Rhinos in the crater

Today was a great day (again). We didn't hear anything romping around the camp last night (except our Maasai protectors, but they don't count). The 5:30 Jambo Jambo came very early, but as we were both already awake it wasn't so bad.

We were the last to leave the camp after breakfast, but the first down to the crater floor (not sure how that happened). We rode in Leonard's jeep again today (since yesterday's transit didn't really count) with Richard and Sylvia from Vancouver. Sadly, Sylvia forgot to bring the right battery pack for her camera and has had to resort to taking pictures with her iPad.

The drive into the crater was spectacular. Even from the overlook yesterday viewing it in all of its splendor, you just can't get a good feel for how huge it is until you get to the floor. You feel like you can see all the way across, even though it's over 10 miles from one side to the other so you can't realistically see anything on the other side.

Our first animal encounter of the day was with a small herd of cape buffalo. They're mean looking. They'll just stare right at you as you drive past like they're daring you to make some sort of move on them. We saw our first hyenas next, and then a small jackal. Leonard spotted more hyena looking very "hunty" a bit off, so we moved to see what they might be interested in. They were harassing another herd of buffalo and what started out as a couple curious hyenas turned into 9 of them looking very interested in trying to pick off a baby or weakling. It was not to be, however, as the herd of buffalo were able to move away fast enough and leave enough of a "rear guard" to dissuade the hyena from making a serious go of it. It turns out that this same pack of hyenas were able to kill and eat a serval kit just before we got to them.

While we were tracking this aborted "hunt," Leonard was keeping tabs on a gathering of jeeps down by small creek. We hear him say "there's a lion over there" and immediately make our way over there. Leonard takes the long way to cross the creek so he can get us a better/closer view of them (since we really haven't had a close lion encounter yet). Leonard's move paid off and we were rewarded with 2 lions just sitting in the middle of a crossroads with not a care in the world. Out of the tall grass popped the heads of 3 other young lions and there were even more in the trees closer to the stream. A veritable pride o' lions! We sat and stared at them doing basically nothing for a good 20 minutes before deciding to move on.

One animal that I really wanted to see in the wild is the Black Rhinoceros. They are very rare and there are about 20-25 resident in the crater. Seeing one at all is not a guarantee, let alone seeing one up close, so when Leonard calmly declared that he saw not one but 2 rhinos laying down, we all got very excited. Forget the Eland that we saw, or our first Zebras, or all of the Thomson's and Grant's Gazelles and wildebeest. There were 2 rhinos laying down 600 yards away! Even through the binoculars they just looked like a giant gray lump. No one else in the crater noticed them, so for the time being we had them all to ourselves; at least until we moved on to watch the mating dance between 2 lions, and see our first hippos!

The hippos were all in a big pool (as they are wont to do in the daytime), but we couldn't get too close. Leonard assured me that we would be able to get close enough to see, hear, and smell them when we got to the Serengeti, so I just watched them through my telephoto lens.

The lion mating ritual was fascinating and boring all at the same time. The female was obviously playing very hard to get and the male was getting frustrated. We saw them tussle a few times, then lay back down (but a little closer together), then separate, then tussle some more. All of this under the watchful eye of the male's brothers; keeping tabs from a safe distance to see if the female would just out and out rebuff the alpha male's advances and give them a chance. After giving them a chance to make whoopie, the ladies among us had to disengage for a visit to the toilet. It's a testament to the size of the crater how long it took us to get to the nearest one.

On the way, we spotted a Zebra that survived a lion attack, but just barely, and her foal. Lions attempt to bring down their prey by grasping with both front paws at their victim's hind quarters and dragging them down before clamping onto the throat and suffocating them; and her hind quarters were shredded and bleeding pretty badly. She must have barely escaped. Leonard didn't think that she would survive very long with those injuries. Not sure what that bodes for the baby, but I'll bet that Zebras aren't as social as Elephants.

After the pit stop, at which we were gently accosted by some Maasai teenagers, we rejoined the pair of lions doing their dance, but this time they were on the other side of the road and had been noticed by seemingly every other guide in the crater. We watched again for another half hour or so to see if they would at least get to third base, but in the end, the female tired of the male's prodding and walked off. No sexy time today.

The rest of the morning was spent driving to our picnic spot. By now the rhinos were up and munching away on the grass, so we were able to actually "see" them. Lunch was another prepared picnic at basically the only picnic spot in the whole crater. There must have been 30 safari vehicles parked on the shore of a large hippo pond. We didn't get a great parking spot, but Leonard, John and Kumbi sort of circled the wagons to give us some privacy. The birds were a trip and there were probably 5 or so incidents of bird-related lunch theft while we ate.

In the afternoon, we drove through the woodland areas in the crater looking for Leopards. No luck, but we did see a whole bunch of baboons. We even saw the little SUV from yesterday that got violated. I'm pretty sure that they had their windows closed this time. We drove through a small herd of Wildebeest, complete with babies, but Leonard asked us to no be too impressed. We saw another rhino, too, from a little closer than the others, but still quite far away. The sighting of the afternoon, however, was a lone hippo sauntering towards a small pool. This, in itself was not noteworthy (except watching an animal so large and ungainly walking out of the water without crushing its legs), but the oxpecker on its front shoulder picking the ticks and other bugs out of its skin made the scene.

With our 5:30 wakeup, it was a very long day in the crater and we were all ready to get back to camp and get cleaned up. Tonight we had what was described as traditional Tanzanian cuisine, but it didn't seem too exotic. Some roasted local root vegetables, like cassava; ugali (which is a polenta like corn-based dish); stewed lamb and beef; and eggplant.

