a few photos posted in facebook albums, you should be able to access them by copying and pasting the links below into your web browser :) enjoy!!
safari highlights:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35841&id=100000172278517&l=c21d600d6b
living with the maasai highlights:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2142932&id=7301161&l=c2f24c7ef1
food highlights :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33642&id=100000172278517&l=3991dad2d9
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
no rhino, no cry - the big four
safari day three
an even earlier morning this morn. past the ever-grazing zebras on our way to the bathroom by headlamp. we high-kneed it all the way there, attempting to rush to make our 6am departure time. i welcomed our morning tea and coffee, it was so cold we could see our breath. we were in the car and first out of the camp, well before the sun began to rise. winding road to the steep decent into the crater, we passed a dead honey badger, fallen victim to the crazy safari car drivers :( it was a scary drive down into the crater, the road is steep and narrow and the edge is uncomfortably close. plus, the canadians shared a wonderful story of coming upon a safari truck that had tipped over on their way into the crater. wonderful!!
we made it (safe and sound) to the edge of the alkaline lake just as the sun was beginning to rise over the far rim - a huge red orb reflecting perfectly off of the water. we came upon zebras crossing the street, and got a picturesque photo of them glowing in the morning sun that had just risen. everything was tinged golden and U2 was appropriately playing ‘it’s a beautiful day’ from amy’s iphone, with us singing along and mohammed laughing and shaking his head. as we started to drive away I noticed something smoking aside the road. as a safari car had driven off shortly before we stopped for our photos, I thought maybe a cigarette had been thrown out into the grass (terrible, I know! but everyone here smokes). we’re all looking at the smoke now, and everyone’s very concerned. ‘mohammed! something is burning! there’s smoke! maybe a cigarette?’ ‘where?’ he says as he throws the car into reverse to get a view of the smoke… as we’re baking up I’m thinking, it’s morning and there was dew on our tent, dew on the car, there must be dew in the grass, too wet to smoke that much, it won’t catch fire when it’s so damp… the wheels are still turning and suddenly it hits me… zebras had just walked by – ‘it’s poop! a pile of steaming poop!’ ha, everyone’s like ‘ohhhhh!’ and we all laugh at our concern for the steaming poop pile. misidentification has definitely been a part of the trip, like the time when I thought I had discovered the largest termite hill in the history of the world, and then mohammed broke the news that it was a rock. maybe I should have brought my glasses along….
we traveled along the edge of the crater, through misty jungle with gnarled old trees uprooted by elephants, saw an old grandpa elephant feeding, his tusks were incredibly long, apparently they can get as long as 11 ft!! photos then moved on, what we were really on the hunt for was a rhino! we saw a mama lion with her very young cubs, one all too picturesquely crawling over her as she lay soaking up the morning sun and keeping an attentive watch on her surrounds. at this point avy, of course, has to pee. she asks mohammed if she can just get out real quick, he naturally refuses, saying it's not safe...
not to much later we came upon another lion (hence the not safe part - avy's still holding it and complaining a lot), his ears are barely visible above the tall grass where he lay. i used the binoculars to get a better look. imagine this, im leaning out the top of the safari car, elbows resting on the edge, binoculars held up to my face. i've got the lion's head centered in my circular field of vision. im very focused, taking in every detail of his face, his massive snout, the thick texture of his fur, his fuzzy ears, those intense eyes... i hear a strange noise, a sort of call, but not like anything i've heard before and certainly nothing i was associate with a lion noise. it is coming from mohammed, had over his mouth, he is making an obnoxious noise i'm having trouble describing in words, but almost instantly, in one unified movement, another 5 lion heads pop up of the grass all around the lion i had been focused on. it took my breath away, it was so unexpected and suddenly, 6 lions were staring intently at our safari car. yeah mohammed, tricks of the trade!!
a day in ngorogoro - hippos trudge along near swamp-like stretches of grass and water. flamingos hang out in the milky water of the lake. zebras scratch each other and roll in the dirt. we enjoy a peanut butter and jelly chapati sandwich for snack time - it's like american staple meets african staple. combined we have created one of the all time greatest snack foods ever invented. mmm chapati pb&j :) we see crown cranes with those crazy yellow feather puffs on their heads, more horny bastards (aka corey bustards), a few hyaenas a little close for comfort. they're such disgruntled looking creatures, and knowing that they kill people each year in africa isn't exactly comforting. we came to the mini wildebeest migration. these animals could quite possibly be my new favorite animal. they have such a ho-hum reputation, but in reality they are quite beautiful and full of entertaining personality. i was enthralled watching them make their way across the street between tourist-filled safari jeeps. they would approached the crossing cautiously, then at the last moment break into a frenzied gallop and zigzag their way past their fellow wildebeest, which would send the others into alarm and they'd take off running too. i loved it. they have these beautiful dark stripes over their shoulders, and their legs and so long and spindly, they are very front heavy animals with thick necks and barrels chests. the young ones were naturally my favorite, trying to keep up with their exaggeratedly gangly legs, their lack of coordination was comical. we saw yellow bellied storks, an african snake eagle, and so much more.
this was a rare sight, toward the end of our day we came upon a herd of zebras. i spotted one in the distance with what looked like (and turned out to be) a serious flesh wound on his flank. mohammed drove us up to take a closer look and sure enough, the zebra had a thick, foot square area (or more) of skin and flesh ripped down his side and dangling there. it was a sight to see. mohammed was shocked. survival of the fittest takes on a serious meaning here and you really never see injured animals. this was remarkable and when i pointed at the zebra to a passing jeep, the guy looked at me like a was crazy telling him to look at a zebra when we were in a herd of dozens of zebras. i had to make eye contact with him and emphasize, no really, look at that zebra, before he turned, did a double take, then glanced at me to thank me earnestly before he began photographing like crazy with his mega zoom lens. it was pretty awesome.
i noticed a rock during our drive that looked like it had been dug out around the bottom, all the grass was gone, and judging from our location in the crater i thought it might be a landmark for the cernter. i asked mohammed about it and he said, although we were in the center at that point, the rock was simply something the animals use to scratch themselves on. the animals like to itch their sides on the bigger rocks placed sporadically throughout the grasslands and they walk in so many circles around it that it quite literally digs a trench. i found this exceedingly entertaining and started noticing every one of these rocks along our journey. finally i asked mohammed to stop so that i could take a photo, and in the most sarcastic voice ever he said "sure, we're only looking for a rhino, but take your time photographing that rock." he was a crack up, we lucked out with our guide.
safari ends with avy sitting in the front seat singing no rhino, no cry and buffalo soldier in a voice so out of tune it made me look like a professional singer (that's sayin' somethin'). we headed back to the campsite on the beautiful, sunny afternoon - we had apparently really lucked out with a blue-sky day in the crater. the ascent was pretty much as scary as the decent. steep, winding, absurdly narrow red dirt road that mohammed plowed up like it was nothin. i had a white-knuckle grip on my seat. we made it back to camp and prosper distributed our box lunches. i sat down to eat mine outside but mohammed quickly advised me we should eat inside. i objected but he insisted and so i headed inside with the rest of the group. avy was not so compliant, she disregarded his warning and headed outside. a few minutes later we hear this ruckus outside, birds cawing, and other strange noises and not long after avy comes stumbling into the covered area where we were eating looking quite disheveled. she explained that the big hawk had attacked her and taken her bread and bread sandwich (she is apparently vegan) and she had the bloody, talon-scratched finger to prove it!! i couldn't believe it. mohammed wasn't kidding. avy said she hears 'i told you so' a lot in her life... why does that not surprise me.
so safari was pretty much the most epic thing ever... I want always to be driven around looking for cool exotic animals and not have to shower :)
an even earlier morning this morn. past the ever-grazing zebras on our way to the bathroom by headlamp. we high-kneed it all the way there, attempting to rush to make our 6am departure time. i welcomed our morning tea and coffee, it was so cold we could see our breath. we were in the car and first out of the camp, well before the sun began to rise. winding road to the steep decent into the crater, we passed a dead honey badger, fallen victim to the crazy safari car drivers :( it was a scary drive down into the crater, the road is steep and narrow and the edge is uncomfortably close. plus, the canadians shared a wonderful story of coming upon a safari truck that had tipped over on their way into the crater. wonderful!!
we made it (safe and sound) to the edge of the alkaline lake just as the sun was beginning to rise over the far rim - a huge red orb reflecting perfectly off of the water. we came upon zebras crossing the street, and got a picturesque photo of them glowing in the morning sun that had just risen. everything was tinged golden and U2 was appropriately playing ‘it’s a beautiful day’ from amy’s iphone, with us singing along and mohammed laughing and shaking his head. as we started to drive away I noticed something smoking aside the road. as a safari car had driven off shortly before we stopped for our photos, I thought maybe a cigarette had been thrown out into the grass (terrible, I know! but everyone here smokes). we’re all looking at the smoke now, and everyone’s very concerned. ‘mohammed! something is burning! there’s smoke! maybe a cigarette?’ ‘where?’ he says as he throws the car into reverse to get a view of the smoke… as we’re baking up I’m thinking, it’s morning and there was dew on our tent, dew on the car, there must be dew in the grass, too wet to smoke that much, it won’t catch fire when it’s so damp… the wheels are still turning and suddenly it hits me… zebras had just walked by – ‘it’s poop! a pile of steaming poop!’ ha, everyone’s like ‘ohhhhh!’ and we all laugh at our concern for the steaming poop pile. misidentification has definitely been a part of the trip, like the time when I thought I had discovered the largest termite hill in the history of the world, and then mohammed broke the news that it was a rock. maybe I should have brought my glasses along….
we traveled along the edge of the crater, through misty jungle with gnarled old trees uprooted by elephants, saw an old grandpa elephant feeding, his tusks were incredibly long, apparently they can get as long as 11 ft!! photos then moved on, what we were really on the hunt for was a rhino! we saw a mama lion with her very young cubs, one all too picturesquely crawling over her as she lay soaking up the morning sun and keeping an attentive watch on her surrounds. at this point avy, of course, has to pee. she asks mohammed if she can just get out real quick, he naturally refuses, saying it's not safe...
not to much later we came upon another lion (hence the not safe part - avy's still holding it and complaining a lot), his ears are barely visible above the tall grass where he lay. i used the binoculars to get a better look. imagine this, im leaning out the top of the safari car, elbows resting on the edge, binoculars held up to my face. i've got the lion's head centered in my circular field of vision. im very focused, taking in every detail of his face, his massive snout, the thick texture of his fur, his fuzzy ears, those intense eyes... i hear a strange noise, a sort of call, but not like anything i've heard before and certainly nothing i was associate with a lion noise. it is coming from mohammed, had over his mouth, he is making an obnoxious noise i'm having trouble describing in words, but almost instantly, in one unified movement, another 5 lion heads pop up of the grass all around the lion i had been focused on. it took my breath away, it was so unexpected and suddenly, 6 lions were staring intently at our safari car. yeah mohammed, tricks of the trade!!
