Born to be Wild and Free

All good things are wild and free – Henry David Thoreau

With a lot of appreciation for the wildlife seen in Africa we decided to revisit a wonderful destination from our travels in 2002 – Tanzania.  We hoped to see larger herds of animals, still sought the elusive leopard, and the Wildebeest Migration is in full swing.  We flew into Kilimanjaro airport and had a quick view of this great mountain before the sun ducked down for the night.  Our safari guide picked us up from the airport and we were off.  After a quick sleep in Arusha we ventured to Ngorongoro Crater and quickly observed a difference between this and our prior game drives.  There was almost constant wildlife outside the window, having seen most of the species before now we stopped when we could see them exceptionally close, very active, or multiple species mingling together.  We spent 90 minutes at one point watching a lioness watch a clueless nearby wildebeest hoping to see her hunt.  A few days later we saw a pack of lions that had clearly eaten recently and we saw one lioness peel off to chase some prey and we lost her in the bush.  We decided they were done hunting and moved onto the flat and dusty grassland of the cheetah. We later learned from the cb radio that if we had invested the 90 minutes with this group, we would have seen a kill, but we put our money on the wrong lioness.  It impresses me to imagine the time and patience invested to capture the fantastic moments  in the nature videos we enjoy.

Our 4 day safari was a favorite for all of us.  We enjoyed having the guide and vehicle all to ourselves, to stay with a critter or move on as we chose.  The Wildebeest Migration was interesting.  At times we saw smaller herds of Wildebeest, and at times we could see a river of them extending to the horizon.  And there were a lot of Zebra in the mix too.  Babies are being born daily among the Wildebeest now and we saw one taking her first steps.  We saw one baby separated from the mother, baby sought refuge next to our truck, as her instinct tells her to stay along the flank of her mom in the herd.  It broke our hearts to leave her behind and we prayed that they were reunited.  The Circle of Life is visible for better or for worse.

I also think Shia failed to mention why the Vulture is one of her favorite animals.  She loves that they don’t kill to eat meat.  I love that they can eat the most rotten stuff with no ill effect.  Surely, a medical miracle lies within these creatures.  We enjoyed watching them feed on a carcass.  Watching the politics of who eats when and watching them fly in from the far reaches of the park.  It was like watching JFK airport there were so many landing.  Their sounds are pretty entertaining too, they may have done some voice over work for Lord of the Rings in the Orc sequence.

As part of our safari splurge we booked a flight to Zanzibar.  It was nice to have someone do the legwork for us for a change with flight to flight service for these 4 days.  It was pretty funny to show up at the airstrip about 10 minutes after we left a pride of 8 lions.  The airstrip had a dirt runway and an outhouse.  The pilots of the bush planes loaded the bags, did our onboard greeting and with 12 passengers we took off.  Flying over Ngorongoro Crater and getting glimpses of Masai villages below and Kilimanjaro peeking through the clouds was awesome. The ride was a bit bumpy, but we landed in Arusha to change to another bush plane off to Zanzibar.  This flight gave us our first glimpse of the beautiful white sand and turquoise waters of this island steeped in history.

Zanzibar has been a center of trade between the Arab world, India and Africa and has a wonderful confluence of all of these cultures.  For me a particular favorite is the fashion of the women.  Their silky dresses and bright colors reflect India, the extension of this to a vibrant head covering honors their Muslim faith, and the Swahili inspired patterns on the fabric voice their Swahili culture.  I love seeing these swaying figures walking around.  I don’t feel at liberty to photograph them, and much to my surprise the local art is all of Masai instead.  I assume that is for good reason, so I try to resist the temptation to steal images of the ladies.

We filled our days with snorkeling, beach, beach side pools, shopping in Stonetown and general decompression. It was also supposed to be a good time to get caught up on school, but the wifi hasn’t met the challenge…oh well we’ll catch up next week..maybe.

Top 3 Africa Highlights

Shia-I’m doing 5 and I don’t care what y’all think!

• Serengeti
• Backpacker Hostels in Africa
• Erindi private game reserve
• Chimps
• 11 day self drive safari in Namibia

Liam- If she get’s 5, so do I!

• Snorkeling in Zanzibar
• Chimps
• Making friends and playing new games with friends on the Overland and at Come Let’s Dance
• Sandboarding
• Serengeti

Heidi

• Chimps
• Funky African Lodging – great backpacker hostels, bathrooms inside and out, sometimes with sand floors, grass huts, rustic tents, luxury tents, fancy hotels with glorious bath products, many interesting pools – it was always new and exciting.
• Serengeti

Chad

• Namib Desert – Desert Safari Tour, Deadvlei, Sandboarding, star filled skies, barren coastline, sunset in Brandenburg, waking up to an Oryx scavenging our campsite.
• Primates of Africa – chimps most notably, but also the baboon and various monkey species
• Game Drives – both guided, in Serengeti (#1) and Chobe (#2), or self drive in Namibia
• (+1) Zanzibar – Unique history and culture combined with incredible soft white sand and crystal clear waters