AND NOW, A FUNNY STORY

This post is for everyone to read, but especially Ujwala, Menaka, Ashok, & Manfred (& perhaps Jack & Gay, Jan, Paige, & Barry & Christine).  Our favorite driver is definitely Omari.  He's a chubby teddy bear with a great sense of humor.  We are ALWAYS laughing when we're with him.  People in the other jeeps hear us & comment how they want to ride in OUR van next time.  I'm surprised we don't scare the animals away.  Anyhoo, during our last night in the Serengeti, the drivers were invited to join us for dinner.  Omari sat right in-between me & Matt.  As it happens, a member of our group, a pistol named Betty, was celebrating her 80th birthday.  All the waitstaff surrounded her & sang a birthday song in Swahili.  Some were playing guitars, one woman was holding a birthday cake with candles burning, everyone was clapping --- it was a wonderful celebration.  During one of the verses, they all put their hands over Betty & asked God to bless her.  What a great way to turn 80!  Here's a conversation that took place after the singing had died down:

OMARI:  Did you know Betty's husband is younger than her?
CLARA:  Yeah, Bernie told us he's 2 years younger than Betty.  But you know, that's how it is with me & Matt too.  He's 3 years younger than me.
OMARI (with his eyes bugging out & laughing his ass off):  NO WAY!
MATT:  Omari, how old do you think I am?
OMARI:  65.
CLARA:  Omari, Matt is 47 & I just turned 50.
OMARI (with his eyes still bugging out &  still laughing his ass off):  NO WAY.
(After everyone at the table gets done howling with laughter ......)
OMARI:  You know, after Eddie (another driver) & I saw the whole group of you for the first time, we zeroed in on you two.  We both couldn't believe that such a young woman married such an older man, & it was apparent to us that you married him for his money.
(After we all picked ourselves up from the floor from laughing ......)
OMARI:  Come on, grandpa, I'll help you to your room.

SAD NEWS FROM THE SERENGETI

As we started on our game drive yesterday morning, our driver gave us the sad news that a rare black rhino was found shot & killed, & his horns cut off.  To think it was one of the 3 black rhinos we saw made me heartsick.  Our whole group was stunned & outraged.  We've taken these animals into our hearts & for someone to callously kill one of them ...... it's a real tragedy.  Many people believe the rhino's horn, when ground & ingested, is an aphrodisiac.  Our driver said the Prime Minister was flying to the bush to see this travesty for himself & decide what action to take.  As we continued on our game drive, we saw the Prime Minister's plane land at the airport.  Later still, his whole entourage passed us by on the road.  It really put a damper on our day.

THE SERENGETI PLAINS AT MIGRATION TIME

(This is the 2nd of hopefully 3 posts I can send out this evening.  We are off to our special Christmas Eve dinner now as we are 8 hours ahead and 80 degrees warmer than you.)

We left the Crater at around 9am this morning (Wednesday Dec 22^nd) and headed out for the Serengeti Plain, home of the great migration of the zebra and the wildebeest.  By most estimations there are over 1 million zebra and 1.8 million wildebeest involved in the migration.  Since the dry season is coming to an end and we are just entering into the “short” rains, the animals are on the move from the north to the south in their continuous counter-clockwise migration.  But first we had a short stop at Olduvai Gorge, home to some of the 20^th century discoveries of early hominids.  The most famous one discovered in this area was “Lucy”, the 3.6 million old hominid that was discovered in the late 1900s.  Very interesting, but we WANT ANIMALS!!!!

And animals we got.  After a short break for lunch we officially entered into the Serengeti National Park.  Serengeti in Masai means “endless plains” and it sure lived up to its name.  The first animals we encountered were giraffes loitering only about 50 yards or so from the road.  Then we saw thousands upon thousands of zebra and wildebeest as far as the eye could see.  Once again I tried to take some pictures of the mass of animals, but it just never turned out as planned.  What did turn out nicely was a mother lion and her cub which we spotted about 100 or so feet from the side of the road.  The cub looked to be very young and the mother just kept licking the little cub on the head.  (I’m so glad that we got a “good” camera lens before coming on the trip because the pictures turned out so well.  What bums me out is that I didn’t install any type of “photoshop” software on my laptop before we left for the trip so I could enlarge the pictures we are posting.  But if you double click on the photos you can enlarge them yourself to get a better view of the cub.)

Another aside here.  In the days of the big game hunters in Africa, they came up with a list of the “Big 5”.  These were the animals which were aggressive to man and had excellent trophy value due to their hide or other body parts.  The name has carried over to the tourist industry in terms of what animals everyone wants to see.  So, to get to the point, the big 5 are lion, elephant, cape buffalo, black rhino and leopard.  Sometimes people come to Africa and only see 3 or 4 of these animals.  For us it took only 3 days to see all 5.  The first game drive we saw the elephant (you remember, the one with 5 legs); yesterday we saw the lion, cape buffalo and the black rhino, the rarest of them all.  And today we got a glimpse of the leopard lounging in a tree---which is one of their favorite spots to hang.  Again try to enlarge the photo to get a good look at him.  We spent about 10 minutes just looking at him through the binoculars because it was another rare sight.

