The Cornells, I Presume?

My first memory of the existence of Africa and the Serengeti occurred while sitting in the dreaded Dentist's office. I was 8 or 9 at the time and going to the Dentist in the early 60's was not a particularly fun experience. While killing time in the waiting room, I came across a well thumbed copy of National Geographic. There was a picture of a lion on the cover, his teeth bared in a nasty snarl. Lovely teeth, I might add. The article was filled with pictures of the migration of Zebras and Wildebeests that occurs annually in the Serengeti. But what really captured my attention and made this moment memorable was the centre fold of a bare breasted African women. My first naked breasts. A few days later I saw an advertisement for Tarzan, King of the Jungle that was coming to our local moving picture theatre. A story of a young boy lost in the jungles Africa and raised by Apes. Saturday morning found me in the front row of the theatre with a nickel bag of popcorn dripping in real butter. The only bare chests I saw that day were on Tarzan and Cheetah the Monkey. But I never gave up the fantasy, so here I am almost 50 years later standing on a kopjes (big rock) looking out over the plains of the Serengeti ever hopeful. But sadly, bare chested African women seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Another childhood dream snuffed. But the migration continues and it more than made up for it. To see it, is not to believe your eyes. Tens of thousands of animals wandering in search of food and water. This year has been very dry and has left the wildebeests and zebras a little bewildered. Rain means life on the Serengeti, without it the nutrient rich grasses will not grow. With out these soft grasses, the calves cannot feed. The wildebeest have the ability to delay the birth of their calves by up to 90 days. This year they were using these days up waiting for the rain and the grasses to come before giving birth. I can feel all you mothers out there cringing.

Hippo pools are interesting places and a microcosm of our world. The ability for these huge animals to live cheek to cheek in such a small place is a testament to why they are one of the most dangerous animals here. Cranky would be an understatement.

Jackals are not as comfortable around Toyota Landcruisers so are not seen as much as the other predators. Perhaps they prefer Land Rovers.

The gazelles are known as the MacDonald's of the Serengeti. If you stare carefully at their butts, you will notice a marking that looks unmistakably like the "Golden Arches" or the letter "M". And out here on the Serengeti they put the fast into "Fast Food"

Baboons may look cute, but don't leave the windows open when they are around. Rumor has it, they will shit on your seat and help themselves to your lunch. Sounds like a lot of people we know.

Sorry for the delay in these blogs. Accessing the site has become increasingly difficult. Thanks for your patience.

Ngorongoing to Ngorongoro

Up at dawn, two absolutely beautiful cups of Tanzanian coffee later and we were ready to face the day. George said he would pick us up at 6:30 and by George, he was there on time. He had made arrangements the previous night for us to have our breakfast at 6:00. It was going to be a long day and a good breakfast was an absolute necessity. It was about an hours drive to the Ngorongoro Crater's entrance where we would spend the day on the crater floor. The caldera is over 250 square miles in area.

From the entrance we drove down into the crater on one of the spookiest roads I have ever drove. It was dry but I can only imagine what it would be like if it had rained. There was over 250,000 K on the odometer but despite it's age, the Land Cruiser had great brakes and well used seat belts. Both which were put to good use on the drive down into the crater.

As previously mentioned, the crater is home to a group of black rhinoceruses that have been transplanted from South Africa. Because the crater is difficult to access and self contained, it was deemed a desireable place to start repopulating Tanzania with Rhinos. Sadly they are still hunted for their horns. The crater rim is well guarded by park rangers who maintain a watch 24 hours a day to prevent poachers from sneaking into the park. The Rhinos are quite shy, but we lucked out when a mother and child came out from the forest to have a mud bath. This allowed us to get within 500 meters of them. Cruisers are not allowed to leave the many roads that crisscross the crater floor so it was pure luck to get as close as we did. One of the many times I wished I had sprung for a camera with a monster zoom lens. The South African had a well hung camera that took beautiful closeups. Serious lens envy today.

The crater floor was mostly treeless accept for some small forested areas near a small, almost dry lake bed. During the rainy seasons, the lake is quite large. As we were moving through one of these few forested areas we came a across a lonely juvenile hippopotomus. Hippos generally stay in their pools all day and only leave at night when the sun has gone down. They have no sweat glands so keeping cool is a full time job. They must travel many miles away from the pool to forage for food but always head back to the pool before daylight. This young hippo did not make it back so he grabbed the shadiest and coolest place he could find to spend the day, chill out and wait for darkness. He got up, moved about for ten minutes to so when we arrived, but once he got comfortable with us, he settled back into the mud with a huge sigh, grunted and went immediately to sleep.

Ever wonder how a giraffe drinks?Well, wonder no more. Ouch! We came across a family as they were about to take on some water. As one drank, the other two kept a guard out for any predators.

Ten hours later found us back at the hotel. Drinks around the pool, a late dinner then to bed for another long day is in store for us. Serengeti, here we come.

