Adventure in East Africa February, 1999 -or- How I finally got to see lions in the wild! By Tim Stoffel CONTENTS Introduction, history and preparation Friday, February 5 Departure , Rochester, NY Saturday, February 6 Gatwick Airport, London, England Sunday, February 7 In the air over Africa Monday, February 8 Arusha, Tanzania Tuesday, February 9 Tarangire National Park, Tanzania Wednesday, February 10 Tarangire National Park, Tanzania Thursday, February 11 Lake Manyara area, Tanzania Friday, February 12 Lake Manyara area, Tanzania Saturday, February 13 Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania Sunday, February 14 Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania Monday, February 15 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania Tuesday, February 16 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania Wednesday, February 17 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania Thursday, February 18 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania Friday, February 19 Arusha, Tanzania Saturday, February 20 Gatwick Airport, London, England Epilog Introduction Most of you who know me know I am nuts about lions. These magnificent animals carry with them a little bit of the majesty of God! Though I am interested in carnivores in general, and cats in particular, this Godly connection makes me like lions far above any other animal. Besides this, they are fascinating animals to study! I am also interested in animal life in general. I have studied biology and it's related fields for as long as I can remember. In fact, I'm somehow surprised that I didn't choose to make a career of it. For these reasons, I have longed to visit Africa. Africa has the largest still-intact land animal ecosystems left in the world. (And of course, lions!) For the longest time, this was nothing but a distant dream. But, as my monetary resources and vacation time availability increased with my seniority at work, traveling to Africa became a real possibility. How it Happened It all started in April of 1997 when I went to the Rochester Computer and Business Show. Of course, many business people travel, so there were travel agencies there, advertising their services. One of these also had brochures out for pleasure travel. One of the itineraries shown was East Africa. Of course, the lion on the front of the brochure was what really caught my attention. I picked up the brochure and studied it over the course of the next several days. Business travel of my own prevented me from immediately researching the options for travel to Africa, so reading and re-reading the brochure served only to increase my excitement in the prospect of actually going to Africa. As soon as I got back, I hit the internet and started doing research. After a few weeks of reading brochures and itineraries, I found a tour offered by David Anderson Safaris best met my goals. I attempted to book the trip with them, with a travel time of October 1997. What followed next is typical of the kind of luck I sometimes have: everything that could possibly go wrong with booking this trip did. I won't go into details, but all hopes of travel pretty much died when the agent called me one day and asked me to consider canceling my booking. I did. God told me to drop the whole matter for now: I would go to Africa, but not at this time. To burn my bridges, I took $1,000 of the money I had set aside and bought a videotape machine to add to my VTR collection. This was, and still is, the most I have ever spent on an addition to the collection! It was now July 1997. Almost a year went by before anything further happened. One day, I got a letter from Van Zile travel here in Rochester. It was an advertisement for a trip to Kenya with Chet Walker, an announcer for one of our local radio stations. He is well known for world travel, and especially loves Africa. The trip was to take place in August of 1998. Travel in August is out of the question for me, as I am required to be at work for a major fundraiser that occurs every August. I called Van Zile, and explained my situation to them, and they sent me literature on a number of other packages they had available. These ranged from overland truck safaris to private jet safaris! Most of these were priced out of my budget, or simply went places I wasn't interested in going. Nevertheless, I spent many happy hours poring over these brochures. A new mega-bookstore had opened not far from me. From time to time, I would check out their Africa travel section to see if they had any new books. About this time, I visited the store, and found a book entitled: 'Africa's Top Wildlife Countries' by Mark Nolting. Besides being an extremely informative book, it also contained strong advertising for the Africa Adventure Company, a company that Mark Nolting ran. Soon, a large folder of info from them joined the pile of brochures on my dining room table. They had several itineraries that closely matched what I wanted to achieve in East Africa. After much study, and calls to a number of various travel agencies, I narrowed my choices down to two packages they offered. A chat with Mark Nolting himself easily narrowed this down to the 'Serengeti Unexplored Safari'. This was a bit more upscale (And expensive!) than I really wanted, but it was perfect in virtually every other respect. I went onto a 'message board' on the internet for independent confirmation that Africa Adventure Center was a reputable outfit. I got a very good rating for them from none other than David Anderson Safaris, whom I had tried to book with the year before. Now, things happened fast. I was offered a slightly better rate if I could book very quickly; this I did. I had the two weeks plus in early February 1999 that I needed off for the trip approved in 20 minutes. Normally, this takes a month! In retrospect, I'm very glad I booked this trip 9 months in advance. If I had waited a couple more months, there is a very good chance I would not have been able to get such a big block of time off. Getting Ready Once the booking was confirmed as good, I had 8 months to prepare. The first thing I needed to do was get a passport. I chose to do this in the midst of another major activity. Bad mistake, but everything ended up fine. If you have never applied for a passport before, be advised that preparing for it takes a bit of research. You need your OFFICIAL birth certificate, as well as a lot of information on where your parents were born, etc. Two passport photos are required, and the passport agency has standards for these photos; take the time to make sure the photographer gets them right the first time. Having to resubmit the photos can add a month to processing time! (Mine turned out fine, but my parents had problems with their photos and had to resubmit.) One important thing you really must have if you are to travel to a place like East Africa is a good camera and binoculars. I took the advice in 'Africa's Top Wildlife Countries' and purchased a good quality pair of binoculars. What I purchased was the Celestron Ultima 10X50. These were purchased mail-order, which is the best wat to get these sorts of things. Although this is a little on the strong side for this kind of wildlife viewing, they never let me down! I suspect they were the best glasses of anybody that accompanied me on this adventure. The 10X50's will also see much service here in the 'States for binocular astronomy, which requires the large aperture. The other important thing is a good camera. An unexpected funds surplus put me in a good position to pick up a SLR and a good telephoto lens. The camera is a Canon rebel G. It is the bottom-of-the-line camera in Canon's EOS series. It is inexpensive, and readily available. It comes in a package with a 35-80 mm zoom lens. To this I added a Tamron 70-300 mm zoom lens. This gave me a wide selection of focal lengths with just two lenses. The Tamron lens is also of very good optical quality. Although there are zoom lenses that will cover this range with one lens, they are much more expensive. In any case, the combination was very serviceable, and the Rebel G stood up to almost every test I put it to. While on the subject of cameras, if you are planning any kind of adventure travel, do yourself a favor and put a clear filter on the front of your lens. It's modest cost will be recovered many times over! Also, make sure you have a cleaning kit for the optics and the camera/binocular bodies. Last, but not least, carry your film in a good X-ray bag, and always take it as a carry-on! Make sure you have spare batteries, as well as a 'point and shoot' to use if your SLR develops problems. The last subject on cameras I will mention is film. Many people make the mistake of bringing slow film on a trip like this. Although East Africa is famous for it's light, it is often a dim, difficult light. You will encounter many more situations where a fast film is needed rather than a slow one. I would recommend a good 400-speed film for general work, as well as some 800 speed film for marginal lighting. I took nothing slower than 400 and didn't miss the slower stuff for a minute. Another thing that is worthwhile is to spend the extra money for premium quality film. A good example is Kodak Royal Gold 400. That way, if you capture that 'picture of a lifetime', you can have it enlarged without showing too much grain. Personally, I took 16 rolls of Kodak Pro 400MC 36, a discontinued professional film I was able to get at a good price. I also took 8 rolls of Fuji G800 36 at the advice of several professional photographer friends, as well as the camera dealer. (I live in Rochester, NY, home of Eastman Kodak, and try to be loyal to that brand!) This, too is considered a professional film. It is a better value to buy fewer 36 exposure rolls than more 24 exposure rolls. Most dealers keep their professional film under refrigeration until it is sold. Any film, as long as it is in it's can, benefits from refrigerated storage. This is especially true if it has been exposed. You should also wait to buy your film until just before your trip. Think twice before bringing a video camera. Most action you are likely to see will be a good distance from your vehicle. Most camcorders on the market do not have good enough zooms to really close in on the action. I think these new 'digital zooms' do not give good picture quality. (I am a professional video engineer.) Furthermore, you will need to carry a supply of heavy batteries to power them. Although some vehicles have power jacks for video cameras, not all do. You will only run into electric power for recharging here and there. Last but not least, the delicate mechanisms in the miniature camcorders is easily fouled by the heavy dust found in much of East Africa. Unless you have the necessary tools and skills to field-clean your camcorders' tape transport, take draconian measures to keep the dust out! The same holds true for the tapes themselves. In my opinion, you will do far better with a still camera and a good lens. Another thing to think twice about is a digital camera. They are the 'in' thing right now, but their image quality is very inferior compared to film. They also tend to have the power and mechanical disadvantages of camcorders. Take along ziploc bags and keep your photography gear in them at night. This will help prevent humidity related problems. The final thing I had considered taking was audio recording gear. This was to consist of a minidisc recorder and a good microphone. I could set up the microphone outside the tent, and put the recorder inside. At bedtime, I would put the minidisc unit in record, and would capture 1 to 2 hours of night sounds. The minidisc recorder and it's associated support equipment was very small and would have added less than a pound to the luggage. Unfortunately, the budget never materialized for this. This brings us to December of 1998. Now, preparations began in earnest. The most critical thing at this time was obtaining visas. For these, you need to send your passport to the embassies in question along with supporting paperwork (And $30-45 as well!). This needs to be done certified mail, and well in advance of when you plan to travel. However, it should be done within 3 months of your departure date. I had no problems with the Tanzania visa process. The Kenya one, however, nearly got snarled when I discovered an important document got left behind. I was forced to travel for business about the time I discovered this and was powerless to do anything about it for a week. (To add to the frustration, I was within a block of the Kenyan Embassy at one point in my travels, but it was at a time when they were closed!) I'll never know what happened for sure, but when I finally got the package in my hands, I discovered everything had been approved, anyway. Despite this happy ending, don't take chances with your paperwork! Another thing that happened in December was getting the necessary immunizations. We are lucky here in Monroe County, NY. Kodak has so many people traveling all over the world that we have an excellent travel health bureau. They gave me shots for Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A and an oral vaccine for typhoid fever. When I compared notes with the other persons in my group, I found I had paid less than half of what anybody else had paid. Make sure you get a vaccination certificate along with the shots. Carry it with your passport. One extremely important medicine you need to take is an anti-malarial. For this, you will need a prescription from your doctor. For East Africa, a drug called Lariam is most often prescribed. This is taken just once a week. You start with a dose a week before you arrive in Africa, and continue for 4 weeks after you return. Malaria is a very serious disease, so you want to make sure you stick with it for the four weeks after! Make sure you have a hat to protect your scalp and face from sunburn. The East African sun is very direct! Get one that can be wadded up and stuffed in your luggage when not needed. Sunblock, and especially insect repellent is very important in East Africa. Tsetse fly bites hurt! Make sure to also take any vitamins you need, as well as a supply of prescription drugs. If any of these is considered a controlled substance, get a letter from your doctor stating why you need to take the drug. A very small first aid kit is also quite handy. One important ingredient in this kit is antibiotic cream. Cuts can become infected very quickly in the tropics. Last, but not least, take preparations to deal with digestive upsets. Take something for both diarrhea and constipation. You're likely to need both at some point! One other health-related thing I will mention is water. Although I didn't do it on this trip, it is important enough that I thought I would add it here. I did not drink enough water on this trip, and became seriously dehydrated near the end. Having some traveler's diarrhea near the end of the trip only made this problem worse. (I drink a lot of water at home.) The usual solution is to purchase bottled water. This can get quite expensive. Thankfully, there are now simple water filtration kits on the market that allow you to filter out 99.9 percent of what's harmful in the water. Unlike here, most of the harmful things in the water are biological, not chemical in nature. These are easily filtered out of the water by simple mechanical filters. The only thing that might be missed is some very small viruses, but these are either not a problem, or are easily vaccinated against. In any case, these kits will filter 20 or more gallons of water (Much more than you would ever use in 2 weeks.) and are tiny and lightweight. Not only will you not be thirsty, but you will nearly pay for the filtration kit with what you save on bottled water. I will never go to Africa again without one! It is important to have the right color clothing when on safari. This is especially critical for what you will be wearing above the waist. (The animals won't see your pants in a safari vehicle, so it's better to find something comfortable than the right color.) You can spend the big bucks with some of these travel clothing outfitters. Or, just go to a good sporting goods store. They will have khaki-colored T-shirts for a fraction of the price! For men, a battery-powered shaver, or a razor kit is a must. Braun makes a shaver that runs on 2 AA batteries. You can carry a couple spare batteries and not have to worry about finding a place to recharge. Incidentally, every place I went, in England, Kenya or Tanzania that had power, had dual-voltage shaver outlets with special plugs. The biggest packing challenge was dealing with weight and size restrictions. Africa Adventure Center sent me a nice gym-bag type duffle bag. There was a commuter flight at a point late in the trip with a 15 Kg weight restriction for luggage, including camera gear. This is only about 33 pounds. I was also advised that things would be best if I could get all my stuff into the duffle bag and carry it on the plane. After a lot of careful planning and packing, I succeeded. One important thing is not to take more than 3 changes of clothing. However, a sweatshirt and light jacket are important, especially if traveling in winter or in the highlands. All medicines, vitamins, toothpaste, etc. were taken in original containers, but the smallest sizes I could find. Make sure you have a good field guide; I liked the 'National Audobon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife', as it covered everything without being too specialized or skimpy. It is also widely available. A copy of Mark Nolting's 'Travel Journal Africa' is extremely useful. Besides having a journal section, it contains much useful information on travel and wildlife, as well as places for information that could be of use to you. A puzzle or crossword book will keep you occupied on the long flights. As you will read later, the flights were pretty much the worst part of the whole trip. Make copies of all your important papers: tickets, passports, itineraries, etc. Carry these in a separate place from the originals, just in case something happens to the originals. Always keep your money, tickets, passport, etc. in a money belt worn in an inaccessible (to thieves) spot. A money belt is one of the best travel investments you can make. When all the dust settled, everything except the camera gear fit in the duffle bag with a bit of room to spare. Total weight was 28 pounds! No project of this type ever seems to go 100% smoothly. For me, I tend to have runs of the strangest or most unpredictable bad luck. It was the one thing I hoped wouldn't happen. I got sick just before the trip! It was Monday, February 1st. My trip left on Friday the 5th. I remember remarking to my boss that afternoon that if I developed as much as a sniffle that I was taking the rest of the week off. Well, by 6 PM that evening, I had a sniffle. Or, should I say, a full-blown cold! For me, colds and air travel do not mix at all. I needed to get over this thing as quickly as possible. To top it off, my boss was having me work as many hours as I could handle! Tuesday was a miserable day for me. As the result of some intensive prayer, the acute phase of the cold ended in the early evening with little or no chest cold complications. For this I rejoiced and thanked God! Now, I had to patiently wait for the congestion in my head to drain. Things would have progressed much better if I didn't have to work a TV remote on Wednesday and Thursday. This meant hard work, and being outside in the cold. Although my head was draining, it was taking it's sweet time. At least, things didn't get worse! Friday morning finally arrived. I had just the morning to finish preparations that had been delayed by the unusually heavy work schedule earlier in the week. The most important thing to do was get savings bonds and cash. I got $300 in cash, and $300 in savings bonds. This turned out to be an almost perfect amount. (I think though, if I had more money with me, I would have spent it!) $50 also showed up unexpectedly when somebody who I had done some personal work for visited me to hand me a check! This was a welcome surprise, and helped cover some last minute expenses. Besides fighting the vestiges of the cold, I had one other extremely frustrating thing happen. I couldn't find the book 'Travel Journal Africa' anywhere. I tore my house apart looking for it, and gave up after nearly two hours. I finally stopped at a bookstore on the way to the airport and bought a new copy. Interestingly enough, the original copy has yet to turn up, six months after returning! Friday, February 5, 1999 Departure, Rochester, NY The moment finally came. At 1 PM, a friend of me picked me up and took me to the airport, stopping by way of a bookstore to get the aforementioned replacement copy of 'Travel Journal Africa'. After he dropped me off, I was on my own, 'running on internal power' as they would say at NASA. Going through security on this trip worried me a lot. I hate having to do it. This time, I asked to have the film hand inspected. I handed the film bag to one of the security people, who handed it back without even looking in it after I was through the metal detector. I remarked "You're not even going to look inside?" This piqued the ears of the security supervisor, who chided the worker for not being thorough. She went off in the opposite direction, and wasn't happy until she had opened every single can of film! In the process of this frustrating situation, I had left my ticket laying on the table outside of security. It was in a new outer wrapper, so I did not even initially recognize it. Embarrassed and relieved at the same time, I purposed to protect my papers better from there on in! Before long, we were airborne in a small Saab 340 aircraft. Although this was a small aircraft, it wasn't all that uncomfortable. However, it was low-flying and slow. It took almost two hours to fly to New York City. This same route can be driven in about 8 hours. Of course, due to the cold, my ears plugged up and wouldn't open upon descent. This despite a strong dose of Sudafed! At JFK airport in New York City, we were loaded in a bus after deplaning. This took us to whatever terminal we needed to go to, and was a nice touch. (JFK is a sprawling airport where the individual terminals are not connected to each other. A system of buses moves people between the terminals.) The first task was to check in. For the first time, I was asked for my passport. I ended up having to show it a couple more times before I was on board the aircraft. The British Airways terminal seemed strangely quiet. This was due mainly to my plugged ears. It became progressively livelier as my ears started to equalize. I had a couple small pizzas and a piece of chocolate cake for dinner. This was surprisingly tough to do when carrying a heavy duffel bag, a camera bag and trying to juggle a food tray. 'Last time for good 'ole Western food!' I said to myself as I enjoyed the pizza. While waiting for my flight, I met some people who were also on their way to East Africa. They were traveling with Collette Tours on an itinerary I had briefly considered. Comparing notes with them helped make the hours slip by. Finally, the moment came to board the aircraft. This plane was a Boeing 767, a state-of-the-art, mid wide-body aircraft. It was generally roomy and comfortable. The legendary British Airways service lived up to it's reputation. We were spoiled, maybe too much so! As soon as we were airborne, my ears opened back up, and things were much more pleasant. I had planned to sleep on this overnight flight, but did not get much sleep. The constant service, along with the TV monitors overhead tended to constantly disturb me. I was actually most comfortable when we ran into turbulence , which happened occasionally throughout the flight. (We were fighting the jet stream a good bit of the way.) The flight proceeded Northward out of New York City and continued North to Gander, Newfoundland. From there, it crossed the Atlantic Ocean, making landfall over Ireland. About 8 hours later, we touched down at Gatwick airport in England. This airport is just outside of London. Saturday, February 6, 1999 Gatwick Airport, London, England Just before landing, we were required to fill out a card with customs-related information on it. As soon as we were off the plane, this card had to be presented to an agent at 'Passport Control'. The agent looked at the card, and stamped a 6 month visa in my passport! Quite relieved, I looked for the way out of the terminal. On the way out, I had about $30 turned into British Pounds. This was fairly easy, but there was also a stiff commission. I was handed an assortment of notes and coins. I then discovered I had to pass through Customs no matter what I did. (I had a room in a hotel just outside the airport.) There were two hallways: One for those who had things to declare, and one for those who didn't. Signs all over said that your personal exemption was only 135 British Pounds. This concerned me a bit, as my camera was worth considerably more than that. So, I decided I had to at least ask about declaring. So, I bravely entered the 'Items to declare' hallway and explained my situation to the agent there. He replied 'You're a tourist. You have nothing to declare', and waved me over to the other hallway (The hallways became common at this point.). Nobody even looked at me after that. It was then I noticed 9 out of every 10 people passing through went through the 'nothing to declare' hallway and were not challenged. I was finally in the main terminal! I looked around for a few minutes. Things weren't so different here as I had envisioned. Of course, the language was the same, which helped a lot. Most of the types and brands of things I was used to in the United States were here, too. Even the fast food places were the same! I started looking for the Hilton Hotel, where I had a dayroom booked. It turned out to be in the Gatwick South Terminal. This was easily reached by a train, which ran every few minutes. When I arrived at the hotel (Which required a modest bit of outdoor walking in near-freezing weather.), I discovered that dayrooms weren't available for a couple of hours. (It was only 7 AM London time.) I ended up waiting, half asleep, in the hotel lobby until a room was ready. I used this time to look around. You would never know you were in England by the building's architecture. However, there was a wet bar in the lobby serving drinks even at that early hour. Many more people here smoked than in the 'states, and every table had an ashtray. People from all over the world were passing through here, and had on various forms of dress. After becoming bored from looking around, I started to fill in all the blanks in 'Travel Journal Africa'. The hotel people were able to have a room ready early. I went up to it and crashed. Boy, did that bed feel good! I slept for about four hours. When I got up, I spent a few minutes looking around. I noticed the dual-voltage shaver outlet, with it's special receptacle. All the other outlets were of a different, square-pinned variety. Every outlet also had a on-off switch mounted on it. They were 220 volts, of course. I turned on TV for a few minutes, for no other purpose than to look at PAL flicker. (The television vertical scan rate is lower than the US standard in much of the world. When one from the US watches a set running one of these slower standards, they will see a noticeable flicker in the picture. PAL is one of these slower standards. The French SECAM is another. The US system, also used in Canada and Japan, is called NTSC.) There was little on that was interesting, anyway. For some reason, I couldn't tune in the one channel I really wanted to see. I shut the TV off. After a shower, I took a walk back into the South terminal, where there is a shopping mall. One item in particular I was looking for was a washcloth and towel. I noticed that these were recommended for packing in 'Travel Journal Africa'. I never did find one. I thought about asking if I could buy a hotel towel at the lobby, but God told me not to worry. Of course, God proved to be right! It was in the mall that I learned King Hussein of Jordan had died. This was a very sad thing for me, as King Hussein was probably the world's most famous amateur radio operator. A QSL card (Something hams mail each other to confirm a radio contact.), with his distinctive call, JY1, was a proud item to display on the wall of anybody's hamshack. You were very lucky if you ever got to work him, and only two other hams I know have enjoyed that privilege. It was like losing a friend. The other interesting thing I saw in the mall were two British soldiers, with automatic weapons, patrolling the hallways. I guess we are very lucky in the US not to have to worry that much about security! I ate lunch at a McDonalds. After finishing my exploration of the mall, I decided to go to the North Terminal and more fully explore it. In the train vestibule of the North terminal, I found a vending machine selling a candy bar called a 'Lion Bar'. I bought one and ate it. It was quite good. It is chocolate covered rice, like a Nestle's Crunch, but narrower and much thicker. (They were made by Nestle, as well.) After that, I used every opportunity to pass through there and buy another lion bar! I saved the wrappers because of the nice lion's face on them. In going through a bookstore in the North Terminal, I found the British edition of C.S. Lewis's 'Chronicles of Narnia'. I also found a children's book called 'the Butterfly lion' by Michael Morpurgo. This was a book listed on the 'Lion Books' list on my internet website, but I had never seen it in the US. I didn't buy either, because of the weight and size restrictions I would have to deal with much later in the trip. I knew I would have time to pick them up on the way back. I did buy a puzzle book to occupy the times when nothing was happening. I went back to the Hotel, and worked on 'Travel Journal Africa' some more. It was then that I discovered I had a couple extra hours in the room. I took full advantage of them and had a good nap! It was now about 6 PM. After checking out of the hotel, I made my way back to the mall. After considering the various restaurants there, I settled on McDonalds again for dinner. There was a Kentucky Fried Chicken there as well, but prices were much too high for my liking at the moment. I then made my way to the North terminal, and thence to the upper departure level. After checking in, I made my way to the international departures area. I was a bit nervous going through security, as London was the one spot on my trip where they were guaranteed to x-ray my film bag. Otherwise, it was the usual checking of tickets, passports, etc. The international departures terminal was a most pleasant place, with an array of duty-free shops almost as extensive as the mall. I had several hours to explore the shops. Unfortunately, none of the bookstores there had either 'The Chronicles of Narnia' or 'The Butterfly Lion'. If they had, I could have avoided a passage through customs and another film x-ray on the way back. While in the international departures terminal, I had the most fortunate luck to meet up with the same folks I had met the previous evening. We discussed all sorts of different subjects, and took turns watching each others' luggage. This way, everyone had a chance to explore the shops without the burden of their luggage. I kept an eye out for other travelers with 'Africa Adventure Center' duffle bags like mine, but did not see any. I did however, see one of the people I would later explore Tanzania with, but of course did not recognize him at that time. One of the women on this trip had purchased the same type of camera I had. I ended up showing her how to make best use of it, and taught her 'SLR photography 101' at the same time. London Gatwick (And Jomo Kenyatta, for that matter) use a little different system of boarding aircraft than i was used to. Flights are not called, but you are expected to head for your gate sometime in the hour preceding your flight. There, after a final check of your travel documents, you are corralled into a holding area where you wait until they actually start boarding the aircraft. Well, this holding area was packed! For most of us, it was standing room only. While there, I said final good-byes to the new friends I had met earlier. I also had a chance to talk (Through a person who could translate German) to a member of a team that was planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. They were dressed almost ready to climb, (Highly recommended in all the travel guides, as mountaineering equipment is hard to come by in East Africa.) which made them stick out of the crowd. Finally, boarding began. The aircraft was a Boeing 747-400, the largest version of the largest aircraft in commercial service! The seats were 10 across, arranged 3-4-3 with two aisles. I had my usual window seat, just behind the wing. Even though I was one of the first people to board, the two aisle seats in my section were already filled. After I was in my seat, I watched more people board...and more...and more! By the time everybody was on board, there was not a single empty seat on the plane! Apparently, Nairobi is a popular destination, or there aren't many flights going there. It didn't take long for me to realize that, despite being on the world's largest commercial aircraft, it also had the least legroom. I have been on many commuter flights that were more comfortable. I would be cramped in that seat for the next 9 hours! The two people sitting inside from me didn't speak English, so it was tough to let them know you needed to get out of your seat. Fortunately, I only needed to get out once. Other than being very cramped, this flight was very much like the transatlantic flight. The biggest difference was that there was more to see out the window. I recognized the coast of France when we left the European Continent. Over Africa (Which is a HUGE Continent), I could see cities and industrial facilities from time to time. These were most remarkable when were over the Sahara desert. Since it was nighttime, it was impossible to tell exactly what these facilities were. The woman who I had helped earlier learn how to use her camera was practicing with it a few seats away from me. She was setting off the flash in the dark cabin, and annoying a lot of people. I ended up helping her again with her camera! Sunday, February 7, 1999 In the air over Africa After what seemed like an eternity, the sun peeked over the horizon. There was a thin veil of clouds that prevented a really good view of the land. Finally, we started an agonizingly slow descent while we were still over the Democratic Republic of Congo, or possibly Uganda. The slow descent was actually a good thing, as I was able to keep my ears open. (The fact that Jomo Kenyatta Airport was more than a mile in altitude helped, too!) Over Lake Victoria, we finally ducked below the cloud deck, and I had my first good look at Africa! When we came back over land, we were crossing the land just north of Masai Mara. After that, we crossed the rift valley floor. Human habitation was present, but sparse. Wherever there was any kind of habitation, it was surrounded by a predator fence, or Boma. These fences stood out very clearly from the air. A few minutes later, we touched down at Jomo Kenyatta. It took a long time to get off the plane, as there were so many people on it. As I was passing through the front main cabin, I was called by another passenger. He had recognized the Africa Adventure Company logo on my duffle bag, and figured I was one of the other people on our safari. (All five of us were somewhere on this flight.) His wife had Lou Gehrig's Disease, and they would need a lot of time to get off the plane. He asked me to make sure they didn't get forgotten. I looked them over good to make sure I could identify them, and deplaned. Although the terminal area was thoroughly modern, the international arrivals hall was considerably more rustic. The ceiling was a dark, paneled wood, with narrow slots for fluorescent lights. The passport control stations were painted wood, and showed signs of heavy use. My papers were in order, and I had no trouble getting my entry stamp. I then proceeded straightaway to customs. This was set up just like the British customs, although there were more people around. I just passed through the 'Nothing to Declare' portal and a few seconds later, I was free! When I walked out into the passenger pickup area, there was a mob of people on the public side of the rail looking for arriving passengers. I was expecting a sign that said 'Africa Adventure Company'. Instead, I found a sign that said 'Stoffel'. Even better! The gentleman holding the sign (Whose name I have regrettably forgotten.) was very nice, and glad to see me. I was the first person off. He wasn't sure how many people there were in total. I told him five, in the form of two couples and myself. (In retrospect, I think the fact that husband of the other couple, Larry Lesko had a different last name than his wife, Teri Cleeland, caused the confusion. Both last names were on his sign, which would have led him to believe there were more people.) Larry and Teri were the next people off, and they were easily snagged. They were archaeologists from Arizona, and worked for the National Parks service there. The other couple, as they told me to expect, took a long time to clear customs. When they finally did, they never could find the driver holding up the sign with their name. I finally recognized them, and gathered them in. We were now all together for the first time. The other couples' names are Joe and Joyce Eddington. Joe is a retired engineer (If I recall correctly) and loves flying. Our gear was loaded into a safari van (With an opening top lid.), and we were then driven to the Norfolk Hotel. The company contracted to move around in Kenya was 'East African Ornithological Safaris'. Their service was excellent, and the driver took care of porters' tips, etc. so we didn't have to worry about them. We drove through part of downtown on our way to the hotel. Nairobi is a deceptively big city, with a population of about 2 million. It is one of the most modern cities in Africa, so it was replete with high rises, heavy traffic, and people of all sorts! One of the interesting things I noticed was the penchant for reinforced concrete construction. Even very large buildings were constructed of this material. Only the big skyscrapers probably had steel frames. People's homes were most often concrete block, with poured concrete posts and bond beams. Many homes and businesses had dreams of growing, as re-rod was often sticking out of the top of the posts above the roof line. All in all, this construction was typically far stronger than what is required for the structure size! Maybe this has something to do with poorer grades of concrete blocks. It is more likely that the extensive use of concrete might have something to do with the presence of termites everywhere in East Africa. Another interesting thing was the labor practices used to build buildings. Even large buildings under construction were being built by labor intensive means. Concrete forms were often built of random pieces of scrap wood, and the resulting concrete had somewhat of an uneven appearance. Scaffolding was more often than not long sticks tied together. These, of course, were not very straight. Very rickety looking, but probably safer than they appeared. Another thing I noticed was common use of HF communications. In fact, one of the skyscrapers had a very large HF log periodic antenna on top of it. These antennas are quite rare in the US. (A log periodic antenna looks like a rooftop VHF TV antenna, except these were far larger-- 30 feet or more long!) Crime is a real problem in Nairobi, and thieves steal things that wouldn't be stolen in most other places. As a result, many of the traffic lights had cages over them to prevent light bulb theft! Safari type vehicles were everywhere. Ecotourism is BIG business in East Africa. They were also practical vehicles in the sense that you could not navigate many of the outlying roads in anything less than a land rover. At long last, we made it to the Norfolk Hotel. This is a first class hotel, and it's service is excellent even by Western standards. It is also very famous as well. Ernest Hemmingway apparently stayed there. There was a clock in the lobby donated to the hotel sometime in the '30's. In any case, they are not hurting for business, as they were doing a multimillion dollar expansion and renovation. This renovation caused us to have to use a temporary lobby. Nice, and quite adequate, but small for all the people who were around. I was pleasantly surprised to meet the Collette Tours group again. It seemed up to this point we had been following each other! I ended up giving one more quick lesson to the woman who had the same camera I did. I hope she got good pictures on her safari! Eventually, the tour leader for their group showed up, and began giving them their pre-safari briefing. It was now time to go explore my room. The room was very comfortable, and a welcome relief after the cramped aircraft. (1:36)(These numbers that will appear in the text of the story from time to time are frame numbers of photographs taken. The format is, roll:frame. Sometimes, notes not completely relevant to the story will follow.) I took a shower and reconfigured my pack for safari rather than air travel. I also loaded up my camera with film for the first time since the trip began. After all was ready, I sacked out for about 40 minutes. Boy, did that feel good! Of course, I turned on TV for a few minutes. There was a small selection of programming available, most of it from satellite. The 50 Hz vertical flicker was present, as well, but there was no immediate way of telling whether the TV system was PAL or SECAM. (I know now it is PAL.) The power outlets were of the same type as those I saw in England. Line voltage is 220V. The usual special shaver outlet was present, as well. Our guide met us in the hotel lobby about 2 PM for the drive to Arusha, Tanzania. We loaded our bags, and we were soon on our way. It was just outside of Nairobi, near the airport fence that we saw our first game: a lone giraffe. It was really out of place there, as there were no trees for thousands of yards around. Nobody could suggest an adequate explanation why the giraffe was there. The outskirts of Nairobi were like most any big city, alternating between huge industrial buildings and farmland. Many herds of sheep and goats were seen along the road. These were either under the watchful eye of a herdsman, or were in a fenced-in pasture. The presence of all these animals reinforced the fact that Kenya was a great place to be if you were a meat lover. Soon, the trappings of civilization faded away, and we were in the bush. This particular road we were on is one of the most important road in East Africa, and is referred to as the Trans-East-African Highway. It is Highway A104 in both Kenya and Tanzania. Up to this point the pavement was blacktop (Or Macadam, as they called it there.) and was in generally good condition. Now, we started to encounter stretches of road where the pavement ws simply gone. Whenever we encountered one of these, we had to slow way down and drive around it as best as possible. This slowed us down a lot. We passed through a stretch of Acacia scrub that matched the description Colonel Patterson gave in his book, 'The Man-Eaters of Tsavo'. Although we weren't going anywhere near the Tsavo river, we did cross the Athi river. This river joins the Tsavo river about a mile from the infamous bridge. Indeed, this area of scrub gets it's name from the Athi river; It is called the Athi Plains. We finally started to see game along the road from time to time. Mostly Thomson's gazelles. We did see a small herd of zebra as well.