Home is Where Our Hearts Are

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The journey home began last night at 5 PM Tanzania time; it's now 11:25 AM Amsterdam time and we are sitting aboard our final leg, KLM to Boston. Our last safari jeep trip started at the Serena Lodge in Arusha, Tanzania after enjoying a "day room" at the Serena Lodge.  There were 7 of us traveling to Kiliminjaro Airport along with our last 2 drivers/guides and Esto, our leader from Asilia Safari Group. We again drove through the outskirts of Arusha and even stopped once to photograph the fields of sunflowers. 

After a very emotional farewell to Esto, we entered the airport at 5:30. THREE HOURS LATER, we had our boarding passes!  It was an excruciating wait!!! Three agents checking in first class passengers and ONE doing the rest. Even that lone agent was often assisting other first class agents. AND, the printer was "down" so they had to manually write the luggage claim tickets. Not an auspicious start to our journey!!  After our third time through security, I couldn't find my backpack!!!  I yelled to Peter to ask if he had it when I found it!!  On my back!!!!  A little distracted??  Finally on the plane, our ride to Amsterdam was pretty easy and uneventful. 

We landed on time in Amsterdam at 7:15 AM Amsterdam time, had coffee with Bea and Tom and met up with Gail and Carol from our safari group. Fortunately we had wi-fi at the airport and were able to find out from both Pete M. and Karen that Suzanne's surgery was over, deemed successful and she was resting comfortably in her room at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Thank you, God. We then headed for our gate and the final leg of our journey home. Wheels up at 10:50 Amsterdam time (5 AM. EST). We are due in Boston at 12:20 PM and we'll go straight to the hospital. 

In reviewing my blogs, I discovered one glaring omission!  After our balloon safari on Wednesday and before arriving for our elegant outdoor safari breakfast, we experienced a singular event. In our jeep, our driver noticed one cheetah running through the grass. He proceeded to follow the cheetah off road for a bit so we could observe him. This was our only cheetah sighting during the whole safari. They are very rare and endangered because the local village people kill them since cheetahs prey on their goats. 

Finished for now!!  Kiliminjaro Airport to Boston Logan Airport:  22 hours!  If I discover any other omissions, I will report them. What an awesome experience this has been, to observe these wild animals in their own habitat. We were extremely fortunate to have Esto as our naturalist expert for the whole trip. His knowledge, sense of humor and caring spirit were the BEST. Also, our drivers/guides were exceptional as were the camp hosts: Jackie and Justin, Angel and Future and Abel and his crew. "Asante sana" to all for an unforgettable  experience. Also to Bea and Tom, our dear friends, who "hooked us up" with the Living Desert safari; Alan, Deirdre and Ashley who represented The Living Desert; and the rest of our group, Falon and Bob, Carol, Gail and Jo-Ann. "ASANTE SANA to everyone."

"Out of Africa"

Monday, June 29, 2015

Up early to repack. I heard a hyena in the distance. Breakfast with the crew at 7:30. Lively conversation, as usual, full of farewells. Each of us received a "kanga," similar to a Hawaiian lava-lava, which some of the staff modeled for us. Our says in Seahili,"Anything valuable is achieved through hard work."  

Left Sayara Camp for the airstrip nearby. Along the way we saw a parade of about 15 elephants with males, females and babies. Arrived at Kogatende airport at 10:30. Wheels up at 11. Full plane with 12 plus pilot aboard another Grand Caravan.  Before the flight can take off, a trucks drives around the  grass runway to make sure there are no animals on the runway. Flight is one hour and five minutes.  We flew over the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, "mountain of God" in Maasai. It is the world's only cold volcano and last erupted in 2008/9. 

Landed outside Arusha at a small airport, stopped to do some shopping at the Cultural Heritage Center of Tanzania. We saw a group of school children entering as their teacher said, "Look with your eyes, not your hands!"  Does that sound familiar, Pete, Matt, Mike andSuzanne?  Even more interesting was driving through the bustling streets of the city on our way to Serena Lodge. We saw many bed frames for sale made of olea africaner wood, a very hard wood grown in Tanzania and lots of other brightly colored stuffed furniture all displayed out in the elements. In the residential outskirts, there were cows and goats along the road. Women carrying sticks on their heads, were removing them away from the path of the newly installed electric cables. We arrived at Serena Lodge a little after 1:30. 

We each got our own room to freshen up, shower and change clothes before heading for the Kiliminjaro Airport and our trek home. First to Kigali in Rowanda to load more passengers. Then on to Amsterdam and an hour plus wait for our KLM jet heading for Logan Airport in Boston. Home sweet home and Suzanne!

Last Day in the Bush!!

