Photos!

Yikes... how the heck did we take that many photos in only 2 weeks???

2 weeks, and over 2,000 images to wade through. I got it down to 1,706 when I tossed the blurry or bad ones. But I only had 3 photo albums - 96+200+200 = 496 pictures. From 1,706??? *WHINE*

Somehow, I did it. You can see the chosen few at:

http://www.jodenemills.com/Africa/Kenya2007

and

http://www.jodenemills.com/Africa/Tanzania2007

Inevitably, I'll have some Kenya shots in the Tanzania file, but you get the jist. I hope you enjoy.

Unfortunately, we lost some really good shots: Including the woman who made the basket I bought, and the orphaned rhino we got to spend time with, AND the orphaned elephants we got to visit as a special foster parent thing. Damn Mac product ipod - we had uploaded all our pictures to the ipod. Some of them didn't make it :(

February 5

Our flight out of Nairobi was supposed to be around 7:30 but ended up being closer to 9:00. 8 hours and 50 minutes later, here I am on February 5th, typing in the Air Canada "preferred" lounge.

We've bought books, are charging the Ipod, and I can't wait to use one of their private rooms for a snooze. We're almost home, and looking forward to seeing you all. Everybody I showed my Calgary Zoo pictures to (on my IPod) LOVED them, they loved seeing African animals in Calgary :) And some had heard of, but never seen, bears/cougar/etc.

Oh. Dad. One of our guide's, Justin, LOVES old-time country. His glove-box was filled with Kenny Rogers, Emmylou, Hank Williams, a couple others I recognized as people you like but don't remember the names right now.

The first thing I'm going to do when I get home is unpack, pass out gifts, and take Bosco for a walk. The first thing Trent is going to do is call his mom & dad and grandma. We both have to clear out our emails - not looking forward to that!

Alright, well, it was an amazing trip, and Les was an amazing leader. I'm looking forward to someday leading a trip to the same area, if given a chance.

February 4

I was up at 03:45 to get ready for our hot air balloon ride. I took one look outside at the pouring rain (it was coming down so hard you couldn't see anything outside) and thought it wasn't going to happen.

But, the drivers picked us up at 4:30 as planned. Trent and I had to rush through packing, so while we were out hot-air ballooning, the other members of our group could take our luggage to where we would meet up later that morning.

It was supposed to be a 1 hour drive to the launch site. We were supposed to be at the launch site by 06:00, in the air at 06:30 after a brief instruction period, and back down before 08:00 when the "thermals" started developing.

Wellllll at 07:00 we realized we just weren't going to make it. The drivers made a herculean effort, but the roads were just too bad. We almost tipped over once in our Landcruiser, and the water was still coming down. The road they had used previously for take-offs was under 3 feet of water. The road they were going to use for our takeoff was impenetrable. We kept moving, slowly, only to find the trucks pulling the hot-air balloon stuck perpendicular on the road - and not moving. So, no chance to go hot-air ballooning. The amount of rain this area has seen caught everyone by surprise. They apologized profusely, and the pilot said we'd get a full refund (which Trent recorded on his camera:)). He said he HAD to be in the air by 07:30, and down by 08:30, or else the unpredictable thermals will take us places they don't want us to be.

Add that to the fact that with how many rained-out roads there were, the "chase vehicles" didn't stand a chance of actually following us.

We were quite behind schedule at this point, so we headed back the way we came. We were heading back to the Serengeti Serena Lodge to liaise with our group, when who should we see driving (sliding) down the road? Our group! So we loaded into their trucks and off we went.

We drove to KIA Lodge, which is an AMAZING lodge just a 5-10 minute drive to the airport. We had the afternoon to ourselves, and were assigned day-rooms. They have AIR-CONDITIONING! And a TV! Heaven. Yet, the TV remained turned off, we were too exhausted and frankly didn't even care if it was in the room. Trent and I caught up on much-needed sleep, then we all lounged by the pool. We had a very early dinner (4:30) compared to what we've become accustomed to (7:30), and were at the airport by 6:30.

We had a 45 minute flight to Arusha (billed as "The Geneva of Africa" because that's where they held the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda), a couple-hour bus ride from Arusha to Nairobi, and a flight from Nairobi to London.

