February 29, 2008 by AJ.

Saturday Febuary 23rd Day One

Its day one on our five day safari and it was absolutly amazing! New creatures we saw include;
- A wild elephant
- A hippo(matatamus )
- A giraffe
- Tons of Baboons
- A vervet monkey
- Warthogs
- A Dik dik (which is a tiny gazelle)
- Some mongeese
- And a couple different kinds of birds
The giraffes were very tall! And cute in their own extended way. I just can’t get enough pictures of them! We took a TON (!!!!!) of pictures. It was lotsa fun because we were in a jeep with a raised sunroof thing so we could stand on our seats (in the park only) to get a veiw and pictures. I spent 95% standing up through the sunroof. I think most of my pictures are of the giraffes, they are just really pretty.

Sunday February 24th 2008 Day Two

Today we took a very bumpy tour of a HUGE ( the crater!!!) national park, which is in a crater. Today we saw our first,
- Close zebra
- Close Water Buffalo (wildebeest)
- Lion(ess, no guys)
- Lion cub!! (so cute!!)
We also saw some Zebra babies, and found out that the younger the zebra, the lighter there fur. The babies have brown stripes and the older ones have black stripes. The lion cub was soooooooo cute (even though it would love to snack on your leg!). We only saw one dead animal which was a zebra, near our first Lion(ess’ not one male showed up, except for maybe the cub, but we don’t know). The guys actually stay home and let the ladys do all the hunting. I’m pretty sure. We are very lucky to be able to charge things in the car, I’ve been using about 3 batteries a day! Back to the dead zebra (just for a moment) I think we spent a lot of time “studying” (shall we say) it. I made sure to get lots of pictures and video on the guts coming out and of where the tail USED to be. (WARNING!!! not for the squirmish! the video). Riding without the roof in the jeep is fun, its a free rollar coaster!

Monday February 25th 2008 Day Three

Today we saw a leopard! We only could really see the legs and part of its body, but we still saw one. We also saw more mongeese and got closer to a warthog, and a HUGEMONGUS (hehe I made up that word) herd of wildebeest. I kinda feel sad because they were kinda doing a practice run, but one of the babies got separated. Which means that it is going to die. Most likely a lion (so we were told). We also saw some more Giraffe. Last night we made friends (after we wrote our log), a Zack and May from France. We had TONS (!!!!!) of fun! We sang lots of songs (mostly badly ) and exchanged jokes until 9 pm (ish), when we could delay our bedtimes no longer.

Tuesday, February 26th 2008 Day Four

Today we saw our first male lion! He was hiding behind a tree and a bush, so you could only see him from one side and the front. I got a really awesome picture of him looking right at me! We also saw the remains of a baby wildebeest up in a tree. The leopards will do that to keep their catch away from everyone that wants it except the scavenger birds. there was a lot less animals, even though we were safariing twice as long. We also saw the usual, Zebra, giraffes and wildebeest. When we got back there was lots of new people and Luke immediately went around to see who to make friends with. In the end we were chitchatting to 2 girls and a guy, Amanda, Dezz(aray) and Jim (don’t put everything in bold on the blog) an we had tons of fun! It was kinda funny because I let it slip how spaghetti is Luke’s favorite and when he finished his supper, he went to talk to them, and in the end he got to have spaghetti. What made it even more funny, we had something Luke doesn’t like that night! They had marshmallows, but in the end we couldn’t have a fire, so no marshmallows or smores. We even had crackers and this really good chocolate which has milk chocolate on the bottom layer and white chocolate on top.

Wednesday February 27th 2008 Day Five ,final day

Yay! This morning we got to roast marshmallows. No time for smores though. We are now on the bumpy ride back to Arusha. We didn’t really see much Wildlife, but thats just because we were heading back. But we did see a big(ish) herd of zebra. But on our way home we went by a volcano, and it started to have a mini eruption! There was lots of ash coming out of the top, and every once in a while the ash would break and we think we could see lava! It looked more like lightning, but we’re not sure what it was. It was waaaay awesome! Then a little bit after that we saw a HUGE (!!!) sand devil (aka mini twister, mini tornado). Now to our list of natural Disasters we have experienced (harmless, no damage inflicted) we have: tsunami warning, 2 earthquakes (in the same city), an erupting volcano and a mini tornado. Thats a pretty good list! Then we sat through the rest of the ride, occasionally saying “dad the charger is unplugged, AGAIN”. Once we got back it was dark. It was very nice though, because dad booked us into a different hotel then the one we were in before. And it was much nicer! Luke and I don’t have to share a bed! The pillows are also very comfy. Well I guess ANYTHING would be comfier then sleeping on an airplane pillow, like I did on the safari!

S’all for now, bye-bye! Alex

Posted in 2008-02 to 04, Africa | 4 Comments »

February 29, 2008 by Claudette.