As we headed to our next hotel we saw some more hippo, antelope and giraffes.  

This hotel is built in the middle of the Serengeti Park and is not permitted to have any fences around it.  All of the rooms are cabin like and built away from the main building, and you are required to have a guide walk you to and from your room after dark.  When we arrived we opened the door to the balcony overlooking the Serengeti Plain; ten minutes later we could hear the lions roaring in the distance.  It is just too hard at times to explain.

Until next time.

FROM THE CRATER TO THE PLAINS

(NOTE:  We just checked into the Nairobi Serena hotel and the internet is very reliable.  I hope to get caught up on all my postings tonight while the signal is very good.  I don't know how Liza & Peter did this blogging for a year because it drives me crazy sometimes, especially the pictures.  But I will prevail.)

INTO THE NGORONGORO CRATER

We had another early start this morning (Tuesday Dec 20^th) as we were awaken around 6am by a fantastic sunrise over the Ngorongoro Crater.  I am reluctantly attaching a picture of it because the picture does not do it justice. 

After breakfast we headed down into the crater.  Here is your one line of school work knowledge:  The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest non-flooded caldera measuring I believe 12 miles across by 20 miles wide.  And it is home to about 25,000 animals and over 6 million birds.  In the seven hours we were down there today I think Clara & I came damn close to taking each and every one of their pictures.

We started off with herds of zebras and wildebeest and an assortment of birds such as cranes and storks and flamingos and ostriches.  The lake at the bottom of the crater had at least 10,000-12,000 pink flamingos alone just stretched out along the one shoreline.  We saw some Thompson Gazelle and Impala and another few wart hogs and even a few jackals.

One of the first big bonuses of the day was the black rhino.  These are almost extinct so it was a treat to see them so early in the trip.  We actually saw three of them; one solitary male and then a female with her “baby” rhino.  If you magnify the picture you’ll see that I caught the big rhino relieving herself in the middle of the crater.  The guide got a big kick out of this picture. 

The next big sighting was some hyenas that were drinking out of a stream.  There were about 3 of them but they proved to be elusive buggers.  I got a few good pictures of them before they disappeared into the “bush”.  They aren’t nearly as comfortable around the vehicles as the zebra and wildebeest.  In fact there was one wildebeest that was drinking out of a puddle on the road and was in no hurry to leave even when we pulled up right behind him.

Then we hit the mother lode as we came across the LIONS.  (As an aside, we have now seen 4 of the 5 animals which make up the Big Five.  Just need to see the leopard.)  First was a solitary male just lounging in the grass.  After that we found a lone female who appeared to be looking for a snack.  Looking around we spotted about 3 or 4 cubs partially hidden in the tall grass watching mom intently.  Then another female appeared by the cubs, and we even spotted a male in the bushes nearby just sleeping.  The guides said the lone lioness was prepared to do some hunting.  Some of us were looking for the lioness to do just that while others were hoping for a Disney ending.  We hung around for about 15 minutes, but the lioness didn’t seem to be in any hurry to hunt so we headed off for more animals.  Chalk one up for the “happy” ending.

I won’t bore you with the details of our lunch (Tents pitched in the middle of the crater, cushioned chairs, full bar, salad, grilled chicken and steak, chocolates for desert all in the 70 degree weather while a light rain fell in the distance) because I don’t want to come off as a braggart or anything like that.  So we made our way back up the wall of the crater to the rim, and, ho-hum, what do we run into but an elephant hanging around the side of the road just munching on some grasses and trees.  After a few photos we headed back up the hotel where, once again, I am typing this entry to the sounds of Clara snoring!!!!!

The internet is not reliable here and that is why you are going to see back to back postings of our adventures.  Well, room service is here with my cold beer, so it is off to the patio overlooking the crater to just do a little relaxing.  Tomorrow we are off to the Serengeti Plains for more animal adventures.

Until next time.

LET THE GAME DRIVES BEGIN

(We are still having trouble getting photos to upload to the blog, but here is a post I had hoped to send out on Monday night.  Sorry that it's so late.  I may get another one done today, but who knows.  I am presently in the middle of the Serengeti Plain, so I shouldn't complain.  Oh, by the way, I am typing this to the sounds of Clara snoring again!!!!!)

Monday December 20th started our safari tour.  (I type this because I get really confused about what day it is and where I am!!!)  We headed out of our hotel around after our initial briefing and after meeting all of the fellow travelers.  We were initially slated to have 23 people on the tour, but 4 people cancelled at the last minute due to the inability to get flights out of the US.  There are also 2 people coming from NJ who haven’t even made it to Amster, Amster, Dam, Dam, Dam yet, but they are scheduled to meet up with us on Wednesday morning.  So, we ended up leaving with 17 people, which worked out quite well for us.  Instead of having 5 and even 6 people in the trucks, we had 4 people in 3 cars and 5 people in the other car.  This meant there was much more room to move around, not that there wasn’t plenty of room to begin with.  We will have the same 4 drivers for our 7 days in Tanzania, and we are scheduled to rotate around to the different cars when we have the game drives each day.

