LyndaS

Oh my goodness aowens - that macadamenia nut flan will haunt me I swear! The day it was on for lunch I was full and didn't have desert - and everyone raved about it! And of course, it wasn't on the next day... I would LOVE the recipe if I could so that I could make it and try it!
I'm glad you like reading the report - they really are a FABULOUS company!

Leely- Jim is working on the pictures, but I would give him a bit yet - he has 2100 images to go through plus mine, which were films but are also on CD! I've asked him to put up 100 of the best shots in the Kodak gallery. That lunch really was awesome - but, I did pay for my thoughts (there's that Earl again!) the next day....

Wayne - I thought of you guys and that 'looking' thing as we were driving to the Serengeti - oops, I'm ahead of myself here....

and, thankyou so much Dennis, and lovetodiscover!

I'm back to writing about the next day now!!

LyndaS

DAY 8 – SUNDAY, JUNE 4TH, SOPA LODGE, SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

“ON SAFARI, I FEEL LIKE A BOTTLE OF COCA-COLA THAT HAS BEEN SHAKEN ON A HOT DAY – EFFERVESANT & OVERFLOWING WITH SIGHTS, SOUNDS, IMPRESSION, EMOTIONS”
-Gary Clarke, ‘I’d Rather Be On Safari’

Every evening, Daniel would give us our schedule for the day, and at the end of it, would ask what time we would like a wake up call, along with coffee. This more than made up for that tiny little coffee pot that we couldn’t bring with us due to ‘weight’!

This morning we awoke with our coffee at 6:00, as the leave time wasn’t scheduled until 8 AM – pretty late by our usual standards – this felt like a ‘sleep-in’. As packing was easy when one never unpacks, and showers are done before dinner, this gave us enough time to laze in bed, to reflect on our wonderful day in the crater the day before, and catch the colours of the sunrise through that huge picture window.

And, just like I did that morning, I would like to reflect on the crater before we leave it here in this report. Before we left for the safari, I read Gary Clarke’s ‘I’d Rather Be On Safari’ (thanks, Carrie – a great book!). He had a chapter dedicated to the crater, and I could see why. In his book, he writes about the demands that the international tourist market will take on this rather delicate eco-system, as time goes by. He describes a nightmare he had, and this is what I couldn’t get out of my mind that morning. In his nightmare, he envisioned the crater with ‘tourists arriving from around the world to stay in upmarket hotels or on board a cruise ship in the Indian Ocean’. From there, they would be transported by helicopter to one of the ‘necklace of luxury lodges that circled the Crater rim’. Here they would enjoy the casino, or the lavish pool. The next day they would be transported by a loading platform at their lodge and descend into the crater by cable car, then transfer over to a monorail system where they could view the animals on the crater floor. He even described the photograph at the end that they would receive as a ‘souvenir’.

I reflected a great deal on this, and it was a scary thought. The solution to prevent this? Well, I don’t know, I’m just good on reflecting on things I guess – not coming up with a solution. But it is thought provoking. I didn’t see all of the vans that others had described roaming the crater – until we got to the picnic spot for lunch. And then it hit home what people were talking about. And, it hit home that something will have to be done before it does get to the point that Mr. Clarke saw in his nightmare. I felt good about being in a group of three vans that each had 6 people in it, and I wonder if this may be a good compromise – could the individual private safari people who are only two in a van do a ‘group’ trip into the crater for just that one day, along with 4 other people? That would save on the eco-system a bit, and every little bit could help – and it is only for one day! As most of you guys out there are die-hard private safari goers, what say you? Would that be an OK solution? Sounds better to me than cable cars! A thought to mull over, anyhow.

Anyhow, I will get off of my soapbox (which is usually Sherry’s!) and continue on my day! I had neglected to mention that at some point in Tarangire Park I had developed quite the rash on my left arm – and it was getting uglier by the day. At first I thought a mosquito had had a hay day on my arm, but they never went away, so I knew it couldn’t be that. To this day I am not sure what it was, I suspect a heat rash; it started out as raised red welts (small) which then went into ‘blisters’ or ‘pimples’ (oooohhh, yech). I don’t know why I wanted to mention this now, but….