John warned us that the drive to the Serengeti tomorrow will be long and arduous; over unpaved roads the whole way. I am looking forward to our brief stop at Oldupai (not Olduvai as generally thought) Gorge.

Gibb's Farm is really nice

There were elephants in the camp last night. I repeat, there were elephants in the camp last night. Everybody heard them, they were trumpeting and growling and making a general commotion in the back of the camp. Apparently, they were very close to the kitchen and staff tents. I didn't hear any AK47 shots ring out, so they obviously didn't present any sort of real danger, so maybe the staff was able to shoo them away peacefully.

Our departure from the Tarangire camp included a somewhat awkward "tip ceremony" where we all said our "Thank You"s and "Goodbyes" to the camp staff while handing over a bright orange manilla envelope containing our tips for the staff. I understand tipping hotel and service staff for a job well done (and they did their jobs very well), but the very obvious way in which the tips were presented just seemed a little patronizing. Why not have a big jar at the bar where everyone could drop their envelopes? Or maybe just leave them in our tents? Do they not trust the staff enough to bring all the envelopes to the camp manager for distribution? Honestly, I just wish the gratuity had been included in the total price; either implicitly or explicitly on a daily basis like they do on cruises.

Prior to departure, and before the tip ceremony, Michele and Angela got a private "behind the scenes" tour of the camp's service area, including the kitchen, laundry, and other staff-only areas. They came away well and truly impressed with what these guys are able to do with such limited resources.

Since we hadn't ridden in Leonard's jeep yet, we decided to ride with him for the trip up to Ngorongoro. Again, it was the 3 of us and Karan and Scott. I think tomorrow we'll pair up with some other guests when we go down to the crater. We did a short "game drive" on our way out of the crater and came across a large gathering of various animals: impala, baboon (our first glimpse of baboons) and some waterbuck. It was very interesting to see all these different animals just existing so peacefully together. Until today, we had seen groups of animals of the same species together, but not a large group of so many different kinds. The baby baboons were adorable. They were swinging around on the low branches; climbing all over their parents or older siblings, doing what kids like to do. Through my lens, I could see their faces and I swear they were looking at me with the same level of curiosity as I had looking at them.

A quick potty break at the main gate, and we were back on the road to our next camp. The Rift Valley escarpment loomed over us all the way there and as we passed "Mosquito Creek" (nee "Mto wa Mbu") we started up hill. The escarpment is an almost 2000 foot high cliff. Our first stop on the way to Ngorongoro was the "Rift Valley" store; much like the "Cultural Heritage" store in Arusha. Apparently, in order to keep their tour operator status in Tanzania, companies like Thomson have to make at least 2 stops at shops like these. The deals aren't as good as buying direct from the artist, but shops like these are sources of employment for local residents as well as badly needed tax revenue to the country.

We spent the better part of an hour here as the group bought even more stuff. After some deliberating and negotiating, Angela and I wound up buying an ebony carving of a lioness with cubs, a beautiful coptic cross from Ethiopia, and some smaller chotchkys like a mask carving that we'll use as a Christmas ornament and a small ebony elephant carving. I'm not sure we got the best deal possible, but we did get them to come off the "sticker price" on the cross and lion and to throw in the small stuff and waive the credit card processing fee. In all, what we got was cheaper than the whale bone carving we bought in Ketchikan.

John gave us the "mount up" signal so we all loaded up into our respective jeeps and made for lunch at Gibb's Farm. Not 2 minutes down the road, Angela and Michele came to the realization that if they were going to get any Tanzanite, that was probably their last chance. As luck would have it, Leonard has a small tanzanite mine and provides stones to this particular shop and he offered to help broker a sale if they found something they liked. Karan and Scott were OK with going back, so we turned around and headed back. Kumbi was behind us and I could see his puzzled look as we passed him going the other way.

I'm sure the folks in the shop were surprised (and pleased) to see Angela and Michele walk back in, but maybe not as much with Leonard in tow. After about 15 minutes, everyone emerged from the shop (Scott, too. Apparently he pulled the trigger on a warthog carving that caught his eye the first time around) looking very satisfied. I don't know how good the deal is that Leonard got for us, but I do know how much they paid for the Tanzanite they bought and it was definitely not cheap. Angela said that Leonard was able to get them a significant discount. Whatever, you only live once.

Gibb's Farm is amazing! What an oasis here. The grounds are beautiful. We were obviously late for lunch, but there was plenty left, and it was delicious. And the cold beer tasted so good! All the food they serve is grown on their own small farm, including the meats. All the coffee they serve is grown and roasted in house. After lunch we had a brief walking tour of their garden and then a little time to look in their small gift shop. Next stop: Ngorongoro.

We all had to stop at the main gate while John signed us in and paid the group's entry fee. Leonard warned us to not get out of the jeep until he gave the all-clear and to make sure that all windows were shut and latched and that we got out of the jeep on the right-hand side. "Why?" we wondered. We were not standing around for 2 minutes before we got our answer when a large baboon came jumping out of a tree, shot right past me, and into the open window of a small SUV that had parked right next to our jeep! The occupants of the jeep, who had been registering for their entrance into the park, freaked out and were waving and yelling and poking and prodding to try to get the monkey out. After what seemed like a long time, but was probably only like 20 or 30 seconds, they were able to shoo the baboon away, but not before he had wreaked havoc in the back seat of their jeep. I don't think he relieved himself, but he defintely made a mess. All of the professional safari guides admonished quite strongly the owner/guide who allowed his guests to leave their windows down in the parking lot. Drama!

