Travels and adventures we have enjoyed over the years. (Posts with down arrows after mean they have sub-posts that relate to them). Just select the one you want and schroll to the bottom of the list.
As I mentioned in the intro, we crossed into Tanzania to get to the Serengeti and changed guides. Our guide in the Serengeti went by the name Wazeri and was equally as interesting as our first guide. He even had WiFi available in his truck as well as cold water, snacks, and fly swatters (Tsi Tsi Flies). So, here we are in the Serengeti. Quite different as there far fewer animals and the park rangers had been burning off thousands of acres of grass so the new grass could grow better. Here we go (Hope you are not getting bored with pictures of animals yet!) Of interest along the way …. When we first arrived in Tanzania we drove along a big lake and past several villages … then we got to the Serengeti Park. As we were leaving The Serengeti going to the Ngorongoro Crater we past two interesting points. One was a Hill where they had some information about the Serengeti and the other was a Museum where, in the 70’s, Archeologists discovered some very early human tracks. All interesting and all described.
Our New Ride
A Rest Area
Village
Shopping Center
Hotel
Local Lumber Yard
School
A Lake
Lots of Monkeys
Welcome to The Serengeti
Entrance Point
Curios George
Deer
The Serengeti
Quail
Weaver Nests
The Path
Cape Buffalo
Someone’s Dinner (The Zebra was limping with something wrong with its front leg)
Not so many Wildebeasts (They were all Up in Kenya on Vacation feeding Crocs!)
A Family of Wild Boars
Burning at Night
Sunset on the Serengeti
Termite Mount
Entrance to our “Camp”
Remains
Croc Tracks
Termite Mounds
Ostrich Family
Tortoise
A Hunter
Her Stash
Giraffe In A Tree
Hippos in their Pond (All the slime is from everything they excrete from their bodies…Ick)
Black and White Monkey
A Whirlwind Picking up The Smoke
Our Camp Hq
Our Room
Porch
Entrance
Bedroom
Bathroom
Sidewalk
Visitor
Neighbors
Sunset
Art
Fires
A Pack of Lions
Cheetas
Leopard in a tree
Getting a Ride
Snoozing
The Rest Area on a Hill with Info Posters
Always Shopping
The Museum Site
Leaving The Serengeti
The Serengeti was beautiful but the lack of game due to the migration, the burning, and flies was distracting. The place we stayed was very nice and we enjoyed it immensely. We left happy knowing we had seem both where the migration was and was not. Interesting aspects of this vast region.
From the Serengeti, while still in Tanzania, we drove down to the Ngorongoro Crater.
Nairobi to Dar El Sallaam via The Maisai Mara, The Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Crater
FROM THE WEBSITE OF “On The Go Tours”:
Standing proudly in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Tanzania is the Ngorongoro Crater. This highly visited African attraction is the world’s largest inactive, unbroken and unfilled volcanic caldera. What else is there to know about this natural wonder?
1. The Ngorongoro Crater was formed when a large volcano erupted and collapsed on itself. This explosion created a caldera approximately two and a half million years ago.
2. When it was a volcano it’s thought to have been a similar size to Mount Kilimanjaro, one of the world’s highest mountains. Estimates of the volcano’s original height vary between 4,500 to 5,800 metres. The crater itself is about 610 metres deep and 260 kilometres squared.
3. Approximately 40,000 people live in the conservation area. They share the land with an incredible amount of wildlife. There are around 30,000 animals ranging from leopard, cheetah, elephant and hyena to warthog, buffalo and impala. It’s also one of the best places to see the endangered black rhino and black-maned male lions.
4. You won’t find any giraffes in the crater. It’s thought they can’t enter as the sides are too steep for them to walk down. However you’ll still be able to find them around the crater.
5. The Ngorongoro Crater along with two others in the region (Olmoti and Empakai) were enlisted as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. It’s also one of the Sevens Natural Wonders of Africa.
6. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. The fossils discovered there are said to be the earliest known evidence of the human species.
7. Tourism is essential for economic growth however visitor numbers are being monitored to avoid damaging the environment. Around 450,000 people travel to the Ngorongoro a year and all are required to obtain a permit to enter the crater and gorge.
8. The region has welcomed numerous famous people including Prince William, Bill Clinton, the Queen of Denmark, and Bill and Nancy Rumpel. Visitors to Ngorongoro account for approximately 60% of the 770,000 who travel to Tanzania each year.
9. The Oscar-winning movie Out of Africa was filmed partly in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. One of the scenes you can spot the crater is when Denys takes off from the Olkurruk airstrip and flies over the Masai Mara and Ngorongoro.
10. The Ngorongoro Crater is also referred to as ‘the Garden of Eden’ due to its dazzling beauty and being a paradise for animals.
