A Long, Long Overdue Trip Report - East Africa - August and September 2008
Nov 14th, 2009, 07:18 PM
#42
Hey, I am here reading this also ...just keeping a low profile !!!
Nov 14th, 2009, 07:27 PM
#43
I am glad you enjoyed Nairobi as much as I did.
I came two full days earlier ( before the Safari) and then had another full day at the end as I flew out of Nairobi at 10 PM.
Enjoying your report and the pictures. I was there in August/ September 2009...a year after you , but I really cannot tell that the animals were a year older
Thanks for posting
I came two full days earlier ( before the Safari) and then had another full day at the end as I flew out of Nairobi at 10 PM.
Enjoying your report and the pictures. I was there in August/ September 2009...a year after you , but I really cannot tell that the animals were a year older
Thanks for posting
Nov 15th, 2009, 07:27 AM
#45
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8/25/08 – Off to Tanzania
My Air Kenya flight was over an hour late leaving the Mara – making me nervous about my connection in Nairobi to Kilimanjaro Airport. There were a couple of other people on the flight continuing onto Tanzania, so they had held the flight. Upon landing, a baggage handler had me point out my bags and he whisked it onto the connecting flight – a quick trip through customs, and I was on the plane. I arrived at Kilimanjaro. After arriving, I stopped for a bathroom break, went outside for a quick cigarette, and visited the money exchange. Upon retrieving my luggage, I couldn’t locate anyone to pick me up – “Drats – my fears of being stranded in Africa had come true. Luckily, my guide/driver had gone back to his vehicle to call the office to check on me as I was late and we connected soon after that. For this portion of the trip, Kiliwarriors had arranged a guide/driver, Wilson to transport me and guide my game drives through Tarangire, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara. Wilson was excellent – offering good driving and great knowledge of the wildlife and birds. The trip to Tarangire was long, but enjoyable – it was my first real view of the villages and towns of East Africa, passing many school children in uniform. We arrived at Tarangire; however it was still quite a distance to the camp.
Tarangire – Oliver’s Camp
8/26/08
Oliver’s was another nice camp. I would put it somewhere in-between Serian and Rekero for level of comfort. It was almost time for dinner by the time I arrived, so I took a shower and freshened up and waited my escort for dinner. I had a city boy moment while taking my shower; I had a nice view of the surrounding landscape. While I had no problem in hugging a cheetah and kissing a giraffe – getting ridiculously close to lions, leopards and cheetah, I must admit I have a secret fear of snakes. While showering and looking at the area in front of my tent, I saw what seemed to be a huge snake slithering around in front of my tent. All I could think of was waking up in the middle of the night with this thing in bed with me. When my escort arrived to take me to dinner, I had them check the area for the offending snake – much to my embarrassment; it ended up to be a tree branch – definitely the non-poisonous kind.
After swallowing my pride, we headed off to dinner. Everyone met around a campfire for drinks and introductions and then a dinner gong was sounded and the evening menu announced. We then moved to the dining area for dinner, nice setting and as everywhere I’d stayed, wonderful food.
Up early the next morning for a game drive, greeted with my morning coffee and enjoyed the sunrise from the front of my tent. The morning drive presented the usual cast of characters – impala, elephant, giraffe, lion, ostrich, buffalo, and waterbuck. I’m not sure if it was seeing them in new surroundings or my continued excitement – but it all seemed new to me again. This drive presented some of my favorites as well – dik dik and cheetah. We happened on 3 cheetah’s lounging in the shade of a tree and we watched them until they started out on the prowl, but lost them soon after that. For that day (seemed to change with what I was viewing) – cheetah were my favorite of the cats. In reviewing the pictures, I couldn’t find just 1 or 2 that I liked so sorry for the number of them.
One of the things that made this trip so much fun was the excitement and enthusiasm that Wilson had for the animals. He was beside himself when we saw the fringed eared orxy as he said these weren’t frequently sighted in Tarangire. He almost came undone when 4 lionesses walked within 10 feet of the jeep, and he kept talking about the cheetah sighting from the day before. The morning of the second day, he asked what I wanted to see to which I responded leopard. He explained that leopard were very difficult to find. During our game drive, we were driving along when he suddenly slammed on the brakes. All he could manage to say was leopard in a tree, leopard in a tree. He was so excited he couldn’t even tell me where to look for several minutes. When we arrived back at camp for lunch, he told the other guides how lucky I was and they joked that they would just follow us around for the rest of the day. The afternoon of the second day, I went on a walking safari with Rudolph, the manager at Oliver’s. It was amazing how much different everything felt on foot. We were able to get very close to a family of elephants and also to some eland, waterbuck, reed buck and vervet monkeys. This was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. Overall, this was a wonderful park. I enjoyed it very much. It was very warm and the tse flies were fierce, but that was a small price to pay. On Day 3 we did a morning game drive and then were off to Ngorongoro for the next stop on this wonderful trip. Driving out of the park, we spotted a leopard, which crossed the road in front of us, mongoose, vervet monkeys and baboons, and a warthog. After a brief stop for lunch, we arrived at Ngorongoro Crater mid-afternoon. The views from the road were breathtaking.
