Safari Report - Part 4

30 August 2004

 

Rob often gives me a hard time about how I can run on at the mouth.  I know I write like I talk, but the fact that this is the 4th installment and we're only on day 3 of the Safari is really illustrative of my bad habit.  Rob has been reading along, and I've asked him for comments, but he's long since given up on interrupting my stories.  He is, however, taking some professional interest in editing the photos that he has taken, and will be posting his favorites to the website.   I also want to remind you that this is my way of recording our life in Africa for our children, so sorry if it seems long winded.  My advice is to have a beer and relax while you're reading, as that's the way Rob handles my talkativeness and we've made it past the 16 year mark.

 

After we left the Masaai Boma, we headed for the Olduvai Gorge for lunch and the "educational" part of our Safari.  The Olduvai Gorge is where the Leakey's found many of their great discoveries.  The gorge has the unique characteristic of having 5 distinct layers of sediment exposed in one place.  I am not an archeologist, so my apologies to those family members and friends who are, but I think this means that the stuff you find in the gorge can be dated relative to findings in other layers as well as scientifically.   I will try to remember what we were told in our 5 minute lecture overlooking this historic place. 

 

The Olduvai Gorge, called Oldupai by the Masaai after the native sisal plants which grow in the area, was "discovered" by a German butterfly collector.  As he chased a butterfly, he found some bones, which he took with him and delivered to a museum in Berlin.  Louis Leakey, who's family was living in Kenya, saw these bones on a trip he made as a young man to Germany.  He wrote down the coordinates of the gorge, and when he returned to Africa, he set out to find it.  Mary Leakey, went with him, and in 1959, she found the 1.8 million year old skull of a hominid known now as Australopithecus Boisei.  This is the skull which gave rise to the debate about human evolution.  According to the information in my 'Lonely Planet' guide, this skull and the footprints found about 45 Kilometers away and other findings nearby suggest that there were at least 3 hominoid species in the region about 2 million years ago:  Australopithecus boesei, Homo habilis and Homo erectus.  The first two are believed to have died out, but the third is said to have evolved into Homo Sapien, or modern man.  Significant fossils of the oldest evidence of Homo Sapiens are found in the upper layers of Olduvai Gorge.  I confess to having to look up a little of this information so that I didn't sound like a complete idiot.

 

Today, at Olduvai Gorge, there is a small museum and craft market, as well as a covered porch overlooking the gorge for lectures and picnicking.   Our kids had already heard the lecture in April, but we made them listen again anyway.  Just before we had gone on our Safari in April, there was an article in the local papers and in the international news about an archeological discovery in a dig in the Serengeti.  This discovery was of trading beads in a layer of sediment thought to be much older than anyplace they'd been found before.  The significance of this find, apparently, is that the first signs of "thinking" men in Tanzania far precede those of "thinking" men elsewhere in the world.  As this was a very new discovery, I asked the guide at Olduvai in April if he'd heard of the study.  He had not, but asked me to bring him the article when I returned.  Amazingly, I remembered to print the article from the internet before we left, and I still had it when we arrived in Olduvai.  You can read the article at:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/asu-eaa032504.php.  Funnily enough, when I talk about the fact that the Tanzanians were thinking way before anyone else, to a man the reply is "When did they stop thinking in Tanzania?"  - even the Tanzanians!  I think this is another thing in which they should take great pride! 

 

After lunch and a quick wander through the museum, we were off to the Serengeti.  One of the cars made a quick side trip to see a phenomenon called the "Shifting Sands" which is a dune made of volcanic sand which is shifting eastward at a pace of 17 cm per year - or something like that.  I was not in the car that made this side trip, but judging from Madie's reaction, it is a place to spend about 15 minutes marveling over at some future trip to the Serengeti.  Karen was thrilled to have seen this geological phenomenon, but she may have been the only one.

 

When you enter the Serengeti National Park from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, you pass through a gate on a hill.  This gate has the requisite picnic areas and shops and toilets for the travelers, as well as the ranger station in which permits are purchased.  You have to pay per car, per guide, per person, per day.  Everyone passing through the gates must get a permit, so there is often a back up.   The two cars reunited at the gate, the permits were acquired and we drove down the other side of the hill into the great Serengeti Plain.  In April, this area was teeming with Wildebeests.  This time, there were a few odd Thomson's Gazelles and a few Zebras, but it was pretty empty to those of us who had been here before.  The rest of the party seemed pretty amazed, though, and I remembered how it felt for me the first time here.  Just being in that place that we've seen so vividly documented by National Geographic and the nature shows on TV is a real treat.  

 

In April, the track was packed and the plains were a rich green.  This time, the grasses were all a uniform golden color and the track was a dust producing mass of sand.  We had the added good fortune to have a car with a rear hatch that wouldn't close properly, so sitting inside was worse than sitting outside.  The finest silt would flow in from the rear of the car, so if the windows weren't open, it would settle in our eyes and noses and pores.  There is a picture of Polly and Nancy and Noot from one of their trips in Tanzania and they are covered with dirt.  I think it was the same car.   Anyway, this is Africa after all, and the dirt that was settling in our eyes and noses was from the Serengeti - Cool!