We visited an orphanage in Arusha - again, SUCH amazingly cute kids. Trent and I have decided to send a monthly donation to the orphanage we went to first in Kenya, guess we can't get Kevin off our minds.

February 3

After breakfast at Ndutu, we departed for the central Serengeti. Timing was impossible to estimate - what we thought was a 2 hour drive turned into 4. But we're getting used to that :)

We're staying at the Serengeti Serena Lodge tonight - AMAZING. It has the most amazing view over the Serengeti, and a great pool! We only did one game drive and only the "keeners" participated (3 people - me included). We figured this would be our only game drive on the true Serengeti plains, so we'd best take advantage of it! We didn't see very much, probably because we were too busy killing Tsetse flies! We saw baboon, hippo, Topi (an antelope I've never heard of before but is really quite stunning), some hartabeast, impala, wildebeest, and mating Cape Buffalo! That was... interesting.

We had been warned the Tsetse flies were bad around the area, so we we were ready. Insect repellant lotion all over our bodies, hats, longsleeved shirts, pants, socks, shoes. The jerks STILL got through our clothing and bit a couple of us. So, we got smarter than the flies. We would take turns on "kill duty". 2 people would take pictures, one would kill tsetse flies. We'd switch every 5 minutes or so. Thanks to Tilley (we used my hat as the killing machine), we got every Tsetse who dared fly into our vehicle. I'm sure Rashid, our guide, had to sweep out his truck after.

Trent and I don't have much planned for tonight, because we have to get up so early for the hot air balloon ride tomorrow! We're so excited. The amount of rain this area has seen is amazing (they haven't seen this much rain since 1998), some of the roads are completely washed out, so we'll see if the hot air balloon ride even happens tomorrow.

Goodnight.....

So, I've finally updated all of our days here in Kenya and Tanzania. I hope you enjoy the reading - sorry if it got wordy :)

It's past 7:30 now, so it's time for dinner!

We have one more night here at Ndutu and then one last night in Africa at another lodge. Trent and I are looking forward to our hot air balloon ride over the serengeti before we have to make the trek home. This will most likely be my last entry, I'm not sure if the next lodge has internet access.

I hope you enjoy(ed) the reading, we'll see you all soon!

Animals We've Seen

I'm sure I'm going to miss something, but I'm going to try to list them all from my journal:

First, the mammals:

1. Topi
   
2. Rothschild Giraffe
3. Reticulated Giraffe
4. Maasai Giraffe
5. Grevy Zebra
6. Plains Zebra
7. Baboon
8. Warthog
9. Impala
10. Waterbuck
11. Spotted Hyena
12. Striped Hyena
13. Elephant
14. Cape Buffalo
15. Lion
16. Gerenuk
17. Leopard
18. Dik Dik
19. Grant's Gazelle
20. Thompson's Gazelle
21. Blue Sykes Monkey
22. Eland
23. Wildebeest
24. Black Backed Jackal
25. Golden backed Jackal
26. Hippo
27. Hartabeest
28. Steinbok
29. African Wildcat
30. Bat-Eared Fox
31. Rat

I'm POSITIVE I'm missing a lot of mammals........

And now for the birds (birders, please excuse the bad spelling, I think some words were lost in translation...)

1. Scared ibis
2. cattle eagret
3. marabou stork
4. black kyte
5. white-something kyte (that divebombed me!)
6. helmeted guinea fowl
7. vulturine guinea fowl
8. yellow necked spur fowl
9. white browed sparrow weaver
10. black faced sand grouse
11. white beared buffalo weaver
12. speckled mouse bird
13. yellow-billed hornbill
14. red-billed hornbill
15. secretary bird
16. abdomen stork
17. 4 kinds of vultures
18. greater flamingo
19. lesser flamingo
20. warblers
21. hoopoe's
22. blacksmith plover
23. snake eagle
24. donald's barbet (kind of looked like donald trump... bad hair day)
25. 2 banded courser
26. abyssynian roller
27. lilac breasted roller
28. other rollers
29. starlings
30. black wingled stilt
31. kestrel
32. ostrich
33. buzzard
34. morning dove
35. lark
36. cory bustard
37. fisher's lovebird
38. european stork
39. lappet-faced vulture
40. bateleur
41. marshall eagle
42. superb starling
43. dark chanting goshawk
44. eurasian roller

WOW. I know I've missed lots of birds, but those are all I could remember by the time I got back to my accommodations.