a day in ngorogoro - hippos trudge along near swamp-like stretches of grass and water. flamingos hang out in the milky water of the lake. zebras scratch each other and roll in the dirt. we enjoy a peanut butter and jelly chapati sandwich for snack time - it's like american staple meets african staple. combined we have created one of the all time greatest snack foods ever invented. mmm chapati pb&j :) we see crown cranes with those crazy yellow feather puffs on their heads, more horny bastards (aka corey bustards), a few hyaenas a little close for comfort. they're such disgruntled looking creatures, and knowing that they kill people each year in africa isn't exactly comforting. we came to the mini wildebeest migration. these animals could quite possibly be my new favorite animal. they have such a ho-hum reputation, but in reality they are quite beautiful and full of entertaining personality. i was enthralled watching them make their way across the street between tourist-filled safari jeeps. they would approached the crossing cautiously, then at the last moment break into a frenzied gallop and zigzag their way past their fellow wildebeest, which would send the others into alarm and they'd take off running too. i loved it. they have these beautiful dark stripes over their shoulders, and their legs and so long and spindly, they are very front heavy animals with thick necks and barrels chests. the young ones were naturally my favorite, trying to keep up with their exaggeratedly gangly legs, their lack of coordination was comical. we saw yellow bellied storks, an african snake eagle, and so much more.
this was a rare sight, toward the end of our day we came upon a herd of zebras. i spotted one in the distance with what looked like (and turned out to be) a serious flesh wound on his flank. mohammed drove us up to take a closer look and sure enough, the zebra had a thick, foot square area (or more) of skin and flesh ripped down his side and dangling there. it was a sight to see. mohammed was shocked. survival of the fittest takes on a serious meaning here and you really never see injured animals. this was remarkable and when i pointed at the zebra to a passing jeep, the guy looked at me like a was crazy telling him to look at a zebra when we were in a herd of dozens of zebras. i had to make eye contact with him and emphasize, no really, look at that zebra, before he turned, did a double take, then glanced at me to thank me earnestly before he began photographing like crazy with his mega zoom lens. it was pretty awesome.
i noticed a rock during our drive that looked like it had been dug out around the bottom, all the grass was gone, and judging from our location in the crater i thought it might be a landmark for the cernter. i asked mohammed about it and he said, although we were in the center at that point, the rock was simply something the animals use to scratch themselves on. the animals like to itch their sides on the bigger rocks placed sporadically throughout the grasslands and they walk in so many circles around it that it quite literally digs a trench. i found this exceedingly entertaining and started noticing every one of these rocks along our journey. finally i asked mohammed to stop so that i could take a photo, and in the most sarcastic voice ever he said "sure, we're only looking for a rhino, but take your time photographing that rock." he was a crack up, we lucked out with our guide.
safari ends with avy sitting in the front seat singing no rhino, no cry and buffalo soldier in a voice so out of tune it made me look like a professional singer (that's sayin' somethin'). we headed back to the campsite on the beautiful, sunny afternoon - we had apparently really lucked out with a blue-sky day in the crater. the ascent was pretty much as scary as the decent. steep, winding, absurdly narrow red dirt road that mohammed plowed up like it was nothin. i had a white-knuckle grip on my seat. we made it back to camp and prosper distributed our box lunches. i sat down to eat mine outside but mohammed quickly advised me we should eat inside. i objected but he insisted and so i headed inside with the rest of the group. avy was not so compliant, she disregarded his warning and headed outside. a few minutes later we hear this ruckus outside, birds cawing, and other strange noises and not long after avy comes stumbling into the covered area where we were eating looking quite disheveled. she explained that the big hawk had attacked her and taken her bread and bread sandwich (she is apparently vegan) and she had the bloody, talon-scratched finger to prove it!! i couldn't believe it. mohammed wasn't kidding. avy said she hears 'i told you so' a lot in her life... why does that not surprise me.
so safari was pretty much the most epic thing ever... I want always to be driven around looking for cool exotic animals and not have to shower :)
Monday, September 13, 2010
a dead animal climbed that tree
safari day two
5:40 a.m. we stumbled out of the tent, bundled in too many layers to count. quick pee, breakfast at 6 - some tea/coffee, a cracker or two, and then we piled into the safari car and were on our way by 6:15 a.m., before the sun had even started to brighten the sky. Mohammed was wonderful about getting us out of camp before the other safariers had even started to stir. We loved being the first on the road, and got to see a nocturnal rarity, the east African civet, because of it. past buffalo, mbogo, that were massive shadows in the dim morning light, we made our way into the open in search of more early morning gems.
Mohammed stopped the car as the sky turned more vivid colors of pink and orange. With a picturesque African tree, the branches spread wide and high to avoid the reach of the animals, in the foreground we began snapping photo after photo, each more beautiful than the last. The clouds had set up perfectly to accentuate the rising sun, reflecting beams out above and glowing even more intensely than the red sun. the massive orb rose quickly over the Serengeti and the ‘oooo’s and ahhhhh’s’ coming from our safari car were certainly drawing the curiosity of nearby gazelle. Satisfied we had eternalized this sunrise with photos, we told mohammed ‘twende!’ and he drove on…
We wanted to play a trick on a few of the safari cars behind that had caught up to us. we asked mohammed to stop and quickly moved to one side of the roof, cameras out and pointing overzealously at nothing, the idea being that the other safariers would stop and look for the imaginary animal we were viewing. So funny right? not really, but the idea had entertained us and we wanted to give it a try. Mohammed wasn’t so keen on fooling his fellow safari guides and just as he realize our plan and started the car to foil our game, I spotted our first hippo!! Kiboko!! there in the water not far from the car. kind of ironic :) we snapped photos of the real life cool animal we had discovered and then moved on.
We soon came upon a line of safari cars, judging by the sheer number of them, they were looking at something good. and sure enough, there by the road was a young male simba, basking in the morning sun. then we spotted him, a giant male just across the way, walking lethargically with a huge female simba by his side. She settled down in the tall grass and he stood over her, his impressive mane only adding to his grandeur. We made a split second decision to head to the other side, where we had seen a few cars pull up on a road much closer to the king of the jungle. Mohammed drove like a mad man and we held on desperately with our numb fingers, icy from the cool morning. we made it around in time to pull up slowly as papa simba and his wifey passed between the cars and set out toward some nearby gazelle. Boy was he a sight to see. When they had disappeared in the tall grass we turned our attention back the ‘young boy’ as mohammed called him. there was also a female now, one we hadn’t seen at first, who approached him and playfully pawed at his face before they nuzzled just like simba and nala in the lion king! So freakin’ adorable. We watched them for a while then reluctantly moved on.
It wasn’t long before we were seeing more lions, a few females and some cubs laying in the short grass some distance away. If I thought I could watch the adult lions all day, I could watch the cubs for a lifetime. Their tiny fuzzy ears and cute speckled faces are so cute it hurts. I kept joking with mohammed that I would going to get out of the safari car and go snuggle with them now.
So speaking of getting out of the safari car, avy had to pee from her excessive morning coffee consumption and she was making it clear to mohammed that it was urgent. But let us consider the situation for a moment: we’re in the middle of the Serengeti, we’ve just seen lions, we are surrounded by tall grass where quite literally any dangerous animal could be hiding, and she wants to get out to pee. Mohammad finally finds her a semi-safe area along the road to jump out and do her business, and she did a lot of it, leaving her used toilet paper in the middle of the road in the freakin’ Serengeti protected wildlife reserve – definitely not appropriate!! Damn it avy, you can’t do that… ah, but she just did. Oh well… and this from the girl who was troubled by the fact that we’re disturbing the animals and wanted to find a better way of observing the wildlife. You think your poop in the middle of their home disturbs them? I think it does. Our safari continued…
We would drive along, photographing birds and scanning the scenery for animals. mohammed would stop every so often, grab the binoculars, and scrutinize the shady branches of the bigger trees for the rare leopard. Each time we would get excited that he had seen something, and each time he would say ‘just looking…’ so as not to get our hopes up. at one point a tree held his gaze longer than usual, and when he lowered the binoculars he said matter-of-factly ‘a dead animal has climbed that tree’. The girls all exchanged confused looks at this comment, and asked him to clarify… what he had meant is that there was a dead animal hanging in the tree, and in fact, it looked very fresh, meaning that the leopard cannot be far away. This got us very excited, and yes, we photographed the dead, allegedly tree-climbing, animal as evidence that we were close on the leopard’s trail.
Mohammed took us to a lookout point with a view of the Serengeti, part of which was charred black from a recent fire. We got out and stretched our legs. At this point it became clear that there was starting to be more a little more noise and excitement on the radio. We had picked up on when it was just garbled white noise that should be ignored and when we should listen intently for any hint of an animal’s name. when we climbed back into the car mohammed explained that they had spotted a leopard, but it was very far away. How far? We wanted to know. maybe 45 minutes he told us. what if you drive really fast?! We pleaded with him… he was already headed back to camp, we are running out of time he explained, we need to be back to camp at 11 to eat brunch and pack up all the gear (we had left prosper behind to pack up camp and cook).
We sat in silence, not sure if we were allowed to try to convince him otherwise. suddenly he stopped the car, put it in reverse, and plowed through the grass, turning the safari truck around. he took off at top speed, backtracking where we had just come from. On our leopard hunt we passed some giraffes grazing in the distance. I could definitely watch them all day, but there’s no time for that now, we were on a mission! We also passed another duma, but chances of seeing a duma on safari are about 60% according to mohammed, and we had seen one close up the day before. Our priority was the leopard, more rare (45% chance of seeing one), and arguably more breathtaking. We sped on, everyone bouncing along with the bumps in the road, unable to hide our excitement!
Wasn’t long before in the distance we could see a congregation of safari jeeps. Mahammed pulled up and nosed his way into the middle to get us the best view. In a tree not far off the road was, indeed, a leopard!! Draped over a large branch of the tree, his tail dangling to one side, his head resting on his massive paw. What a gorgeous animal!! After we got our fill of leopard photos it was back to the campsite at top speed! We were running late and we had to get prosper and make our way to our next campsite, on the rim of the crater!!
Of course the journey between campsites was a safari in and of itself. We’d periodically drive past an ostrich, and every type of antelope and gazelle, as well the occasional corey bustard (which mohammed would pronounce, with his accent and lisp, and always make it sound like ‘horny bastard’ – never got old). the serengeti is pretty much flat forever, but every once in a while we would pass these large piles of rocks. I couldn’t figure out how they would have gotten there, all “lion kind pride rock-esque” until mohammed explained that ngorogoro crater was once a mountain taller than kilimarjaro and it erupted about two million years ago, showering the Serengeti with those huge rocks. When we’d pass them you could always spot a rock hyrax (a small tailless rodent) or two scurrying out of sight. We also see the agama lizards here, also known as rainbow lizards, bright pink and purple, no joke! Speaking of cool colored animals…
The beautiful blue birds we saw are called lilac rollers, and the color of their wings is unbelievable!! ok, im just thinking… so it is now three weeks since my arrival back in the states and I’ve finally found the time to finish up this blog (had our first test of second year this morning)… and im trying to pick up where I left off but it’s not as easy as I thought it would be and I don’t think I’ve blogged yet about the kill we saw so im just gonna jump into that real quick. Im pretty sure it was day two of safari and not long after we saw the big papa lion. We came upon a line up of jeeps watching what we soon realized was four lioness’. One of them was obviously very interested in some nearby grazing gazelle and we decided to observe for a bit. A lioness by a tree, two in the grass, and one near us sitting, attentively staring in the direction of some nervously grazing gazelle not far away. So here’s my thinking, you’re a gazelle, a lion is eyeing you and licking her chops, maybe just get the heck out of there before she has time to make a move? Well that’s what I’d do, because otherwise this happens… as we’re watching them and wondering if we’ll get to see anything cool (how long does it take a lion to hunt down a gazelle anyway?) we soon realize that we’ve lost visual on one of the lioness’. Now the lioness nearest the jeeps begins making a move forward and before long the lineup of jeeps are all starting up their engines and moving forward in turn to maintain the best vantage point over the situation, or so they thought. Just as mohammed was going to start up our car (we were almost last in line), the m.i.a. lioness we had lost track of launches out of her concealed position in the grass just to the right of our car and within that moment of pure explosive predator strength she takes down a gazelle we hadn’t even noticed it was so well camouflaged in the tall grass. it was mere seconds before all four lioness’ were on top of the carcass, tearing off bloody pieces of meat, dismembering the decent-sized gazelle that moments before had been grazing quietly on the Serengeti plains. It’s the circle of life :) we were lucky to witness it in action!!