Here is a picture of Clara making quick friends with the 4 drivers Omare, Fast Eddie, Manase and Emmanuel.

Bear with me a little bit longer and we will get to the animals.  After we left the hotel we headed through the city of Arusha, which I believe is the 3^rd largest city in Tanzania at around 850,000 to 900,000 people.  It is amazing the commerce and economy of this area given that the streets were full of men pushing giant wooden carts full of pineapples and the women were walking with giant containers of water and other items balanced on their heads.  Small markets filled the streets as people were quite busy buying certain items at wholesale and then going a few miles to hopefully sell the items for a small profit. 

After we headed out of Arusha we entered into the land of the Masai people, the nomadic tribe of Tanzania and Kenya.  Small boys were herding goats and sheep and the older boys were doing the same with the cattle.  Little communities of huts popped up out of nowhere, and next year probably will be abandoned.  The governments of Tanzania and Kenya are thinking of “re-settling” Masai, but no one wants a repeat of what we did with the American Indians back in the 1800s, so who knows what will happen to them. 

About an hour later we made our way to Lake Manyara National Park for our first game drive.  The tops came off our trucks, so we could stand in them and have a nice view out the top.  And then came the first elephant, only about 5 minutes into our drive.  Just hanging out on the side of the road, blowing dust on itself to keep the flies off and eating from some fruit tree.  Quite a sight to say the least.  Then we saw some impala, some monkeys, and some warthogs----and then we saw this big elephant.

If there are any kids looking at this blog, please ask mommy and daddy why it looks like this elephant has five legs.  Needless to say this big guy was quite agitated and he put on quite a show for us. 

Next we entered the plains of the Lake, and there were hundreds of zebras just milling around.  We also saw this little warthog family with their cute kiddies.

After this we headed to the “pool” and got to see some impressive hippos.  We were told that it is quite unusual to see them out of the water, but there was one just waltzing around for us.

I also found this little monkey just sitting under a tree picking things off the ground and putting them in his mouth.  Sounds like some little kids I know.

All of the above took place in the span of only 5 hours, and we headed off to some lunch at a hotel which overlooked the lake.  After lunch we headed off to the Ngorngoro Crater where we are going to spend the next day and a half.  This hotel we are staying at for the next two nights is beyond description.  The Ngorngoro Crater is about 11 miles long, 20 miles wide and 1 mile deep----and our hotel sits on the upper edge of the crater----AND our room opens up to a balcony which overlooks the WHOLE FREAKING THING!!!!!  Tonight we are sleeping with the doors wide open and hopefully we will be awakened tomorrow morning at 6am with an amazing sunrise and the hotel faces directly east.  And one last thing---the hotel knows everyone likes to sleep with the doors open, so when we got back to the room tonight there were honest to god hot water bottles under each of our covers.  I could get used to this.

But enough said.

Until next time.

HOLLA!

Clara and I started this one a few days ago but it doesn't involve any pictures so we might as well send it now.

Some shout outs:

TO MARIE MOWERY:  Alas, we didn't see Michael Jackson in Dubai, but Matt was on the look out for Scarlett Johannson.  He's totally in love with her, & we just read in the paper that she's divorcing Ryan Reynolds.  So now he's hoping that for some reason, she's currently in Tanzania & he'll run into her & make a move on her.

TO ALL MY NIECES & NEPHEWS (especially Catherine & Stella) :  Don't worry, Uncle Silly will NEVER marry Scarlett Johannson.  I've got my claws too deep into him.

SHELLY TAYLOR:  You said you wanted a "shout out", so here it is.

SCOTT LANTZ:  I see you've become one of our followers.  Are you keeping track of us because you're scared we're not going to come back & build our new house?  NO CHANCE, BABY   :-)

TO ALL 253 PEOPLE I SENT THIS BLOG TO:  If you have an update on how Cindy Depretis's dad is doing after his quadruple bypass surgery, please let me know.

TO SUSIE "Don't tell Joe I went to Qatar to visit my ex Kevin" CONNELLY:  We won't.

TO THE LLAMA OF PINEHURST:  What the hell type of name is that?  I hope you're not scaring anyone from commenting with that name.

TO GARY & MAUREEN:  Whatever it was that I was smoking it sure was good.

TO ROBERT MacDADDY:  I won.  I won.  I won.

If only the pictures would upload........

Until next time.

WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

We have been trying to post for the last two days, but the internet connection here is very poor and we can't get any of the pictures to upload.  I keep forgetting that we are in the middle of nowhere, but we want our fast internet!!!!  We have the posts all written and ready to go---except for the pictures.  If we can't get them uploaded tonight we have been promised a better connection at the next hotel by our guide.

Stay tuned.

Until next time.