We saw quite a few lizards as well, but I don't know my lizards. Oh! We saw 2 green mamba's, too.

Week in Review?

Wow, what a time. We went to Buffalo Springs Reserve... google it, and you'll find stories of a lioness years ago that adopted an oryx baby (so neat!).

We visited TWO wonders of the world on this trip. The Serengeti is the 7th, and Ngorogoro Crater is the 8th wonder of the world. On my last trip I visited Victoria Falls, which is the 3rd. I'd love to see ALL of the wonders of the world.

We drove through the Ngorogoro Crater. It imploded years ago, and made a caldera. The grasses are rich in nitrogen, which is why the Wildebeest, Zebra, and Gazelle make such a trek every year - it's good food for the babies!

We visited an AIDS orphanage, where all the children living there had AIDS or AIDS-related illnesses, and had lost most, if not all of their family to the same ailments. Such a sad but inspiring day, those kids were awesome.

I negotiated for something for Trent at a market in Karatu - an old Maasai leather skirt. He wanted over $200 for it, and I got him down to $50. So far it has stayed in its plastic bag, it reeks! It will eventually end up on a wall in Trent's office.

In parts of the Ngorogoro crater, there were umbrella acacia trees as far as the eye can see.

And on the Serengeti plains? Wildebeest, Zebra, and Gazelle as far as the eye can see! So many that you couldn't determine individual animals in binoculars.

The count for Lion is up to the late-30s for the whole group. For me, it's around 27. AWESOME. 2 Leopard, 9 Cheetah. *drooling* I can't get enough of this place.

Oh - something to note, but I don't know if it's worth comment. In our travels to Kenya, I saw a store named "The Steem Place Hotel and Butchery".

*blink blink*

I got kissed by a giraffe.

I met "my" elephant.

I had to go for a bathroom break on a long roadtrip somewhere... the guide announced "boys on the left, girls on the right". Well, I had to wander a little ways to find a bush to hide behind (those darned plains!) and found myself 10 feet away from a large herd of Zebra. When I got back to the car I was so excited, I said "I just peed with the Zebra!" - I'm such a dork. But it was a lot of fun. They were all looking at me like "what the heck are YOU!?" Now, if it were wildebeest or cape buffalo, I wouldn't have stayed there. But the Zebra seemed not to mind my interruption.

I found out that the Samburu people are similar to the Maasai, but judging only by the 2 villages we visited, the Samburu people we met were in much better health.

There is a higher police presence in Kenya.

I peed on a wasp nest and they all escaped between my legs!! (too much information?!)

Oh, so many great moments (not that peeing on a wasp nest was a great moment, but it was memorable!), we can't wait to share them all.

I took over 1,000 pictures. 4-512MB, 1-2GB, 2-256MB cards. I only took that many because we had the Ipod upload them to, and I am grateful for it!!

We'll see you soon!

February 3

WOW was today amazing. We finally found Cheetah. And not just one, but THREE!

We started out at 6:15 this morning with plans to have a boxed breakfast on the plains. We drove for quite a while before we saw any animals, but then it seemed to be one after another. We didn't end up having breakfast until noon, it was just such an exciting morning.

We saw 2 Cheetah, a mother and son, lounging in the brush. We watched them for quite a while and I used up yet another memory card on my digital camera. 2 of the 3 vehicles raced away which left my vehicle still watching the cheetah, and wondering what the heck was going on. Our guide (John) received a phone call from one of the other guides (Rasheed or Justin) telling him about a Hyena kill in progress. John asked if we wanted to go over there, or stay with the Cheetah - 3 women in the vehicle and Trent, Trent lost the vote, and we stayed with the Cheetah for a few more minutes.

When we got to the Hyena kill, the Wildebeest was dead - thank god. I don't mind seeing an animal being consumed, but I want it to be already dead when I get there. I guess the other 2 vehicles saw it - and heard it. We have a ton of great but gruesome pictures of the hyena devouring her wildebeest kill, and the vultures coming in to clean up the scraps.

We tried to find the 2 Cheetah from before, but couldn't locate them, so we decided to have a group photo and have breakfast.