Ok, back to ngorogoro…. We pass through the gate (at which point mohammed stopped the car halfway through and goes ‘me and prosper, we’re in ngorogoro, you guys, in Serengeti’ which I found pretty entertaining). Another thing mohammed was doing that was cracking me up was that he kept getting hairs sticking to him. he’d be driving along trying to pick off a hair that had flown up from one of the six heads of long hair in the back and was tickling/annoying him. it happened surprisingly often, guess we shed a lot when we go three days without bathing. We saw more of the coke’s hartebeest, got a great close up shot of a topi, saw a black backed jackel, and passed by an impala with cool swayed horns.
We make it to ngorogoro crater campsite. There are zebras grazing right next to where our tents are set up and we have to walk directly past them to get to the bathroom. When we were photographing them I may have gotten a little too close and I hear amy yelling from a few yards behind me “linds, your mom is gonna kill you! turn around and smile” ha oops. Ask me what happens when you get too close to a zebra and start pissing it off. im allowed to tell these stories now that I’ve made it back safe, wait for the elephant story later on this night! so prosper’s making dinner and we set up our tents, and im visiting all of the cooks asking them what they’re making and prosper brings out the mountain of popcorn (candied on this night, I think he liked us :) and I grab a cup full and head down to drink my tea, eat my popcorn and watch the zebras. It was beautiful and sunny and I was in paradise.
By the time sunset came around we had busted open two bottles of wine and made our way to the top of our safari car to sit from that vantage point, wine glasses in hand, bottles closeby, watching the sun set over the edge of the crater. Also pretty much paradise. Soup and rice and vegetable curry for dinner, which was interrupted when avy left for the bathroom then came back in a frenzy and explained in her admittedly pretty cute accent that she had dropped her pants to pee outside the bathroom in the dark (apparently she had decided the bathrooms were too dirty and it would be nicer to pee next to them) when she realized she was, pants around her ankles, one a few feet from a massive elephant who had entered the camp to drink from the watertank outside of the covered area where we were eating. Naturally she panicked, ran inside to tell us the story, at which point we all ran back outside to confirm her tale, and sure enough there was a gargantuan elephant, trunk in the water tank, right there!! im talking feet away, and I needed a photo, and with the liquid courage from the wine I stepped forward and took one, and then another, and then one of the crowd behind me all staring in awe and shock at the massive wild animal so close to us. at this pint he turned to face me, and I think that’s when I realized I should probably back off. we headed back inside, guided by some of the locals who im thinking were pretty thankful none of us had been traveled. The goal is to return the tourists in one piece :)
That’s about enough excitement for one day. fried bananas and honey for dessert, then it was a matter of putting on every layer of clothing we brought with us and snuggling beneath two sleeping bags. it gets cold at the crater!! A quick visit from a bush pig who sniffed at our tent, then it was off to sleep, with visions of safari animals dancing in our heads.
5:40 a.m. we stumbled out of the tent, bundled in too many layers to count. quick pee, breakfast at 6 - some tea/coffee, a cracker or two, and then we piled into the safari car and were on our way by 6:15 a.m., before the sun had even started to brighten the sky. Mohammed was wonderful about getting us out of camp before the other safariers had even started to stir. We loved being the first on the road, and got to see a nocturnal rarity, the east African civet, because of it. past buffalo, mbogo, that were massive shadows in the dim morning light, we made our way into the open in search of more early morning gems.
Mohammed stopped the car as the sky turned more vivid colors of pink and orange. With a picturesque African tree, the branches spread wide and high to avoid the reach of the animals, in the foreground we began snapping photo after photo, each more beautiful than the last. The clouds had set up perfectly to accentuate the rising sun, reflecting beams out above and glowing even more intensely than the red sun. the massive orb rose quickly over the Serengeti and the ‘oooo’s and ahhhhh’s’ coming from our safari car were certainly drawing the curiosity of nearby gazelle. Satisfied we had eternalized this sunrise with photos, we told mohammed ‘twende!’ and he drove on…
We wanted to play a trick on a few of the safari cars behind that had caught up to us. we asked mohammed to stop and quickly moved to one side of the roof, cameras out and pointing overzealously at nothing, the idea being that the other safariers would stop and look for the imaginary animal we were viewing. So funny right? not really, but the idea had entertained us and we wanted to give it a try. Mohammed wasn’t so keen on fooling his fellow safari guides and just as he realize our plan and started the car to foil our game, I spotted our first hippo!! Kiboko!! there in the water not far from the car. kind of ironic :) we snapped photos of the real life cool animal we had discovered and then moved on.
We soon came upon a line of safari cars, judging by the sheer number of them, they were looking at something good. and sure enough, there by the road was a young male simba, basking in the morning sun. then we spotted him, a giant male just across the way, walking lethargically with a huge female simba by his side. She settled down in the tall grass and he stood over her, his impressive mane only adding to his grandeur. We made a split second decision to head to the other side, where we had seen a few cars pull up on a road much closer to the king of the jungle. Mohammed drove like a mad man and we held on desperately with our numb fingers, icy from the cool morning. we made it around in time to pull up slowly as papa simba and his wifey passed between the cars and set out toward some nearby gazelle. Boy was he a sight to see. When they had disappeared in the tall grass we turned our attention back the ‘young boy’ as mohammed called him. there was also a female now, one we hadn’t seen at first, who approached him and playfully pawed at his face before they nuzzled just like simba and nala in the lion king! So freakin’ adorable. We watched them for a while then reluctantly moved on.
It wasn’t long before we were seeing more lions, a few females and some cubs laying in the short grass some distance away. If I thought I could watch the adult lions all day, I could watch the cubs for a lifetime. Their tiny fuzzy ears and cute speckled faces are so cute it hurts. I kept joking with mohammed that I would going to get out of the safari car and go snuggle with them now.
So speaking of getting out of the safari car, avy had to pee from her excessive morning coffee consumption and she was making it clear to mohammed that it was urgent. But let us consider the situation for a moment: we’re in the middle of the Serengeti, we’ve just seen lions, we are surrounded by tall grass where quite literally any dangerous animal could be hiding, and she wants to get out to pee. Mohammad finally finds her a semi-safe area along the road to jump out and do her business, and she did a lot of it, leaving her used toilet paper in the middle of the road in the freakin’ Serengeti protected wildlife reserve – definitely not appropriate!! Damn it avy, you can’t do that… ah, but she just did. Oh well… and this from the girl who was troubled by the fact that we’re disturbing the animals and wanted to find a better way of observing the wildlife. You think your poop in the middle of their home disturbs them? I think it does. Our safari continued…
We would drive along, photographing birds and scanning the scenery for animals. mohammed would stop every so often, grab the binoculars, and scrutinize the shady branches of the bigger trees for the rare leopard. Each time we would get excited that he had seen something, and each time he would say ‘just looking…’ so as not to get our hopes up. at one point a tree held his gaze longer than usual, and when he lowered the binoculars he said matter-of-factly ‘a dead animal has climbed that tree’. The girls all exchanged confused looks at this comment, and asked him to clarify… what he had meant is that there was a dead animal hanging in the tree, and in fact, it looked very fresh, meaning that the leopard cannot be far away. This got us very excited, and yes, we photographed the dead, allegedly tree-climbing, animal as evidence that we were close on the leopard’s trail.
Mohammed took us to a lookout point with a view of the Serengeti, part of which was charred black from a recent fire. We got out and stretched our legs. At this point it became clear that there was starting to be more a little more noise and excitement on the radio. We had picked up on when it was just garbled white noise that should be ignored and when we should listen intently for any hint of an animal’s name. when we climbed back into the car mohammed explained that they had spotted a leopard, but it was very far away. How far? We wanted to know. maybe 45 minutes he told us. what if you drive really fast?! We pleaded with him… he was already headed back to camp, we are running out of time he explained, we need to be back to camp at 11 to eat brunch and pack up all the gear (we had left prosper behind to pack up camp and cook).
We sat in silence, not sure if we were allowed to try to convince him otherwise. suddenly he stopped the car, put it in reverse, and plowed through the grass, turning the safari truck around. he took off at top speed, backtracking where we had just come from. On our leopard hunt we passed some giraffes grazing in the distance. I could definitely watch them all day, but there’s no time for that now, we were on a mission! We also passed another duma, but chances of seeing a duma on safari are about 60% according to mohammed, and we had seen one close up the day before. Our priority was the leopard, more rare (45% chance of seeing one), and arguably more breathtaking. We sped on, everyone bouncing along with the bumps in the road, unable to hide our excitement!
Wasn’t long before in the distance we could see a congregation of safari jeeps. Mahammed pulled up and nosed his way into the middle to get us the best view. In a tree not far off the road was, indeed, a leopard!! Draped over a large branch of the tree, his tail dangling to one side, his head resting on his massive paw. What a gorgeous animal!! After we got our fill of leopard photos it was back to the campsite at top speed! We were running late and we had to get prosper and make our way to our next campsite, on the rim of the crater!!
Of course the journey between campsites was a safari in and of itself. We’d periodically drive past an ostrich, and every type of antelope and gazelle, as well the occasional corey bustard (which mohammed would pronounce, with his accent and lisp, and always make it sound like ‘horny bastard’ – never got old). the serengeti is pretty much flat forever, but every once in a while we would pass these large piles of rocks. I couldn’t figure out how they would have gotten there, all “lion kind pride rock-esque” until mohammed explained that ngorogoro crater was once a mountain taller than kilimarjaro and it erupted about two million years ago, showering the Serengeti with those huge rocks. When we’d pass them you could always spot a rock hyrax (a small tailless rodent) or two scurrying out of sight. We also see the agama lizards here, also known as rainbow lizards, bright pink and purple, no joke! Speaking of cool colored animals…
The beautiful blue birds we saw are called lilac rollers, and the color of their wings is unbelievable!! ok, im just thinking… so it is now three weeks since my arrival back in the states and I’ve finally found the time to finish up this blog (had our first test of second year this morning)… and im trying to pick up where I left off but it’s not as easy as I thought it would be and I don’t think I’ve blogged yet about the kill we saw so im just gonna jump into that real quick. Im pretty sure it was day two of safari and not long after we saw the big papa lion. We came upon a line up of jeeps watching what we soon realized was four lioness’. One of them was obviously very interested in some nearby grazing gazelle and we decided to observe for a bit. A lioness by a tree, two in the grass, and one near us sitting, attentively staring in the direction of some nervously grazing gazelle not far away. So here’s my thinking, you’re a gazelle, a lion is eyeing you and licking her chops, maybe just get the heck out of there before she has time to make a move? Well that’s what I’d do, because otherwise this happens… as we’re watching them and wondering if we’ll get to see anything cool (how long does it take a lion to hunt down a gazelle anyway?) we soon realize that we’ve lost visual on one of the lioness’. Now the lioness nearest the jeeps begins making a move forward and before long the lineup of jeeps are all starting up their engines and moving forward in turn to maintain the best vantage point over the situation, or so they thought. Just as mohammed was going to start up our car (we were almost last in line), the m.i.a. lioness we had lost track of launches out of her concealed position in the grass just to the right of our car and within that moment of pure explosive predator strength she takes down a gazelle we hadn’t even noticed it was so well camouflaged in the tall grass. it was mere seconds before all four lioness’ were on top of the carcass, tearing off bloody pieces of meat, dismembering the decent-sized gazelle that moments before had been grazing quietly on the Serengeti plains. It’s the circle of life :) we were lucky to witness it in action!!
