January 25, 2015

January 25, 2015 While it was only a few short days on the calendar for all of you...it has been a lifetime of memories for us since we last wrote on this blog. There has been no time to even pull out the computer let alone capture any of the happenings each day. I've got a few minutes in the Arusha airport so am hoping to get a few lines done on this blog. While we were clean for a minute this morning, that was short lived and within a few minutes of bumping along the road out from our night's accommodation, the Rift Valley Photographic Lodge, we were once again covered in dust and our plan for a clean travel day went up in dust too. It's all good though and none of us would trade it for anything! Now ....I'll do my best to go back in time a little to catch you up... Travelling the rim of the Ngoro Ngoro Crater was the start of our most recent "journey" en route to the Serengeti and that jungle terrain was home to a host of creatures native to the region. At one stop, we even had a baboon enter our vehicle (while we were out). Someone had left the door open for a few moments which was just enough time for the baboon to sneak in, locate our lunch boxes, open the top one and help himself to the parts of it that he preferred. Fortunately for us...one of the park staff noticed him go into the vehicle and so saved the rest of our lunches from this jungle thief! Our tented camp (Kati Kati camp) was located in South Serengeti and during our time in this region I'm certain we covered every inch of Central and South! In fact, in total we have logged just under 2000 km since our arrival in Tanzania 10 days ago! It's impossible to capture what we saw and did during the past 4 days as there was just soooo much and it was soooo amazing! .....pause here....they're calling our plane to Zanzibar and I sure don't want to miss it as there has been some "interesting" events already today!!....more on that later....much later.....as I have several days of catching up to do and it's all swirling around in my head! ....back again....great flight to Zanzibar (yes I've made it to the land of my childhood dreams!!) and I am resuming typing for a few minutes from the third floor (walk up) patio of our accommodation (Kholle House-a Zanzibarian princesses palace in the heart of Stone Town that houses only 10 rooms.) The others just left to go down for a swim and I look forward to joining them as soon as I get a few lines of this very long blog post recorded.... (welcome to the jumble that is my brain as I'm literally overwhelmed with so many things I'd like to write down......but bear with me and go back to the Kati Kati camp in the Serengeti...) The Balloon Safari that Lynda and I did couldn't have been any better. We had perfect weather and the sky was clear for the sunrise. We were picked up from Kati Kati Camp for transport to the launch site and en route were treated to a visit from 2 hippos on their way back to the water while it was still dark. Hippos eat only during the night and they have to eat all night long to get enough food to sustain them. They have to stay submerged in the water during the daylight hours. When they are in the water it is really hard to see much of their bodies and even when you do see them they bob back underwater again before you can have a good look so it was a treat to see them cross the road in front of our vehicle! Once at the launch site, we had our safety talk and a lesson on how to enter the basket. Yes...we needed a lesson on how to get in the basket for sure! The basket was lying on it's side and large enough for 16 people. There are 8 compartments with two people in each. Lynda and I were on the top level which meant we were the first to climb in. Climbing in is easier said than done! It is at least waist high and you have to get your knee up so you can pull yourself up and then get your other leg in and well....once you've gotten yourself into a very precarious position you kind of swing your butt forward into the basket and then skootch down while lying on your back. Once you've skootched far enough down your head is inside the basket and the weight of your head is off your neck so you can kind of relax. You don't really relax too much though as the space in the basket is meant for two VERY SMALL people so you're kind of wedged on top of one another! Before long all the compartments are filled and the pilot "hops" into his space (yes...somehow he is able to make it look that easy!), the balloon starts to pull on the basket and it lifts from it's side to right side up and within minutes everyone is invited to stand and look over the side as the balloon lifts us all away from the ground. This balloon is the third largest in the world and boy oh boy is it big!!! It's colours are green and beige so it blends in with the natural terrain of the Serengeti. When the flame comes on to lift us higher it is sooo loud and sooo hot but when the flame is off...there is not a sound to be heard. As we floated over the grasslands we saw animals waking up and popping out of their bed in the grasses, the sun rise over the mountains to east and scenery that took our breath away. After our ride (1 hr) we gently settled down (right side up this time) and were able to climb out of the basket with the help of the staff. Once out of the basket we were all treated to a glass of champagne on the plains of the Serengeti served up by our captain, Mohammed. After champagne we climbed back into our vehicles and departed for a nearby location where tables were laid out for a formal silver service breakfast complete with turbaned staff pouring heated water from massive copper jugs into massive copper bowls as we arrived so we were able to wash before breakfast! What a memory! After a wonderful breakfast there on the plains there was just enough time to stop in at the loo with a view before the hour long drive to meet up with the rest of our safari mates. The loo with a view was just a three sided u-shaped