Safari Part 7b

September 4, 2009

Continued...

We wait at the airport, a small, dirt runway affair, taking pictures with Mike and following around the many rock hyrax (little guinea pig type critters). Then load into the small plane to head back to Arusha.


The plane seats maybe 30 people, maybe, and it’s packed. They pass out cold water. The pilot opens a Tupperware container of candy, lifts it up, says ‘In flight service’ and passes it back among the passengers.


The flight is short, 45 minutes back to Arusha, where we are picked up by Mike’s wife, Flavia, and his nephew, Gabey. They take us shopping. We had high hopes for this shopping trip, as we were told it was a kind of bazaar with local artisan’s work. What it really turned out to be was a sort of up-scale mall for wazungu tourists. Over-priced and not fun. Clearly, shopping in Africa just isn’t going to happen.


Then they take us back to our first, and worst, hotel. We have a couple of hours before the flight which are spent repacking and getting everything into bags. This includes about 15 pounds of coffee that Papa Mandela has left for us with reception. This coffee is from his farm, and he’d offered to bring us some. We were expecting a few small bags of whole bean coffee. What we got was 12 large bags of pre-ground coffee. But we somehow make room in our luggage and just pray that customs won’t assume we’re drug smugglers. Considering everything we’re carrying now reeks of coffee, it may be dicey.


Then we head up for a quick bite of lunch and, of course, a glass of wine before we get picked up by Gabey again.


He drops us at the airport at about 6 pm, and Africa leaves us with one last spectacular sunset. By 9 we’re off to Dar el Salaam (the current capitol), then Amsterdam (and bloody mary’s) and finally back to JFK by about 2 p.m. And then I have to say goodbye to two women that I have spent almost every moment with for two and half weeks, who were with me as I vomited on top of mountain, dressed in shukas and danced with me, and sang with me while hiking across an enormous plateau.


It has been journey. One that could not have been better. No one had a bad day, or a bad mood, or even (apart from altitude sickness and banana beer heartburn) felt a little off. It has been a journey of discovery, of the self and the world. And now my only question is: who will fund the next one?


Tomorrow: Who knows?


Photos: Rock Hyrax. Mike Taylor.

Safari Part 7a

September 4, 2009 (Serengeti Day 4)

We get up this morning and pack, plus arrange our tip for Mike. We’re also leaving with him some gifts for Junior and Anita’s copy of Hemingway’s short stories that we read aloud on the mountain. Mike is thrilled with the book since he has just gotten a call asking him to stay in the Serengeti to pick up a couple that is flying in two days from now. So he has two open days and the book will be a good distraction.

We grab our bags, make our goodbyes to the staff, and pile into the Land Rover. We immediately pop the roof open and our three heads poke out. We can’t waste a second. Mike receives a call on the radio from a ranger buddy. Ahead of us, just off the road, a lioness has taken down a zebra. And there are cubs. Good morning, Serengeti.

We drive up to it, and watch in fascination as the lioness and a group of cubs have their breakfast. An enterprising and daring silver-backed jackal is sneaking in to steal scraps. The adults pay the jackal no heed, but the cubs are intently focused on him. We watch as they weigh the decision of whether or not they should attack. A few of them even make a move toward him, but are always inevitably brought back to their meal.

After watching this for a while (watching big cats eat is pretty awesome), we finally give Mike the go ahead. Good morning indeed.

We move on toward the airport.

Mike has been humming and singing a popular Swahili song called ‘Anita’ all morning. This prompts me to lead a round of the ‘Jambo Jambo’ song, which in turn gets Anita and I doing a poor rendition of ‘The Hills are Alive’ from The Sound of Music. This, in turn, prompts Mike to mention that The Sound of Music is one of his all-time favorite movies that he always watches with his kids. This, in turn, and finally, leads the three of us into a rousing rendition of ‘Do, Re, Mi’.

Who would have ever suspected that one day I would be driving on safari in the Serengeti singing ‘Doe, a deer’ at the top of my lungs with my companion and safari guide? You cannot make this shit up. (And yes Mom, I thought of you since I watched that movie growing up with you). ((And yes Daniel, I thought of you too)).

Doe, a deer, a female deer. Ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, a name I call myself. Far, a long long way to run. Sew, a needle pulling thread; La, a note to follow Sew; Tea, a drink with jam and bread; and that will bring us back to……….

Doe. Doe. Doe. Doe.

At the end of our sing-a-long, we notice that this morning it’s as if the giraffes have come to see us off. They line the road to the airport. And the last one we see before we turn off is the cutest, fuzziest, smallest one we’ve seen yet. Adorable.