Link previously posted will take to these additional pictures
My Air Kenya flight was over an hour late leaving the Mara – making me nervous about my connection in Nairobi to Kilimanjaro Airport. There were a couple of other people on the flight continuing onto Tanzania, so they had held the flight. Upon landing, a baggage handler had me point out my bags and he whisked it onto the connecting flight – a quick trip through customs, and I was on the plane. I arrived at Kilimanjaro. After arriving, I stopped for a bathroom break, went outside for a quick cigarette, and visited the money exchange. Upon retrieving my luggage, I couldn’t locate anyone to pick me up – “Drats – my fears of being stranded in Africa had come true. Luckily, my guide/driver had gone back to his vehicle to call the office to check on me as I was late and we connected soon after that. For this portion of the trip, Kiliwarriors had arranged a guide/driver, Wilson to transport me and guide my game drives through Tarangire, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara. Wilson was excellent – offering good driving and great knowledge of the wildlife and birds. The trip to Tarangire was long, but enjoyable – it was my first real view of the villages and towns of East Africa, passing many school children in uniform. We arrived at Tarangire; however it was still quite a distance to the camp.
Tarangire – Oliver’s Camp
8/26/08
Oliver’s was another nice camp. I would put it somewhere in-between Serian and Rekero for level of comfort. It was almost time for dinner by the time I arrived, so I took a shower and freshened up and waited my escort for dinner. I had a city boy moment while taking my shower; I had a nice view of the surrounding landscape. While I had no problem in hugging a cheetah and kissing a giraffe – getting ridiculously close to lions, leopards and cheetah, I must admit I have a secret fear of snakes. While showering and looking at the area in front of my tent, I saw what seemed to be a huge snake slithering around in front of my tent. All I could think of was waking up in the middle of the night with this thing in bed with me. When my escort arrived to take me to dinner, I had them check the area for the offending snake – much to my embarrassment; it ended up to be a tree branch – definitely the non-poisonous kind.
After swallowing my pride, we headed off to dinner. Everyone met around a campfire for drinks and introductions and then a dinner gong was sounded and the evening menu announced. We then moved to the dining area for dinner, nice setting and as everywhere I’d stayed, wonderful food.
Up early the next morning for a game drive, greeted with my morning coffee and enjoyed the sunrise from the front of my tent. The morning drive presented the usual cast of characters – impala, elephant, giraffe, lion, ostrich, buffalo, and waterbuck. I’m not sure if it was seeing them in new surroundings or my continued excitement – but it all seemed new to me again. This drive presented some of my favorites as well – dik dik and cheetah. We happened on 3 cheetah’s lounging in the shade of a tree and we watched them until they started out on the prowl, but lost them soon after that. For that day (seemed to change with what I was viewing) – cheetah were my favorite of the cats. In reviewing the pictures, I couldn’t find just 1 or 2 that I liked so sorry for the number of them.
One of the things that made this trip so much fun was the excitement and enthusiasm that Wilson had for the animals. He was beside himself when we saw the fringed eared orxy as he said these weren’t frequently sighted in Tarangire. He almost came undone when 4 lionesses walked within 10 feet of the jeep, and he kept talking about the cheetah sighting from the day before. The morning of the second day, he asked what I wanted to see to which I responded leopard. He explained that leopard were very difficult to find. During our game drive, we were driving along when he suddenly slammed on the brakes. All he could manage to say was leopard in a tree, leopard in a tree. He was so excited he couldn’t even tell me where to look for several minutes. When we arrived back at camp for lunch, he told the other guides how lucky I was and they joked that they would just follow us around for the rest of the day. The afternoon of the second day, I went on a walking safari with Rudolph, the manager at Oliver’s. It was amazing how much different everything felt on foot. We were able to get very close to a family of elephants and also to some eland, waterbuck, reed buck and vervet monkeys. This was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. Overall, this was a wonderful park. I enjoyed it very much. It was very warm and the tse flies were fierce, but that was a small price to pay. On Day 3 we did a morning game drive and then were off to Ngorongoro for the next stop on this wonderful trip. Driving out of the park, we spotted a leopard, which crossed the road in front of us, mongoose, vervet monkeys and baboons, and a warthog. After a brief stop for lunch, we arrived at Ngorongoro Crater mid-afternoon. The views from the road were breathtaking.