Sunday, June 39, 2015

Left on safari after breakfast today at 7. Pretty chilly so layers were the order of the day!!  And, oh, the sights!!!  Our first sighting was a pregnant giraffe who will give birth standing up and the baby will be 5 feet tall!  We encountered the hyrex on the same rock as yesterday!  Hyrex have a gland on their feet which allows them to cling to a rick without falling for a while. He actually looks like part of the rock. Saw some Cape buffalo and our guide told us not to let them lick us---VERY rough tongue!! Also they have a very good sense of smell but very bad eyesight. 

After a VERY hazardous  but successful crossing of the creek, we saw a croc sunning and then he slipped into the water. He can live for a MONTH without eating!  Vitamins from the sun and a gland function keep him strong. Met many hippos loving the Rapids!  Saw many Thompson's gazelles (bigger than Grant's gazelles and with a dark stripe) and impalas cavorting together. Then more hippos in the Mara River. Across the river, a topi antelope lying in the grass. Like impalas, topi are the only antelope with their own tribe. This is because of a gland (shown as a black patch on the back of the ankle). Saw a mixed group Impala (male , female, and baby) traveling together. More large crocs sunning themselves on the rocks.   

At 9:45 we crossed over a seasonal creek to see even more of everything. With one very special sighting. The seasonal readiness of the wildebeests for migration to begin in a week to ten days. There was a line of wildebeests that had no end, all walking, ambling, running in the same direction!  Some zebras were with the, a hyena was checking them out.  Absolutely AWESOME!!  We were surround by wildebeests, 360 degrees of wildebeests, some nearby basically ignoring us, some in the distance, ALL moving in basically the same direction. We'd been in the vehicle more than 3 hours so, for a break, we got out and did some yoga for the animals!!!

On the way back we saw giraffes, Cape buffalo and a matriarchal society of elephants (all females and babies). The day has gone from chilly to quite warm and lovely. And by this time we were pretty hungry!!  It was Bea who spotted the rolls of toilet paper on a tree!  And next we saw a picnic all set up with tables, chairs, plates, silverware, tablecloths, wine. All set up as a surprise for us by the Sayari staff. The TP was by our "bush bathroom" which was a hole behind a tree. Great lunch and we arrived back at camp "bushed" about 2. Some relaxed, some checked out the curio shop at the camp, some went to the pool, some snoozed.......I shopped and went to the pool where last week a staff member found a hippo frolicking. Fortunately it wasn't there with me today!  Today it was pretty hot there!

Refreshed, we all met for our last dinner together, told stories, laughed a lot and ate an "African feast" of grilled meats and veggies with many side dishes. Dessert was a fabulous African donut. Weirdly, it had started to rain. We hadn't seen any rain since a sprinkle in Amsterdam. So we were escorted back to our tent under an umbrella. Tomorrow we leave for Arusha and say goodby here to 5 of our group who are going from here to Rwanda to see the gorillas. 

To the Northern Serengeti

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Today we left at 8:30 for our plane ride to the northern Serengeti. We said our farewell to Angel, Fortune and the rest of the staff at Dunia Camp. Our regular drivers Raphael, Emmanuel and Chande drove us to the airstrip in central Serengeti where we said adieu to those three perfect guides. Esto, our naturalist, accompanied us. The plane was SMALL, 14 passengers! The flight was quite pleasant in the Cessna Grand Caravan with our pilot Harry. We were able to observe the migration lines of zebra and wildebeest in the grassy terrain. Arrived at Kogatende at 10:25 after a 25 minute flight. 

All 12 of us plus left in 2 open Toyota safari vehicles, each equipped with  Mkias, fly swatters made of animal hair, to wend our way to Sayara Camp. There are bigger trees here and it's hillier  and the roads are muddy and deeply rutted. We arrived at Sayara Camp at 11:30 and were,as usual, greeted warmly with cool, wet wash cloths. The camp has elaborate tents, a dining room, a lounge area and a natural pool built into the rocks. We freshened up, unpacked a little, relaxed on our canopied deck and went to lunch at 1. Lunch was a salad spread with sorbet for dessert. Bea and I then spent some time at the pool. 

At 4 we went on safari. Saw many impalas before arriving at the Mara River. There we saw a harem of Impala, all females with one male. An all male group is called a bachelor of Impala!  We observed the points for migration which will start in a week or so. As of the 2000 census, there were 1.6 million wildebeests, 700,00 zebras and 330,00 gazelles in the area. Many, many more now!  We observed a crocodile lounging on a rock in the river and another croc moving around on a sandbar. We also saw some hyrex on the rocks. Hyrex is of the elephant species because of its bone structure and because it has internal testicles. But, it looks like a rodent!  Also saw a leopard. 

Back at the camp, we had cocktails at the fire pit and then dinner Al fresco. Conversation and wine were flowing!  Tomorrow we start at 7!!  So, off to bed.