Goodbye to you too Serengeti.

To be Continued...

Photos: Lions eating Zebra. Looking at the Jackal. The Jackal. Baby Giraffe.

Safari Part 6b

September 3, 2009 (Serengeti Day 3)

Continued...

We continue steadily north until we come to the edge of the Serengeti. There is a stretch of no man’s land, a 6 mile wide swath, which divides Tanzania and Kenya. Their borders have been closed for years.

We lunch at the edge of the park and drive up to the border to find that we are greeted by one of the creepiest welcome signs I’ve ever seen, we may as well be headed into a prison and not one of the most amazing parks I’ve ever seen. The sign is a heavy block of concrete with peeling black paint that is topped by the skull of a Cape Buffalo. I have a feeling tourists don’t often get to this sign. Who knows…

On our way back in the park, we come across a pride of lions that have made a zebra kill. The black, white and red of the zebra stand out starkly against the tan of the grass and lion fur. Across the road, not 50 yards from the kill and pride, is the herd of zebra. A group of three stands stock still at the edge of the road staring at the lions eating one of their own. These zebras do not move a muscle the entire time we are there. As we pass them on the road, they do not flinch or move. Their focus never wavers.

Great vistas open beneath us as we drive in these hills. There are moments when you look out and realize that you can see giraffe, elephant, zebra, wildebeest, eland, warthog, and impala spread out together on the same hill, living in a peaceful afternoon light. Can this be real?

The day has been cloudy and cool. And by late afternoon, the Serengeti is putting on a spectacular light display. Rays break through the clouds, lighting the animals and savannah below. It’s as if she knows this is our last day and is saying a lovely farewell.

We return to camp, and for our last evening together, Anita, Lisa and I decide to all wear the shukas that Mike has given us. We get cleaned up, make some dresses from the Maasai wool, and head up for dinner. Mike is dressed beautifully too, and he loves our outfits. Tonight, we will close down the restaurant yet again.

Most of the other guests are reserved and fairly formal. I guess we are the obnoxious Americans, because our table is filled with stories and laughter all night, and the bright red of the shukas is certainly hard to miss. The staff loves it though, and most come by to chat at some point that evening.

As we’re headed back to the tent, a break in the clouds catches Anita in the light of the full moon. It doesn’t stay out for long, but for a brief moment we are graced with her silvery presence.

Tomorrow, we go home…

Photos: The Tanzania welcome sign at the border. Help! Sunset over a kopje. Dressed for dinner in shukas.

Safari Part 6a

September 3, 2009 (Serengeti Day 3)

This is our last full day on the Serengeti. We’ve already seen lions hunting, cheetahs hunting, elephants charging, and all kinds of birds, gazelles, warthogs, hippos and zebra. So everything now feels like icing on the cake (and the really good kind of icing—you know, with the cream cheesy goodness preferably on carrot cake, mmm…).

Mike decides that instead of going back into the heart of the Serengeti, where we’ve been the past two days, that we should head north, toward the Kenyan border.

Here the land changes. It is hillier and greener. More trees dot the landscape, as do more grazers. It is here we will see our first eland. The animals up here are more human shy, harder to spot and quicker to run. In Tanzania, the Serengeti is a protected national park with no hunting allowed. In Kenya, right over the border, it runs into Maasai Mara, a game preserve, where legal big game hunting is very big money. The animals up here therefore associate humans with guns, they don’t stick around.

But it is a nice change of scenery for us.

Mike spots two bat-eared fox early in the day. These guys are rarely seen as they’re nocturnal and extremely shy. As we drive up they immediately retreat into their den. They’re funny looking critters, with their squashed face and huge ears.

We see many more impala, hartebeest, and zebra. And the cool day is perfect for hanging our heads over the top of the Land Rover, hair blowing in the breeze.


To be Continued...


Photos: Bat-eared fox. Hartebeest. Zebra.

Safari Part 5c

September 2, 2009 (Serengeti Day 2)

Continued...

In the late afternoon we see yet another leopard, this one with a young Thompson Gazelle in the crook of the tree. We see a number of other lions, giraffes, and countless zebra and gazelles. And as we coming around the last corner on our way home, Mike spots a Serval Cat. These are a medium sized African wild cat with marking similar to a cheetah. They’re very secretive and harder to spot even than the elusive leopard. He stalks off quickly into the grass but it was a privilege to even see one.