Ok, back to ngorogoro…. We pass through the gate (at which point mohammed stopped the car halfway through and goes ‘me and prosper, we’re in ngorogoro, you guys, in Serengeti’ which I found pretty entertaining). Another thing mohammed was doing that was cracking me up was that he kept getting hairs sticking to him. he’d be driving along trying to pick off a hair that had flown up from one of the six heads of long hair in the back and was tickling/annoying him. it happened surprisingly often, guess we shed a lot when we go three days without bathing. We saw more of the coke’s hartebeest, got a great close up shot of a topi, saw a black backed jackel, and passed by an impala with cool swayed horns.
We make it to ngorogoro crater campsite. There are zebras grazing right next to where our tents are set up and we have to walk directly past them to get to the bathroom. When we were photographing them I may have gotten a little too close and I hear amy yelling from a few yards behind me “linds, your mom is gonna kill you! turn around and smile” ha oops. Ask me what happens when you get too close to a zebra and start pissing it off. im allowed to tell these stories now that I’ve made it back safe, wait for the elephant story later on this night! so prosper’s making dinner and we set up our tents, and im visiting all of the cooks asking them what they’re making and prosper brings out the mountain of popcorn (candied on this night, I think he liked us :) and I grab a cup full and head down to drink my tea, eat my popcorn and watch the zebras. It was beautiful and sunny and I was in paradise.
By the time sunset came around we had busted open two bottles of wine and made our way to the top of our safari car to sit from that vantage point, wine glasses in hand, bottles closeby, watching the sun set over the edge of the crater. Also pretty much paradise. Soup and rice and vegetable curry for dinner, which was interrupted when avy left for the bathroom then came back in a frenzy and explained in her admittedly pretty cute accent that she had dropped her pants to pee outside the bathroom in the dark (apparently she had decided the bathrooms were too dirty and it would be nicer to pee next to them) when she realized she was, pants around her ankles, one a few feet from a massive elephant who had entered the camp to drink from the watertank outside of the covered area where we were eating. Naturally she panicked, ran inside to tell us the story, at which point we all ran back outside to confirm her tale, and sure enough there was a gargantuan elephant, trunk in the water tank, right there!! im talking feet away, and I needed a photo, and with the liquid courage from the wine I stepped forward and took one, and then another, and then one of the crowd behind me all staring in awe and shock at the massive wild animal so close to us. at this pint he turned to face me, and I think that’s when I realized I should probably back off. we headed back inside, guided by some of the locals who im thinking were pretty thankful none of us had been traveled. The goal is to return the tourists in one piece :)
That’s about enough excitement for one day. fried bananas and honey for dessert, then it was a matter of putting on every layer of clothing we brought with us and snuggling beneath two sleeping bags. it gets cold at the crater!! A quick visit from a bush pig who sniffed at our tent, then it was off to sleep, with visions of safari animals dancing in our heads.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
african roller coaster
safari day one
picked up at 7am sharp by mohammed, our safari guide for the trip. apparently he first entered the house where the canadians stay (they never lock their door) and tried to get them to come on safari. chalice and paul, both feeling friday night, were none too happy and ‘hapana’-ed him over and over until paul finally got up and was like ‘do I look like im ready to go on safari?!’ – poor mohammed, wrong mzungus. then again, we all do look alike ;) when he finally tracked down the right people, he piled our packs into the car and we went to the soko office (plug for soko safaris, they were absolutely wonderful and locally owned, as opposed to a lot of the other safari companies here owned by Indian families) to get the other safariers – here are their bios:
Anne: from amsterdam, only 21 years old. here volunteering as an optometrists. she has a 15 month old daughter named flower that she left home with her parents (crazy, we know). she was nice and easy going, we enjoyed her company.
Michelle: from ottawa, canada, 23 years old. here volunteering with TVE (tanzania volunteer experience) working at orphanages. she was very quiet but also nice and easy company on safari.
Avigail: from israel. maybe in her early 30’s? she was a character to say the least. she never listened to the guides and paid the “I told you so” price several times on the trip. she consistently drank too much coffee in the morning and made us stop to allow her to pee way too often, and did I mention she forgot to bring toilet paper? she sang off key to buffalo soldier for a majority of the third day… the stories will keep coming, she kept the trip interesting and consistently left us giving each other looks behind her back that said “what the $%*&!”
our final company for the trip was our daktari wtumbo (stomach doctor), prosper, a cute and quiet young guy who had learned to cook at a school in moshi. he did not let us down and kept us fed and happy the entire the trip. more details on the menu later…
the eight of us set out for our serengeti campsite, a 6 hour journey, most of which was on unpaved roads at speeds so fast that I thought the safari vehicle might rattle apart. we saw a giraffe before even entering the park. it’s wild to me that these animals really do live amongst the people here. we also passed many maasai, a big draw for safariers and great income for the maasai and their villages, from charging the safaris to bring people through. these maasai were very different than our lengasti tribe, they know how to exploit the tourists and in addition to selling ‘maasai necklace and bracelet’ they jump at capturing a photo with you and then charge for their appearance in it. mohammed told us that there was one maasai man in the village we passed through who had 34 wives and over 100 grandchildren. apparently they opened a school for his children alone, and all of the kids are in class with their brothers and sisters.
we had to pass through ngorogoro on our way to serengeti, the road is steep and winding that takes you to the ridge of the crater, and as we climbed we passed from the dry, brown of the warm valley to the lush, cool jungle atop the crater rim. the clouds were flying by, touching the treetops. the fog faded the trees farther from the road lighter shades of gray. moss hung thick from the trees overgrowing the road, greenish-black in color and it made the branches look fuzzy. red dirt, kicked up by the safari vehicles, stuck to the nearby plant life, and just out my window everything was a monotone brick color. our first glimpse of the crater was breathtaking: miles down the floor was faintly visible through the clouds, I couldn’t help but imagine all of the animals too small to see. satisfied that he had given us our crater preview, mohammed drove on. we could look down the steep right side of the road into the crater, then down the left yet steeper side into the lush jungle. we were quite literally driving along the edge of the crater and it was incredible! my gaze was fixated out the window, taking in the scenery that reminded me so much of home, but in a more wild and overgrown way. it felt like we had entered jurassic park, and I was eagerly searching the jungle for exotic wildlife.
the road leading to the official gate into ngorogoro was littered with olive baboons, far too comfortable in the presence of humans. we got out to stretch as mohammed paid our entrance fees, and within seconds we watched a lady flee for her life as a baboon, irritated that she had gotten too close when snapping a photo, charged aggressively. needless to say we backed off after that, and gave baboons a wide berth for the rest of the trip. they’re funny to watch though, picking bugs off each other just as you imagine the stereotypical primate interaction would happen. one in particular, a big male, was sprawled on his back beside the road, feet resting in his hands, as a smaller female picked bugs off of his tummy. they were definitely entertaining to watch, a little scary, but mostly funny.
at this point we had been driving for hours and prosper and mohammed were trying to manage a car of six ladies getting progressively more hungry. not a minute after I had asked prosper when we eat, thu climbed back into the car and asked him when we get to eat. avy begged for bananas and prosper distributed one to each of us to tide us over until lunch.
at the 15 minute mark mohammed started giving us minute by minute updates of how long it would be until we get to eat. it was cracking me up. 5 minutes… drive down the road a little further, 4 minutes… around a corner, kicking up red dust behind us, 3 minutes…. turn a corner and a sign labeled for picnicking, 2 minutes… as he’s pulling to a stop in an opening overlooking the crater… 1 minute!! he’s been leading safaris for 15 years and you can tell he is very experienced dealing with tourists. two stories about that:
first, he pointed out several different safari cars during our trip saying that he had worked for that company before. apparently a ton of the safari companies are owned by indians and the locals tend to strongly dislike the indian families in tanzania. they own businesses, exploit the locals, underpay them, don’t treat them well, and so on. mohammed pretty much told us that he wanted to shoot one indian owned safari company. he took out his imaginary air rifle and shot his imaginary air bullet, specifying that he does not want to kill them, just shoot them in the leg as well as have each indian person in tanzania spend 3 months in jail each year. he has apparently really thought this one through. this was the first we’d really heard a local talk about their frustrations with the indians in tanzania, though we’ve caught on that there’s some conflict – ‘we are like cats and dogs’ mohammed said. pretty interesting to hear about. we all laughed and took it light heartedly, but made a note not to get on mohammed’s bad side as none of us would like to be shot in the leg or spend 3 months in prision.
second: mohammed talked a little about what makes good safariers and what makes bad safariers. naturally we were curious whether we’re the best safari group he’s ever had or what?! :) get this, he’s had tourists come on safari with him who will sit in the very back seats even when there’s only two of them (this is odd – there are four rows of seats, and the closer you are to the front the less bumpy it tends to be), and he has to yell to try to talk to them. he says he’s had people who read a novel in the back while they drive around – what?! and that often the difficult people are those who don’t want bumps (aka no driving fast, driving fast was the best part, more on that later), don’t want dirt (dirt is part of the experience, we embraced it and used the ‘we’re on safari’ excuse so that we didn’t have to shower for three days :), and want to the AC on the whole time (fresh air is the way to go, nothing better than smelling the animals, part of the experience!)…we were baffled that he’s had such picky people on safari, and sometimes for weeks at a time!! luckily our whole group (minus avigail ;) was very easy going and he thought amy, thu and I were quite funny (the other two girls didn’t talk much)… I think he really liked safariing us around, and prosper took a quick liking to us to, which was reflected in his particularly amazing meals that got better and better each day.
ok, back to lunch, box lunch, it’s the standard: banana, orange, boiled egg, two vegetable samosas (mmm delish), a bread and bread sandwich, as avy called it, not sure what was on it, great for feeding to the huge birds that look like crows on steroids with white chests. they’re a bit aggressive, I have a great story about that for the third day. lunch also included a muffin, some crisps, and maybe something else im forgetting – oh, pineapple juice in a juice box that’s a triangle shape so I think it should be called a juice triangle enough about the food, I get too hung up on the food, I think I will be able to make an entire album of pictures of food slash me putting food in my mouth. what? eating is a huge part of the travel experience!!