(I kept my eyes open for a certain tawny brown predator, but did not see any.) Soon, however, this wildlife started to be replaced by cattle; we were into Masai country. Many books have been written on the subject of the Masai people. They have, for the most part, shunned modern civilization, and prefer to pasture their cattle according to the old tradition. This is not to say there are no Masai with educations or that have adopted Western lifestyles. There are plenty of these, but they haven't forgotten their roots. The Masai people were easy to spot. They wore conspicuous red blankets with various plaid-type patterns on them. They were usually carrying sticks, and were watching over cattle of some sort. These were mainly bovine-type creatures, but there were often goats and maybe an occasional donkey mixed in. The Masai believe that all the cattle on the earth are theirs. Their entire economy and culture is based on cattle; the more cattle you own, the richer you are, regardless of the rest of your lot! It is also considered an acceptable practice to raid other tribes to increase your cattle holdings! It was men and children that were watching the herds. The women were seen most often close to the Masai villages we encountered. They were often bearing burdens of firewood, baskets, etc. on their head. They also wore red, but had a lot more jewelry on. We will learn more about the significance of this jewelry when we get to the Masai village visit later in the trip. Although we say plenty of the traditional villages with their round, wattle-and-daub homes, the most interesting Masai villages were the ones built right along the road. These were made up of concrete block or sheet metal structures, and most of these were stores of some sort. The Masai not only raise cattle, they live by them. Their diet is mainly milk and blood and meat. This reliance on cattle was evident in the villages along the highway. You would see racks of cowhide for sale. Also, every third shop seemed to be a butcher shop of some sort. There were also an awful lot of what we would call taverns. Drinking must be just be just as prevalent among the Masai as it is among Westerners! There were also a few curio shops and an occasional inn. Now, the country began to grow more rugged, and the human settlements grew fewer and further between. We passed big hills like Mt. Ilemlego and the Maparasha Hills. It didn't occur to me as we were driving through this area that we were entering the Amboseli Game Reserve. With Mt. Orok towering over it, we soon reached Namanga. Just before we reached the border, we stopped at a large curio shop to rest and pick up the exit cards that we would need at the border. This shop had thousands of wood carvings, swords, shields, stone carvings, books, maps, etc. I took a good look around, but didn't buy anything except some bottled water. Our guide told us we would in all likelihood visit this shop on the return trip. With the bottleneck of the small-plane flight past at that point, that would be the time to buy curios. The border consisted of three stops. The first one was the Kenya customs office. Checking out of the country was quick and easy. While there, Teri dickered and dickered with a Masai woman and finally bought a beautiful copper-and-brass bracelet for a US dollar. When I had a chance to examine it, I realized she had herself quite a bargain! The next stop was to change vehicles. Commercial safari vehicles from Kenya are not allowed into Tanzania. We said goodbye to East African Ornithological Safaris and said hello to Ranger Safaris of Arusha, Tanzania. While there, another street vendor tried to sell Teri a beautiful round stone with the earth's map carved in it. The person was asking 120 for it, which none of us wanted to spend. We later realized that they were asking 120 Kenya Shillings, which is about $2 US! The third stop was Tanzania immigration. This, too was easy. We were through the border! At several places in Namanga, and all throughout East Africa, we encountered police at various types of roadblocks. These were most often in towns. These were sometimes real gates across the road. Other times they were just sawhorses. There was also an ominous (to vehicles!)type of roadblock that consisted of strips of heavy rubber with spikes. These were so positioned so you had to do a zig-zag to get around them. Most often, there were police at these particular roadblocks, but we ran into some that were unmanned. You really have to watch the road in East Africa! Most of these roadblocks were to check for illegally smuggled commercial goods, especially food. Tanzania in particular was strict on imports of food. A couple of roadblocks we encountered were just for training drills. The police at these roadblocks, mainly seen around Arusha, were dressed in neat, dazzling white uniforms. There is no speed limit posted on most roads. You would find some speed limits in the towns. Instead of relying on police to control speeds, the areas where speed limits were posted often had speed bumps in the road. This was much more effective than police! Too bad we don't do more of this in the US! A couple of spots where the local people were very serious about speed limits featured the unmanned spike-strips mentioned previously! I often got the impression the speed limits in areas that had them may have been set up by neighborhoods and not by the local government. The road in Tanzania was rough at first, but steadily improved as we got closer to Arusha. The scenery also started to change, as we encountered truly large mountains. The first of these was Mt. Longido. When we were past Mt. Longido, we started to be able to see Mt. Meru. This is the biggest mountain I have ever seen from the ground, with an elevation of 14,980 feet. It's top is young and jagged. From some angles, it comes to a distinct point. From other directions, it has a small ridge as it's peak. In any case, I fell in love with Mt. Meru and photographed it extensively. (1:35) Mt. Kilimanjaro was visible too, but it's top was hidden in the clouds. (1:34) It somehow didn't look as impressive as stories make it out to be when nearby Mt. Meru is also in view. We soon hit the outskirts of Arusha town. Unlike our short foray into downtown Nairobi, we stayed on the outskirts of Arusha. Things here were much more crude than in Nairobi. There was electric power in Arusha, but it was uncommon in most other areas. The power system seemed crude and somewhat massive by US standards. I later found out that many people do their own electric hookups and some are killed in the process! Most of the concrete block homes didn't appear to have windows, but I learned later that they wern't really necessary. Also, if homes had windows, they frequently swung completely out of the way when not in use. What looked like glass supports in the window openings were usually iron bars. On some homes, these bars formed decorative patterns. A sunrise pattern was popular, and some of the windows at Mountain Village had this pattern. There were all sorts of businesses. Stores, (Even 'supermarkets', which usually had a stock mix similar to a convienence store here.) bars, beauty parlors, butcher shops (Many of these had a big piece of meat hanging in the window, like a cow's hindquarter.), gas stations, etc.(A couple of these were ultramodern, complete with pay-at-the pump!) And there were people everywhere! They socialized along the roadsides. And although this all looked poor by Western standards, I suspect that most of the people were basically happy. There were also a lot of banana plantations along the road in Arusha. Eventually, we turned off the road, and traveled South a couple of miles to Mountain Village. Mountain Village is a hotel situated on Lake Duluti, and is just South of Arusha. The hotel is part of a Coffee plantation, and you could see coffee growing along the road into the hotel. The hotel consisted of a main building and 36 rondavel huts. The main building included the business office, dining room, gift shop, and an observation platform. We went in here to check in. While there, we met a representative from Africa Adventure Company. Although we were supposed to have our safari briefing that evening, we decided to delay it until tomorrow morning. Everyone was tired! I went to my room. It was a rondavel (Circular dwelling), made of concrete block. The roof consisted of bundles of local plant fibers. The outside of the rooms was overgrown with vines, making it look most natural. The land was also on the steps of a steep hill, so there were rock outcroppings and a little waterfall just outside my door. There were flowers planted everywhere. The groundskeepers obviously went to a lot of time and trouble to keep everything so nice looking! The room was spacious and comfortable.(1:33) The most noticeable feature was a small patio outside each room. Although I didn't figure out how to open the door, I did on the way back through near the end of the trip. There was the usual furniture one would expect to find in a hotel room. One interesting piece was the small table. It is actually a drum with a fur-on cowhide top. The rooms had a refrigerator, but they were not normally plugged in unless the occupant wanted it. The bed was of an unusual shape, with foam mattresses. (1:32) The end of the bed was rounded. The rounded shape facilitated enclosing the bed in mosquito netting at night. This netting hung from pipes suspended over the bed, and attached to the walls with velcro. The bathrooms had a normal sink and toilet. The 110V/220V special shaver outlet was also present. The unusual part was the tub/shower. The tub was enormous, and set in the floor. There were steps down into it. The shower head was over the tub, and there was no curtain of any sort. The tub was big enough to catch the spray. Hot water came from an electric heater in each room. A switch turned the heater on and off, and you were asked to turn it off when not needed. Now, a few words about electricity. Electric power in most of Tanzania is very unreliable, and expensive. Many facilities (Such as Kirurumu and Serengeti Sopa Lodge) generated their own power. Guests were requested to use it conservatively. The line voltage was 220V, same as Kenya and Britian. The outlets were also the same as Kenya and England. However, there was one large, 3 round pin outlet on the wall near the bed. The pins-holes suggested an outlet good for 30 amps or more. I later learned this was a telephone jack! (All the rooms had telephones, and this was the only place we stayed in Tanzania that had them.) Because of the power problems, each room was equipped with candles and a kerosene lantern. The view out the window was wonderful. (1:31,27) You could look down on Lake Duluti. There were coffee bushes growing on the lowlands by the lake. Colorful flowers were planted along the sharp dropoff to the lowlands. After unpacking, and a nap, I worked some more on my travel journal. Although I was trying to write it out in longhand, it soon became apparent that just making notes was a lot easier. I would write out the long form (This document) when I got home. Despite not wanting to be tied to technology, a notebook computer with good batteries would have been quite useful. I went up to the main building and explored the grounds a little bit. I then made a visit to the gift shop. I bought a topographic map of the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The other side of the map contained a map of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park and important info for climbers. While in the gift shop, I noticed a strange hum coming from one of the lighted showcases. After contemplating the source of this hum for a moment, I realized I was listening to fluorescent lamp ballast hum when the ballast was being supplied with 50 Hz power. A very different sound which I soon came to easily recognize. Dinnertime finally came. Dinner was served buffet-style and was excellent. There was a wide selection of various main dishes. My favorite was the lamb rib chops, which were sectioned along the full back of the animal. The complex shape of the bones made these great for gnawing on. These wern't really popular that night, so the server at the buffet made sure I got a n unusually generous portion. If all meals were like this, I wouldn't have to worry about going hungry here! Our group table was marked with a wood block that had 'AAC' carved in it. Apparently, Africa Adventure Company was such a good customer that they had their own reserved table. There were several other reserved tables, the names of some I recognized as other tour companies. Although food was part of the trip cost, drinks were not. Bottled pop (Pepsi here) cost $1 US. Bottled water was $2 US. Eventually, we bought our own supply of water and kept it in the safari vehicle. The soft drinks were sweetened here with sucrose, instead of fructose like in the US. The flavor was much better as a result. It was a treat having sucrose sweetened pop after years of the less-sweet fructose. The owner of Mountain Village, an American woman, paid us a visit. She told us of some of her adventures running a hotel in Africa. In any case, it was clear she thoroughly enjoyed her work! The Eddingtons hadn't remembered that drinks weren't included with the meals. I had a big plate of lamb to eat, and was the last person to leave. As I was finishing, I was presented with their bill as well as mine. Surprise! They paid me back the next day. When I got to my room, the last activity was a look at the sky. It took only about 30 seconds to find the Greater Magellanic Cloud! (The Magellanic Clouds are our closest galatic neighbors. They are satellite galaxies orbiting our galaxy. They are not visible in the US.) With some effort, I could have probably found the Lesser Magellanic Cloud as well. At this location, they looked like fuzzy blobs in the binoculars. It took darker skies to pick out details in this galaxy. I've always wanted to see the Magellanic Clouds; now I have! I also saw the star Canopus, and followed the constellation Eridanus all the way to the end. (Only a small part of Eridanus, the longest constellation in the sky, is visible in the US.) The only other thing that I wanted to see that night was the constellations Leo and Leo Minor. Unfortunately, the vertical nature of the terrain blocked my view of these. I tried to work on my journal for a few minutes, but quickly became drowsy. So, it was lights out, and my first night in Africa. Needless to say, I slept very well. Monday, February 8, 1999 Arusha, Tanzania Morning dawned on my first full day in Africa. Our meeting with the AAC representative was scheduled for a little later in the morning, so we had some time to sleep in and enjoy breakfast at leisure. Breakfast was a buffet, like dinner the night before. There was lots and lots of fresh fruit. There was also some dry bread type products. There was also cold cereal, like corn flakes. This was eaten, sweetened with a coarse, brown colored sugar. Although not brown sugar in the sense we appreciate, it was not the highly refined sugar we enjoy in the West. Eggs and meat were by order. I ordered only sausage. I got two small, irregular sausages, red in color. They were spiced in a manner unusual to me. I ended up eating a lot of these over the course of time, and grew to like them very much. After breakfast, I went up to the observation deck, which was on the roof of the main building. There, I had a stunning view of Mt. Meru. However, at that moment I wrongly thought it Mt. Kilimanjaro. I got my camera and took pictures of this stunningly beautiful mountaintop. (1:30,29,28) It was a few minutes later that I realized this was only Mt. Meru! I was later told that 'Kili' ws visible from this spot as well, but only on exceptionally clear days. Indeed, no trace of Mt. Kilimanjaro can be seen on the Mt. Meru photos. After this, I went to my room, and showered, etc. The open shower was easier to use than it looked, and there was plenty of hot water despite the small size of the water heater. I was also starting to get used to brushing my teeth with bottled water. We then assembled for the meeting with our representative from Africa Adventure Company. She took the time to explain our itinerary (Which had changed slightly, and unfortunately included less time at Ngorongoro.), and answer all our questions. At the end, she introduced us to Peter Njau, who would be our guide throughout the rest of the safari. He would be addressed henceforth only by his last name, Njau. He was a very pleasant, knowledgeable individual, and easy to like even at first. Njau took us to our permanent safari vehicle, a British Land Rover. It was smaller and more rugged than the minivans we had been using up to this point. Unlike the minivans, the top opened completely through two hatches. There was no roof over your head. Originally, the safari was to have two land rovers, with four persons in each. But, 5 persons was the critical breakpoint for still using one vehicle. Thus, the land rover was a bit more crowded than originally anticipated. I agreed to take the passenger's seat, which is where the driver's seat would be in the USA. Larry and Teri took the back bench seat. Joe and Joyce sat in the bucket seats immediately behind the driver/passenger. Since a land rover has four doors, this seating arrangement was very helpful for Joyce, who had a fair amount of difficulty getting in and out of the vehicle. She usually sat immediately behind me. Since the view wasn't as good from the passenger's seat, the deal I worked out was to sit there at all times except when we were in prime lion country, where I would swap with someone else for a better view. As it turns out, this was never necessary. The view from the passenger's seat was very good. There were only a couple of spots in the whole safari where everyone else could see something and I couldn't. I didn't initially spot as much game, but I could usually see it once spotted. I also offered the front seat to the others from time to time. Nobody wanted it, even though the ride was a bit better in that seat. That made life easy for me. I'd choose the front seat again, if I had to do it all over! The land rover was also equipped with an HF radio, a Yaesu FT-80R. It was a basic HF transceiver, intended to be used mainly as a channelized two-way radio. As configured, it could also function just fine as a basic Amateur HF transceiver. It undoubtedly had a VFO mode, and could operate all the commonly used modes except FM. It also had provisions for a CW filter. The antenna was a broadband, base-loaded whip. This antenna and others I had a chance to examine were rated for a range of frequencies, typically about a megahertz in the 39 meter range. We were finally off on our way to our first game drive, in Arusha National Park. On our way there, we passed over a river with a curious name, the USA river! Where the road crossed this river, there was a village of the same name. Arusha National Park was a much more rugged place than the travel guides with their flat maps suggested. It contains a good deal of Mt. Meru, including the current volcanic part and the summit, and a volcanic caldera, Ngurdoto crater. This park was much more up-and-down than it was flat. On our way into the park, we saw some giraffe close to the road. They moved away as soon as we were close. "They will maintain their flight distance", Njau told us, "All animals have a flight distance. Some animals like warthogs will run completely away. Other animals, especially lions, will sometimes sleep under the vehicles, or use them as cover for hunting. Most animals will just back off a bit, but not run away. They have come to realize that the safari vehicles are not serious threats." We ended up seeing a lot of giraffe in this park. I got some nice pictures of Mt. Meru and Kilimanjaro as we made our way into the park. (1:26-23) One can easily pick out the ash cone, and some of the foothills in the photographs. I also have animals in the foreground of the two mountains in two of these shots-- 'must get' photos for travelers to this region of Africa! Shortly thereafter, somebody saw some sort of primate off to our left. It turned out to be a couple of baboons. As we watched, more and more baboons appeared out of the bushes until there were well over a hundred of them. They were playing, foraging, grooming, asserting dominance, etc. (1:22) We spent a good deal of time observing their fascinating behavior. We saw many baboons in this park. As we entered the forest that makes up most of the park, it was time to look for black and white colobus monkeys. It was considered a treat if you saw one-- they are very shy. At one point along the road, someone heard something move in the trees. (This was one of those few spots where I couldn't see any of what was going on.) The others looked for a long time to see what had moved. Whatever it was, it never revealed itself. This is as close as we got to seeing a colobus monkey. We continued to the park headquarters, which was almost in the middle of the park. There Njau had to file some paperwork. While we were there, I read a poster asking visitors to report sightings of a long list of animals to the park rangers. One of these was lions. Njau later explained that there are a few lions in the park, even though it's considered to be a park where there are no lions. The park officials just want to get an idea of how common the 'not present' species are in the park! We now continued through the forest, heading East towards th Ngurdoto Crater end of the park. We continued our vain search for colobus monkeys. (This is the only park where we were likely to see them.) Of course, we kept our eyes open for other wildlife as well. Eventually, we reached a sign along the road that said 'Rhino Crest', and pointed towards a small trail that went up the hill. Njau got out and checked out the area to make sure there were no dangerous animals about. (Cape buffalo are the most commonly encountered dangerous animals in this park.) There were none. So, Joe, Larry, Teri, Njau and I took a short hike to the rim of Ngurdoto Crater. From behind the safety of a simple wood fence, we beheld a huge depression below us, with many animals scattered on it's floor. (1:20,19) Ngurdoto Crater has no roads going down into it, so it is basically unspoiled. There were forests, grassland areas, and a swamp on the crater floor. Different kinds of wildlife could be seen in the different areas. The most conspicuous animals were cape buffalo. (1:21) There were well over a hundred of them, peacefully grazing. Near the swamp, we saw 3 warthogs about their business. Way off (About 2 miles away) on the opposite end of the crater, we could just make out more baboons playing around a tree. There was also a bright white object across the crater from us. We really never did quite figure out what it was. After enjoying the view for about 20 minutes, we went back to our vehicle and moved on. We next explored the Northeast (I think) corner of the park, home to several lakes. As we rounded a corner, we ran into a herd of waterbuck almost right on the road. We slowed and stopped, and avoided spooking them. We watched them for a while, and got some nice pictures. One of the does had a fawn that was suckling. I got some nice photographs of this. (1:18-15) Shortly thereafter, we spotted a somewhat less common antelope through the trees, on the shore of one of the lakes. I believe it was a pair of dukier we saw. Our time was limited in Arusha National Park, as we needed to be back to Mountain Village for lunch. On our way out of the park, I got a nice picture of a giraffe browsing (1:14) and more shots of majestic Mt. Meru. (1:13,12) All in all, I felt that Arusha National Park was underrated, and worthy of a more thorough exploration. I'll keep this in mind the next time I visit Tanzania! We drove back to Mountain Village for lunch. This was ordered from a menu, if I remember, but parts of it were also a buffet. We then said 'goodbye' to Mountain Village for almost two weeks and headed for Tarangire National Park. One item I spotted was a tall, thin tower on top of a hill on the outskirts of Arusha. I only got a glimpse of it. It appeared to be an FM tower. It was the tallest tower I saw while in East Africa. A bit later on, we came upon a sign promoting an FM station and a TV station. TV is still very new in Arusha, and the sign said TV channel 6, 183.25 Mhz. I've never seen a TV that tunes by frequency! Njau explained that most of the radio stations were on what we would call the AM band. He had a couple of these programmed into his HF transceiver. FM broadcast was still new, and TV was even newer. The government was encouraging the development of broadcasting in Tanzania. On the way to the park, we passed through downtown Arusha. This part of town was much different than the outskirts had been. Things were neater and more organized. Still, people liked to be out on the streets, interacting with other people. Even though the architecture, etc. was generally neater, the city was laid out in what appeared to be a haphazard manner. Streets intersected with each other in odd ways. One notable thing we saw was a triangular tower, made of some solid material, perhaps concrete. It was hollow between the three legs, and these converged to a pointed spire. Overall, it was somewhat reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower. (Although that tower is square, made of steel latticework and is 20 times higher!) This was a memorial to some movement that had taken place in the past. I did not get a picture of it. We stopped at the headquarters of Ranger Safaris. Like most places that have valuable items, their buildings were in a solidly fenced-in compound. Inside the compound, there was a whole fleet of various types of safari vehicles. It was clear that Ranger Safaris was a big outfit and had plenty of business. We fueled up there, and had a minor repair performed to the land rover. We were soon back on our way. On the edge of Arusha, not too far from the airport, we stopped at a big curio shop. This was one of the biggest curio shops in the area. It was also generally reputable. It was actually a collection of several different vendors working out of the same building. They had thousands of wood carvings, of all conceivable sizes. They had metalwork, stonework, trinkets, musical instruments, etc. I bought a small lion carving made of a pretty green stone called malachite. They had a couple of lion books that were missing from my collection, but they were titles I could easily find stateside, so I didn't buy any. One thing I saw there was a gemstone that this part of Tanzania was famous for, called tanzanite. It is a very pretty purple color. The larger the stone, the deeper the color. I did ask it's chemical composition. I forgot what it was, but it was nothing extraordinary. I also didn't bother to ask a price, as I was not into buying gemstones. One valuable thing I learned there is that there are only a few dealers licensed to sell tanzanite, and that there is lots of poor quality or fake tanzanite on the black market. Soon, we were back on the road. The stretch of road from Arusha to Tarangire National Park is a very good road, perhaps the best road we drove on while in Africa. If we stayed on this road, it would eventually take us to Dodoma. It was a continuation of the Trans-East-African Highway, Hwy. A104. Njau explained that the government was very keen on improving the roads. They had hired a Japanese firm that was slowly rebuilding the roads all over the country. They were doing a complete, from the ground-up rebuild that was intended to last much longer than the roads had been lasting. This was one of the first roads so repaired. There was a large electric transmission line following the road for most of the distance we followed it. Njau explained to us that the government is planning to electrify the whole country, to the point where everyone would have access to it. Right now, only the big cities had electricity. This was also why telecommunications is an up-and-coming industry in Tanzania. We saw many Masai with their cattle along the road. This was prime grazing land for the Masai, who moved every few months to take advantage of good pasture for their cattle. Although the land was quite flat, we still got a few nice glimpses of Lake Manyara. We turned off of A104 and took the much rougher road to the main gate of Tarangire National Park. On the way, things quickly became more wild as we got away from even Masai civilization. We were, for the first time, truly in the bush! The park gate was a simple building with a short wall attached. In this wall was the actual gate. On top of the wall were the skulls of various animals one could find in the park. The most impressive of these was the elephant skull. There were no predator skulls. I have pictures of these that I took when we left the park. Inside the gate building was a nice map of the park. It was published by Hoopoe Adventures, the same people who had published the Ngorongoro and Serengeti park maps I had. There were none for sale. Well, you can't win them all. We would be staying at Milega Special Campsite. This campsite was situated on a seasonal watercourse just inside the park on it's Northeast side. It was about one-fourth of the way down this side of the park, starting from the Northern tip. While waiting in the parking area, we watched some beautiful birds. There were love birds and superb starlings. Both of these birds have striking coloration. A picture (1:11) that I thought was a love bird turned out to be a superb starling. While this is a nice back view of the bird, it does not do justice to the beautiful blue-and-green iridescent feathers on this bird. We were admitted through the gate, and we were in our first park with substantial savannah lands. Tarangire National Park is a haven for elephants and other animals who benefit from a year-round water supply. Although most of the land dries up during the dry season here, there is always water in the Tarangire River. This attracts lots of thirsty animals. As a result, this park is best visited during the end of the dry season in October or early November. This year, the short rains in November-December had failed, so it was drier than normal. In fact, it had forced most of the herds to move to the South. As a result, there was less game than normal in our part of the park. Still, there was plenty to see! It wasn't long before we started to run across herds of impala. (1:9,7) The impala is a smaller antelope, but not so small as a gazelle. They appear the be a bit smaller than a North American whitetail deer. There were generally two types of impala herds you would encounter. One is the Harem herd, which consists of one male, and adult females with young of varying ages. The other is the Bachelor herd, and this is made up of sexually mature males, who do not have a harem. The male of a harem is frequently challenged for control of his harem. If he loses, he joins a bachelor herd until he has another chance to regain a harem. This arrangement is common to many other species of African Antelope as well. We also saw zebra (1:10). Whenever we would find any number of zebra, they were strung out in a long line. This is an anti-predator strategy. It works by not giving a lot of targets for a predator in a given area. The fewer the targets, the less the chance of one being caught. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my shoulder, like somebody had pricked me with a pin. I reached back to see what it was, and found nothing. I had just become the first person in our group to be bitten by a tsetse fly! By the time we were done with the safari, I suspect I got more tsetse fly bites than anybody else! The tsetse fly is very unique in that it raises just one young at a time. It is fed by a milk secreted from the mother's body. So, the tsetse fly is like an insect mammal. One bird you see everywhere in East Africa is guinea fowl. (1:8) These curious birds are most often seen in groups. In the morning, large numbers of them may congregate in one spot. We saw this later on in the Serengeti. I ended up taking many pictures of this interesting bird. Although Tarangire National Park is most famous for is it's elephants, and may be the best place in all of Africa to observe elephants, we hadn't yet seen a single one. It was now close to sundown, and we needed to get to camp. On the way, I managed to get some nice pictures of the African sunset (1:6-3). It is said that sunrises and sunsets in Africa are more beautiful than anywhere else in the world. Now, I know why! The numbers observable in the foreground of two of the photographs is the license number of the land rover. Many vehicle owners etch the license numbers of their vehicles on the glass to discourage theft! Njau tried to raise camp on the radio. It was then that he learned that a low spot in the road was impassable, and we would have to take a different route to camp. A truck had nearly gotten stuck in this spot. So, even though it was after sundown, and rapidly getting dark, we would be on the road for a while longer. A bonus night game drive! (Night game drives are generally not allowed anywhere in Tanzania.) While working our way to camp, we finally came upon two elephant. It was so dark by this point that it didn't pay to try to get a picture. We just sat there for a few minutes and observed. Eventually, we ran into the truck that had been talked about on the radio. We had to follow it for a while, which slowed us down even more. It was quite a large truck to be this far out in the bush. It must have been a supply truck for another camp. We finally made it to our camp. It was well after dark. The camp staff had a nice fire going for us to sit around. But, no one really did that night. There was unpacking and exploring to do! Each couple, and myself, had a tent. (2:14,17) This was a large, well made affair that was perhaps 10 by 10 or 10 by 12 feet. There was a separate rain fly over the top of the tent. The material was heavy canvas, intended for the very heavy use it received. Each of the two ends could be opened completely up, if desired. Normally, they were kept shut to keep out mosquitos and other insects. The rain fly extended over the front and back of the tent to form a front and back porch. In the front was a chair, and a portable wash basin on a triangular stand. The camp staff was keen to have this filled with warm water whenever we might have occasion to use it. The back porch covered a small, enclosed walkway. This walkway serviced two items immediately behind the tent: a short-drop toilet and a bush shower. These were enclosed in rubber coated canvas stalls on pipe frames. The toilet was a typical outhouse seat arranged to fold for storage. A small pile of dirt, and a shovel were provided to bury your waste. The shower was simply a rubberized canvas bag with a shower head on the bottom. A valve allowed you to control the water flow. It was hung by a block and tackle from the top of the pipe frame. Simple and effective. Inside the tent (3:31) was a wooden bed frame with a thin mattress. There were sheets and blankets on top of this. A rug was provided next to the bed. At the head of the bed was a table with a mirror, a drinking glass, bug spray, and some important reminders from the camp staff. There was a small folding stool intended to hold luggage. A couple of bath towels were also hanging in the tent, but no wash cloths! Again, simple, but considerably more than adequate. There were plenty of windows to open and close depending on your comfort. At night, a lantern was placed on the front porch, and in the walkway on the back. These were to be left burning all night. This was to discourage animals from becoming too inquisitive. Lions, hyenas, baboons, etc. like to explore things! Since I didn't have much to unpack, I had some free time before dinner. I walked over to the fire. On the way, I didn't notice a sharp drop-off in the ground, and nearly fell! In a way, this was fortunate, for I discovered a large bone! It looked like a humerus or a femur from a grazer, and a good-sized one at that. A little searching around turned up more bones around. The conclusion I reached was that this had recently been a predator kill site. I tried to update my journal by firelight; it simply didn't work. So, I gave up and enjoyed the African night. I spent some time studying the stars. Again, I had no trouble finding the Greater Magellanic Cloud, but I could not find Leo. Dinner was soon served in the dining tent. A salad was served first, but it already had dressing on it. I ate some of it, but did not enjoy it. After salad, the head waiter (Whose name was Thomas, and curiously enough had a degree in hospitality science. His assistant was named Juma.) would lay a plate face down in front of us. Later, when serving the main course, he would turn the plate face-up. I later asked him why he does this. His reply is that it keeps dust and insects off the plate. The details of the service amazed me! Although wine, etc. ws available, I settled for soft drinks. They were included in the cost of meals, anyway. The main course that night was breaded nile perch. Desert was some fruit, which again I passed on. Despite having been somewhat picky, it was a good meal. We decided that tomorrow, we would go for an early morning game drive, come back for breakfast, and then back out for a midmorning drive. We would go out once more in the late afternoon for a late game drive. We all hustled off to bed, because it was late! I had a very sleepless night. First of all, there was a ridge running right down the center of the bed. It was hard to find a comfortable spot, and in fact it took several nights to get used to these beds. Nearby animal sounds, although very interesting, also helped keep me awake. Especially annoying ws a bird that made a noise like a radar blip in a movie, or some kind of electronic beacon. There were two of them in the camp, calling to each other. Most of this took place about 3 or 4 in the morning. Njau was never able to identify this bird from my description. At that time, I called them 'beacon birds'. After the trip, I learned out that these birds may be blacksmith lapwings, so named because of their pinging call. (They are also known as blacksmith plovers, and the names are used interchangeably.) In the less annoying and more interesting category is an animal that made a noise like a series of grunts, followed by a sound like venting steam or air. Turned out to be an impala. This was heard the next night, as well. There was also a lot of screaming and related noises at one point. It was A troop of baboons. It must have seen a predator or something to get them that excited, Njau explained. But, the sound that gave me a thrill of joy was the lions. I heard it-- first very far off-- the unmistakable sound of a lion roar! (They don't sound at all like you see in the movies. The roar is a succession of deep high-to-low sounds that ends by getting shorter and shorter. Finally, it is little more than a few grunts. It is highly effective-- it can be heard for 5 miles or more!) It was very far off-- Njau estimates 5 miles, as he heard it too. A little later, there was another roar, this time somewhat closer. (But still a long ways off.) Unfortunately, this was the best roar I heard the whole trip. (Glad I didn't bring any audio recording gear on this trip, but this sort of thing is luck-of-the draw. I'll bring gear next time, just in case!) I heard one more very distant lion roar, and that was it for the night. One bird I heard not just that night, but off and on throughout the entire trip was the ring-necked dove. This bird has a very irritating call that sounds like 'work HARD-er' over and over again. I mentioned to Njau that this bird was convicting me, and that I needed to return home immediately and go back to work! I am even hearing this annoying bird in the background of African nature documentaries now! Tuesday, February 9, 1999 Tarangire National Park, Tanzania 6 AM came early. It was hard to get motivated after the dreadful nights' sleep. But, I was soon quite awake as the excitement of a full day of game drives began. This day, I chose to wear the sweatshirt I had brought. It might help keep the tsetse flies from biting. Although I had insect repellent, I didn't want to use it until I needed it, as it formed a wretched combination with the sunblock. The sun was still not fully up when we hit the road. So, the first notable thing I saw was the sunrise. I got two nice pictures of it. (1:2,1) Although I tried to hand-bracket exposures on these sunrise/sunset shots, in the end it didn't do much good. The camera's chosen exposure was pretty much just right. This game drive explored some of the routes in the Northern end of the park. The first animal encountered when the sun was up enough to allow photography was a dik-dik. The smallest of the antelope, it is about the size of a medium dog. Unlike the larger antelope that live in herds, the dik-dik lives in pairs that mate for life. You will almost always see two together. In this particular instance, we didn't. Dik-diks turned out to be quite troublesome for the others in our group to photograph. I don't know why, but I rarely had a problem getting a good shot. I am now rewarded with a glut of good dik-dik photos! I got three in this instance. (2:36-34) As we approached a sharp turn in the road, we ran into baboons. They were everywhere. In the trees, on the ground, everywhere! Young ones and old ones. We spent quite some time watching them. They are fascinating to observe. (2:32-29) We made the turn, and immediately ran into a vervet monkey. Although I thought I got a picture before he had turned, I didn't. I did get him running off, though. I think I was the only person who even got a picture in this instance. (2:28) Njau is an expert on birds. He took every opportunity to teach us about them. It added much enrichment to the trip. He told us that it also was very helpful when he got a group of serious birdwatchers. One of the first good bird sightings we made was this tree full of vultures. (2:27) No, there was no dead animal nearby. Most every very time we saw vultures, they were resting. A bit later, we ran into several bull elephant near and on the road. We stopped for a half hour and just observed them. A couple of them had one tusk missing. (2:26-23) The last picture shows an interesting behavior that we often observed: A male elephant would drag his penis on the ground. They apparently do this to leave some sort of scent mark. In our many crossings of the Tarangire River that day, we saw lots of interesting birds. Here is a tawny eagle by the water. (2:22) These common raptors are effective, adaptable hunters that will even hang out around livestock herds. This bull giraffe was an imposing animal that almost literally posed for us. Too bad the light wasn't better. (2:21,20) Njau stopped us by a bush called the toothbrush tree. It was used by the local tribes as a bush toothbrush. He demonstrated how to do it: Break off a twig of the plant and fray the end. The fibers form a kind of brush. Then, work it over your teeth. Not only does it function as a toothbrush, but it has a refreshing taste. We also saw zebra and waterbuck on this drive, but not in great numbers. We returned to camp for breakfast. I took this opportunity to get some group and camp pictures. The first was our group at breakfast. (2:19) From left to right: Teri Cleeland, Larry Lesko, Peter Njau our guide, Joe Eddington and Joyce Eddington. Breakfast invariably consisted of a fruit course, followed by a porridge course, followed by a meat and eggs course. I always just had bacon and sausage, just as I do at home. After a while, I came to really like the African seasonings in both the bacon and the sausage. In the middle of our camp was a monstrous fig tree. (2:18) It was fascinating to examine. It had been through a lot but it continues to thrive. Many of the bones I found in the camp were at the base of this tree. The three guest tents were lined up in a row. (2:17) My tent (2:14) was always the farthest from camp center; I liked it that way. Across the dry river from camp, there were many huge baobab trees. (2:16,15) They survive in dry climates by storing water in their large trunks. We were lucky to be in Tarangire at the time of the year when these trees have leaves. They only have leaves for a few months each year. These trees can be as much as 3,000 years old. Their only real enemy is elephants. Tarangire National Park is famous for it's baobab forests. Here is another view of the riverbed.