February 23rd, 2008 Safari Day 1 = Maryana Lake National Park

We were picked up from our hotel in Arusha at 9:00 AM by our guide/driver Thomas. on the way out we stopped at the grocery store to pick up water. I didn’t go in with Rick & the kids but I think I should have as they spent $90 on apples, carrots, potato chips, chocolate bars, 30L of water, and 2 bottles of wine.

We then travelled to a small village, Mto Wa Mbu, which is just outside Lake Manyara National Park. We are staying in tents on the grass of one of the local hotel/guesthouse. We had a quick box lunch after dropping off all the tents, food, luggage etc. We then left for our afternoon safari drive through the national park where we saw baboons, elephants, giraffes, impalas, hippos, warthogs, and dik-diks. One of my greatest fears before agreeing to go on a safari was that I feared the animals may have been fed or corralled into central areas so that the tourist could have a good look at the animals. It was with great satisfaction that in my opinion these animals do indeed look wild and unhasselled by the tourists driving by.

The scenery on the drive to and around the park was fantastic. It was surprizingly very calming and soothing. I can only hope that the next few days will be more of the same.

February 24th, 2008 Safari Day 2 = Ngongorororo Conservation Area (Ngongorororo Crater)

Today we left Lake Manyara NP at 9:00 AM for NCA. We stopped ATM in the village of Kanuta so we could get the final 400,000 to pay for the balance of our safari. Rick also asked if we could stop at the local internet cafe so we could transfer some money to cover the VISA cash advance.

The drive took about 2 hours when we reached our campsite we unloaded the truck again, and then took off for the bottom of the crater. We stopped near the bottom so that we could eat our boxed lunch before proceeding. We toured the crater for about 4.5 hours. We saw zebras, wildebeests, lions including 2 lion cubs, a leopard, thomson gazelles, elephants, and numerous kinds of birds.

The view from our campsite at the top of the rim of the crater is spectacular. I can’t wait to see what more lies ahead.

February 25th, 2008 Safari Day 3 = Serengeti National Park

We woke this morning on the rim of the crater at about 2400 metres. Needless to say in was a little chillier than we are used to. We all got a fairly good sleep, eventhough I was woken up in the middle of the night by an animal (assume it was a Zebra) eating grass right outside our tent.

We hit the road shortly after 9:00 AM again, after a quick stop at one of the local stores for more TP (toilet paper for those of you who weren’t sure). On the way we saw a herd of Wildebeest that must of numbered in around 5000ish, that was crossing the road in front of us. Our second stop was a few kilometers into the park at the Naabi Hill Gate Park office, so that the driver could pay our entrance fees. After a long delay we decided to drive straight through to our campsite near Seronera.

After lunch we did our afternoon safari drive. One of the first animals we saw was a Warthog which was just on the side of the road. We saw many more of the animals we’ve seen on the past few days, however the new animals we saw included a topi, waterback, mongoose and a leopard up in a tree.

Seeing the animals has been a great experience although I think that the grass plains are even more spectacular. I expect that the great plains of Alberta must have looked exactly the same 150 years ago.

February 26th, 2008 Safari Day 4 = Serengeti National Park

We have been spoiled a bit on this tour, as Richard, our cook, has insisted on letting us sleep for the kids. So again this morning almost all of the other safari tours have left before we’ve gotten out of bed. We did 2 game drives today. The morning drive we saw more of the same animals we’ve seen on other days, however the afternoon drive was another story. We finally got yo see our first male lion up close.

Camping has been reaaly nice although we can’t shower here in the SNP as they don’t have enough water, and now that it’s been really dusty on the roads my hair is like straw (Yuck!!!).

February 27th, 2008 Safari Day 5 = Serengeti National Park/Mt. Lengai (Volcano)

We hit the road fairly early this morning, which was good as we saw quite a few more animals on the road as we had on earlier safari drives. I’m sure it’s because it’s cooler in the morning, and the animals are more active at the time. Before leaving the SNP we saw 4 cheetahs lying on the side of the road, and a serval cat cross the road far ahead of us. I have now seen every animal I could have hope for.

Our driver Thomas has agreed to take us by a volcano which has been active on and off for the past few weeks. In order to do that we have gone north through the SNP, and the road out of the park it not even on the map. Truth be told I’m not even sure it’s a road as in places it looks more like a dried out creek bed. The road/trail is very rough, dry and dusty. After about 5+ hours on the road we stopped for lunch. We could see the mountain, but the locals said that it had erupted earlier in the morning but that it was dormant now. We were initially disappointed but after about half hour back on the road as we were approaching the volcano, it erupted again. The eruption must have lasted almost 1 hour as we followed the trail which skirted the base of the mountain. What a spectacular sight, I have added this to my list of natural wonders we’ve experienced.

Overall, I will have to admit that I was very wrong, as I intialled did not want to come to Africa. I have really enjoyed our time in Tanzania and the safari experience was worth ever penny. I would say that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime.

Posted in 2008-02 to 04, Africa | 2 Comments »