonder what they were thinking.

Not too far from the elephants we came upon a small grouping of zebras. You never know what you are going to sight or when, thus the anticipation level is always quite high, especially on the first drive on your first day.

One never seems to get tired of seeing zebras. Obviously they really stand out in the dry grasses and one theory for their stripes is that it makes seeing them more difficult for their predators. As docile as they seem to be, they are fierce fighters and effectively use their hind legs as weapons.

A reason Amboseli has so many animals is that the springs from Mt. Kiliminjaro feed several large bogs. The animals love to gather around these and it can mean some pretty interesting pictures like this one of an elephant we named two tone.

And where you have water, you'll also have hippos.

Then there are the lions. Of course, everyone wants to see a lion and the first sighting is always a thrill, but it's more often lions lazing around than lions on a hunt. These are a mating pair who were laying by a water hole. Every twenty minutes they did what a mating pair is supposed to much too the delight of the occupants of the twenty or so safari vehicles surrounding them. We do have the video.

Game drive over you head back to the camp for breakfast, then shower and get ready for your next adventure. Ours was to be to visit a Masai Village in the afternoon and then another game drive. Since it is already Thursday and we are in the Serengeti, I can tease and say the Masai Village trip was amazing and will be the subject of another post.

There is not much down time on this trip and we are covering quite a lot of territory. The roads are very poor and travel is slow. While each lodge has had Internet service, it is satellite based and doesn't always work. We thought we knew conditions in third world countries, but being out in the bush is very different than being in cities. We are having a fabulous time, but not finding much time to write. I trust you understand.

Sunset in Amboseli National Park in Kenya

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Where does all the time go?

Today is our last day in Tanzania, it's September 14th, and we have been in Kenya and Tanzania for seven full days, stayed in four different locations, traveled by Land Cruiser over more rutted, wash boarded and dusty, dirt roads than I thought could exist, seen thousands of animals, took three thousand pictures between the two of us, awakened most mornings at five, and,have been constantly on the go. Next we spend all day tomorrow flying to Johannesburg, getting in at midnight, and leaving at ten the next morning to fly to Kasane, Namibia to get on the river cruise ship. To say that we feel like the proverbial hamster running on a wheel, would not be an understatement. To say that we are blessed to be able to do this is absolutely true. We are having a blast.

One downside of all this activity is the inability to process all that one is seeing and doing. Editing the pictures alone in mind numbing. We've done two days of twelve hour game drives and that really takes it out of you as does the driving in the Land Cruisers. We've had totally perfect weather so far and an added plus is the group of people we are traveling with.

There are only seventeen people on the tour. When we were getting ready to leave Nairobi and began introducing ourselves, we learned that ten were Canadians from Edmonton and Calgary who all live in Tucson, in the same neighborhood, in the winter. Three others were also Canadians from Edmonton, but not connected with the group. That left four Americans which the Canadians found very funny since none of them had ever been on a trip were Canadians out numbered Americans.

Now group trips can be tricky, especially in small groups, but these people are the warmest and most inclusive people we have ever traveled with. It quickly became one big happy group. The two other Americans are from Whitby Island in Washington State and are a delight. When the lens on Kathy's camera broke, they gave her one of their cameras to use. We have also become close to the three Canadians not part of the group. They brought their twenty six year old daughter along and she brings a refreshing and funny perspective to this group of similarly aged people. The mom and dad are also great folks. The kind you'd like to have have as next door neighbors.

I mentioned the Maasai in an earlier post. We spent an afternoon in a Maasai Village and what an experience it was. These people live far away from any town and spend most of their days tending to their cows and finding water. We were greeted outside the village with traditional song and dance by the warriors and the women.

Scarlet robes are the traditional dress and the men always carry a spear or a stick. You can see them walking across the bush, alongside the road or in villages. The women also wear colorful beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Both sexes have their ears elongated to wear the beads and elaborate braiding of the hair is a custom.

While they wear colorful robes and jewelry, their life is very difficult and they live much like their ancestors. Their villages are built in a circle with the houses and corrals inside a ring wall made out of mud and cow dung covered with thorny tree limbs. This is their first line of defense. The women build the wall and they also build the tiny houses which are also made of mud and dung with thatched roofs and a dung mixture to keep out the rain.