Our first view of the crater floor was from a large scenic overlook. Holy Crap! It was massive, and spectacular. We could see specks of brown on the crater floor that upon closer inspection was a herd of cape buffalo. Kumbi spotted a couple solitary bull elephants. It's 10 miles across, and the rim is completely unbroken. After our requisite ooh'ing and ahh'ing (and bathroom breaks), we loaded back up for the 30 or so minute drive to our home for the next couple nights.

The Ngorongoro camp is nestled under a canopy of "Acacia Lahai" trees and you can feel the extra humidity. I'm not sure we'll have as many animal encounters in the camp as we did in Tarangire, but Leonard said that there are plenty of elephants and lions and leopards (and even rhinos) that live up on the crater rim, so maybe... (fingers crossed). We met the camp staff (including our Maasai warrior protectors) and proceeded to our tents. We're on the end of the line again, so we have some privacy at least on one side.

At dinner John said that "Jambo Jambo" tomorrow is at 5:30 so we can get into the crater before everyone else. It's a good thing that I am up almost every day now at 5:30 anyway. Oh, and there were hot water bottles in our beds when we got back from dinner.

Horses have nothing on elephants.

I'm pretty sure I heard hyenas last night; based on John's rendition of their calls. I might have heard a lion roar, but it could have also been someone snoring in another tent. I'm also pretty sure that I heard elephants trumpeting at some point, too.

We were asleep by 9pm last night. I'm still suffering from some jet lag, and I think our circadian rhythms are changing to adapt to the lack of light and other stimuli out here in the bush. The downside of being asleep so early is that we got up really early, too, like around 5 or 5:30. We got to hear the natural wakeup call with the bugs and birds sensing the arrival of the sunrise and the tent got brighter and brighter. Since our tent is kind of private (we're the 2nd to last tent and have some dense acacia bushes between us and our neighbors), we had all of our flaps open to encourage a nice breeze through the tent.

Unlike dinner, breakfast is buffet-style with a small selection of cereals, porridge, fresh fruit, bacon (I think pork bacon), and crepes. Once we sat down, some of the camp staff came around asking how we would like our eggs. "Cheese omelette, please" I said. There's so much food that I might actually gain weight on this trip.

Today we decided to ride in Kumbi's jeep and Scott and Karan decided the same thing. Eventually we'll ride with some of the other guests, but there's lots of game drives yet to go.

From the get-go, it was apparent that Kumbi has an eagle eye, especially for birds. It has also become apparent that we are already desensitized to certain animals that we see, like the ubiquitous Impala or the slightly less ubiquitous Warthog (or "warty" or "pumba"). How long before we are not impressed by hardly anything?

In general the day was amazing. The first half of the day we spent following the course of the Tarangire river; since eventually every animal in the park will make its way to water and the Tarangire river is the primary source of fresh water here. Kumbi spotted a pair of "dik dik"s resting/hiding in the shade of an acacia bush. They're so small and cute, like you could take one home as a pet. Full grown they're only about 12" high at the shoulder. We spent a few minutes or so watching a couple ostriches. Such weird looking birds. We saw an old elephant carcass; just skin and bleached out bones.

We saw another lion today, too. It was a young male who was resting behind a rock when he was spooked by the arrival of a family of elephants coming down to the river. He headed out back towards the woods Angela was beside herself with this family because there was a very tiny baby in their number. Very tiny as in less than 2 weeks old (according to Kumbi). He or she was so adorable. When the little babies run to catch up their ears flare out and flap and they have to hold their little trunks up to keep from tripping over them. It's so amazing to see the females take so much care of the babies in the family, and not just the baby's mother. In the elephant world, it really is a village raising the children. We followed this family down the river to a wider part of the river where several other families were converging. There might have been 50 or so elephants there.

By this time, we'd been out for a couple hours and it was time to take a bio-break. There was a picnic area up on a ridge overlooking this part of the river, so everyone was able to do their business (in a very nice bathroom, by the way) and we were able to get a nice look at the section of the river where we just came from.

Activity down at the river was increasing as everyone was coming down for a nice refreshing bath in the cool water, so we went back down to get in the middle of the action and maybe have some more close elephant encounters. We saw tons of cool behavior from the elephants. We saw juvenile males fighting a little bit to establish their position in the mating pecking order. We saw two other "ellies" in what looked like sexy-time, but it turned out to be 2 adolescent males "play mating" (not that there's anything wrong with it). That was a strange sight, especially considering that the "receiver" didn't seem to mind too much being mounted and almost violated. For the record, the phrase should officially change to "hung like an elephant."

Sadly, we couldn't stay and watch these elephants interact forever. It was time to head to our picnic spot for lunch. On the way there, and while we were watching a vervet monkey, the monkey started raising the predator alarm. All of the impala in the area took heed, and Kumbi peered into the distance in the direction that the monkey was looking. We waited with bated breath for 10 minutes, all looking downrange for the signs of leopard or lion or cheetah. Nothing; not real sure what the monkey was barking about (maybe it was us?), so we proceeded to our picnic spot overlooking the Tarangire Swamp. What a different landscape this was! No trees; just lush green marsh grass.

Lunch was so much more than a picnic lunch. John, Leonard, and Kumbi brought out the picnic boxes full of real plates and silverware and tins of food that was prepared back at the camp I guess this morning. There was fresh fruit, grilled beef, grilled vegetables like cassava and carrots, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

We spent the remainder of the day watching the elephants down by the swamp. We (and by "we" I mean just the 5 of us city folk in the jeep, not Kumbi) had a nervous couple minutes when an adolescent male elephant made like he was going to charge the rover a couple times. He would trumpet; growl a little; flare his ears out; and then back down before deciding that he'd rather eat some grass.

