Mar 1, 2017 - Ngorongoro Crater Adventures

Mar 1 - 3 Flew over the crater and again had to marvel at its sheer size. Hundreds of millions of years since any eruption and it is a 4-500 sq. km crater inhabited by 35,000 animals of all kinds. It is lush forest on the top and sides but a flat hot and shade less (almost) plains in the centre. 1 ½ hour drive from Manyara Airport to the crater and it is easy to see how much money tourism has brought to this part of Tanzania. Many motorcycles, shops including two shops selling cell phones etc. side by each entitled respectively Michelle...

Feb 27, 2017 - Seregenti Adventure

Feb 25 to Feb 27 Very good Bombardier Q400 took us from Kigali to Kilimanjaro Airport in less than a couple of hours. Late arrival and off to the Kia Lodge where we were told to 'relish' in our stay. The comedown from the six stars at the Kigali Serena to the two stars at the Kia Lodge was palpable –damp concrete floors, a shower where the shower head had only two jets functioning, one for the hot and one for the cold, so it was a major challenge to jump from scalding to freezing single streams of water and all the while attempt to wash...

Oct 16, 2016 - Tarangire National Park

Today is our last day of safari-ing in Tanzania. I frankly wasn’t expecting much beyond our drive yesterday ... lots of elephants, zebras, wildebeest, Grant’s gazelles, and some giraffes, warthogs, etc. ... but we did well. As we drove along the huge swamp we came across 2 leopards feeding on an impala, and watched the scene for some time. Further along the swamp we also saw 3 lions drinking at the water’s edge, and resting. This area, in addition to being home to a large population of elephants, is a tsetse fly haven. Where humans & tsetse...

Oct 15, 2016 - To Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Today we have an easy drive to Tarangire. Once we get off the crater we are on excellent paved roads until the park entrance. Our collective butts are happy. On the way, Filbert talks about the Lake Manyara area being famous for red bananas. He stops to buy us a bunch. They are excellent, a little milder & sweeter tasting than our regular bananas. We stop at the Lake Manyara lookout point. Really not too much to look at, and the kids hawking souvenirs are pretty aggressive. It is super dry as we hit the park & it takes Filbert 1/2 hour to...

Oct 14, 2016 - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Don’t normally chat about our middle-of-the-night loo breaks, but overnight we had left our curtains open to get full benefit of the cool breeze, (partial) crater view, and almost full moon. We woke up to a ripping sound, and it turned out to be a Coke’s or Eland grazing under the moonlight right outside our window. Nice. There are 3 routes into the crater, and the one closest to the Sopa is thankfully only a few minutes away. There is early morning fog over the top of the crater & the dew is heavy as we descend. The wall is jungle-like....

Oct 13, 2016 - Enroute to Ngorongoro (Crater) Conservation Area

We depart Serengeti Sopa Lodge at 7AM and do a game drive on the way to the eastern exit to the park. Interestingly the Serengeti plain is much larger than the national park, and the eastern exit is only half way thru the plain. We once again see a number of lions, including 2 males & then a single male. Mary spots the single male thru the tall grasses & we get Filbert to stop. It has a badly injured back right leg, and settles down in front of a bush not far from the road. Filbert makes a call to the rangers to report the injury. We spot a...

Oct 12, 2016 - Central Serengeti

rior to this trip I the all the cats were going to be hard to find. While the leopard is very illusive, and the cheetah fairly hard to find, lions have been plentiful. On the drive thru the Serengeti to the Sopa we see 3 more lions, a few hippos, a couple of far off cheetahs, and a very far off leopard (could only really be seen by binoculars). We also ran into the secretary bird again. We arrived at the Serengeti Sopa in time for lunch. Another beautiful location & facility, but again it is one long road in & out, meaning we’ll be doing...

Oct 11, 2016 - Around Mbalgeti & Grumeti Rivers ... Serengeti West

A long safari day for us today. We start by sleeping in (by mistake ... Mary’s phone was charging in the living room & no one heard it). We still got away by 7AM, despite waking up at 6:07AM. This is a good day for Filbert! We come to a bridge over the Grumeti River, and look at hippos & crocs. A monitor lizard walks close by the Land Cruiser. This animal thrives on croc eggs. We see the our first snake of the trip, a green mamba, at a bathroom stop by an air strip. According to Filbert it is very poisonous. Boy can it move fast! Not long...

Oct 10, 2016 - Serengeti West - Mbalageti

Filbert picked us up at 9AM, and by 9:30 we were at the western gate to the Serengeti. We were able to grab some beer (US$2 each) at one of the two shops at the gate. Because bottles dominate, and Mary’s opener’s pop top opener is broken, we try to buy a “church key”. He wanted $7 for some cheapo opener that we’d pay $1 for at home, and he wouldn’t negotiate! Filbert has one, so we’re good. Very few side roads, especially at the beginning of the trip. Regardless the top is up, and we see huge numbers of wildebeest. Filbert tells us...

Oct 9, 2016 - Enroute to Speke Bay, Tanzania

We leave Kenya today for a week in Tanzania. Steve picks us up at 8AM ... a very civilized departure time. On the way to the Oloololo Gate (closest gate to the Isebania border crossing into Tanzania) we see large herd of cape buffalo with babies. Steve helps Mary hand out the rest of her paper pad & pen care packages to young kids. They seem happy. Steve hands out a solar lantern to a girl in university who lives in a home with no electricity. She jumps for joy because she can now study at night! (Steve received the solar lights from a...

Aug 7, 2016 - Blog Four - Kenya and Zanzibar

Blog Four – Kenya and Zanzibar Tuesday 2 August 2016 Shaking things up a bit this morning we headed out for an early safari at 6:30am heading out for a couple of hours before brekkie. It was a nice change and with the sky just starting to lighten when we headed out we managed to catch sunrise over the plain and again capture Kili, probably slightly better than yesterday afternoon. Apparently this is the first day in a month or so that Kili has been able to be seen for the dust and smoke so while we didn’t get a great sighting, at least we...

Aug 4, 2016 - Blog Three - Tanzania

Blog Three – Tanzania Safari Thursday 28 July 2016 A start at 8:00am was greatly appreciated and with breakfast done we were on our way into the Serengeti – the aptly named “endless plains”. We stopped briefly for a couple of the smallest gazelles on the plains – dik diks and some Macdonald Gazelles and then coming across a Fish Eagle, vulture and Tawny Eagle and a bit further on a Masai Giraffe. Driving towards the river and lake areas of the central area of the park we came across Magpie Shrike, Northern White Shrike and Blacksmith...