Hey, Jessica, I'm back! Just checking to see if you had posted anymore.....

Welcome back Lynda! You've guilted me into it - I am finally back to work on my trip report. By the way, I got an email from Renny a couple of days ago and he told me that you were on his safari!

I know it has been a long time coming (at least I left you hanging in a lovely place - Ngorongoro!), but you can now view the next installment on my blog: Ngorongoro to Serengeti. I have posted a few photos directly onto the blog as I have not yet updated my Flickr site yet. Enjoy!

I am so glad, Hausfrau, that you're writing again; I was really a bit worried, and hoped you were OK - and just busy; I know too it is not an easy matter to put together an account that's as well written and illustrated as yours. I could just picture myself right there with you.
Jess

What a wonderful installment Jessica! I can just see Renny pointing out the homo sapiens! He ws so funny! We were all very disapointed that Dniel couldn't go into Tanzania with us (new regulations), but once we met Renny all was well!! He called us 'Lynda and Jungle Jim' - the name really stuck. We had Steven as a driver - he was incredible too - and our paths kept crossing with Rodgers. He remembered us from last year, even though we didn't have him as a driver, (we had Bernard), he was driving one of the other two Land Cruisers with us.

I just adored Renny though - I really miss the way he says 'no,no,no,no,no' when he is answering in the negative! I mentioned you, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember whether Ann was the other person who had him last year from this board, or someone else. But he sure remembered you and your group! (all J's, he said, in the family....)

jvnoledawg, thanks, glad you are enjoying it! You will have an awesome time on safari!

Jess, how sweet of you to be thinking of me. No worries, I have indeed been busy and it does take a lot of time to write these up. I'm just glad I took the time to take such good notes, otherwise I'd be lost!

Lynda, now I understand why we had two guides and you only had one last year. Renny did mention something about that. Yes, we were the four J's - it was pretty funny, but made it somewhat easier to remember us, I suppose! Renny is so funny - you probably heard that he spent several years in Japan, so we kept joking about his subtly Japanese mannerisms!

Jeez, I forgot to mention (hold onto your hats) that I've got another post up! Yes, that's 2 post in 2 days! Our day in the Serengeti was unforgettable (OK, EVERY day was, but this one was particularly so!).

And now my Serengeti photos are up on flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/hausfrau

Only 5 more days to go!

I missed this before, don't know how! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Tree climbing lions! Wow, I had forgot that they sometimes do that in the Serengeti - you were SO lucky!

That more than makes up for the leopards!

I too thought the food at the Sopa was good, but the service was slow. Pole, pole, you know - Africa time!

Thanks for continuing. The photos are quite impressive. Love all your bird shots, quite a great jackal-in-the-grass pic and the lions in the trees are gorgeous. Too many good ones to name them all.

Love, love, love the "elephants and palms" photo. Simply beautiful. So many others that are fantastic as well. January seems so far away. ::heavy sigh::

Shane

Jessica, Good installments. What about the remaining days? Eric

hausfrau, keep it coming.

hey lynda - it wasn't me that had renny last year. we had kennedy and gus. both were great. ann

Great pictures! What camera do you use? Baby hippo, lioness on tree, etc are really quite professional quality.

Looking to read your adventures in Kenya and beyond. Thank you.

Thanks everyone for the continued motivational support! I promise to get my report finished soon. In fact I am on a deadline because I leave on Friday to visit the U.K. for 2 weeks.

julianewman, I used a Canon EOS 400D (called the Rebel XTi in the U.S.) with an 18-55 mm lens and a Canon Ultrasonic 70-300 mm zoom.

OK, I am back in action. Our very full day from the Serengeti to Masai Mara is now up on my blog!

Nice job. I liked the shot of the serengeti goodbye from air. You use a very good camera.