 

After an interminable ride, we finally arrived in the area in which our lodge was located.  Since the great migration of wildebeest had taken them all up to Kenya in search of plentiful permanent water, we had to settle for the odd gazelle or zebra or Topi.  Finally we saw some elephants, phew!  I was starting to worry that the Serengeti was going to be a total bust, and we had 2 nights here!  

 

As we were heading for the safari lodge, we came across a small pride of lions.  I think there were about 5 or 6 cubs, not real young, but not hunting for themselves yet.  We stopped and photographed and watched them for a while, then moved on.    Each day of the safari, we tried to mix up the people and swap cars so that everyone could experience the safari from the "good" car as well as the "bad" car.  The "bad" car, in addition to it's dust problems, had a cover over the open top that was just the wrong height.  If you stood on the chairs, you'd bump your head.  If you stood on the floor, you couldn't really see out the top.  Rob and I and Bill and Elissa and my boys had drawn the short straw that day, and we were in the "bad" car.  About 200 yards from the cubs, we got a flat tire.  Joseph, the guide/driver had to get out and change it.  Rob tried to help, but Joseph declined - I think in favor of keeping his tourists alive.  As we had just left some lions, I thought we should at least watch to make sure none of them got curious and came to see if there was an easy lunch.  A few guides stopped and offered help, but Joseph would have none of it.  He did at one point say to me to watch for lions after one guide stopped, so I assured him that I was and kept my lookout in the direction of the cubs.  Finally, Rob did have to get out of the car to help Joseph put the flat tire back up under the car.  Just as Joseph finished the change, we were surprised by 3 lionesses coming from the other direction!  I believe they were about 20 yards in front of us when Joseph and Rob climbed in and closed the doors.  Whew, who would have thought to look in the other direction?  Apparently not me, nor anybody else in the car!  Lucky for us, they just walked by as though we weren't there.  Joseph got a little bit of a fright, though, and I'm sure he didn't trust us for the rest of the trip.   I'll put the photos of the lions on the website. 

 

The Seronera Wildlife Lodge is built right into a huge volcanic rock that is one of many that dot the Serengeti.  They are the remnants of the volcanic activity in the area millions of years ago.  The lodge makes great use of the rock, and it is the main architectural feature of the common areas.  The rooms are sort of so-so, but the dining area and bar are fantastic with lights in all the crevices and rock hyrax and vervet monkeys running around it.  We had been out in the dust and driving for a long day, so we quickly had showers and ate.  You have no idea how good a nice shower is after riding in a dust producing car for the day.  As we finished our dinner, we started to discuss the possibility of a very early morning game drive.  Rob and I and Bill were game, as was Karen, but the rest of the gang  wanted to sleep in.  No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't convince them that the early morning is when stuff happens.  We arranged for the good car to come at 6, and for the bad car to come later.  

 

The next morning, the early risers were up with (actually before) the sun.  We made the boys come, too.  As we started our drive, the sun came up and we got some nice photos of the sunrise.  We had been sort of counting the lion sightings with the boys, and were in the neighborhood of 25 or so from our time in Tarangire and so far in the Serengeti.  On that drive which lasted about 2 1/2 hours, we saw at least 25 more!  By the time we returned for breakfast, we had seen 6 tiny lion cubs, a large herd of elephants, a herd of Cape Buffalo, various antelope, warthogs, zebras, hippos and some hyena.   Fantastic!

 

We spent the rest of the day on game drives.  Ending up with over 70 lion sightings in the Serengeti.  We saw them from the smallest cubs to the largest males.  We saw them hunting, playing, sleeping and generally doing what lions do.  The only thing we didn't see was an actual kill - we came close a couple of times, we had nearly seen a lion kill a Hartebeest, and a cheetah kill a Thomson's Gazelle, and we heard reports of kills witnessed the day before, but we didn't actually see it happen.  Maybe that's a good thing.

 

One special trip we made while in the Serengeti was to a hippo pool.  This had to be the most disgusting place I have ever been on earth.  Hippos, as I previously mentioned, are filthy.  This pool had at least 30 hippos and the water just sits there.  It doesn't appear to flow out of or into the pool, so everything the hippos deposit into the water just floats there.  Yuck, you could smell it from the parking area above.  We watched the hippos for as long as we could stand it.  Also in the pool or on the banks were crocodiles, the biggest one being at least 12 feet long and just hanging in the filthy water.  He seemed to like watching Austin, so we teased him a little about going close to the water so we could take pictures of the big croc eating Austin.  This is also where the seeds for the Hippo song got planted, as we all thought about how awful it would be to fall into that water.  As luck would have it, one member of our party did fall, not into the water, but when climbing up the bank.  Karen slipped and nearly knocked herself out on the rocky path leading to the pool, which raised a welt on her forehead that bothered her for the remainder of the trip.  As the days wore on and the welt shrank back down, she got 2 black eyes to remind her of the hippo pool in the Serengeti.