canvas tent with a toilet inside. I have to tell the truth that it was one of the best bathrooms I've ever been in! What a view!!! Although there will be other bathroom stories that will come later in this blog where the view was pretty impressive too! LOL!! I'll stop for now and hit the pool but will tell you that while I've been writing this I've listened to the call to prayer from two mosques near our hotel (beautiful!) and children playing in they alleys/walkways below. There are bells from bikes, horns honking in the distance, people talking, the sounds of families on a Sunday evening, and the warm tropical breeze is blowing so the temperature is absolutely perfect! Till later...... .....we're back..... had a wonderful dinner on the waterfront in Stonetown. Lots of nightlife with families walking together. Everyone is all dressed up. Kids playing, people visiting, boys jumping off the docks into the water.....lots of happy activity. Now back to where I left off in Serengeti.... En route from Ngoro Ngoro to Kati Kati there are a couple of events worthy of mention. As you may guess....they involve Gail! The first was when she alerted the entire vehicle to the fact that there was a sign she had never seen before and that was sooo interesting. It informed the drivers to go slowly as there was a snake crossing ahead. Now, we've heard of deer crossings and in Africa we might see wildebeast crossings but snakes???? Really??? Oh.....no....that sign means curves ahead Gail!.... LOL..... The other mentionable is the African massage that we all enjoyed for the first few minutes....after several hours of pounding across gravel washboard it wears thin though as do your hips and your knees and your back and your neck. On the upside, Darlene's headache disappeared instantly when her head hit the roof at one particularly deep hole! LOL!!! Arrival at Kati Kati camp meant we were met by 13 staff to accommodate the 18 guests in residence. As usual we were greeted with a cold drink of juice and hot wet towels to wash with. As we were quite late (dark was just 1/2 hour away) we were quickly escorted to our respective tents. Yes....we were staying in canvas tents! In the jungle! With wild animals all around! The security briefing as we arrived included instruction to NEVER walk between tents or to the cook tent without an escort after dark. To call an escort we simply stick our arm out of our tent and wave our lantern till they come. In case of emergency we were also given a whistle that would bring them all running instantly. Truth be told though it took them only seconds to arrive after the arm swinging lantern business. Showers are "on demand" which means you must have them during daylight (so the staff don't get eaten by the wild animals filling your bucket). Hot water is poured into your bucket and voila...you pull a chain (inside one room of your tent) and you have a shower. But...make it quick as there isn't a lot of water in that bucket!! Darlene and Gail (of course it was those two again!!) caused some havoc in the camp when they broke their shower. Well....it might have been broken before they used it..... In order for the staff to fix it they came in the "back door" of the tent which is when D & G discovered their shower wasn't as private as they thought it was!! The toilet is the same too...staff fill a bucket so you can flush. Toilet is also in your tent. The wild animals outside the tent and the reason for all the safety precautions are mainly hyena. You even have to be so careful that you don't leave your shoes out at your door or they will be gone in the morning. After a nice dinner as staff are walking you back they will show you the hyenas all around the trail you're walking on. Their eyes glow in the dark and it is very creepy!!! In the night you can hear them laughing! As well, we are in the jungle and so there are giraffe (we saw three in the camp yard the evening we arrived) and lions (there are signs of them all round), and buffalo (the most dangerous of the big five). On our final night at Kati Kati as we were being escorted back to our tents the staff shone their light out to the edge of the trail and looking back at us were eyes that were not hyena....they were much taller and a different colour! The two staff who were accompanying the four of us, ordered us to STOP NOW! DO NOT MOVE! DO NOT RUN! Within seconds we had been redirected to a secondary path and one of the staff was unzipping someone else's tent! We were hustled into this tent (which happened to house the two men who are our safari companions) and who were already in bed or a state of undress. The reason for this nocturnal visit was that the eyes in the dark belonged to buffalo and those buffalo were hunting us. The staff left the four of us in the men's tent (with the men) and went in search of help to deal with the rogue buffalo(s). Fortunately not too much time passed before we were again hustled out of the men's tent and toward our own. It was a quick pace between locations and the staff were almost as afraid as we were. We all wondered just how effective our canvas tents would be against a wild crazy buffalo! It took some time that night for us to settle into sleep. Speaking of animals....we're sitting here in Zanzibar drinking coffee and African Baileys trying to recall the list of what we've seen. Our guide, Victor, is so educated and so passionate and unbelievably able to see animals that binoculars can't pick up. So...here is a bit of a list of what we saw during the 3 days we were in the Serengeti. Wildabeast has to top the list as of the 1.8 million that are estimated to live in Serengeti, we saw 1 million of them! Yes....1 million! We were in the middle of their migration for miles and miles. And that leads to another bathroom story.... LOL! There aren't a lot of public washroom facilities in the Serengeti...in fact there are none! So....when in Africa.....bush bathrooms are the order of the day. And when you have four grandmas