So, off for breakfast we went after my little reflection. A great breakfast – now why does breakfast always taste better in the brisk cold mornings than in the hot muggy mornings? But, I lingered too long, and realizing that it was almost 8:00, ran up to the reception (hold on – there’s a story here!) to pay for our laundry and Jim’s ‘beer’ tab, as well as rescue our travel pouch from the safe. Everytime we would change lodges or camps, Daniel would remind us that we needed to put our valuables in the safe, and every morning before leaving he would ask if we all had retrieved them as it would be an easy thing to forget and leave behind. I quickly paid our tab, got the ticket pouch from the guy and ran out to the van. Everyone else was there, I jumped in and apologized. No problem they said, it was only a few minutes.

Breathless, I sat back and enjoyed the view of us ‘bumping’ along on the entrance road for the Sopa. We were just about to the rim road, when I thought, possibly I better have a sip of my coffee in that wonderful stainless steel mini travel mug that our son’s best friend, Andrew had bought us for Christmas, before going onto the rim road. I reached for the mug – OH OH! I paled as I realized that I had just broke RULE # 3 of group travel – NEVER be the person who leaves something sentimental behind! I told Jim, and meanwhile the others in the van heard. I apologized to every one for what I was about to do, but the gift meant a lot to me, and besides, coffee on game runs was such a welcome thing for us! Everyone said, no problem, it wasn’t far. I told Bernard, he also said ‘hakuna matata’ as he put the van in reverse and actually BACKED up that entire terrible access road to the lodge! I sunk in my seat as we passed Daniel in one of the other vans going the right way. I didn’t understand all of the words him and Bernard spoke (in Swahili) but I bet I understood a few….

I had indeed left it at the reception desk as I was in such a hurry. The guy behind the desk saw me run in, reached behind his desk, smiled and handed it to me! And, of course as we were now a good 20 min behind the rest, Bernard thought he might make up for it on the rim road! I knew I wouldn’t live this one down for a while.

The road didn’t seem as bad as it did the night we were coming in – maybe it’s actually better over on the other side, or maybe it just didn’t seem as bad in the daylight. The descent off the crater at Windy Gap into the valley below was gentle, the road was no hell, but the slope was gentle at least. We descended into a heavily populated Maasai area, it was very scenic, but of course I heeded the warnings about taking pictures of the Maasai and did not take any! Well, OK, maybe I took one out the window when no one was facing the camera…

This road to the Serengeti is long, dusty, bumpy and just a little boring. Andrew was amusing us by telling us all that he had learned on this trip so far, so we were kept occupied. But I couldn’t imagine doing this long drive just by yourself – which is what many of the guides have to do when their charges fly back from the Serengeti. Bernard told us he is quite used to it, but he still prefers it when there are people in the vehicle with him. We saw a few jackals up close – that was exciting as we hadn’t seen any up close up to that point. Our van caught up with the other two around 11:00 at Oldupai Gorge – and yes, I did get razzed – everyone had heard what we back for and who the culprit was. Daniel just smiled though and said it was OK, I felt better once he said that!

The museum was small, but interesting – it does need a little updating though, as everyone said. The Maasai beadwork for sale here, according to the shoppers in our crowd was not a very good price. The talk from the museum employee was interesting, and it was certainly interesting to hear about the excavation of ‘Lucy’. The washrooms on the edge of the gorge were very rustic indeed – but, hey, I was getting used to this.

After our little stop there, it was back on the road again. After another dusty, dry road with lots of bumps, we crossed a dry river bed just before Ndutu Gate, the entrance to the mighty, fabled Serengeti. Daniel ‘issued’ us a Sopa picnic lunch box – oh no we thought – and pointed us in the direction of the picnic area. This was karma. The lunch box was by far the worst lunch I have ever ‘not eaten’. It was terrible! I tried the sandwich – was it a sandwich? I’m not sure; it was a big hunk of bread with ½ slice of ham and something brown. Dates? Figs? Chutney? I don’t know. A pasta salad that didn’t taste very good, an apple that had seen better days, a cookie that had no flavour and a juice box. And that was lunch. I tried everything, but ended up packaging it up and plunking it in the garbage can. No wonder there was so many rats around the benches I thought! They were just waiting for me, and everyone else to do that. This was the ONLY complaint that I put on my form to Micato at the end.