Link previously posted will take to these additional pictures
Nov 15th, 2009, 08:13 AM
#46
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Ngorongoro Crater – Sopa Lodge
8/29/08
We arrived at Sopa Lodge and checked in. This was quite a change for me, having become accustomed to Tented Camps. The Sopa was adequate, somewhat dated, but this was probably my least favorite lodging. This was the only time on the trip that I really felt like I was traveling alone. The large dining room and being seated by myself was a let down after the fun and story telling of the camps. I made my bellman feel bad, as while he was escorting me to my room, he asked where was my Mama, to which I replied she’s dead. I guess he thought I was joking and asked again, to which I responded – she’s been dead for years. Only later did I realize that he was assumed that I had a wife and she was traveling with me. It didn’t help that they had reserved the room for two – he looked very sheepish as I guess he thought my wife had died on the trip. In hindsight, I should have told him that she was eaten by a lion in Tarangire, just to see his reaction.
The crater was beautiful – I loved the views from the rim of the crater. Plentiful wildlife, however this was the only time I felt crowded or hurried. The number of vehicles at each sighting took away from my enjoyment of the wildlife viewing, plus it was hot and dusty in the crater. It certainly was worth a visit, however I would exclude this from future trips and have spent more time in the Mara or Tarangire.
During the trip to the crater floor, we saw jackal, zebra, wildebeest, lion, rhino, cheetah, hippos, elephant and many beautiful birds. We stopped for lunch at a picnic area and it was almost like the African version of the movie The Birds. The saving grace was that they were beautiful and it was really the first time that I had stopped to admire their colors and plumage. I enjoyed their display as I tried to guard my lunch.
8/29/08
We arrived at Sopa Lodge and checked in. This was quite a change for me, having become accustomed to Tented Camps. The Sopa was adequate, somewhat dated, but this was probably my least favorite lodging. This was the only time on the trip that I really felt like I was traveling alone. The large dining room and being seated by myself was a let down after the fun and story telling of the camps. I made my bellman feel bad, as while he was escorting me to my room, he asked where was my Mama, to which I replied she’s dead. I guess he thought I was joking and asked again, to which I responded – she’s been dead for years. Only later did I realize that he was assumed that I had a wife and she was traveling with me. It didn’t help that they had reserved the room for two – he looked very sheepish as I guess he thought my wife had died on the trip. In hindsight, I should have told him that she was eaten by a lion in Tarangire, just to see his reaction.
The crater was beautiful – I loved the views from the rim of the crater. Plentiful wildlife, however this was the only time I felt crowded or hurried. The number of vehicles at each sighting took away from my enjoyment of the wildlife viewing, plus it was hot and dusty in the crater. It certainly was worth a visit, however I would exclude this from future trips and have spent more time in the Mara or Tarangire.
During the trip to the crater floor, we saw jackal, zebra, wildebeest, lion, rhino, cheetah, hippos, elephant and many beautiful birds. We stopped for lunch at a picnic area and it was almost like the African version of the movie The Birds. The saving grace was that they were beautiful and it was really the first time that I had stopped to admire their colors and plumage. I enjoyed their display as I tried to guard my lunch.
Nov 15th, 2009, 09:09 AM
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Lake Manyara – Kirurumu Camp
08/30/08
Very scenic views of the Crater as we left for Lake Manyara. Lodgings were at Kirurumu Camp, a short distance from the park. This camp tented, but had more of a lodge feel to it. No campfires – dining room with evening entertainment. I enjoyed the camp, but missed the feel of those located in the parks. It was very comfortable, the food was enjoyable. I think the high point of this stay was actually having a meal with Wilson, my guide. He spoke with pride of his family and his children, talking about their schooling and his hopes for their future. Much like Ngorongoro, I felt crowded at Lake Manyara – lots of traffic trying to get in position for the few cat sightings that we experienced. A lion was spotted off the road, but we were never able to get close enough to see anything. I enjoyed spending time viewing the monkeys and baboons and the birds on the lake were incredible. Again, I’m glad I experienced this once, but would probably not repeat this on a future visit.
08/30/08
Very scenic views of the Crater as we left for Lake Manyara. Lodgings were at Kirurumu Camp, a short distance from the park. This camp tented, but had more of a lodge feel to it. No campfires – dining room with evening entertainment. I enjoyed the camp, but missed the feel of those located in the parks. It was very comfortable, the food was enjoyable. I think the high point of this stay was actually having a meal with Wilson, my guide. He spoke with pride of his family and his children, talking about their schooling and his hopes for their future. Much like Ngorongoro, I felt crowded at Lake Manyara – lots of traffic trying to get in position for the few cat sightings that we experienced. A lion was spotted off the road, but we were never able to get close enough to see anything. I enjoyed spending time viewing the monkeys and baboons and the birds on the lake were incredible. Again, I’m glad I experienced this once, but would probably not repeat this on a future visit.
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