The houses are only two rooms with one for cooking and one for sleeping. There is no electricity nor running water. The inside was dark, claustrophobic and hot. Polygamy is their way of life and each wife has a separate house to raise her children in. The men take no part in raising the children. The chief of this village had four wives.

The burden for most things falls on the women. In these isolated villages all the men do is protect the village and guard the cattle. Boys as young as five or six will herd the cows as they graze. If you are a favorite son of the Chief, he will give you some cows, let you elongate your ears and protrude you teeth. If you are not a favorite son, you will be sent away to school. The girls don't go to school and marriages are arranged.

 

 

Cattle are the most important thing to the Maasai. They believe that their god gave them all the cattle in the world to take care of and that is what they do. They have the reputation as the fiercest fighters in Africa and have been known to kill lions attacking their herds with just their sticks and spears. Our guides swear that when lions see the scarlet robe of the Maasai they run away. Their diet is basically a mixture of cow's blood, milk and a flour mixture.

The Maasai boy becomes a warrior when he is fifteen or sixteen. Taken away from the village to a hut for three months were he is taught by the elders in the Maasai way, then circumsized, made to kill a goat, painted in a white dust, given a new name and allowed to return to the village. Yikes!

I could go on and on about this fascinating people, but this is getting long and it's almost time for a cocktail. I'll close with some pictures of Maasai children in their Sunday best while in Sunday School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And an old Maasai Warrior.

 

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At last a minute

We have just settled into our room at the Escarpment Luxury Lodge near Lake Manyara, Tanzania and for the first time since we arrived in Africa, I have a few moments to write so long as I am not too distracted by the view from our wrap around deck high above the Lake and the Western Wall of the Great Rift. I will give you a teaser and say this is one of the most wonderful places we have stayed, but will provide more detail in later post so I can use this one to begin to get caught up. It is our fourth day in Africa after all.

Our flight was uneventful and after thirty hours of travel we arrived in Nairobi. I will put a plug in for Delta Airlines as the flights from Phoenix to Minneapolis and then Minneapolis to Amsterdam were about the best from an American flagged carrier we ever we on. KLM did it's usual great job from Amsterdam to Nairobi. Immigration and Customs were incredibly efficient which is really something when you consider a major fire burned down the International Terminal here less than one month ago.

Ninety minutes after getting off of the plane, we were out of the airport and on our way to the hotel in central Nairobi where by 10:30 PM we crashed. We were up at six and on the road for a five hour drive to our first stop at the Ol Tukai Lodge in the Amboseli National Park. We only saw Nairobi through the windows of the Land Rover, but I doubt we'd hurry back from what we saw.

The first three hours on the road reminded us of India with lots of traffic and road side vendors and collection points springing up in the most unlikely places. The vendor economy is certainly very prominent everywhere with people selling everything imaginable next to the roadside.

 

 

 

 

 

We made a short rest stop at a place that didn't inspire too much confidence in how sanitary it would be, but what are you going to do. When I walked outside the compound it gave me a glimpse of what everyday life was like for people outside the city.

The further away from Nairobi we traveled, the more walking was the way to get from place to place and it only became truer was we traveled further into the bush. Our mode of transportation was the Land Cruiser, but outfitted for the bush it is a rugged vehicle with a ride to match.

We finally turned off of the main road and headed west toward the Park only to be stopped several times by herds of cattle crossing the road. Our final turn put us on a rutted, washboard gravel road for the last hour of the drive, but we finally were in the bush and getting ever closer to what we came for: the animals. After another herd of cattle stopped us, a few hundred yards later this is what we saw and we knew it was going to be a good trip.

 

When we arrived at the park gate, we were greeted by members of the local Masai village with trinkets to sell. As our driver went to fill some paper work, they surrounded the truck like it was a lion they were trying to kill and began shoving their wares through every available window. Now they are well known as fierce warriors, but when it comes to bargaining they met their match in Kathy who eagerly joined the fray. In the end, Kathy won, but everyone was happy. It was the beginning of our fascination with most interesting people which I will tell you more about in a later post.