But I soon got over it once we started driving into the Serengeti. Here was the land I had dreamed about for years with the acacia trees, lions playing, leopards hunting, wildebeest gnuing and zebras standing around. Now, of course we didn’t see many of them right away, but… We drove through ‘cheetah plains’ (just past the gate) and didn’t find one cheetah. Hmmmm. Then, off to Simba Kopje – there’s ALWAYS lions there Bernard told us, and sure enough, there were two lions lying on top of the kopje. The ‘Circle of Life’ song ran through my head, and I could almost see Mufasa and Sarabi holding Simba out for all of the animal kingdom to see. Continuing on to the lodge, this park was much vaster than I ever imagined, it was huge! From here we went to the Seronera area to find us some ‘dangling tails’ (leopards in trees). But, to no avail – they just didn’t want to be spotted I guess and had gone further back from the road than we could see. And then, just as we were getting on our way to head to the lodge, Bernard got a call on the radio – one had been sighted by another van, but it was WAY back from the road. ‘We’ll take it’ we said – we were all anxious to at least say we ‘saw’ a leopard. We watched for about an hour, along with about 5 or 6 other vans, hoping that he/she would jump down. Jim took some shots, but could not even bring it close enough with the 300 zoom lens. We could see it with his 30x binoculars though, so at least we saw it! Unfortunately, this was to be our only leopard on the whole trip – a great reason to go back on another trip I guess! The luck of the draw Bernard told us.

A little depressed, we started out once again for the Sopa Lodge. I was still checking out trees for dangling tails (even though it was the wrong area) when Bernard stopped the van. I looked out – OHMIGOSH !!! There were 1000’s of wildebeest and zebras all around us! How could I have forgotten about the migration I wondered! I had spent months dreaming of seeing it, and then forgot completely about it until looking up! What a great surprise. Bernard was grinning from ear to ear; he thought this might make up for distant leopards. And it sure did! As far as the eye could see, we were surrounded. The sights, the sounds, it is unforgettable. We stayed and took in these sights and sounds for about an hour before starting, once again, for the lodge.

And finally, around supper time, we arrived. We showered and freshened up and joined everyone for supper at 8:00. This was a menu night here, it was really good – steak and potatoes, you just can’t go wrong with that! The chocolate orange ganache for desert was incredible.

The lodge was really nice – but as it is WAY past my bedtime right now and a cat wants in, so I shall leave the description of the lodge and the rooms until my next posting!

Nyamera

Lynda,
Get a cat flap! You have to devote all your free time to report writing and not to some silly cat. I’m happy you got your mug back. I don’t know how to save the Crater. The obvious Fodorite answer would be “raise fees”, but poor people are already excluded from the Crater and over the top luxury doesn’t seem (from what I’ve read in innumerable posts) like something only “a few” can afford. Unless fees were raised to “Bill Gates and friends” levels, only some lower impact budget camping travellers would be excluded and people who are now only going to Botswana out of fear of coming across the riffraff would start visiting the Crater to mingle with other “quality tourists” and as those people can’t go on shared game drives, the Crater would become REALLY crowded. Only permitting shared game drives is a start. Not permitting any vehicles except mountain bikes would be a lot better and also providing the lions with some additional prey.

You’ll see lots of leopards on your next safari.

cybor

Still enjoying Lynda, thanks.
You can have my soapbox back in a minute
re: turning down the building of a mega hotel on the rim recently was a good sign that building is not being taken lightly by the government or the conservation people.
I still don't, however, understand why they don't just simply restrict the amount of vehicles allowed to enter each day. Someone once said that they thought that the tour operators are/would be opposed to this. I guess they don't realise that no crater floor = no tourism.

One more thing and then I'll jump off, I promise.
The <b><font color="blue">LUNCH BOX FOOD:

There are so many hungry people in Tanzania that remain unseen, many come to the hidden employee doors of the lodges and camps at night looking for food. Rather than throwing food away, please ask your guide to save and hand out for you. You can also, with your guides help/advice hand food out to local folks. They so appreciate it.

