Safari Buzz

So after returning from the Kili climb on Saturday, I left Sunday a.m. for my four day "budget" safari. There was one other person in my group--Carlos, a Venezuelan engineer who lives in Paris (really---does that sound like a bad gig??). We headed off for the long drive from Arusha to the Serengeti around 8:30 a.m. At the gates to the park I saw someone familiar---Stella from Kili!!! Random eh? She was on the second day of her 5 day safari....so I ingratiated myself into her group of 5 little by little since we were camping at the same place every night for the next three nights.....

During our first afternoon tooling around in the car we saw hippos, zebra, gazelle, giraffe, a lioness (posing for the cameras which she was pretending to ignore), and some others that I'm forgetting right now.

During the next day + in the park we saw lots of the same, plus Nile crocs, water buffalo, a few prides of lions, impala, warthogs, a herd of about 20 elephants drinking from the water hole right next to us, a cheetah, possibly a leopard in a tree (looked like a lump to me...I want to enhance my photo and see if I can really distinguish it from the tree branch), lots of birds and lizards, hyena, a serval cat, a jackal, and maybe more.

The best sighting was a group of female lions tearing apart a zebra they had killed fairly recently. We went back later to check on the status and the four moms were sitting on the side with HUGE bellies, while their cute little cubs starting munching on the deceased. One was playing with a chunk of the zebra tail....pretty cute. Then we saw a young, injured male some in for some snacking too. Totally cool!!!

The last night we stayed at Simba camp on the rim of Ngorogoro crater. It was cold....again. But Ginger (from Stella's group) called me over in a hurry....to see an elephant drinking out of the water tank for our camp!!! I have some great pix that I'll put up in a few days. Let me tell you, they can suck up a LOT of water quickly in their sassy little trunks!! Of course, we did run out of water by the next morning, but it was worth it.

In the crater, we say two cheetahs running along, followed by lots of wildebeests, zebras, buffalo, flamingos, hippos, elephant, and most importantly, 2 endangered black rhinos. There are somewhere between 10-20 left in the crater. So that was awesome!!!

Then on Wednesday evening I flew to Dar and spent a few days with my sister Molly and her hubby and 2 kids.....It was nice to finally be warm again!!! My mom was also there for the first two days. We went to a town north of Dar that used to be part of the slave trade routing where people were brought in before being shipped to Zanzibar. Different, but interesting in it's own way.

After a few more days of playing with the kids, a little memento shopping, and a scary moment when some guy tried to rip my sister's side view mirror off of her car door (while we were inside), it was time to leave.

So right now I'm at the Shipol airport in Amsterdam enduring the 8 hours between flights. (I know i should go in to town but it's boring by yourself.....plus my carry on is heavy).

I'm excited to get home. All in all it was a great trip!!!!

More soon!
Love,
Jane