We didn't get back from our morning drive until 2:30. 3 of us "keeners" left for an afternoon drive at 4:30 and we just returned at 7:00. It's been a busy but awesome day! We didn't see much on the afternoon drive, a lot of birds, some giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, impala, gazelle.

I have a little bit of a sunburn, but other than that, it was a fantastic day. Trent was also very glad he came along on the morning drive, he wanted to see a kill (weird boy).

It's currently 7:15 and dinner starts soon, so I'd best type quickly! One of the guys in the office just came out and said "do you know how annoying it is to hear you typing so quickly, and I'm in my office doing the hunt-and-peck for a letter?!" - I told him I could be contracted out, but he didn't take me up on it.

SO! What have we seen today?

Marshall's Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Bush snail (so cute!), zebra, dik dik, marabou stork, 2 banded courser, hartabeest, black winged stilt, european stork, plovers, snake eagles, chanting goshawks, bustards, secretary bird, starling, LION, giraffe, grants gazelle, bateleur, cheetah, fisher's lovebirds, hyena, wildebeest, hippo, franklins, lilac breasted rollers, helmeted guinea fowl, vulturine guinea fowl, long crested eagle, blacksmith plover...... and WOW so much more.

I'm looking forward to sitting by the fire tonight with a rum and coke. I can't believe it's my second last night in Africa....... I've met many people who visisted Africa once, fell in love with it, and moved here. The 2 owners of this lodge, for instance. I can understand that.

February 2

After trying for about 30 minutes ($30) on another computer, I finally gave up and asked to use an office computer. So, here I am updating our days.

Today was another day spent searching for Cheetah, but to no avail! It seems everyone else at Ndutu has seen them but us - and more than once! One lady sees them DAILY, and has seen 2 kills. I must say, though, the sightings we've had of lion have been out of this world. Lion - every day, at least one new pride.

It's absolutely amazing here. I can see why Les says it's his favourite place, I think it is mine as well. I could do without all these nasty black flies, though! The only drawback is not having any plug-ins in our room. So we can't recharge camera batteries, and I can't use my hairdryer. But, I'm getting used to it, and actually quite like my hair sans style :)

We've gone out for 2 drives today - the AM one left at 6:15 and was back for lunch. The afternoon drive left at 4:00 and was back at dinner. It was a very busy day for birds, giraffes, lions, wildebeest - and 2 exciting sightings: a bat-eared fox, and an african wildcat!!!! Very rare.

Trent didn't come on either drive, he's feeling some G.I. problems (3 cheers for Cipro/antibiotics) and he's not a fan of all the black flies. Unfortunately for him, they weren't that bad on either drive!

Evening........

Trent is feeling better and will probably go on the AM drive tomorrow. I hope the flies aren't too bad, they're really getting annoying. They seem to like the taste of DEET.

But.... try to imagine the feeling of driving around in the Serengetti, looking around and realizing you're the only soul out there. Not another vehicle, not any sounds of civilization. Just the sounds and smells of thousands of animals. At one point there were migrating wildebeest, gazelle, and zebra as far as the eye could see, from one side of the horizon to the other. It was absolutely awe-inspiring!!!

I'm quickly running out of camera juice, because I have to leave my whole camera at the bar to be recharged... I don't want to leave it alone, so I have to take it with me at bedtime. It only gets about 2 hours of charge per day.

It was a tiring day today, but a good one. When we got back from the afternoon drive, we all had a drink and some amazing tasting salty popcorn before dinner. Dinner was fantastic - spaghetti!!! We'll see what tomorrow brings. I can't believe our trip is almost over.... I don't want to leave!

February 1

So, I've finally caught up on my blog posts! If you'll notice below, all of January seems to have appeared overnight. That's because this lodge, the Ndutu Lodge in Tanzania, is the first place we've had internet access since the Mount Kenya Safari Lodge. Hope you enjoy reading, as I think I've written a novel down below!!!

Today we went for an early morning game drive. Somewhere on these plains are over 1 million wildebeest. Somewhere. We haven't found them yet - it's amazing how huge this place is! It was too cloudy to see the sunrise, but that didn't stop us from seeing some really great game and taking great photos. We saw a family of lion (3 females, 4 cubs) walking away from a kill. We photographed them for a while, then went to see their kill.

Their kill was a wildebeest and they certainly didn't leave very much of it for the scavengers!! I got some great pictures of a jackal and 4 types of vulture.