With the gates of the park fading behind us, in a cloud of the ever present dust, our adventure in Africa was finally beginning with the majestic. Mt. Kilimanjaro as a back drop. Monkeys and baboons greeted us as we drove into our lodge to drop off our luggage and go out on our first game drive. This was to be our base for the next two action packed days and what a pleasant base it was. Here's a picture of our room and what our view only a few hundred feet away.

Kathy just came off of the deck and said the native band was playing and the bonfire was lit. It's cocktail time in Tanzania. So we will call our guard to be walked to the main lodge and join in the festivities. Who knows we may encounter something on the walk that will make another good story. I certainly have more to share.

 

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Off to Africa

Hi All,

Kathy and I are getting ready to leave for another adventure and this time I am delving into the 21st Century and doing a blog of our trip. My nephew Kip was instrumental in helping me make the transition. I hope all of you will like it.

Here's a map of our journey on a macro scale. We leave Arizona, fly to Minneapolis, change planes and head to Amsterdam, and then will fly from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya for the first part of the trip. All in all 26 hours of travel time from home to Nairobi. The first part of the trip is a traditional safari while the second part involves traveling to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbawae for a river cruise and to visit Victoria Falls via Johannesburg.

Beginning part one, we only spend the night in Nairobi and the next morning head out to Amboseli National Park at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Then it's off to Lake Manyara in Tanzania for a night, followed by two days at the Ngorongoro Crater. After the Crater, we fly to a Camp in the Serengeti National Park for three days before a long day of flights from Serengeti to Mt. Kilimanjaro Airport to Nairobi to Johannesburg, South Africa. This is not a day we are looking forward to as we leave in the morning and arrive in Johannesburg at midnight and then have a flight to Kasane, Botswana at 10:00 AM.  Oh, did I mention that the shorter flights are on bush planes?

This is a more detailed map of our time in Kenya and Tanzania.  The orange is by vehicle and the yellow is our flight back to Nairobi before heading to Johannesburg.

After barely a nap in Johannesburg, we fly to Kasane, Botswana to board our river boat  for four days of sailing up and back on parts of the Chobe River. The wild life viewing should be spectacular and we will also be able to get off of the boat to explore native villages, go on game walks and do some fishing in crocodile infested waters. Then we transfer to Victoria Falls for two days there. Our journey ends with a long day of travel leaving Victoria Falls on Sunday morning and flying back to Amsterdam arriving at ten in the morning on Monday. 

Here's a map of the river cruise and Victoria Falls. As you can see it's pretty sparsely populated.

We plan on hanging out in Amsterdam for three days before heading back. I will do my best to update the blog when we have wi-fi service. Wish us luck!

Show Low

Before we left for Africa, we made a quick run up to Show Low, Arizona to enjoy the hospitality of our good friends Carolyn and Murray and to escape the heat. Three hours northeast of Scottsdale and at close to 7000' elevation, Show Low offers quite a contrast in topography, weather and lifestyle. From desert brown to expanses of green, from 100+ dry to 70 degrees and daily rains, from an urban setting to country, the two city's may be in the same state, but that's about all they have in common.

On the other hand, as this photo shows, we weren't exactly roughing it in Show Low. Carolyn and Murray rented a really great three bedroom townhouse at a golf community called Torreon. The amenities at the property were excellent and we hope to find away to get the family up here at some point and are definitely thinking of using it a place to escape the heat if we are not traveling elsewhere.

One of the points of interest in Show Low is that is on the Mongollon Rim. It is a two hundred mile long escarpment that runs across northeastern Arizona. Ranging from 5000 to 8000 above sea level, it is full of ponderosa pine forests, mountain lakes and streams, and provides not only stunning views, but a vivid contrast to the desert Arizona most people picture when they think about the State.

Once one leaves the rim, the landscape changes into high range country with stunning vistas stretching as far as the eye can see.

The area is sparsely populated and one can travel for miles without coming across another vehicle. If you blink, you could miss the few towns you pass through.

This morning we will head back to the Valley. It was a great weekend with friends and it gave us a chance to spend time exploring this lovely, cool, green corner of Arizona.

 

 

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