Come on now, finish it up :)

Just wanted to thank you for another exceptional installment - both words and pictures. Better than a lot of professionals (although perhaps you are one, when you are not in the haus, Frau).
Jess

very good installment and beautiful picture of mother and child. with the storm y'all had a real safari experience!

Tx.

Jessica, what a wonderful segment of your trip, I enjoyed every word of it! The three planes day brought back many memories - I have a picture of one of our safari mates in those oversized overstuffed chairs - she looks like Alice In Wonderland!

And Kichwa Tembo - sigh! I miss it already! We ate at Bateleur Camp this year, and although the food was EXCELLENT, it didn't taste anything like those BBQ beef kabobs & grilled veggies! We had that same menu last year for our first lunch, I was looking forward to it this year! We did ask the chef over at Bateleur though to make the macadamia nut flan, and it was wonderful. Now, I thought I remembered from last year that it had whip cream or something, this year it was macadamia nuts and caramel in a pie shell - was it that way when you had it too?

I just remembered someone posted the recipe, I will have to put my thinking cap on to remember who posted that & where! I should make it for our Africa night GTG on July 7th!!

And the young doctor - I'll bet he's the same one that I saw last year about the rash on my arm - Just a baby!!! I made him go put on a white coat so I could see that he was really a doctor... :-) He was so funny -

"Hmm, you seem to have a reaction to something"

"yes doctor", I said "but to what?"

"Oh, the sun, the food, the water, could be anything"

I had to go away chuckling, that was a lot of specific information! Anyhow I found out the hard way this year what it was - more in my report....

lynda - i posted the recipe and have made it several times. it is yummy!! i added the whipped cream myself, bit i don't remember having that in africa. the recipe is posted in your trip report from last year if you want to look it up!! it is just as good as it was and always brings back fond memories!!

here it is again:

Lynda - here is the recipe. i made it last week and it is as good as it was in Kichwa Tembo!! For the crust i cheated and used the pilsbury refrigerated and it was fine. i couldn't see wasting the time to make it from scratch! i couldn't wait that long, but i will include that part anyway. i have not converted those measurements.
Crust:
125 G Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 C plain flour
1 whoe egg lightly beaten
50 g fine sugar

combine butter and sugar in bowl. beat with mixer til combined. pour in egg. beat til combined. stir in sifted flour - knead til smooth. comver and frig for 45 min. roll out and put in lined baking tin. trim and cover with greaseproof paper, fill with dry beans. bake in moderate over for 10 min - remove beans and paper and bake 3 more min.

Filling:
9 oz macadamia nuts
7 oz fine sugar
1/2 cup cream
1 3/4 oz unsalted butter (about 1/2 stick)

combine butter and sugar in saucepan. stir constantly over med to low heat without boiling until sugar is dissolved . add remaining ingredients, bring to boil. remove from heat then pour into baked pastry and let cool for 10 min, Serve!!!

yum yum!

Lynda- Every time you post even on someone else's thread people start replying to you!! You are one popular figure on this board.

Well folks, it just ain't gonna happen. I leave today for 2 weeks in the U.K. so I won't be posting any more installments until I get back. There's just 4 more days to go, and I PROMISE to make it a high priority when I return!

In the meantime, you'll all just have to hop on over to Lynda's trip report! Lynda, you'll probably embarrass me by finishing your report before I finish mine!

Jess, thank you very much for the compliment. In my dream world I would love to become a "professional" writer so your kind words are very much appreciated!

I'm glad someone had that macadamia flan recipe! Chef George gave it to us but it's buried in my Africa stuff somewhere. Lynda, you should definitely make it for the GTG! I'm glad to hear we have similar fond and funny memories of Kichwa Tembo. I love that place!

Signing off for now. Everyone keep dreaming of Africa!

Thanks Anne for the recipe, I should have remembered it was in my own thread! I am printing it off again and we will definitely have to do it for the GTG - I'll add whip cream too.

Thanks for such nice words julianewman, I appreciate that!

