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| Masai Mara, Kenya |
Getting There is Half the Battle.
Tuesday 5/21 to Thursday 5/23
It must be true because it felt like we had been in a battle
by the time we first arrived in Africa.
The flight from San Diego to Los Angeles was short and sweet. We got to LAX and had about 5 hours before we
boarded the flight to New York. Because
of the long wait time, Laura decided that we would utilize the passes for the
First Class Lounge. So we went in and
stocked up on the freebies that they offered:
Walker’s Shortbread, Milano cookies, yogurt covered raisins plus other
types of snack mix. Laura had a beer
while I had coffee. It was certainly a
comfortable way to spend our time.
The flight to New York was a red eye flight, we landed about
7 a.m. and our flight to Africa did not leave until 11 a.m. The flight from New York to Johannesburg was
a killer; 14 and ½ hours in the air. The
plane was fairly full, we were lucky in that there were no babies and only one
small child near us. She did well for
the majority of the trip so we were pleased.
The plane was showing a bunch of movies; Laura watched Quartet, Hyde
Park on the Hudson and listened to Les Miserables while I watch Les Miserables
out of boredom. We did finally arrive in
Johannesburg; stiff, sore and feeling the effects of not sleeping.  |
| Lady Livingston |
We had about 3 hours to kill while we were waiting for the flight to Livingston, which was fortunately a brief flight of about 1 ½ hours. We arrived in Livingston and were picked up and driven to the Toka Leya Camp. We were greeted and then informed that we had about an hour until we would be picked up and taken to the Sunset Cruise on the Lady Livingston. The Lady was a three decked water craft with a bar on the first two decks and chairs and tables for guests. The third deck was just the Captain’s station and chairs and tables for guests. We opted for the third deck viewing area because we were just about the only guests on board that were not part of a wedding party. The crew plied us with drinks and various trays of snacks. The wedding party got louder and louder as they were fueled by the drinks.
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| Giraffe |
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| Sunset on the Zambia River |
We were able to see about 5 giraffe from the boat, a crocodile and a few gazelle. The cruise was pleasant and the sunset was breathtaking. The wedding part finally invaded the third deck so on the return to the hotel dock; we went down to the first deck which by now was almost deserted. When we arrived at the hotel; our driver picked us up and we returned to the lodge. We had about an hour until dinner so we went back to our room to change into long sleeved tops and long pants so we would not expose too much skin for the mosquitos.
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| Our tent at the Toka Leya Camp |
That was the extent of our first portion of our trip. Exhausted from the flights and well fed; we
headed off to bed.
Friday 5/24
We awoke to the sound of the alarm monkey or maybe it was a
bunch of birds which decided to tell us that we had slept long enough. We had been awake for about an hour but it
was comfortable snuggled under the duvet.
We headed off for breakfast and our morning excursion to Victoria Falls.On the way out of camp, we stopped and watched a group of 5
elephants and several giraffes. It was a
good sign that we were going to have some great wildlife viewing.
It took about a half hour from the camp to get to Victoria
Falls. A good portion of that was
driving back through the town of Livingston.
The Victoria Falls area included a monument to the members who died
during WWI. This was part of Rhodesia and
at that time under British rule so locals volunteered to serve as part of the
British forces. There was also a statue
of David Livingston where his heart was buried, while his body was returned to
England. So he really did leave his
heart in Africa.
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| Elephants near our camp |
After we completed our visit to the Falls, we returned to the camp for lunch. We were scheduled to leave for a visit to a local village at 2:30 pm and then we were going out in the bush to view more wildlife. The trip to the village was a bumpy, dusty one. It was several kilometers from the paved road. Approximately 1000 people living in 5 areas under 5 village chiefs who were under a headman. The chief’s job was to parcel out the land to individuals to allow them to build their homes or a plot of ground to raise crops. They were also responsible to settle any arguments among the villagers. Their job was passed down to them from their fathers and they would pass it down to their eldest son or daughter when it was time for them to retire.
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| Local Village |
The homes in the village consisted of several small mud huts
covered with a grass thatch roof. The
huts were wood framed and then covered in mud.
