Serengeti

Well, the past twelve days bring far too many adventures to cram into one post…or at least one readable post. It would be so long and I probably wouldn’t finish writing until Christmas. By then, everyone would have lost interest in my stagnant blog. So, stories and photos will come piecemeal. I’ll start by trying to give you a master guide to help assemble all my pieces, so I don’t leave you in utter confusion. If something’s doesn’t seem to fit, please ask. I know I specialize in leaving out major details when I tell a story, leaving my listener befuddled and often messing up the stories punchline.

The first six days of my travels were spent on safari in Northern Tanzania. Night one – Lake Manyara, the land of little birds, mosquitoes and tree-climbing lions.
The next three nights were in Seregeti: "the endless space of endless plain" (by far my favorite). You'll here stories about hyena's sniffing round my tent. The fifth night was at Simba campsite, on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater. A zebra accidentally rammed itself into my tent that night. Day 6 we decended into the Crater. The seventh day involved transport from Arusha in Northern Tanzania to Stone Town, in Zanzibar, off Tanzania’s western cost. The last five days were spent in Zanzibar – first in Stone Town and then at a beach resort on the Indian Ocean. The last night (before flying back on 22 October), I stayed in Dar-Es-Salaam. So, yes. I got around a bit.

On Safari

At Kilimanjaro airport I was met by my green safari car, my guide, my cook and the travel agent who planned my trip. We stopped by Wonder of Creations offices...I'll tell you about that later. Chislon (pronounced Kis-lon), the travel agent, told me that I had Wonder’s of Creation’s best guide and cook. At the time, I thought Chislon was full of just flattery…or (if I may use the term I believe slightly more fitting) bullshit. However, the soup Alex served me that first night convinced me he really was their best cook.

When my guide introduced himself to me, he watched me face baulk at the jumble of letters that made up his name. I tried to recover by politely requesting that he write done his name for me, so I could properly pronounce it. Two days later, I realized this had never happened and I didn’t have a clue what his name was…so I managed to go all six days without calling him by name. Really, though. I couldn’t have been more blessed with my guide. I later learned that he was the guide that trained all the other guides for Wonders of Creation. He even helped to train guides for other companies. Hukurma had this saying “Let us be fisherman” and, while other drivers would phone or sms (text) each other and rush in crowds to different big 5 sightings, we would watch and wait in one location. I saw all the big 5 (elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and black rhino). But more than that – I saw life unfold on the plains. My guide knew animals. He’d explain their little dramas. I watched, entranced. Young male gazelles fighting. Leopard cubs playing. Vultures and jackels lining up to scavange the cheetah's breakfast remains. The male elephant trying to figure out which female in the herd was in heat. The zebra's realize they'd walked right into a lion.

That's just the skeleton of some of my Safari adventures. What would you like to hear about first? Lions? Cheetahs? Giraffs? Animal kingdom making love? Leopards? Elephants?