We return to camp where we finally see our camp’s namesake. We are staying at the Mbuzi Mawe Tented Camp. An mbuzi mawe is a small mountain goat. They look fairly similar to a dikdik and I’ve been wanting to see one. As we round the corner by our tent there are two just hanging out on a rock, almost as if they’ve been posed. They are beautiful.

As we’re getting ready for dinner, I realize I’m running out of clean clothes. So I decide to turn my shuka into a dress. It worked out fairly well, and as we head in for dinner, the staff gave me a lot of compliments. There was an African dance performance that night, and of course I was dragged up to dance with them because of how I was dressed. I did my mzungu best and we headed off to dinner and yet another evening where the four of us were the last to leave the restaurant.

Tomorrow is our last full day on the Serengeti.

Photos: Male Impala. Giraffe. Mbuzi Mawe. Me dancing in my shuka dress.

Safari Part 5b

September 2, 2009 (Serengeti Day 2)

Continued...

Mike continues on into savannah country, still determined to find cheetah today. As we’re driving along, he suddenly hits the brakes. Sitting in the shade of a low-lying acacia are four cheetahs. Ask and ye shall be given.

We stay and watch them for a while, but they seem to be content to just sit in the cool shade to wait out the heat of the day. So we press on.

We see two more leopards. Both in trees, of course, and both hidden. We have lunch by one of those trees hoping one will decided to move if we wait, but our hope is in vain. So we head back to check on our cheetahs.

They are all still sitting in the shade, and appear to not be interested in moving. Mike, however, stops and just says ‘Wait.’

So we do. We’ve sat for about 15 minutes before we ask Mike if we ought to just move on. ‘No, wait, they will move soon, you will see.’ And they do. I swear this man has animal ESP, or they’re all trained circus animals. One of the two.

The four cheetahs all stand up together and start to move. We realize they’ve locked onto a female impala with a young fawn about 40 yards away. The four move like synchronized swimmers. They move out, pacing in unison, and when the female impala turns her head their way, they all, in perfect sync, drop down in a lying position. Then as one, they move again. And then they commit.

A cheetah running is truly magnificent. They move with such grace and precision. Within seconds they separate the mother from her fawn and then proceed to play with their food. They are just like a housecat with a mouse as they chase the confused fawn down. By the end they’re walking, nonchalantly. This is effortless dining for them.

We’ve now been charged by an elephant and watched cheetahs take down an impala within the space of a few hours. It’s National Geographic, live and in Technicolor. We have truly entered the Twilight Zone. This is incredible.

To be Continued...

Photos: Cheetahs under the acacia tree. Cheetah stalk. Cheetahs in unison. Cheetah at full tilt.

Safari Part 5a

September 2, 2009 (Serengeti Day 2)

We awake excited to explore the Serengeti for an entire day. Mike is making it a personal goal to see duma (cheetah) today. We have a quick breakfast, pile into the Land Rover, and immediately pop the roof. Safari has turned us all into puppies in the car. We always want the roof up so we can stand with our heads in the breeze, hair flying, pointing out any moving animal of interest. If I had a tail it would be wagging, and I may have even had my tongue lolling out on occasion.

Immediately upon heading out we find our second chui (leopard). Of course it’s up a tree. This one is totally uninterested in us, and just wants to chill.

We move on and immediately run into a hippo, but this one is out of the water. He’s hanging out near a river, looking rather forlorn. Mike explains that he’s a male that’s been driven off by the alpha male. Between the hippo and the water there are now a family of elephants, so he seems lost and unsure and rather sad.

The elephants that surround him seem to be doing the maximum amount of damage possible to the surrounding trees. They’ve knocked down a fair number, stripping them partially before moving on to the next tree. It’s a fairly large herd and the swath of destruction is pretty wide.

We stop by a hippo pool and catch site of our first Nile crocodile, the largest in the world. They can be up to 18 feet long and are able to take full wildebeest down easily. Mike’s scariest moment as a guide relates directly to this primeval beast. He had taken a couple of F-16 pilots on safari and they’d stopped by a small pool to check out some crocodiles and had the lucky timing of watching one kill a gazelle. One of the pilots got really excited, jumped out of the Land Rover and ran over to get a better picture. He ran right to the edge of the pool.

Mike freaked out and was yelling for him to come back. He did not, however, follow. He wasn’t so worried about the crocodile currently munching a gazelle, but it had been a dry year and he knew that this particular pool often had many crocs and it was surrounded by tall grass.

Nothing happened, but he did say it was his scariest moment to date as a guide.

Shortly after we left the hippo pool, we had our scariest moment on safari. We turned a corner in the road and found a mother elephant with a very small baby maybe twenty yards away. She immediately freaked. Her ears flew out to the side and she unhesitatingly charged the Land Rover. Mike hit the gas.