The color of the hut was determined by the type of soil from which they
made the mud. The huts are supposed to
be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
One hut was the sleeping area.
Children slept in the same hut as the parents until they reached the age
of 14 or so at which time a separate hut was built for them. There was a hut for the kitchen, a hut for
the toilet and another hut made of reeds that served as the bath. Water was carried in containers from one of
the wells in the village.
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| Children in the village |
After leaving the village, we proceeded to the Game Warden’s
office and picked up one of the wardens who escorted us out to where three
other wardens were protecting the White Rhinos.
The wardens are armed to prevent poachers from killing the rhinos. We got out of our jeep and walked out through
the bush about 100 yards to where three rhinos were
grazing. The three are one half of the
herd that is in the game reserve. They
were shipped here from South Africa in hopes that they will be able to
repopulate the species in Zambia. Afterwards
we drove the game warden back to his office and then headed out looking for
other species of wildlife. We saw
giraffes, gazelles, warthogs, baboons, monkeys, and several more elephants. We then stopped by the river and our driver
made us a gin and tonic to drink while the sun set. It was very beautiful and a perfect end for
our excursion.
We then return to the Lodge for dinner and bed.
Saturday 5/25
We woke early once again and made our way to an early
breakfast. As we approached the main
building we spotted Moto-Moto, the resident hippo who has claimed the resort
area as his home. He is a small male and
when he gets around the older, larger hippos; they bite and kick him. So he is sort of like the 99 pound weakling
waiting for his Charles Atlas body building kit to come in the mail.
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| Moto Moto |
The reason for our earlier breakfast is that a driver is
picking us up at 7:30 a.m. to take us to Botswana for a river cruise on the Chobe
River followed by lunch at the Chobe Safari Lodge and then a jeep ride through
the Chobe National Park.
The river cruise was pleasant. We were able to get very close to quite a few
more animals. From the boat we saw more
elephants, hippos, crocodiles, a monitor lizard, and lots of birds, both large
and small.
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| Chobe National Park |
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| Dung Beetle, Just before he was eaten |
We were then returned to the border, taken across the river
in a small boat, surrounded by vendors trying to sell their wares, picked up by
our driver and then returned to the Toka Leya Camp for our dinner. When we arrived we were told that there were
going to be special entertainment before dinner so we showed up early and
watched a local village group and a group of orphan children dance and sing for
us. Some of the staff also joined in the
dancing. Fortunately no one wanted to
see the old white folks dance. Dinner
was another well prepared and presented meal.
We joined 4 other travelers who will be accompanying us on the safari so
it was nice to start making acquaintances already.
Sunday 5/26
We woke up to a chilly morning so it was difficult to climb
out of bed. Of course, we had gone to
bed soon after returning from dinner last night because we could not get the
heat on for the tent. It was cold enough
that we were seeing our breath in the air.
Started packing up our clothes and belongings before breakfast since we
are being picked up at 10:30 a.m. to return to the airport to catch our flight
back to Johannesburg. We had a nice
breakfast consisting of Eggs Benedict and fruits – melon and watermelon. Moto-Moto came down to graze in front of our
tent cabin which was a nice send off for this portion of our trip.
This ends the first of the trip reports. Laura has taken over 800 pictures, I picked a
few to illustrate the things that we were seeing and doing. Stay tuned to this Bat-channel for further adventures.
Moving on is never an easy thing to do.
Monday 5/27
It was hard to say goodbye to the staff at the Toka Leya
Camp. They had been so friendly and
helpful to us during our stay. In fact
we have not had any interaction with people here that was anything other than
friendly and helpful. We left there yesterday and flew to Johannesburg where we spent the night in a hotel near the airport.
Monday was a day of travel.
We flew from Johannesburg to Nairobi where then we
were taken to the Fairmont Hotel in Nairobi.
That took most of the day. The
Fairmont Hotel is one of the old grand hotels so our stay there was very
enjoyable. We went down to the fancier
of the two restaurants in the hotel. We
decided to try some of the local fare; Laura had ostrich while I had
crocodile. Laura said her dinner tasted
like beef and I thought mine tasted like chicken.