our safari started for real post-lunch when we hit the serengeti. the roof of the car went up, my shoes came off, and I don’t think my butt was in my seat for the rest of the day. I stood in my socked feet on the seat, sitting atop the headrest, hanging on to the bars around the edge as we flew down the rocky roads. I was still rocking as I wrote about the day by headlamp in my tent that night. it is such a bumpy ride, so noisy and dusty and you’re hanging on for dear life as mohammed speeds around the corners - awesome on every level! here’s an idea of the animals we saw on day one:
thomson’s gazelle – this one is funny because the first one you see you want to take like 40 photos of it, even if it’s really far away and all of your pictures are blurry, then as you safari on you realize they’re everywhere :)
simba!! - not a few kilometers down the road after entering the park we came upon a stopped safari car. on our safari we quickly learned that the more safari cars stopped in a given area, the cooler the animal. We knew that a crowd of safari cars meant we were about to see something very rare and awesome :) here we came upon a mama lion with three babies!! It was funny because mohammed was like ‘simba!’ and we’re all eagerly scanning the horizon, im looking off into the distance grass, trying to pick out some irregularity and I can’t see anything. ‘where, mohammed, where?’ I ask. ‘there!’ he points, a little exasperated, and there, maybe 20 ft from the road, I can see the mama lion and babies laying the shade of a small bush. I had to laugh, here im desperately searching the distant grass for a speck of a lion and there are four right in front of my face. we watched them for a while, snapped many photos, and reluctantly moved on. I could watch the animals all day. stick me in front of a big cat and im endlessly entertained. they’re so beautiful!!
plains zebra – same thing, first zebra you see from wayyy in the distance and you snap endless low-quality photos and then you realize zebras are everywhere and you’ll get pics of them directly next to the car. I like zebras a lot!
hartebeest – which I think of more as heart beast, since the horns look like they’re in the shape of a heart. This guy was big and we saw quite a few of them, I like them a lot, they’re easy to mistake for the topi, except the topi have more interesting color markings on their legs.
pumba – the warthogs are so freakin’ ugly! We saw two near a muddy water hole, seemed appropriate. They have these gross mohawks of course hair and knarly horns from the noses and they kneel on their front legs and sniff through the dirt and grass for food. And they totally waddle when they scurry along, but apparently they’re pretty fast and mean. I wasn’t a fan, though we did eat pumba early on in our trip (yes, the vegetarian tried a piece), and it was delicious, so I dunno… don’t judge a book by it’s cover? :)
duma – mohammed definitely had a radio in the car, and there was muffled talking in the background for most of the safari. we had heard this was a good thing, because it meant that he was in touch with the other drivers and could get a head’s up if someone found something good. soon it became apparent that he had a destination in mind. we had been driving along more slowly for the start of the safari, stopping periodically for each of the more common animals we saw. suddenly he sped up, was on the radio speaking quickly in swahili, and it got to point where we were flying down the road faster than I thought possible on such rough terrain. that’s the best by the way, it’s an african roller coaster!! we loved it, amy and I had smiles ear to ear when he’d take off at top speed, both of us up on our seats hanging on for dear life! what a ride!! and get this, he suddenly turns completely offroad, just up and over the rock pile on the edge of the road, and we’re cruising in a random direction through the tall grass. this cannot be wildlife preserve kosher :) but he was on a mission and we didn’t question his decision, just held on extra tight as we couldn’t see the bumps and holes the terrain threw our way beneath the tall grass. soon we spotted a car in the distance (we were infinitely amazed that he could find his way around these parks, I mean, what do the other guides tell him, hey I found a cool animal near a gazelle by a tree in some grass? mohammed is awesome). as we drove closer mohammed slowed respectably and asked us ‘what will we see here?’ – he obviously already knew, but we were amateurs to this safari business (unlike the pros we are now ;) and we all had no idea. it looked to me like a dead thorn bush of hell in the middle of a bunch of grass. as we got closer the other safari car pulled away and made room for him to pull up close next to the bush – cheetah!! She was laying there in the shade, protected by the huge spines of the thorny bush of hell (same plant that almost took my arm off had it not been for my maasai warrior). She was soooo beautiful! I was in awe! And we were ridiculously close. Duma was just laying there, her head up watching us curiously, or more likely annoyed, that we were disturbing her. got some great photos of those red eyes staring directly into the camera. It was incredible to see such a beautiful animal so close. I need to hunt down one of my favorite childhood movies about a cheetah, the reason I named my favorite stuffed animal duma, which I didn’t realize at the time means cheetah (it’s a snow leopard – oops :) ok, that’s definitely an over-share in this blog…anyway, we were very lucky to see duma so close, and even luckier when we got to see another duma tomorrow!! cheetahs are impressive animals.
clouds – im including this in the list of cool things we saw because the clouds in the Serengeti on this day were the most amazingly epic clouds I have ever seen in my entire life and there was a moment when I thought I might actually end up with more photos of the sky than photos of animals :) (am I overdoing it with the smiley faces or what? but really, this safari was perfect, I can’t stop smiling when I think about it, we got soooo lucky!!)
simba- yup, we stumbled upon more simbas, a few females this time, very VERY close and out in the open. one walked over and laid down and mohammed drove us right up next to it for photos. I was having sensory overload because nearby was the first herd of elephants we had seen and there were many and they were so beautiful and I love elephants, especially after getting to ride them in Thailand, and I was so excited to see African elephants. Anyway, my photos are all over the place – lion, elephant, lion, elephant, lion and elephant, elephant, lion… you get the idea. SO COOL! ok, quick story… so our safari car was awesome, and the fact that we survive the trip without a trip was pretty remarkable (you see the safari cars changing flats alllll the time), but it was older and a little bit falling apart. The first day, if he idled for too long looking at an animal (so pretty much everything we stopped for) it would die. Mohammed would patiently get out, fix the loose connection, get back in and start the car. the thing is, when we stopped next to the lion to watch it and take photos and remark on it’s blood stained legs and paws, the car definitely died. So it came time for us to leave the lion and peace and mohammed’s all ‘so guys, who wants to get out and fix the engine?’ just casual and sarcastic. And we all laugh because it was funny but the thing is it was only so funny because we were actually stuck. You can’t get out of the car, pop the hood, and fiddle with the engine when you’re parked 5 feet from a huge female simba, with blood stained fur nonetheless!! So we’re all just twiddling our fingers wondering what the next move is… waiting it seemed. Fortunately, another safari vehicle had gotten wind of the lazy lions and pulled up behind us. mohammed yelled something in Swahili out the window and yup, you guessed it, the safari car, with a rev of the engine, moved forward and nuged us about 20 feet past the lion, giving us enough speed to get the car started. We’ve had a lot of fun with the ‘hey guys, remember that time the safari truck died when we were parked next to a huge lion?’ ‘oh yeah, good times’ :)
black kite eagle – saw lots of cool eagles and hawks and vultures. Actually the bird life is so diverse and they’re all really beautiful. The crazy birds might have been one of my favorite parts of the safari.
secretary bird – HUGE and very odd looking. We saw a lot of these, I liked them beaucoup :)
love birds – these really pretty little green birds that we would occasionally see in flocks.
Ostrich – possibly the ugliest bird ever created. The first time we saw an ostrich we actually saw two males outside of the park, near one of the maasai boma tourist traps. Mohammed joked because the one male was doing a mating dance and he said he must be confused because the other bird was male too. at this point we didn’t realize how different the males and females look. We thought maybe the one male was just practicing. Later we realized that the males are the typical black and white that you think of when someone says ostrich. The females are a neutral brown color that makes them even more ugly. Their wings hang down at their sides, seemingly weighed down by all of the feathers that cover their body, making them look quite disheveled. Their featherless pink necks are gross, and when they’re eating lizards or whatever you can see the lump get swallowed down their long throat. They are HUGE birds and we saw a lot of them throughout the safari. the feathers really do sway and fluff like a massive, thick boa or something. ok fine, ostrich is a cool bird, just soooo absurdly unusual looking!
giraffes :) I love giraffes. I learned there are three types – masai giraffe and rothschild giraffe – both of which im pretty sure we saw and im hoping I can distinguish between in photos since I’ve educated myself. there’s also a reticulated giraffe that would be soooo cool to see but I don’t think it lives in east africa. ill have to review my photos just to be sure we didn’t see one. fun giraffe fact! – those loooonnnggg giraffe necks have the same number of cervical vertebrae that we do! yup, only seven in such a long neck. Really cool! it would’ve been kinda awesome to see a giraffe skeleton (in a messed up sort of way) – we did see what im pretty sure was an elephant skull. There was also a really big rib cage another day. you spot horns and random bones every so often on safari.
hyaena – asleep by the water. This is the animal avy wanted to see most and I have to admit I was pretty into the hyaenas as well. A very interesting creatures, so aggressive. Amy was reading about them and what the book said was that they’ll eat pretty much anything, including humans, and have been known to ‘tear the face off a human sleeping in the open’ – what?! and the canadians also passed on a story from their safari (thank goodness they told us once we returned) about a hyaena coming into a tent and killing a woman. They do just look like mean, grumpy animals capable of incredible violence. I think they were well portrayed in the lion king (oh, we saw pride rock by the way, er, several of them. when the volcano exploded creating ngorogoro crater the rocks landed in the Serengeti so there’s random huge boulders everywhere, and sometimes the piles make a perfect pride rock :)
sausage tree!! – ever since hearing about this when we went to arusha national park I’ve wanted to see a sausage tree – mostly because of the humor of the name. fear not, I took many photos. It’s a pretty funny tree… the fruit or whatever the ‘sausage’ is cannot be eaten by humans but a lot of the animals in the Serengeti eat it.
that’s about it for day one on safari. we were ridiculously dirty after only one day, with no intention of trying to shower at the campsite. We stick with the homeless showers using baby wipes we’d turn brown with a single swipe. My hair was caked with dirt and I had a neat outline of my sunglasses on my dirt smeared face. but let’s be honest, who doesn’t love being the dirty kid every now again? ;) we got to the campsite and set up our tents alongside several others from various safaris. They’ve really got the system figured out. prosper got straight to work in a kitchen crowded with all of the other cooks. I would pick him out at first by his shirt, which said ‘go commando’ and had a picture of a cartoon guy running with his underwear behind him. we helped set the table for dinner, and got everything put in our tents, as the sun set quickly on the horizon. It was possible one of the most epic sunset I have ever seen and again, the number of photos I took probably rivals my animals photos for the day. clouds and beams and glowing orange and red. I kept getting distracted as I helped set up the tents. Huge canvas tents plenty big enough for three people (though they usually only stick two in a tent, we opted to only set up two and save the time and effort). They provide sleeping mats, sleeping bags, and pillows. I was more than thankful for my sleeping bag liner – im guessing the sleeping bags get washed, oh, never!
dinner was incredible. we were served tea and popcorn (yes, a mt kilimarjaro of popcorn) as we watched the final sunset…
ok, pause, im typing this in the hostel, it’s the second to last day of our trip and thu and amy are both passed, I’m guessing it’s not ten p.m. yet, but we’re on a wayyyy early schedule after safari. anyway, point of this is that there’s something living in the attic of centre house hostel and it’s BIG! And it just went scurrying across our ceiling and I can hear the claws and it sounds huge enough to fall through the thin and poorly constructed ceilings and we only started hearing it two weeks ago but I hear it almost every night and it freaks me out that some huge, nocturnal, clawed beast is running around over our heads all the time. I just have to tell myself it’s our last night in a sleeping bag, mosquito net tucked neatly around us (that reminds me, I need to take my malaria meds), and soon I will be home in my soft amazing bed. creatures in the night on safari, ok… creatures in the night in your hostel, not so ok.
back to dinner, now I will describe in detail our delicious food: popcorn has never tasted better – and no microwave! How do they do it?! ;) amazing cucumber soup from scratch (I watched him make it), avocado noodles and vegetable medley and I think something else im forgetting and then all sorts of fruit for dessert, particularly the most delicious pineapple ever. we were all stuffed and happy and praising prosper for his amazing culinary skills.
we had to team it to the bathroom as it really isn’t safe to walk around alone or in small numbers. Mohammed emphasized again and again that if we had to pee in the night we were not to walk to the bathroom but inside, shine our flashlight out first, and then quickly take care of business right next to the tent, then get back inside asap. I made a mental note to stop my water intake and ensure I would not need to pee in the night. I slept like a rock. was expecting to hear the sounds of the serengeti, and so I fell asleep with my music in. it was funny because when I woke up in the night my music was still going and I was sure I heard all of the crazy loud noises of the animals over my music so I quickly removed my headphones and… and…. Silence. No animals? but we had heard there would for sure be crazy animal noises. I was back asleep in a snap and before I knew it amy’s alarm was going off…
picked up at 7am sharp by mohammed, our safari guide for the trip. apparently he first entered the house where the canadians stay (they never lock their door) and tried to get them to come on safari. chalice and paul, both feeling friday night, were none too happy and ‘hapana’-ed him over and over until paul finally got up and was like ‘do I look like im ready to go on safari?!’ – poor mohammed, wrong mzungus. then again, we all do look alike ;) when he finally tracked down the right people, he piled our packs into the car and we went to the soko office (plug for soko safaris, they were absolutely wonderful and locally owned, as opposed to a lot of the other safari companies here owned by Indian families) to get the other safariers – here are their bios:
Anne: from amsterdam, only 21 years old. here volunteering as an optometrists. she has a 15 month old daughter named flower that she left home with her parents (crazy, we know). she was nice and easy going, we enjoyed her company.