One thing we noticed that was funny is how the elephants would scrape off the dried mud after they were through wallowing. They'd find a nice fallen tree or large trunk and just rub against it until they had scraped it all off. They would straddle low limbs to scrape the mud off their bellies; would rub their hind quarters back and forth. Eventually we were able to spot the popular "scratching posts" by looking for tree trunks that had been rubbed smooth.

We had another "Hakuna Matata" celebration at dinner as a new safari group that arrived today was celebrating a birthday in their group. Apparently 3 of them were repeat Thomson guests and there was quite a reunion between them and John and Leonard. Evidently, They were doing a short safari after a Kili trek. One of them didn't make it all the way to the top, and she was clearly disappointed, but the other 4 travelers had all made it up.

Tomorrow we're heading out from Tarangire to the Ngorongoro Crater by way of Gibb's Farm for lunch and some other cooperative gift shop for more shopping. "Jambo Jambo" is at 6:30, breakfast at 7, and departure at 8.

What a great day. Sad that we didn't see more predators, but the elephants were amazing. Karan's "ledger" had us seeing over 40 different species of animals today. It's mostly birds, but damn!

Tse Tse flies are the devil

The day has finally arrived when we set out on our safari. Side note: in Swahili, safari just means "journey," so we've been on our safari since Friday when we left for the airport. Anyway, after another amazing al fresco breakfast, we joined the rest of our safari group at a large table for our safari briefing. John, our head guide whom we met last night, sat at the head of the large table and gave us the general rundown of how the next 8 days would go. He handed out nice maps of northern Tanzania for reference; mentioned the general daily schedule, how the camps worked, how the game drives would work, etc.

We went around the table and everyone introduced themselves: there's Richard and Sylvia from Vancouver, Naomi and Velia (2 old friends) from the Bay area, Roland and Sharon from San Diego, Bill and Nancy from Oklahoma City, Scott and Karan from Houston, and the 3 of us. It turns out that Richard and Sylvia were on their 40th anniversary and the trip was a total surprise for Sylvia. She didn't know anything of where they were going (except to "pack for warm weather") until they got to Amsterdam and were boarding the plane to Kilimanjaro. Bold move, Richard. Bold move. Next stop: Tarangire National Park via the aforementioned Cultural Heritage Center.

For the drive to Tarangire, we rode in John's rover with Scott and Karan. None of what we saw on the way to the cultural center was new to us, since we were just there yesterday, but for Scott and Karan it was eye opening. They spent all day yesterday at the Rivertrees and drove in at night like we did so they hadn't really seen any of what shocked us so much. Seeing the goats and cows tied up along the side of the road grazing; the shanty-towns; etc. I could see their faces and it was exactly like what I imagine my face looked like yesterday.

We didn't really have anything to do at the cultural center since we'd spent a couple hours there yesterday. Of course, Angela and Michele can always find some new trinket to look at, but I was pretty bored. We were there for an hour or so (while the guides took the jeeps back to the Thomson office to offload bags that people wanted to store while we were in the bush) and then got the word to mount up and move out.

The drive to Tarangire was pleasant. As we got out of Arusha we saw less of the shantytowns and more pastoral scenes featuring the boma clusters of the Maasai and young Maasai men and boys watching over their family's herds of goats and cattle as they grazed. We would pass the occasional cluster of more permanent buildings that would bring us back to the reality of daily life here.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at the main gate of Tarangire National Park. The Rivertrees had packed us very nice boxed lunches that we enjoyed in the company of a whole bunch of hungry birds and other groups of safari-goers. John implored us to "deet up" because besides the birds and elephants, Tarangire is known for Tse Tse flies. We could see the fly traps (large sheets of dark blue and black cloth impregnated with insecticide) all over the gate area.

Our drive in to the nyumba camp was our first exposure to "safari." Almost immediately we saw "wildlife" in the form of Impala, Warthogs, a lone Cape Buffalo, Giraffes, and Elephants, some lions (yes lions), and some of the birds for which Tarangire is famous.

The first lion sighting of the safari (we're now at 3/5 of the "big 5," by the way, after only our first half-day in the bush) was while we were watching some elephants on the far side of the Tarangire river. There were 2, one adult female and an adolescent, laying on the river bank licking each other. They were a couple hundred yards away, so not really close and almost too far for a good photograph, but they were there and they were real.

Our elephant encounter was pretty amazing. A family of elephants was grazing along the road (and by "road," I mean dirt track) as we passed by. Of course, we all stopped since this was our first close encounter with these magnificent animals. There was a variety of ages represented; from small babies less than 6 months old to fully mature females. As we were watching them do their thing on the side of the road, the matriarch of the group decided they were going to cross the road right in front of us. Some of these elephants were less than 10 feet away! They just walked right on past like they owned the joint. And they kind of do.

We were all pretty high from our close encounter that we barely noticed all of the flies. As we made our way to camp, the flies got worse and worse. John was flailing at them with both hands. There were some fly swatters in the seat back pockets, so we all got into the act of trying to keep the flies off. John was so violent that we asked him if he was allergic to Tse Tse fly bites. "No," he said, "but these flies are the devil."

We were welcomed at the camp by the entire staff with cold, damp towels and fresh passion fruit juice. John, the camp manager, introduced everyone, including the park ranger/guard and his AK47, to us. All of our duffels were spread out on a tarp and when John gave us our tent assignments, we pointed to our bags and they were taken to our tents. Since this is our first camp, John gave us demonstrations of how the toilets and showers work; how they don't refresh the shower water after dark so we have to take our showers between returning from our drives and dinner; how the dining tent works (we have to wash our hands in a sort of "ceremony" they affectionately call "washy washy"); and how the bar works.