Tuesday, 5/28
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| Rothschild's Giraffes at the preserve |
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| Baby Elephant at the Orphange |
After the visit with the elephants, we were driven to the
Carnivore Café for lunch. I had planned
on having zebra but since 2004 the government has forbid the sale of game
meat. So we were treated to offerings of
beef, chicken in several forms, pork, lamb, ostrich, crocodile, short ribs, and
a beef sausage. It was a good lunch but
not what I had expected.
After lunch, we were loaded up and driven to the airport to
catch our small planes out to the Fairmont Mara Safari Camp located on the
Masai Mara. The planes were 10 seaters
so it took two of them to get us to the camp.
We landed on a dirt runway and there were several Toyota Land cruisers
waiting to drive us to the camp. On the
way the drivers stopped to allow us to take some pictures of the hippos in the
river.
We were greeted at the camp, assigned our tents and then
told we had about 15 minutes to go to our tent and then return to go on a game
drive. We went out and drove around the
Savanna for about 3 hours stopping to photograph Zebra, Impalas, Thompson
gazelles, Wildebeests, Warthogs, Topi, Giraffes and Cape buffalo. We even saw a hare. By now it was getting dark so we headed back
to the Camp. There was a presentation on
the Maasai culture which was very interesting.
After dinner it was to bed as quickly as we could because
our wakeup call was for 3:30 am with a 4 am departure to the balloon trip.
Wednesday 5/29
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| Group photo We are in back on the left side |
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| George in the balloon |
Because of the early rising and the repeated trauma to my
back, I opted to remain in camp and rest when Laura and the rest of the group
went out for the afternoon game drive.
She was able to take a picture of a lioness hiding in the bush. They were not able to get a great view but it
was Laura’s first lion. They also saw a
hyena besides all the regular animals. I
guess we are getting jaded. Now they say
“Oh, it’s just another elephant, zebra, or whatever."
Thursday 5/30
This morning we were able to sleep in for a little while, we
only had to meet our driver at 6:15 a.m. for the morning game drive. The driver, Joseph had promised to find us a
lion this morning. So off we bounced
into the bush. We drove around seeing
the majority of the same animals that we have already seen. We did see several ostriches which were a new
sighting for us. We had just about given
up on the lion hunt when Joseph received a radio call that the other vehicles
had spotted something. We drove over and
they had found a cheetah lying on the trail sunning himself. We were able to get within 15 feet of him so
it was pretty cool.
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| Cheetah |
We then headed back to the lodge for breakfast, to check out
and then to get back on the airplanes to Nairobi. After lunch in Nairobi, we got in the Land
Cruisers and headed out for the Amboseli National Park which was a 4 hour
drive. Most of it was on paved road and
even when we got onto the dirt road, it had been graded so it was a much more
pleasant trip. We arrived at the OlTukai
Lodge just after sunset, so we have checked in, had our dinner and while I have
been typing this, Laura has been hand washing our dirty clothes. Now it is off to bed for the morning comes early
once again.
Friday 5/31
We met our drivers for a 6:30 a.m. game drive. We were hoping to spot a lion but we were
disappointed once again. Although
eagle-eyed Laura spotted a Serval cat which the driver said was not often seen
because it is so shy.
We also saw numerous elephants, zebra and other plains
animals. We saw the Grey Crested Crane
which is the National Bird of Uganda and later a Secretary Bird which in
today’s PC climate has been renamed the Administrative Assistant bird.
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| Serval Cat |
We returned to the lodge for a relaxing rest of the morning
and early afternoon. Laura and I both
took a short nap, spent time checking our e-mails, and then we had a light
lunch. Laura opted to have an hour
massage while I wandered around the property taking pictures of the monkeys,
baboons and several birds that I had spotted.
Then I returned to our room where I am presently composing this trip
report.
I would like to take this time to write about the weather;
it has been fantastic. While we were in
Zambia, it did get cold at night and in the early mornings; cold enough that
you had to wear a jacket. In Kenya, we
have found that the temperature has been more comfortable. We did have a few sprinkles yesterday but
nothing to write home about.