drinking bottle after bottle of water...bathrooms are a necessary stop. One of those stops came at the same time as we were in the midst of the wildebeast migration and for safety everyone has to pee together. (well...girls pee with girls and boys with boys). So, the four of us climbed out to go to the back of the truck. There isn't a lot of room there and so for those of you who have heard of blood brothers....you'll know what I mean when I tell you that Gail and I are now pee sisters! The good news is that she wiped my leg and foot with her wet ones upon our return to the vehicle. Peeing among a million wildebeast is an overwhelming event...in a good way....it's just one of those once in a lifetime things that is crazy when you describe it but that not many people can claim fame for. Now back to the list of animals..... we saw honeymooning lions (a pair has to mate continuously for 7 days every 15 minutes without stopping for food or rest), a bunch of 4 bachelor lions, lions sleeping on rocks and in the grass and along the road and well....we were lucky enough to see a lot of lions! We saw zebra and giraffe, and buffalo, and gazelles, and warthogs, and dik diks (tiny miniature antelopes), and elephants, and ostrich, and leopards, and cheetah too. There were thousands of birds - more species than I can mention. The guide book for birds looks like the Vancouver yellow pages! One thing about birds though is that they are sooo colourful. Bright blues and reds and yellows and greens....really bright....fluorescent in fact. A couple of animal highlights included moms with their babies and being close enough to hear them communicate with one another. The first was a cheetah and her 3 kittens playing in a tree. She made a mewing/purring sound which I guess told them to get out of the tree and go over to another tree to play until she was ready to call them back. A few minutes later, she did just that and they came running! It was really cute and so special to be able to see. There are only an estimated 500 cheetah in the Serengeti and we saw 6 of them! Victor said that because we were all so interested in nature...it was finding it's way to us. In fact, there were some things we saw that Victor hadn't seen for months or ever. Another baby story was two female lions and four cubs. One female and all the cubs were up a tree with the other female a short distance away on the ground. We watched those cubs play until one of them fell about 15 feet right onto his head! Ouch! It was so funny but sure gave us a scare when he fell! Lions up a tree was something that Victor hadn't seen before - it is not common and only found in certain regions. It's not that it is a different species of lion...just that they are inclined to climb trees for protection in certain regions. You may not realize just how near all of our sightings were....they are sooo close.....it is difficult to describe. Another mom/child story was two cheetahs (mom and teenager) who were chowing down on their recent kill. Mom ate a bit first, then let teen in to have their fill before she went back and finished off the gazelle. We were close enough to hear the bones crunching! While one of them is eating the other is standing guard. Cheetahs are at risk for lions and hyena (both scavengers) who will come in to steal their game and try to kill the cheetah too. When cheetah is finished eating, she cleans her mouth on the long grass to erase the smell of blood so she doesn't attract the predators. Lions and giraffe practice communal nursing and a sort of daycare and we were lucky enough to see both of those. In fact there is a lot of symbiotic partnering that goes on in the wilds here. Birds are carried on the back of the giraffe and in return keep them free from disease causing ticks. Zebras stand at rest in pairs, each looking in opposite directions, so they can see predators coming from all four directions. Zebra lead wildebeast in the right direction for the migration and wildabeast can find the water that they all need. Zebra are smart and wildabeast are not so zebra take advantage of that at river crossings by making wildebeast go first so the crocs have their fill of them before zebra begins to make his way across the water. Another amazing sighting was a large male leopard sleeping in a tree. As we were in a low travel zone we were allowed off the road so could stop right under the branch where he lay. He watched us from above and we marvelled at his magnificence! As you can see...the stories are endless and I'm about done for this day..... you're going to have to ask questions as I'm now beginning to forget what I've written and what is still missing from the page. Tomorrow is a tour of Stonetown and a Spice Tour so better get to bed or I'll miss our morning pick up! till next time, Darlorlynga p.s. I promised to tell you what happened en route to Zanzibar....we were originally scheduled to leave from Arusha at 1 pm. A few weeks prior to our departure that flight was cancelled and changed to depart from Kilimanjaro at 3:50. Yesterday we began trying to confirm our flights for today and let me tell you....that is not an easy task when there is no internet! With much help from Victor, his company Jenman Safaris, and Yamiti (manager of Rift Valley Photographic Lodge) we were finally able to confirm that there were conflicting times for our departure depending on who you spoke to. The decision was that we would go to Arusha for the 1:00 flight and if we weren't on it, we'd go to Kilimanjaro for the 3:50 flight. We arrived at Arusha (where we were also met by the general manager from Jenman) only to discover that our 3:50 flight had also been cancelled. There was another new flight out of Arusha at 1:00 that we could get onto for an extra $10 US each. We jumped at the opportunity and within minutes had tickets in hand. Can't say enough good about the service Jenman has provided!!! In fact, service and smiles continue to be the norm in Africa. good night....