 

That evening when we went back for our showers, there was no water at the hotel.  Not just no hot water or anything like that, no water at all.  No ice for Karen's head bump, no water for showers, no water at all.  Apparently the bore hole had gone dry, and it was going to be some time before it was fixed.  This is Africa, after all, and water is always an issue.  The hotel managed to get a few trucks of water somehow, and we ended up with cold water, but if you wanted a bath, you had to arrange at the front desk for a bucket of boiled water.  It turned out to be boiled dirty water, so it wasn't really worth the trouble.  At least everyone else in the place was in the same state as we were, since there is literally nothing to do but game drives.  Made the dust producing "bad" car an even greater issue on that day. 

 

The next morning, still with no hot water, we got in the cars and had our last game drive in the Serengeti.  We were heading for an afternoon in the Ngorongoro Crater, which I will tell you about next time.

 

Take care,

Barb 

Safari Report - Part 3

29 August 2004

 

There is an interesting article in the August edition of a tourist magazine called 'What's Happening in Dar es Salaam' entitled 'Tourism & Culture' by an expat living here named Steve Forman.  I don't know him, but I like the way he describes some of the issues involved when tourists are interested in not only the natural beauty and wildlife of the host country but also in how the local people live.  He particularly focuses on the issues when the host country is a "third world" country and the tourists come from more affluent countries.   In Tanzania, there is actually a Cultural Tourism Program, in which tour companies can arrange to take you to a local village to experience the everyday life of the native peoples.   Mr. Forman describes the fine balance between the preservation and exposition of local cultures in order to benefit the indigenous people by allowing them to earn tourist dollars, and the maintenance of the culture and values as a source of pride of heritage for the local communities.   This balance is very fragile, as it is easy for the local people themselves to exploit the more "showy" clothes, ceremonies, and living styles by circus style performances to earn the tourist cash.   But Mr. Forman argues that there is a lot more to the local cultures that may be overlooked and the scramble for tourist cash may actually be detrimental to the culture.  Anyway, on our safari, a visit to a Masaai Boma (village) was high on the list of things to do.   As we were driving through the Masaai country on our way to the Serengeti, we would take some time on the third day for this visit.  

 

I've written about the Masaai before.  There are Masaai living in all the areas of Tanzania in which we have traveled.  They stand out among the local people by the way they dress, and by the way they carry themselves.  They have a reputation of being fierce warriors, and are never seen without a stick and a knife called a "panga".  The Masaai that I see in Dar are always beautiful, mostly men, and are employed as security guards and doormen at the local hotels.  When you drive through the Masaai country, you will see the boys out in the pastures with the cows and goats, the women in the fields or carrying firewood, often there will be a group of adults sitting near the road, or the "initiates" dressed in black with their faces painted with white masks and headdresses of feathers or other adornments.  These initiates are boys of a certain age who are in the year in which they become men, that is when they are circumcised and taught the traditions of the Masaai warrior.  They stand at the side of the road and wait for tourists to stop and pay for the privilege of a photograph.  I swore that we'd stop when we were on our April Safari as these young men are so fantastic looking - scary and fierce and otherworldly.   One of our cars did stop at one point, but I never saw the photos. 

 

We were headed to a Masaai Boma near the entrance to the Olduvai Gorge.  When we arrived, we were told that we could come in at a price of $15 per person.  Rob began to negotiate, but the elder said that that was the fee mandated by the Ngorongoro Conservation Rangers and it was non-negotiable.  There were 11 of us, $165 was an outrageous amount of money to Rob and Me, so we said that everyone else could go, but the Tanzania Nooters would sit it out.  All along we were filming from the outside of the boma, which is a circular wall of thorny branches and  wooden poles.  The Masaai were rushing about, taking little children to a hut outside the compound, or grouping together inside and singing, etc.  The elder explained that the fee was used to pay for the water that the Conservation Agents brought and for other privileges, like that of opening up their Boma for tourist visits.  Rob was still unmoved, but the non-Tanzanian Nooters were willing to pay for this once in a lifetime opportunity, so with the help of the guides, he was able to talk the elder down to $100 for the group.  Once this was settled, we were ushered inside the enclosure for a show of Masaai life.

 

The elder of this Boma spoke fairly good English.  We were treated to a dance in which the women sang and danced and then ran up to Alice and Karen and sort of shouted in their faces and then took their hands and brought them back to the group of women to dance.  All the while, the young men were singing their own song, which sounded like a cacophony of bullfrogs, although more rhythmic and harmonious.  The young men were jumping, in a sort of competition to see who could jump the highest, which was very impressive.  Madie and I hung back for fear that we'd be pulled in to dance with the women, and I filmed madly, using my camera as a shield from participating.  The elder explained that this dance was a depiction of how a young boy becomes a man and distinguishes himself from the other young men, and how the women go to a nearby village to snatch a wife for this newly elevated man.  Somehow, it all made sense when it was described this way.