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| Road through the National Parks |
Saturday 6/1
Saturday, we arose early once again, checked out of the
lodge, ate a quick breakfast and were back in the Land Cruiser by 7:30 a.m. and
on our way to Namanga where we would clear immigration formalities as we left
Kenya. We crossed the border into
northern Tanzania and went through immigration formalities there which included
purchasing a visa to visit Tanzania. We
had driven about 1 ½ hours on bumpy roads to reach the border, when I got out
of the Land Cruiser, I felt really dizzy, while in the line in immigration, I
started to sweat and feel sick. We made
it back to our vehicles and found that the company that was supposed to pick us
up was late, so we sat in hot vehicles for about an hour until the new drivers
showed up. After loading up, I became
nauseated and christened the side of the new truck. Everyone was concerned about me but after
that I felt much better.
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| Lake Manyara |
We drove for about an hour and arrived in Arusha and stopped
for lunch at a hotel in town. The roads
were paved for the most part so I was feeling much better. After lunch we continued on our way to Lake
Manyara National Park. We arrived about
5 pm at the Lake Manyara Serena Lodge.
It was a very nice facility, the dinner was good and the bed was very
comfortable. The only problem was that
their Wi-Fi was down so I could not send out this trip report.
Jambo – Jambo
Hello – Hello. That
is what you hear from everyone you meet.
Sunday 6/2
The game drive this morning was a little disappointing. We did see verdant monkeys. The male has a robin’s egg blue scrotum which really stood
out. We also saw dik-dik in the
forest. The environment is quite a bit
different from what we have been seeing.
Now there are tall trees covered with vines. At any moment you expect to see Tarzan go
swinging past.
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| Monkey at Lake Manyara |
After the game drive, we proceeded towards the Ngorongoro
Crater. On the way we stopped at an
orphanage run by Mama. She cared for 63
orphans some of which were HIV positive.
It was a humbling experience.
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| Mama with one of the orphans |
We continued on and arrived at the Lemala Ngorongoro Luxury
Camp about 2 pm in time for a late lunch.
After getting our tents assigned, we were loaded up once again and taken
to a Masai village where we were greeted by a welcoming dance by members of the
tribe in their native clothing.
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| Masai Village |
We returned to the “Luxury” camp. It is nice.
It consists of real tents. The
main tent where we have dinner has a canvas floor; the tents we sleep in have
wooden floors, a flush toilet but only 1 flush every 20 minutes, a bucket
shower which means you arrange to take a shower and an employee of the camp
brings 40 liters of warm water over to your tent and fills the bucket over the
shower. Then you wet down, turn the
water off, soap up, rinse off and hopefully you left enough warm water for the
other person to take a shower. We do
have lights, not very bright because they are run off of solar power. Heat is provided by a propane heater which
they turn on in the late afternoon and turn off at bedtime, except Laura talked
them into leaving ours on all night on low because she was cold. The hot water bottle that they put in the bed
was a nice touch because even with the heater it was chilly.
Monday 6/3
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| Ngorongoro Crater from above |
Up early, breakfasted and on the road down into the
Ngorongoro Crater by 7:30 a.m. It was a
short trip to the bottom of the crater which is almost 12 miles across. We went through thick brush, through a rain forest
and then out onto the plains and marshlands. We saw many familiar species:
wildebeest, zebra, hippos, ostriches, flamingos, warthogs, jackals, and
hyenas. The animals we were searching
for were the black rhino and the lions.
We were able to barely see a pride of six lions laying out on the shore
almost 500 yards from us, later we found a male lion flattened out lying on his
side in the tall grass about 40 yards away, finally we found a group of 3 lions
lying in the grass about 20 yards from the road. They were not really cooperative most of the
time they just laid there. But several
occasions, they did get on their feet so we could get a better shot of them. 
We had a nice picnic lunch by a small lake that had about 10
hippos cavorting about in it. There were
bathroom facilities available at the picnic spot which was nice. Earlier in the day we had stopped to use the
facilities at another location and the men’s room had small bats hanging from
the ceiling. There were none in the
ladies which pleased the ladies.
We returned to the Camp about 4:30 p.m. to clean up and rest
before dinner. It was a very good day.
