Heart of Kenya and Tanzania with Micato Safaris
 

Reading Lynda's thread on her Micato Safari has finally gotten me inspired to get my pics together to share. Went to Kenya and Tanzania with Micato in June. Itinerary was 12 days land - Nairobi (Grand Regency Hotel), Tarangire (Sopa Lodge), Ngorongoro Crater (Sopa Lodge), Serengeti (Sopa Lodge), Maasai Mara (Kichwa Tembo). I hope to get a trip report up here soon, but Lynda is doing such a good job, I am not sure I have that much more to add. It truly was a trip of a lifetime, but I will go back! Hopefully very soon. Here is the link to my pics. I am actually pretty pleased with a couple of the lions and cheetahs. share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZNWTdu2cNWKW

Great photos -- where were the photos of the lions (feasting and the serval taken? You really saw a lot of predators!

Thanks for sharing,

Michael

Wow! Great shots. Particularly like the series on the wildebeast feast! Be do follow thru with report. Dick

the feasting lions and the serval are in the ngorongoro crater. total over 12 days we counted 47 lions. that pride alone consisted of 12 lions.

Thanks for sharing! Loved Mr. Lion King lying on his back and the cheetah cubs. Looking forward to your tripreport. Would like to hear about Sopa at the crater, staying there next summer. Leaving in june and would appreciate hearing about ypur experience in Mara at that time of year (looks like the grass is high...?)

siro

Hey I recognize the Elephant Orphanage!

<b>aowens</b>: Lovely pictures - I really liked the big ol' lion flat on his back, and those <b>cheetah cubs</b> were just adorable little balls of fluff!! I too would like to read a report - I'm curious about your traveling companions - looks like you and Mom and? And how did Mom like the trip? First trip?

I printed out the recipe you got off from Lynda's thread - haven't tried it yet, but it looked great!

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

<font color="green">Cyn</font>

siro - the sopa at the rim of ngorongoro is great because the road down into the crater is much better and quicker than it seems to be from serena. all of the staff was friendly and accommodating. The view was incredible. the mara is amazing. grass was different in different areas. our guide said they had recent rains, so it was a little more lush than normal. it rained twice while we were there, but very short rains. I also love the fact that you can drive off road in the mara because it is more lush and doesn't damage the grass.

waynehazel - yes that is the orphanage. I was very impressed with their dedication.

cynstalker - I went with mom and sister. It is actually my mom's 12th trip, my sisters second and my first. My mom takes her grandchildren on grandma grandchild trips anywhere in the world they want to go when they are 8 (sometimes she makes them wait another year if they aren't mature enough.) She took my nephew to Kenya 5 years ago and my sister tagged along on that trip. It has taken me since to get my trip! Oh but it was so worth waiting for!!

I have made the recipe since i got home and it is just as good as it was at kichwa tembo. enjoy!!

<b><font color="green">AWESOME</font></b><font color="black"> pictures, Ann! They brought back many wonderful memories for me - I recognized a lot of people in your pictures!
Rakita was the first one I recognized, looks like he went to the orphanage with you - we just met him at the hotel.

Then I recognized the lady from Micato, my goodness, I cannot remember her name - she was our concierge at our hotel in Nairobi, and also had dinner at the Carnivore with us at the end of the trip. An pretty name - but I just can't pull it out - I probably have it written down somewhere.

Next person I recognized was one of the drivers in the Sundowner picture - was it Roger? He wasn't our driver, but he was the driver from one of the other vans with us - he helped me up and down the kopje in the Serengeti at our sundowners.

Also recognized Benson at Kichwa Tembo - he was our driver - did you get him too? He was great!

And last, but NOT least - I recognized those darn cute little cheetah cubs that I NEVER GOT TO SEE!!! I see you didn't have Sylvia in YOUR van!! Benson was able to take you close to the cubs!! They were awesome pictures that you got - now I really do have to go back!!! Would it be OK, Anne if I printed up one or two of those for my album - I'll put a note in that gives you credit for the picture and a caption that says &quot;the cubs that WE MISSED!' Maybe I should send a copy to Sylvia.... :-)

How many people were in your group?

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Lynda - Rakita spent all day with us. He has been with Micato for a long time. My mom and sister met him 5 years ago. The drivers are Frederick, Lima, and Mapumba (sp?) he went by zebra man, and Gus our director. Frederick was our driver and was incredible at spotting game. We were always finding everything first!

I can't remember the Micato girls name either. She was with us all over Nairobi.

Benson was our driver in the Mara. I am so sorry you didn't see the cubs. There were five of them. We followed them all three days. Probably spent several hours with them total. Each time we went out on a game drive we would find them and all cross our fingers that she still had all five. She kept them all three days, but I don't fool myself into thinking they all will make it! There were 2 male lions very near her sharing the same territory.

Help yourself to my pictures - I would be honored to think you would like to have a couple of them. I think I ended up with about 150 pictures of those cheetahs! I just couldn't resist. No, there was not a sylvia in our group (thank goodness) But we had a Debbie. I know that many people love birds and that is fabulous - to each his own, but I was not interested in spending 30 minutes watching some bird while the leopard was in the tree eating his kill! I was happy she was not in our van. she was on the Stanley Wing. I felt sorry for them.

The cubs played all under our vehicle and we were about 5-10 feet from them each time. We sometimes had to remind ourselves that they were wild. There were 12 in our group and then we picked up 4 Stanley Wing people in Arusha, so we had 16 from Tarangire to the Maara. I promise to start my trip report soon. just haven't had much time to sit down and work on it. I was not as good as you were on detailed notes!