(2:13) The depth of the bank cuts suggest that there must be quite a bit of water flowing here at some times. For the late morning game drive, it was only Larry, myeslf and Njau. As a result, I had the whole rear roof hatch to myself. I quickly learned how comfortable I had it when riding in the front seat! In any case, it was much easier to initially spot game. It also offered a slightly different view from a photographic standpoint. On this drive, we mainly explored the gallery forests along the Tarangire River. Here, we saw vast numbers of elephant, along with abundant birdlife. The first birds we stopped to observe was a flock of ostriches. (2:12-9) Although it's no longer hard to find ostriches in the US on farms, and there is some ostrich in my freezer, it is much different to see them in the wild. The males are easy to tell from the females-- they're darker. Male ostriches also spend a lot of time incubating eggs, a job usually done by female birds. One of the prettiest birds to be found in Tarangire is the lilac-breasted roller. This colorful bird is also very common. I got an absolutely superb photo of one in an acacia tree (2:7). These birds are called rollers because they will sometimes climb up high, and tumble in midair. We never did see one do this. The Tanzania National Parks Service has constructed a number of bridges across the Tarangire River. Although these are substantial structures, they have no guard rail, etc. to obstruct your view. This bridge (2:6), which wasn't too far from the airstrip, was a good spot to see water birds. Much of the year, the river doesn't have a lot of water, but there is always some. (2:5 Looking East, 2:1 Looking West) However, there is ample evidence that this river can be a torrent at times. A grey heron we spotted was giving us an almost comical expression! (2:4-2) We saw a blacksmith lapwing here, as well (2:0) We also spotted a tawny eagle here, on the water's edge. We then continued South on the West Bank Road. This road first crossed a large plains area. There we saw frequent signs of past predator activity, in the form of bones. Eventually, we caught up with the Tarangire river again, and began seeing more (live) wildlife. A giraffe observed us at length while we observed it! (3:36) This was a treat, as they tended to be rather shy, and usually maintained a respectable flight distance. A pair of oxpeckers searched for ticks on the giraffe's neck. We came across a bunch of vultures on the shore of a small waterhole. They were sunning themselves, and probably getting a drink. (3:35) We always seemed to see vultures in groups. These appear to be hooded vultures. Vultures are animals that tend to be shunned by humans, as they eat thoroughly dead animals. They are actually intelligent birds superbly adapted to their role of cleaning up dead animals. They come in all sizes, and feed in order on a carcass. The largest vultures have enough strength to open the thickest-skinned carcasses. Others have very long necks so they can eat deep inside the carcass through a small hole. Other vultures have very small beaks, enabling them to get the last little morsels of meat between bones. Elephant were everywhere along the river course. Although we would often come across whole herds of them, there were almost always some in view somewhere. Tarangire truly is a great spot for observing elephant! (3:34,33) Even though this isn't the Serengeti (Tarangire is on the floor of the rift valley), it is still mostly, even incredibly flat. This picture (3:32) gives you an idea of how flat it really is. One other thing we came across was a stand of date palm trees. Although we saw these here and there, there was an impressive stand of about 26 trees along the West Bank Road. Both elephants and baboons like the dates. Baboons can climb the trees to get the dates. In the process, many dates fall to the ground. Elephants will wait for the dates to fall and eat them. Thus, baboons help the elephants get a favorite treat. We returned to camp for a late lunch. After that, there ws a few hours to relax. I took this opportunity to photograph the inside of my tent (3:31). I also explored the area where I had found the bones the night before. I found most of a skull of a large ungulate, quite possibly a zebra. It was also evident that there were the remains of at least two different animals here, as I found some much older bones. One of these was the end of a horn, quite possibly that of a wildebeest. Late afternoon found us back on the road for a game drive. I was back 'riding shotgun'. By now, it was quite warm, and I had the uncomfortable combination of sunblock+insect repellent on. As it turns out, this was one of the few days I had to use a lot of insect repellent. We spent much of this drive in the Northern part of the park, not straying too far from camp. We came across a nice harem herd of impala grazing in the shade of a baobab tree. (3:30) We saw a lot of impala that afternoon. (3:26,25) As usual, we saw guinea fowl almost everywhere. In one spot, we saw them both on the ground (3:29,28) and in a tree. (3:;27) In one of these pictures, I also captured a yellow-necked spurfowl. (3:28) These were very common birds. Somehow, this is the only picture I got of one. Weaver birds of various sorts are common throughout East Africa. They build very conspicuous nests that hang in trees. (3:24) Got an excellent photo of a giraffe grazing on the top of a small acacia tree. (3:23) The giraffe has a long hard tongue that can strip the small leaves off of a thorn-covered acacia twig without sustaining injury. They are one of the few animals that can do this. There were a lot of zebra on the move that afternoon, and we got to observe them doing various behaviors. As usual, they were moving single-file in long lines. (3:22) We also got to observe two zebra pushing against each other in a dominance struggle in the dramatic light of the late afternoon. (3:21) We saw two big black birds that I cannot now identify. They were stork-like and very pretty. (3:20,19) I managed to get another really nice picture of a lilac-breasted roller. (3:18) Warthogs were always a challenge to observe. Very shy, they would run off if a vehicle approached. But, every now and then, we were rewarded with a nice warthog observing opportunity. We had one of these this afternoon. (3:17,16) We came across a zebra that hadn't had a good day. It was laying dead in the grass, just a few yards off the road. (3:15) The hindquarters had been pretty much eaten, and the big bones were intact. This is the textbook eating pattern of lions, who, after feasting on the entrails of it's prey, starts eating the body itself from the hindquarters. They also don't chew up the large bones, but instead lick them clean. This kill was very fresh, probably from the previous night. I redoubled my efforts to spot lion! Now onto something that is somewhat more resistant to being killed than a zebra. This something is a baobab tree. They can live to be 3,000 years old. The thing that tends to shorten their life is elephants. They will peel off the bark with their tusks and eat it. Most of the time, the tree will grow back new bark. But, sometimes elephants will keep damaging a tree to the point where they dig a hole right through it! (3:14,13) This tree is healthy now, but the large opening makes the tree vulnerable to disease. It will probably die in a few years. Meanwhile, it's something you don't see anywhere else! The dying light of the afternoon gave me an opportunity to get a few nice photos of a small herd of impala. (3:12-9) This was a harem herd, and it's male was a young one. It just had spikes for horns. There was also a very young fawn with this herd, perhaps a few weeks old. The mothers of many of the antelope have a curious habit. They will eat the feces of their very young fawns. They do this by putting their mouth right up to the anus of the fawn and eating the feces as they defecate. When we observed this behavior, the fawn was usually suckling. Instinct has taught the fawn to always relieve itself at this time, and the mother to expect this. In this particular instance, the fawn was not suckling (3:10). The reason the mothers do this is that the feces of suckling fawns had a particular odor that the predators recognize. If the feces were left on the ground, a predator would figure out that a easy-to-catch fawn ws nearby and redouble it's efforts to get the easy meal. Instead, the fawn leaves no trace of it's existence for predators to discover. The last notable thing seen that afternoon was a tawny eagle in the top of a dead tree. It was very picturesque. (3:8) We returned to camp for a shower and dinner. This was my first opportunity to try a bush shower. I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough water. In truth, there was enough water provided to take two showers! I soon got to enjoy this particular ritual of camp life. That night at dinner, we decided to start out later the next day, and drive down to the swamps in the East Central part of the park, specifically Siliae Swamp. There, we would have a picnic lunch. Then, we would game-drive our way out of the park, and drive to the Lake Manyara area. We would end up at our next stopping place, Kirurumu Tented Lodge, in late afternoon. After looking at the stars, and doing a guided tour of the night sky for Larry, I hit the sack. It was a much better night's sleep. However, I had a strange dream that one of the radio announcers at the radio/TV station I work for was instructing me on how to fix an ancient TV transmitter we had (But only in the dream. Our transmitter is much newer.)! I began to wonder if the anti-malarial drug I was taking was making me wacky. It wasn't. This was the only strange dream I had while in Africa. Heard most of the same animal sounds I had heard the night before. The lions were much farther off, even though the kill we found was only about 5 miles away. At least the animal sounds didn't keep me awake all night, like the night before! Wednesday, February 10, 1999 Tarangire National Park, Tanzania After sleeping in for a bit, we had breakfast as usual. Then, it was time to pack and prepare to leave this camp. Even though this was just the first of the three camps we would be in, it had been a most memorable experience! We climbed into the land rover, and were soon on what would turn out to be one of the more interesting game drives of the trip. This would be the day when we would see hundreds of elephant together in one spot. We proceeded down the West Bank Road, as we had the previous day. Everywhere, we saw elephant! In one spot, we were able to get particularly close to some elephant. I got some good pictures of the elephants, who watched us, but were not nervous. (3:7,6,4) We were also able to observe up close a little-known characteristic of elephants: they sometimes exude a substance from a opening between their ear and eye, that runs down their face. This is most commonly seen on bull elephants. (3:5) Sometimes, this secretion collects the reddish dust from the soil, and looks like blood. A lot of people mistakedly believe the elephant is bleeding. This is one of many fascinating facts that Njau shared with us. We came upon more columns of zebra. The zebra were moving West in general to the greener grazing in the Western end of the park. Along with the zebra, we came upon a warthog who hung around long enough for a couple of pictures. (3:3,2) We also came upon zebra who had decided to take rest in the shade of a sausage tree. The morning light accentuated the sausages in this picture. (3:1) Sausage trees were a common in Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks, but were found to some extent everywhere we went. They bear a sausage-like fruit that grows moderately slowly. These sausages hang at the end of long stems. Elephants are especially fond of the sausages, and pull them out of the trees with their trunks. People sometimes eat the sausages once they are fully ripe. I suspect they do not taste anything at all like the meat product of the same name! We soon came upon 'the valley of the elephants'. A turn in the Tarangire river cut a large canyon at one point in it's course, and that day, it had hundreds of elephants scattered about in and around it! This was a big family herd, and there were many young elephants about. (4:36,35) This was a tough spot for me, as the valley was on the wrong side of the road for me to get many good photographs. So, instead, I enjoyed studying what I could see with binoculars. Even if (more like when!) I come back to Africa, there is a good chance I will never see so many elephants together in one place again! (Interestingly enough, despite all it's elephants, Tarangire National Park is not at it's carrying capacity for elephant.) A bit further down the road, we saw a nice herd of zebra, along with a single elephant. (4:34) We then spotted a new antelope species, the hartebeest. (4:33) We saw a moderate number of this attractive animal in the central part of the park. The hartebeest shared this particular picture with (surprise?) an elephant. In the next couple of miles, we found some very young elephants. Here a young elephant briefly moves far enough away from it's mother for a nice view. (4:32) A few moments later, we saw an even younger one, perhaps just a few months old. (4:31. Unfortunately, this picture is just a bit out of focus.) In any case, we stayed a while and observed the youngsters and their mothers. We didn't have to drive far to find another young elephant. We found it and it's mother under the shade of a tree. (4:30) Mother elephants guard their young very carefully. Although it does not commonly happen, lions are occasionally known to take young elephants. But, even these give the lions fits. I once saw a video of a couple of lions bringing down an elephant calf. They had it on the ground, and were trying to gnaw through the tough skin. They worked at this for a few minutes. Suddenly, something got the lions' attention, and they ran off. A few moments later, the young elephant got up and walked away, apparently none the worse for wear! It wasn't over. A fine elephant youngster showed us his big ears. (4:29) A short distance later, we came upon a bunch of elephants crowded under a tree. As we watched, we saw at least 2 very young calves, and two older calves. (4:28,27. Shadows were enhanced in 4:27) This ws truly a productive family! After having our fill of elephant families, we came upon another column of zebra. (4:26,24) There were also two zebra here that were involved in a dominance struggle. One of the zebras had it's neck on the top of the other zebra's neck, and they were pushing each other. (4:25) We saw more of this in the Serengeti. In the North Central part of Tarangire National Park is a beautiful conical hill called Tarangire Hill (4:23). This hill is a landmark, and Njau told us he can always find out where he is in the park by referencing the position of Tarangire Hill. It's a safe bet to assume they decided the park boundaries as 'all that land in the area where Tarangire Hill is visible'! The next sighting, even though I didn't see much of it, was perhaps the keynote sighting of the entire safari. Larry, Teri and Joe, were standing in the roof hatches as we drove along. Suddenly, Larry shouted 'wild dog'! We stopped and looked. I give much credit to Larry for being able to see them at all. From my lower vantage point, all I could see was an occasional ear or part of a head. I don't think much more could be visible from the hatch! In any case, wild dogs are extremely uncommon in most parts of Africa. Few and far between are the people who get a chance to actually see them. In fact, word quickly spread about our sighting, and soon there was a bunch of safari vehicles at that spot vying for a good look. (Often, when we encountered another safari vehicle, Njau and the other guide would compare notes. They used a variety of languages and word forms, and it was not easy to pick out animal names even when I knew them in Swahili. This is one of the mechanisms the guides use to keep track of game movements. These chance encounters often gave us bonus time to watch animals we would have otherwise driven by!) Word about the wild dogs spread so quickly that a park ranger vehicle appeared on the scene and drove out into the grass to see the dogs. (Normal safari vehicles are not allowed off the road in Tarangire National Park.) They were maintaining a close watch on the dog population, and took every opportunity to check out sightings. It was later reported they had seen six dogs. If you look carefully at the first two photos (4:22,21), you can make out 3 or 4 of the dogs in the grass. They are just to the right of the tree in the foreground, in the little clearing to the left of the large bush. (I am seeing much more now that I have a chance to carefully examine the pictures, than I did in the bush! I initially thought I just caught the top of one of their heads.) The dogs have ran off in the next picture, which you can use as a reference to determine if you have actually spotted them. (4:20) In any case, even though we couldn't see much, this was about as thrilling a thing as you could hope to see in East Africa! We were also seeing a gradual change in the flora. Less common were the giant baobab trees, and more common were the acacia trees. (There are 14 species of acacia in East Africa.) Along with acacia, you find giraffe. We saw a few of them, including a mother with an older calf. (4:19,18) We came across two lone zebra, fighting. (4:17) In all likelihood, they were settling dominance issues. A few moments later, we came across another lone pair of zebras doing the same thing! (4:16) This must have been the day to settle zebra disputes! We hadn't seen any cape buffalo in this park, even though there are buffalo in the park. But, we did come across the remains of one, right on the edge of the road. (4:15) The hind quarters is completely absent and so is most of the front quarters. There are the remains of some of the legs laying about. Although it is now dried out, there is still a modest of meat on the vertebrae, which indicates to me that this kill can't be more than a few days old. It is undoubtedly the work of lions, as they are the only predator that is capable of taking out a buffalo. Even so, they almost always have to hunt buffalo as a group. Less than a mile down the road, we may have found one of the perpetrators of this kill. A lone female lion was resting in the shade of a tree. It was a long ways off the road and hard to see. At the moment I took this picture (4:14) she had laid down, so it is tough to say there is a lion in this picture at all. However, on closer examination, there is evidence to suggest that there are several lions there. Starting about the center of the tree and working towards the right, several lion-like objects can be spotted. Especially if this is a pride at rest, they are probably sleeping off a bellyful of cape buffalo. This is a task that takes a few days! 'Praise the Lord for He is good! Lord, now I can die. I have seen lions in the wild!' I said to myself in jubilation, even though at the time this was kind of a lousy sighting. My first wild lion sighting! After crossing an extremely narrow bridge, we headed for the shore of Silale Swamp for lunch. Another safari vehicle waved us to go the other way when we got close, but we decided to check out this particular swamp road that they wanted us to avoid. After driving up and down the road and seeing nothing noteworthy, we decided to share the picnic spot with another group from Bushbuck Safaris. It was a perfectly pleasant spot, on the edge of Silale Swamp, under the shade of a tree. The tsetse flies were not bothersome here, either. Our lunch consisted of cold chicken, meatloaf, and tuna salad sandwiches. There were crackers and popcorn(!) for dessert. There was also fruit to enjoy. Drinks were soft drinks or water. (We were each allotted two bottles of pop per day. This was carried on board in a cooler. There was coke, lemon-lime and tonic water.)(Incidentally, tonic water is not compatible with lariam, as it contains quinine!) Njau purchased cases of bottled water and sold it to us at cost. Although I was buying water at lodges and in camp, it soon worked out to be better to buy it from Njau. From this point onwards, almost all the water I drank was carried with us in our land rover. During and after lunch, we observed the wetland birdlife in the swamp. I walked a short distance away from our picnic site and shot some photos of the swamp in general. (4:13-11) The hills visible in the distance are outside the park to the East. They are the Sambu mountains. Notice how the vegetation is different here, too. Despite the swamp, this part of the park is more arid. Many of the bushes and trees here were unique to this area. The most interesting of all was the candelabra tree.(4:10) These thornless, succulent trees had a milky sap which was poisonous and would burn the skin on contact. Njau had never seen any animal eat them, although my field guide says rhinos really like the fallen branches. We saw a flock of African open-billed stork looking for lunch in the swamp shallows. (4:9) These birds are called open-bill because of a perceptible gap between their lower and upper bills. Superb starlings are amazing birds. They don't have a deep fear of man as do North American songbirds. If you are still and patient, they will come right up to you, looking for leftover lunch on the ground. I was able to get several 'superb' pictures of this magnificently colored bird. (4:8-6) Back to water birds. We spotted three crowned cranes on the shoreline. (4:5) At the same time, we saw a grey heron and a few yellow-billed egrets. Elephants like to occasionally browse in the swamp. We saw three of them out in the water. (4:4) As it turns out, the swamp isn't that deep, and you can almost drive through it in a land rover. At the same time, many people have gotten stuck trying. The soil in the swamp is referred to as 'black cotton soil'. Once we were away from the swamp, we came across this big giraffe sitting down. (4:3) This isn't something they do very often. After that, we saw a nice grouping of hartebeest resting under a tree. (4:2) We finally found some cape buffalo! There was a whole herd of them, close to the road. (4:1) This may be the closest we got to this magnificent and dangerous animal on the whole trip. Their curved horns can easily throw a lion! Dik-diks often took us by surprise. Although other members of the group had trouble getting good pictures of this tiny antelope, again I was blessed with a good picture. (5:36) You can clearly see the orbital gland as the smaller spot in front of the large eye. The dik-dik will mark it's territory by poking the end of a twig into it's orbital gland, and leaving a scent mark on it. Dik-diks are almost always found in pairs, but it's mate is not visible here. Two giraffe found themselves in excellent light for a great photograph! (5:35) We found a big mudhole frequented by elephants. (5:34-30) Elephants like to wallow in the mud to cool off their immense bodies. They also throw mud on their backs with their trunks. This forms a coating that reduces solar heating and staves off insects. A young elephant is also visible in some of these photos. We came across a nice grouping of their adult elephants with three calves. (5:29) The acacia forest in the background makes this picture even more dramatic. The astute observer will also notice more elephants under a distant tree. A cattle egret is visible in a bush in the foreground to the left. Here's another nice elephant family portrait. These were pretty easy to find in this park!(5:28) Cattle egrets follow large animals around to eat the insects stirred up by their movement. Here, three of them clean up after an elephant. (5:27) Elephants struggle for dominance, just as all other animals do. Only in their case, these competitions take on big proportions. Here, two elephants spar with their trunks to see who's stronger! (5:26,25) One important thing travelers in East Africa must know: elephants have the right of way! (5:24,23) This elephant decided to stand in the road and eat while we waited and observed. Notice the food held in it's trunk. Notice the forked tail and the mud on it's back. Njau was very good at judging an elephant's mood. If he came upon one that wasn't happy with us, he could tell and keep his distance. This didn't happen very often. Normally, the elephants are quite tolerant of the presence of the safari vehicles. If they started to act nervous and flap their ears, it was time to back off or move on. In any case, this elephant didn't move for us. We finally backed up a few feet. Then, the elephant finally decided to leave the road. Almost immediately, a warthog mother with three piglets emerged from the grass! (5:22) An unexpected double treat! Larry saw them first. 'Lions' He shouted. My heart pounded. We stopped. Sure enough. There under a tree, a whole pride of lions, snoozing in the afternoon heat. (5:21-15) At first, the lions ignored us, sprawled out in all sorts of crazy positions. Often, a paw or leg would rest on a neighbor; lions like to contact each other. Every once in a while, one or more of them would look up at us. It looks like there are three adult males and three adult females. They all look well-fed and healthy. These are the best pride shots I got on the whole trip. Praise the Lord! We came upon a secretary bird. (5:14) Secretary birds are so named because of the black feathers sticking out of their heads. They look like writing quills stuck in the hair of early secretaries. They also have two distinct, long tail feathers. We ended up seeing a lot of these fascinating birds. We were always on the watch for unusual animal behavior. One thing in particular was animals ready to give birth. We saw this very pregnant zebra. It wasn't quite ready to give birth, but it wouldn't be long.....(5:13) As we approached the park gate, a flock of ostrich presented us with some nice photo opportunities. (5:12,11) Much to our pleasant surprise, another flock appeared a few seconds later! (5:10) They joined together to form a single good-sized flock. (5:9) At the park gate, I got a good photo of a cape buffalo (I think) (5:8) and an elephant skull (5:7). Notice the tusk sockets and the enormous molars of the elephant. An elephant has three sets of those large molars. When one set wears out, they fall out, and another set moves in to take their place. Many elephants die because they run out of teeth! One of the things they had for sale in the gatehouse was some videos. One of them was a favorite nature show I had seen almost 15 years before: 'Year of the Wildebeest'. Even though the tape was in PAL, I bought it anyway, as I have access to a standards converter to convert it to NTSC. I paid for it with a traveler's check. It is amazing how much paperwork I had to fill out to buy that tape. The other game parks saccepted my US dollars with no questions and no forms! Soon, we were back on the road to Lake Manyara! Here is a nice view of the lake as we turned onto A104 (Trans-East-African Highway)(5:6) The concrete block structure is a sign. Because of the termite problem, many signs were built of concrete blocks. This section of A104 was very nicely paved. I took two pictures of it as we drove along. (5:5,4) It would be hard to tell this road from any in rural america, except we were driving on the wrong side of the road! Notice the electric transmission line to the left. This is one of the main long-distance transmission lines in Tanzania. There are only a couple of major power generating facilities in Tanzania (Hydroelectric, if I recall), so power often comes from a long distance, and is expensive. In one of the pictures, you can also see a couple of Masai, with their cattle under a nearby tree. The buildings nearby may be their home. Not all Masai live in Bomas. (A term used both for predator fences and for Masai villages.) The big hill off to the right is Mt. Meru. The hills off to the left are Mt. Losimingur. We soon reached the village of Makuyoni, and turned onto hwy B144. This road services all the Northern Circuit game parks except Tarangire. It ultimately goes right up the middle of Serengeti National Park, and crosses into the Masai Mara in Kenya. We would be on or close to this road for the rest of the trip. Unlike A104, this road ws much rougher. It was also very dusty. But before long, we started to again enter civilization as we entered the town of Mto Wa Mbu. This was a good-sized, busy town. It was like any of the towns we had seen before: people everywhere, congregating along the roadside. People burning trash or cooking right along the road. Concrete structures, often without glass in the windows. Banana plantations everywhere. Despite being somewhat run-down, It looked like it was a prosperous town. Njau took time to point out some public school buildings. These buildings also had no glass in the windows. We passed the administrative center, and the main entrance for Lake Manyara National Park. At this point, the park was on our left, and a banana plantation on the right. Baboons came out and begged for food from passerbys! They were usually well-behaved, but would occasionally injure someone. Njau told us there used to be a problem with elephants crossing the road to browse in the banana plantations. The owners solved this problem by making lots of racket when they saw elephants. Elephants hate this kind of disorganized noise, and would leave. Eventually, they learned, and stopped coming out of the park. We finally reached the rift valley escarpment road. The escarpment was much larger than I ever imagined, and we climbed nearly 1,000 feet on the multiple switchbacks. Many people were bringing loads up and down this steep road, or were herding cattle along the road's edge. I can just imagine how good the physical condition of these people must be to do this day in and day out! There were a couple of spots along the road where one side was a steep dropoff to the rift valley floor below. The view at these points was spectacular. (7:18-16) As we approached the top of the escarpment, I attempted to get some pictures of Lake Manyara. They didn't turn out the best, but are nonetheless interesting. (5:3-1) Notice the electric pole with the wires down in one picture. There was once a power line running up the escarpment, but it had been ruined long ago. After we got to the top of the escarpment, it was a surprisingly long drive to our camp, Kirurumu Tented lodge. This was a beautiful facility in a beautiful setting. We were greeted with cups of pineapple juice, and Masai porters to carry our luggage. Our rooms were in tents with permanent frames. There was a porch on the front, with a couple of chairs. The room itself was equipped with a real shower and toilet. There was a pitcher of filtered water in each room, but I didn't recognize it at first, because it was so clear! There were electric lights everywhere , for after dark. The first order of business was a shower. The manager of the lodge (Who was there to greet us when we arrived, an American woman.) explained that Americans always try to conserve water. Here, the water is solar heated, and there is plenty of it. She said let it run until it is hot. Apparently, even though water is generally scarce in Africa, it is not here! In any case, the shower felt wonderful after the very dusty road. I wandered back to the main center, up a long path that had lots of marked plants, etc. to study. I asked at the check-out if there was a good place to look over the escarpment. She told me that guided tours are given on request; it is not safe to go alone. So much for views from the camp! I also came to understand that Kirurumu was somehow using satellite communication to communicate with other offices. Although I doubted this at first, the presence of a VHF antenna behind the main building does not rule this out. It was a ground-plane vertical, a type not normally used for satellite communication. It could also be used to communicate with local safari vehicles in the park. Like all places I had been so far, they had an HF radio system. I never did find the antenna for this system. I went back to my tent-room, and took a nap. When the power came on about 6 PM. (They generate their own power, and have it on only in the morning and evening.), I cleaned my camera and binoculars. After a long wait, I went to find Larry and Teri and ask what they planned to do for dinner. They said they wanted to be alone that evening. Joe and Joyce were getting room service because Joyce had a lot of trouble getting up and down the steep path to the tent-rooms. So, I was alone for dinner. It initially took a few minutes to find the restaurant building. This turned out to be an open-sided affair somewhat like a park shelter, with a low wall around it. There was a nice view, and you were close to the outside when you ate there. But, I went down for dinner too early. They weren't quite ready. (Most restaurants in Africa I encountered only serve food for a couple hours each evening.) While waiting for dinner to be served, I went up and explored the gift shop, which was finally open. They had a complete set of the nice maps I had for Serengeti and Ngorongoro. It turns out that Kirurumu is owned by Hoopoe Adventures, the publishers of this map series. I purchased the maps for Tarangire , lake Manyara and Arusha National Parks. They also had the Tanzania Wildlife Service's official park guides for a good price. I made a big mistake by not buying those right there and then. I never found a better price, and I never did end up buying them. I finally got to eat dinner, alone. The waiter's english left much to be desired. You had a choice of 3 entrees. Of course, I chose the beef one every time. Still, I had a hard time explaining to him not to bother with the Caesar salad, etc. While waiting for my food, someone from the camp staff asked for my room key, so they could spray the room for mosquitos. When the main course was served, the plate was prepared gourmet style. Not a lot of food, artfully displayed. Luckily, I am carrying quite a reserve of food about my midriff, so the small portions wern't the worst thing. I actually tried the 'filtered banana' dish they had for dessert. It was like reconstituted banana. I like banana flavor a little, but I am not fond of that (or any) fruit. Still, it was OK. When they were done spraying the rooms, the keys were placed on a table just inside the dining area entrance. Turns out another couple had mistakedly taken my key. After waiting forever for my key to show up, (I had just learned about the key table. Before that, I was expecting my key to brought back to me.) I heard another couple expressing frustration that they thought they had the wrong key. I compared notes with them, and they indeed had my key. (The keys were attached to an Africa-shaped piece of wood. The room number was displayed prominently on it.) Their key was still on the table. They were happy, I was happy. I noticed one family there from California, with a kid who was wearing an 'A Bug's Life' shirt. For some reason (Maybe it's I liked 'A Bug's Life'), I made a mental note of this. When I walked down the long path to my tent-room, I was surprised to find someone sitting on my porch. It turned out to be a fully armed Masai Warrior! They used authentic Masai sentinels to guard the camp at night. Since my tent-room was one of the most distant ones away from the main building, they liked to stand watch on my porch. I spent half an hour or so studying the maps I had purchased. Then, I turned out the lights and went to sleep. Thursday, February 11, 1999 Lake Manyara area, Tanzania I had a good night's sleep. One of the good things that had happened during the night is that the constipation that had plagued me the first few days of the trip was finally relieved. I felt much better. After cleaning up and dressing, I walked up to the restaurant building. Larry and Teri were already there, just finishing breakfast. The breakfast here was a buffet, with fruit, cereal, and copious amounts of sausage and bacon. I didn't notice the arrangement for eggs. There was also french toast. What we would call hot chocolate was provided as well, and they called it drinking chocolate. Alas, there was never enough milk around to enjoy a glass of it. This was true everywhere I ran into drinking chocolate. I noticed the family from California was there again, and the boy was still wearing his 'A Bug's Life' shirt. After breakfast, our group assembled in front of the main entrance building. Njau pulled up (The guides stay in different lodging a short distance away. This was also the case at Serengeti Sopa Lodge.), and we climbed in the land rover. Soon, we were headed down the escarpment for Lake Manyara National Park. I took some nice pictures of the lake and the landscape as we descended. (6:36-33) There was a nice interpretive center at the park gate. There, we found mounted specimens of some of the birds and animals to be found in the park. There was also information about the formation of the rift valley and Lake Manyara. Again, I had a chance to purchase official guidebooks, and didn't. Lake Manyara National park is principally noted for two things: 1.)Some of the best hippo viewing in all of Africa, and 2.) It's tree climbing lions. Of course, I wanted very badly to see the latter, and scanned for them nearly constantly. Njau also told us that floods earlier in the season had forced the hippos from their usual haunts to a place that is not accessible. Therefore, we would not see hippos this time. We were hardly through the gate when we saw baboons along the road. (6:32) This was the first of many baboons we saw in this park. Indeed, Lake Manyara had the best primate viewing we encountered on the entire safari. (6:31,30,29 w/baby hanging from belly.) Another common primate in this park is the blue monkey. They were frequently seen scurrying through the trees. They were not as shy as vervet monkeys, and we had many good observations of them. (6:28,27) The rift valley escarpment is drained by a number of small streams that ultimately flow down into the lake. These were often quite beautiful. (6:26) High atop the rift valley escarpment, Lake Manyara Hotel was visible. Oh, what the view must be like! But, Njau told us that Kirurumu has better service. (6:25) We found some baboons digging through elephant dung for food. (6:24) Elephants have such inefficient digestive systems that much food passes through undigested. This is great for seeds, etc., as they pass through the elephant's digestive system. Their hulls are softened by the digestive process. They then find themselves in a rich growth medium where they can sprout. The dung also attracts insects. It is these seeds and insects the baboons are looking for. We came upon this lone elephant with it's back to us. (6:23) We saw lots of elephant in Lake Manyara, but not like Tarangire. We also did not large numbers of elephants in any one spot. Up in the trees, we found a silvery-cheeked hornbill. (6:22-21) This was the first of many hornbill species we saw. We continued to see many blue monkeys (6:20) as we made our way further South into the park. One of the blue monkeys we saw had a baby with it. (6:19) We next came upon one of the real observing treats of the whole trip! There was a troop of baboons doing it's thing along the road. In the midst of these baboons, a magnificent warthog just stood and watched. We were able to get quite close, and got some excellent photos. (6:17-14,12,11) The baboons provided some nice photo opportunities as well, including a young one all by himself. (6:18,13) We watched the warthog root around for a while, because we probably wouldn't get this close to one again. We startled a small antelope, which ran away from us. Although I am not 100 percent sure, I think this is a common dukier. (6:10) We saw an agur buzzard sitting in a tree, probably scanning the ground for a possible meal. (6:9) The further South we went in the park, the more broken the forest became. What started out as dense, rain-forest-like cover gave way to acacia trees and patches of savannah grass. We found two elephants in one of these grassy patches. (6:8) Still no tree-climbing lions! We came to a beach frequently used as a picnic/rest area. We stopped to stretch our legs. Even here, there was much to see! (6:6,5,3) There were some Egyptian geese wading in the shallows. (6:7) The soda content of the water made it foam as it washed up on the shore. (6:2) I also took some pictures of our land rover (6:4) and our group. (6:0 L to R: Njau our guide, Larry Lesko, Teri Cleeland, Joyce and Joe Eddington) Njau then took a picture of me with the group. (6:1 L to R: Me, Larry, Teri, Joyce and Joe.) After our rest-stop, we continued South into the park. Near a small lake, we saw two yellow-billed stork, which were later joined by a yellow-billed egret. (7:36-34) We next came across a bunch of giraffe among some acacia trees. The group made for a nice, if not somewhat comical picture as they stood there staring at us. (7:33) The social primates all spend much time grooming themselves and others in their group. We found some baboons who were in the middle of a grooming session. They would pick through the fur of another baboon, and remove any dirt, insects, etc. found. If what was found was good to eat, they ate it. The youngster in the group sat against the back of one of the adults, and just looked the other way. He seemed to be preoccupied grooming himself!(7:32-29) We now reached the Maji Moto Ndogo Hot Springs, one of two hot springs in the park. This was a little patch of ground with hot water bubbling out of it. The water was invitingly clear, but had a strong sulfur smell to it. The minerals in the water left a greenish deposit wherever it flowed. (7:28-25) Not long after finding the hot springs, we turned around, and headed North. We worked our way slowly back up the way we came, except we took a different road for part of the way. Spots along the rift valley wall made for some spectacular scenery. (7:24) We came upon a very large troop of baboons, who we watched for a while. In amongst the baboons, some impalas grazed. (7:23-21) Our last good sighting was a blue monkey, dramatically silhouetted against the canopy of the forest. (7:20) We left Lake Manyara National Park, and headed to Kirurumu for lunch. Although it had been an enjoyable drive, no tree climbing lions had yet been seen. Njau told us that he generally only sees them once every three months or so. As we climbed the escarpment, I had some better photo opportunities than the previous day. I took one shot showing the winding road up the escarpment. (7:19) I also took some shots out of a steep ravine that started right on the edge of the road. This is one spot where I would never want to lose control! (7:18-16) We made plans for the afternoon game drive. As it turned out, Joe and Joyce didn't want to go because the long walk up and down the hill at the camp combined with the heat in the park had left Joyce exhausted. (It had been stifling hot in the park, but it had not bothered me at all.) Larry and Teri elected to relax that afternoon. So, it would be Njau and I alone. As I had come to very much enjoy being with Njau, this should be a good time! He would come back to pick me up about 3 PM. We had noticed that the clouds had been building while we were driving to the camp. As soon as we arrived, it looked like it was going to storm. The wind was starting to pick up. In the restaurant, the employees pulled down large shade-like things to keep the wind and rain out. Soon, we began to hear occasional thunderclaps. However, it never did rain. Soon, the storm blew over, and the shades were reopened. I don't remember many other details of that particular lunch. After lunch, I went to my tent-room and took a nice nap. The winds continued to be strong even though the storm had passed. This made a pleasing sound on the canvas, and helped keep the tent cool. 3 pm came fairly quickly. I met Njau in the parking lot, and we headed back down to the park. Number 1 goal: find some tree-climbing lions! (Since it ws pointless to spend every minute looking for lions, I also told Njau to pick out things he thought were particularly interesting. He did not disappoint me!) On the way down to the park, we came across some date palm trees. They blocked a good view of the lake, which was hard to see anyway due to the building haze. (7:15) Not far inside the park, I photographed the Serena lodge, another hotel strategically placed on the edge of the escarpment. (7:14) We found a lone elephant enjoying a cozy spot in the woods. (7:13) My camera had one particularly annoying quality. It took perhaps 300 milliseconds for the shutter to actually activate after you push the shutter release. As a result, I would occasionally miss a shot, because an animal would start to move between the time I pressed the shutter release and the time the picture was actually taken. Sometimes,though an interesting shot would result. This shot of a blue monkey running away is one of those. (7:12) We took a route through the park that took us down to the hippo pools. Normally, there would be many hippos here, but they had moved out of the area due to severe flooding during the previous rainy season. They hadn't been seen here since. (Marks on the trees showed how high the water had gotten, and it was pretty high.) Still, there was a flock of yellow-billed storks and yellow billed egrets to watch. (7:11) then, Njau saw something move out in the water; it was a couple of hippo! They were finally returning to the hippo pool, and we saw them first! (7:10 Notice the bumps out in the water.) We had scarcely moved 100 yards along the beach when we spotted a single vervet monkey making his way fairly slowly across the beach. (7:9,8) We turned our head, and there were two maribou storks. (7:7,6) Half stork, half vulture, they are almost as at home on the savannah as they are near the water. They are the African version of a seagull. The big difference is that they are large, and aggressive enough to drive vultures off a carcass. These birds also like to hang out near human habitation where animal waste might be found, like garbage dumps, fish processing plants and slaughterhouses. We turned our head yet again, and there were two crowned cranes. One of my favorite birds, they have a yellow 'crown' of feathers on their head. (7:5,4) In another spot, we found a group of what I think are sacred ibises. (7:3) The final thing we saw at this spot was some Egyptian geese , along with a few white faced whistling ducks. (7:2,1) We moved not 200 yards, and discovered a whole troop of the elusive vervet monkeys. Unlike most instances when we encountered these primates, they stayed put and went about their business. We sat and watched them for a while. (8:35-33) Again, we scarcely moved 200 yards, and another surprise. Our first wildebeest sighting! The name wildebeest is Dutch for 'wild beast'. They are called that because they are such strange and unlikely antelope. In any case, these wildebeest were simply enjoying the warm afternoon sun. (8:32,31) Wildebeest were also the most laid-back of the antelope, and would let us get quite close in the land rover. Right across from the wildebeest, a group of giraffe were enjoying the delectable pleasures of an acacia thicket! (8:30) What an incredible group of sightings this had been! We drove away from the beach and back into the forest. There, we found several mounds, maybe termite mounds, or maybe dead trees trunks. They were covered with vines bearing round green fruits. Njau told me that this was a type of cucumber. (8:29) We turned North and headed deeper into the forested part of the park. However, we used some little-traveled back roads. At one point, we saw a large clearing through the trees, with a number of safari vehicles on the other side. We tried to take the very bad road into this clearing, but found we couldn't manage it. We looked for what the others were seeing, but never spotted it. Soon, we were in one of the deepest parts of the forest. There, we came upon a safari vehicle with two professional photographers on board. We could tell they were professional because they had 'lenses with cameras attached' and were wearing vests that said 'Canon'. They were stopped just past a small bridge, and were intently observing something. Njau went over to them and had an extended discussion with the guide driving that vehicle. At first, Njau thought that they must be seeing a monitor lizard in the stream running under the bridge. What it really turned out to be was a puff-adder, with it's mouth around a stick. For some reason, the snake seemed intent on dragging the stick with it as it slowly moved. It was now quite late in the afternoon, and the light was failing. My camera insisted in using it's flash. I was too far away for an effective flash shot. Nevertheless, I took two pictures. One of them came out reasonably well. (8:28) Puff adders have slow-acting venom that takes several hours to kill a human. It is not a fun way to die, as the venom contains enzymes that start to digest you even before you're eaten! They are considered one of the most dangerous snakes in Africa. According to the travel guides, snake sightings on safari are quite rare. Well, I had experienced yet another treat on this drive! (I also find I am one of the few people who actually wants to see snakes on safari!) We left the park elated. No tree-climbing lions had been spotted, but oh, what a great game drive it had been! Njau and I then drove in to Mto-Wa-Mbu to gas up the land rover. While waiting at the gas station (Which was not unlike a small-town independent gas station here in the 'states), I watched a group of young people work to change a tire. We have fancy bead- detaching machines here to do this job; they used a pipe with a heavy flat plate