 

After the dancing, we were divided into two groups and taken into a couple of the houses on the compound.  Rob and I were in the group with the elder.  The houses are made of wooden poles, grasses, and cow manure.  They are low and have a sort of entrance like a snail shell, where you go in a little curving tunnel to the main chamber inside.  We had to stoop, and then sort of feel our way around in the dark, as there are no windows.  Inside, there was a little fenced off area to one side, two little rooms with platforms and animal hides and a central area with a small fire pit and a storage area for a few pots and cups.  You can't stand up straight inside the house, and the whole thing was no larger than the interior of a 4 man tent.  The elder explained that this was the house of one of his 10 wives.  She lived there with her children and cooked their meals inside.  He said the little fenced off area was for babies, and that the wife and her daughters slept in one of the little rooms and the  sons in the other.  Rob asked him how old he was, and he said that he was 74.  He had 10 wives, 44 sons and 24 daughters.  Each of his wives had her own house.  Some of his sons were married, so there were more than just the 10 houses in the boma.   This man also had over 150 cattle, and an unknown number of goats and sheep.  He was finished acquiring wives for himself, but was busy finding wives for his more accomplished sons.  A wife cost 10 cows.  All of the participants in the dance had been his sons and daughters and wives.

 

After the tour of the houses, we were escorted around the inside of the boma.  There were people that had not participated in the spectacle who were sitting near their houses, some stringing beads or playing with babies, etc.  There is a little circular enclosure in the middle of the boma where the goats are housed at night, which is where the dancing had taken place.  All along the outside of this ring, there were beaded necklaces and bracelets and other Masaai handicrafts for sale.  It was a little high pressure market, and each of the 11 of us had our own personal sales agent trying to get us to buy something, which of course some of us felt compelled to do. 

 

Karen had asked the elder if he had a school for his children, and when he said that he did, she asked if we could see it.  I guess this had been an anticipated request, as the school turned out to be the hut to which  we'd seen the children taken.  We all then walked to the school, and were each greeted with a perfect "Good Morning Madam" or "Good Morning Sir" in unison by the 8 or 9 kids inside as we entered .  We found some seats, and were treated to a fantastic rendition of the A B C song as it is sung in Tanzania.  They also sang "Are you sleeping" and a couple of other things.  Our group sang back the American version of the A B C song, and then we sang it again all together.  I have this all on tape.  As it was Saturday, these kids didn't really have school, but they'd gone in to show us.  I was at the door with my video camera when a couple of kids came late to the school.  They greeted the teacher by putting their foreheads on his thigh and saying "Shikamoo Mwalimu" until he returned their greeting with a "Marahaba" and told them to take their places.  One little one was overlooked for a second and he kept saying "Shikamoo Mwalimu, Shikamoo Mwalimu" until he was received.  This "Shikamoo" greeting is the most respectful greeting to use to an elder or higher status individual, and "Mwalimu" means teacher. 

 

One funny thing that happened to me, was that I was wearing a necklace that Rob had given me when he came back from Kenya a couple of years ago.  It is made of glass beads and I get lots of comments on it when I wear it.  The elder wanted me to give him my necklace, as did the teacher in the school.  I asked Rob what I should do, should I give it to the elder?  Rob replied "What's he going to give you, a cow?" which put it all into perspective and I kept my necklace.

 

We finally had seen all we could see, and so we said our goodbyes and got back into the cars.  The Masaai went back to what they had been doing, which in this particular boma may mean waiting for the next tourists.  I thought about this experience later, and I am amazed at how efficient a business is this Masaai boma.  This elderly gentleman had a large family with many tasks to take care of in a day.  Each person had a job that benefited the whole, except for perhaps the youngest babies.  The youth were tending to his cattle in the fields, the wives and daughters were cooking or tending kids or making beaded crafts, the initiates were standing at the side of the road trying to flag down tourists for a photo, and anybody else was ready to do a dance or sing or show off their school at a moment's notice.  I got the impression that when a safari vehicle drives up someone shouts "Places Please!" and they scramble around to get set for the opening act.   I have put some of Rob's photos on the web site of the Masaai.  (One aside, this particular family was the first time I had ever seen Masaai with bad teeth - I have commented on how the Masaai in Dar have perfect teeth,  maybe those are the ones that get sent into the big cities!)

 

We went from the Masaai Boma to the Olduvai Gorge for lunch which I will tell you about in my next installment.

 

Take care,

Barb

 

web site for photos http://nooter.textamerica.com/

 

 

Safari Report - Part 2

27 August 2004

 

After the excitement of the leopard sighting on our first day of safari, we headed for the lodge.  We were staying in the Tarangire Safari Lodge, which is perched on the top of a hill overlooking the Tarangire River valley.  The safari lodges are usually either one big building with no or only structural walls accompanied by stone bandas or tented rooms, or a sort of Motel like setting, with outdoor corridors to the rooms and a central building housing the restaurant and dining areas.  When I say tented rooms, don't think of the tent that your kids pitch in the backyard, think more permanent, with thatched roofs and bathrooms attached on the back.  The Tarangire Safari Lodge was of the first type, which was very different from the luxury of the Moivaru Coffee Plantation.  We had 2 family bandas and 2 tents assigned to us.  Although at first there was some skepticism about having to unzip a tent flap in the dark to get to the bathrooms, I think the group felt that the accommodations were fairly comfortable.   We had to ask for an extra mattress so we could fit all eleven in the right combinations, as one family banda only slept 3 and one single was in a tent with 2 beds.  Since we had 3 couples, one single, two 12 year old girls and two boys, we had to be creative with the sleeping combinations.  Tom and Alice and Karen were easy, they got the two tents.  The girls were assigned to Bill and Elissa, and Rob and I got the boys.  Once we got the sleeping assignments worked out, the kids had a swim in the pool and the adults headed to the veranda for some refreshments.  Dinner would be later, and the menu included grilled meats and vegetables and salads.   