I think I'm going to go for a nap now, we have the afternoon to ourselves until 4pm when we head out again for another drive.

The FLIES here are driving everyone insane. My tsetse fly bite on my shoulder is still really annoying me, it's very itchy and red. But I only feel my normal travel exhaustion, not a sleeping sickness exhaustion, so I'm sure I'm ok :)

I'll write more tomorrow. I'm not sure if our last lodge will have internet access, so tomorrow might be the last posting before we head HOME!

January 31

Our last day in the Crater and we're shipping out. We have about 4 hours of travel from our lodge to the Ndutu Lodge on the Serengeti. We stopped at Oldupai Gorge ("The cradle of man") and Trent was frustrated when a guide wouldn't drive down into the gorge with him so he could get a rock for his zen garden. I don't see why not?

The talk given by the museum guy on the history of the gorge was very interesting. I watched Maasai with their cattle walk through the crater, we visited the museum there, and I bought a spear! Les said it was one of the best places to get it, and another person on the tour said she's been checking the price everywhere we went and this was the cheapest. So, I have a spear. Neat!

We also visited a traditional Maasai village. Now, it's not entirely traditional, because it was set up to have tourists visit it. They're not allowed to cultivate the land because they're living in the Ngorogoro Conservation Area, so they have to find other ways to make money. So they invite tourists into the village and give tours - and sell their wares. It was very interesting, and had many similarities and differences to the Samburu village we visited. The children were much more malnourished at this village, and everyone was asking for "tips". We got some great pictures, but didn't buy anything. I gtave their teacher the rest of our pens and crayond, and a couple of books - he was particularly excited about the one on the wildlife of eastern africa.

We watched the teacher with his kindergarten class, held under a tree - they sang us their ABCs! It was so great.

When I said thank you and goodbye in Maasai, the teacher offered 800 cows for me! He had a big smile on his face - he also asked to buy Emma, a 15 year old redhead in our group.

I had a little friend following me around for a while, he was so cute. About 2 years old with only a blanket on. I got some great pictures of him.

Just before we left, we also gave some of our medications to the group - medicated eye drops, creams, etc. Definitely not the most healthy group! What's weird is, we were told the Maasai hold great regard for "white man medicines", but they don't go to hospitals. Many don't even make use of the Flying Doctors who go to many of the villages weekly.

January 30

Today was the 2nd of 2 days we spend at the 8th wonder of the world, the Ngorogoro crater. It was amazing. We got up at 5:45 to start a 7:00 game drive. At lunch, some of our group decided to head back to the lodge (Trent included). The die-hards piled into 2 vans and spent the whole day in the crater. We didn't know what kind of wildlife we would see, because it had been raining all night. It cleared up just as we rolled through the gate! How wonderful for the weather to be so accommodating to us. How considerate!

It started raining again later in the afternoon as we were leaving, but we had a great day. I can't even count how many wildebeest, zebra, impala and gazelle we saw!! Les said he's been here 6 times and this is the wettest he's seen it. The rains are good, though, they will bring th e wildebeest.

WE SAW LION! My first lion this trip. Les put the count at 27, but not everybody saw all 27, and most were too far away to photograph. Today's pride was about 12 strong, and dozing by the side of the road without a care in the world. Their engorged bellies told us they ate well last night.

We also saw a lot of hyene, watrhog, and cape buffalo. One hyena was limping, and it looked as though one warthog had dislocated her hind-right leg. So, I've decided to be an optimist and think she will be able to hide from the carnivores until her leg is healed. Warthogs often take over old hyene dens, so... it's possible?!

We found out today why trees don't grow in the plains of the crater - because there is a thick layer of calcium carbonate close to the surface that tree/shrub roots can't penetrate. The only reason shrubs/trees can grow near the river bed is that over time, the water has permeated the calcium layer and weakened it. Neat!

I still have a stomach ache, so I'm on full-time cipro (antibiotics). I also have a headache today, but it's not like the migraines I get at home.

Trent is ready to go home. He's exhausted the supply of movies on my Ipod, and isn't interested in the book he bought. 2 weeks without a TV is a lot to ask for a man who lists it as a necessary technology! He's done so well to this point but his interest is quickly waning.