The camp itself is located in the western part of the park nestled in among the Baobab trees. Our tents are very large, with a front "patio" that has 2 chairs and table; a large sleeping room with solar powered LED lighting; and a spacious bathroom/dressing area that's divided from the living area. There is a large vanity with 2 vessel sinks and pitchers with wash water and bottles for drinking water and behind that on the left is the toilet and on the right is the shower with a teak lattice "floor."

We had barely gotten to our tent that we heard from out back "First shower ready!" That was our cue that they had loaded our camp shower with hot water and it was time for someone to get cleaned up. Navy showers, here, folks, since we only have 10 gallons of water with which to get clean. The camp staff must be hanging out behind the tent waiting to hear for signs that you're done, and then they ask "ready for second shower?" When you say "ready" they lower the water tank and refill it and announce "second shower ready!" Angela used most of her allocation, but I had enough to use my leftover water to rinse out our laundry. 10 gallons is apparently a fair amount of water. Not sure how it will work out when Angela washes her hair. She might have to use some of my "second shower" water.

Dinner is at 7 and everyone at the camp eats together and everyone eats the same stuff; unless you've made prior arrangements with Thomson. There was a group finishing up their safari in the lounge tent after I got cleaned up so they shared some of their camp wisdom and the interesting things they'd seen on their way here from the Serengeti. Can I just say that a cold beer in the middle of the bush tastes so much better than that same cold beer in a bar or on your couch?

Dinner was delicious. The camp manager reads off the night's menu once everyone is seated and then guys come around with dishes serving soup (pumpkin), then the main course, then dessert. Tonight's dessert was announced as baobab fruit tart, but when it was time for dessert we were treated to the entire staff singing "hakuna matata" with cakes for Karan and Scott and Richard and Sylvia to celebrate their 30th and 40th anniversaries respectively. Nice touch, guys.

After dinner, John, who was sitting at the end of the table, announced the plans for the next day. Wakeup (or "Jambo Jambo") at 6:30, breakfast at 7, game viewing at 7:45 or so. By this time, we were all pretty beat (and it was only 8:30) so everyone retired to their tents. I am excited about what we might hear tonight; or what might mosey through the camp tonight.

Is getting peed on by a monkey good luck?

Let me get this out there: I will never be able to adequately describe the poverty that I saw today. Pictures can't do it justice, either.

We awoke to perfect weather and monkeys playing around in the trees outside our rooms. Apparently, there are several monkeys that live here on the grounds; some black faced vervet monkeys and some black and white colobus monkeys. They're supposedly not too mischievous, but we were warned last night about leaving shiny things unattended outside our rooms.

Breakfast was delicious; fresh tropical fruits, eggs (with white yolks), fresh breads, bacon and/or sausage (pork bacon and sausage, that is). We ate while watching the colobus monkeys do gymnastics in the branches above us and wondering if they ever get the urge to "bomb" al fresco diners.

Kumbi was waiting for us in the reception area, and I introduced myself (sadly, I forgot what his name was, so I just introduced myself and allowed him to introduce himself. I'm absolutely terrible with names). After getting our box lunches packed up, we loaded onto the jeep and set out. Kumbi told us that he's been working with Thomson for over 20 years. As an aside, this is one reason why I chose Thomson: their lack of turnover in key positions.

Our drive to Ilkiding'a took almost an hour and we got to see some of what we missed last night. The drive started out OK, but as we got closer to Arusha, the signs of poverty began to creep in: shanty-town "neighborhoods;" trash everywhere; emaciated stray dogs; cows and goats grazing on the side of the road. When we pulled off the main road and headed up the slopes of Mt. Meru, it got even worse: the pavement gave way to dirt; people carting their water jugs to the central well to fill up to take back to their homes; even more trash; open sewage ditches on the side of the dirt road to carry rainwater, wastewater, and whatever else downhill.

By the time we got up to the village, I think we were all feeling more than a little out of place: definitely not in Kansas anymore. Here we were: 3 "rich white folks" being driven in a bright white Land Rover Defender through some of the worst poverty any of us had ever seen. Maybe my feelings were unfounded, but I imagined those folks watching us drive by and secretly blaming our existence for their situation. We almost got stranded when we got a flat in our left rear tire going over a particularly sharp rock. Thankfully, Kumbi made it to our destination on the flat tire and was able to change it while we were shown around the village.

Our first stop in the village was a small daycare/kindergarten school room taught by a volunteer who introduced herself to us as "Joyce." Most of the kids in there were orphans and she spent every morning trying to teach them basic numbers, colors, words, parts of the body, etc. in Maasai, Swahili, and English. The kids were all so cute and innocent, and it was heartbreaking to know that they have basically been sentenced to this life.

We met our guide for the day, Eli (his real name is much longer), and he showed us their "guestbook" and their little craft "store" where the women in the village sell their beaded jewelry. The "usual" program of activities involves a light hike through the fields to the other parts of the village, but Michele's balky knee put paid to that idea and Kumbi wound up driving us.

We visited with several people in the village; from women drying corn and beans to a guy who fashions Maasai knives from scrap metal and wood handles; to the little kids all over the village. We were able to go into some of their "boma" huts to see what their living quarters are like. It's a completely different lifestyle, that's for sure; totally subsistence based. I did hear a radio playing something, and some of the huts had a single electric light bulb in the main room, powered by solar cells almost certainly donated and installed by some western charity. Everybody was very friendly, but they're somewhat used to visitors since this village is a sort of living museum.

After visiting with these people and seeing how they live, I hope I never complain about some minor problem in my life; like my satellite TV going out in a rain storm, or my cell phone dropping a call, or even car trouble or my washing machine giving up the ghost. We sat with Eli and had some mint tea and decided that it was time to go. It was almost lunch time, but none of us wanted to eat our nice boxed lunches here and appear to be flaunting our bounty, so we packed up the rover and headed to this place called the Cultural Heritage center where the girls could get their shop on.