We all immediately say ‘Go Back! Go Back!’

Mike looks at us like we’re crazy.

‘Go back! That was a false charge! We have to go back, the baby is so tiny and cute.’

I’d read in my obsessive Africa reading frenzy that in a false charge an elephant’s ears are out, making them look bigger and scarier. These charges are just warnings to back off and get out of the way. When it’s a real charge and they’re going for blood the ears are back against the side of their head, making them more aerodynamic.

Mike agrees with this. But it still takes begging to get him to go into reverse and return. He assures us he’s seen an elephant attack and damage a Land Rover and clearly isn’t as excited as we are by the elephant charge.

We finally make our way back and pull up alongside the mama and her baby. She turns and immediately charges again—ears out still. Mike again hits the gas. And we again make him return. By now, mama and baby have left the road, but the rest of the herd is nearby watching. We start taking a few pictures.

Mike says ‘Look, I think there’s another small baby on the ground.’

Sure enough, next to another large female, a small bundle of grey is curled on the ground. Mama has a watchful eye on us and is clearly agitated. She suddenly throws up her trunk, trumpets, and charges. Mike pulls ahead and the rest of the herd heads off.

We have just been charged three times in under 10 minutes. Awesome. Awe. Some.

To be Continued...

Photos: Male Hippo. Nile Crocodile. First charge by the Elephant. Second charging Mama Elephant. Baby hiding behind Mama.

Safari Part 4c

September 1, 2009 (Serengeti Day 1)

We enter the park, 5,000 square miles of savannah dotted by kopjes, and have lunch. We then proceed to drive into the park, and Mike swings by a few kopjes. It is mid-day, hot, and he knows the big cats like to rest in the shade of the rocks, or on top of them for better sight lines. Within thirty minutes of entering the park, Mike says ‘There, look there.’ Ahead of us are three, huge male lions, manes blowing in the breeze, sitting on top of a very large rock. You couldn’t plan this better. This is a shot from a movie or a dream. Amazing and fairly surreal.

We stop to watch. Here, unlike the Crater, it is just us. And Them. And the breeze. After a few minutes, one gets up. He comes down off the rock, and starts to check the scents on the air. He then moves straight towards us and pees on Mike’s Land Rover. We are now part of his territory.

The other two follow suit and then head over to the females in the pride. Holy mama.

Welcome to the Serengeti.

Every time I’m sure Mike can’t top the last experience. He does. Big male lions. Three of them. Big. Yeah.

We continue into the park and see countless gazelle. The Thompson Gazelle out here are in unbelievable number. Probably because they require no water beyond what they can get out the grass and the dew in the morning and haven’t been forced by the drought to higher land.

We head further in, coming to a riverbed with trees and see our first elephant out here, and many many giraffe. This is twiga country. We haven’t seen them since our drive to Kilimanjaro, but now they’re everywhere, running with an awkward grace and gentlness.

Then, our first chui (leopard). He is in his tree. It’s hot, late afternoon. And he’s clearly eaten. He is lying in what appears to be a most uncomfortable position with his huge belly protruding. Mike says this is one of the largest male leopards he’s seen.

In our time on the Serengeti, we will see 5 leopards (a lot!), and 4 of those we see in trees at a distance. Only one up close and on the ground, but he ran so quickly none of us got a good look. Elusive and beautiful, these big cats.

Then we head toward our camp. As we round the corner on our way in, we spot a dikdik. Smallest of all the gazelle. He is about the size of a mini Doberman Pinscher. Beautiful and delicate.

We pull into our lodge--the Mbuzi Mawe Tented Camp. This is technically not a lodge. The entire place is made up of semi-permanent tents. The flooring and furniture are permanent, as well as the toilet, sink and shower, but the top is definitely a canvas tent. This is definitely the best of the lodgings we have had the entire trip. The food and staff also win in our private rating system.

We settle in, have dinner, and call it a night. Tomorrow will be a full day on the Serengeti.

Photos: Big Male Lions! And a dikdik.

Safari Part 4b

September 1, 2009 (Serengeti Day 1)

Continued...

Our next stop is about halfway to the Serengeti. Oldupai Gorge.

Digression on the Oldupai Gorge:

The name normally applied to the gorge is the Olduvai Gorge. This is because the first European to discover the gorge, Wilhelm Kattwinkel, mispronounced or misheard the Maasai word oldupai (meaning wild sisal—a plant much used by the Maasai) when he asked for the name of the gorge. And people have been mispronouncing it for the last hundred years. Olduvai means nothing. Well done white man.