A few others in our group are growing tired of the game drives. My question is - what did they think they were going to do? The itinerary was available to all to read, our activities weren't a secret. Les is doing a fantastic job of making everyone happy. Though, a couple group members would have liked to have more cultural experiences. I say - bring on the elephants!

January 29

I am writing this from my comfybed at the Sopa Lodge overlooking the Ngorogoro Crater. The view from the lodgeis fantastic, but the wildlife to be seen IN the crater is even better. Wildebeest, eland, elephant, lion, hyene, cape buffalo, gazelles, flamingo - it's nothing short of inspiring.

Because I haven't had a chance to call home yet or update my blog, I called Mom and dad tonight after dinner. It was great to hear their voices, and let them know we were ok. Trent and I are both a bit homesick. It was a very expensive call, so I kept it short. Just long enough to let them know we were ok and still having fun.

I will hopefully have a chance to update the blog 2 nights from now when we get to Ndutu.

The Sopa Lodge has a cat! He's very cute and friendly, but doesn't like to be picked up. It's nice to spend some time with him. If I squint really hard, I might be able to imagine him being an 80 pound Bosco....... :)

Being at the top of the crater, we are at... over 7,000 feet? Wow!~ Calgary is what - 3,200??? Yikes, I have to get to bed. Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 07:00 for a FULL DAY in the crater. I can't wait! Trent said he'd try it, but odds are he and a few others will return to the hotel at midday. There are only 4 real "keeners" in the group, and we'll all be at the crater for the full day, for sure.

Introspection

It's funny, last time I was in Africa I was there for 3 weeks and I easily could have stayed for longer. This time it definitely feels as if we've been gone for longer than a week!

I have mosquito bites all over my legs, a tsetse fly bite on my right shoulder, haven't had power for longer than 4 hours since Mount Kenya Safari Lodge, and I'm loving every minute of it.

I'm very proud of Trent, too. He went WAY out of his comfort zone to accompany me on this trip - all because it meant so much to me to have him here with me! He is not only enjoying himself, but is learning to take things in stride. Having to hurry in the mornings just to wait for transport, being huntry at dinner but waiting patiently (or at least quietly :)) for the food... I think he has grown a little on this trip. He has always been introspective, and this trip, with our experiences, are definitely allowing him to practice that. I'm very proud of him and so glad he's here.

We talk about the AIDS orphanage we visited almost daily. Cute little Kevin, who was just getting over an illness, sitting away from the rest of the children, watching them play and do their chores. I don't remember if I've written this before or not, so please bear with me if I have!

I sat down beside Kevin to watch the kids do their chores... I tried to talk to him, but he didn't seem interested and I thought he wanted to be alone. But when I got up to leave him alone, he reached out for my finger and held strong. Annnnnnd I was in love :) So, we sat beside each other for a while, with my arm over his shoulder, and him slowly melting into me for a hug. He eventually ended up on my lap, and we stayed that way for quite some time. After Trent was finished taking pictures of all the children (they LOVED seeing themselves in the digital camera!), he sat down beside us, and showed Kevin his Ipod. He seemed interested, so Trent put one ear-phone in his ear, and the other in Kevins, and turned on the music. Well! THERE was the smile!!! We didn't know for sure if he was enjoying the music (all types of music), but I saw him tapping his foot. He started to cry when we were told we had to leave, but one of the very loving volunteers picked him up and he stopped.

Such a cutie, I don't think I'll ever forget him. Just like Sophie, a child with AIDS I met at a school in Swaziland 2 years ago.... she's still with me too.

What we've seen so far of Tanzania is SO different from Kenya. What few sources of water Kenya had were very shallow. We had just missed the rainy season, and they did get a lot of rain this year. Les said he didn't remember when he saw the grass as long as it was!

There were a LOT of elephant, again more than Les had seen at Samburu previously. We didn't seen any lion, but we did see leopard on 2 occasions. The Samburu people were very smiley, friendly, happy, and loved to banter! The staff at the Intrepids lodge were fantastic. They loved the books, tshirts and pens we gave them when we left.

Contrast the dryness of Kenya with what we see today and it's hard to believe we're only 1 country away! We are in the Ngor4ogoro Highlands. To get here we flew on 3 small planes and drove for a couple hours - some of that time on nicely paved roads! What a pleasant surprise! We got to Lake Manyara and in the distance saw hundreds of flamingos! We haven't gotten near enough to take pictures yet, but they're there!