 

We decided to start the next morning fairly early, but not so early that we had to get up in the dark.  On our way to the lodge, we had seen a large herd of zebra.  They were tightly packed together and we commented on how they settle in for the most dangerous part of their lives - the night.   The one thing we really wanted to do before starting out in the morning was to take a photo of the group.  We all managed to get to breakfast at the appointed time, except for Bill.  We thought he was stretching or packing and we went ahead without him.  As we were rushing back to pack up so we could do the photo and leave, we met Bill on the path leading to our Bandas.  He said he had been stuck in the banda on account of the lions, which we all laughed about.  Yea, sure! Ha, ha, ha!   Well, he wasn't kidding!  As he was leaving to meet us for breakfast, two lionesses were strolling by.   He thought it would be more prudent to just stay in his stone banda, so he did, but since he's a judge and appreciates the value of well collected evidence, he filmed them.  When we said that we thought he was "lyin" he whipped out his video camera and said, "I can prove it!"  Turns out that the lions had made a kill in the night near the lodge.  They had gotten one of the zebra from the herd we'd seen!  No wonder they were so tightly packed together!  Needless to say, the value of the stone walled bandas was well appreciated at that point, and the quaint "tented rooms" lost what little luster they had.  What a way to start the day!  Especially for Bill, who I think skipped the coffee.  Anyway, we regrouped, took our photos and were off.  This is the photo on the website.

 

We started with a closer look at the lions and their kill.  There wasn't much left of the kill, and I think we decided that there were 6 or so lions.  They were the same color as the tall grass, and as a lion eats until it is absolutely stuffed, they were lying down with their big, full bellies perfectly camouflaged.  They weren't going to be moving around much soon, so we snapped some photos and moved on.  Pretty good, second morning of the safari and we'd seen Elephant, Leopard, and now Lions.  This was looking like a great safari. 

 

We drove around in Tarangire for a while, looking for the elusive Kudu, which the park is known to contain.  Although we saw Eland, we never actually saw any Kudu.  We'll have to go back!  We did see some Cape Buffalo, though, so we had 4 out of 5 of the "Big Five" covered in 2 days.   Excellent! 

 

As we left Tarangire, we had our first tragedy of the trip.  In the hustle to get kids and things organized in the cars, and to take your pit stops when they present themselves, our beloved digital camera fell to the ground and was ruined!   Fortunately we were able to salvage the photos already on the card, but it would take no more.  This was a particularly difficult pill for Rob to swallow, as he is the main photographer.  He also had a rule about his beloved camera, that is that if you have it, you'd better have the string around your neck.  Well, he didn't.  Now we were going to have to fight over the video camera.  Rob had his work camera, also a digital, but with only the most rudimentary zoom - not nearly as powerful as our camera.  Oh well.

 

So the group was off to Lake Manyara.  Next on the agenda - Hippos!  Lake Manyara is a small park at the edge of the escarpment of the "Great Rift Valley."  We argued about whether we were on the eastern edge or on the western edge of the Rift Valley.  The Rift runs from the Dead Sea down to Mozambique, south of Tanzania.  It actually splits in Kenya, and then rejoins in Tanzania, at Lake Nyasa on the southern border.   I won't bore you with the geography, but we were lucky to find that depending on the source, everyone was correct - that is, nobody could prove that they were 100% correct and that the other side was 100% wrong.  Needless to say, the Crater Highlands in the Northwestern corner of Tanzania are the most visually impressive characteristic of the Rift system, and Lake Manyara lies on the edge of the escarpment of the crater highlands.  One guide even explained that the Ngorongoro Crater would actually be filled with water if it weren't for Lake Manyara.  Anyway, our hotel was perched at the edge of the escarpment overlooking Lake Manyara.

 

After checking in and working through the sleeping arrangements in our new configuration, we decided to have our boxed lunches at the hotel.  The view was fantastic and we all had our binoculars out.  The lake is usually filled with flamingoes, but this year there has been a problem with the fishermen at the other side.  There is some chemical which is being used to catch the fish (??? -  Doesn't sound like a good idea to me!!) which is killing off the flamingoes by the hundreds of thousands.  We could see a pinkish haze on the lake, which was actually the flamingoes, but you had to have really powerful binocs to see the individual birds.  The added benefit of having lunch at the hotel was the ability to get up close and personal with the troupe of Olive Baboons which live in the forest nearby.  There was one old male that was hanging around when we first came in, and as we ate, his family joined him.  There were baboons of all size, from very new and pink, to very old and shaggy.  Madie and Elissa went to get a closer look once they had finished their lunch.  I was calling to them to not get too close, as the baboons can be aggressive and have been known to attack and kill large dogs.  Elissa was photographing them when suddenly the old male charged!  Madie and Elissa haven't moved that fast for a long time.  Later on, we realized that Madie had a banana from her lunch in plastic bag behind her back, which she was saving for later.  She didn't even think about it when she went to see the baboons, but that old male was tuned in and looking for an easy snack.  I don't think that mistake will be made again by anyone in our party.  We also didn't have any problems keeping the group together, as nobody wanted to be alone with the baboons.