The cultural heritage center was very nice. The drive there went deeper into Arusha and we were able to get more of a feel for what African "city life" is like, but I don't think we ever really got into the heart of Arusha, so maybe it's more like a normal city than what we saw. It's hard to tell. There was so much stuff available; all from local villages or artists. Angela and Michele were interested in the tanzanite, and I was looking at the paintings. The tanzanite proved to be way more expensive than we expected. Michele had arrived thinking that there are places where she could get large stones for almost nothing, but the retail prices are very "diamond-esque," even after trying to haggle. We settled for some nice paintings that will make good additions to our home's "gallery" and after Kumbi returned from the Thomson office with a new spare, we mounted up and returned to the Rivertrees for a relaxing afternoon.

Once back, Angela and I decided to sit on the deck down by the river and enjoy a cold Kilimanjaro beer and watch the monkeys play in the trees. We met one of our fellow Thomson travelers, Scott from Houston, and introduced ourselves. He and his wife arrived from Amsterdam last night, but just hung around the Rivertrees all day today. As we were making small talk, I noticed rain drops falling on the deck, only there wasn't really a cloud in the sky. Turns out, one of the resident vervet monkeys had, in fact, targeted Scott's head for a shower. We all got a very good laugh out of that and wondered if getting peed on by a monkey in Africa was good luck like getting pooped on by the pigeons in St. Peter's square in Rome. Needless to say, Scott retired to his room to get cleaned up.

It was then that the commotion started. Rivertrees staff raced from their posts to the river and we could hear shouting in the woods. One of the waiters kindly asked us to repair to the restaurant area because someone had attempted to steal a motorcycle and stabbed the owner and the perp was loose in the woods by the river. We had noticed guys on the other side of the river (one of whom was wearing a motorcycle helmet) before the monkey peeing incident but brushed it off as "normal." Over the next hour or so we heard much shouting and yelling punctuated by 2 shotgun blasts and saw numerous people going down to the river and coming back. Angela had gone over to the small gift shop to look at what was there and was talking to the receptionist about why she didn't want to join in all the fun (discrection is the better part of valor everywhere, it turns out), and while they were chatting saw the perp being dragged out toward the road face down by 4 guys. We were saved!

We wound up having dinner with Scott and his wife, Karan, and chatted with them for a good while. We learned about their 2 boys back in Texas and had a very nice evening getting to know them. If the rest of our group is like them, I think we'll have a very nice time.

Our head guide, John, dropped by the hotel on his way to the airport to pick up the rest of the group who are arriving tonight, and said that we were going to have a briefing tomorrow at 8:30 and then mount up and head out to Tarangire. I'm ready to see some wildlife.

Tanzania, finally

It only took 4 different flights and almost 20hours in airplanes, but we're finally here in Arusha, Tanzania.

Our day started with a chauffeur picking us up from our hotel in Dubai and shuttling us over to the airport. The woman at the Emirates business class checkin desk looked a little perturbed that Angela and I dared to check in with Michele, but she let us do it "just this once." Joke's on her.

Michele repaired to the business class lounge while Angela and I searched for breakfast. Aha! McDonalds! Chicken sausage McMuffins and hash browns. Score!

Our flight from Dubai to Dar es Salaam was uneventful to the point that I don't even remember who sat in our row. We had some kind of Indian-ish lunch that was excellent and 5.5hrs after we took off we landed in Dar es Salaam staring at a 4 hour layover until our Fastjet flight to Kilimanjaro at 7:30.

The airport at DAR was an experience like I've never had before. It's clearly a small airport that's trying to "act" big. We got our visas and luggage within 30 minutes of landing (it was hot as hades in the arrivals lounge), but the airport is such that we couldn't check in to our Kili flight until 6pm. We were approached by a guy offering to store our bags while we went upstairs to the one and only restaurant/bar in the airport (called the Flamingo Cafe) to wait for our appointed checkin time. While I was waiting for him to fill out a claim check/receipt , the red flags immediately began flying for Angela and Michele and they went to seek out an "official" to acknowledge that this guy was legit. Turns out he was, so we went upstairs to enjoy the pitifully inadequate air conditioning and almost cold cokes.

The Fastjet checkin process was less than efficient as I had to have my credit card "verified" at a different desk than the one processing the checked bags. The ticketing/bag check room was completely chaotic. We had to x-ray our bags ourselves; weigh them ourselves; practically tag them ourselves. All was well, however, and we made it up to the departure lounge to wait for our flight.

It was a quick flight up to Kilimanjaro (on a very nice and clean Airbus A320) and after picking up our bags we were met outside by one of our Thomson guides for our safari, Leonard Temba. It was pretty dark, so we couldn't really see anything on our 40 or so minute drive to the Rivertrees, our home for the next 2 nights before we head out to Tarangire, but Leonard did point out where the tanzanite mines are (we could see the lights). I also noticed many people walking alone on the shoulders of these very dark, unlit streets. I wonder how many pedestrian deaths there are here?

The Rivertrees is amazing. I have no idea what Arusha looks like outside of the property (I suspect it's pretty rough around the edges), but this place is amazing. The grounds, even in the dark, are very impressive. We were welcomed by several of the staff and shown to our rooms, which are very nice; if a little rustic. No air conditioning, but it's cool and dry enough that you don't really need it. Can't drink the tap water, but there's a pitcher of filtered water on the sink. The bar and restaurant are all open air with thatched roofs and a very nice outdoor area with a wood-fired oven and grill.

Speaking of the restaurant, we had some amazing wood-fired pizzas for dinner.