Wasn’t that interesting?? We found the crater to be fascinating. We arrived late in the day and spent the night in a lodge provided by a Coffee Plantation. Wazeri, our guide, was telling us during the day about how poorly guides are treated at these lodges so we invited him to join us for dinner. He said he seldom dines with his customers but would accept our invitation because he was especially impressed with the place we were staying. So after checking in and unpacking a bit (we were staying for two night) we wandered out to take a look at the place and see if there were any watering holes around for thirsty tourists. We found a nice terrace and enjoyed a cool beer before dinner while watching the sun set. At dinner, with Wazeri, we found we were the only guests at the lodge and we invited the entire staff to join us for a glass of wine after dinner. Several bottles were soon emptied during stories of past guests, visiting animals, questions about America, questions about our families and you name it. It was a wonderful evening that we will not soon forget.
The next day Wazeri scooped us up and off we went to visit the Ngorongoro Crater. We spent all day wandering up and down the hills, saw so many interesting aspects of all the different animals that live there. They don’t leave and migrate as others do … this seems to be THE place for them. So here we go again with a bunch of animal pictures:
Nancy on the Edge of the Crater
Bill & Wazari
The Ngorongoro Crater
Nancy & Wazari
The Entrance
Entrance to the Coffee Plantation … on the top of the Crater
Coffee
Our Room
The Garden
Sunset
Morning Descent into the Crater
It was Foggy
There it is!
Acacia Trees
The Road into the Crater
Can You Name These Animals Yet?
A Jackel
Lunch
A Salt Lake
An Ostrich Doing A Mating Dance
Fresh water and Woods
Can You Spot The Elephant?
Leopaard
A Rest Stop by The Lake
We Had A Picnic Lunch Here
Going Back Out
Inside Wazeri’s truck
Thats A Cooler in the Middle
Our Lodge
Thatched Roof
Leaving For Dar Aslaam
A Boab Tree
Village Along the Way
Found Only in Africa and Australia
At The Airport ready to Fly to Zambia
Good Stuff!!
Truly a Paradise. So this ended our wild Game Safari for now. Nancy and I and two other people, J.R. and Julie who you will meet in Zambia, were the only passengers on the plane. It was small but made it over Kilimanjaro. We said a sad “Good Bye” to Wazeri whom we had spent many days with driving all over Tanzania with. On to Zambia and Victoria Falls.
This was a trip of a lifetime. Nancy and I had talked of going to Africa on a Safari like trip for years … now we went. As I discussed earlier, we are not into big tours or big cities so we wanted to do this, more or less on our own, but with help. We booked our trip through Kensington Tours (you can find them on the internet) with the help of a couple of their travel experts.
Where We Wanted to Go
Rather than load all the pictures and narrative into one post I am going to split this trip up into several portions. I think that will allow them to load easier and faster and be easier to read. There will be pictures and more narrative in each of the subsections. It is difficult to comprehend how big Africa really is so I present this map, in which everything is to the same scale, as an aid to help understand.
Africa on Scale … Big as The U.S., China, India, and Most of Europe all Put Together!!
Our trip took us from our home in Florida to Nairobi, Kenya via France. From Nairobi we traveled by a Safari Vehicle out into the Maisai Mara which can best be described as a huge grassland area somewhat like our Great Plains in the Western U.S.
From the Maisai Mara in Kenya we crossed into Tanzania which hosts the Serengeti (which more people are familiar with). After saying Good-Bye to our Guide from Kenya, we processed through the border and entered Tanzania we met our Serengeti Guide. Each country licenses its own guides and to keep their people employed, they do not allow guides from other countries to work in theirs. Consequently, even with the same company, we switched guides. This was not bad thing and both guides were excellent. They did offer different ideas, opinions, beliefs, and stories so we enjoyed them all.
From Tanzania we flew, over Mount Kilimanjaro, to Zimbabwe where checked into the Royal Livingstone Hotel by Victoria Falls. We spent two days in Zimbabwe and Zambia touring the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls and traveled down river to Botswana and spent several days touring the Chobe National Reserve. While there we also crossed briefly into Namibia.
The Maisai Mara, The Serengeti, and The Chobe all were incredibly populated with animals. No cages, no bars, no barriers, they were just there, right in front of you … living, hunting, playing, killing, sleeping … it was incredible. From Botswana we flew to Cape Town, South Africa to end our Safari trip to Africa. We spent several days in Cape town and then flew out to Johannesburg and connected to a direct flight to Atlanta and home.
Where We Went
So now you have the outline of our trip. Please select Nairobi, The Maisai Mara, The Serengeti, Victoria Falls, Chobe National Reserve, and Cape Town posts to get the details and see the pictures. Thanks.