Ann, Those pics are fab!!! PLEASE post a report, we would ALL love to read it.

The Cheetah Mom still had all 5 of her cubs two weeks ago - we saw them twice!! She's doing a good job! Hopefully they are still there. They really were sooo cute and you got some fabulous pictures of them. Mom wasn't so keen on being upright both times we visited her :).
Lynda, I'm SO SORRY that you missed mom plus cubs .... there would have been murder on my hands if Sylvia had been in our vehicle ;)

Imelda

I can see why you'd have to remind yourself that those cubs are wild. It would be too easy to snuggle and give many kisses, otherwise.
Thanks for posting your wonderful pictures;
Sherry

Ann, I went on Stanley Wing Safari at the end of June and thoroughly enjoyed seeing your picures. I also loved seeing Lema and Frederick. Lema was our driver for several legs, and Frederick was the driver for the other group with us. It was like seeing old friends.

I probably missed it, but where were those adorable cheetah cubs? We saw cheetah in the Serengeti, but no baby cubs like that. I am a true sucker for the baby animals, so I would have really loved to see those guys.

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Mary

aowens - Yes, I enjoy seeing birds, but watching the cats was always at the top of my list. Never did I ask the other people in my group to spend time watching a bird if there was something better to observe. We observed the cheetah mom and kittens three separate times.

AND all four of us were glad that we were not with your group of thirteen.

calliec (Debbie)

Debbie -
I remember you posting just before I went, you mentioned you were going on the Stanley Wing right after ours. I was wondering if you were still on the board and how you enjoyed your trip - wasn't that just the most incredible experience?

I'm still working on my report on this board - work keeps getting in the way, but hopefully you are reading along and it is bringing back good memories for you!

Anne -
Thanks so much for the offer of the pictures - I will give credit in my album where credit is due! Your pictures are so incredible, it has brought them 'right into the van' with us!
And we nhavn't made that macadamia nut flan yet - we must get to that soon! (Denis, did you make it yet - you are after all in the land of macadamia nuts....)

Hi Lynda,
I too have been very busy at work but I have read some of your report. Thank you for taking the time to write such a lovely description of your trip . . . it certainly has brought back wonderful memories. It was an amazing trip and one I will cherish forever.

Debbie

ok - the beginnings of a trip report finally. I will also start with the disclaimer that I am not nearly the writer that many of you are, but I will do my best.

My mother and I planned this trip back in October of last year. I talked about it constantly and know I drove many friends nuts, but was so excited I couldn't help it. In December, my father's macular degeneration got much worse quickly and he had to give up his drivers license. Mom and Dad live out at the very north end of our island, so not having a drivers license is a tough situation for groceries etc. This is also a small town so the cabs are readily available and don't ususally answer the phone. Mom was extremely concerned about leaving him for 2 weeks with no car and no way to get anywhere. I should also say he is a retired surgeon and used to helping others not asking for help. We checked into a driver, but he was not interested, and there really wasn't anyone he would ask to come all the way out there and get him. Also, he is now 78 and we worry about him tripping and falling off of the dock into the river or some other such accident. Our solution to avoid cancelling the trip was to &quot;hire&quot; my nephew from Park City, Utah to fly to Georgia and stay with Dad while his brother was at camp and we were in Africa. This also left my sister &quot;childless&quot; for a few weeks, so she decided to come with us to Africa. This was great as we had not had a family &quot;girl&quot; trip in about 7 years.

The time passed quickly and before I knew it the duffle bag and packing list had been sent from Micato, and it was time to figure out how to get them down to 33lbs.

After much packing and repacking, my bag weighed 31lbs which left a little room if i wanted to pick up a sweatshirt or something along the way.

Sunday June 11

We flew from Jacksonville, Florida to Atlanta and then to Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a great layover point as Schiphol has 2 hotels connected to it and everything you could possibly need, and is only 10 minutes train ride into the city. We checked into the Sheraton at Schiphol and took a train into Amsterdam. We went to Ann Frank's house and got some lunch. Then Susan (my sister) and I enjoyed opening my 72 year old very southern bell pollyanna mother's eyes to the sights and sounds of the red light district. She had been to Amsterdam before, but Mom travels more first class than we usually do and had not experienced that side of Amsterdam. After strolling through the streets we were all pretty worn out and went back to the hotel for happy hour and early to bed.

Tuesday June 13

We flew from Amsterdam to Nairobi on KLM. Susan and I lucked out and had no one in between us in our aisle, so we were pretty comfortable the whole way. We landed in Nairobi and were met by our Micato facilitator. This person was there to expedite our way through customs and immigration and baggage claim. We went through, and I was immediately surprised by the people that were going on through the line to the other side and back again into the &quot;secure&quot; area several times without anyone stopping them. I am sure these people were doing the same thing our lady was but it just struck me as interesting. Anyway, we proceeded to baggage claim and had waited for about 20 minutes when the electricity went out. It was very dark in there. It came back on after about 5-10 more minutes and we got our bags and went out where we were met by our guide (Kennedy)and driver. They took us to the Grand Regency Hotel. Check in had been done for us and we were given our keys. When we got to the room a complete safari outfit (pants, shirt, and vest) was laid out for each of us as part of our booking bonus. We also had a vase full of fresh roses and several bottles of water and a fruit basket. It was about 10pm by this time, so we all went to sleep, but I was too excited to sleep - I was in Africa - the place I had been dreaming of going since I was 10.

I meant to say cabs are NOT available. sorry.

A great start Anne!! I really enjoyed reading this, please keep going!