I have seen elephant every day I've been in Africa. THAT is a treat.

I started to feel queazy a couple of times on the trip, but a dose of "Cipro" antibiotic seemed to clear whatever it was so I haven't missed any activities but the cultural village. But I think I missed the cultural village tour more because of introverted-ness (?). I noticed I was geting more and more quiet when the group was together - those darned extroverts, stealing my energy! So, Trent and I both took the afternoon off to be introverts and recharge. He went to the room to watch a movie on my IPod, and I am catching up on blog entries by the pool. For when I am able to find a computer that works!

I am hoping the place we stay tomorrow (The Sopa) has internet access - I'm looking forward to updating everyone on our activities! I miss everyone and hope you are all doing well. We'll be home soon!

January 28 - continued

I'm back! Amazing, it's 9:30 in the morning, and the lodge has power! The last few places we've been have turned their generators off for midday, only starting them again at 6:00pm.

You can imagine how that was making technology-crazed Trent feel, we couldn't re-charge our ipods! (OR the camera, which I felt had a little more importance.... :))

So, back to January 28th, at Lake Manyara. We had a nice dinner last night, but so far we haven't had typical african choices, which I kind of was looking forward to. They took so much time in between the courses, though, that Trent and I walked away before we got dessert! We were just so tired, we couldn't stay awake any longer. It's amazing how exhausted one feels, when all we're doing is driving around!

Okay, so we're back at Lake Manyara. We heard that the power was turned off at 10pm, so we wanted to get back to our room before that happened. As it turns out, the power is turned off at 11:00pm, and back on at 6:00am. Off at 11:00am, and on at 6:00pm. So, we really only have 10 hours of electricity. NOrmally we wouldn't mind, but the camera is getting frighteningly low on juice!

Our lodging at Lake Manyara looks like something out of a National Geographic travel magazine. Individual huts, with grassthatch roof. Screened windows, but they're always open. A view from our patio to die for! It reminds me so much of the Drakensberg Mountain Range in South Africa..... all we see in the Ngorogoro highlands are green, lush rolling hills, vegetation, and hundreds of species of birds.

Trent and I went to the pool this afternoon. It overlooks a small lake (NOT lake Manyarra), thousands of banana trees, and many families of monkey! We can hear them screaming at each other.

I just got bit(ten??) by a Tsetse fly. OW, dangit, it made me bleed. Les seems to think I'll live, he's been bitten by them before.

Some of our group is just leaving for a cultural tour of a nearby village. I'm feeling a little queazy today, so felt it more important to stay near home base. Trent is very comfortable lying by the pool listening to his IPod.

It feels as though we've been gone for more than just a week... we've done so many things, each day is so full. We're exhausted by 8:30 at night!!

We have 6 more days in Tanzania, and then it's back to the real world. I don't know how that is going to go :) Trent is enjoying himself more than he thought he would, but he does tend to get antsy after a couple of hours watching wildlife. Good thing for Ipod - I should write Macintosh a Thank you!!

I am having a fantastic time. Im taking lots of great pictures, and am constantly astonished at how much Les knows - about anything! If this is what all Civilized Adventure guides are supposed to be like, I'm worried. But, he has been doing this for 10 years, so I should cut myself some slack. I have lots of reading to do to catch up! :)

Today, we were told AFTER we took some pictures of Maasai that they don't like their picture to be taken without permission - and compensation - oops. So that's why they looked so ticked off. Les says they're very tourist-saavy and want $$ for photos.

It feels good to be alone at the pool, with the rest of our group having gone on the cultural tour. With both Trent and I being introverts, it feels nice to finally be alone and recharge. The view is just too breathtaking NOT to take advantage of, so I don't think I'll go to our room anytime soon.


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OH! I forgot to mention something about Samburu! On our last morning at Samburu Intrepids, the monkeys seemed to be more active than usual. They were following our "wake-up call" guy (named Moses) who had cookies and hot chocolate. A family of vervet monkeys camped outon our porch - male, ffemale, young, and a brand new baby. I poked my head out of the tent to take pictures, and the darn female with the brand new baby made a run for the tent! You know, that little hole in the zipper with my head sticking through it???