Africa Hot

It was a marathon 23 hours of travel time from Manchester to Dar es salam. I would like to make a quick plug here for Qatar Air. Priced like a three star airline but with four star service. Getting off the the plane in Dar was a rude shock to our system. It was hot, Africa hot, even Tarzan wouldn't like it that hot! Since leaving Harbin at the beginning of January, you could count on one hand, the number of days that we saw temperatures above zero. Dar was searingly hot, the kind of heat that sucks the breath right of of your lungs. Add the humidity and we moved into the range of oppressingly hot. The airport was old and air conditioning was just a dream. But "Kili" to the rescue. A couple of cold "Kilimanjaro" beers made the four hour wait for our flight to Mount Kilamanjero International Airport and the town of Arusha almost passable.



Arusha was the jumping off point for our safari. At the airport we were met by George, who's last name I cannot spell. He greeted us as we exited the airport through the gift shop. Very entrepreneurial these Tanzanians. George was to be our guide and mentor on all things Tanzanian. He was born in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro and has been a guide for over a decade. He was chosen to act as Bill Clinton's guide during a visit he made to Tanzania shortly after Bill's retirement as Commander and Chief. Waiting for us in the parking lot was our home for the next six days, a slightly used Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop up roof and seating for seven. Unknown to us at that moment, was the fact that we would be spending about 10 hours each day bouncing around in the "Vibrator on Wheels" as it became known to us. Mount Kilimanjero loomed in the distance as we drove away from the airport. We have really arrived in Africa.


Our first night was spent in a small resort about an hours drive away from the airport. The next morning George arrived on time to pick us up for the first day of our African Adventure. Joining us was a lovely South Africa couple. Not married but definitely in love and much to our benefit, they were both savy safariists. (Not sure that is a word? Spell check doesn't like it) The man had taken a safari with George the year before and had specifically requested him for this trip. If George didn't have the answer, and that didn't happen to often, they would. The most important talent that any good guide can have is the ability spot animals from out of the side of his head or even from the back of his head while driving at high speeds over some very rough roads. George was blessed with awesome sight but as a bonus, the South African lady also had an uncanny ability to see and spot animals hidden in the grass or tucked up in trees.





Our first day was spent in Tarangire Park. The park is home to more elephants than we could count. Elephants are big and other than man have no predators. Despite our predator status, the elephants did not really take notice of us tucked away in our Land Cruisers. Although, I thought one of the loner male elephants was looking at the Land Cruiser in very inappropriate way. I had a vision of him strolling over and trying to mate with us. If you ain't the big Kahuna of the elephant herd then you ain't getting any.

Ten hours of rocking and rolling found us safely ensconced in the resort just outside our next stop, the Ngorongoro Crater.

Africa

Our first visit to the Dark Continent was a tremendous success. But, I must admit that we took a "road much traveled" than one "less traveled" as Nonie and I are more inclined to do. We usually have a real desire to not only want to see the pretty tourist sights but also those areas where tourists are not usually found. Where the locals live, work and play. For the first time we made a conscious decision to play it safe. Africa is definitely a place to play it safe but I must admit that it may have something to do with the aging process, our aging process. Not as adventurous as we were a decade ago. From the moment we arrived in Tanzania, we had guides and guards looking out for our well being. All our hotels had tall walls and tough looking Masai guards patrolling the grounds at night. On the Serengeti, we slept in tents, no walls for protection but each tent was provided with a whistle. Lions, no problem, tweet, tweet, tweet. I would have preferred a gun or even a tough looking lady gym teacher.

Our first stop, Tarangire National Park. More elephants than we could count. Did you know that elephants are on the move over 20 hours a day, traveling tens of miles in search of food? That doesn't surprise me as they always have their trunk packed.

Ngorongoro Crater. A 250 square mile volcanic crater full of critters. Home to black Rhinos who were transplanted from South Africa. Sadly, most of Tanzania's rhinos were killed by poachers for their horns which some believe have the power to make you a better lover. Poaching is still a problem which I find hard to believe in this day and age when Viagra can be bought on the Internet.

The mother of all game parks, the Serengeti. Just it's name evokes images of lions, cheetahs, leopards, zebras and wildebeests. 65,000 square miles of park. We caught just a small glimpse of the annual migration of wildebeests and zebras which number into the tens of thousands. We saw a line of wildebeests that stretched from horizon to horizon. They were unbelievably quiet, just the plaintive muling of the baby wildebeests crying "are we there yet"?

LIghting Up the Dark Continent

Wildebeests and Zebras living in perfect harmony. Well nothing is perfect. 

Vultures, recycling a Zebra on the Serengeti 

How do you tell the difference between a leopard and a cheetah? Leopards can climb trees and Cheetahs can't. 

Warthog heaven. Ngorongoro Crater spas are basic but with all the requisite services.

King of the Beasts. His majesty checking us out in our Land Cruisers and wondering where he could get his royal hands on a can opener.

Hyena etiquette states that you should never talk with a mouth full of Zebra.

Hey, move your fat ass out of the way. 

You have never experienced anything like a Hippo fart. No open fires allowed!

Industrial strength wrinkle cream. I may be on to something here.

Personally, I like my baby Wildebeest medium well but when in Africa!

 

 

Leopards? Cheetahs? See above.

  

 

Pippy Longstocking on steroids! 

Photos are all taken with my wimpy, zoom challenged point and shoot camera. Yes, we were that close? And, I was not kidding about those Hippo farts. Stay tuned for some amusing anecdotes in the next blog.