Michelle: from ottawa, canada, 23 years old. here volunteering with TVE (tanzania volunteer experience) working at orphanages. she was very quiet but also nice and easy company on safari.
Avigail: from israel. maybe in her early 30’s? she was a character to say the least. she never listened to the guides and paid the “I told you so” price several times on the trip. she consistently drank too much coffee in the morning and made us stop to allow her to pee way too often, and did I mention she forgot to bring toilet paper? she sang off key to buffalo soldier for a majority of the third day… the stories will keep coming, she kept the trip interesting and consistently left us giving each other looks behind her back that said “what the $%*&!”
our final company for the trip was our daktari wtumbo (stomach doctor), prosper, a cute and quiet young guy who had learned to cook at a school in moshi. he did not let us down and kept us fed and happy the entire the trip. more details on the menu later…
the eight of us set out for our serengeti campsite, a 6 hour journey, most of which was on unpaved roads at speeds so fast that I thought the safari vehicle might rattle apart. we saw a giraffe before even entering the park. it’s wild to me that these animals really do live amongst the people here. we also passed many maasai, a big draw for safariers and great income for the maasai and their villages, from charging the safaris to bring people through. these maasai were very different than our lengasti tribe, they know how to exploit the tourists and in addition to selling ‘maasai necklace and bracelet’ they jump at capturing a photo with you and then charge for their appearance in it. mohammed told us that there was one maasai man in the village we passed through who had 34 wives and over 100 grandchildren. apparently they opened a school for his children alone, and all of the kids are in class with their brothers and sisters.
we had to pass through ngorogoro on our way to serengeti, the road is steep and winding that takes you to the ridge of the crater, and as we climbed we passed from the dry, brown of the warm valley to the lush, cool jungle atop the crater rim. the clouds were flying by, touching the treetops. the fog faded the trees farther from the road lighter shades of gray. moss hung thick from the trees overgrowing the road, greenish-black in color and it made the branches look fuzzy. red dirt, kicked up by the safari vehicles, stuck to the nearby plant life, and just out my window everything was a monotone brick color. our first glimpse of the crater was breathtaking: miles down the floor was faintly visible through the clouds, I couldn’t help but imagine all of the animals too small to see. satisfied that he had given us our crater preview, mohammed drove on. we could look down the steep right side of the road into the crater, then down the left yet steeper side into the lush jungle. we were quite literally driving along the edge of the crater and it was incredible! my gaze was fixated out the window, taking in the scenery that reminded me so much of home, but in a more wild and overgrown way. it felt like we had entered jurassic park, and I was eagerly searching the jungle for exotic wildlife.
the road leading to the official gate into ngorogoro was littered with olive baboons, far too comfortable in the presence of humans. we got out to stretch as mohammed paid our entrance fees, and within seconds we watched a lady flee for her life as a baboon, irritated that she had gotten too close when snapping a photo, charged aggressively. needless to say we backed off after that, and gave baboons a wide berth for the rest of the trip. they’re funny to watch though, picking bugs off each other just as you imagine the stereotypical primate interaction would happen. one in particular, a big male, was sprawled on his back beside the road, feet resting in his hands, as a smaller female picked bugs off of his tummy. they were definitely entertaining to watch, a little scary, but mostly funny.
at this point we had been driving for hours and prosper and mohammed were trying to manage a car of six ladies getting progressively more hungry. not a minute after I had asked prosper when we eat, thu climbed back into the car and asked him when we get to eat. avy begged for bananas and prosper distributed one to each of us to tide us over until lunch.
at the 15 minute mark mohammed started giving us minute by minute updates of how long it would be until we get to eat. it was cracking me up. 5 minutes… drive down the road a little further, 4 minutes… around a corner, kicking up red dust behind us, 3 minutes…. turn a corner and a sign labeled for picnicking, 2 minutes… as he’s pulling to a stop in an opening overlooking the crater… 1 minute!! he’s been leading safaris for 15 years and you can tell he is very experienced dealing with tourists. two stories about that:
first, he pointed out several different safari cars during our trip saying that he had worked for that company before. apparently a ton of the safari companies are owned by indians and the locals tend to strongly dislike the indian families in tanzania. they own businesses, exploit the locals, underpay them, don’t treat them well, and so on. mohammed pretty much told us that he wanted to shoot one indian owned safari company. he took out his imaginary air rifle and shot his imaginary air bullet, specifying that he does not want to kill them, just shoot them in the leg as well as have each indian person in tanzania spend 3 months in jail each year. he has apparently really thought this one through. this was the first we’d really heard a local talk about their frustrations with the indians in tanzania, though we’ve caught on that there’s some conflict – ‘we are like cats and dogs’ mohammed said. pretty interesting to hear about. we all laughed and took it light heartedly, but made a note not to get on mohammed’s bad side as none of us would like to be shot in the leg or spend 3 months in prision.
second: mohammed talked a little about what makes good safariers and what makes bad safariers. naturally we were curious whether we’re the best safari group he’s ever had or what?! :) get this, he’s had tourists come on safari with him who will sit in the very back seats even when there’s only two of them (this is odd – there are four rows of seats, and the closer you are to the front the less bumpy it tends to be), and he has to yell to try to talk to them. he says he’s had people who read a novel in the back while they drive around – what?! and that often the difficult people are those who don’t want bumps (aka no driving fast, driving fast was the best part, more on that later), don’t want dirt (dirt is part of the experience, we embraced it and used the ‘we’re on safari’ excuse so that we didn’t have to shower for three days :), and want to the AC on the whole time (fresh air is the way to go, nothing better than smelling the animals, part of the experience!)…we were baffled that he’s had such picky people on safari, and sometimes for weeks at a time!! luckily our whole group (minus avigail ;) was very easy going and he thought amy, thu and I were quite funny (the other two girls didn’t talk much)… I think he really liked safariing us around, and prosper took a quick liking to us to, which was reflected in his particularly amazing meals that got better and better each day.
ok, back to lunch, box lunch, it’s the standard: banana, orange, boiled egg, two vegetable samosas (mmm delish), a bread and bread sandwich, as avy called it, not sure what was on it, great for feeding to the huge birds that look like crows on steroids with white chests. they’re a bit aggressive, I have a great story about that for the third day. lunch also included a muffin, some crisps, and maybe something else im forgetting – oh, pineapple juice in a juice box that’s a triangle shape so I think it should be called a juice triangle enough about the food, I get too hung up on the food, I think I will be able to make an entire album of pictures of food slash me putting food in my mouth. what? eating is a huge part of the travel experience!!
our safari started for real post-lunch when we hit the serengeti. the roof of the car went up, my shoes came off, and I don’t think my butt was in my seat for the rest of the day. I stood in my socked feet on the seat, sitting atop the headrest, hanging on to the bars around the edge as we flew down the rocky roads. I was still rocking as I wrote about the day by headlamp in my tent that night. it is such a bumpy ride, so noisy and dusty and you’re hanging on for dear life as mohammed speeds around the corners - awesome on every level! here’s an idea of the animals we saw on day one:
thomson’s gazelle – this one is funny because the first one you see you want to take like 40 photos of it, even if it’s really far away and all of your pictures are blurry, then as you safari on you realize they’re everywhere :)
simba!! - not a few kilometers down the road after entering the park we came upon a stopped safari car. on our safari we quickly learned that the more safari cars stopped in a given area, the cooler the animal. We knew that a crowd of safari cars meant we were about to see something very rare and awesome :) here we came upon a mama lion with three babies!! It was funny because mohammed was like ‘simba!’ and we’re all eagerly scanning the horizon, im looking off into the distance grass, trying to pick out some irregularity and I can’t see anything. ‘where, mohammed, where?’ I ask. ‘there!’ he points, a little exasperated, and there, maybe 20 ft from the road, I can see the mama lion and babies laying the shade of a small bush. I had to laugh, here im desperately searching the distant grass for a speck of a lion and there are four right in front of my face. we watched them for a while, snapped many photos, and reluctantly moved on. I could watch the animals all day. stick me in front of a big cat and im endlessly entertained. they’re so beautiful!!
plains zebra – same thing, first zebra you see from wayyy in the distance and you snap endless low-quality photos and then you realize zebras are everywhere and you’ll get pics of them directly next to the car. I like zebras a lot!
hartebeest – which I think of more as heart beast, since the horns look like they’re in the shape of a heart. This guy was big and we saw quite a few of them, I like them a lot, they’re easy to mistake for the topi, except the topi have more interesting color markings on their legs.