Tuesday 6/4
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| Changing the tire |
We got down the road about 10 minutes and the front turn
lamp fell off the vehicle. That was not
the end of the problems with our vehicle; some tube that carried fluids to the
clutch sprang a leak. So we limped into
camp about 2 p.m. checked in, got our bags to the tent and had lunch. In the meantime, two drivers went into the
nearest place to see if they could get the tube fixed.
We were supposed to depart at 4pm for an afternoon game
drive but there was only 1 Land Cruiser present and it could carry 7
passengers. About 5pm, the other vehicle
returned so 14 members of the tour group took off for the game drive, I stayed
behind to take a shower and to write this trip report. As I sit here, I can hear our driver pounding
on the Land Cruiser to get it ready for tomorrow.
The camp is much the same as the one we stayed at for the
past two nights; complete with bucket shower and slow flushing toilet. The major difference is that it is much
warmer here than it was at the rim of the crater so we will not need heaters or
hot water bottles. Also the staff here
thought Laura would enjoy a pet. When they
were showing us the tent, we spotted a spider over the shower whose body must
have been 2 inches long. Laura freaked,
grabbed her camera to get a picture and then vacated the bathing area so the
room attendant could kill it and dispose of the remains. Laura showed the picture of the spider to the
rest of the group and they were all impressed.
When Laura and the group returned, they reported that they
had seen an adult male and female lion and two cubs while they were on the
drive. We sat around a fire pit and told
stories about our day and then headed off for dinner. Dinner at 8 p.m. consisting of 3 courses puts
you back to your tent after 9 so it is routine to head to bed.
Wednesday 6/5
A restless night, Laura thought she heard something eating
grass outside our tent and then something scratching on the tent wall. We did awake to find that wild beasties had
not eaten us in the night much to our relief.
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| Wildebeests for as far as you could see |
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| Zebra at a watering hole |
The other animals that we saw were birds. There were too many different species to keep
straight. We saw Ostriches, cranes,
storks of several kinds, an Eagle Owl, Blue chested rollers, starlings,
Bustards and many more species.
We returned to the camp at 6:30 pm completely drained from
the bouncing about in the vehicle. We
were gritty from the dust and immediately headed back to the tents for a shower
before dinner.
Thursday 6/6
A herd of elephants could have stampeded through our tent last night we slept so soundly. Off again at 7:30 a.m. after breakfast. No rest for the wicked or for African Safari travelers. The morning started off a little slow but then we were able to get up close to several lions and watched a leopard in a tree for a while.
We returned to camp for lunch and had an opportunity to rest
for a bit. I opted out of the afternoon
game drive, Laura went on it and reported that they saw many of the same
animals. The most exciting thing that
happened to them was when they were returning to camp. They stopped to take some pictures of a pack
of elephants and then realized that they were between the big bull elephant and
his females. He was a bit angry and came
within a couple of feet of the Land Cruiser.
The driver was a bit concerned and had everyone sit quietly, not taking
pictures, not moving and not talking.
They had about a 20 minute standoff until the pack moved and the bull
moved off to join them. It provided a
great story for the group sitting around the fire before dinner.
A herd of elephants could have stampeded through our tent last night we slept so soundly. Off again at 7:30 a.m. after breakfast. No rest for the wicked or for African Safari travelers. The morning started off a little slow but then we were able to get up close to several lions and watched a leopard in a tree for a while.
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| Leopard |
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| Bull Elephant that we had the stand-off with |
The Park Rangers were setting fires to burn off a lot of the
dried grasses in order to prevent larger fires during the summer. We were glad that our trip was almost over
because the blackened landscape would not have been as enjoyable.
Friday 6/7
Today is another travel day for us. Up, packed, breakfasted and in the vehicles
by 8:30. We took a short game drive in
route to the airfield. We said goodbye to Mr. Giraffe, Mr. Elephant and a pod
of smelly hippos.
We arrived at the airfield at 10:30 and took off about an
hour later for Arusha and our connecting flight to Zanzibar. So this concludes this trip report.
Out of Africa ---- almost.
