Safaris 1 and 2

Got behind again. Lots to report, which is always the problem.

It took a while to leave for the safari, issues getting money and with the third vehicle being a bit late. We talked to Sister Rose a bit and headed out. Our driver's name is David, our cook's name is Samwell. Driving driving driving, beautiful countryside, beautiful mountains, beautiful vegetation. Also: mountains. And hills, too, but mostly mountains. We stopped for lunch, Nate and I kicked a ball around briefly with some older folks from Oregon who had just climbed Kilimanjaro, we also met two Swiss girls who were going on safari and, later, three Indian guys who had just climbed Kilimanjaro and were going on safari. We dropped Samwell off and kept going to Manyara, our first safari. One of the cars' tires blew out, so we had to stop. Saw the Swiss girls again here, as well as two Maori who stopped to watch and briefly exchange words (David loved the integration of a cell phone pouch into the traditional, centuries-old leather belt, right next to the knife) though mostly our group just walked out to the side of the road. We found an ENORMOUS baobab tree with a hole one could fit inside with room to spare, and yes, there are pictures of exactly that. Also some massive hornets, which we fortunately avoided. Eventually the tire got fixed and we got to Manyara. (Note: sequence of events may be off, as it was yesterday. I think we dropped off Samwell after the tire blew. Maybe.)

Tanzania has done for land what the Maldives did for water. That is, everything is astoundingly beautiful, and I take as many photos of the landscape as I do of actual wildlife or specific features.

We saw lots of zebras, a few giraffe (including a few that got REALLY close, we saw the Swiss girls again here), more elephants than I can count (never expected to say that) including some calves, lots of gorgeous impalas, baboons, blue monkeys, black-faced monkeys. I like the visitor center there, it's all outside along a path, so you're walking in nature as you're reading about it – saw a couple blue monkeys there, too. The land inside the park itself is interesting, it goes from grassland to small wooded areas to grassland to wooded areas, back and forth over and over depending mostly on where the streams are. We saw elephants in both, but most of the other animals stuck to the grassy spots, excluding the monkeys. We also saw a few mongoose crossing the road, honestly, I'm having trouble remembering it all because of today's safari. Oh yeah, there was a hippo bond with lots of hippos. We got out 10 minutes late by accident (sorry park staff), came back, dinner was massive and included popcorn, vegetable soup, sausage, salad, potatoes, and a couple dishes I don't remember.

Got up this morning about 6:30, breakfast had eggs, bread and butter and pancakes, and off we went to Ngorongoro Crater. En route, Nate and I discussed how biblical in a way the area was, underscored by a view of a mountain with 5 or 6 beams of light cutting through the clouds in front of it. We were told that Ngorongoro would make yesterday look like a bad safari.

Yeah, pretty much true.

First you go way way up and get a gorgeous view of the whole crater, great photos. I also found a beautiful dead butterfly on the ground there by sheer luck. Talked to a couple guys from Florida, one of whom asked me if we were all getting along and if there were any romances on the trip yet (“I know how college is,” he said with a laugh and a slap of my chest.) After that you head down into the crater, seeing baboons and birds aplenty. We saw a serval, David said he's only seen 4 in the 6 years he's been here. We also saw several lions, mostly female with two young males, a truly astounding number of zebras, wildebeest, antelopes and water buffalo, often intermixed, various interesting birds including purple heron, kori bustard (probably spelled wrong), white stork, another stork whose name I don't remember, and late in the day, a lake absolutely COATED in flamingos. There were elephants, mostly off in the distance, and oh yeah, of the 20 rhinos in the park, we saw 4 of them. Two at one point, two at another point. Wow. (Also, baby zebras are brown and white, not black and white, and adorable.) There were some hippos where we stopped for lunch, as well as eagles and smaller birds that forced you to eat inside your vehicle or else they'd attack you for food, as Allen learned. Again, trouble remembering all the amazing sights we saw, because there was just SO MUCH. We saw lions a couple more times, including one female lying down in a small ravine to rest. Unfortunately I'm blanking... you'll just have to ask me about the pictures when I get home.

Wednesday, February 24th, roughly 4:50-5:20 PM local time