"Out of Africa" February 10 & 11 "Let the Safari begin"

AFRICA.  If Africa isn't on your bucket list, it certainly should be!  I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Tanzania this year and it was everything I had imagined and more.  Honestly, after my trip to the Galapagos islands, I thought that it would be nearly impossible to enjoy a trip as much as I had enjoyed the one I took with my grandson, Luke.  I was wrong!  This trip was uniquely and equally great.  If there is a downside to a visit to Africa, I would have to say it is the travel time to get there.  Yesterday, we spent 20 1/2 hours in the air on our return trip and that is not counting the lay over time we spent in airports or sitting on the tarmac in Dublin, Ireland refueling.  All I can say is that it was certainly worth all of the sitting and questionable airplane food!

The 3 Amigos on a trip of a lifetime! 

This was our transportation from Dulles Airport compliments of Ethiopian Airlines.  We departed Saturday, Feb. 9th at 10 a.m. and arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia the next day at 7:15 a.m.

Arriving at Kilimanjaro, 12:55 p.m.

Sunday, February 10
After our initial touchdown in Ethiopia, we had a 3 hour layover in a third world airport, no air and questionable bathroom facilities, before continuing on to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.  Tanzania was 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard.  This made it difficult to communicate back home unless we either woke someone in the middle of the night or they woke us.  At Kilimanjaro airport we had to pay for our Visa ($100) and get our passport stamped before we were transported to the Arusha Serena Hotel & Spa for our first evening in Tanzania, Africa.  This particular hotel had once been a coffee plantation.  It was beautiful.

Arusha Serena Hotel & Spa

Our Room #26

The rooms were nicely appointed

And all rooms came equipped with a very nice view.

Monday, February 11
After a relaxing dinner and a good night of rest we anxiously repacked and eagerly headed to the dining room for breakfast and an orientation meeting. I was so excited I'm not sure I heard anything that was said.  Our adventure was about to begin and I was more than ready to get started.  We met our driver/guide, Steven, climbed into our Toyoto 4-wheel drive and soon we were off!!  Our destination was the Tarangire National Park and on our way we had to drive through the 3rd largest city in Tanzania, Arusha, the region's capitol.  Driving in Arusha was crazy, so crazy in fact that I found it difficult to take any pictures as we pitched forward, backward, side to side and up and down the busy streets.  There were motor scooters, pedestrians and animals everywhere.  How no one got killed was a miracle in itself!

Seat belts on and ready to begin our African Safari

A market in Arusha, one of many.

One of the less crowded streets.

On the outskirts of the city was the Cultural Center that included stores of handmade items for sale and an art museum.  Barb and I checked out the art museum and had a devil of a time finding a way out!

Inside the Market area.

The art museum was next door.  Barb went with me to take pictures for her granddaughter, Lily.

Metal sculpture of a Maasai lion hunt

In the back center you can see a tall structure, about 20', called the Tree of Life.  It was a carving from one piece of ebony that 3 carvers spent 42 years carving.

The carvings on the Tree of Life were similar to these.

Also in the Art Museum there were paintings as well as carvings and other mediums of art work.  We did not have enough time to explore everything that was there.

A native mask

From the Cultural Center we headed west toward Tarangire.  The landscape was open and on either side we would see Maasai villages that consisted of mud huts surrounded by brushy stick fences to keep their livestock in at night.  The Maasai people are herders and their livestock consists of cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys.  The donkeys are used as beasts of burden.  You would see a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep and goats and nearby each you would see a Maasai man or young boy with the animals.  Most of the herders had on  bright red clothing.

Herder with sheep and cattle

Donkeys grazing next to the road

We were told that the Maasai prefer to wear red so they can be seen from far distances.

This open air market moves to a new location on different days of the week. This assures everyone an opportunity to sell or buy at the market nearest them.

It took nearly 3 hours to reach the Tarangire National Park.  At the entrance we stopped at the wash room and were greated by our first glimpse of a vervet monkey.  The vervet monkey is a nuisance animal much like our raccoon.

The entrance to Tarangire National Park

The greeter, a vervet monkey.

As we used the facilities, our driver transformed our jeep into a safari vehichle by putting the top up.  We could then stand on the seats, shoes removed, and get a birds eye view of the wildlife.  We did not have to wait very long.  In less than a mile we spotted our first African species and every mile brought a new surprise.  At this moment we knew this was going to be a fantastic adventure!

Pumba, the wart hog

The Impala, an antelope easily identified by the M on his butt.

This vervet monkey, inside the park, had a baby.

Our first giraffe.

Our first lion, a partial sighting as he never moved

Our first ostrich sighting

Cameras snapping like crazy, Sharon is narrating what is sure to be a 10 hour video.

Our first elephants

And this is how we travel

My first hornbill.  A Southern Ground Hornbill

Hooded Vulture

To get to the lodge we had to ford the Tarangire River.

We saw lion and elephant tracks in the river bank. The following morning we set out and hour earlier to see if we could find the lions.

 Our accommodations for this evening were at the Tarangire Sopa Lodge inside the Tarangire National Park.  Once again we were quite pleased with our lodging.

The sign at the front gate

Our lunch today was outside on the patio overlooking the pool.  We had choices of grilled chicken, fish or beef.

We ate under the shelters in the shade.  It was around 90 degrees on this day.

After we ate, we checked into our rooms.  We noticed as we walked to our rooms that we had some outside neighbors.  The Rock Hyrax is a close relative to the elephant, go figure! There was also a troop of vervet monkeys in the tree by our room.  Our room tonight had something new, a mosquito netting around our bed.  While we were at dinner, the maid would turn down our beds and pull the netting around.

This little guy was on our roof top.

one of many of the Rock Hyrax

The view from our balcony

 At 4 p.m. we went on another game drive.  This drive was just as productive as the early afternoon and we added some new animals to our list.

These two male impala began fighting for dominance while we watched

Steven explained that these males would sometimes lose a horn while dueling. In extreme cases they could inflict a life ending injury.

The duel lasted about 10 minutes before one of them gave up.

Red Hartebeest

Jackson's Hornbill

More African Elephants

There were several babies in this herd.  This little one appeared to be the youngest.
Steven thought about a week or two.

Northern White Crowned Shrike

Elephants crossing the road

Red Necked Spur fowl & Orange Necked Spur Fowl
Near the river bank.

Verreaux's Eagle-Owl

Verreaux's Eagle-Owl

3 banded Plover

This was one of our favorites, a Dik Dik
Steven told us that Dik Diks are monogamous and that if one dies the other will grieve themselves to death.  They are referred to as the "Love" antelope.  This tiny antelope is 12-16" tall and will only weigh between 7-15 lbs when full grown.

We were fortunate to see a pair with their baby.

Chances are that you own a dog that is bigger than these antelopes.

We saw an African Buffalo in the far distance.  

This ended our first day on Safari.  Safari is a Swahili word meaning "Journey" and what a journey this has been.  Tomorrow we will check out and spend a few hours on a game drive as we make our way out of the park on to the Serengeti.  Usiku Mwema! (Good Night!)