Kattwinkel was a German entomologist chasing a butterfly when he literally fell into the gorge. He then stumbled on some human remains that looked quite old. They were. He took them back to Germany and some years later and archeologist spotted them in a museum and started to ask questions. Excavations began in earnest.

The Oldupai Gorge is called the ‘Cradle of Mankind’. Since the 60s, when Louis and Mary Leakey started major excavations in the gorge, they have found countless tools and artifacts of early hominids, and more importantly the skeletons of Homo Habilis and Australopithecus Boisei that were living at the same area at the same time.

This was a huge discovery and the only one of its kind to date. There were two distinct hominids of differing genus co-habitating. This essentially proves the theory of evolution. Here are two different types of early man, one line that died out, Australopithecus, and one that didn’t, Homo (later becoming Homo Sapien--us).

Oldupai Gorge is also the place where they discovered footprints of a family like the famous Lucy.

End of Digression.

All in all, a pretty awesome place. We listened to an excellent lecture from someone in the park service and wandered the museum before heading on our way.

The next few hours were spent driving on a dusty, unpaved, bumpy road to the gates of the Serengeti. It is now flat (Serengeti means endless plain—an apt description) and, because of the drought, very very dry. We see herds of Maasai cattle and goats, all looking fairly emaciated, and very little green. This is the last we will see of the Maasai. Once through the gates, no people are allowed to live in or herd on the Serengeti.

This is the Africa I expected to see.

To be Continued...

Photos: Oldupai Gorge. Entrance to Serengeti National Park. A view of the endless plain. A lizard that was there to greet us at lunch.

Safari Part 4a

September 1, 2009 (Serengeti Day 1)

The morning that greets us is a foggy, cloudy, sunrisy spectacle. It’s definitely chilly as we pile into the Land Rover to head to the Serengeti. Our first stop of the morning, though, is Clemens’ village.

We stop at the Maasai market to pick Clemens up, and Mike picks up three shukas (traditional Maasai robes). He has arranged to purchase three to give to us as gifts, since he had noticed us admiring all the fabric. It is an unnecessary, generous gesture, and in this chilly morning, Anita and I immediately wrap up in them for warmth (Lisa, as usual, has more warm clothes than we do and is totally prepared for the fog). We are now glories in red, the Maasai color of choice.

Then we head to Clemens’ village.

His village is really a homestead. He has two, one for each wife, and all the people that live in each village are a part of that family. So, from what I can gather, each Maasai village is essentially one family (don’t quote me on this). By the time we arrive, most of the kids have already left for school, and only the three youngest remain. Clemens’ wife and a few warriors are there, getting the day started. We peek into a cattle enclosure, a round, fenced area, where Clemens’ wife is finishing the milking before a few warriors take them down into the Crater to graze.

He has a lot of cattle, and he knows each one by site, although they’re also branded and have ear notches for good measure.

We then see the goat enclosure, and all I can imagine is Clemens locked into it for the night to kill a leopard. There’s no quick way out if things go wrong.

Then Clemens invites us into his home. It is a traditional Maasai home, made of mud, cow dung, and branches, with a thatch roof. There is one door, no windows. And no hole in the ceiling. Ergo all the smoke from the fire is currently coming out the door. We pony up and enter anyway.

It’s dark inside, the only light is from the small fire. Our tour. There are three rooms. One for the youngest goats and cattle for protection at night. The living/cooking/fire space that doubles as Clemens’ bedroom. And a small room where his wife and kids sleep. The living room, the largest of the three, is no more than 5 x 9 feet square. And filled with smoke. Fine, I’m sure, when you’re used to it, but for the three wazungu, it’s pretty intense.

I take the bull by the horns and explain that, while I love his home, my lungs are unaccustomed to the smoke. He laughs a bit at that and we make our way back outside.

He finishes the tour with the garden enclosure. This looks exactly like a cattle enclosure. Cultivating land in the National Conservation Area is illegal, and as it isn’t a traditional part of Maasai culture, they are expected to adhere to this stricture. So Clemens cleverly farms what appeared to be corn and spinach in what looks like a cattle enclosure to any outsider.

We then purchase some jewelry that his wife has made, give a box of crayons and some candy to the two young boys there, and leave a box of pens for the older kids to take to school. We thank him for his exquisite hospitality and stories and then head off, promising to send pictures to him through Mike.

To be Continued...

Photos: Clemens' wife milking cattle. Clemens' son with crayons. Clemens' home. Anita in her shuka.