The soapbox is yours again, Lynda, sorry for the hijack. Look forward to hearing more.
My daily sermon;
Sherry
</font></b>

matnikstym

wildebeest gnuing! HAHAHA!

sandi

Restricting the number of vehicles would be good if you could restrict the number of people staying at the lodges that rim the crater. If people are paying to stay at a lodge (and/or those camping), they're not about to wait around for &quot;their turn.&quot; Nor are the lodges not going to keep their properties full. Not everyone visiting here can find alternative activities... not everyone wants to trek, or sit at a pool (only the Sopa has, and it's rather cold on the crater rim). And that doesn't count for those staying at lodges some distance from the crater - at Karutu, for example.

I believe they should have kept the full-day tours and just raise the price. Only one set of vehicles would enter/depart daily, rather than vehicles moving in/out twice daily, that are doing the damage to the infrastructure.

Now that the prices have been raised, it's time to go back to full-day visits to the crater floor.

LyndaS

Susanna- I am going to suggest that cat door to Jim - there's a good project! An interesting theory on the mountain bikes...

Sherry, I never thought of giving that lunch box to someone (human), I really should have - and WILL nextime! I saw that the rats were following me (hmmm, pied piper stuff) and went to put it in the garbage can over by the little store. There was a 'park' lady, or at least someone in a uniform, who took it from me, I asumed at the time she put it in the can, but maybe she gave it to someone. I hope so. Well, it's MY story I gues, so I am going to say YES, she gave it someone! There! I feel better now. Soapbox is turned over to you again!

Restricting the number of vehicles would help, but I can see what Sandi is saying - the lodges would never go for that, as that woudl restrict their income. I am glad to hear building has been restricted.

And, as a side note, Daniel mentioned to the family in our van, when they asked why we didn't just fly from Tarangire to Ngorongoro to Serengeti, that the NCA will not allow passenger helicopters or planes near the crater or the rim. There's one good thing.

Sandi - I don't understand about this 1/2 day rule - how we were down there all day if there was that rule? When we went descended, we passed no gate, nor when we came back up. Or, not that I noticed anyways. At least for sure no one stopped us. And, not only that, but wouldn't the other 50 or so vehicles I saw at the picnic spot at lunch have been there all day too?
(logically if they brought a lunch...) Most were private safaris, or at least most of the people sitting in front of the vans and jeeps were 2 to 3 people plus the driver sometimes. I only saw one other group safari and that was a Micato group.

I asked Bernard what the cost for this would be, he told me it was 30.00/vehicle to get into the rim area to get to the lodge, and then, an optional drive down into the crater was 100.00/vehicle. There was a per person charge somewhere in there too, but I can't remember if it was to get onto the rim, or down in the crater.

sandi

The powers that be, whomever, have been fussing around with this half-day on the crater floor since it was announced a year ago. First it was to go into effect January 1. Many tour operators to accommodate visitors, therefore, set-up back-to-back half-days - afternoon on arrival and following morning. But January 1 came and went and they seemed to still be allowing full-days tours. Then sometime in April or May it was announced that the half-day rule would go into effect July 1.

So, Lynda when you visited, in June, the full-day was still in effect.

Yes, the fees were raised last year, for the vehicle, and for individuals entering the parks/reserves.
Your fee/s for the Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Manyara, Tarangire, etc. were included in the price you paid Micato (as was the vehicle cost, a portion of which each person in your group paid).

And, of course, Tanzania didn't stand alone with increased park/reserve fees - Kenya increased their fees as of July 1; Precision Air and ATC added fuel surcharges to many of their flights as July 1.

For 2007, we've yet to see (though some prices have been published) where the prices for accommodations, vehicle petrol, flight fuel surcharges, etc. are heading and what other changes in either country are on their way????

Nyamera

<font color="red">Lynda,<font color="red">
<font color="black">The blisters on your arm sound like bites from sand flies, but they normally only bite on feet and ankles, so I don’t know.

The problem with the Crater is that three monster lodges – Serena, Sopa and Crater -were built during a few years in the 90s against the wishes of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and without environmental impact assessment. At least there seems to be a stop now.<font color="black"></font></font></font></font>

dssxxxx

Full day Crater tours are allowed through 1/1/2007. It will be discussed again at that time. This was emailed to me by two outfitters.

Also, I was quoted firm prices for 2007 by a number of operators.