pumba – the warthogs are so freakin’ ugly! We saw two near a muddy water hole, seemed appropriate. They have these gross mohawks of course hair and knarly horns from the noses and they kneel on their front legs and sniff through the dirt and grass for food. And they totally waddle when they scurry along, but apparently they’re pretty fast and mean. I wasn’t a fan, though we did eat pumba early on in our trip (yes, the vegetarian tried a piece), and it was delicious, so I dunno… don’t judge a book by it’s cover? :)
duma – mohammed definitely had a radio in the car, and there was muffled talking in the background for most of the safari. we had heard this was a good thing, because it meant that he was in touch with the other drivers and could get a head’s up if someone found something good. soon it became apparent that he had a destination in mind. we had been driving along more slowly for the start of the safari, stopping periodically for each of the more common animals we saw. suddenly he sped up, was on the radio speaking quickly in swahili, and it got to point where we were flying down the road faster than I thought possible on such rough terrain. that’s the best by the way, it’s an african roller coaster!! we loved it, amy and I had smiles ear to ear when he’d take off at top speed, both of us up on our seats hanging on for dear life! what a ride!! and get this, he suddenly turns completely offroad, just up and over the rock pile on the edge of the road, and we’re cruising in a random direction through the tall grass. this cannot be wildlife preserve kosher :) but he was on a mission and we didn’t question his decision, just held on extra tight as we couldn’t see the bumps and holes the terrain threw our way beneath the tall grass. soon we spotted a car in the distance (we were infinitely amazed that he could find his way around these parks, I mean, what do the other guides tell him, hey I found a cool animal near a gazelle by a tree in some grass? mohammed is awesome). as we drove closer mohammed slowed respectably and asked us ‘what will we see here?’ – he obviously already knew, but we were amateurs to this safari business (unlike the pros we are now ;) and we all had no idea. it looked to me like a dead thorn bush of hell in the middle of a bunch of grass. as we got closer the other safari car pulled away and made room for him to pull up close next to the bush – cheetah!! She was laying there in the shade, protected by the huge spines of the thorny bush of hell (same plant that almost took my arm off had it not been for my maasai warrior). She was soooo beautiful! I was in awe! And we were ridiculously close. Duma was just laying there, her head up watching us curiously, or more likely annoyed, that we were disturbing her. got some great photos of those red eyes staring directly into the camera. It was incredible to see such a beautiful animal so close. I need to hunt down one of my favorite childhood movies about a cheetah, the reason I named my favorite stuffed animal duma, which I didn’t realize at the time means cheetah (it’s a snow leopard – oops :) ok, that’s definitely an over-share in this blog…anyway, we were very lucky to see duma so close, and even luckier when we got to see another duma tomorrow!! cheetahs are impressive animals.
clouds – im including this in the list of cool things we saw because the clouds in the Serengeti on this day were the most amazingly epic clouds I have ever seen in my entire life and there was a moment when I thought I might actually end up with more photos of the sky than photos of animals :) (am I overdoing it with the smiley faces or what? but really, this safari was perfect, I can’t stop smiling when I think about it, we got soooo lucky!!)
simba- yup, we stumbled upon more simbas, a few females this time, very VERY close and out in the open. one walked over and laid down and mohammed drove us right up next to it for photos. I was having sensory overload because nearby was the first herd of elephants we had seen and there were many and they were so beautiful and I love elephants, especially after getting to ride them in Thailand, and I was so excited to see African elephants. Anyway, my photos are all over the place – lion, elephant, lion, elephant, lion and elephant, elephant, lion… you get the idea. SO COOL! ok, quick story… so our safari car was awesome, and the fact that we survive the trip without a trip was pretty remarkable (you see the safari cars changing flats alllll the time), but it was older and a little bit falling apart. The first day, if he idled for too long looking at an animal (so pretty much everything we stopped for) it would die. Mohammed would patiently get out, fix the loose connection, get back in and start the car. the thing is, when we stopped next to the lion to watch it and take photos and remark on it’s blood stained legs and paws, the car definitely died. So it came time for us to leave the lion and peace and mohammed’s all ‘so guys, who wants to get out and fix the engine?’ just casual and sarcastic. And we all laugh because it was funny but the thing is it was only so funny because we were actually stuck. You can’t get out of the car, pop the hood, and fiddle with the engine when you’re parked 5 feet from a huge female simba, with blood stained fur nonetheless!! So we’re all just twiddling our fingers wondering what the next move is… waiting it seemed. Fortunately, another safari vehicle had gotten wind of the lazy lions and pulled up behind us. mohammed yelled something in Swahili out the window and yup, you guessed it, the safari car, with a rev of the engine, moved forward and nuged us about 20 feet past the lion, giving us enough speed to get the car started. We’ve had a lot of fun with the ‘hey guys, remember that time the safari truck died when we were parked next to a huge lion?’ ‘oh yeah, good times’ :)
black kite eagle – saw lots of cool eagles and hawks and vultures. Actually the bird life is so diverse and they’re all really beautiful. The crazy birds might have been one of my favorite parts of the safari.
secretary bird – HUGE and very odd looking. We saw a lot of these, I liked them beaucoup :)
love birds – these really pretty little green birds that we would occasionally see in flocks.
Ostrich – possibly the ugliest bird ever created. The first time we saw an ostrich we actually saw two males outside of the park, near one of the maasai boma tourist traps. Mohammed joked because the one male was doing a mating dance and he said he must be confused because the other bird was male too. at this point we didn’t realize how different the males and females look. We thought maybe the one male was just practicing. Later we realized that the males are the typical black and white that you think of when someone says ostrich. The females are a neutral brown color that makes them even more ugly. Their wings hang down at their sides, seemingly weighed down by all of the feathers that cover their body, making them look quite disheveled. Their featherless pink necks are gross, and when they’re eating lizards or whatever you can see the lump get swallowed down their long throat. They are HUGE birds and we saw a lot of them throughout the safari. the feathers really do sway and fluff like a massive, thick boa or something. ok fine, ostrich is a cool bird, just soooo absurdly unusual looking!
giraffes :) I love giraffes. I learned there are three types – masai giraffe and rothschild giraffe – both of which im pretty sure we saw and im hoping I can distinguish between in photos since I’ve educated myself. there’s also a reticulated giraffe that would be soooo cool to see but I don’t think it lives in east africa. ill have to review my photos just to be sure we didn’t see one. fun giraffe fact! – those loooonnnggg giraffe necks have the same number of cervical vertebrae that we do! yup, only seven in such a long neck. Really cool! it would’ve been kinda awesome to see a giraffe skeleton (in a messed up sort of way) – we did see what im pretty sure was an elephant skull. There was also a really big rib cage another day. you spot horns and random bones every so often on safari.
hyaena – asleep by the water. This is the animal avy wanted to see most and I have to admit I was pretty into the hyaenas as well. A very interesting creatures, so aggressive. Amy was reading about them and what the book said was that they’ll eat pretty much anything, including humans, and have been known to ‘tear the face off a human sleeping in the open’ – what?! and the canadians also passed on a story from their safari (thank goodness they told us once we returned) about a hyaena coming into a tent and killing a woman. They do just look like mean, grumpy animals capable of incredible violence. I think they were well portrayed in the lion king (oh, we saw pride rock by the way, er, several of them. when the volcano exploded creating ngorogoro crater the rocks landed in the Serengeti so there’s random huge boulders everywhere, and sometimes the piles make a perfect pride rock :)
sausage tree!! – ever since hearing about this when we went to arusha national park I’ve wanted to see a sausage tree – mostly because of the humor of the name. fear not, I took many photos. It’s a pretty funny tree… the fruit or whatever the ‘sausage’ is cannot be eaten by humans but a lot of the animals in the Serengeti eat it.
that’s about it for day one on safari. we were ridiculously dirty after only one day, with no intention of trying to shower at the campsite. We stick with the homeless showers using baby wipes we’d turn brown with a single swipe. My hair was caked with dirt and I had a neat outline of my sunglasses on my dirt smeared face. but let’s be honest, who doesn’t love being the dirty kid every now again? ;) we got to the campsite and set up our tents alongside several others from various safaris. They’ve really got the system figured out. prosper got straight to work in a kitchen crowded with all of the other cooks. I would pick him out at first by his shirt, which said ‘go commando’ and had a picture of a cartoon guy running with his underwear behind him. we helped set the table for dinner, and got everything put in our tents, as the sun set quickly on the horizon. It was possible one of the most epic sunset I have ever seen and again, the number of photos I took probably rivals my animals photos for the day. clouds and beams and glowing orange and red. I kept getting distracted as I helped set up the tents. Huge canvas tents plenty big enough for three people (though they usually only stick two in a tent, we opted to only set up two and save the time and effort). They provide sleeping mats, sleeping bags, and pillows. I was more than thankful for my sleeping bag liner – im guessing the sleeping bags get washed, oh, never!
dinner was incredible. we were served tea and popcorn (yes, a mt kilimarjaro of popcorn) as we watched the final sunset…
ok, pause, im typing this in the hostel, it’s the second to last day of our trip and thu and amy are both passed, I’m guessing it’s not ten p.m. yet, but we’re on a wayyyy early schedule after safari. anyway, point of this is that there’s something living in the attic of centre house hostel and it’s BIG! And it just went scurrying across our ceiling and I can hear the claws and it sounds huge enough to fall through the thin and poorly constructed ceilings and we only started hearing it two weeks ago but I hear it almost every night and it freaks me out that some huge, nocturnal, clawed beast is running around over our heads all the time. I just have to tell myself it’s our last night in a sleeping bag, mosquito net tucked neatly around us (that reminds me, I need to take my malaria meds), and soon I will be home in my soft amazing bed. creatures in the night on safari, ok… creatures in the night in your hostel, not so ok.
back to dinner, now I will describe in detail our delicious food: popcorn has never tasted better – and no microwave! How do they do it?! ;) amazing cucumber soup from scratch (I watched him make it), avocado noodles and vegetable medley and I think something else im forgetting and then all sorts of fruit for dessert, particularly the most delicious pineapple ever. we were all stuffed and happy and praising prosper for his amazing culinary skills.
we had to team it to the bathroom as it really isn’t safe to walk around alone or in small numbers. Mohammed emphasized again and again that if we had to pee in the night we were not to walk to the bathroom but inside, shine our flashlight out first, and then quickly take care of business right next to the tent, then get back inside asap. I made a mental note to stop my water intake and ensure I would not need to pee in the night. I slept like a rock. was expecting to hear the sounds of the serengeti, and so I fell asleep with my music in. it was funny because when I woke up in the night my music was still going and I was sure I heard all of the crazy loud noises of the animals over my music so I quickly removed my headphones and… and…. Silence. No animals? but we had heard there would for sure be crazy animal noises. I was back asleep in a snap and before I knew it amy’s alarm was going off…
Friday, August 13, 2010
african safari
spending the evening at blue heron with the canadians. a million stars tonight and live music :)
leave in the morning for safari and we cannot wait!!
ngorogoro crater and serengeti - camping with the wild animals :)
back tuesday then home wednesday!
where has summer gone?! can't wait to finish it off in home sweet oregon!
miss you all and can't wait to see everyone!!
xo
~L
leave in the morning for safari and we cannot wait!!
ngorogoro crater and serengeti - camping with the wild animals :)
back tuesday then home wednesday!
where has summer gone?! can't wait to finish it off in home sweet oregon!
miss you all and can't wait to see everyone!!
xo
~L
O.R. hopping
last day in surgery! can’t believe it. we brought in the end of our supplies as well. it has been so wonderful to be able to bring in supplies each day we work, distributing everything where we see the need. I’ve said it many times before, but thank you again to everyone who contributed!! mt. meru hospital and the staff and patients here, are all so grateful!! and amy, thu and I cannot thank you more for your help and support!!
the O.R. was fairly eventful today and I was jumping from minor to major theater and back again to make sure I didn’t miss a case. I entered dr. lee’s theater just as he was starting an operation. it was one of those moments where I walked in too late to ask about the procedure, and all I could tell was that there was a growth on the back of the patient’s head. because I wasn’t sure if it was a growth, or something else, I opted to remain back, though I could have easily approached the table for a better look. this turned out to be a wise decision. a few cuts in and there was an explosion of pus that shot across the room. it was a sebaceous cyst. moral of the story: if you see something that looks like it might be under high pressure it’s best to be cautious.
next was what the schedule identified to be a ‘cystic mass at R clavicle’. that was an interesting procedure to watch and for once I felt comfortable that the doc knew what he was doing. he used a lot of blunt dissection as he was very near an area with critical veins, arteries and nerves. his caution around such delicate anatomy was not something I have seen here, and I appreciated that he shared with the large group observing the reason he was being so careful – some teaching in the O.R.! wonderful!