 

After that excitement, we got back into the cars and headed for the park.  In April we had seen some lovely baboons and the hippos in the hippo pool.  We'd seen enough of baboons for a while, though, so we headed for the hippos.    I remember when our babies were little that we used to try to think of as many animal sounds as we could.  We always ended up thinking that Hippos don't have any sound.  Well the truth is, Hippos laugh!  The say "HA, HA, HA" to each other in very deep voices.  Hippos also roll over in the water, and often you'll see a big belly and a foot, but no head.  The hippos at Lake Manyara are all packed together in a pool at the edge of the lake where a small stream flows.  The pool is so well populated that the safari cars park in a line like cars at the drive in movies.   You can even get out of the cars and walk around, with the other 300 tourists looking at the hippos.  There are also birds and the occasional zebra or gazelle, etc. coming down to drink from the stream.  We watched a couple of giraffes walk by, but the main attraction was the hippos.   Truth be known, hippos are disgusting!  They spend a lot of their time all bunched up together in the water, laughing and yawning and  - sorry to be so rude - pooping on each other.   When they do this, they spread it all around with their little tails, which swipe back and forth like little fans to spread out the poo.  In April our guide told us the story of why Hippos do this.  When the hippo first came to the pool, the fish said that he couldn't come in.  The fish was afraid that the hippo was going to eat her babies.  The hippo assured the fish that he wouldn't eat the baby fish, and to prove it, he'd spread out his poo so the fish could examine it for baby fish bones.  If the fish found any bones in the poo, the hippo would agree to move on.  At the end of the safari, we made up a song about the hippos.  It starts like this - Hippo, big fat Hippo, I won't swim with you, you big fat Hippo" .... and is sung to the tune of the Armour hot dog song (Hot dogs, Armour Hot Dogs.  What kind of kids eat Armour Hot Dogs? ...)

 

The other thing that Lake Manyara is known for is the tree climbing lions.  Lions generally keep all four on the ground.  In Lake Manyara, they climb trees.  A sighting had been made and the race was on.  The guides all knew where to go, but it was like a circus.  Apparently, there was a lion or two in a tree, but we never saw them.  The downside to having a safari in the cooler part of the year when it isn't raining is that everyone else wants to be on safari then too.  The parks are crowded.  This lion was the most exciting thing to see in Lake Manyara park that day, so it was mobbed.  I don't know if there actually was a lion at all, as it became something like a phantom traffic jam.  One guy hits the brakes at 1 in the afternoon, and as each driver behind reacts and also hits their brakes, the traffic eventually grinds to a halt by 5.  No accident or anything, but because that one guy hit the brakes, hours later there is a traffic jam.  I think this could have been true at the tree in Lake Manyara where there may or may not have been a lion.  Anyway, we'd already seen some lions, so we weren't bothered too much when this one became such a spectacle.

 

We finished our day chasing warthogs and some elephants and got a terrific photo op with a klipspringer and then found our way back to the hotel.  I think that the Tanzania Nooters have seen the last of Lake Manyara.   Although the flamingos are really most prominent here, they are way out into the lake, and you can't really get close enough to appreciate them.  Tarangire has won our hearts, maybe it was the baby elephant, or maybe it was the birds, or maybe it was the landscape.  We'll go back to Tarangire, but we'll probably skip Lake Manyara.

 

Rob didn't get a photo of the klipspringer so you'll just have to believe me, but we were very close to an elephant.  I'll post his photo to the web site along with a few others from Lake Manyara.

 

We had a lovely dinner at the hotel and then some of the party took in the local culture show which included African drummers, dancers, acrobats, and a dance-along.  We packed in early for an early start the next day.  We were heading for the Serengeti and the Olduvai Gorge.  I'll tell you about it in the next installment. 

 

In case you need the link to the photos, I'll put it at the bottom. 

 

Take care,

Barb

 

http://nooter.textamerica.com/

Safari Report - Part 1

26 August 2004

 

I haven't written for a long time as we've been really busy.  The kids had only a 7 week "Summer" vacation (although it is winter here) and they had various lessons or we went to the beach a lot.  This is the "cool" time of the year, which means that you still wear your shorts and tank tops but you don't sweat through them unless you do something strenuous, not just making the beds or doing the dishes.  The pool is cool, so that you feel it when you first get in but you get used to it quickly.  Generally there is no need for blankets at night, but no need for A/C either.  Lately we've been thinking that it is feeling a little warmer, so I fear the best weather is just about behind us and the heat will return soon.