Leonard told us that another Thomson guide, Kumbi, would be picking us up at 8:30 or thereabouts for our day's activities: a visit to a Maasai village called Ilkiding'a and some shopping at a local market.

As I type this, Angela has burned one of her 2 toothbrushes by rinsing it out with tap water. Good thing we each brought a backup.

Who's living in all these high rises?

This was a long day. It started out with an amazing breakfast buffet in the hotel. Since our desert safari was cancelled, we had time to enjoy a slower morning. The buffet was very eclectic and varied. With Dubai being an islamic state, there is no pork on offer, so instead of pork bacon, you get veal bacon. Instead of pork sausage, you get chicken sausage. Apparently, in supermarkets there are separate "pork rooms" where westerners can buy that stuff that are isolated from the "genpop" of the rest of the meats.

Fun fact: our room has an arrow on the ceiling that points to Mecca so Muslim guests know which direction to face when it's time to pray. In that same vein, our plane yesterday had a graphic that would pop up showing where Mecca was in relation to the plane's nose.

We hopped in a cab for a ride out to the "Madinat Jumeirah." Holy Crap! Dubai is huge; way bigger than I expected. Even more amazing than how big it is (and it seems to be all situated along one main highway that parallels the coast) is how new it is. Our cabbie allowed as how most of the city is less than 15 years old. They're building like crazy; and we're not talking about small buildings, either. These are 60+ story skyscrapers they're throwing up. I can't even count how many construction cranes there are. The architecture is stunning. Every architecture school in the world should have an extension office here and offer semester fellowships for students wanting to go into commercial building design. The emir has a very high opinion of himself because his face is plastered on posters all over. I wonder how many "takes" it took for him to get his paternal gaze just right?

Madinat Jumeirah is pretty cool. It's a modern take on the "souk" with a little Venice, Italy thrown in in the form of canals that work their way across the property. There are a couple very nice hotels here; tons of small shops (no department stores); loads of restaurants; and even more tourists. However, at its heart, this is really just a mall, and those are the same wherever in the world you are. I chuckled seeing the Cinnabon stand. In fact, on the drive out from our hotel, I even spotted an Olive Garden (no Carrabba's?). Angela and Michele found a place to get some Henna, so they thumbed through the books of designs and found some. I was amazed that the woman in the shop free-handed their tattoos. No stencils for her.

Our appointment for the Burj Khalifa was for 2:30, so we hopped in another cab for the Dubai Mall (the largest in the world, evidently). It was definitely huge, no doubt. But, just a mall, with a food court, a Gap, Pottery Barn, Chili's (yes, a Chili's, with a sign in Arabic), an ice rink the size of a hockey rink, movies, etc. We found the Burj Khalifa office, picked up our tickets, and I had a Fatburger while we waited for our appointed time.

It's so tall. We were barely half way to the top (at the 124th floor) and we towered over every other building in site. The elevator only took a minute to get to the 124th floor. The view was amazing, but a little restricted thanks to all of the dust hanging in the air. The observation deck is 360 degrees, with an outdoor section that looks back towards Dubai Creek and the "old town." There were so many people up there; so much noise; so much chaos with little kids running around and their parents chasing them. It wasn't long before I was ready to get out of there.

It was at this point that Michele hit the wall and decided to take a cab back to the hotel for the rest of the day, while Angela and I decided to get on the metro and head out to the "Palm" to try to get a view of the Burj al Arab looking back at the building from the sea. It was comical how far we had to walk to get to the metro station; at least a mile down this very long jetway like tunnel. Long story short, by the time we got to the monorail that would take us to the Palm from the Dubai marina, it was getting dark and our trip out there was completely wasted. I got a couple of the "stink eye" looks from Angela because she wanted to hit the "Deira" neighborhood for the gold and spice souks and it was already almost 7 and it was going to take at least 45 minutes to get there and we hadn't had dinner yet.

It was in the Deira neighborhood that we got to experience a little of the "real" Dubai. It was a little uncomfortable at times, I must say. We got a number of odd looks since there were hardly any women on the street besides Angela (at least until we got to the gold souk). We were struck by all of the "trading companies" in this neighborhood buying and selling all manner of goods from spices to plastic bowls to blank baseball hats (like you would buy and put your own logo on) to kitchen utensils to tee shirts. You name it and they were "trading" it.

It was on our walk to the gold souk that we heard our first call to prayer from the Muezzins. They blare it out from loudspeakers mounted to the minarets of the mosques so you can't miss it if you're outside. The gold souk was out of control. I can't even describe it. There were so many gold vendors it made the Ponte Vecchio look tiny. I was accosted numerous times by guys wanting to sell me knockoff watches and handbags and every 20 feet was a board with the spot price of gold.

We were starving. There were no restaurants or shawarma stands to be found (despite our guidebook's assurances that there would be plenty to choose from), so we found guy in one of these "trading companies" that told us to go down the street to a Persian restaurant. It was a hole in the wall, but those are usually the best places. This was no different. The food was amazing: saffron rice with chicken, beef, and matan (I think "mutton") kebobs. So much food we couldn't eat it all. More weird looks from the other patrons because Angela was the only woman in this 8 seat restaurant, but the staff were very friendly, and the dinner wound up costing about $25 all in.

So these trading companies get their goods to buy and sell from these wooden cargo boats/ships called dhows that ply the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean all the way to Malaysia and Thailand. These boats looked so rickety, I can't believe they survive the open ocean. We saw the main "dhow wharf" while waiting for a cab and there were at least 100 of these dhows tied up flotilla style.