Also, the fee (as emailed to me today) is $70.00 total for our vehicle (2 peeps + driver/guide). This is for 2007.

These are taken from emails I have received.

cybor

Hi dx,
This must have changed as it was 100. per vehicle.

p.s. I still think that limiting the vehicle traffic per day could work as it has for gorilla walks etc. but for different reasons. One would have to reserve prior to arriving. Studies are now being done to see what the max. traffic should be to not impact the grounds or wildlife. Some TO are a big rally factor here in deterring this limitation idea.
Sherry

dssxxxx

Not really knowing, but the $100.00 could have been/be for the full day and they are figuring $70.00 for the half day fee.

Who knows??

aowens

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!

matnikstym

that sounds good! do you use whole mac nuts or chopped? thanks!

aowens

use whole macadamia nuts. it is divine!

OnlyMeOirish

Need more, need more.... I am waiting with baited breath for another instalment...... pretty please

bat

Lynda:

Thank you, thank you , thank you, for not being done. I am playing catch up. So I look forward to being able to read this in the next day or so. I know that it will be fabulous.

carolines

Lynda, my husband and I are waiting with baited breath for the next leg of your journey. What a fabulous trip you had. We REALLY appreciate all the little details. Sorry about the chocolate recommendation...it was meant for the trip over, actually! ('cause that's how long it would last in my own carryon!!)

LyndaS

DAY 9 – SUNDAY JUNE 5TH,2006 SERENGETI SOPA LODGE

“THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT SAFARI LIFE THAT MAKES YOU FORGET ALL YOUR SORROWS AND FEEL THE WHOLE TIME AS IF YOU HAD DRUNK HALF A BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE”
- Karen Blixen

‘Ah, yes, I do love this Safari life’ I thought as I awoke VERY early this morning. This would be one very expensive day for us, although I didn’t know it at the time…

This was a charming room to awake to. It was spacious, had great d&eacute;cor, but it was still a little dark in both daylight &amp; evening (like the Ngorongoro Sopa was). Two queen size beds, with mossie netting around them, along with a writing desk and nightstands didn’t even begin to fill the room. The d&eacute;cor was attractive, and the private balcony had a great view over the plains. But, there were no chairs out on the balcony to sit on, and none in the room that you could haul outside to sit and enjoy the view. Very strange, I thought… There was a separate sitting room at the front, and it was very comfy. Other than sleeping, this is where we spent our time relaxing, reading, or catching up on journals in the room. It had a coffee table, a table with a small fridge on it, a love seat and a chair. Oh, and a great view through the window of the sidewalk going to the lodge, so we had to be careful not to sit in our skivvies out there. Everyone who walked by seemed to look in – habit I guess! Which brings me to the other strange item of this room. The bathroom. Spacious – yes. Floor cold – yes. But – the shower/tub was right against the front wall, and, on that wall was a window – not frosted, nor curtained. Looking right over to that very same front walkway. That, I thought was weird and I felt a little strange when using the facilities, hearing people walk by knowing they could look right in! Closing the shower curtain worked for the facilities, but I just sucked it up and got over it when needing to use the shower – nothing I could do!

The rest of the lodge was really nice too, it was large and airy as well, but it just seemed ‘cozier’ than the others we had stayed in. There were hardly any people there; even at meal times it seemed that we were the only ones around in the restaurant. Dinners, both nights that we were there, were from a menu. There were two appetizers to choose from, a soup, a meat or fish or an African dish for an entr&eacute;e, and a desert. The food was really good here; the lakefish, which we kept running across was incredible. And, I am not usually a fish eater, so that is saying something. The restaurant had a nice patio that you could eat on, while looking for animals out on the plains – many passed by as we were eating lunch one day out there. There was TV room which looked quite cozy, the only time I saw people in it though was when there was a World Cup game on. Funny – three weeks of no TV, radio, hardly any internet and no newspapers, but yet we all knew who was playing in the World Cup and what the score was. And, for me that’s pretty good, as I wasn’t even aware the World Cup was on until I got to Africa. The pool, again, looked inviting, and according to a few in the group – it was.