on the end of it to pound on the tire. When the bead started to break, a crowbar was used to work the tire off the rim. Now, most tires in Africa use inner tubes because of the rough terrain. A puncture that would destroy one of our tubeless tires would only ruin the inner tube in one of theirs. In any case, after the inner tube was removed, one of the boys cut it into pieces and gave them to his friends. Why he did this, I do not know. I do know that the African peoples generally reuse or recycle EVERYTHING! We drove up the rift valley escarpment one last time. The heat of that day had caused quite a haze to form over the lake and the park. Near the top of the escarpment, I got a last shot of Lake Manyara hidden in the haze. (8:26,25. These pictures were processed to make the lake stand out more clearly.) That evening was pretty much a repeat of the previous evening. The big difference is this time, I was prepared to spend dinnertime alone, which I did. I was also more selective at this meal, and asked the waiter to only bring the main course, which he did. Again I noticed the family from California, with the boy wearing the 'A Bug's Life' shirt! We must have been on the same hunger clock! After dinner, I went down to my tent-room and took care of most of the packing, optics maintenance, etc. needed for the next morning's departure. Then, it was lights out and bedtime. It was still a bit windy that evening, and before long, it had started to rain. It turned out to be a long, soaking gentle rain that lasted most of the night. There was a little lightning, and occasional rolls of thunder. This was absolutely heavenly on the tent roof! Although I was a bit restless that night, I still slept well. Thank you, Jesus! Friday, February 12, 1999 Lake Manyara area, Tanzania By morning the rain had ended, but it was still overcast. I cleaned up and headed to the restaurant building for breakfast. I met Larry and Teri there and talked with them while I ate. There was even more bacon and sausage there this morning, so I ate well. Alas, though. No warm milk for drinking chocolate! I was beginning to wonder why they put it out. It must be intended to be used in a manner which I did not know about! Joe and Joyce made it up the hill and waited in the entrance building for Njau to arrive. I looked through the gift shop one last time, debating on whether or not to buy the official park guidebooks they had. I didn't. I also looked over the camp's radio equipment, which was clearly visible through a window in the main building. They had an HF transceiver turned to a frequency that would be in about the 37 meter band. They also had a VHF transceiver that was tuned to a frequency in the high VHF band, just above the 2 meter amateur band. All of the HF radios I saw in Tanzania were Yaesu FT-90's. The VHF radio was also a Yaesu, if I remember. Another interesting observation. Although a VHF antenna was visible, I never found the HF antenna, which was in most cases a dipole. While waiting for Njau, I found a beautiful flower in one of the parking lot gardens. It was a puffy thing with many red flowers on the puff. The puff was supported by a thick stalk. (8:24) I think I have seen these in the Rochester area as well, but I couldn't tell you what they are. Soon, we were back on Hwy B144, headed for Ngorongoro crater. This would be the only day in the trip in which there would not be time specifically set aside for game viewing. As we drove into the Crater Highlands (Also referred to as the Ngorongoro Massif), we passed through the villages of Rhotia and Karatu. These villages were quite different from the villages we had passed through earlier in the trip. Most were neatly built of a red brick. They were also fairly uniform in general construction practices from one building to the next. There was also electricity in these somewhat remote villages. The people who lived here were definitely more wealthy than the people of, say Mto-Wa_Mbu. Njau explained that the big difference here was the intensive farming taking place here in the rich volcanic soils. It was also a bit cooler in the highlands, which was also good for the crops. As a result of these factors, the farmers here tended to be financially successful. Everyone here prospered as a result. As we drove along, I took several photographs of the picturesque farms set in the rolling hills of the highlands. (8:23-19) We stopped at a 'supermarket' to stock up on soft drinks. What they call a supermarket, we would call a convenience store. The only difference was a small selection of fresh vegetables. There was no meat department, and no refrigerated or frozen foods. We stocked up on bottled water while here. Next to the 'supermarket' was a tiny gift shop. There I bought a handful of postcards featuring lions. One of these, and oversize postcard, showed 4 magnificent male lions laying in the grass. It said 'Ngorongoro Crater' on it. I wonder if this isn't the famous foursome that ruled over 2 or 3 prides simultaneously in the crater a few years back.... We stopped at a curio shop in one of the villages. It had a wide variety of different curios, not just wood carvings. One thing they had in particular was Masai weaponry, including beautifully wrought spears. The price on these was also quite reasonable, about $35 US. However, without a suitable container to place it in, it would be tough to get on an airplane. I also had the strict weight limit to worry about. Instead, I looked at a beautiful print on cloth of a pride of lions against Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was done in rich blues and purples. I ended up negotiating a deal of $17 for the print. This will look very nice, framed on the wall! While I was working this deal, (I learned from guide books that is is considered impolite not to dicker on price!) Joe and Joyce were working on a deal for a stout, iron-tipped Masai walking stick. Most of these sticks were about 3 to 4 feet long and made of a light-colored wood. This one was made of ebony, and was thick and heavy. It was also nearly 5 feet long. After considerable wheeling and dealing, they struck a deal for the stick and purchased it. They were still dealing when I had made my purchase, and had absorbed myself in more malachite lion carvings. Meanwhile, Teri was closing a deal on a Masai red cloth. I had wanted one of these, but was being conservative at the moment. I found a large lion carving I liked. The salesperson asked $100 for it, or a trade for my watch! I explained to him that the watch was not all it looked to be. I also considered putting the carving on my charge card, and also getting a Masai cloth along with it. I finally waxed too conservative, and bought nothing more. Njau told us we would have only one other chance to visit a curio shop before we entered the Ngorongoro/Serengeti controlled areas. When this chance came, I again waxed conservative, and said 'no' again! This would prove to be a source of minor frustration for the next several days. Shortly after entering the controlled area, we turned off on a side road to Kifaru Farm. Kifaru, which means 'rhino' in Swahili, was a working coffee plantation and hotel. We wound through huge fields of coffee plants, which had been recently heavily pruned. We finally reached the farm, which was a truly beautiful place. Many plants that you can only find in a flower shop or greenhouse in the US grew wild here. Many plants that I tried to grow in my garden also grew here, but the big difference is theirs were thriving! The first of these wild plants was a poinsettia bush (8:18). It was also in flower. Other plants I recognized were a banana tree (8:17), kniphofera (Red Hot Poker plant, which barely thrived in my garden) (8:14) and a typical variety of acacia, which could be examined close-up. (8:8) I spent a long time examining their gardens while lunch was being prepared. (8:18-8:8, 8:6) We learned that Kifaru was a very old coffee plantation that had been in these hills since the twenties. At that time, it was owned by the famous ethnologist Ludwig Kohl-Larsen. (Tanzania was German East Africa in those days.) Eventually, the farm ran into financial trouble, and nearly fell into ruins. A German couple came in and both revitalized the coffee fields and created the lodges now on the farm. Since malaria is not a factor in the Crater Highlands, an open swimming pool is one of the nice amenities to be found here. There are also tennis courts. We took lunch in a nice room in the former farmhouse. We shared the room with just one other group of guests-- The family from California with the kid wearing the 'A Bug's Life' shirt! We finally got a chance to converse and compare notes. (They had noticed me, as well as I noticed them!) They had quite a different experience in Lake Manyara than us. They came across lions mating right along the road! They were actually staying at Kifaru for a night before exploring Ngorongoro Crater. Then, they were off to Kenya to see the game parks there. I wished them a good trip and hoped to see them somewhere in Ngorongoro! After a nice, filling lunch, we were back on our way to our camp in Ngorongoro. As we left Kifaru, I got a nice picture of some of the buildings with coffee bushes growing on the hillside. (8:5) Rain was a possibility anytime we were in the crater highlands. In fact, we ran into a brief shower a bit later while on the crater rim road. I got a nice picture of an African rainstorm as we made our way higher and higher towards the crater rim.(8:4) We found one of the sources of all the red brick in the area-- a brick quarry. There, bricks were cut out of natural red clay and stacked to form a furnace. A fire was then lit in the furnace, which fired the bricks into permanent hardness. The furnace was disassembled and the new bricks sold. (8:3,2) We finally reached the park gate. Joyce was wearing a watch that contained an altimeter. It indicated our altitude was in excess of 6,000 feet! While Njau took care of paperwork, We visited the visitor's center and store. There we learned about the forces that had formed the crater, the Serengeti Plains, the rift valley and many other geologic features of the area. We saw samples of 3.5 million year old hominid footprints, which we would explore in depth in a couple of days. They also had a terrific collection of souvenirs. I bought a T-shirt and a 'I visited Ngorongoro' sticker. Again, I didn't buy the Official Park Service guidebooks! I also missed a beautiful lion T-shirt that someone else in our group was lucky enough to find and purchase! After leaving the gate, we climbed in our vehicle to the crater rim. There, we had our first chance to look down into the vast volcanic caldera that is Ngorongoro. I shot one picture looking across the rim of the crater (8:2) and another looking down into the crater. (8:1) The rim of the crater was uneven in elevation. We were constantly going uphill or downhill. Sometimes, we could look down into the crater. Other times, we had a wall of rock between us and it. Joyce's altimeter (Which we determined was fairly accurate) indicated we were varying between 6,500 and 7,000 feet elevation on this road. There wasn't a lot of animal life up on the crater rim compared to other places we had been. But, there was a lot of beautiful big acacia trees. I hadn't gotten any pictures of them alone yet, so I took a few. In the final picture, I inadvertently caught part of the small guardhouse at the beginning of the crater descent-ascent road close to our camp. I didn't notice this until I examined the photo a month later! (9:36-33) We were extremely fortunate to have our campsite actually within the crater (But not on the crater floor.). There are only a handful of such campsites, located near the top of the descent-ascent road. These offer a substantial advantage in that we can be on the crater floor 30 minutes to an hour ahead of everyone else! After turning onto the crater descent-ascent road, we passed through the gate and went about half a mile down the road. The actual camp was a good half mile back in the woods, over an extremely bad road. The camp was the same one we had used in Tarangire, staffed with the same people-- Thomas and Juma being the headpersons. So, I won't spend a lot of time describing the camp. Of course, it was laid out a bit differently because of the terrain of the site, but even these details aren't really important. I guess the most interesting thing was the view. There was one spot where you could get a good look down into the crater! Even so, the crater is so immense that it was like getting an overview! (10:36,35 and 12:25,24) There was some time to unpack, relax and look around. A short nap also felt very good. Larry and Teri worked in a National Forest, and spent much time hiking. They were quite frustrated by the fact that they could not go very far from the camp to stretch their legs. Therefore, they found out that there was an opportunity to take a hike near Olmoti Crater. Knowing this would feel good, I decided to join them. It was already late in the afternoon, so we would have to go quickly. Hiking in the Olmoti Crater area required a local guide. We would stop in the village of Nainokanoka to see if a guide was available. I took a couple of pictures of the rugged land as we drove towards Olmoti Crater, which is a bit Northeast of Ngorongoro. (9:31,30. Note the land rover's HF antenna is visible in 9:30.) Now, earlier, I said that we did no planned game viewing that day. Nevertheless, I was able to get a picture of a white stork foraging in the highland grasses. (9:32) We soon reached Nainokanoka, which is a Masai village. We had to ask around several places before we located a guide. The guide's name was January, and he was a most pleasant fellow. He was wearing bluejeans and a T-shirt, instead of the traditional red blanket of the Masai. (Nainokanoka was a more 'modern' Masai village.) We proceeded a mile or so past the village, and stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Not too far away, across a grassy field, was an unimpressive tree-covered hill. This is where our hike would take place. (9:7-6,3-2) Larry and Teri agreed that we would hike just to the treeline, as it was late in the afternoon. So, we took off with January in the lead. Njau also joined us on the hike. The thin air didn't seem to be having too serious an effect on me as we reached the treeline. With a couple of assenting nods from Larry and Teri, we continued up into the trees. We quickly found ourselves on a treacherous footpath leading up a rocky ravine. This quickly became steep, and I quickly became out of breath! The vegetation changed quickly as we climbed. We started to see more alpine plants (9:29) such as heather (9:28), and moss growing in the trees (9:27) Although I was panting like a racehorse at this point, I found the energy to keep going. The group would wait for me when I had to stop and catch my breath. Higher and higher we went up the increasingly steep ravine. January told us that this was a Masai cattle path. This shows how hardy the Masai and their cattle were, if they could routinely negotiate a path like this! From time to time, I turned and took a picture looking back at the ground we had covered. It was obvious were gaining altitude very quickly! (9:26-23) Just at the point when I thought I would run out of energy, the top came in sight. One final push.... a slight dip, and one final rise...I made it to the crater rim!!!!! I later found out from studying a map that our altitude at this point was 10,000 +/- 10 feet! I climbed that high and lived to tell about it! Believe it or not, it did not take long to catch my breath, even in the rarefied air at this altitude. As I did, we were joined by two Masai girls, who were more traditionally dressed. They knew January, and the three of them talked in Masai for a while. Larry and Teri got some pictures of them, and they then wandered off to whatever business brought them to the crater rim. Unlike Ngorongoro, Olmoti Crater is not an unbroken crater. A deep ravine leads out of the crater floor. The hill we had climbed parallels the ravine, and I took some photos of it. (9:17-15) The floor of the crater was not flat like Ngorongoro, but had a lot of hills and plateaus. There was also a river flowing along the floor of the crater, which drained out through the aforementioned deep ravine. Some Masai lived in the crater, and cattle herds were evident all over. (9:22-20,18)You could hear the bells on the necks of the cattle as they were watered at the river. (9:19,12) I posed for a picture with Larry and Teri. (9:14) they also took a picture of me. (9:13) This could very well be the highest I ever get under my own power, but one never knows! (If I can ever lose my excess weight and keep it off, I might someday attempt Kilimanjaro!) Now, it was time for the long climb down. Even though this wasn't near as physically demanding as climbing up, keeping a good footing was actually harder. I had to carefully climb over some rocks that the nimbler members of our party could easily scramble over. I got a nice group shot as we climbed down. (9:11 Left to right: Teri, Larry, January, Njau.) I also got a very nice picture of the moss in the trees. (9:10) When I finally caught sight of our land rover, it was but a speck. (9:9, Almost dead center.) We had really climbed a long ways! From this vantage point, I could also get a nice shot of Nainokanoka. (9:8) Looking back, I took a few shots of the hill we had just climbed. Not much to see. The little dip in the treeline is the deep ravine leading out of the crater. You would never guess from looking at these pictures that this is actually a small mountain! (9:6,3) Exhilarated, but exhausted, we made it back to our vehicle. We dropped off January and bid a fond farewell. We then had to hurry back to camp, as we were past the time when they close the gate. (Remember, we are staying inside the park!) On the way, I saw an impressive thunderhead building somewhere over the Ngorongoro Massif. (9:1) Lucky for us, Njau had told the gatekeeper we might be late getting back from the hike. As a result, we came upon an open gate....and no gatekeeper around! Thankful for no problems, we headed to camp. (If the gate had been closed, we would have had to go a couple miles away to Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge, and radio to the park headquarters to get a ranger to open the gate. That would have taken as long as an hour.) After all that physical exertion, a warm shower felt absolutely wonderful! This was also a day to change into all clean clothes, and that felt really good, too. As the sun set, I walked to the campfire, and sat down in one of the folding chairs. I was enjoying a conversation with Larry, Teri and Njau. It was then I started to feel something like an occasional insect bite to my legs. I had also noticed this sensation once or twice during our ride back from Olmoti Crater, but had ignored it. When the 'bites' became more persistent, and started to show up above my beltline, I came to the conclusion there was a problem. I looked down in the dim light, and found ant-like creatures with their jaws clamped into my flesh. I pulled them off, but there were more and more of them. I finally had to go back to my tent, undress, and inspect every square inch of my body for these biting insects. I changed pants and socks, and thoroughly inspected my other clothing. Finally convinced I was rid of the pests, I set the 'bugged' clothing outside for a wash the next day. What were they? At first I thought they were termites. I had plowed through part of a termite's nest during our hike, but didn't stay there long enough to pick up any termites. Even so, that would explain why I felt a couple of bites on the ride back. However, termites are red and tiny. These were only fairly small and black, with an antlike body. I never did figure out what they really were. While this was going on, dinner was called. We discussed our plans for the next day. We would have an early breakfast and descend into the crater. Lunch would be at a picnic site in the crater, and then more game viewing. We would return late in the afternoon, but not so late as to miss visiting a Masai village. It was still fairly early, but I was tired. The cool alpine air was also very conducive to a good night's sleep. It didn't rain that night, but it could have. In any case, it was a really pleasant place to sleep, as I thought about all the lions I would see the next day! I nearly had a companion that night. A toad was trapped under the canvas floor of the tent. From time to time, it would move, and create a scratching sound. Although I knew it was completely harmless, the sound took some getting used to! Saturday, February 13, 1999 Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania Despite the good night's sleep, morning couldn't come too soon! We were finally in prime lion country. I had prayed to God not to let me down in terms of lion sightings. I seemed to have His assurance I would not be! The African adventure I am on is just a bit past half over this morning, with the best part of the trip yet ahead! We had breakfast, as usual. One American thing the Africans had discovered was peanut butter! This was a treat that I loved, but rarely enjoyed because it was extremely fattening. I showed the other members of our group how good a bacon-and-peanut butter sandwich was. Larry was hooked, for sure, and I think the others liked this odd combination as well. Since it was the weekend, the crater ws likely to be a busy place. (It was really easy to lose track of which day it was on a trip like this.) After all, people who live in Tanzania visit their National Parks on weekends for recreation just like we do ours! Somehow, I envy them for having such fascinating places that are easy to visit! After taking a couple of pictures of the crater (10:36,35), we climbed into the land rover for the 2,000 foot descent to the crater floor. The air was just a bit hazy, and the sun was still low, resulting in areas of deep shadow. (10:32) I got some additional pictures of the land as we continued our descent. (10:30-28) As we got close to the crater floor, we could begin to see hundreds of animals scattered on the crater floor. Tiny black dots peppered the landscape for as far as the eye could see. Such is the magic of Ngorongoro! (10:27) We found a Abdim's stork along the road as we neared the crater floor. (10:26) An ungainly wildebeest posed for a picture along the road. (10:25) The weird build of these animals made one wonder how they ever came to be. I've always joked that they are basically built to be lion food! We often observed zebra to roll on their back and writhe around. They did this to give themselves a back rub. It was always fun to watch such a large animal assume such a silly position! (10:24,23) It was now time for the gazelles to pose for pictures. A lone Thomson's was almost perfectly situated in relation to the light as we drove by. The result was a stunning portrait! (10:22) We found few really large herds of animals in Ngorongoro. Instead, we found mainly individuals and small groups scattered almost everywhere. We also observed Grant's gazelles. I got a couple of pictures showing a number of Thomson's gazelles with the bold black side stripes, and the larger Grant's gazelles with the lighter side stripes. They looked striking against the background of the crater floor in the early morning light. (10:21,20) Another lone wildebeest posed with the crater wall in the background. This was the place to get individual animal portraits! (10:19) We were generally making our way towards the Munge River course. A lot of wildlife hung out around this river. I got a photo of a Thomson's gazelle grazing while a Grant's gazelle rested in the foreground. (10:18) We observed a mother wildebeest with her calf. The calf watched us with interest as the mother grazed. We must look as strange to them as they do to us! (10:17) There was no shortage of cape buffalo on the crater floor. These homely- looking (and quite dangerous) animals are among my favorites. I did not get enough photographs of them on this short trip. Some them bore visible scars. Some of these scars were undoubtedly the results of 'power struggles'. Others were likely inflicted in close encounters with their mortal enemies, the lion! (10:16-14) The cape buffalo did not intermix as readily as the other plains animals did, and so were only found in scattered groups. We saw a lone jackal searching for breakfast. (10:13) Jackals were normally seen in pairs, as they mate for life. I spotted a large, kind of dull-colored bird. This is a kori bustard, the largest flying bird. (10:12,9)(They typically don't fly much, due to their size!) This quickly became one of my favorite birds, and I got many photographs of them. The kori bustard is a member of the crane family. It eats a variety of plant and animal food, but it is best known for eating small critters toasted in brush fires. Unfortunately, this magnificent bird is uncommon outside the parks due to overhunting. Another common bird in Ngorongoro is the blacksmith lapwing. (10:11,10) This pretty bird has black and white coloration scattered over it's body. In reviewing my field guide to write this account, I learned that it got it's name from it's call; a long series of 'klink' notes. This might have been the mysterious 'beacon bird' that kept me awake the first night in Tarangire. I got a nice picture of some wildebeest grazing against the backdrop of the crater walls. I also noticed a kori bustard managed to get into the picture, too.(10:9) We were lucky to be able to get quite close to a mother wildebeest and her young calf. This calf ws probably only a few days old. In any case, I got two excellent photographs. (10:7,6) I also got a picture of a wildebeest resting. (10:5) We next saw a pair of jackals, a more typical find. (10:4)They were traveling together, no doubt in search of some grub. Animals that mate for life like jackals develop really deep bonds. These bonds are so deep that if one of the pair dies, chances are the other one will die soon after. We saw more vultures on the ground. (10:3) We saw this all the time. They were usually just resting, waiting for something to happen. However, in looking carefully at this picture, it appears that we may have interrupted a meal. (We did not notice this in the field.) There is something that resembles part of an animal in front of the middle vulture in the group of three, perhaps a wildebeest. Just to the right of the rightmost vulture is what appears to be part of a horn. This might be as close as we got to seeing vultures feed on a large animal. I got another nice picture of a almost all-blue bird. It looks like a lilac-breasted roller, but it's coloration doesn't match. Two out-of-focus cape buffalo loom in the background. (10:2) We next saw two Egyptian geese wandering about on the ground. The light was just right to reveal their coloration and features. They share the pictures with a zebra. (10:2,1) As we got closer and closer to the Munge River, the amount of wildlife increased, both in number and type. No tight herds, but a lot of animals spread out over a considerable area. A hyena was sighted, working it's way along the rivercourse. We saw just two hyena in the crater, I feel an untypically low number. (11:36) Large animals, such as wildebeest stir up insects in the grass for other animals. Yellow billed storks or cattle egrets will flock around these animals to harvest these insect disturbances. (11:35) The animals sometimes sought out shelter from the hot sun under a tree. The sun was out in full strength now, and the morning haze had burned off. I got a picture of wildebeest and a couple of zebra enjoying a cooler spot. (11:34) I took a couple of pictures to show the widespread scattering of animals along the Munge River. (11:33,32) We came across another hyena that was just wandering among the herds. It must have somehow signaled that it is not hunting, as the numerous nearby wildebeest do not seem concerned. (11:31) I took yet another picture of a single wildebeest. Although the light was nice, the pose was not striking. (11:30) There were many zebra among the wildebeest. The zebra and wildebeest like to hang out together because they feed at different height. When one animal is done grazing (I forget which one is first, but I think it is the wildebeest.), the grass is set up for the other to graze. I got a nice picture of a zebra nursing a foal (11:29) and an even nicer picture of a single zebra. (11:28) Ngorongoro has water year round, and the animals depend on it. I photographed these wildebeest in a waterhole, quenching their thirst. (11:27) Any animal venturing into such a waterhole needs to watch what they are doing, as this is a perfect setup for an ambushing lion! High up on the crater wall (Which is really more like a moderately steep hill) was an antelope that one cannot usually get close to: the common (or Patterson's) eland. (11:26) This is the largest of the African antelope. It is also quite shy, and tends to stay away from people. If you look closely, there is a very young calf among this group of eland. The common eland wasn't recognized as a species until around the turn of the century. It was 'discovered' by Colonel J.H. Patterson of Tsavo Maneater fame. It's retiring nature is probably why it took so long to be discovered. It has few natural enemies, and even lions don't hunt them if there is other game available. There is good eating on an eland (I've tried it.), and they are now raised as cattle in some parts of Africa. We saw a tawny eagle in a tree, scanning the crater floor for an easy meal. I got this picture through some sort of obstruction. (11:25) A large flock of birds, most likely yellow billed storks, were out among the large grazers looking for insects disrupted by the large animal's movements. (11:24) We finally ran into what looked like a real herd of wildebeest. They were blocking the road in front of us. The picture that resulted was one of the finest herd shots I got the entire time I was in Africa! (11:23) Further ahead of us, we spied a bunch of safari vehicles that had come together. Whenever you saw this, there was something interesting going on. So, we made our way over towards them. Before we even got there, we found out what was going on. Not only were the vehicles crowded together. They couldn't move because a group of lions had decided to take a nap underneath them. Girdlock, African style! We got there just in time. We saw an enormous paw extending from underneath one of the vehicles (11:22,21. Contrast reduced in 11:22 to help bring out the lion under the vehicle.) Just as we were settled down to watch what would happen, the lions got up. (I will always wonder if they were waiting for me. Only God knows, and Glory to Him!!) I snapped three really nice pictures (11:20-18) as four lions, two females and two young adult males walked around our vehicle! One was so close, I could have reached out the window and touched it!! The lions proceeded to plod down the road, not hurrying. We followed them. (11:17) One of the lionesses decided that a small dirt pile along the road was a good spot to relieve herself! The two males watched with interest. (11:16) The four lions continued to walk slowly down the road, not being hurried by the presence of all the safari vehicles. (11:15) Suddenly, and without warning, one of the pairs decided to mate right in the middle of the road! (No shame!) The two photos I got of this are among the most spectacular I got on the whole trip!! (11:14,13) The lions finally got bored of us, and wandered off the road. (11:12) There was another mating soon after. (I suspect it was the other pair, as lions mate about every 20 minutes. These matings were less than 5 minutes apart.) (11:11 Notice all the 'lion food' in the background!) Then, one of the lions involved rolled on it's back (Probably the female) and the other fell promptly asleep! (11:10) Thus ended our first really close encounter with the king of beasts. Glory to God! Not far beyond the lions, we ran across a nice group of ostriches, who were standing in a circle, as if holding a conference! (11:9) We had all hoped to see a wildebeest give birth. This was the right time of the year, and earlier in the day was the right time. (Wildebeest usually give birth between dawn and early afternoon, so the newborns will have developed enough strength to run with their mother by nightfall.) We never did, but we did come within a few minutes of a birth. We found a wildebeest calf so young that it was still wet with amniotic fluid! It had a piece of umbilical cord hanging from it's abdomen. Although still shaky on it's feet, this little calf had no trouble moving around and savoring those first few hours of life! (11:8,7) It brought to mind words inspired by the opening lines of the main title of 'The Lion King': 'From the day we arrive on the planet, and squinting step into the sun, There is more to be seen than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done.' It was a long ways off, without anything else around, but we had no trouble spotting it. A rhino. In fact, two rhinos; a mother and her young one. We stopped and observed them for a long time, hoping they would move closer. At this distance, it was tough to get a good photograph; I am quite pleased with the results. (11:6-4; 11:4 was scanned at 600 d.p.i.) You can't tell from this distance what species of rhino they are, but they should be the much more rare black rhino. Ngorongoro Crater is famous for being one of the last places you could find them. Park rules prohibited us from leaving the road to get a better look, so we had to be content with what we saw. (I wouldn't want to drive too close to an undisturbed rhino, anyway. Their charge can be nasty!) However, one other group of safariers weren't content. They drove off the road and got much closer. (Their land rover is visible in 11:5) Before very long, a ranger vehicle arrived and we watched the driver of that vehicle get a thorough scolding. There is a observation center on the crater rim that carefully monitors what is going on below. You can bet they know where each and every rhino is, and they are watched VERY carefully! Although nobody was really keeping track, we had seen 4 of the 'big 5' in the space of 3 hours! (Rhino, elephant, lion and buffalo. Only leopard had not been seen.) It didn't take much longer to again encounter one of the 'big 5' again, and another animal that ought to have been included. We were headed for the hippo pool! When we reached the hippo pool, we found an unusually big crowd of safari vehicles there, and for good reason. Besides the numerous hippo keeping cool in the pool, a mother lion and quite a number of cubs were feasting on a kill nearby in the grass! (11:3-1, 12:36,32. These were all scanned at 600 d.p.i.) We couldn't tell what the kill was. We could only occasionally see flashes of red above the grass. What was even more difficult to discern was exactly how many cubs there were. We never did get a consensus count, but it was between 5 and 6. (5 or 6 is unusual for a litter. Perhaps a couple of the cubs weren't her own.) They were quite young cubs. They were also quite dark in color, making them hard to spot in the grass. As is typical for lion cubs, these cubs were also as interested in, if not more interested in adventure than in a good meal. They would eat for a while, then wander off, or watch us, or otherwise get distracted! The mother was frequently distracted from her own meal to round up the cubs! At one point, she raised her tail , giving the 'follow me' signal to the mischievous cubs. (12:36) All one had to do at this point was turn their head to see hippo. There were quite a number of them in the pool, in two groups. (12:35,34) They would occasionally splash water on their backs to keep the exposed portion of the skin moist. Sometimes, they rested their massive heads on each other's back. These massive members of the pig family are responsible for more human deaths than any other large African animal. Blocking a hippo's escape route to water is a fatal mistake. So is threatening their young. They have large tusks inside their mouths, like domestic swine. With these, they can easily cut a person in half, even though they are pure herbivores. Hippos also enrich the environment of the pools they hang out in with their excrement. The nitrogen-rich waste enables a whole chain of life that otherwise wouldn't be possible. In the end, this chain of life also provides the hippo with food. In any case, we stayed in this spot a good while, observing both the lioness and her cubs, and the hippo. You would turn your head and watch one of these for a while. Then, turn your head and observe the other! But, lions and hippos weren't all there was to observe here. There were numerous birds about, such as cattle egrets, white storks, and a stray blacksmith lapwing. (12:33 and the others from this group.) We now turned away from the water, and headed for the picnic spot. On the way, we saw a nice mixed herd of buffalo, zebra and wildebeest. This made for a really nice picture. (12:31) Lunch was on the shore of a small pond. Even though there were a few hippo in the pond, they kept their distance and didn't bother anybody. What was bothersome, however, was the kite birds. I had read about them in the travel guides, and in fact AAC originally told us we would return to camp for lunch to avoid this problem. (My personal feeling on this matter is I would rather experience the kites!) These large birds were flying everywhere, eyes open for an unguarded morsel of food in someone's hand! Although we ate outside the vehicle, we stayed right next to it, and kept our food as hidden as possible. We did not have any problems. One unwary couple ventured a short distance from the main body of visitors to enjoy a peaceful lunch. No sooner than they had sat down on a rock, the kites moved in with force! They were so quickly and heavily barraged that they almost ran back to their vehicle! Others were baiting the kites, just to watch their 'grab and go' tactics. Although this was fascinating to watch, this is not an encouraged practice! We had gotten to the lunch place a little later than most people. It was interesting to observe that the kites quickly left as soon as the main body of visitors had moved on. By the time we left, maybe only 10-20 percent of the people originally there were left, and the kites were completely gone! It is obvious in any case that the kites have built a visit to the picnic site into the daily routines of their lives. Us humans had become part of their ecosystem! One last interesting note. The bathroom facilities at the picnic site were in a concrete block building on top of a small hill overlooking the pond. It was the highest point for at least a quarter of a mile. The facilities had ample running water; you could hear it constantly running. There was no electric power, yet they were able to get water to freely run under pressure with no pumps or water tower! I never did figure out how this facility works. In any case, there was some sort of equipment in a couple of underground rooms next to the bathrooms. After lunch, we made plans for the rest of the afternoon. Since there was only one vehicle and driver, we had to all agree to do the same thing, or else stay behind in camp. On this particular occasion, there was an opportunity later in the day to visit a Masai village. It was the last good opportunity of the trip. I wanted to continue exploring the crater. After all, there had already been two really excellent lion sightings. How many more would there be in the afternoon? The rest of the group wanted to return to camp and take a nap before visiting the Masai village. The vote? 4 to 1 to return to camp. Although I had to agree, I was deeply disappointed. Originally, we were to have spent an entire day in the crater, with the possibility of an additional half day. Instead, our total time in this magnificent place would amount to about 2/3's day! I was very quiet on the drive back to camp. At least, we didn't hurry and took our time to look around. I had all but put my camera and binoculars away because I was disappointed. But God wasn't going to let this be a total loss. As we began our drive up the descent-ascent road, we spied a lone male lion on top of a hill, 'looking regal'! (12:30)We watched him for nearly 10 minutes, until he turned his head towards us, and I got the perfect picture! (12:28,27) At the last moment, the sun peeked out from behind a cloud, and lit up his mane! (12:26. Scanned at 600 d.p.i.) The result was an incredibly dramatic picture of a big male lion with the vertical-looking wall of the crater as a backdrop! This sighting made the difference between an afternoon that was a total loss and one that was just disappointing. 