Being home now and looking over what I posted, I realize it was a very forensic overview of the animals I saw and not much on what the experience meant for me or my interactions with the people of Tanzania. To be honest, other than the safari guides and the staff at the lodges and […]
Although it was very sad to end my safari, I know that the many amazing things I saw and experienced are now permanently burned into my memory… assuming I never suffer from some degenerative brain disease in my dotage. Plus I was looking forward to my first dives in the Indian Ocean and just relaxing […]
As always, all good things must come to an end. Today is my last day in the Serengeti and right after breakfast, Keko took me to the airport for my flight to Zanzibar, allowing a little extra time for the inevitable stops for wildlife. You should be able to identify everything in these pictures by […]
After the balloon champagne breakfast, as we started the drive back to camp, we became almost completely surrounded by a huge herd of wildebeest and zebra. But that is not the very special event I referred at the end of my last post. We also saw a bataleur eagle taking flight, a crocodile by the […]
For something different, I opted to do a hot air balloon safari for my 6th day in the Serengeti. This required leaving my camp at 4:00 am as the launch site was a couple of hours away and they like to launch at sunrise. As we were flying alternately low and high over the Serengeti […]
Even before I left for my safari trip, I was told that Namiri Plains in the western Serengeti was one of the best big cat viewing areas, and this certainly proved to be true for me. Although I did not see any new big cats going forward, I saw more cheetah and had closer encounters […]
Arriving at Namiri Plains Camp I was once again greeted with song. This is a larger, permanent camp that, unlike the last camp, had guests other than myself, so the greeting crew was substantially larger. The first order of business here was to get some lunch and check in to my “tent.” During lunch I […]
On my 4th day in the Serengeti, it was time to move to Namiri Plains Camp in central Serengeti. But that does not mean that this day was a bust for animal sightings. Au contraire! After taking a last scenic shot of the view from Olakira camp, being joined at breakfast by a lesser striped […]
Setting off for another full day game drive after breakfast, our first stop again was to see what was happening by that elephant carcass, and again it did not disappoint. Today, there were a couple of male lions feeding on it, everyone else seemingly having had their fill. We did not spend much time today […]
The plan for my first full day in the Serengeti was to do a full day game drive, having breakfast and lunch in the bush. The first stop, however, was to go check on that elephant carcass to see if the lioness had decided to start feasting on it. Apparently she did as she looks […]
On day 5 of my adventure, Alfred dropped me off at Lake Manyara Airstrip where I took a small plane to Kogatende airstrip in the northern Serengeti. There was a herd of impala running and stotting across the runway as the plane was landing. Quite a welcome that was. I was met by my new […]
For my second safari drive, Alfred took me to Lake Manyara National Park, which is very near Ngorongoro crater, but is a very different environment. While Ngorongoro, once you get to the bottom of the caldera, is a wide open plain that makes spotting animals at a distance easy, Lake Manyara is a forested area, […]
My private safari guide, Alfred, picked me up at 6:00 am sharp from Acacia Farm Lodge for a full day game drive in Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This is the place where I am meant to see the “Big 5” safari animals. These are the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, cape buffalo, and elephant. I’d say I saw […]
I arrived in Kilimanjaro International Airport on June 6, 2021. This is my dream trip, one I have wanted to take since I was a teenager and saw a documentary on the Serengeti. Today that dream is a reality. Well, not today since I had spotty internet for the first few days, but I am […]
I was hoping that Donald Trump would be the last president. By that I do not mean that I wanted him to serve in perpetuity, but rather that he served as proof that having a president at all is a detriment to democracy. I have long argued that we should end the office of the […]