But I digress. Back to 4:45 AM when we awoke to the sound of hyena’s laughing, or whatever that is that they do. It was to be a very early morning game run this morning, as the photographers in the crowd did not want to miss the opportunity to get a desktop photo of the ‘Serengeti Sunrise’. And, I must say it is a spectacular photo, Jim will be putting 100 or so of our pictures on the Kodak Gallery at some point, but we are still going through them, it may be a while. We hightailed it down to the waterhole, making it in plenty of time for Chad and Jim (the photographers in the van) to get those lovely pictures. Flamingos in the foreground, acacias in the background, with the sun reflecting orange on the water, mmm mmmm mmmm. Perfect.

Once we were all sunsetted out, we went back to the migration. – wow, really is all I can say. EVERYONE in the world should see this, it is really incredible. I’m not sure what it is, but something just comes over you as you sit in the middle of the wildebeest and zebra, with the dust kicking up around you, drinking in the wonderful sounds of these funny looking animals. Mind you, the downside of this, as Leely pointed out in her report – tons of tse tse flies go along with this migration. Bat was right – if she had seen the migration in February, she would have been eaten alive! At least with that rash all over my arms, they couldn’t bite me there….

Leaving the migration, we drove for what seemed like an hour – not an animal in sight. Where was everyone we thought? Simba, Nala, Rafiki, Zazu, Pumbaa, Shenzi, Banzai, Ed? Where did they all go? Even Bernard was mystified; he told us it wasn’t usually this barren! Finally though, he spotted a lion up on the kopje, and then, a warthog, and then a few hyenas. And buzzards. And where there are hyenas and buzzards….there is a fresh kill. All three of our vans seemed to converge on the sight of the kill at once (that Serengeti internet really does work); we could see the drag marks across the road, and, the lioness and her cubs, sitting under the tree just over the other side guarding the kill. Unfortunately the grass was a little long and we couldn’t see what it was, nor could we get a good sighting on the cubs. But the lioness looked great! And all of the hyenas on the other side of the road picking up the pieces of the kill were fun to watch.

As these guys were making us hungry, it was time to go back to the lodge for breakfast, a good rest and then lunch. Lunch here was from a menu as well, which amazed me. Now, the afternoon game run was an experience. Not because of the animals, but because of what happened. Our three vans were parked outside waiting for us, and as not everyone wanted to go on the afternoon game run, a few people decided to switch vans. Not sure why, but fate was working against Jim and I this afternoon. In our van there was just Jim and myself, and the two lovely ladies (mom and daughter), Audrey and Lucrece. (now remember this guys, this is important to my story!)

Many times on the run we crossed through the migration again, we just couldn’t get enough of it. At one spot where Bernard stopped the van, we could see a long line of wildebeest behind us. Audrey and Lucrece asked Jim if he could take a picture of them standing in the van, with the line of wildebeest behind them. ‘Why certainly’, Jim said. Lucrece handed him their camera, a brand new small red Casio shirt pocket kind of digital. As Jim was trying to rearrange them so that the wildebeest showed in the background, Bernard said ‘hey, just jump out for a quick second, and take the shot from the ground, you guys will all be OK, the wildebeest won’t come too near”. What a GREAT idea we thought! We all got out, as the ladies invited me to get in on the shot. Jim took one of the three of us, with the wildebeest all around us in the background, and I must say, it’s a nice shot. But… When he finished taking it with their camera, he put it in his shirt pocket, and took one of us with the Nikon. Right at that moment, as luck would have it, a ranger pulled up. We scrambled to get back in the van, and their camera fell out of Jim’s pocket. And, it was toast; the lens was ‘unmovable’ and jammed halfway into the camera. And Bernard got a ticket from the ranger for letting us jump out. What an expensive shot that turned out to be! We felt just awful, both Lucrece and Audrey were trying not to cry, but that was the only camera they had between them, and to add insult to injury, their ipod wouldn’t charge the night before and they couldn’t dump their memory cards, which were filling up. Well, that problem solved itself, I guess. The rest of the run seemed a bit of a blur, we were all feeling pretty awful. Jim and I assured them that we would pay for the broken camera to be replaced – but, how does one go about getting a camera in the Serengeti?