'Give thanks to the Lord for He is Good, His mercies endure forever!' (Psa. 136:1) Just short of our camp, we were stopped on the descent-ascent road by a herd of elephant. I carefully counted. Exactly nine elephant! (A tenth eventually appeared.) This was significant for me. My amateur radio call is NS9E. Many hams try to come up with cute words to remember their call by. My call was particularly resistant to this treatment. One person once suggested 'Never Seen 9 Elephants', and it stuck. Well, I can't use that one anymore! Luckily, 'North South 9 East' had been suggested by someone else, and that is what I now use! We got back to camp. I took two more pictures looking down into a now-less-hazy crater. (12:25,24) After servicing my optics, and making log entries, I took a long, restless nap. After what seemed like forever, it was time to visit the Masai village. Joe and Joyce decided they had seen enough that day, so they stayed behind. So, it was Larry, Teri, Njau and myself who ventured forth. I had always been fascinated by the Masai. They had such an interesting culture, and sought to protect it. I have some acquaintances in Kenya who run a Christian mission to the Masai, and I pray for them frequently. We have aired several documentaries about their unique lifestyle at the TV station where I work. The Masai featured prominently in the movie 'The Ghost and the Darkness'. They believe they own all the world's cattle! Their fondness for drinking blood is known worldwide! The Masai village turned out to be on the way to Olmoti Crater, just short of Nainokanoka. This village was one of a number of 'cultural bomas' that the Masai had set up in the area. There was a plaque proclaiming this in the village entrance. This particular one was a bit off the beaten path, and had fewer visitors. At this particular moment, we were the only ones. The result was an encounter of unusually high quality. The cultural boma program was designed to help break down some of the barriers to tourism that normally existed with the Masai. You paid a fee (Which was built into the cost of the tour.), and then were free to look around as much as you wanted, and take as many pictures as you wanted. (Normally, you had to negotiate a price to take a picture of a person in Africa, especially a Masai. Therefore, this is almost the only spot where I photographed people.) (12:23) Thus, the villagers made a somewhat predictable income off of the visitors, in return for less privacy. The tour started out in a Masai house. It was a round affair on the outside, and was of wattle-and-daub construction. (The big difference being the daub was dried cow manure! It was so dry that there was absolutely no smell.) Even the roof was made of this construction, yet it remained dry inside even during the rainy seasons! The inside of the house (12:22 L to R: The Masai wife who owned the house, Teri (Just visible), Njau, Larry (Only his shirtsleeve is visible.); 12:21) was supported by large sticks. A number of small windows were present in the wall; there was no opening in the roof. A small, hot fire was burning in the middle of the floor, in a small pit. (Just off the bottom left of 12:21) This fire was never allowed to go out. It was fueled with a hot-burning wood that gave off little smoke. And although it was hot and smoky in the house, it was tolerable. The central area of the house was more or less round. There were three bed chambers off the center. One for the man of the house. (Which I was sitting in the mouth of.)The other two were for his two wives and their children. The Masai woman and Teri were sitting in one of these, and Njau was sitting in the other. The floors of these chambers were lined with cowhide that had been polished smooth by constant use. Although the leather was fairly hard, it was warm, and probably quite comfortable to sleep on. There was a supply of firewood, and the few odds and ends that the Masai needed for their daily routine. Larry sat on a rather small stool that provided additional seating for visitors. (12:21) Njau was our interpreter, since he spoke both Swahili and Masai. We learned that the houses were built by the women. On average, nomadic Masai would move about once every six months to follow good pasture. However, the first house for a family was built by the man. (Who was at least a warrior.) He would then marry a wife, and she would move in. Eventually, the man would want another wife. The first wife would then select the second wife. The third wife was selected by the first two, and so on. After the marriage, the wives would build the houses, collect firewood, prepare food, raise children, and make crafts for the tribe and market. There was rarely any idle time in the life of a Masai woman. Young children would help the man of the house watch the cattle as they grew older. Eventually, the boys would start the training they would need to become warriors. Even as youngsters, they would wear the traditional red cloth. But, when it came time for circumcision, they would switch to a black cloth for a period of time. During circumcision, it was a dishonor to show any reaction to the considerable pain caused by this procedure. After circumcision, they would continue to wear the black cloth for a while, and paint their faces white. Eventually, they would switch back to the red cloth, as they had achieved manhood. Young women went through a similar 'circumcision' ceremony to bring them to womanhood. To prove you were ready to be a warrior, you used to have to kill a lion single-handed. Now, lion killing is highly discouraged among the Masai (Unless the cattle are in danger!), as they understand the importance of conservation. Instead of killing a lion, you need to steal someone else's cattle and present them to the village Elders. When you have done this, you are inducted to be a 'Moran' (Warrior). These are permitted to marry. The warriors are the main tenders of the cattle, and will fight to either acquire more cattle, or defend them from being taken. Cattle equal wealth in the Masai world, and owning many cattle is far more important than owning anything else! When sufficient time had passed, and other tests were successfully passed, a Moran was raised to the status of Elder. These men no longer had to tend cattle. They stayed around the village, and managed it's affairs. They also carried shorter sticks that had bands on them that indicated their high status. A word is in order about Masai dress. In order to be considered a Masai, you must at all times 1.)Wear a red cloth, usually with a pattern that indicated your social status, 2.) carry a stick for herding cattle, and 3.)A long knife or sword for fighting off the thief or lion. Failure to have any of these items on your person was cause for major dishonor! As mentioned before, polygamy is normal among the Masai. It also works in reverse. If your warrior friend comes over to visit your wife he will plant his spear in the doorway of your house. He is then permitted to have sex with your wife, and this is perfectly OK as long as the spear is in the doorway. When he is done, he removes his spear and leaves. This is not entirely risk-free; there are major complications if these relations result in a child! Both the men and women will travel great distances to fulfill the tasks at hand. The men will often walk for several days to take some cattle to a market, or get some from the same. When they travel, they take a long, oval wooden flask filled with a mixture of ground maize and milk. They can eat for a number of days from such a vessel, which is about 2 feet long and five or so inches in diameter. Despite the reputation of eating just milk and meat and blood, the Masai eat a considerable quantity of maize meal in their food. Meat is often from non-bovine animals, such as goat. (Remember, cattle equal wealth!) They rarely will hunt wild animals for food. (This is one reason why the Masai live in many wildlife reserves; they don't really harm the wild animals by their presence.) Blood is tapped from a neck vein of a cow. A certain amount is drained out, and the wound closed. A cow can have this done periodically with no ill effects. This is drank as is, or mixed with other foods, such as milk. The Masai also make a strong alcoholic beverage from Maize meal. Masai jewelry is all meaningful. For instance, just looking at the neck ring of a Masai woman can indicate her marital status, the number and age of her children, and her status in the tribe. The same holds true for the bracelets the men wear. There is one particular bracelet given for active participation in government affairs, another for killing a lion, etc. Even the length of the cattle-herding stick means something. Masai religion is based on at least one god. They practice animal sacrifice. Their place of pilgrimage is the mountain Oldoinyo Lengai. This mountain is holy to the Masai. It is the only currently active volcano in East Africa. It is located on the rift valley floor, just Northeast of the Ngorongoro Massif, and just South of lake Natron. They also believe in magic amulets, etc. One of these, for instance, is supposed to make predators, especially lions, stupid and lethargic when close to the wearer. Thus the Masai warrior can walk safely in lion country! Once a year, the warriors get together for training. The practice fighting, give and hear pep talks, and eat a lot of meat. This makes them strong for war. The Masai warrior is to show no fear! The Masai are relative newcomers. They migrated to East Africa from the North about 200 years ago. They were stronger, and displaced the local tribes. Nobody has ever been able to reclaim land back from them. Nowadays, the Masai are less concerned about takeovers, and more concerned about keeping what they have. The government of Tanzania has been trying to settle the Masai down and give them land. They generally don't want this. They have also built schools for the Masai, but many families won't send their children to these schools. Yet, the Masai are on good terms with the government. As the second largest tribe in Tanzania, they hold two seats in parliament. They are highly respected for their traditions and tenacity. Some Masai have chosen to abandon their traditional ways and live more modern lives. Many have gone to foreign colleges and come back with high degrees. This is generally acceptable. What has been problematic has been when one of these falls in love and marries outside the tribe. This causes no end of problems! Many other details of Masai life were discussed at length while we sat in the house. Finally, the man of the house came in, and joined the discussion. We were probably in there a good hour or more. Teri had a special surprise. She had shared the narrow bedchamber opening with the wife. When we were done, she conferred honorary sisterhood on Teri for being willing to share such a small space! It was clear that she and Teri were getting along splendidly! We then went outside, and we were shown the wares the women and children were making for market. These were displayed on racks and chicken-wire panels when finished. There was an area like this outside of each home. We were taken around to the display areas of several of the homes. The use and significance of many implements were demonstrated to us at each of these areas. We watched some of these wares being made as we wandered around. In any case, we quickly learned that these items were for sale, and it was wished that we would consider a purchase! A beautiful belt was tried on me, but alas, it wouldn't fit my wide girth. This was too bad, as the belt was full-cut leather and of superior workmanship! Larry seemed to be the most interested in making purchases and was negotiating a deal at length. Teri tried to trade a watch she had brought for some merchandise. The Masai woman instantly knew where the watch was made and how much it was really worth! Nevertheless, she was eventually able to swing a deal. I just stood around and looked at all the items for sale. Finally, the Masai man fitted me with a multicolored bead bracelet. I very much liked the color scheme. It had a number of rows of clear and opaque colored beads. These were strung on some wire that may be stainless steel, as it hasn't rusted. The wires were held together by flexible bands that are either plastic or animal cartilage. After finding out through Njau that it was expected to negotiate a price, I negotiated a price of $10. I ended up paying this in $1 bills. Now, I know why I needed to bring a lot of these! (12:20) Eventually, Larry was able to close a deal for the items he wanted. Our business transactions were all complete. We were then taken to the center of the village, which is a large communal pen where the cattle are kept at night. As we walked over there, I caught a picture of a older Masai child carrying a younger one on his back. The outside structures of the houses are also clearly visible. (12:19) There were already a few cattle in the pen. (12:18) The rest were on their way. While the cattle were being brought in, some of the people sang some traditional Masai songs, and did a jumping routine they are known for. The young children of the village participated. They all had their little sticks. It was all pretty rough, but everyone was having a good time! (12:17-15) Now, as the singers sang, the cattle were brought in, and promptly milked. (12:14,13) The first bit of milk was sprinkled over the rest of the herd, perhaps as some sort of productivity-increasing ritual. After everyone was busy milking the cattle, we said goodbye (Jambo in Swahili) and thus ended our most pleasant visit. (Although the Masai visit was immensely enjoyable, interesting and educational, I still would have much rather chased lions in Ngorongoro Crater!) We drove back to the camp. After a shower, we sat around the fire like we did the night before. Suddenly, I found myself being bitten again! Apparently, the 'ants' were under the one chair I tended to sit in! I had to go to the tent and meticulously pick them off of me again! This made me late for dinner the second night in a row! It was early to bed that night, but we could sleep in late, as we didn't have to travel too far the next day to reach the Serengeti. There would be a stop at Olduvai Gorge to visit the Hominid Fossil Interpretive Center. Sunday, February 14, 1999 Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania The late start was welcome after some of the intense days we had experienced up to this point. It was also cool, which helped improve what was otherwise not a good night's sleep. In fact, I seem to remember it almost rained again. After a quiet breakfast, we bid farewell to Thomas, Juma and the other camp staff. We would have a different crew in the Serengeti. We packed our bags, and were soon underway. We also paid our tips to the camp staff, about $40 from each person in the group if I remember right. It took a long time to drive around Ngorongoro Crater. At the point where the crater rim road joined Hwy B144, we stopped for one last good look into the crater, where there had been such excellent adventure! (12:12,11) It was a clear morning, and the view was exceptional. Almost all of the development of the crater area was along this stretch of the main road that ran along the crater rim. We passed the main ascent and the main Descent roads, which is how most visitors get in and out of the crater. The park administrative and support offices were along this stretch of road. There were facilities for fueling and servicing safari vehicles, as well. We passed the Crater Lodge and Serena Lodge Hotels. Another Masai cultural boma was also located along this stretch of road. Finally, there were a number of nice public campsites, for the more self-sufficient traveler. I made note of these, as it is a possible springboard for future adventures...... We encountered an unusual vehicle on this road. It was a Guerba Tours safari truck. This vehicle was of particular interest, as I had seriously considered this travel option. This large, slow-moving vehicle (Built by Mercedes) was loaded with young people, most of whom seemed bored. A couple of them rode on the observation seats on top. These high-up seats are one of the few advantages of this type of vehicle. Inside, one could even see bookshelves with reference books on them. (Njau kept several reference books in our vehicle's glove compartment. His favorite was 'Peterson's Guide to African Birds', and he referred to it often.) On the outside of the vehicle was various earthworking tools, spare water and fuel cans, etc, etc. This vehicle was intended to be self-sufficient wherever it went. The biggest problem with a vehicle like this is that it cannot go on any side- or low clearance roads. Thus, your game viewing was limited to the main roads. We passed it, because it was moving so slowly. We finally broke away from the crater rim, and continued Northwest towards Olduvai Gorge. As we drove there, Njau explained that the gorge's name was actually Oldupai Gorge, named after a species of wild sisal that grew in the area. Researchers kept misspelling the name, so the 'Olduvai' name eventually stuck for all but the locals. As we slowly descended the Ngorongoro Massif, we went through some very rugged, hilly country country. I got a nice picture of another Masai cultural boma (Notice all the safari vehicles!) as we drove along. (12:10) A bit later, We spotted a herd of what I think is eland grazing on a hillside. (12:9) We saw a large bird perched right on the edge of the road. Turned out to be a tawny eagle, enjoying a meal of snake. (12:8,7) It let us pull right alongside, and watch it eat. The Oldavi Gorge Visitor's Center was 6 dusty miles North off of Hwy B144. It consisted of two buildings. One had kind of a meeting hall and gift shop. The other had a lot of exhibits in it. Some of these dealt with bones and fossils of local wildlife. Most of the others had to do with the hominid remnant fossils found in the gorge. There were many examples of tools these early humans made. I had some doubt that these pieces of rock were really tools until I saw that they had discovered in many cases the parent rock from which the tool had been made! Were these pieces of stone effective? Richard leaky used to show groups just how effective they were by preparing the night's meal. He could butcher a small antelope in about 10 minutes with a stone blade made moments before! The most impressive exhibit was a set of footprints made by a hominid about 3.5 million years ago. This ancestor had taken a walk in a fresh layer of volcanic ash. Several other animals had walked through it, too. Then, it gently rained, which caused the ash to undergo a chemical reaction and harden. Soon after that, there was another thick ashfall that buried the tracks, and preserved them. Much later, the gorge formed, revealing these ashfall layers as strata. After the first hominid fossils had been discovered, much research had been done in the area. This set of footprints was discovered almost by accident when looking for similar animal footprints in ash. After the footprints were discovered, casts were taken of them, so researchers everywhere could have access to them. The originals were covered back up for preservation. However, we didn't do as good a job as nature. 10 years later, acacia tree roots growing in the disturbed soil were destroying the footprints, along with erosion. The footprints were re-exposed, stabilized, and new casts taken. They are now covered with a much more elaborate protective system to hopefully preserve them until Jesus comes! Replicas of the fossils discovered were on display, showing how man and animals were pieced together from bone remnants. Animal bones were often found with human bones, or with tools, so we have a pretty good idea of what animals early man liked to eat. (It also supports the theory that we are on the carnivorous side of being omnivores, and should be eating a lot more animal food and less carbohydrates!) Outside of the museum building was a Masai man selling various Masai items. I thought long and hard about buying A Masai cattle herding stick. In the end, I didn't. A brief lecture was given about the history of the site. After finishing our exploration of the site, we had lunch in one of the pavilions that overlooked the gorge. We shared our lunch with many interesting birds, who would come quite close to us. Most of these birds will have to remain classified as LBT's (Little Brown Things), but a couple were able to be clearly identified. (Njau knew them all, but I didn't take notes!) Here's a lesser masked weaver (12:6, yellow bird) with a LBT, a lesser masked weaver with a bunch of assorted LBT's (12:5, note the subtle colors on many of these birds.), a nice red-and-yellow barbet (12:4), and some more assorted LBT's. (12:3) The pavilion we were in offered a breathtaking view of Olduvai Gorge, especially the parts that were under the most intense excavation. (12:2,1) It was a bit reminiscent of the American West, especially some parts near where Larry and Teri were from. Larry and Teri were in their element here; archaeology was their business. They deeply admired the work of the Leakys. I took Teri's picture standing against the backdrop of the gorge. She wanted proof she had been there! In return, she photographed me with the gorge in the background. (13:36) You can see here how much the wind and dust had frazzled my 'mane'! The Guerba Tours safari truck eventually showed up. (It took about 2 hours to catch up to us.) These particular tours are 'full participation camping'. So, out came containers of vegetables, tableware, cutting boards, etc. There were even specially assigned tubs for washing vegetables and hands! A table, and even a couple of kitchen-style wastebaskets appeared. The young people that made up the passengers of the safari truck then proceeded to make lunch assembly-line style. It looks to me like a lot of time is spent doing this sort of thing on these trips, and less time is spent observing and learning. Still, this must be a wonderful experience for these young people, as world travel is normally quite expensive for college-age folk. Here, in exchange for some hard work, and less-than-desirable conditions, they can embark on a safari so large in scope that few well-heeled folk could even afford a luxury version of it! (Truck safaris are very economical, and tend to be quite a bit longer than average. Some go on for months and cross the continent.) We took a bathroom break before proceeding down into the gorge for a lookaround. In the men's restroom, I discovered a uniquely African toilet. It consisted of a hole in the concrete floor, in the middle of a shallow depression. On either side of the hole was a concrete brick, about 6 inches long, three inches wide, and two inches high. Urinating was not a problem. On the other hand, defecating was. The idea was to rest one's hindquarters on the bricks, which allowed everything to drop into the hole. It looked incredibly uncomfortable. I suddenly decided that I didn't need to go so bad! This was the first of many of these that I saw in and around the Serengeti. (I have recently discovered some well-traveled person has written a book about the proper 'use' of these kinds of 'facilities', found throughout the world!) We went down into the gorge, which, surprisingly, didn't require the presence of a ranger or a guide. There, we found a plaque commemorating the discovery of Australopithecus boisei by Mary Leaky in 1959. (13:35) It was surrounded by pieces of bone that people had found, both fossil and recent. Here again, I photographed Teri standing with the marker for her. We spent some time exploring this interesting site. I got a picture of Teri examining a rock for fossils, (13:34) and Teri just examining the landscape. (13:33) While I was looking around, I actually found a piece of fossilized bone. I saw it just laying on the ground, as many of the really spectacular discoveries had been made. No way to tell what it was from, but the haversian canals were clearly visible. This is where having a park ranger along would have been nice; they may have wanted to see this. In any case, after everyone had looked at it, I put it back where I found it. I will always wonder if someone else will 'discover' this bone fragment, and that it will be part of the next major hominid discovery! For an area that was so volcanic, there was a lot of sedimentary rock. (13:32) It is these rocks, though, that made the spectacular fossil discoveries possible. (13:31 The pavilion where we had lunch is clearly visible; it is the one on the right.) There were spots where the underlying black basalt was clearly visible. (13:30,29) This rock ultimately underlies much of East Africa. The seasonal riverbed was also visible. Our pilgrimage to the dig site complete, we left Olduvai Gorge. Soon, we were back on the main road. We had originally planned to visit a place called 'shifting sands' where sand dunes march across the flat land, but don't move in the way that the winds should move them. Scientists do not understand what forces are at work there. However, the road we had to take to get there would put us several hours behind schedule; we had much of the Serengeti to cross today! The road began to take on a 'washboard' pattern that is frequently seen on roads in other places. (13:28) These ridges are a result of truck traffic and solar heating. They made the ride very rough at times. The line of trees visible in this picture is Olduvai Gorge. We actually cross the gorge several miles West on B144 from where you turn off for the Interpretive Center. This was also a sign you were very close to the border of Serengeti National Park. Well, we finally made it! We reached the official border of Serengeti National Park! (13:27) The sign reads 'Welcome to Serengeti National Park' in both English and Swahili. (Karibu Hifadhi ya Serengeti) The really amazing thing is that this park is so large, you need to drive 12 miles past this point to get to the park gate! Not very long after entering the park, we began to see herds of gazelles. These were of two varieties: Thomson's and Grant's. As mentioned earlier, Thomson's gazelles (or tommies) are smaller and have a bold black stripe on their sides. Grant's gazelles have a lighter black stripe on their side, as well as an area of white above the base of the tail. I photographed a single tommy along with an African black crow. (13:26) There is a bird in the background that looks like a grey heron. I also got a different shot of this bird, along with the same crow and some more gazelles. (13:25) Most of the jackals we encountered were rather shy. However, we came across one who allowed us to get several nice photos of it. (13:24-22) We finally arrived at Naabi Hill gate. Naabi Hill was actually a pair of hills very close together. The main park road (Still Hwy B144!) passed between these two hills, which formed a convenient place for a checkpoint. There were also trees and bushes growing on the hill, which helped make it a cooler place to work than the hot, flat plains. You could think of Naabi Hill as an extremely large kopje. We had a long stay in the parking lot while Njau took care of the paperwork. He indicated that it would not take very long to do the paperwork, so I didn't try to wander far away. In the end, I should have wandered up to the gatehouse, as that is where the gift shop was. The paperwork took far longer than anticipated, and I would have had time to buy the official guidebooks I had put off purchasing. They also had some nice shirts that I only saw from the road. (Much of the gift shop was outside, in plain view of the road.) Larry wandered up a path that took one to an observation point on top of one of the hills. I later started up this path, but met Larry coming down. He reported not seeing much. I then started up the path to the gatehouse, but stopped when I was inundated by superb starlings! Again, I got a couple of nice photos of these beautiful, gregarious, and trusting birds! (13:21,20) After taking these pictures, I decided to go back to the vehicle. On the way back, a movement in the grass caught my attention. It was along the path that led to the observation point. I stopped and observed for a while. I was eventually rewarded with a sighting of what is probably a common rat. I was even able to get a couple of pictures. (13:19,18) Animals here have much less fear of man! We were soon back on the road. We would take the main road to a point North of the Simba Kopjes, and then head West to our hotel, the Serengeti Sopa Lodge. We drove along, observing hundreds of gazelle along the way. I didn't take any pictures at this point, as I knew we would see thousands more before the next three days were over. Soon, we reached the Simba Kopjes. Now, a word about kopjes. The area known as the Serengeti Plains was originally a very hilly area, made of hard volcanic rock, such as granite. At some point several million years ago, Mt. Olmoti (And probably Ngorongoro, which was once larger than Kilimanjaro) had a huge eruption, which filled in the whole area with ash. We're talking cubic miles of ash here! Now, only the tops of these large hills were tall enough to stick above the ash layer. The result was a vast plain with scattered groups of small hills. These hills weathered very slowly because of the hard rock, but weather they did. The result was kopjes. (13:17) Kopjes were important things to check out during game drives, as predators hide amongst them. As a result, the major groups of kopjes were well-imbued with roads. We drove on a few of these roads when we got to the Simba Kopjes. Still, we didn't stray too far off the main road this time. We still had a long way to drive. We saw nothing. Njau talked to another guide, who indicated that some cheetah had been spotted up ahead. We were told to check out an area around a stone quarry that was just North of the Simba Kopjes. This quarry was used to provide materials for road maintenance in the park. We checked out this quarry, and found nothing. A lengthy chat with another driver revealed that the cheetah were on the main road just North of the turnoff to Serengeti Sopa Lodge. We didn't go more than a quarter of a mile up this road when we found a knot of safari vehicles. There were three cheetah on a fresh kill there, a mother and two large cubs! We couldn't tell exactly what they had caught other than it was a gazelle. All this was perhaps 30 feet off the road! As we began our extended observation, the mother was watching what was going on while the cubs ate. (13:16-13) Cheetahs are very efficient hunters, but lose a lot of kills to other predators. (It takes up to 20 minutes for a cheetah to catch it's breath after running down it's dinner!) As a result, cheetahs eat very quickly. You could tell by their body movements that they were swallowing their food as fast as they could tear it free. (A bite every 10-15 seconds.) Lions eat much slower, unless they are competing for part of a small kill. Eventually, the mother started to eat, as the cubs were starting to get filled up . (13:12-10) From that point on, the mother and cubs were taking turns eating, or sitting up and looking around. The arrival of a group of professional photographers distracted the cheetahs a bit, as they drove off the road to get a better shot. (They must have had a permit to drive off-road, as they had signs in the window which said: 'Do not follow off road'.) I took a lot of pictures of the cheetahs in hope of getting 1 or 2 'classic' photos. I think I achieved this goal with room to spare! (13:9-1, 14:36,35) When we had done all the cheetah-observing we wanted to do, we returned to the turnoff to Serengeti Sopa Lodge, and proceeded West. This road skirts across the Southern edge of the central Seronera region of the park. As were now fairly close to where we would eventually end up, we took our time and did some serious game viewing. And, we were not disappointed! The first thing we discovered was a pride of sleeping lions. (14:34) they were sleeping around the base of a clump of tall grass. A number of other safari vehicles were there observing them. As they weren't doing much, we didn't stay long. (I had forgotten about this sighting until I went through these pictures. It was not even plotted on a map I have which indicates where we saw cats in the Serengeti.) Praise the Lord! As we got closer and closer to our lodge, we came down a hill to where a small river crossed the road. Alongside the road, just a few feet off the edge, a lioness was resting in the shade of a tree. She let us get quite close, perhaps 30 feet. (14:33-31) She was a nice specimen, in fine condition. She sat there and watched us, panting lightly in the heat. Suddenly, she got up, and headed down a small ravine. (14:30) On the hill above the ravine, there were some zebra grazing. They were aware of the lion's presence, but weren't being over cautious. Moments later, they broke out into a full run. The lioness reappeared, closely following one of the zebra. (14:29) She broke off the chase quickly (14:28) without ever attempting to jump the zebra. This one was just a bit too fast for the circumstances! Well, it's not the end of the world for the lioness, as only one in 4 or 5 hunts ends with a meal! Nevertheless, we got to witness a lion hunt, something that is not observed every day. (Again, I will always wonder if the Lord didn't have this lioness wait to start her hunt until I had arrived to observe it. Praise the Lord!) This was the last bit of action for this day. Soon, our hotel, the Serengeti Sopa Lodge came into sight. (14:27) As we drove up the hill to the hotel, we could see that considerable engineering effort had gone into making this work in the middle of nowhere. Electrical conduits seen along the road indicated an offsite, but nearby electrical generating facility. When we got to the hotel entrance, we were treated like royalty. The doors of the land rover were opened for us, and the step folded down. (Which I didn't like, as it got in the way of my long legs when stepping out!) Just inside the door, we were handed glasses of fruit juice and hot towels. The lobby was dark; no lights were on, but the presence of electronic equipment indicated that there was power available. I seem to remember one couple returning a VCR and a couple of tapes. (I think one of them was 'The Lion King', if I recall correctly.) After filling out the usual paperwork (Every place we went asked for our passport number, place of issue, and our occupation!), we were quickly given room keys, which were attached to a piece of wood. A porter carried my bag the long distance to my room. It was the second-to- last room on the South end on the lower level. On the way to the room, I spotted a beautifully colored lizard. It had an iridescent red head which faded to a deep purple on the tail. I never knew a reptile could be so colorful! Once in my room, the first order of business was a shower. I really needed one at this point from all the dust I collected on the road into the park. The second order of business was sitting out on the porch and observing the landscape. This was one of the few places where you could do it on your own. I had a stunning view of the Serengeti plains from the porch! (14:26-22, looking first Northeast, then East, then Southeast. The hills are the distant Ngorongoro massif. The spot where you cannot see any distant hills is looking straight down the plains. All the hills you see except to the Southeast are outside the park, which is at least 30 miles distant.) I spent nearly an hour intently examining the land I could see with binoculars for animal activity. Although I found animals, I didn't see any interesting activity. The third order of business was examining my room. It was laid out just like any other fine hotel room. (14:21) Unlike other places we had been in Tanzania, there is always electricity available here. Still, candles were provided in case there was a power outage. Mosquito netting hung over the bed. While at dinner, the maids would rig it around the bed for you. Incidentally, one thing I did notice here were a few mosquitos. I didn't encounter many anywhere else on the trip. There was a small foyer in my room. In it was a refrigerator and a supply of bottled water. There were instructions not to turn on the refrigerator unless you needed it. Power generation was one of the major expenses here! Despite having seen a VCR earlier, there was no TV in the room. I wouldn't have used it if there was one, anyway. The most unusual thing in the room was in the bathroom. There was a toilet-like thing on the floor, with hot and cold water spigots. I sat and pondered for a long while what this might be. It is a foot bath! Probably for people whose feet are tired from a walking safari. I have never seen one anywhere else. Next. I went out and tried to find the multicolored lizard. It turned out there were several of them, and they were very shy. With a lot of patience, and a little luck, I finally got a good photo! (14:20) Next, I sat down and updated my journal. Most of the time, I just took quick notes to remind me what to expand upon when I got around to writing this account. However, upon arriving for the first time in the Serengeti, I entered a narrative. Here it is, word-for-word: Finally in the Serengeti! Couldn't ask for a more exciting day! After a long, dusty (and interesting) drive, we finally enter what is perhaps the world's best wildlife sanctuary. It is also probably the best lion country on earth. As I write this, the last vestiges of sunlight is disappearing from the sky. The outlines of the hills and mountains to the East is just barely visible. To the Southeast, the plains extend so far you can't see their end. (Serengeti is Swahili for 'endless plain'.) Different animal sounds can be heard, but no lions yet. The stars are starting to speckle a sky that soon will be coal black. This is a special time in a special place. A place that will always be special to me. For down below, the land is ruled by an animal that is a symbol of of God's strength, authority, power, judgment and beauty. It has been given to me to learn about, understand, appreciate and preserve this remarkable animal. Of course, you know this animal as the lion, the king of beasts. I am sure that my God-- The Lion of the tribe of Judah-- Will see to it that I will have many memorable audiences with the 'King of Beasts' over the next three days! Glory to God! The adventure is just beginning! God definitely didn't let me down! There was still more than an hour to dinnertime. So, I relaxed and took a nap. While I laid there I noticed one deficiency in the room. You could hear every single movement of the guests in the room above! There were also a couple of mosquitos in the room that drove me nuts for a while. These disappeared for the most part when the room was later sprayed. The magnitude of engineering that went into this facility was apparent as I walked to the dining room after dark. There was a building behind the main body of the lodge that was lit with rather cold-looking fluorescent lights. This was kind of like a central services building, and contained laundry facilities, and possibly things like water and sewage treatment equipment. Out here, everything had to be self-contained! As I made my way into the dining room, I saw that the rather large gift shop ws now open. I took a real quick look around and went to the dining room. Again this evening, I was on my own. Joe and Joyce were getting room service, and Larry and Teri wanted to be alone together. So, I was the only one at dinner. I was seated at our group's table, number 17. This was marked as such by a wood lion with the number 17 inlaid in it's side. It was actually a pretty piece. I also somehow had the honor of being served by the chief waiter! He was a most congenial person. The lodge had a selection of appetizers, entrees, deserts, etc. to choose from. You would go through the menu and pick one of each. The food was very good, and the portions reasonable. The soft drinks were actually cold! This was the first really cold pop I had had since we left Mountain Village. It sure was good. Just after dinner, as I left the dining room, a band arrived, and started playing traditional African music. Guess I left too soon. Luckily, this was readily audible in the gift shop, where I went next. I spent a long time looking around the gift shop. Although most items were marked with a price, a few were not, such as the Masai cloths they had. I considered some of their books, but they were all titles I could get here in the US for much less. I looked over their knick-knacks, and stone carvings. I pored through their collection of T-shirts. In the end, I purchased a T-shirt, a Masai cloth ($20), a soapstone lion (Which had a cutout in the bottom that the Malachite lion I had bought a few days back fit into very neatly!), and a lapel pin that had a lion on it and said 'Serengeti'. I used my credit card to pay for these items. For some reason, the clerk had a lot of trouble writing up this transaction. I returned to my room after making my purchases and examined my new 'treasures'. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the room had been sprayed and that the mosquito netting had been set up for me. I then carefully cleaned my camera and binoculars. Here I had plenty of light by which to examine things, so I did an unusually complete job. The optical equipment was sure taking a beating, but to this point had performed flawlessly. I then went out on the porch and looked at the stars. First of all, Leo was clearly visible, over the Serengeti Plains! I could also easily make out the adjacent zodiacal constellation, Cancer, which is normally completely invisible to me. All the star pairs in the feet of Ursa Major were clearly visible, as well as the three stars of Leo minor. I use these particular stars as a test of 'seeing' back home. If you can see all three of them, is is very dark. We get maybe 1 or 2 winter nights where it is this dark! The sky ws so dark here I could see many clusters and features I could never see in the US. I spent 45 minutes or more studying the various star clusters and nebulae that were visible to me. Even features easily seen in the city, such as the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades looked much better here. What I could see of the Milky Way here was stunning. The equatorial dust lane of our galaxy was clearly visible. Too bad I couldn't see the other half of the sky! I decided that Leo over the Serengeti was too good of a thing to pass up trying to photograph. I got my camera and the wide lens. I also got out the mini tripod I had brought. As it turns out, this is the only time I used it. After a lot of frustrating trying, I thought I had the sickle of Leo (Representing the lion's head and mane) framed in the camera viewfinder and in focus. I didn't have a remote shutter release, so I practiced holding the camera stock still for 30 seconds before attempting a shot. I also learned how to put the camera in a mode where the film wouldn't advance after shooting a picture. The first exposure (With 400 speed film in the camera) was 30 seconds to get the star image. The second exposure was a flash shot, to catch the grassland below the balcony. I know now that I had enough film to have tried several different shot combinations, as the one I tried didn't turn out at all. I crawled into bed. These rooms didn't have air conditioning. Instead, they had a permanently open vent to the outside. Another permanently open window in the bathroom let air flow freely through the room. It had become somewhat windy, so the wind whistled through my room. It also brought along with it various animal sounds, but no lions. Though the wind sounds were a bit annoying at times, I enjoyed every minute of them! Not long after I retired, I heard what sounded like sobbing coming from the room next door. I thought that Joyce might have been in trouble, so I prayed for Joe and Joyce for quite a while. As it turns out, they were in the opposite wing of the lodge, and had a good night. I was glad to find this out, as they were going for a Serengeti balloon ride the next day. (They were the only ones in our group going. In the morning, Njau and I would drive to Seronera to pick them up, game viewing on the way, and on the way back. Larry and Teri wanted to sleep in. After lunch, we would drive to our camp near lake Ndutu in the far Southern part of the park. We would game-view as we made our way there.) The conclusion I reached while staying at Serengeti Sopa Lodge is that a lodge safari isn't a bad thing, if you have a good vehicle and a good guide. It's certainly easier to set up, and is cheaper than the kind of tented camping we were doing. Rough camping would be my preferred way of doing things, but setting something like that up the first time around is quite difficult. Anyway, after the upstairs and next door neighbors quieted down, I had a good night's sleep. Monday, February 15, 1999 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania The morning arrived with much anticipation! If today was as good as yesterday had been, I was going to have a grand time in the Serengeti. After all, this was the lion country I had really come for! I got up, and cleaned up. Then, off to the dining room for breakfast. When I got to the dining room, I was greeted by a very excited head waiter. Seems I had ran off the night before without paying for my soft drink! I apologized for the mistake and promptly paid for my bill. Everything was then OK! (I was now 'even' with Joe and Joyce, who made the same mistake the first night of the trip!) Breakfast was a buffet with all the usual things I had come to expect. I certainly didn't leave the table hungry! This morning, I brought a camera and got pictures of the lion table markers. I still smile when I look at the picture of this marker. (14:17) While sitting at breakfast, another couple asked if they could join me, so I let them. Turned out to be a good thing. We started talking about all sorts of African adventures, and eventually the conversation turned to the subject of the Tsavo Maneaters. This immediately elicted a response from my guests, as they were traveling with Bruce Patterson (Not related to Colonel Patterson) of the Field Museum of Natural History! (This museum, in Chicago, IL, is where the Tsavo Maneaters are on permanent display.) Bruce is one of the people heavily involved in the Tsavo Maneaters project. Unfortunately, his group had left already, and I never did get to meet him. Well, maybe next time in Chicago! After breakfast, I went back to my room and packed up. I then checked out in the lobby. Check-out was as fast and easy as any good European or American hotel. There was a jewelry store in the hotel lobby, with an impressive array of wildlife jewelry in gold, silver, etc. There were a couple of nice metal lion figures. I didn't even bother to ask what they cost! Njau arrived, and we headed off for the central Serengeti. We would stop at Seronera Lodge, where Joe and Joyce would be waiting after what hopefully for them was an exciting balloon ride. The balloon rides over the Serengeti and Masai Mara are heavily promoted. They are also expensive. After reading several tour guides, the general feeling I got is that while the balloon ride may be novel, and you see things from a unique perspective, your best game viewing is still on the ground. I had also read that some animals were spooked by the sound of the balloon's burner. This was especially the case with elephants. So, after reading this, I made the conscious decision not to go. (I was close enough on the budget I couldn't have afforded it anyway!) Njau and I were soon on our way. The first notable thing sighted was a yellow-billed stork, high in a tree. (14:16) We came to a small pond, bordered by a dam that was almost against the road. This may have been as far North as the Seronera River, but I suspect it was further South. In any case, at least three hippos, and a crocodile were keeping cool in the pond. I did not see the crocodile until I looked at the picture. (It's right above the foreground grass on the right side.) Since we never did actually see any crocodiles, this becomes the first one sighted! (14:15)(Addendum: I have since learned that this was indeed the Seronera river and that this dam is called Downey's Dam.) We saw a lot of zebra and some wildebeest on the move, steadily migrating to the North. There were a lot more of these animals around than we had seen yesterday. (14:14) We found a hyena in an unlikely place: sitting in a mud puddle right in the middle of the road! (14:13) Why it ws sitting in it, I'll never know. Maybe it was cool. Or, perhaps comfortable. Maybe it helped cut down on insects and parasites. In any case, he showed no intention in leaving his mudhole as we slowly drove by. This was as close as we got to a hyena on this trip! (I have since learned that hyenas like to do this.) We found another warthog who was intent to let us stop and photograph it. (14:12-8) Unlike the one in Lake Manyara National Park, this warthog moved around a bit and held his head high for a couple of shots. At least one of these pictures is likely to make my 'best of trip' list. We saw a maternal herd of elephant, with at least one calf. (14:7,6) Njau said that all the young elephants is a good sign, the elephant population is recovering. He also told me that the elephant has been moved off the endangered species list. As we got close to the Seronera area, we came upon a new species of antelope, the topi. (14:7,6) These antelope are a beautiful dark tan, and have curved, ringed antlers. These animals are both fast runners and long distance runners. You can really see the muscles in their heavy front shoulders. We next saw a rather odd sight: An impala licking another impala! (14:3,2) Njau explained this is what happens when a bachelor impala is accepted into a bachelor herd. This situation probably occurred when the smaller impala lost a fight for his harem! We found three more topi at a bend in the road. (14:1) The closer we got to Seronera, the more of these animals we saw. We arrived at Seronera Lodge. It was an impressive and busy place. Safari vehicles were coming from all over to pick up balloon riders. People were everywhere around the lodge, many talking in small groups. There was a great deal of general bustle. Seronera lodge itself appeared to be a two-story affair, partially set into a hill. The building was dominated by a huge, weather-worn granite rock that sat right in the middle. This was probably an isolated kopje. In any case, it was very picturesque. I didn't get any pictures of the lodge because of all the people milling around. When we finally did find Joe and Joyce, I put on my Masai cloth and got an interesting double-take out of them! I took it off as soon as they had 'fallen' for the situation. Joe and Joyce had a wonderful time. They told us about their adventure. Each balloon held six passengers, and an operator. Each passenger was in a little stall-like enclosure the nature of which I don't fully understand. In any case, it made your viewing experience somewhat private. The balloons are at the mercy of the wind, so they have no set course or itinerary. At the end of the flight, you end up wherever you end up. Chase vehicles find you, and take you to a predetermined spot, where a champagne breakfast is served. A number of people I talked to who had gone on a balloon ride thought champagne