 

We had a family safari for the last two weeks of our vacation, with Rob's two brothers, Tom and Bill,  and their wives, Alice and Elissa,  joining us, along with Karen, a friend of Tom's and Alice's, and our niece Amanda.  Including the 5 of us, we were a party of 11.   We did the "Northern Circuit" of game parks, which includes the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and two other smaller parks.  These are the cream of the safari park crop.  We also did a mini hike up Kilimanjaro, and the various parties toured Zanzibar and some even went to South Africa to see Cape Town.  The first arrivals were on the 1st of August, and the last departed on the 21st.   We had a great time - we saw the "Big Five" animals (Lion, Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Rhinoceros, and Leopard) which is the definition of a successful safari.  We stayed in a variety of places ranging from tented camps to luxury bandas, mostly with fantastic foods that could satisfy our varied diets, from nearly vegan to real red meat eaters.  We experienced the African problem with a complete lack of water, or no hot water, and had showers to die for.  We had access to the internet that was state of the art, or none at all, and the full range between.  We stayed where electricity was only from a generator that was "on" for only a few hours at a stretch or no problem at all.  We managed to get 11 people with strong opinions ranging in age from 8 to 65 moving in the same direction at the same time for 9 days running - and we lived to tell the tale!  I have put a photo of the entire family safari on the website for anyone interested in taking a look.

 

When I think back to the schedule of the days from the 1st to the 21st, I can't believe how much we actually were able to do.  I named this "Safari Report - Part 1" because I'm sure there's no way to put it all into one e-mail.  I'm going to make an attempt to record as much as I can remember in an effort to both inform anyone interested and to keep it for my kids and Rob and me as part of the record of our time in Tanzania.  

 

Tom and Alice flew in from New York on the morning of the 1st.  Karen, their friend had been traveling since the 14th of July, and had gone to Kenya a few days before but was due to arrive early on the first as well.  Unfortunately, her flight was overbooked from Nairobi, so she had to take a later flight which gave her only a few hours in Dar to regroup before leaving on the 2nd for a couple of days in Zanzibar.   We had booked a banda at the "Mtoni Marine Center" for them and had reservations on the local Tanzanian Airline to fly them there.  I had arranged for a friend to house-sit with the animals while we were on safari, and I spent that day packing and cleaning and getting the house ready for her, as well as beds ready for our return on the 12th.  We would have all 11 in our house on the 12th, and I needed beds and sheets and towels done before we left as I knew we'd be coming back from safari with the biggest piles of the dirtiest clothes and they'd need to be done then.

 

Rob and the kids and I then drove up to Arusha on the 3rd, which is about an 8 hour drive, with one stop for lunch at about 1/2 way.  The kids were great.  Gone are the days of stopping every hour or two for a pit stop, and gone are the days of fighting over the best seat in the car - I don't miss those days at all, even if it means my kids are growing up. Rob and I practiced our Swahili, which we've been trying to learn for the last few months.  I had my notebook and we went through it from the beginning.  It's starting to make sense to us now, and comes in handy now and then.

 

Bill and Elissa and Amanda were due to arrive at the Kilimanjaro Airport from Washington, DC on the evening of the 4th, and Tom, Alice and Karen in the afternoon.  We were booked into a hotel called the "Moivaru Coffee Plantation" which was built right in the middle of a former coffee growing farm.  Although the hotel itself was the picture of modernity, the road to it was one of the finest examples of a third world road.  It had never been paved, isn't even on anyone's list to be paved.  The houses are built at varying distances from the dirt track, some so close you felt that you were driving in their yards.  There were a couple of very small signs at the turn off from the main paved road, but once you committed to the track there was nothing to reassure us that we'd gone the right way.   The whole track is in the middle of cultivated fields, with at minimum 3 crops growing together at varying levels.  This is truly intensive farming, with beans and maize and coffee and bananas and sometimes cashew trees all sharing the same dirt.  Although it looks impressive, I'm told that the intensity of planting is detrimental to the yield of any one of the crops planted.  It is beautiful, however, to see so much, so green, so dense. 

 

Since we arrived in the evening of the 3rd, we spent the morning of the 4th at a Snake Park in Arusha that we'd seen when we had passed that way on our April Safari.  Austin is begging for a chameleon for his birthday, and Arusha is the place to see them.  We figured that a snake park would have some, but were disappointed to find that they only had snakes and crocodiles and turtles.  The lack of chameleons, however, was soon overlooked when they let the kids hold the snakes (non-poisonous only) and even a baby crocodile.  Then, they fed a couple of the snakes, which is a truly gruesome spectacle.  Although we felt sorry for the cute little yellow chick and the baby mouse, it was just the kind of thing that boys aged 8 and 11 like to see.  I have put some pictures of the snake and croc holders on the website. 

 

We followed the snake park with a camel ride for the kids, with a sour faced, but obliging camel.  One of the camels that the kids didn't ride was apparently called "Zip", as it was branded in his fur.  I can't think of a more inappropriate name for a camel.  Anyway, this was fun, and good for Christmas card style photos of all three on the back of the same camel.  (see website)

 

We picked up the New York party at the airport and got them settled in and then Rob and Tom went back for the DC group.  The coffee plantation is really beautiful.  The gardens well tended and varied.  There's even a walking path around to take in the sights (a view of Mount Meru, Tanzania's second highest peak) and the surrounding rain forest-like farms.  The Safari party was all assembled and we had our first meal of many at the largest table in the place.  The safari car was set to pick us up at 7 the next morning, which was met with groans all around.  But this was the beginning.  I can't tell you how good it feels to be sitting at the dinner table with family after 6 months of living in a foreign land.  It is gratifying and comforting to see your kids relaxing with family and telling stories about their lives to people that they've known for a long time.  People that know them and care about them.  Rob and I also felt ourselves relaxing into our familiar relationships and getting caught up on the family news and the important news of America from someone other than Dan Rather and the BBC.  This is the one thing that can't be replaced no matter how close we get with our friends and "substitute" families in these foreign places.