And Jessica, have a GREAT time in the UK and we will catch some more of your wonderful writing when you get back!

So hausfrau's real name is Jessica. Looking forward to installments when you can.

haurfrau, If this also is by you http://temporaryhausfrau.blogspot.com/ can you post expat related links at this thread? http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35020668. Someone pointed out expatica which is pretty good. Thanks.

Hi lisa, I'll respond about expat stuff on your other thread.

To everyone else, I'm back from a great 2-week trip to the U.K. (it rained every day except our last day but we didn't let it dampen our spirits!) and will get back to my Africa report just as soon as I wade through all my email and laundry!

hausfru- Tx for your emails. Eric Schubert

Better late than never...

I've posted another entry on my blog, detailing our rather "interesting" balloon ride over the Mara and some more fascinating wildlife encounters. The Mara folder on my Flickr site now has photos from this day as well (starting after the "sky turning black" photo).

Enjoy! I am aiming to get the rest of my report finished this week.

Baboon looks made up. You might want to skip the conversations in future repotrs. nice job.

I don't know if it is the conversations, the failed balloon ride or hausfrau in a hurry but it reads different from previous installments. Photos are good though!

The photos are nice indeed. Like the shot from the balloon above Mara. Mara light photo is very nice too. Chuckled to see the ketchup bottle in the middle of Africa! You appear to enjoy taking and posting animal mating pictures, what's Up with that!! ;) Wjaht camera/lenses? Thanks.

Let's just say it was a "different" day. The dialogue is there for me to remember the details and the people we were with. I have a few moments of our time stuck in the balloon basket on video, and that is pretty priceless! Animals mating...well, they did it all the time, and as a former ecology/animal behavior student, I found it all quite fascinating. Camera info is in my 4/29 post on this thread.

Hey, if ya find animals mating fascinating!, you find it fascinating! No explanations needed. Thanks for the camera information because the landscape shots are outstanding.

gt, finding animal mating interesting does Not mean interest in beastiality. HF, keep up the good work.

Hello, Hausfrau,

I don't normally read Africa board threads but have read your Safari blog off and on partly because they come as close to professional writing as I have seen on Fodors. Impressive descriptions of animals and your experience which makes one feel almost as if one is there. Your choice and placement of pictures makes your blog come alive. You certainly have a flair for writing, and a very good understanding of the types of animals/birds (or you took copius notes). I actually like the people interaction descriptions so it doesn't become a dry monologue of scenary/animals. The failed balloon ride (hope you got some of your money back) is an adventure too, no?:) One that turned out to be safe :)

Photos.... Many of your shots are priceless. The ones on goodbye Serengeti, lioness in the tree, baboon portrait, Mara light, etc (so many I can't write'em all :) ). On the other hand, banana vendors and school kids photos are good reminders of poverty. Obviously something is not working. Have you looked at supporting any grass roots organization? I also wonder the impact of tourism on Masai/Mara culture (reference to the wigs or frequent visitors to someone's house). Hopefully, they haven't become stage actors out of necessity. I guess it is better than starving but still. hopefully, the Safari interface is just a tiny part of their lives.

Overall, this is the closest at least I have experienced a Safari. Having done a lo....ng report recently, I know the effort involved. So, thank you for your considerable time investment in keeping it all organized and posting it. My only suggestion: I have lost track of which day you are on so consider adding a day marker on your blog unless you are so close to the end that it doesn't matter.

Regards.

After Comfy's articulate post, I better say I agree with his summary and your blog is a great read.

Comfy, thanks for your very nice compliments. This blog has been a labor of love and it is wonderful to hear that people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

You asked about the rampant poverty; that is a topic we returned to repeatedly over the course of our trip and we had some really good conversations with Tonnie about it. I'd like to put some thought into my response, so will write in more detail in a later post.

I am indeed almost done...my 3rd to last entry is now up on the blog, and photos will be available later today on Flickr.