for breakfast was a bit odd, but otherwise OK. Joe and Joyce saw a lot of neat things from the air. The one thing that I specifically remember is that they saw a lion catch a warthog for breakfast just before they landed. We now started on our second game drive of the morning, which would take us back to the Serengeti Sopa Lodge for lunch. We sighted a nice gray heron a bit further from water than I might have expected to find such a bird. (15:36,35) These pictures did not turn out as well as they could have. At a small waterhole, we found a nice example of a three-banded plover. (15:34) This was an all-new bird I hadn't seen before. A bit further on, we came across a larger waterhole, with many zebra and a couple wildebeest in it getting a drink. They seemed a bit skittish. Indeed, we were not really surprised when all the animals got out of the water as quickly as they could! (15:33-31) Soon, the thirsty animals would venture into the water to continue their drink. Within a couple of minutes, they all quickly left the water again. We saw this happen 3 or 4 times. What was driving them out? A predator, no doubt. But what kind? Njau seemed to think it was a crocodile. We never did find out. We saw an African fish-eagle in a tree. (15:30) These birds are similar in appearance and habit to the American bald eagle. We hadn't seen cape buffalo yet in the Serengeti. We finally caught up with a nice herd of them. (15:29) They were being attended to by some yellow-billed egrets, who enjoyed the insect feast that invariably accompanied such big animals. Indeed, you can see one of them picking an insect off of one buffalo's chin! (15:28) We ran across the same hyena we had seen earlier laying in the puddle. (15:27,26) The mud on his lower half was clearly visible. The puddle was also clearly visible, with hyena tracks all around it. The incredibly powerful jaws of this hunter-scavenger are clearly evident in this view. We made it back to Serengeti Sopa Lodge around noontime. Larry and Teri were nowhere about, and Joe and Joyce had not checked out of their room. Now, it was apparent that checking out when I did was a mistake. I had an hour or so till lunch, during which I was completely bored. I was going to wander out onto the terrace behind the main lobby, but it looked like it was closed for some preparation. The lodge's pool was out there, also. It was an odd shape, figure 8 with a very narrow neck between the two halves. Eventually, I found some magazines I could read. The particular one I found was entitled 'Tanzania Wildlife'. It was nicely done, very similar to 'Africa Environment and Wildlife', which was readily available in the US. They have a website, but I have never bothered to check it out. This might be a nice magazine to subscribe to, but it was rather expensive. I read through it pretty completely. Finally, it was lunchtime. I was one of the first people in the dining room. I was seated at another table from where I had been seated before, one without a wooden lion! I was glad I had photographed one earlier in the day. There was a fountain in the middle of the dining room. It wasn't running when I came in, but started up soon afterwards. Apparently, even little details like that weren't overlooked to conserve energy. I had perfect conditions to get a picture of the Serengeti Plains out the window with the dining room furniture in the foreground. Before I could take the picture, guests started to occupy tables in the shot. I never got the picture. Lunch was a buffet of all sorts of good things. One of these was not the pork. Or was it goat? It was very hard to tell. Whatever creature it had once been, it was now so dry that I could hardly eat it. I almost choked a couple of times. I finally ate all of it, even though I hadn't taken that much of it. Larry and Teri eventually joined me, and later, Joe and Joyce. We finished lunch together, and then rested in the lobby for Njau to arrive. Joe had to attend to some of Joyce's medical needs. Larry helped Joe with this, while Teri and I made sure that nobody would watch. Njau eventually arrived, and we were soon back on the road. This afternoon, we would explore the gallery forests along the Mbalageti River, some of the area around Lake Magadi, and the route to our camp via the Simba Kopjes and Naabi Hill. We saw a lot of plains game on this drive (15:25-22). It was all migrating in columns towards the North. Although we never saw the 'endless herds' the Serengeti is famous for, we did some big game concentrations from time to time. Because they benefit from each other's feeding, zebra are often seen mixed in with the wildebeest, as we graphically see here. Another animal we encountered a lot of that afternoon was tsetse flies. They were worse in this area than anywhere else we had been. We all got bit from time to time, but they still seemed to favor me for some reason. By the end of that afternoon, I had become an expert in identifying and eradicating the pesty insects. Tsetse flies were also smart. They would go down by the legs, or other hard-to-get-at parts, and do their biting there. I eventually had to put insect repellent on my ankles! We found two male impala locking horns in a dispute of some sort. (15:21,20) Although we saw all sorts of power struggle type behavior among impala, this was one of the few real fights we saw. Upon crossing a small bridge, we were treated to a fine sighting of an ordinarily-shy vervet monkey. The result was some fine photographs. (15:19-17) Someone working in the park had a healthy sense of humor. This humor was evident when we found the somewhat comical and goofy combination of a buffalo skull sitting on top of an elephant skull! (15:16) We discovered two young warthog close to the road. Although they didn't exactly pose for us, they stayed around long enough for us to have a nice observation. The thinner face, big ears, lack of tusks and scruffy manes showed their young age. Somehow they don't quite look like warthogs, yet! (15:14,13) We were alerted to the discovery of a leopard in a tree just down the road. Unfortunately, another safari vehicle drove off the road to try and get a better look. It scared the leopard off, and we (And everybody else that followed, staying on the road like they were supposed to.) never did see it. Our next find was a pride of lions sleeping under a tree. (15:12) There was not much activity here, so we didn't stay for very long. We were at a point where we were close to the end of what we planned to explore in this area. So, not far past this point, we turned around and headed up a road that ran parallel to the road we had been on. It was hardly 200 yards away. But, the tree with the lions under it was between these two roads. So, we saw the same pride of lions, from about the same distance, from the opposite side. (15:11. This picture and 15:12 are 600 d.p.i. Scans.) In the ten minutes or so between these pictures, one of the big females had moved, and was possibly grooming itself. Praise the Lord! We came across some wildebeest with a couple of very young calves. They are such cute and homely things! (15:10) They couldn't be more than a few days old. You can still see the stump of the umbilical cord on one of them. However, we quickly discovered that one of them had a broken leg. Although not evident from the picture (15:9), this calf was having a bit of a struggle keeping up with mom. Unfortunately, the only role this calf has to fill in the scheme of things is the belly of a predator. Even though we saw them everywhere, I had a strange fascination with guinea fowl. I photographed a nice group of them, in good light. The colors on their head stand out unusually well. (15:8) We found a usually shy bat-eared fox close to the road. This handsome animal hung around long enough to let us carefully observe and photograph it. The pastel colors in their coat are quite beautiful! (15:7-5) When we came into the Lake Magadi area, we had another audience with the king of beasts. We saw several safari vehicles looking at something. It turned out to be this male lion, resting himself in the heat of the day. It is amazing how being top predator makes these cats so laid back and shameless! In any case, this nice male had absolutely no intentions of doing anything until he had his beauty rest! (15:4,3) We didn't stay here for very long, as it was apparent the only lion behavior we would observe is sleeping. (They are very good at this behavior. They spend up to 20 hours a day doing it!) There were also a lot of other safari vehicles about, constantly jockeying positions for a good view. We left by a slightly different route than most of these other vehicles. The result was an unexpected surprise lion sighting! (15:2) We saw this female sprawled out in the grass about 10 yards from the male. When we looked closer, there was at least one more further in the grass, also fast asleep. Everyone else was so intent on observing the male, that we were the only ones who saw the females! I think God was looking out for me, as I was the person who spotted them from my low seat! In any case the male figured he'd lay out in the open and attract all of the attention of those strange white animals with wheels! Then, his females could rest better and maybe catch him something bigger for dinner! Praise the lord! We saw lots of bird life around Lake Magadi. One of the birds we saw was a fine example of a black-capped avocet. (15:1) the most notable feature of this somewhat unusual bird it it's long, upward-curved bill. A bit later, we saw a beautiful saddle-billed stork, along with a yellow-billed egret. (16:36,35) The saddle-billed stork has an amazing bill, with a rainbow of bright colors. (16:35,34) Up to this point, whenever we had seen crowned cranes, they were always a long ways off. We finally ran into a pair close to the road. They also happened to be fine specimens of the species. (16:33,32) We were now heading out of the West Central part of the park, and were moving in to the East Central part before heading South to our camp. As we moved in this direction, the land became flatter as we moved back onto the Serengeti Plains. Prime cheetah country. And, we were again not disappointed! As usual for cat sightings, there were several safari vehicles parked nearby. They were watching a group of cheetah out in the grass. They did not appear to be doing anything in particular, except milling around. There seemed to be a mother and four or five older cubs. The grass did a good job at hiding them, so we only saw them when they put their heads up, or sat down. This sighting did not offer a lot of good photo opportunities, although I did get two reasonably decent pictures of the mother. (16:31,30. These are 600 d.p.i. Scans.) We came across a small herd of zebra with two of them doing something we observed occasionally: One animal resting it's head on the back or neck of another animal. (16:29) Notice how confusing it is to tell where one zebra begins and another zebra ends. It is widely held that the stripes of a zebra confuse predators, especially lions. Other researchers have evidence to show the stripes do little to confuse predators; they are really there for thermal management. Another interesting fact: a zebra's stripes go all the way to it's skin. Shave off all the hair and you will still have stripes! We found a bunch of guinea fowl resting in a lone tree. (16:28) We now had turned South and were heading into the Simba Kopjes. We took a road around the outside of the kopjes to check them over for interesting animals. We all hoped for a lion, or a leopard, or a cheetah, but there were none to be seen in this area today. I did get some nice scenic shots of the kopjes. (16:27,26,23) We saw a group of safari vehicles near one of the kopjes. We went to find out what they were watching. They had spotted a troop of baboons that were out and about on the rocks. (16:25) You can also see how weathered the rock is in this picture. Njau stopped by a bush that had developed a interesting defense against grazing. Ants lived in green galls among it's branches. (16:24) Whenever the plant was disturbed, the ants would leave the galls and sting whatever was disturbing the plant. Therefore, any animal attempting to feed on this plant got a painful surprise on it's tongue! In return, the ants got food and shelter from the plant. Njau disturbed a branch, and within seconds, ants appeared. It was now getting to be late afternoon, and the light was right for some nice photographs. One of the young tommies thought the road was a nice place to be, until we chased it off. (16:22,21) Of course, it found it's nearby mother. They wandered off together, making a charming picture. (16:20) We found a pair of secretary birds foraging not far off the road. They were close enough for decent observation and photography. (16:19,18) The long tail feathers were very evident. Secretary birds are considered raptors, although they don't look much like raptors. They eat snakes, rodents, small reptiles, nestling birds, insects, etc. They carry food back to their young in their crops and regurgitate it. This is uncommon among birds. They also kill snakes in an unusual manner. They form a fist with a foot and pelt the snake to death! We found a bunch of tommies that wanted to race! (16:17) There is also what appears to be a single Grant's gazelle off to the left side. We passed through Naabi Hill Gate and continued South. Just a couple miles beyond that, we turned Southwest onto a road that took us towards lake Ndutu. There were signs here and there along this road for Lake Ndutu lodge. Their symbol was a genet. Some people call them genet cats, even though they are not felines. We found a kori bustard close to the road. (16:16,15) Besides being big, I found these birds to be quite handsome. They're certainly one of my favorite African birds, if not my favorite. The dying light of the day proved perfect for getting some fine photos of a topi. (16:13-12) We stayed and watched this solitary animal for a while, as it was the first one Larry and Teri had seen. Lake Ndutu and it's smaller companion, Lake Masek were located at the West end of Oldavi gorge. By this point the gorge had widened out into more of a shallow valley. Although water flowed here during the wet season, it was now just a dry, dusty bed. Because the little water that was here tended to concentrate in the lakes, and the soil was so volcanic, the water in them was alkaline. This is why they were called soda lakes. These lakes were not as alkaline as other large alkaline lakes in the world, such as the Dead Sea, and Great Salt Lake. Much birdlife lived in the water, and there were a few species of fish as well. As a result of La Nina, the short rains in November and December had failed. This made everything extra dry. As a result, the herds had moved North quite early. Normally, this area would be crowded with countless thousands of wildebeest and zebra. We saw an occasional zebra and very few wildebeest here this time. The herds were now where they normally should have been in May. At the time when our camp was booked here, it was anticipated we would be smack dab in the middle of the wildebeest migration. (Camps must be booked months in advance.) We probably would have had wildebeest everywhere, including in camp! (Although Njau said otherwise, I think we would have seen more lions, too, as the nomads tend to follow the herds. The lions we saw here were resident ones.) But, since they couldn't exactly predict the weather, we were not in the best location for the type of game viewing we had anticipated. Although this was a problem, we still were able to see a lot of things, and had little competition for good game viewing. We were also far enough away from the core of the park that off-road driving was permitted. We didn't do much of this today, but we would do it extensively on our next two days. As the sun started to set, we reached the salt flats surrounding the two lakes. As our camp was almost on the far side of lake Ndutu, this was a nice shortcut around a lot of bumpy roads. (16:11) We also kicked up a tremendous amount of choking dust on this road. It had an odd taste and smell to it. Just after leaving the salt flats, we encountered a tank truck pumping something out of a pair of wells. We learned from Njau that these were fresh water wells used by the park folks and some of the camps. The wells were apparently deep enough that the water was potable. (Or it was potable for the residents. We would probably had to drink it for weeks before our systems adapted!) We now realized that we were in an area where leopard might be lurking about. We kept an extra eye out for them as we made our way towards camp. Just before we reached our camp, we came upon another camp that was just being set up. We recognized some of the people there as professional photographers we had seen earlier. One very interesting thing in their camp was an HF dipole antenna. We soon reached our camp. Although this was a different set of equipment, and a different staff, it was otherwise just like the last camp we had been in. This had been an extremely dusty day, so a shower felt especially good. The hot water heater, which was wood fired, was located this time right behind my tent. A bucket of water was left there, that hadn't been used for that day's showers. Dinner was later than usual that night, so I took the time to clean all the dust off of my optical gear. Boy, did it need it. If conditions kept up like this, I had some doubts if the camera would continue to work! We had a nice dinner that night. I forget what it was, but it probably had lamb in it. They served it quite frequently, which I didn't mind a bit. After a brief look at the African stars, it was off to bed. Not long after I retired, I woke up. As I lay there, I listened to the night sounds. A few animals could be heard, but not like Tarangire. Of course, the ring-necked doves would occasionally call 'work-HARD-er, work-HARD-er'. There was an occasional hyena, often not that far away. If I heard lion at all, it was extremely distant. That was kind of a disappointment, but a small one. I then heard the footfalls of a fairly large animal in the camp. It was quite close, perhaps behind the tent. Then, I was sure it was behind the tent. It was drinking out of the bucket of water that had been left there! Whatever it was, it took a good, long drink. It then walked down the far side of my tent, where it stayed for several minutes. I heard it move briefly again, and that was the last I heard of it. What was it? I suspected it was not a herbivore. I also suspected it sounded too small to be a lion, although that possibility couldn't be ruled out. A leopard perhaps? Probably not. A hyena? Now, there was a good possibility. I didn't hear any vocalizations close to camp, so as I lay there, I never figured out what it was. I also had a strong urge to use the bathroom, even though I had used it before bedtime. I let 45 minutes go before I got up and used it. I didn't want to surprise a predator outside my tent! After that I finally fell asleep. I tried to use my Masai cloth as a blanket that night. It allowed me to use the blankets on the bed as extra padding for the center brace. Although the bed was considerably more comfortable, the blanket proved too thin to keep me warm. Although it was not as cool as it had been in the crater highlands, it still was cool near morning. Tuesday, February 16, 1999 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania We slept a bit later that morning, as we did not have as aggressive a game drive plan as the previous day. But, We were still up before sunrise. As I learned how to better utilize the manual settings of my camera, I again attempted some sunrise shots. They turned out very nice. (16:10-8) These 'African sunrise ' pictures will bring back fond memories for many years to come. As soon as the light was good enough, I went out to the water bucket to see what might have been drinking from it. I was quite elated to find pawprints! From their size, I concluded that they were hyena prints. Breakfast here was no different from the previous camp crew. Fruit first, then porridge, then eggs/bacon/sausage. As we ate, we discussed the days plans. The overriding consensus is that we should make a maximal effort to find leopard. After all, this area with it's craggy acacia tree forests was prime leopard country. We would stick around the Lake Ndutu/Lake Masek area, as there was plenty of this forestland to explore around the lakes. We were soon on our way. We crossed the salt flats between the two lakes several times as we explored promising bits of forestland. Again, I was the lucky one and got some more good dik-dik pictures.(16:7,6) The early morning light made these turn out especially nice. (I have also wondered if sitting in the low front seat had anything to do with getting all the good dik-dik pictures!) The morning sun also caught an elephant out for an early morning snack. (16:5) Elephants do not have efficient digestive systems, and so have to eat enormous quantities of food to survive. Although we didn't see large herds of elephants here, we did see them frequently. Flamingos were a source of endless fascination, especially to Larry and Teri. We spent a lot of time sitting on the shore of Lake Masek watching them. (16:4-0) We were at what I suspect was the Eastern end of the lake, which is quite a bit smaller than Lake Ndutu. Flamingos are not naturally pink. They get their coloring from substances in their food, which is mostly tiny organisms, like brine shrimp, insects, snail larvae and blue-green algae. Along with the flamingos, we saw some shorebirds as well. Unfortunately, I could not re-identify the black and white bird with the black and white head we saw there. (17:35,34) However, I was able to identify a three-banded plover along with the other unidentifiable birds. Notice the flamingos with their heads underwater, feeding. They have filters in their mouths very much like whales for removing their tiny-bodied food from the water. Everyone in our group was keen on getting a picture of the flamingos trying to fly. They run across the surface of the water for a long distance before they build up enough speed to become airborne. Once they do become airborne, they tend to fly low above the water. I got a nice shot of a single flamingo flying above the water. It turned out sort of neat in the early morning light. (17:33) We saw numerous smaller birds as well, such as blacksmith lapwing (17:32) and Kittlitz's plover. (17:30) After watching the flamingos from various places, we made our way back to the road above the lake. There, we could see the flamingos out on the lake. (17:29-27) We also saw the usual guinea fowl that seemed to be everywhere in East Africa. (17:26) As we started to move to another spot, Larry suddenly shouted 'lion!' It took us a moment to see what he had seen. There was one, no, two male lions walking along the beach! Njau took the nearest 'cross-country' route he could to get back on the beach. When we got down there, we found two really nice male lions out for a walk in the midmorning sun. (17:25-20) We followed these animals as they walked along. They were fairly young animals, with their best years undoubtedly ahead of them. They appeared to be in good health and well-fed. There is no way to tell if these were leaders of a pride or just a pair of brothers. (They had a lot of similar features, suggesting they were from the same litter. Note, however, that one of the lions has a slightly darker mane.) Even at their young age, they carried plenty of battle-scars. Some of these would be from their dinner trying to get away. Others would be from rough play. Still others would be from real fighting. Males like this will often stay together for the rest of their lives, even after they have lost a pride. The lions finally found a spot to lie down in the shade. We crept up to within about 20 feet or so of them, and just watched. Here, I had the very best seat! These two lions just laid there and 'looked regal' for us for about 15 minutes. The cameras (especially mine!) were quickly using up Kodak's finest as we observed and enjoyed this wonderful treat. (17:19-3) For me, this was the finest moment so far of the entire trip. Without a doubt, these are my favorite photographs from the entire time I was in East Africa! It is absolutely remarkable how laid-back these powerful animals are. They didn't mind our noise and presence one bit. When they finally got bored of us, they flopped over asleep. (17:2) Remember, lions sleep up to 20 hours a day. It's nice to be at the top of the food chain! Praise and glory to the Lord! After an extended period of observation, we decided to move on. Others afari vehicles from all around the lake had spotted us, and were trying to figure out how to get where we were. The land rovers didn't have any problems, but minivans had to find a road down to the lakeshore. We left just as the first other vehicle was arriving. We now had a bit of a problem ourselves. How did we get back to the road? We ended up driving for a considerable distance down the beach, looking for a suitable path back to the road. (We did not want to use the same route we had used to get to the beach to get back. That way, we minized the likliehood of making a new road.) While looking for this route. We stopped and did some more flamingo observing. (18:36) I also got another nice picture of flamingos taking off. (18:35) We never did find a good route back to the road. We ended up having to go through the brush again. This is not a good thing to have to do, and Njau tried hard to avoid it. The ride through the bush was somewhat exciting as most everything has thorns on it! It's nice to be able to keep your elbows out of the windows, but they had to be frequently drawn back in while driving through the brush. Even with slow speeds and careful avoidance, I was contacted a couple of times (Without injury!) by passing brush. When we finally did make our way back to the road, we stopped and Njau got out and cleared branches that had got hung up on the land rover's undercarriage. The rest of that game drive was totally uneventful. We didn't see leopards or much of anything else. We finally made our way back to camp. The first order of business when we got back was photographing what was left of the hyena footprints. The camp staff had partly obliterated them during their work routines. (18:34) Still, a reasonably clear pawprint or two is visible. (Note the lack of claw marks. This would prove significant later.) Another photographic task I took care of in camp was to take a close-up photo of a branch of an acacia tree that was growing close to my tent. You can see the two features that characterize all species of acacia: thorns and very small leaves. (18:33) This was a surprisingly difficult picture to take. It was decided that there would be no late morning game drive. Therefore, there would be nothing going on until late in the afternoon. I spent the late morning trying to take a nap. After lunch, we spent a long time exchanging addresses and postcards showing where we lived. For me, this was an incredibly boring afternoon. One can nap for only so long! So, I read parts of my field guide and the travel handbook. I also spent a fair amount of time studying the Swahili phrasebook I had brought along. It was very interesting. In retrospect, I should have spent more time before the trip trying to get a grasp on Swahili. At least, language had never proved to be a real barrier anywhere we went. This is not true of much of the rest of the world. I should have also brought a good, long book to read! (Larry had brought 'The Man-eaters of Tsavo', and we discussed that book on many occasions. I had planned to bring 'War and Peace', but I couldn't find my copy! Of course, it magically appeared shortly after I got back home!) Late afternoon finally arrived, and we were back on the road. We did pretty much what we had done in the morning: Drove around Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek looking for leopard! Just outside of camp, we found a secretary bird tending to it's nest. It was in the top of an acacia tree. It was feeding one of it's chicks, by regurgitating food stored in it's crop. (18:32-30. 18:30 scanned at 600 d.p.i.) We came upon a nice harem herd of impala. (18:29,28) Although the plains sections of Serengeti National Park are dominated by gazelles, the woodlands are dominated by the larger impala. This was the most common mammal we spotted around the lakes. Although there were no large herds here now, there was plenty of evidence of their having been here in the recent past. Everywhere you went, there were bones on the ground. On the shore of Lake Masek, we found a few more complete skeletons. (18:27,25,24) These bones and skeletons tell many a story of unlucky prey-- and happy predators and scavengers! We now spent a lot of time watching flamingos. Although they aren't my favorites, the others thoroughly enjoyed observing them. There were plenty to be seen, with a couple of blacksmith lapwings thrown in for good measure. (18:26,23-21) We now noticed a flamingo with a hopelessly broken leg. It would flip one of it's feet almost to it's neck as it walked in the water. It was hard to tell whether this was a new or old injury. It otherwise looked to be in good health, and could manage just fine in the water. (18:20-17 Frame 17 clearly shows the leg problem.) One thing this bird could not do was get up enough speed to take off in flight. Although it tried to join it's flock when it took off, it never succeeded, and was left behind with a few others that had decided not to fly off. We moved a ways down the lake, and watched more flamingos. The light was now perfect for some take-off shots. (18:16,15) I also managed to 'bag' another safari vehicle across the lake! After completing our exploration of the Lake Masek shore, we made our way back to the road above the lake. We hadn't gone far when we spotted a safari vehicle in the brush. We found an easy way to get to where it had been. (It was moving off.) When we got there, we found the two lions from earlier in the day! These lions were even less interested in us than they had been earlier. They quickly looked at us and went promptly back to the business at hand-- sleeping! And this with us being less than 20 feet away! It must be the life to be a successful lion! (18:14,13,11-8) Praise the Lord! Leaving the sleeping cats behind, we soon discovered a pair of lion appetizers-- dik-diks! (18:7) This was a nice pair, and again, I got the great shot of them. (What will I ever do with all those dik-dik pictures?) We found a hornbill in a tree. It had it's back to us, and I never was able to determine the exact species. (18:6) There are many different species of hornbills. We found another dik-dik, who let us get some good photos. I think that everyone got some decent pictures this time. The ones I got are good enough for a biology textbook. Note the tiny horns. (18:5-2) It was starting to get close to sunset, so we decided to end our game drive by exploring the shore of Lake Ndutu. The sun and the clouds and the lake combined to create some spectacular scenic shots. (18:1, 19:35) It doesn't get any prettier than this! Unlike Lake Masek, Lake Ndutu had a substantial quantity of mineral buildup around it's shore. It must be considerably more alkaline than Lake Masek. (19:36) There were also rings of stones, showing where the water's edge had previously been. So ended our second exciting day of game driving in the Serengeti. The elusive leopard had evaded us once again! Camp that night was pretty usual: a shower, optics maintenance, journal updates, and some time to relax before dinner. Of course, dinner was served to us in style! At dinner, we planned our last full day of game driving. As it would be our last day, it would be a full one. The whole group would go for an early morning drive around the lakes. After returning for breakfast, Larry, Teri and I would set out for an extended drive, either down to the South, or up into the central Serengeti, perhaps along the Seronera River. We would take a picnic lunch and stay out until dusk! I imagined the whole prides of lions we would see tomorrow as I crawled into bed that night! I quickly fell asleep. But, soon, I was wide awake! There were noises behind the tent again. Our hyena friend had returned! A few seconds later, it took a good, long drink out of the water pail. A moment later, it wandered off, not to be heard in camp again that night. A few minutes later, I heard a hyena call from not too far away. It was perhaps a half mile to a mile from us. I heard a couple of other animals wander through the camp later in the night. Then, I heard an intermittent flapping. Elephant ears? It just had to be. The flapping sound persisted, and seemed to move around, accompanied by sounds in the grass. The flapping persisted, and persisted and persisted.... It couldn't be elephants. It had to be the wind. Indeed, the flapping grew worse as the night wore on and the wind increased. It looked like our last day in the Serengeti was to be a windy one! I didn't sleep particularly well that night, as I had developed a mild case of traveler's diarrhea. It wasn't serious enough to warrant taking the antibiotics I had brought, but it still made me a bit uncomfortable. Although this persisted into the next morning, the excitement of the day soon made me soon forget about it! Wednesday, February 17, 1999 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania The sun couldn't have risen early enough for our last full day of adventure. We were all up just after dawn, and ready to go! This morning, instead of just going around the lakes, we would go up into the marshes at the West end of Olduvai Gorge. This would be a change of pace from the lake driving we had been doing up to now. Our first sighting of the young morning was the secretary bird just outside the camp. (19:34) We now saw this unusual raptor nearly everytime we left or returned to camp. Olduvai Gorge terminates in three valleys at it's Western end. The land starts out fairly dry as you head into this area, but eventually grows swampy. We divided into two groups in the vehicle, one watching the left bank for leopards, and the other watching the right bank. We all took 'scanning breaks' from time to time to look for interesting wildlife on the gorge floor. We saw a huge flock of guinea fowl on the gorge floor, the largest I had seen to that point. (19:33-30) Njau told us that these birds liked to congregate in large groups in the morning. Teri was becoming especially frustrated at trying to get good dik-dik photos. We came upon one of these diminutive ungulates, and once again, I was lucky. I got three nice pictures. (19:29-27) This one didn't seem to want to run from us. This part of the gorge is very pretty. Although the dust on the windshield made this picture less than optimum, I captured at least some of it's beauty. (19:26) Speaking of dust, the strong winds were really kicking up a lot of dust. I found myself constantly cleaning dust from my camera and binoculars. Indeed, some of the knobs on the camera didn't work as smoothly as before because of the dust. Thankfully, it was not getting inside the camera! We found an impressive male Grant's gazelle out in the middle of the gorge floor. This is not a place where you would usually find this species. (19:25-23)(This is impala country.) Njau told us that this gazelle may have recently been ousted from his herd. They will often go and be alone for a while after this happens. This was also a good spot to be alone; a predator would have a hard time finding enough cover to hunt this gazelle. Teri's persistence in trying to photograph dik-diks finally paid off in the ultimate dik-dik sighting! We were coming down a small hill onto the gorge floor, when a dik-dik stepped into the road. Njau stopped, but I don't think he even bothered to turn off the engine this time (Which he usually did if we saw something interesting. One thing the land rover was not was quiet. It had a distinct staccato diesel sound to it.) Everyone who wanted a dik-dik photo was rewarded with an excellent opportunity. The other members of the group, who had access to the roof hatch were especially lucky this time. I had time to get three pictures with the short lens, (19:22-20) and then change to the long lens for three more. (19:19-17) The dik-dik then ran off into the bushes. We moved forward, only to stop again at the base of the bushes. The dik-dik was just around the corner in the shadows! (19:16,15) A few moments later, it was joined by it's mate. (Dik-diks mate for life.) I was able to photograph the pair together. (19:14,13) Praise God for wide-latitude film! Nobody requested a stop to watch dik-dik after this sighting for the rest of the trip. I think everyone was finally happy with their dik-dik sightings! We made our way into the terminal swamps in the gorge. Even though we explored these extensively, there was not a lot of really new things to see. Despite having plenty of film, I didn't even take a single picture! No leopards sighted again! As we left the swamps, we sighted a fairly good-sized herd of zebra crossing the gorge floor at the point where the three terminal valleys came together. As usual, they were moving in single-file. We stopped and watched them move for a while before returning to camp. The drive back to camp was short because we were on the same side of Lake Ndutu as camp. We ate breakfast and talked about the plans for the rest of the day. Joe and Joyce had already decided not to join us for the rest-of-day game drive we had planned. The heat and dust were getting to them, and they had much packing to do for the next days' departure. So, Larry and Teri and I set out for the last major game drive of the trip. After discussing various options with Njau, we decided that an exploration of the Central Serengeti was in order, perhaps along the Seronera river, or in and around the Masai Kopjes. The Seronera river gallery forests is some of the best lion country in the park. It is also outstanding leopard country. Researchers from all over the world concentrate their lion studies in this Central Seronera region. With a picnic lunch in storage in the rear of the land rover, we set out for the Central Serengeti by way of Naabi Hill. Since much of this ground we had covered in previous drives, there was not much new to see. Nevertheless, the heat made Naabi Hill look like a mirage! (19:12) I was concentrating on getting a picture of a mixed group of Thomson's and Grant's gazelles. It was hard to find a nice representative group. I finally found one that came very close and photographed it. Note the strong black band on the smaller Thomson's gazelles. There is also no white above the root of the tail. The larger Grant's gazelles had much lighter black stripes on their sides, and white above the tail. It looks like I got a male and female tommy in this picture, but both Grant's gazelles are males. (19:11) A bit further down the road, we found two Grant's gazelles sparring over some matter, probably territory or herd rights. (19:10) Notice how this drew the attention of other Grant's gazelles. We were nearly to Naabi Hill when Teri said to Njau, 'When we get to Naabi Hill Gate, please leave me there. I am not feeling well.' Indeed, Teri also had a bit of traveler's diarherrea, but she had it worse than me. Larry was not about to leave her there all day, nor for that matter, would I. Larry said he would stay there with Teri while Njau and I went to points further North. As much as I knew this would seriously disrupt my last chance to really see the Serengeti, I wouldn't agree to this. Njau didn't like that idea, either. So, we turned around and headed back to camp. Njau didn't mess around. He 'put the pedal to the metal' and drove as fast has he dared. There was a strict speed limit of 50 km/h in the park. We were well over that much of the time. It was only then that I realized the land rover's engine was turbocharged. The turbocharger's distinct whine was now audible over all the other noise. This was the only time I heard it. This driving was the most demanding we did the whole trip. Although we were more than an hour out of camp, we made it back in 40 minutes. One thing we were all being bothered by was the dust. As we got close to the salt flats around Lake Ndutu, we could see great clouds of dust being kicked up by the strong winds. (19:9) Njau said that winds like this were quite unusual in the Serengeti. Chalk up another weird weather event to La Nina! Once we were back in camp, Teri felt immediately better. Even so, Larry decided that it would be better if he stayed behind with his wife. The dust was also bothering him. So, it looked like Njau and I would would have the rest of the day to ourselves to chase lions on the Serengeti! Even so, I felt bad for everybody that stayed behind. We had all come a long way to see this wonderful place, and I'm sure it was hard to say 'no' to the last good chance! Joe and Joyce had not been completely disappointed by staying behind. While sitting in the dining tent, they had a special visitor in camp. A leopard! Before either one could pick up their camera for a picture, the leopard went back into the brush. But, this was not all. A few minutes later, one of the small African cats decided to visit the camp. There was a lot of debate later as to what it may have been, but it was most likely a serval or a caracal. It was reported to have large ears like a serval, but the coloration of a caracal. I guess we will never know, as it too ducked back into the brush before it could be photographed. In any case, the Eddingtons were very lucky to see a leopard, and were incredibly lucky to see one of the smaller cats. Many people have lived in Africa for years and never seen one of the smaller cats! Njau and I talked about itineraries we could still accomplish in the shortened day. Unfortunately, the Seronera area (Where the heaviest concentration of lions is) was now out of the question. But, there was a little-known back way into the Moru Kopjes that went through some of the more remote parts of the park. We would then swing across the road that we had taken a few days before to get to Sopa Lodge, except this time, we would be headed East towards the Simba Kopjes. We would explore the Simba Kopjes and return home via Naabi Hill. This route would give opportunities to find lions, large herds, and sights that few visitors to the Serengeti ever got to see! With only enough delay to use the bathroom, we were on our way! As usual, when I was alone with Njau, I rode in one of the roof hatches. We left camp and headed back into Olduvai Gorge. We would head into the Western Serengeti plains via the Western end of the gorge. Soon after entering the marshes at the end of the gorge, we found a small pond with some wonderful birdlife. We saw a sacred ibis and an unidentified heron (Possibly a goliath heron?). (19:8)This was the best look we had of a sacred ibis, and the new heron species was an added treat. We also saw a small group of sacred ibises with a yellow-billed stork. (19:7) When we neared the top edge of the gorge, we spotted some zebra. We followed these zebra for just a short distance, and came upon a whole herd of them moving through the forest. This is the largest group of hoofed animals that we had seen in the gorge lakes area. We spent a while observing them. This was a truly impressive herd! (19:6-4 The black object visible in the lower right corner of some of these pictures is the land rover's snorkel.) When we were well out of the gorge, and into a park-like forest area, Njau and I stopped for lunch. This was truly a special experience, as we were in the open Serengeti here, and not in some public area or camp. While we enjoyed cold chicken, meatloaf and crackers, we looked around. Like almost everywhere else in the Serengeti, there were bones all over. Underneath the tree where we had stopped was the nearly intact wing bones of a large bird, perhaps a vulture. I took this opportunity to get a picture of Njau with the land rover. (19:3) Njau has much better vision than I do. He saw numerous animals well to the North of us, through the trees and shrubs. With binoculars, we could make out a large herd of impala or gazelles. As soon as we were finished with lunch, we drove towards this herd. It turned out to be an impressive herd of Grant's gazelles, with a few tommies and zebra thrown in for good measure. We passed through it, and continued on towards the open plains. I got a couple of pictures of this herd, possibly the best collection of Grant's gazelles we had seen. (19:2-0) We saw two large vultures in a tree, probably white-backed vultures. (20:35) These are the most common large vulture in Africa, and thousands of them may congregate on a dead elephant. One bird we saw a lot of here was emerald-spotted wood doves. They were so named because of a tiny bright green spot on their otherwise brown wings. hese birds would be on the ground in flocks, nearly blending in. They would take off as soon as we got close, and were therefore a challenge to photograph. I wanted to get a shot of a flock on the ground. However, the 300 millisecond latency when pressing the shutter release on my camera made this difficult. I finally took one picture, but it wasn't quick enough. I ended up with a nice picture of these birds just starting to take off. (20:34) We saw a kori bustard foraging amongst the bushes. There is also a white fallen tree trunk in the picture, along with a couple of other unidentified white objects. (20:33) Eventually, we left the forest, and entered the Western Serengeti Plains. Very few people take the trouble to visit this part of the park. As a result, we basically had it to ourselves. For nearly two hours, we did not see another safari vehicle. In fact, we didn't see anyone until we were North of the Moru Kopjes! The roads out here were virtually nonexistent. They were little more than worn paths on the ground. It was obvious that the park officials were trying to establish a road out here, but there were few takers. There were rusted oil drums placed every few miles to indicate where the road was supposed to be. (20:32 The black object to the right of the road almost on the horizon is one of these drums.) But other than this, there was hardly a sign here of Man's intrusion. Njau pointed out to me that few people ventured out this way because the roads were so poorly defined. It ws a good place to get lost, as generally only the guides and rangers knew the correct spots to go to find these roads. The wind, combined with the vehicle's motion made it tough to look straight ahead. There were no visual problems, but the wind noise on the ears was deafening. So, I had to hold my head at an angle to minimize wind noise. There was some sort of a dust or smoke cloud off in the distance, to our Northwest. It was much further off than it looked, and only slowly grew closer. We saw a lone jackal along the road. It cooperated with us, and I was able to take two fine pictures. (20:31,30) Two Thomson's gazelles were fighting a battle royal, undoubtedly over harem rights. They went at for quite some time while we watched. (20:29-26) They finally paused, but were probably not done by the time we decided to move on! Eventually, we came within a few miles of the dust cloud. It turned out to be a giant dust devil! This was by far the biggest dust devil I had ever seen. In fact, such a storm in the US would be classified as a F0 tornado. Although it was definitely rotating, the degree of rotation was very hard to judge. (20:25,24) It turned out to be a good moment to have photographed it, as it dissipated within 5 minutes after I took the pictures. (Very large dust devils like this one are fairly common in East Africa, I have recently learned.) Some hills started to appear to our South. These may have been the Soito Kopjes. In any case, this marked the area where we would begin heading North to the Moru Kopjes. Indeed, it wasn't much further on that we found the road headed North. This road was better defined than the one we had been on. We now started to see large herds of bigger animals, mostly zebra and wildebeest. These varied in size and composition as we drove through them. Some cattle egrets were also seen in amongst the large grazers. (20:23-19) Our path paralleled a range of hills called Oldoinyo Olobaye. These hills had some impressive rock formations poking out of their forested covering. (20:18) As we neared the Moru Kopjes, we saw more mixed herds, but not as heavy as we had seen further South. The kopjes made an interesting backdrop for observing them. (20:17-13) One group of wildebeest we encountered was accompanied by quite a number of young calves. (20:12) We discovered another group of vultures resting on the ground. They were white-backed vultures. As usual when we found vultures on the ground, they were not feeding. (20:11,10) As we got closer to the Moru Kopjes, the herds thinned out. Still, there were many animals around. I decided this would be a good spot to take 4 pictures, each looking a different direction.