 

Next morning, bright and early we packed up and started our safari.  We were leaving our car with all the superfluous luggage in Arusha in favor of two safari vehicles with open tops and guides.  The larger one met us at the Coffee Plantation at the appointed hour and we were on our way.  We had walkie talkies so we could communicate between the cars, and after a quick stop in Arusha to drop our car, we were off.  The first stop was a souvenir shop, and last decent potty stop for some time.  Although the crafts and things were nice, our group was anxious for the animal adventure, so we didn't spend much time or money here.  We were excited to get to Tarangire, the first park on the schedule.  When you go on safari, you usually take a boxed lunch from the hotel so you don't have to (and since you often can't) stop for lunch at a restaurant.   We had a date to have lunch at a picnic area overlooking the Tarangire river and we were ready to go. 

 

This was our first visit to Tarangire, and I hope we have more.  This park is known in particular for Elephants and Kudu, a particularly shy and attractive antelope, and for it's birds.     It is located on the edge of what is known as the Masaai lands.  Just driving through the Tanzanian countryside is interesting, and often you will see housing varying from the Masaai bomas made with grasses and cow manure to brick houses that could be in the hills of California.  The land here is rolling grasslands and the Masaai boys with their herds are all around.  Once you enter the parks, there is no sign of civilization at all until you reach the camps.  The tracks are fairly well maintained throughout the park, and at the gate there is often a small shop and some information and toilets.  We saw elephants within the first 1/2 hour in the park, and I added a few more birds to the collection of sightings.  We're now well over 120 different birds in our tally.

 

At the picnic area, there were birds and vervet monkeys begging for food and generally making a nuisance of themselves.  The monkeys are so personable and photogenic, but they can get a little aggressive if you feed them.  The view was of a bend in the Tarangire river, which flows year round, and the elephants were bathing and drinking below us.  I believe that we saw nearly 100 elephants in the river below while we were eating.  There were also impala, zebra, buffalo, and a few wildebeest.  We could see giraffe in the distance.  Nowhere on earth looks like this place.  The baobab trees and flat topped acacia and the rolling hills are incredible.  Add to the scenery the fantastic animals and birds - Amazing!  I hardly have words to describe how it looks and feels to be standing in a place like the picnic area at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania!  At least this time we've shared it with people that we care about and we can recall together how special this was in the future.

 

After lunch, there was a rumor that something special had been sighted on one of the roads nearby.  What usually happens is that the guides stop and chat a little when the cars pass.  This way, or by radio, all the guides know what's been sighted and where on any particular day.  It makes for much better tips if your party sees the more rare and exciting animals.  Having learned a little Swahili helped me listen in on the conversations and anticipate what we were searching for.  On this particular day, the sighting was a leopard in a tree near a particular crossroad.   Leopard sightings are particularly exciting.  The leopard is a shy and solitary cat, and he doesn't like to near any of the other predators.  This one was napping in the crook of a tree, and although he didn't even move the whole time we watched him, it really is special to see them.  For the Tanzania Nooters, this was our fourth leopard, and we are gaining something of a reputation for being lucky on safari.  One particular friend of ours has lived in Tanzania for some 11 years and has only seen one leopard in all that time.  We saw 2 in Ngorongoro Crater in April, one in Saadani, and now this fellow in Tarangire.   There was rumor of a leopard on the ground the next day, but we never saw him.

 

The most special sighting for me, however, was the baby elephant.  This little calf was so young he was still pinkish.  He was running along at the heels of his mother and also skipping about the other young elephants.  When we stopped to photograph him, he seemed to be as curious about us as we were about him.  He raised his little trunk and tried to get our scent, and then would scamper off to hide behind his mom.  The elephant family was marching down for a drink and a shower.  I say marching and I mean it.  Elephants march for miles every day.  They go single file, with the mothers and youngest calves at the beginning, with the teenagers lagging behind.  Whenever I see them I think of the 'Jungle Book' elephants and the song they sing.  The thing that  was so special about this baby was how little and sweet he was.  When the others stopped to drink, which they do by filling their trunks with water and then emptying the water into their mouths, he bent down and lapped at the water like a kitten.  He was so little that he didn't know how to use his trunk yet.   Can you imagine!  Also, everyone else in the family of elephants was as smitten with him as I was.  They kept petting him with their trunks and all the other youngsters would generally try to be near him.  We saw him nurse a little and bend down to drink in the river a couple of times and play.  He even just splashed the water with his feet just to be funny.  Fantastic!  I'll put his picture on the website.

 

Well, I'm going to let that be the end of Safari Report - Part 1.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I liked remembering it.  I'll try to do installment 2 soon.

 

Hope everyone is well and having great adventures.

 

Barb