Friday, 6/7
Our flight from the Lemala Ewanjan Camp in the Serengeti to
the airport at Arusha was just over an hour in length. When we arrived at the airport, we said our
goodbyes to our remaining safari members as they were going to a hotel for
lunch since their flights were not until later in the day. Our flight was just under a 2 hour wait, so
they gave us a box lunch and told us to enjoy ourselves.
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| Serena Hotel in Zanzibar |
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| Our balcony overlooking Indian Ocean |
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| Sunset on Zanzibar |
We then returned to the hotel. We were on a half board plan meaning that
breakfast and dinner were included with our lodging.
Saturday 6/8
After breakfast, our driver and a guide picked us up at 9 a.m.
to take us to visit a spice plantation.
It felt we were back in school again.
The guide would give us a leaf to smell and then ask us what the plant
was. We did pretty good in
guessing. He would then tell us about
the spice that the plant produced and then he would quiz us to see if we were
paying attention or at least that is what it seemed like. We wandered around for about an hour and a
half before they brought us back to the “gift shop” where they were selling
packages of spices. It had been hot and
humid so it was nice to get back to the van and its air-conditioning.
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| Swimming in the Indian Ocean |
I opted out of the walking tour. Laura and the guide, Ahmed headed out and he
took her to see the various tourist spots in Stone Town. Laura had a good time but was a little put
off when discussing how our dogs would like the beach. Ahmed informed her that dogs like the pig
were considered “unclean” and he would throw rocks at any dog which came near
him.
That evening we opted to pay the additional fee for dinner
and to eat on the Terrace Dining Room.
It was a cozy, roof top dining area.
The menu was larger than the one served in the main restaurant. Laura had a seafood platter which had
lobster, prawns, calamari and a local fish.
I had 4 Tiger Prawns that were almost too much to eat. It was a good meal with great atmosphere.
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| Last Night in Zanzibar |
Sunday 6/9
We had plenty of time this morning for breakfast and to pack
for our return home. Our driver was
coming at 11:45 to pick us up and our flight to Dar es Salaam left at 1
p.m. It was just a 30 minute flight
across the Zanzibar channel to Dar es Salaam.
The International Terminal was several miles from where we landed in the
small plane so they loaded us in a van and took us to the Terminal. Once there and after processing through
security, we found that there was no place to sit to wait for our plane which
was not leaving until 3:45 a.m. Laura
found out that there was a transit hotel a short way from the airport and after
being ripped off by the cab driver who charged $10 for what should have been a
$5 fare, we rented a room for the 12 hours that we had to wait. It was a good plan. The room had a bed, large overhead fan, its
own bathroom and internet access.
Monday 6/10
We rested there until 1 a.m. when we ventured back to the
airport to check in for the flight to Istanbul.
The flight to Istanbul was about 7 hours, we both slept a little during
the flight. It was a rush to make the
connecting flight to LA on Turkish Airways.
Laura did not even have time to visit the Duty Free Shop.
The flight to LA was comfortable. Laura had upgraded us to what was called
“comfort class”. There were only two
seats together with leg rests. There was
plenty of room to stretch out and relax.
I think during the 13 hours of flight, I was able to sleep about 7 of
them. The rest of the time, I either
watched a movie, they had many to choose from, or I read from my Nook.
Landing in LA is hell.
First to go through Immigration, then claim your baggage and then wait
to go through Customs. The line for
Customs was 4 deep down 3 sides of the arrivals area. We were worried because we only had a short
time before we caught a commuter flight to San Diego. We did finally get through Customs with about
45 minutes until our plane left. We
found an off duty bus who said he would take us to the terminal. Got to the check in desk and they said it was
too late to check our bags, we would have to take them to the gate as carry
on. TSA stopped us because we had one
too many bags. Laura had to stuff her
purse in her carry on to meet the 2 bag per person limit. I had to throw out my shaving cream and
toothpaste because it is not allowed in carry on. So off with the shoes, belts, and everything;
get through the screening and Laura takes off down the terminal with my belt
and two carryon bags, I’m bringing up the rear with the two duffel bags, my
shoes are untied and my pants threatening to fall down. It was a sight. Laura did catch the plane and we got on the
flight with no further difficulties.
That was the most stressful part of the entire African Adventure.
We arrived home to be greeted by the schnauzers. It’s good to be home.
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