(20:9 looking East. The double hill in the middle of the picture is probably Naabi Hill even though were were a good 20 or more miles from it., 8 looking North, 7 looking West, 6 looking South.) When we finally reached the Moru Kopjes, we took a path that would take us past a number of the larger kopjes. It would also take us through an open area that was in the middle of the Kopjes. We scanned the rocky hills carefully for signs of predators and other interesting things. We saw none. However, we did see beautiful rock formations, dotted with various types of vegetation. Especially notable on these kopjes were the numerous candelabra trees. (20:5) Boulders would jut out at odd angles, be balanced precariously on one another, be split in half, etc. These were definitely ancient rock formations! One kopje featured a rock projection distantly reminiscent of 'Pride Rock' of 'Lion King' fame! (20:4 I didn't notice this until I was writing this journal!) In the clearing in the middle of the kopjes, we came upon our only confirmed-in-the-field sighting of vultures on a carcass. We found two small vultures feeding on the tiny remains of an obviously premature wildebeest calf. This was right on the edge of the road, and we were able to get a good look before the vultures flew off. Njau drove in close to the base of one kopje, and stopped the vehicle. 'Follow me' he said as he started getting out. I followed Njau as he started to climb the kopje. It was a steep, tough climb, but a short one. I managed to make it without a problem. What we found was a small cave. Around the entrance to the cave were paintings done by the Masai. (20:3,2, 21:36) You can clearly make out their distinctive shields, some cattle, and a couple of human figures. Although these paintings are by no means ancient (The Masai first arrived on the scene about 200 years ago.), they are interesting and unspoiled. I suspect that not everyone is shown these paintings, so I thoroughly relished the moment. Larry and Teri had talked about these, and had expressed some disappointment in not being able to see them. (They are archaeologists.) I will share my pictures of the artwork with them. There was more to see here than just the paintings. There were some interesting birds' nests on the roof of the cave opening. (20:1) I forget what kind of birds made these nests. The cave itself had apparently been sealed off at one time. (21:35) There is a row of stones together in the ground that spans the opening. The walls are also a different color past this point, suggesting the inside of the cave had been painted at one time. I didn't ask what the cave had been used for, and I knew better not to ask to explore it! (I did have a small flashlight with me.) While we were up at the cave, I took some pictures of the surrounding area. (21:34-32) One can easily see how these tough old rocks are slowly breaking down into smaller rocks. We climbed back down and continued our sightseeing tour of the Moru Kopjes. It is interesting to see the odd way that some boulders are piled on top of each other. It's hard to imagine that this is all natural. (21:31,22) I forget the exact circumstances, but I unknowingly caught a magnificent picture of a white-backed vulture in flight.(This bird was incorrectly identified as a white-backed vulture on the CD-ROM's I have distributed containing this journal. Thanks, Bruce Patterson of the Field Museum of Natural History for pointing this out!) (21:30) We stopped at another kopje, and embarked on a steeper and somewhat dangerous climb. Here, the climb was over relatively smooth rock, and very steep. I assumed the 'spider' position and walked up on all fours. The really tricky part was climbing under a candelabra tree that was just high enough to get under. No sap burns for this guy! This particular kopje had quite a number of these trees on it. (21:29,25) It was a good thing this was not an easy climb and that it was in the middle of nowhere. We were greeted with a most unusual find. A musical stone! There were actually two of them. The more notable one was crescent shaped, and rested upside down on it's curved surface. It was covered with dozens of depressions. It was 5 or 6 feet across at the top. A number of small stones were sitting on top of this stone, to be used for striking the big stone. (21:27,26) (Note the graffiti. It's sad to see this in such a pristine place.) If you struck the stone, it yielded a clear, high-pitched note. Although I can no longer remember the pitch, it was much higher than a stone this size should ever make. Although you could get different timbres by hitting different depressions, the note was basically the same. Scientists are not sure why this stone is musical. Being hollow has been ruled out. My suspicion is that this is a volcanic rock, from lava that cooled very quickly. It cooled so quickly that internal stresses in the rock didn't have a chance to relieve themselves. Thus, the rock is under a great deal of internal stress, and thus has a high resonant frequency. It is possible that one day this rock will simply disintegrate, perhaps explosively, because of it's internal stresses. Nearby is a second musical stone. (21:28, part of 26) This stone produces a clear tone as well, but is much lower-pitched and not as loud. Even so, a rock this size shouldn't have a resonant frequency anywhere near as high as it does. I kind of suspect that the smaller musical rock is a boulder that broke off of this larger rock many years ago. In any case, seeing this was one of the high points of the trip. Like the paintings, I suspect not everyone is shown this spot! The musical stone was used by the Masai for important tribal meetings once held on this spot. We were fairly high up here, and the view was breathtaking! I took a couple of nice scenery shots, one of them with the musical rock in the foreground. (21:24,23) We carefully climbed down the rocky slope, careful to avoid contact with the poisonous candelabra tree that nearly blocked the path. Again, this required some careful climbing in 'spider' mode. Carrying a camera and binoculars didn't help matters, either. Before leaving the Moru Kopjes, I got one more photograph of precariously-balanced large rocks! (21:22) As we continued our trek Northward towards Lake Magadi, we came across a family of warthogs. Although they were not very cooperative, I did get a couple of nice pictures. There was a mother and three piglets. (21:21,20) Just before we reached Lake Magadi, we saw two dead wildebeest, one on each side of the road. They looked like they had been partly eaten, and had been dead for perhaps a day or less. So, it was no surprise that we found a lioness guarding one of these carcasses, while resting in the shade. (21:19,18, the kill, 17. 21:17 Scanned at 600 d.p.i.) There, she could digest her feast, stay cool, and guard the rest for later. Praise the Lord! While driving around the shore of Lake Magadi, we saw a new species of antelope, the reedbuck. (21:16,15. 21:16 scanned at 600 d.p.i.) Like the dik-dik, these antelope apparently live in pairs. There was not a lot to be seen on the road that crossed from Lake Magadi to the area just North of the Simba Kopjes. This was probably the least interesting part of this particular drive. Yet, I am sure I was enjoying what could be seen! Soon, the Simba Kopjes came into view. These are more run-down than the Moru Kopjes. They also have less stones balanced in odd positions.(21:14) There were also some man-made hills in this area, as this is where stone is quarried for road maintenance. Near one of these hills, we found a bunch of safari vehicles, and for good reason. There was a family of cheetah on top of the hill, sunning themselves and searching the plains below! This was a magnificent sight that we sat and watched for a while. The sun was not right here for good photography. Nevertheless, by bracketing exposures, and intentionally overexposing some shots, I obtained a couple of reasonably good pictures of this memorable scene. (21:13-9) I asked Njau how many of the six cubs there would make it to adulthood. He told me there is a good chance that all will make it. There might not be as many cheetahs being born, but those that are born have very good survival prospects. Food is not a problem here, and they can outrun most danger. We drove around the kopjes, but did not spend a lot of time there. It was starting to get late, and we needed to think about getting back to camp. I got a nice picture of one of the Simba Kopjes. (21:7) The Simba kopjes ultimately lived up to their name! Just South of these kopjes, we found three lions. A male and two females, apparently resting. The two males had impressive, dark manes, which this part of Africa is famous for. These lions were active, and moved around a bit from time to time. As a result, I caught several different views of them on film. (21:6-4. 21:6 and 21:5 were scanned at 600 d.p.i.) For the last shot, one of the males turned to face me. Boy, I wish I had a longer lens! Praise the Lord! As we continued towards Naabi Hill gate, we came across two dead gazelles in the road, apparently road kills from (apparently) carelessly-driven safari vehicles. Njau said there wouldn't be a trace of them by morning. The hyenas would take care of them. We would have a chance to test his theory, so I noted approximately where I had seen them. As we headed for camp, I didn't try to take a lot of pictures. Most of what we saw had been thoroughly documented on film earlier; namely thousands of gazelles. There were occasional ostriches and kori bustards, and perhaps a zebra or two. I wanted to get a picture of ostriches and a kori bustard together. This never materialized. I was also still trying to get a definitive shot showing a male and female tommy, as well as a male and female Grant's gazelle, all together for comparison. Although I came close, I never got exactly what I wanted. We crossed through Naabi Hill Gate, and continued back to our camp. The final photo opportunity on this drive came when we were going around Lake Ndutu. A black-breasted snake eagle was sitting in a tree, and the light was just right. The result was a nice picture. (21:3) Camp was tough to return to, as this was the conclusion of the final full game drive of the trip! I wanted to use up the last two shots in this roll of film so I would have fast film for the morning drive to the airstrip. I got one picture of the camp staff's tents, showing all of their equipment. (21:2) No wonder this type of travel is expensive. All this stuff has to be hauled around between camps! Teri took a picture of me in front of my tent. (21:1) This was before my shower, and my hair was all frizzy from the wind and dust. My face was also smudged with dust, as well. The sunscreen made sure this stuck fast to my face. You can also see the Masai bead bracelet on my right wrist. I was one dirty, but happy camper! A shower felt especially good that evening, as I was probably dirtier than at any other time in the trip! (In retrospect, the showers always felt good!) After the shower, I took time to carefully clean my camera and binoculars. They had really taken a beating that day. The main function knob on the camera had actually started to get stiff, and I had to work the dust out of the switch shaft. Next, Larry, Teri, Joe and I worked out the tips for the camp staff and for Njau. I had already decided that Njau deserved a very generous tip because of the special times we had enjoyed together. Larry, who was somewhat the spokesman for our group, agreed, saying 'You are very justified giving such a generous tip. You two had a good time together.' Larry also suggested that I give my tip to Njau separately from the others. I had no problem with this. After figuring this all out, there were endless signatures to put on traveler's checks! This kept me busy until dinnertime. Dinner that evening was roast lamb, something I had come to enjoy very much there. (One unusual meat I like is goat, and I have a good local source here in the 'states to get it. Goat is also one of the more common meats consumed in East Africa, so I figured that it would probably be on the menu at some time. I remember at one of the previous camps asking Thomas if we were going to have goat any night. He looked at me in horror! Apparently, the cooks in these camps figure that Americans are not used to eating goat!) This was kind of a bittersweet time, as it was our last candlelight dinner together in the bush. We discussed our plans for the next day. We would get up early for breakfast, and head for the airstrip. Although we would not have a lot of extra time, there would be enough to do a little game viewing on the way. The camp staff forgot to put out water for our nocturnal visitor. Nevertheless, it visited us again just after everyone had retired. It looked around for the water. You could hear it nosing about. Then, it left. A short while later, we heard hyena calls not too far off. (We actually heard these quite a bit at night.) It was a restless night. My diarrhea was a bit worse that night, and it frequently kept me awake. Also, the prospect of leaving this wonderful place, just as we were beginning to really know it troubled me! Thursday, February 18, 1999 Serengeti National Park, Tanzania Morning came too early, despite being uncomfortable from the mild diarrhea I was experiencing. After all, this marked the beginning of the end of our adventures. I got up and took care of the morning preparations. After breakfast, we said 'goodbye' to our camp staff and started to pack our luggage aboard the land rover. As soon as it was light enough, I went to the area where our nocturnal visitor was known to visit. I was rewarded with a wonderful set of pawprints, which I photographed. (22:35 More about this picture later!) I put the long lens on the camera when I was done, and finished getting loaded into the land rover. In order to make more room for the items I had picked up along the way, I decided to leave a few clothing articles behind with Njau. One of these was a sweatshirt, which I would probably not use much in the US. I also left behind one of the long-sleeved shirts I had brought, again an item I would seldom use. (I prefer short sleeve shirts, even in winter.) In the middle of these, I hid the astronomy book I had brought. Njau had wanted to look at it the entire time we had been together, but never had time. I could afford to leave this behind, as I use computer programs to locate sky objects these days. These items were put on the floor in my seat in the land rover. They would be presented to Njau later. The last act in camp was to present the tip to our camp staff. We then got into the land rover and drove off. What happened next was one of the most special moments of the entire trip. Unfortunately for me, it was somewhat ruined by one of those unpredictable problems I refer to as 'timmy luck'. We had been on the road for maybe 2 minutes, and were still very close to camp. I think Teri saw it first. 'leopard!' she excitedly shouted. Sure enough, it was a leopard! It was moving slowly along our path, but going the opposite direction. It was also close, maybe 40 or 50 yards away. It was looking at us from time to time, but was not overly concerned by our presence. As a result, we had perhaps 2 minutes to observe it. For me, it was total frustration. My camera malfunctioned! When I attempted to take a picture, the flash would come on and the mirror would move down! I had to turn the camera off to get the mirror to release, and it would do that only after a delay. I tried again, the same results. I quickly tried to change batteries, figuring that the lithium batteries had suddenly gone flat. (Lithium cells and Ni-Cads are known to do this.) By the time the new batteries were in, the leopard was gone. At least, I had stopped my activities for a few moments to observe the leopard. We started to move on. I tried the camera again. Same problem. However, this time I noticed that the aperture selected was F-0. So, I figured there must be a lens problem. So, I unseated and reseated the lens. Things now worked fine, and I got a nice landscape picture as proof. (22:34) Conclusion: There was a small particle of dirt on the camera- lens contacts that was causing the camera to receive incorrect aperture feedback. It would cause the camera to lock the mirror open for 30 seconds (The longest possible automatic exposure) as a result. Oddly enough, the shutter was not opened under these conditions. The camera must have known it was an illegal condition. In any case, if I had simply released and relocked the lens, I would have had some leopard pictures! (I would have also had a shot if the backup camera had film loaded in it, and I had remembered I had it. Next trip, the backup camera will not be stored 'dry', but will have film in it and be ready to use!) Now that the technical problem was solved, I was nearly in tears. Although missing photographing a leopard was not a major failure as far as the trip was concerned, it was such a stupid problem at a stupid time! And although seeing or photographing the 'big 5' was not a goal of this trip, I had come that close!! The only consolation was actually seeing the leopard. The image of this magnificent cat will be burned into my mind as long as I live, the leopard that got away! In any case, this extremely frustrating event left me in a somewhat somber mood for the rest of the trip to the airport. We soon wound our way out of the Lake Ndutu area and were back on the plains. I got a picture of a lone male ostrich along side the road. (22:33) there is another bird off in the distance. I cannot remember now, but this might be a kori bustard. I had been trying to get a picture of these two birds together, but had not had much success. Unfortunately, it is far enough off that I will never know for sure. There are also some gazelles in the picture off to the left. The early morning light made them stand out, even though they were quite far off. A bit later, I photographed a lone female ostrich. (22:32. 600 d.p.i. scan.) At first, I thought that this might have been the distant bird in the previous photograph. But, the presence of another animal (Perhaps the tail of another ostrich) at the very left edge of the picture proves that it is not. (Three were no other animals close to the distant bird in 22:33) A bit later, we came upon a pair of jackals right on the road. What followed next was one of the more unusual things that happened on this trip! Of course, the jackals started to run off, but in the wrong direction. They were trying to outrun us! (22:31) One of the two jackals finally got smart and left the road. (There was nothing preventing the jackals from leaving the road. Besides, there was enough room on the road for us to pass them safely.) The other jackal continued to try to outrun us. Njau increased his speed, hoping the jackal would get smart, and give up, but it didn't. (22:30) We eventually reached a speed of 50 km/hr, but the jackal was continuing to outrun us. It was running as fast as it could out of sheer fright! Still, it could have easily veered off at any moment, and we all hoped it would. Concerned that the jackal was not going to hold out, Njau slowed down. Finally, after a distance of 2 or 3 km, the jackal finally left the road. Njau figures that this jackal probably died later of exhaustion. Although canines are by nature endurance runners, no animal could do this kind of running for very long. We will never know what happened to this animal. We remembered this unique event as the 'jackal race'. We reached hwy B144 and headed North towards Naabi Hill. After a very brief stop there for paperwork, we headed into the central Serengeti towards the airstrip. As we descended the road down towards the plains, I took a photo showing the vastness of the plains. (22:29) I took another photo of the same thing as soon as were down onto the plains. (22:28) Of all the pictures of the plains I took, perhaps this one shows just how endless the 'endless plains' are. (About the only feature interrupting the horizon is one of the Simba Kopjes way off in the distance.) As we passed the area where we had seen the two dead gazelles the day before, not a trace of them was to be found. Njau was right. They had disappeared. We soon came across a hyena, perhaps with gazelle on it's breath. (22:26,25) this was one of the closer encounters we had with a hyena. We soon reached the Simba Kopjes. As I already had plenty of nice pictures of them, I took only two more. One was an especially nice grouping. (22:24) The other was taken looking back at the kopjes when we later left them behind. (22:14) 'Lions' shouted Larry! Sure enough, the three lions Njau and I had seen the day before were still in the same spot just South of the Simba Kopjes. One of the males and the female were together. The other male was exploring a nearby rut. (Visible in the foreground of the pictures.) I tried really hard to get a picture of the two lions looking at us. Although I took a lot of photos trying, I never got a good shot of them both looking at us. Although the lighting at that hour of the morning was not ideal for a good detail shot, it was nonetheless quite dramatic. We watched these lions for as long as we had time. Notice if you look at all of these lion pictures, they are moving very little. These pictures span several minutes. (22:23-15) The lions, with all of the gazelles in the background, made these pictures images of quintessential Africa. These would be the last lions I would see on this trip. Thank you Jesus for all the lion sightings!!! As we started to get into the bushier central Serengeti, the wildlife started to change. As there was more water around, we started to see water-type birds. I got a nice picture of two grey herons in a thicket along the road. (22:13) This turned out to be the last wildlife photo I took in the Serengeti. When we reached the central Serengeti, we actually passed the airstrip, and headed to the visitor's center. There, we stopped to stretch and look around for just a few minutes. It was also our last chance to use the restrooms before the flight. While I was in the restroom, Njau got us all visitor's information leaflets. These were very much like what you would get at any park in a more civilized locale. They were printed in color on glossy paper. They contained some information, a map of the park, and rules, etc. In any case, a nice souvenir, as there was nothing like it given to us at any other park. The other thing we did at the visitor's center was a quick last gift shop visit. Larry was the only other person who visited the gift shop with me. There, I hoped to find a T-shirt that said 'Serengeti' and had lions on it, and I did succeed in finding one. It is a heavy red T-shirt, with 'Serengeti' and a lion embroidered on it. A keepsake to last me many years! It cost me $22 US. I also looked for the official park guides, which I had put off purchasing for the entire trip. Unfortunately, they were out of all of them! They also didn't have any vehicle window stickers like the one I had purchased at Ngorongoro. Although I didn't have long to look around, I made a diligent scan for any other unique items. Larry was busy purchasing some items while I did this. Satisfied with our purchases, we quickly headed back to the vehicle. Njau explained to us that there was an excellent interpretive center here, but we wouldn't have time to visit it. So, we left the visitor's center, and drove back to the airstrip. We were just in time, or that is, just in time according to our watches. There was no aircraft at all at the airstrip. So, we waited. While waiting, there was plenty of time to look around. Even though this was a grass strip in the middle of a wildlife park, it still had the status of being an international airport! There were a couple of small buildings alongside the airstrip. One was labeled 'customs'. It was actually smaller than the buildings we had seen at the Namanga border, and appeared to have just an outside window to step up to! The airstrip itself was surrounded by a low fence, which was little more than a steel cable stretched between some posts. There were gaps in the fence which were for passengers, but one could easily step over this fence. The waiting area was actually just a parking lot. There were no seats, so we sat on our luggage, or in the vehicle, or simply walked around. The plane turned out to be late. Very late. Two hours late! During this time, we had a long last chance to talk with Njau. We talked about all sorts of things. We learned a lot about the government of Tanzania, and how it functioned in a country with so many diverse tribes of people. We learned more about his home life. We learned more about the Masai. We learned more about the various cultures and religions that made up Tanzania and East Africa in general. It was a really special time. We were lucky to have such a well-educated and literate guide! Considering how late the plane was, I had even discussed riding back with Njau to Arusha, which would have put me at the hotel around 6 PM. Unfortunately, this wouldn't work out. From time to time, Njau checked with Ranger Safari Base via the HF radio in the land rover. When we knew the plane was just a few minutes away, we presented Njau with our tips. I then told Njau about the clothing I left for him in the passenger's seat. I told him to give it away if he couldn't use it. He said he would. (This sort of practice is very common, we found out.) The airplane finally arrived. It was not the little puddle jumper I thought it would be. Instead, it was a twin-engine turboprop that seated perhaps 15 people. It had a cockpit that was open to the cabin, and we could watch the pilots fly the plane. Joe helped Joyce get on the airplane, a time-consuming task because of the extremely narrow steps on the entrance stairway. While this was going on, we helped the pilots load all of our luggage. Some of it went in a compartment in the nose of the aircraft. A surprisingly large amount of it went into compartments on the back of the engine nacelles. This made a lot of sense, as the wings would do all of the luggage lifting without having to also carry the added weight in the fuselage. In any case, we weren't the only passengers. A number of other Ranger Safari clients had their tours ending here as well. Eventually, all luggage was loaded, and we climbed aboard the aircraft. The engines were started, and we turned around for takeoff. As we taxied, I took one last picture of the Serengeti. One of the propeller blades even made it into the picture! (22:12) As we reached the end of the runway, Njau drove there, and waved goodbye to us. (22:11) We accelerated to takeoff speed, and were soon in the air. Goodbye, Serengeti. I knew this flight would give some nice photo opportunities. I was not disappointed. A couple of pictures show a river course, probably the Seronera River. (22:10-8) I also got pictures of a couple of other river courses, one of them dry. (22:7,6) From this altitude, animals were not visible. The next photo opportunity was Olduvai Gorge. (22:5) I had hoped our course would take us over Ngorongoro crater. Joe and Njau explained to me that they would avoid flying over the crater, as there would be turbulence over it due to hot air rising off the crater floor. Luckily, we did fly close enough to it that I got a couple of pictures of it. (22:4,3) The lake in the crater (Lake Magadi) is clearly visible. Lake Manyara was tougher. Haze made the lake hard to see and even harder to photograph. (22:2) Even so, you can barely make out the lake below the Rift Valley Escarpment edge. The last item visible from the air turned out to be especially difficult to photograph, but very much worth the effort. It was Mt. Kilimanjaro. Although it was clearly visible out the window, I was viewing it through the nearly invisible propeller swing. I knew I could probably avoid catching the propeller by using a slow shutter speed, but the somewhat bumpy ride would blur the picture. Also, there was a limit to how much I could slow the shutter speed as I was using 800 speed film. I had to patiently wait until the pilot made a slight turn and the mountain was in clear air. He finally did make the requsite turn. I was rewarded with a nice photo of the top of 'kili'. (22:0) It wasn't many minutes later that we landed at Arusha International Airport. I now know why not many long distance flights land there. It is a small airport for the size of the city. After landing, we collected our luggage and walked out the gate. There was a few minutes wait before our ride arrived. Soon, we were on our way to Mountain Village. Our drive took us through downtown Arusha. There we saw a different Arusha than we had seen before. In a lot of ways, it was like a large town in a rural location: a lot of small shops selling just about anything you might imagine. I recognized a lot of small shops selling electrical supplies of various sorts. I kind of suspect that I could find most any electrical device I could find in the 'states here in Arusha if I looked around hard enough! We got to Mountain Village right around lunchtime. Although doing something that afternoon was discussed over lunch, nobody was interested (Except me!). So, we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. There was a nature walk every day around 4 PM. I decided that would be a good thing to do, but it was several hours away. I stopped briefly in the gift shop, but there was nothing there I really wanted. The financial goal at this point was have enough money left for last-minute shopping in Nairobi and dinner at the Carnivore Restaurant. I tried to take a long nap, but couldn't sleep well. So, I updated my diary. I also thought about our nocturnal visitor in the Serengeti and the tracks it had left. So, I took some time to look at carnivore tracks in my field guide. Now, at this point, I did not have any pictures of these tracks, only memories of what I had carefully observed. One specific thing I had remembered is that the rear pad mark and the toe marks were very close to each other. This was not characteristic of hyena tracks. Another thing I remembered was the absence of claw marks. Hyenas have non-retractable claws, and should leave claw marks in soft soils like the ones they had left the tracks in. The field guide drawing shows this. Leopard tracks, on the other hand, matched both characteristics: close heel-toe pad spacing and absence of claw marks. So, in all likelihood, these tracks had been made by a leopard and not a hyena! Lion was also briefly considered, but the tracks were too small for any lion that would have been out alone. Cheetah tracks have claw marks. Jackal tracks are much smaller. This was quite likely the same leopard that we had seen earlier that morning. (22:35) Since this leopard always came into camp about half an hour after we retired, it must have been very close by, and was paying attention to what we were doing! We are definitely honored by it's presence! (Or, it was plotting what to do about these troublesome interlopers in it's territory?!) I also very carefully cleaned my camera gear, but didn't pack it for travel quite yet. There was the nature walk later in the afternoon, and the drive to Nairobi the next day. I spent some time looking at all my maps and reading the Serengeti flyer we had gotten earlier. I also noticed for the first time that our route to Nairobi takes us through the Amboseli Game Reserve. That would be something to watch for! I tried to take another long nap, and didn't sleep well again. Four o'clock finally rolled around. I caught up with the nature walk group outside the main entrance to the hotel grounds. There were about 15 people there, waiting to take the walk. (You could technically call this a 'walking safari', although they chose to call it an 'ethno-botanical walk'.) We would be taking a walk around Lake Duluti, which is just South of Mountain Village. Our guide was a hotel employee who was training to become a guide for groups going to the National Parks. We were also accompanied by two guards for reasons I still don't fully understand. They mainly helped out when we came to rough spots in the hike. We set out from Mountain Village, and headed through a small neighborhood that was sandwiched between the hotel and Lake Duluti. Mountain Village is actually part of a coffee plantation, and the first thing we saw was some of the coffee fields. One thing I noticed along the road was a telephone cable on poles. On one pole, this cable had been cut and spliced in the open, with no protection to the splices! Drop lines were connected at splices like this, and would travel along with the main pole for a ways before they went to their final destination. The drop lines was nothing more than a twisted pair of wires, and did not look very rugged. The neighborhood we were walking through was part of the lands of one of the local tribes. We saw mainly children out playing or doing various types of light work. They happily replied when we said 'jambo' to them. Again, like most other places we had been in East Africa, the people seemed happy even if where they lived looked run-down by our standards. We soon reached the lake shore. One thing I noticed immediately was some very heavy electric power lines running along the lake shore. I would shortly find out what they were for. Before beginning our circumnavigation of the lake, I turned back and took a picture of Mountain Village. (23:E) We learned from the guide that Lake Duluti is a deep lake with not-exactly-pure water. In fact, the water is considered poisonous, and was apparently that way before man arrived on the scene. The lake got it's name from the corruption of a term that indicates the lake kills people and takes the body. We soon found out one of the things that might take a body! The people ahead of me in the group discovered a monitor lizard! Most people didn't see it, because it quickly swam off. It apparently wasn't a large one either, as one of any size would have created a noticeable disturbance in the water. We hadn't gone much further when we found a dead black mamba snake. This is one of the few poisonous snakes of East Africa. (23:36) Our guide said that the children of one of the local farmers probably killed this snake, as they perceive it as a threat to their cattle. In any case, it was a somewhat ominous thing to have discovered on this somewhat creepy lake! This makes snake number 4 for a trip in which I was told we'd be lucky to see a snake at all! (The accounts of three of these four snakes is in the text of this journal. The fourth was a snake sighted very quickly by Njau and Larry on a road in Tarangire National Park. I missed seeing it.) We found the load for the heavy power lines. (Some of which were almost low enough to touch! Thankfully, they appeared to be adequately insulated.) It was the village water pumping station. Despite the 'poisonous' water, it is somehow filtered and used for the local water supply. I have read that drinkable water is scarce everywhere on the African continent; this is proof of it. The path around the lake had started out as a wide, level footpath. It now narrowed to a treacherous path that was sloped transversely towards the lake. This meant that you were always walking on ground that sloped sideways. I am not the most sure-footed person in the world, and it sometimes took some doing to walk this path. In some places, it was more like climbing, as you had to step between stones, roots , etc. One thing was for certain. I did NOT want to fall in this lake! A bit further down the path, the people ahead of me saw another monitor lizard. Again, it slipped away before anyone else got a good look. I took a picture of the place where they had seen it. (23:35) All of the area around the lake is heavily forested. There were very few clearings on the lake shore. This forest is also utilized by local people looking for 'wild' food. We came upon one spot that had been recently burned. The guide told us that a couple weeks ago, someone was trying to get honey out of a wild beehive by smoking out the bees. Well, things got out of control and they nearly started a forest fire. This could have been very serious with the dry conditions that Tanzania was experiencing. Luckily, it looks like it put itself out. The guide seemed to know the local flora well. One common tree he pointed out to us was the mango tree. It had poisonous white sap. The poison had a use, but I have forgotten what it was. Another common 'tree' was an unusual species of acacia that grew almost like a vine. When you would encounter it, it was nothing more than a thorn-covered trunk maybe an inch or a bit bigger in diameter going up into a tree. I never did see what the foliage of this species of acacia looked like. The guide told us that it was also very slow growing. As we got towards the South shore of the lake, I got a nice picture of a cloud-shrouded Mt. Meru. (23:34) I also got a nice shot of Mountain Village. This time, you could see most of the hotel. (23:33) One of the rondavels visible, on the front row, was the one I was staying in. Another new plant I saw was papaya. (23:32) Of course, this is the plant the ancient Egyptians made paper out of. I also saw a stand of bamboo, another plant I had never seen wild. As we continued, the path leveled out, and we found we were paralleling a rubble stone wall. Our guide told us that this was part of a colonial homestead. Sure enough, we found a flight of stairs running up to the house, which was not visible. Not far beyond, we found a water pumping station for this estate. (We came across a total of three pumping stations around this lake. All of them were in use.) We discovered a bird up in a tree. Unfortunately, I have forgotten what it was. The late afternoon light was making photography difficult, but I did get a photo if it. It is a water bird of some sort. (23:31) We were almost all the way around the lake. Our final encounter was a marina. Or, it had once been a marina. The landowner was now selling trucks, and was using his lakefront property as a place to park them. He did this because there was apparently no money in the marina business anymore! As we left the lakeshore, we came across a small farm. There a young boy, maybe 10, was herding cattle on a long, narrow piece of land that ran down to the lake. He used a stick and a loud voice to keep the cattle under control. The cattle were behaving, well-- like cattle! Above the farm, we came upon an old coffee plantation. This plantation had been abandoned, and was in poor shape. Our guide showed us what factors made coffee plants unhealthy. At a point above this plantation, I stopped and got a late afternoon photograph of the lake. (23:30) You can see the stunted coffee trees in the foreground. When we got back to Mountain Village, I used my last dollar bills to give the guide a tip, which everybody else did, too. I then learned that the guards should get a tip, too. Unfortunately, I could no longer do this. Embarrassed, I slipped away quietly. The walk was supposed to have taken an hour. It had taken nearly two! It was now right around 6 PM and the electricity was now on. After allowing the water heater to heat the water, (We were asked earlier in the day to turn on the hot water heater only when we were ready to use it.) I took a shower. Each room at Mountain Village has African animals carved on it's door. (All this work is done by hand. No hotel in the US could afford this sort of workmanship, due to our machine-oriented society!) The first time at Mountain Village, I did not have a lion on my door. This time I did. Of course, I got a picture of it. (23:29) I met up with the rest of our group at 7 PM for dinner. Our last dinner together in Africa was a delicious Chinese meal, with a selection of main dishes. In retrospect, a lot of the food served at Mountain Village had an oriential touch to it. One thing I did learn at dinnertime is if I want to go to the Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi tomorrow, it would have to be on my own. No one else was interested. After dinner, I went down to my room, and took a long last look at the African stars. There would be no more chances to do this, so I truly savored the moment. Another interesting thing would happen this evening, although I would be fast asleep when it did: The lion star, Regulus, (Brightest star in the constellation Leo) would reach the highest point it gets in the sky each year at exactly midnight (This is called a star's Midnight Culmination.). I thought it was a good thing to have happen when I was in lion country! I pulled the mosquito netting over my bed and went to sleep. I didn't sleep well that night, despite the comfortable bed because it was my last night in Africa! Friday, February 19, 1999 Arusha, Tanzania We were able to sleep in that morning just a little bit. Our group met at breakfast, and discussed our plans for the day. The last thing I did before leaving Mountain Village was to buy a large bottle of water. I should have bought several more! Our guide met us, and we got into our van for the ride to Nairobi. As much as I didn't want to leave this magnificent place, I knew it was time. I talked to Joyce, and she motioned that she was no longer enjoying herself. Larry and Teri were looking forward to returning home. Deep down, I wanted to as well, but it was mainly because I was still feeling a bit sick from time to time. Yet, I already knew this was not my last time here. I was sure, and still am, that I will visit East Africa many more times, and a career here is not out of the question! We started out for Nairobi via the outskirts of Arusha. Since I had almost two rolls of film left, and didn't want any of it to be unexposed when I left the continent, I took lots of pictures on the way. We passed a lot of what I had learned were banana plantations. (23:28,27) I also got a picture of some typical housing. (23:26) Note the use of masonry for construction, and the extensive use of bond beams in concrete block structures. (The white lines on the further back building mark where the bond beams are. These would not be used in North American structures of the same type except, perhaps over the windows.) Note also the utility poles. The upper wires are power distribution, the thicker lower cables are for telephone. I photographed a business block. (23:25) This could be a hotel, restaurant, grocery store, butcher shop, or any combination of these. (Or something else entirely!) Most of the businesses looked like this. Note the people standing around, and the animal just to the left of the window post. This also was very typical of much East Africa, especially in Tanzania. Notice also that the mode of dress was for the most part Western here. I photographed a 'garden store' of some sort. (23:24) Note the numerous potted plants, and the piles of sticks apparently for sale. Note also the concrete curbs along the road to keep vehicles out of their yard! One thing I saw many of was the frames of vehicles. Apparently, abandoned vehicles are stripped until there is nothing useful left, and what's left is allowed to rust away. Some of these frames look like they had been sitting there for years. I photographed a housing block under construction. (23:23) Note the somewhat crude concrete blocks. Also note the bond beam poured all the way across the top of what's been completed, and a new row of blocks just starting on the left. It was common to see houses in various stages of construction, and it suggested that people would build their home a little at a time, as they could afford it. As we left Arusha, we now came into Masai pastureland. This was also the area where the waters from the high slopes of Mt. Meru would drain to lower elevations. These rivers were often in impressive little canyons, so I made it my goal to get a good picture of one of these. Soon, we turned North onto hwy A104, the Trans-East-African Highway. We were on the side of Mt. Meru that made it look like it had a rounded top (To the West of it.). I took a couple of pictures of the mountain. The lens flare were nice, but the pictures themselves weren't the best. (23:22,21) I did get one more picture in this series with a Masai and his cattle in the foreground. (This was not intentional; I discovered this later.) Although the harsh sun might be hiding the red color, it looks like this Masai is wearing the black robes they wear just before and after circumcision. (23:20) In the last photo of this series (23:19), you can just begin to see jaggedness in the top of Mt. Meru. This meant we were beginning to get North of the Mountain. From time to time, we would come upon a patch of rolling land that had so many Masai warriors out grazing their cattle that there would be little red speckles visible everywhere on the yellow-brown land. These speckles stood out in stark contrast to the blacks, whites and browns of the thousands of head of cattle present, and the generally brown land. I did not get a good opportunity to take a picture of this. I did however, get a nice picture of a Masai village underneath a hill. (23:18) I finally succeeded in getting a couple nice pictures of the drainage canyons I had been seeing. (23:17,16,14) These ghastly slashes added a kind of stark beauty to this rugged land. At one point along the road, you could look down into the rift valley. This was a stunning view. You can almost see to the other side! (23:15) We were now well North of Mt. Meru. Although the light still could have been better, this mountain was starting to look more and more impressive. (23:13) I was trying to get a picture of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but instead got this acacia tree. (23:12) This is actually one of the better pictures I got of acacia trees, although it is blurred by motion. A few seconds later, I had better luck, and caught 'kili'. Because I had the wrong filter, the mountain is just barely visible in the center of the picture. It was more visible in reality. (23:11) Here's the acacia photo I really wanted. Although we were nowhere near the Athi plains at the time, (We cross them just South of Nairobi) here is what they might have looked like to Colonel Patterson as he built the Uganda Railway in 1898. (23:10) As we approached the border with Kenya, Mt. Longido approached us on our right hand side. Although this mountain is nowhere near the size of Meru or Kilimanjaro, it is very impressive because it is so close to the road. As we passed it, it changed appearance several times; it's summit is actually sort of a thick, flat tablet of rock. I took a series of photographs as we passed by. (23:9-5. 