After watching the ‘migration’ take a drink from a waterhole (quite a sight), we met the other two vans at a kopje. I am sure that it has a name, but for once, I wasn’t writing every spec of info down that Bernard was telling us. Actually, I felt so bad, I don’t even think I heard him. So, if anyone out there can fill in the name of the kopje that everyone stops at with the ‘hollow rock’ and the petroglyphs that you climb to, I’d appreciate it. After Daniel and the drivers sprinted up the rock to check for ‘wildlife’, most of the group climbed up to the top, and somehow one of the drivers even convinced me. Sure thing, going up was easy! Coming down, another thing! At the top, as Daniel was showing me the hollow rock, I told him what happened with the camera. He already knew about Bernard getting a ticket, the ‘internet’ must have taken care of that. Daniel told me not to worry; he would try his best to solve the problem of them not having a camera for the rest of the trip. What an incredible guy – to make a long story short, he actually did! When we got to the Mara the next day, he had a camera waiting for them to be used – it was one of the guys at Kichwa Tembo, it was a film camera, but it was a good one! And, once we left there, he arranged for them to borrow another one for the Mt. Kenya portion of the trip – this time it was a digital – Jim dumped their card onto his Epson, and they used their own card in the borrowed camera. I couldn’t believe the lengths that Daniel went to for us – he was just INCREDIBLE!

Meanwhile, though back at the kopje, the four of us were still feeling pretty bad, Jim especially. It was a ‘sundowners’ event again – while we were up on the kopje, the drivers were setting up for sundowners below. At this point, even I, who does not drink, thought one would go over pretty good!

From here, we drove back to the lodge, had a very tasty supper, and an early night. But, before I leave this day, I must relate another story, at the risk of getting ahead of myself; it belongs on this ‘day’. All throughout the trip, every time we would change lodges, Daniel would faithfully tell us to make sure to put valuables in the safe at the front desk. Well, every time we got to a new lodge I faithfully did. Except it seems I didn’t here, no good reason why I didn’t – just an oversight. I had a portfolio, with our passports, health cards, travelers cks, and the currencies that we didn’t need at the moment (English &pound;, and Kenya schillings) in it. Its home, when not in the safe, was in my carry on bag, which, unfortunately had one side of a two-zipped zipper broken – it broke on the day we were leaving for the trip. I was able to jury-rig it to lock it though; I secured the broken side with a zap strap to the strap of the case, which kept that zipper secure. Then I would use the other zipper, and lock the two together. Although I didn’t know it until we got to Kichwa Tembo the next day, the zap strap had been stripped, which meant the zipper was free to move. And, I guess someone had done just that. Interestingly enough, the Kenya shillings were still there, but the majority of the English pounds were gone. I had &pound;105.00, with the &pound;5 note sitting on top. At first glance it looked as though it was all intact, as the &pound;5 note was still there. But once I pulled it out, the rest of the notes were gone – 5 twentys. I was just sick about this, as it was my own stupid fault! But, what can you do, someone must have needed that &pound;100.00 more than we did. I didn’t mention it to Daniel until the end of the trip, as I didn’t want anything to be done about it, I should have not kept in a case that wouldn’t lock securely.

And that’s my expensive day story! Oh - subscript – the ending to the camera story. We replaced their camera once they got back home, and Lucrece is happily snapping away at her new job in NYC with her shiny new red Casio! It doesn’t replace the lost picture ‘opportunities’ on a trip of a lifetime, but hopefully we can fill in those holes for them with ours.

hausfrau

Lynda,
It is a thrill to read your journal, since I will be doing the Stanley Wing safari in February 2007 with my husband and in-laws and had been waiting anxiously for your report! It barely seems real that six months from now we will be experiencing everything you've described. Thank you!

So sorry about the camera but these things happen. I'm sure they didn't blame Jim and it's very fortunate that they were able to borrow cameras the rest of the way. I'm sure they will be grateful to get some of your pictures, especially since it sounds like Jim is a great photographer! (Can't wait to see them!!) I had a similar traumatic experience with my own brand-new camera on a once-in-a-lifetime trip several years ago but fortunately my mom also had her point-and-shoot camera along so we still got some photos.

Your money loss is a lesson for everyone. I've been fortunate never to have had anything stolen on my travels but obviously you can never be too careful. I think you have the right attitude though - whoever got the money probably needed it more than you did.

Can't wait to read the next installment!