we watched dr. lee remove a calcium deposit from the distal part of the fifth metatarsal. from what I understood it had maybe formed after trauma to the area. he attempted to numb the hand by injecting lignocaine around the brachial plexus, unfortunately for the patient he wasn’t very successful and the poor guy was grimacing in pain through much of the procedure.
next was one of the cancelled amputations from tuesday – the 70 year old man with a gangrenous leg. it was dreadful! the smell was horrid and this poor man was so old and weak. apparently back in may he had been hit by a bicycle and it seems that the site of injury has been getting worse from that day forward. he had a gapping, oozing wound in his upper left thigh. the leg and foot were hypertrophied and shriveled. there was no bone, it had essentially rotted away and yet again we were watching this gumby leg get manipulated before our wide-eyed gaze. I was jumping between this procedure and what the schedule said was an exploratory laparotomy to check for a gastric ulcer (the schedule is handwritten and nearly illegible) – I think. basically they had the patient’s entire abdomen open and a vast majority of the guts, yup, im calling them guts, were pulled out of his body as various hands worked their way along the intestine checking for any perforations. these two procedures were quite overwhelming to watch and we called it a day once they were done. did I mention the power kept flickering out throughout the day? things I won’t miss about this place…
talk about going out with a bang! what a day to have as our final day in surgery. can’t believe we only have tomorrow in the hospital and then we’ll take off on safari. we’re very excited!! wish us many rare and wild animals :) and no rabid bats.
the O.R. was fairly eventful today and I was jumping from minor to major theater and back again to make sure I didn’t miss a case. I entered dr. lee’s theater just as he was starting an operation. it was one of those moments where I walked in too late to ask about the procedure, and all I could tell was that there was a growth on the back of the patient’s head. because I wasn’t sure if it was a growth, or something else, I opted to remain back, though I could have easily approached the table for a better look. this turned out to be a wise decision. a few cuts in and there was an explosion of pus that shot across the room. it was a sebaceous cyst. moral of the story: if you see something that looks like it might be under high pressure it’s best to be cautious.
next was what the schedule identified to be a ‘cystic mass at R clavicle’. that was an interesting procedure to watch and for once I felt comfortable that the doc knew what he was doing. he used a lot of blunt dissection as he was very near an area with critical veins, arteries and nerves. his caution around such delicate anatomy was not something I have seen here, and I appreciated that he shared with the large group observing the reason he was being so careful – some teaching in the O.R.! wonderful!
we watched dr. lee remove a calcium deposit from the distal part of the fifth metatarsal. from what I understood it had maybe formed after trauma to the area. he attempted to numb the hand by injecting lignocaine around the brachial plexus, unfortunately for the patient he wasn’t very successful and the poor guy was grimacing in pain through much of the procedure.
next was one of the cancelled amputations from tuesday – the 70 year old man with a gangrenous leg. it was dreadful! the smell was horrid and this poor man was so old and weak. apparently back in may he had been hit by a bicycle and it seems that the site of injury has been getting worse from that day forward. he had a gapping, oozing wound in his upper left thigh. the leg and foot were hypertrophied and shriveled. there was no bone, it had essentially rotted away and yet again we were watching this gumby leg get manipulated before our wide-eyed gaze. I was jumping between this procedure and what the schedule said was an exploratory laparotomy to check for a gastric ulcer (the schedule is handwritten and nearly illegible) – I think. basically they had the patient’s entire abdomen open and a vast majority of the guts, yup, im calling them guts, were pulled out of his body as various hands worked their way along the intestine checking for any perforations. these two procedures were quite overwhelming to watch and we called it a day once they were done. did I mention the power kept flickering out throughout the day? things I won’t miss about this place…
talk about going out with a bang! what a day to have as our final day in surgery. can’t believe we only have tomorrow in the hospital and then we’ll take off on safari. we’re very excited!! wish us many rare and wild animals :) and no rabid bats.
ants in your pants…
will make you do the boogie dance. I have a thing for cemeteries. I know what you’re thinking, how did we go from boogying in ant-filled pants to graveyards, but trust me, it’ll all make sense after this story. it’s wednesday here, WEDNESDAY!! are we all registering the substantiality (is that really a word?) of this statement?! wednesday in arusha means in exactly one week we’ll be headed back to the states. wait, it’s too much to process, I don’t want to talk about it… back to the story:
post-hospital we headed to check something off of my to do list for the trip: visit a local cemetery. I think this is becoming a trend, that when I travel I need to find a local cemetery. yes, this is odd, I realize, but allow me to explain. rather than thinking of a graveyard in the literal sense of a place where many dead people are buried, I prefer to wrap my mind around all of the history that’s embodied in the grave stones and lives of the people buried there. it is interesting to contemplate. all of things accomplished and seen and experienced by these people, many who lived in a world so different than my own, so different than the world that exists today. yes, it may seem morbid to a lot of people out there, but I suggest looking at it from a different perspective and experiencing cemeteries as a place that holds so much history, endless secrets, things you can never know. awesome, right?
I was really excited to get to walk around the overgrown graveyard we had seen in passing several times when we ventured to the other side of town. amy, thu and kurt were all good sports and came along to make sure I didn’t get too lost, or kidnapped by ghosts or whatever. I was photographing one particularly ambiguous gravestone when I heard amy’s voice ‘uh, linds, there’s an ant crawling on your shoe.’ she said it so calmly that I stood up from my crouch and made to look at my shoe. when I glanced down, before my gaze made it to my shoe it fell upon a creeping, crawling, thick line of HUGE ANTS!! so many ants that I went into panic mode on the spot. not sure if ill be able to paint the appropriate picture here but imagine my scream, true terror scream, coupled with a really awesome ants-in-my-pants dance, stomping around and desperately asking the others if any ants were on me. nope, that description doesn’t do it justice, im going to have to reenact it when I get back. my stomping tribal, get-out-of-my-pants dance worked, and when amy and thu finally convinced me to stop moving so they could look for ants we only found one on the tip of my shoe. I had escaped the fiery death bite and successful shook all ants from my pants. took me a good 15 minutes to come down from the sympathetic response though… we had a pretty good laugh about my ridiculous reaction to amy’s calmly stated comment ‘lind, you have an ant on your shoe’. amy would also like to point out that I came over to dance next to her, snuggle with her as she says, as if it would help the situation. in hindsight I totally did do that, like being near her would make the ants run away or something, not exactly sure what logic was running through my head. fight or flight will make you do crazy things!
our afternoon consisted of finalizing safari plans (we’re so spoiled :) and shopping for mzungu safari companions at the maasai market. the more of us there are, the cheaper the safari is, so we thought the best place to look for willing mzungus was at our favorite souvenir shopping spot. unfortunately, pretty much everyone we creepily approached had already been on safari. regardless, we made some new friends and have some leads for potential safari companions. the worst is when you approach a mzungu to ask about safari and they say ‘im a lifer’ meaning that they live here always and find no thrill in safari because they’ve been on far too many and could probably safari for free if they wanted to. how embarrassing. gotta watch out for those lifers.
to fill our evening we did henna. kurt had found some henna at a local supermarket and we had been sketching potential designs all week. I set to work on his back last night with thu’s help. hours later he had a spinal column drawn down his back with massive wings fanning off out to his shoulders so that the feathers lifted when he lifted his arms. pretty sweet. I’ve decided if I ever change my mind about medschool I’ll pursue a career as a tattoo artist. there’s something very satisfying about decorating someone’s body. we drew all over our arms and stayed up way too late working on these henna masterpieces. however, we wouldn’t have been sleeping otherwise as a group of korean students is here and are way to noisy and obnoxious extremely late as well as early in the morning. no respect!! apparently kurt got up to ask them several times this morning between 5 and 6 a.m. if they could lower their voices and stop slamming doors, no concept of being courteous, they still kept us up from about 5:30 a.m. on…glad to see them go today.
post-hospital we headed to check something off of my to do list for the trip: visit a local cemetery. I think this is becoming a trend, that when I travel I need to find a local cemetery. yes, this is odd, I realize, but allow me to explain. rather than thinking of a graveyard in the literal sense of a place where many dead people are buried, I prefer to wrap my mind around all of the history that’s embodied in the grave stones and lives of the people buried there. it is interesting to contemplate. all of things accomplished and seen and experienced by these people, many who lived in a world so different than my own, so different than the world that exists today. yes, it may seem morbid to a lot of people out there, but I suggest looking at it from a different perspective and experiencing cemeteries as a place that holds so much history, endless secrets, things you can never know. awesome, right?
I was really excited to get to walk around the overgrown graveyard we had seen in passing several times when we ventured to the other side of town. amy, thu and kurt were all good sports and came along to make sure I didn’t get too lost, or kidnapped by ghosts or whatever. I was photographing one particularly ambiguous gravestone when I heard amy’s voice ‘uh, linds, there’s an ant crawling on your shoe.’ she said it so calmly that I stood up from my crouch and made to look at my shoe. when I glanced down, before my gaze made it to my shoe it fell upon a creeping, crawling, thick line of HUGE ANTS!! so many ants that I went into panic mode on the spot. not sure if ill be able to paint the appropriate picture here but imagine my scream, true terror scream, coupled with a really awesome ants-in-my-pants dance, stomping around and desperately asking the others if any ants were on me. nope, that description doesn’t do it justice, im going to have to reenact it when I get back. my stomping tribal, get-out-of-my-pants dance worked, and when amy and thu finally convinced me to stop moving so they could look for ants we only found one on the tip of my shoe. I had escaped the fiery death bite and successful shook all ants from my pants. took me a good 15 minutes to come down from the sympathetic response though… we had a pretty good laugh about my ridiculous reaction to amy’s calmly stated comment ‘lind, you have an ant on your shoe’. amy would also like to point out that I came over to dance next to her, snuggle with her as she says, as if it would help the situation. in hindsight I totally did do that, like being near her would make the ants run away or something, not exactly sure what logic was running through my head. fight or flight will make you do crazy things!
our afternoon consisted of finalizing safari plans (we’re so spoiled :) and shopping for mzungu safari companions at the maasai market. the more of us there are, the cheaper the safari is, so we thought the best place to look for willing mzungus was at our favorite souvenir shopping spot. unfortunately, pretty much everyone we creepily approached had already been on safari. regardless, we made some new friends and have some leads for potential safari companions. the worst is when you approach a mzungu to ask about safari and they say ‘im a lifer’ meaning that they live here always and find no thrill in safari because they’ve been on far too many and could probably safari for free if they wanted to. how embarrassing. gotta watch out for those lifers.
to fill our evening we did henna. kurt had found some henna at a local supermarket and we had been sketching potential designs all week. I set to work on his back last night with thu’s help. hours later he had a spinal column drawn down his back with massive wings fanning off out to his shoulders so that the feathers lifted when he lifted his arms. pretty sweet. I’ve decided if I ever change my mind about medschool I’ll pursue a career as a tattoo artist. there’s something very satisfying about decorating someone’s body. we drew all over our arms and stayed up way too late working on these henna masterpieces. however, we wouldn’t have been sleeping otherwise as a group of korean students is here and are way to noisy and obnoxious extremely late as well as early in the morning. no respect!! apparently kurt got up to ask them several times this morning between 5 and 6 a.m. if they could lower their voices and stop slamming doors, no concept of being courteous, they still kept us up from about 5:30 a.m. on…glad to see them go today.
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