Back in the hotel now. Michele didn't really do anything this afternoon, but she missed all the cool stuff in Deira. Her loss. We have two flights tomorrow to get to Arusha: from here to Dar es Salaam and from Dar to Kilimanjaro where we should be met by a Thomson rep to take us to the River Trees hotel. We didn't spend too much time in Dubai and I would have liked to have had another day to explore the Dubai Marina area or the Bur Dubai neighborhood across the Dubai Creek from Deira.

It's hard to put a label on Dubai. It's not a very old place, but the culture here is very old, bordering on ancient. You can see some of that in Deira. It's a huge city that's expanding at a breakneck pace. So fast that I can't imagine that all of these new buildings are even partially full. Like they're all being built on spec; and by the same development company.

I feel like I just skipped Saturday

Whew! We made it. That was fun. It's funny how things have a way of working out. By the time I left the office and got home to wait for our car, the delays into LGA were basically in the red zone to the point that I was not sure we would make our connection. So, when we got to the airport yesterday (I think it was yesterday), I tried to get us on an earlier flight to LGA that might have also been delayed so that we could get there at about the same time as originally planned. The Delta folks were awesome and they actually wound up changing our booking completely to fly direct to JFK (which had no delays, go figure). That obviously relieved all of my stress and I was able to enjoy the start of our long awaited vacation.

The flight to JFK was uneventful and we were able to check into our Emirates flight to Dubai with a couple hours to spare. Plenty of time to find a place to have a bite of dinner. We wound up having some pizza that basically just amounted to a "maintenance meal." After dinner, Michele retired to the business class lounge and we didn't see her until we landed in Dubai (since she had her own jetway).

This was my first time on an A380, and my first on Emirates as well, and the experience was first class. The food was very good (mostly Indian), the plane was roomy and light, the seats were super comfortable, the entertainment system was fantastic, and the crying babies were super annoying.

Angela sat next to a very interesting man named Max who worked for the U.N. and who was going to the Congo to work with the UN peacekeepers there who are attempting to calm down tensions between the Congo and Rwanda. His stories were interesting (although I couldn't really hear him too well because airplanes are just loud); especially the ones that involved RPG's and machine guns.

Arriving in Dubai was pretty painless. I had allowed myself to get a little stressed out over the medications that we were taking, especially the Ambien, since the UAE has very harsh penalties for bringing in certain pharmaceuticals (even if you have a prescription) without a whole bunch of supporting documentation. Well, those fears were completely unfounded since we breezed through customs with nary a sideways glance. I wish we hadn't left all that Ambien at home now. Hopefully the jet lag won't be too bad.

Unfortunately, we've experienced the first downer of the trip: our desert safari was cancelled because of a bad sand storm here the last couple days. We'll have to find something else to do tomorrow morning before our Burj Khalifa experience.

The flight was so long and the time zone difference so great that it feels like we completely skipped today. Usually, our international flights land in the morning and we have all day to do stuff and start working off some of the jet lag. Not so much this time; since it was already 9pm when we got to our hotel. It's basically going to be straight to bed for us. I think we're going to go to the "Madinat Jumeirah," a sort of modern day take on a traditional "souk" experience, in the morning.

Why wouldn't there be weather issues in New York in February?

My worst fears are coming true. We're supposed to depart for the airport later today and what do I find when I get to work? Flights to LGA are delayed by an hour and increasing due to wind/weather. We don't have a very big window to get from LGA to JFK, so I am getting very nervous.

Angela's mom got here the other day without issue and we're all packed up and checked in to our flights, and now it looks like it will be dicey to get on our plane to Dubai. Deep breaths.

Holy Crap it's getting close!

T-11 days until we depart. Everything is paid for; supplies bought; flights booked; photography gear selected; immunizations and medications prescribed; we're ready. We have our Yellow Fever appointments tomorrow, and will get our Visa's in Dar es Salaam when we land. I am funny about surrendering my passport, so we chose to do it upon arrival rather than sending them in to the Tanzanian embassy in DC.

Lots has happened since last time, obviously. Most notably is that Angela's mother has decided to come along. We asked her if she wanted to come last spring and she jumped at the opportunity. She'll fly to our place next week, and then we'll all go together to New York to catch the big jet to take us to Dubai.

Unfortunately, I've come to the realization that I gave Dubai short shrift in the planning. It started out as kind of a bonus because of the ticket prices, but the more we researched the more we realized that one full day just wasn't enough. Sadly there wasn't really any way we could extend our trip since we have to be in Arusha, TZ, on the 23rd with no exceptions. We've booked a "desert safari" through Arabian Adventures for the morning and we have tickets to the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa. That doesn't leave too much time to experience the souks and all that, but we'll make due. I'm not even sure we'll have time to see the Burj al Arab, but what're you gonna do? Angela is excited about the henna, the pashmina's, all the girly stuff. It's going to be a very busy day.

On the photography front, I purchased an F-Stop Loka to hold my gear plus day-pack and carry-on type items. It's super rugged and should stand me in good stead for basically ever. My "kit" is going to consist of my 7D, EF-S 10-22mm wide angle, 24-105 F/4L, and a rented 100-400 mkII F/4.5-5.6L. I would like a little more reach, since I don't think you can have too much reach for wildlife photography, but weight and money conspired to keep me down. The 500F/4L would have been amazing, or the 300F/2.8+1.4TC, but either of those would have been almost $1000 for 3 weeks. I'm not that good of a photographer. I am taking my tripod, though, so I can try to get some good star and landscape pictures from our camps. To that end, I picked up an intervalometer to help with the exposures.

I can't believe a trip that's been in the works for over a year is about to happen. It'll be over so fast and all that will be left are the memories (and the pictures, and the pashminas, and maybe the rugs and the african masks and whatever else).