23:8 is actually a picture of the mountain's accessory hills.) We then saw an animal that was not exactly native to East Africa: camels! These were quite possibly used for camelback safaris that are beginning to be popular, especially in Kenya. They also may be beasts of burden. (23:4) As we neared Namanga, we got one last good look at Mt. Kilimanjaro. I took a series of photos; a couple turned out fairly nice. (23:3-1, 24:36) Again, having the right filter would have helped. Just before arriving in Namanga, I got what I believe is a picture of Mt. Orok, which is just West of Namanga. (24:35) Passing through Namanga was just the opposite of what we had done when we had come into Tanzania. First, we stopped at the Tanzania Customs office. This was straightforward, just as entering the country had been. As usual, we were mobbed with peddlers trying to sell us souvenirs. There was one souvenir I wanted, but had no money left for; a Masai copper/brass bracelet like Larry now had. I had no US dollars left. I borrowed one from Larry, and was able to obtain a bracelet just as we were leaving the customs office. The one I got was not nearly as nice in workmanship as Larry's but it definitely looks handmade. (Larry's is so nicely made that it is possible that it was machine-made.) I love it; I wear it to this day (Late May 1999). I traded larry a British 1 pound coin for the dollar he gave me. He considered this more than fair, as a pound is worth about $1.40 US. We now stopped and exchanged vehicles. Our Kenyan driver was the same fellow we had when we arrived in Kenya what seemed like a long time ago! We crossed the border into Kenya (I really hated to leave Tanzania!) and stopped at the Kenyan Customs office. For some reason, this office was really busy, and we had to wait in line for a while before we could get our passports stamped. But, as usual, there was no problem when it came our turn, and we were now safely in Kenya. We stopped at the same curio shop in Namanga that we had stopped at on the way to Tanzania. After a great deal of looking and a little negotiating, I ended up buying an impressive rosewood lion which is about 18 inches long nose-to-tail. I also purchased a small lion-face hanging for the wall. Although they balked at first, they accepted my credit card, and I paid 660 Kenyan Shillings (About $110. By the time I got the credit card bill, the exchange rate had changed, and I paid only $102.50 or something like that!) My treasures were sort of wrapped in a box and tied with string. The box was not quite the right size for the oddly-shaped piece, and it ended up looking rather weird when distorted to accommodate it. Although awkward, it would have to do for transit. Eventually, I stuffed a sock between the end of the box and the lion's nose to cushion it better. After everyone had made their souvenir purchases, we were back on the road. Before long, we were passing through the Masai villages that were along hwy A104. In Kenya, these villages had electric power and a few nice buildings. (24:34) However, the mainstay of the towns, like everywhere else in East Africa, was small business. Not many homes were visible. As we got further into Kenya, we started to see more sisal plants. (24:33) These sisal plants are not native. They were imported by the Germans as a cash crop. There is a native sisal plant (called Oldapi), but it is apparently not as suitable for fiber. I did see the signs for Amboseli Game reserve, but it just sort of came and went. Perhaps, a few gazelles were seen in the vicinity. I got a couple of photos of what I think are the Maparasha Hills, Just North of Ambolseli. (24:32,31) As we headed North, the mountains and hills generally got less impressive. We passed some rather fancy buses with holographic lettering on them. Turns out they are long distance public transport here in East Africa. They are often luxurious, air conditioned and equipped with TV's and VCR's to show movies. Njau remembers seeing part of 'The Lion King' on one of these buses. However, we now came upon one that was off the road. The passengers were milling around waiting for some relief to show up. No one appeared hurt. We also encountered a safari-type vehicle off the road on that stretch of highway, a few miles later. Again, nobody appeared hurt, but it looked like the vehicle would need extensive repair. Just about 20 miles South of Nairobi, we reached the Athi Plains. This is a plain covered with endless acacia scrub. I took some pictures of it. (24:30-28) This brings to remembrance the adventures of Colonel Patterson and the Tsavo Maneaters as he built the Uganda Railway in 1898. Remember all the missing sections on the road when we had driven to Tanzania? Well, they were doing something about it. We ran into a road paving crew that was using modern equipment to lay down all-new blacktop on the Trans-East-African Highway. They couldn't have started much after we had last been on the road; a considerable section of it had already been repaved. They appeared to be doing the job right. This paving job could be expected to last a while. We'll see next time I visit East Africa! As we got closer to Nairobi, things became more and more civilized. We saw large buildings that belonged to large businesses, such as steel fabricators and agricultural product concerns. These were often of the same construction as small buildings: concrete blocks with bond beams. I don't recall seeing any large steel-framed metal sheds like you would find in the US. I somehow suspect that structural steel is very expensive in Kenya, and used only where absolutely necessary. The church is alive and well in Kenya, and it is reported that the major religion there is Christianity. So, it was not unusual to see churches along the road. I took a picture of a nice church along the highway. (24:27) Note the Western architecture of the church itself, and the African architecture of the outbuildings. The last wildlife photo (And the last wildlife I think we saw) was this group of Thomson's gazelles just outside of Nairobi. Gazelles were common around the city because of the game park just to the South of it. (24:26) Construction practices in East Africa were modern and crude at the same time. I took this picture of a large commercial building under construction. (24:25) It is obviously being carefully and correctly built. Note that everything is nice and square. However, also note the extremely crude scaffolding of lashed-together sticks! Although it is probably stronger and safer than it looks, most construction workers in the US wouldn't be caught dead on scaffholding like that! In any case, this was the last picture I took while in Africa. As we got closer to Nairobi, and went near the airport, I looked for the Carnivore Restaurant. I did not see it. I never got my courage up high enough to ask our guide about it. I figured I would wait until we were at the hotel and then deal with getting there. I had enough money to pay for what I expected cab fare to be, and what I expected the meal to cost. We drove into Nairobi, making an intentional detour through downtown to see the business district. One place we stopped at, at Teri's request, was the site of the US embassy. It had been blown up 6 months before by terrorists. There was now walls around the site as they worked to rebuild the embassy and the damaged buildings around it. We paused in a moment of reflection, and Teri took lots of pictures. We finally got to the Norfolk Hotel just after lunchtime. Nobody wanted to do any of the optional activities (Except myself. I should have spoken up and could have done whatever I wanted to!), so we let the guide go, and we went to our rooms. Now, how to get to the Carnivore Restaurant. It was listed in the phone book. But, I didn't want to make a call, because I had no small bills to pay for a phone call. I finally decided that getting to the restaurant was a futile thing. But, this simply got me frustrated. So, I went outside, left the hotel compound, and walked to the corner and back. All this way, and I couldn't get the last few miles! At long last, I talked to a taxi driver. While talking to the taxi driver, I had a brilliant stroke of common sense. He knew where the Carnivore Restaurant was. (It is a very popular spot.) I then asked him the serving hours (This was the stroke of common sense.) After I deciphered his response, it worked out to 'lunch and dinner, but not in between'. So, there. No reason to even try to go until dinnertime. And the schedule of how we were to get to the airport made a dinnertime visit highly unworkable. Now, fully convinced that there was no way I would get to the Carnivore Restaurant, I decided to try to visit the railroad museum, and perhaps learn something about the Tsavo Maneaters. This would also help get my mind off the Carnivore Restaurant failure. I carefully studied the map, so I knew where the museum was. I put my watch in my pocket, and hid my money belt in an illogical place. I would have loved to have my camera, but I had to leave that behind, also. Street thieves are a very serious problem in Nairobi. I set out on foot into downtown Nairobi, proceeding by way of University Way to the Uhuru Highway. I passed by the Nairobi Safari Club, an exclusive 'country club' for the rich and famous in Nairobi. There was little or no sidewalks in most of Nairobi, even in downtown. This made walking challenging at times. I continued down the Uhuru Highway straight towards the Railway Museum. On the way, I saw the Holy Family Cathedral. (A modern structure.) I also saw quite a number of modern buildings belonging to the Government. On the other side of the road was Central Park, a large public park that reminded me of it's namesake in New York City. There were lots of people in the park. There were also large statues there proclaiming important events in Kenya's history. Just before reaching the railway station, I began to get very thirsty. I also began to get a bit dizzy. To make matters worse, I tripped on a stone, and slid down the side of a ditch, leaving me with a nice scrape on my hand. It wasn't serious, but for some reason it really hurt! I looked into the fenced railway station compound. There were safari vehicles in the compound, so that must have been the museum. However, I couldn't find my way in. I walked down the streets on two sides, and couldn't find anything remotely resembling an entrance. I finally gave up in frustration (Thirst was driving me nuts!), and started back to the hotel. (I know now I would have had to walk around a large block to find the entrance; perhaps another half mile.) On the way back, I took a different route, heading up parliament road. This route took me past all the main government buildings, such as parliament and the President's office. I then walked past the cathedral. Even though it was open, I decided not to go in. I realized by now that I was dangerously dehydrated and needed to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible. I continued North on Koinange street, then to University Way, and then to Harry Thuku Rd., where the hotel is. At one point, some young kid with a bike figured out I was a tourist. At first he called out my name. I ignored him. A little later, he caught up with me and asked me for money. I told him I didn't have any. That sent him away. You do need to be careful in this town! Another thing I tried to find was shipping tape. There were no stores of the type along this route that would likely have any. Besides, all I had was US dollars in medium bills. So much for that. (Despite not getting into the museum and being dehydrated, I rather enjoyed my foray into downtown Nairobi!) I finally made it back to the hotel. First thing I did was drink the entire contents of the remaining water bottle I had left. I then took a shower and tried to cool down. As there were a lot of things I wouldn't need anymore for the trip, I rearranged everything for long distance travel. Not finding the shipping tape meant that the box with the lion would be somewhat of a problem to transport. The box itself wasn't that sturdy, and the twine it was tied with did not make the best of a handle. But, the twine was better than nothing at all. I put the film bag in the lion box, as that would make it much easier to carry. I rearranged the twine to keep the box as secure as possible. But even now, the box was starting to fall apart. I went to the bar and tried to buy water. After some frustrating dealings with the bartender, I finally got a medium-sized bottle of water, but paid $5 US for it. This is almost double what it would have cost anywhere else. Since I hadn't had lunch, and dinner didn't look too promising, I decided to buy some candy and postcards at the hotel gift shop. After much confusion in my mind about exchange rates, I finally had everything straightened out. However, the gift shop wouldn't take US dollars. It was turning into a very frustrating afternoon! I finally went to my room and took a long nap that lasted until checkout time. Checkout time presented me with a problem. We needed to check out at 5 PM, but wouldn't be picked up to go to the airport until 7 PM. Larry and Teri wanted to eat dinner alone, and I didn't know what Joe and Joyce were up to. Food was very expensive at the Norfolk, and I had no Kenyan Shillings. (I knew even then I could exchange some money at the hotel cashier's office, but I wasn't even that hungry at that time.) So, I ended up sitting in the hotel courtyard for almost two hours doing crossword puzzles. I am really happy now that I had picked up that puzzle book in Gatwick! Eventually, our group was together again, and our guide arrived to take us to the airport. I decided to be bold just one more time and discuss the possibility of visiting the Carnivore Restaurant. There still was no practical way to eat dinner there. So, this will be one thing that will have to wait until my next visit. As it turned out, it was a good thing we left early for the airport. It was very busy there, and it took some long waiting-in-line to get things done. Security was tight at the airport, but not draconian. The first thing we needed to have done, before we even checked in, was have our luggage pre-scanned for security. I am really glad now that I purchased the extra-heavy x-ray bag for the film! Unfortunately, I dropped my precious water bottle while doing this, and lost some of the water. The lid was cracked, and I had to drink what was left right there and then. When we finally checked in, we were all in for an unexpected and pleasant surprise. The $20 US departure tax we had all heard so much about had been built into the cost of the ticket! This left us all with $20 more at a point in a trip where cash is often short. I was really happy of this, as my ticket had already been deeply discounted. I will certainly put British Airways high up on the list when planning my next visit! I was able to check my main bag through to New York, so I wouldn't have to deal with carrying it along with the lion and the camera bag while in Gatwick. I helped Joe and Joyce until they had been checked in. Then, we proceeded individually through customs control to the international departure terminal of the airport. Just like Gatwick, there were numerous duty-free shops in the international departure terminal. The selection wasn't as great, but there were things you wouldn't find at Gatwick, like a quality meat grinder(!), or a stunning silver-and-gold lion! (There was an equally stunning copper lion as well. I didn't even think of asking what these pieces would cost! They were about 16 inches long and about 8 inches high each. They were undoubtedly quite heavy.) I quickly learned that the duty-free shops would gladly take foreign currency. So, I bought a large bag of M and M's to help deal with not having a decent meal all day. (The restaurants in the terminal were all closed for some reason.) I also picked up a nice assortment of lion post cards for keepsakes. I thought of shopping for other souvenirs, but wisely decided not to. The five of us sat together, so we could take turns watching each other's carry-on luggage. Therefore, each of us had ample opportunity to explore the airport without the encumbrance of our carry-on luggage. Just like Gatwick, the check-in process for British Airways flights were very laid-back. We could do the final security and customs check at our leisure, even several hours before departure. We decided to wait until about an hour before departure to do this. Even then, we did this one at a time. There was a moment of apprehension when my carry-on bags went through the x-ray machine. Both the film bag and the wood lion made odd signatures on the x-ray device. I was asked to identify what they were, but then they were let through with no further search. The departure terminal was little more than a corral, just like the one at Gatwick. I was feeling just a bit queasy here, but dealt with it. I'm sure a lot of it was nerves. Due to some heightened security concerns, it took a bit longer than planned to prepare the plane. But, finally, we were allowed to board, just after 11 PM local time. I said 'goodbye' to Joe and Joyce for the last time, as they would quickly transfer to Heathrow once in London. I would have one more good chance to see Larry and Teri, but I said 'goodbye' to them as well. This flight was in another crowded 747-400. Although it wasn't completely full like the flight to Nairobi had been, it was still plenty full. Add to this the discomfort of the diarrhea, and the anticipation of ear problems, this would add up to make for an uncomfortable flight. Luckily, the cold I had left the US with had completely dissipated and there were no ear problems to speak of. Soon, we were in position to take off. This was it. I was leaving Africa. I was leaving behind one of the most wonderful experiences I had ever had. I was leaving behind new friends and new places. I was leaving behind many pleasant memories. I was leaving behind 10,000+ lions! There is nothing else in the world quite like the great game parks of East Africa. Even though I was experiencing some minor discomfort, and a few trivial logistics problems, I didn't want to leave. I already knew that I had to come back! The plane accelerated to takeoff speed, and soon we were in the air. The flight was at night, so there was nothing to see on the ground, even with a window seat. A layer of clouds made even the lights hard to see. I tried to get some sleep, but this proved difficult. Again, the crossword book was a real blessing! I spent the next 9 seemingly endless hours either trying to sleep, or doing puzzles. I had to get out of my seat a couple of times to use the bathroom, something I have never done on an aircraft before. I was concerned in that my urinary volume was very low. I was much more dehydrated than I had realized. I took every advantage of getting something to drink that I could. There was a movie that was also distracting me from trying to sleep. It was a silly spoof on detective movies. Even though I didn't listen to the sound track, I still laughed at the sight gags. After what seemed like an eternity, we were given landing cards to fill out. Somehow, I was missed the first time around, and had to ask for one. We were on final approach as I finished filling it out. Saturday, February 20, 1999 Gatwick Airport, London, England Minutes later, we landed at London Gatwick. Having been here once before, the drill was simpler. At passport control, I was given another 6 month visa, even though I had been given one just two weeks earlier! The first thing I noticed was how to proceed directly to international departures without having to clear customs. However, I had already made up my mind to stop at the W.H. Smith store that had the 'Chronicles of Narnia' series. This meant I would have to clear customs. (There was also more restaurant choices outside the international terminal.) But just like the last time, this was a matter of walking through the 'nothing to declare' hallway and walking out into the main terminal. The first stop was a McDonald's. (So much for the restaurant choices!) There I ordered two pancake and sausage breakfasts, and ravenously devoured them. I used US currency here, and gladly took the change in sterling. Luckily, the bookstore was here in the North terminal, so I didn't have to take the train to the South terminal. I quickly located the 'Narnia' books, as well as 'The Butterfly lion'. (This was published by the 'Born free Foundation', which was here in England.). I bought these, and paid for them with my credit card. Last stop before entering the International Departure terminal was the candy machine in the train station vestibule. Yes! They still had 'lion' bars. I bought 3 of them, which was as many as I had spendable coinage for. (I kept some British coins as souvenirs.) I passed through security into the International Departure terminal, where I would stay for the rest of the time I was in Gatwick. The first order of business was a restroom stop, and a long, long drink of water! I took many opportunities to drink water to combat the dehydration I was experiencing. Even though I was tired, and a bit queasy, the water was slowly making me feel better. Although plenty of food was available, I was not very hungry. I had six hours to wait before my next flight, so I tried to make best use of the time. Despite having to carry my camera bag and the awkward box with the wood lion in it, I somehow managed to move around fine. (The books had now joined the film bag inside the lion box. Even paperback books are heavy!) One store I checked out thoroughly was the music/video shop. I tried to locate a PAL copy of 'The Lion King' and/or 'the Ghost and the Darkness'. These would be for Njau and despite his owning a multistandard TV/VCR, my preference would be to send him tapes in his native video format. The store had neither title in stock. I briefly perused the music section, but found nothing outstanding there. Small shops like that one tend to focus on pop music, and not on classical or Christian. I revisited the bookstore, as well as the toy store. They were fun to look through, but I wasn't at that point interested in buying anything. I spent a long time looking at some of the interesting and unusual watches they had for sale in many stores. There was one especially interesting kiosk with a big selection of multi-function watches. I even found a watch with an altimeter, like the one Joyce had. It was even reasonably priced. I didn't buy it, as I was at my budget limit, and I would have to clear US ustoms with it. I visited the electronics store. I looked at their selection of minidisk recorder/players, as well as everything else they had. I'm now glad I didn't bring any audio recording gear on this trip, as there wern't a lot of animal sounds to record, except at Tarangire. While in the electronics store, I ran into Larry. We looked around together for a few minutes. Then, we said our final 'goodbyes'. The last item of interest I found in the electronics store was a battery-powered shaver. It was the Braun model that I had tried to get from Travelsmith (A mail-order travel supply outfit). Again, the price was reasonable, but I didn't buy it. I would not need it for probably a couple of years after I returned. After thinking about getting something to eat, and deciding not to, I settled down in a seat and just did crosswords. I was really beginning to pick up the British word styles used in this puzzle book! Finally, the gate for my flight was available. I quickly went to it and got a good seat in which to wait. Luckily, it was not a long wait, and soon we were departing England for the US! The 767 was much roomier, and I was starting to feel better. Yet, the flight still seemed to take forever and ever! Again, I alternated between doing puzzles and trying to sleep. The US customs paperwork was complex, yet not as bad as I thought it would be. However, there were so many different forms, they had to show an instructional video on how to choose the right one! It is a shame that the US has to have the most complex customs arrangements in the world! I was very close to the declaration limit. The limit was $400. I had $370 worth of foreign goods when I was done figuring. When we finally started our final descent into JFK, I had no chance to take any Sudafed. As it turns out, I didn't need to, either. I was able to keep my ears completely open, a MAJOR blessing. Thank you, Jesus! We first had to pass through passport control, just like in England. For US citizens, this was very simple. There were long lines for foreigners! I got my bag in baggage claim. Now, things were cumbersome. Nevertheless, I was able to manage the bag, the box with the lion and the camera bag without a serious problem. At the next station, I had to present my customs paperwork. The agent stamped it, and sent me on through. There was one final station where I had to present my stamped paperwork. This was the point where I would learn if I had to be fully inspected. All the agent said was 'Is that all the luggage you have?' My reply was 'I have learned to travel light!' He let me through. I was FREE! I was HOME! I had survived US customs! Praise the Lord! Unfortunately, customs turned out to be the easy part of JFK! As I made my way to the front door of the British Airways terminal, I was too busy rejoicing to have seriously considered using the courtesy baggage transfer station that British Airways had provided. This turned out to be a MAJOR boo-boo! I stepped out the door into total chaos! There were all manner of buses, taxis, and other vehicles picking up and dropping off passengers. There was such total confusion that the lone police officer there could hardly keep things under control. Speakers blared out instructions as to which bus to take. I found written instructions that were a lot more complete on a display board. My bus finally showed up. It was a mad fight to get on board. Everybody tried crowding on all at once. I had additional problems with the bulky luggage I was carrying. In any case, I had to be just as impolite as everyone else was trying to get on board. The bus was packed, and I had to stand with my luggage. I was eventually able to find a place where I could set it on a shelf. JFK is unlike any other airport I had ever seen. It consists of six or so main terminals, and a bunch of smaller terminals scattered over a huge area. A series of buses transported passengers between them. I was riding one of these buses. There were so many airlines served by JFK that it took a couple of minutes for the recorded announcement to read off what was available at each stop. There was every airline I had ever heard of, and many more! I was looking for the Trans World Express terminal, as that was the name on my ticket. This involved riding almost all the way around the airport. At least, the number of passengers in the bus dropped dramatically. Apparently, British Airways was one of the major pinch points on the route! I got off at the Trans World Express terminal. It was a modern, but well-used terminal. I got in the long line and waited my turn to check in. Boy, would I be glad to be rid of this heavy duffel bag! When it was finally my turn to check in, I was informed I would have to go to the Delta terminal to check in, if I wanted to check baggage. Even though the flight was operated by Trans World Express, it was handled through the Delta Terminal. Dismayed, I got back on the bus, and rode almost all the way around again to the Delta terminal. The Delta terminal was quite different from anything I had ever seen. JFK was Delta's hub, and this terminal was huge. People were everywhere, and always crowding to get one place or another. It took a lot of looking around to finally figure out that I was on the 'arrivals' level. (Everything was underground at this point.) I stopped and asked for directions at an information desk. They could not give me anything more than vague instructions. The most important thing I learned is that I would have to go upstairs to get to 'departures'. Every route upstairs was either closed, mobbed, or required you to pass through security. Since I hadn't even checked in, this didn't make sense. Finally, I found an elevator going up. Although the lines waiting to use it were not too long, the elevator was very slow. Here, too, you had to be downright rude to get into the elevator. Finally, at long last, I squeezed my way into the elevator, and took the short ride to 'departures'. I was greeted immediately by a security checkpoint. Seems at Delta, you go through full security, then check in! (The first security check in Nairobi was only partial. If you had no luggage, you proceeded right to the check-in window without going through the metal detector. The full security check was done when you entered the gate holding area. Contrast this to the Serengeti airport, where there was no security at all!) The security people were courteous, but you could tell they had been having a long day. I finally found an open check-in window. I had to wait here in a long line. Finally, another window opened up, and I made sure I was the first person to it. The lady running this check-in station was the first really friendly person I had met at JFK. She symphasized with me about all the hassles I had experienced passing through this airport. In any case, the duffel bag was checked through to Rochester. The next order of business was to find my gate, and a place to eat. I found a map showing where the food court was. It was right next to my gate. After a long walk, I found the food court. It was boarded up! Seems it was closed for renovations. The only thing open was a small sub shop, and of course, the bar! I didn't see any sandwiches there I wanted, so I settled for a piece of chocolate cake and some milk. I then made my way to the gate, which was conveniently accessed through a side door from the food court. I saw all sorts of commuter flights listed to many cities, but I didn't see 'Rochester'. I asked at the check-in counter and was assured I was in the right place. The lion box was now beginning to become quite flimsy. I had to adjust it several times to keep it from falling apart. I had tried to find a store that might have shipping tape as I had walked to the gate. There were none. I found a nice window seat, away from everyone else and the blaring TV. There, I could watch the airport traffic, even though it was now after dark. I did my daily bible study, and some more crosswords. I don't know how I could now manage without the crossword book! From time to time, I checked for a listing of the Rochester flight. It was never posted. Another check revealed that this was still the right place, even though the flight wasn't listed. The time for the flight came and went. I asked about it one more time. Again, I was assured I was in the right place. Finally, 10 minutes after the flight should have departed, it was called. I and the other Rochester-bound passengers went down a flight of steps to a waiting area. We were then informed that the flight was running late, and had just landed. After about 15 minutes, we were loaded onto a bus. We were taken out into the middle of the airport. Suddenly, there was a transmission on the radio, which I could clearly hear. (I was near the front of the bus.) It was an order to bring the Rochester passengers back to the terminal. Seems that our flight had been confused with another flight. So, the bus driver brought us back to the terminal. There, we waited for an additional 15 minutes. We were then loaded back on to the bus. This time, we were actually delivered to the airplane. We got on board the small commuter craft (Another Saab 340), and stowed our belongings under the seat. The lion just fit under the seat. Then, the long wait began. We waited and waited and waited. Finally, the pilot came on the PA and told us they had overbooked the flight by 13 passengers. Since these 13 passengers were part of a group, that entire group was being 'bumped'. However, their luggage had already been loaded. So, the luggage had to be unloaded, the other passengers' stuff removed, and the luggage reloaded. Another 20 minute delay. (The plane only holds 25-30 people, so overbooking by 13 is a huge error!) Finally, we were ready to take off. The left engine was started. The right engine wouldn't start! So, we had to wait until a maintenance crew came out to look at the engine. The problem turned out to be a circuit breaker for the starter that was partially open. Cycling the breaker fixed the problem. (This is not as serious a problem as it sounds, as an engine is started in flight by maximizing the pitch of the propeller blades and letting the slipstream turn over the engine.) While this was going on, it occurred to me that service had been much better everywhere else I had been on this trip. What a shameful place America was becoming. One passenger who was even more frustrated than me finally shouted, half in jest, 'We're all gonna die!' Everyone in the cabin chuckled. With both engines now running, we had to wait in line for takeoff. It was a long wait, maybe 10 minutes. Finally, it was our turn and we took off. We were now 2 full hours behind schedule! Just like the same flight from Rochester to JFK, the return flight seemed to take forever. We were flying low and slow. More crosswords. I looked out the window at one point and was pleasantly surprised to see the lights of Rochester below me. A few moments later, we began a wide turn and our final descent into the airport. A few moments later, we were on the ground. My ears didn't fare as well on this leg of the journey, and they were stuck shut. They weren't stuck badly, and cleared themselves sometime the next day. I remembered this leg outbound hadn't been kind to my ears, either. I was extremely happy to see my friend, Bob Shewell waiting for me outside of security. He had found out the flight I was on was late, and had waited until he had a good arrival time. After all of the frustration of JFK, things were starting to go right! I collected my duffel bag at the baggage claim area, and walked out to Bob's car. Things hadn't changed much weatherwise while I was gone. We had gotten a couple inches of snow earlier that day, so there was a nice, clean white coating on everything. I rejoiced, and thanked God when I saw my house was still there. Bob let me out in the driveway. It was then that the lion-box finally gave out, and everything fell out on the ground and into the snow! I picked up the various items and got them inside as quickly as possible. I then wiped the snow off the wood lion and dried it off. My cats were ecstatic to see me, and hardly left me alone! It was now after 11 PM, and I knew my parents would be sleeping. Nevertheless, I called them and let them know I was home safely. They were happy. I was happy (But still frustrated from all the problems I had experienced at JFK.). After I got off the phone, I realized that I had never wiped the snow off of the 'Chronicles of Narnia' books. By now, the snow had melted, and thoroughly wetted the books. I dried them off as best as I could, but they will always bear 'scars' of their 'spill'. In the midst of all this, I had completely forgotten about the small lion wall hanging I had also purchased. It ended up sitting in the snow all night. I found it the next day, none the worse for wear. Whatever wood it was made from, it was oily. The oils had protected it from the wet snow. Although I was hungry, I was also extremely tired. I decided to wait until the morning to eat. I went to bed. I promptly fell asleep. I slept nearly 12 hours! In any case, I had traveled to East Africa, and experienced it's grandeur. I had seen lions in the wild. (Praise Jesus!) And, I had returned safely. Already, I was thinking about plans to return! Epilog The next day, I slept until noon. I got up, cleaned up, and visited my local Pizza Hut for some good American food! I spent the rest of the day reading mail, catching up on email, etc., and calling close friends. It took about a week to readjust to Rochester time. Each day, I felt a bit less tired.I was my old self by the following Sunday. I quickly discovered that I was closer to budget than I had predicted. Therefore, I would have to wait a few weeks before I could develop any of the film. I kept it tightly sealed in it's x-ray bag in the refrigerator. About the time I finally had the money, Rochester got nailed by the blizzard of '99! We got 25 inches of snow on a Thursday, followed by another 18 inches on Saturday! The roads here quickly became worse than anything we had traversed in East Africa. I took a lot of pictures of the blizzard, and it's effects. I plan to send a few of these to Njau to show him what can happen to our roads! As soon as the blizzard was past, I got the film to a quality developer. I decided to spend the extra money on premium processing as it might be the only trip I will ever make. It was expensive, but I think it was worth it. The film processing bill came to nearly $500, but I knew it was done right. The color balance was even correct on the notoriously-hard-to-get-right Fuji film. As soon as the pictures were in hand, I started to write this Journal, which took from mid-March to the end of May. I used the master set of photos to work on the journal, and the duplicate set is being passed around to anyone who wants to see them. A few photos (Lions, of course!) were posted on my website, and someone has already paid me for very high resolution scans of some of those pictures! During June and July, I scanned in the 843-some pictures that I had taken. They still need to be shrunk down to web-browser size before making the CD-ROM I plan to make. Mid September finds me doing the proofreading and minor corrections to this journal. For some reason, these ended up requiring an agonizing amount of work, much more than I had ever anticipated. It will be posted on my website as soon as the final proofread is done. The HTML version will follow shortly, as soon as the image processing work is complete. I will go through the pictures in the next few days and pick out 40 or so to post on my website along with the HTML version. Due to an excessively heavy work load at work, it was not until October 11 that the final proofread of this journal was completed. I had a surprise in mid August week regarding the events of this trip. One day, I was in an unusual situation where I was watching the 'Newshour with Jim Lerher'. I never normally watch this show, but work circumstances put me in the same room as a TV with this show on. (This is a show the TV station I work for carries.) They were doing a segment on worker housing and vehicle traffic problems around Grand Canyon National Park. Much to my (pleasant) shock and surprise, one of the people they interviewed was Teri Cleeland! I had been having a rough day, and this event turned it around!I emailed her and told her of my surprise. Will I visit East Africa again? Of course! Will I use the same tour company? Yes, if they have the itinerary I am looking for. (They recently announced a participation camping version of this trip that is nearly half the cost. This is what I will probably take next time. Although the luxury camping is Ok, I am really there to see wildlife. So, if rough camping or a lodge safari offer me better game viewing, I will gladly pocket the savings! If I could choose, I prefer camping over a lodge.) I can never see enough of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater! Of course, the other parks were very good, too. I also want to visit some of the parks in Kenya, namely Tsavo and Samburu. The Field Museum of Natural History is opening interpretive centers in the Tsavo area as the result of the discovery of a cave where the maneating lions supposedly lived. I hope to also see the infamous bridge that started the whole Tsavo Maneaters incident. And of course, one never visits Kenya without visiting the Masai Mara, the North end of the Serengeti ecosystem! There are also excellent game parks in other African countries: South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia to name a few. None of these, however, boasts the lion populations of East Africa! What would I do differently? A number of things: 1. Take a portable water filtration kit. This would remove my need to always use bottled water. These are lightweight and now readily available. 2. Try to avoid intra-Africa flights. This makes luggage planning a bit easier. 3. Bring a portable CD player and some CD's. This would make the long flights much more tolerable. 4. Actually keep film in my backup camera! This might have salvaged the leopard sighting. 5. Take a longer lens. 300 mm was barely long enough. Unfortunately, longer lenses of good quality are VERY expensive, not to mention heavy. 6. Take more 'non safari' clothing. I never did use any of the lightweight clothing I had purchased. 7. Bring a better bird guidebook. I know my mammals reasonably well. I need to know the birds better! 8. Plan souvenir shopping a little more carefully. I now have a better idea of what's available. 9. Take fewer vitamins, etc. They really weren't needed. A good multivitamin and perhaps vitamin C were all that was really needed. Also, take these vitamins in much smaller containers. 10. Consider bringing a camcorder. Although I still think still photography is the most meaningful way to capture animals, there were times when moving pictures would have been useful. Only problem here is finding a reasonably-priced camcorder with a good quality long lens! 11. bring some good reading material for the slow times. 12. Bring some items for trade. Something useful for artisans, like copper and stainless steel wire. Fancy digital watches seem like nice trade items, too. 13. Take more dollar bills! Also, exchange some money to the local currency right away at each country. It seems hotels are the best place to do this, even if the exchange rate isn't fully optimal. This also helps avoid paperwork hindrances, like foreign encashment receipts. 14. Be better prepared for JFK. Or better yet, avoid JFK! 15. Bring a small roll of shipping tape, some stout string, and perhaps a sturdy cardboard tube for such items as Masai walking sticks or spears. 16. Bring along a small Amateur Radio transceiver, and work some people during the 'off hours'. Ultra-small radios are now available that will run on a small battery charged by solar cells. There are many other things I can't think of right now that I'm sure I will do differently. It's hard to include them all in one writing session! Planning is already underway for another visit in 2001! In any case, I hope you have enjoyed reading this, and are now motivated to make the trip to East Africa yourself! Tim Stoffel 10-10-1999