I squealed and quickly held the "door" shut, I didn't want to risk taking one hand away to use the zipper. She was still trying to get in at this point! I screamed again, she ran away far enough for me to use the zipper. I thought we were safe then, so I went about getting ready to depart. A few minutes later I hear her playing with the zipper from the outside! I yelled at her, and Trent had to put the coffee table on the zipper ties so she wouldn't actually get in. Little twerp!

We were told when we checked in that whenever we left our tent for any reason, we had to remember to (1) close the zipper all the way ("close the zipper"? Hey, I'm Ukrainian....); (2) Tie the 3 zippers together in a double knot; (3) put the floor mat on top of the knotted, zipped up zipper; (4) put the coffee table outside on the deck, on top of the floor mat.

Otherwise, you'd come home after a long and hard day in your comfy safari trucks to find your hut ransacked by furry vandals.

.............

January 28

The lodge doesn't have internet access, and it costs $15/minute USD to use the phone! So, I hope mom and dad and Bosco are ok, as we haven't been able to call OR email since that very first Blog Entry!

..... I'm going to have to edit this entry tomorrow, I'm getting kicked out of the internet room. We wil be back to continue the journey!!! (we already skipped our supper to update you on events thus far!).

Parting words: We're having a great time, the bugs aren't bad at all, and we're seeing A TON of wildlife. We miss home and can't wait to see you all, but we're having fun until we have to go :)

January 27

Yesterday, Trent and I had our camel ride! It was about 30 minutes for $15 each. Some Samburu tribesmen bought 2 ornery camels to Samburu Intrepids camp for the visitors, and only people from our group wanted to try! Trent and I were on the second run... they took us over the river (which we later found out was crocodile infested!), then toward their village. They asked Trent and I if we wanted to see their village, but we had to get back for the game drive. I would have loved to see it!!!

The camel ride was really fun. Quite comfortable, once I got used to it, but not the most graceful animals to get on and off of!!

On the game drive we didn't see very much except a waterbuck, impala, a whole lot of birds and a large family of elephants. We were rushed, though, because of the time we took for th ecamel ride. Steven, our guide, took us up to a viewpoint where we took pictures and saw the mountain the Samburu people pray to God. We had to rush back to get through the gates by 6 pm, or else we would be locked out to spend the night in the bush!!

Last night we listened to a talk on Samburu culture. Matthew, a tribesman hired by Intrepids (to slingshot monkeys away from our food!) gave the talk and allowed us to ask anything we wanted to know.

I've heard contradictory information, but Matthew said the women are no longer circumcized! Another person, Maya (at the Samburu village we visited), said they were. So manybe just not in Matthew's tribe??

When you hear about a polygamous society, you think of the definition (1 man with many wives) and I always just assumed women didn't have any control over - anything - in their society. But in talking to Matthew and a female Samburu (I forget her name), the females get together and ask their husband to marry another woman in order to have more help around the village! The women in the tribe take care of the village - they milk all the cows, so the wives (of which there is a head wife and "assistants") ask their husband to marry another woman to help with the chores! The women can also ask their husband to marry a particular woman if they know she is a hard worker. VERY interesting!!

Yesterday we thanked the manager for having such fantastic staff. Trent accidentally left about $100 USD on his bed - when we returned for the evening, it was still there, even though our beds had been turned down for the evening! We left him a thank you note, some $$, a shirt and some pens as a thank you. We also gave our Samburu camel guides a bag full of pens - all different colours, and they seemed to like them! Much more functional than Canada pins, I think!

I forgot to mention before - the camels were both male, and they seemed to pee backwards! Thought the Zoo Docents would like that :)

..............

SO here it is, January 27, and we are waiting at an airstrip for our flight to Nairobi, and then to Kilimanjaro. It was supposed to be here at around 10:00, but we're learning about "African Minutes" - it's now 11:30 and no lane.

I have a stomach ache, but I'm trying really har dNOT to use the toilet - I already almost got stung when I went to the bathroom in the toilet "hole" and woke up some wasps! DON'T LAUGH, but I raced out of that outhouse so fast I still had my pants around my ankles. I'm so glad no one was looking my way!

January 27

We awoke at 5:45 - aren't you impressed! We had a morning game drive. For the longest time we only saw birds, but they were too far away to take pictures of. We also saw dwarf mongoose who had taken over an abandoned termite mound, then we saw a large herd of elephant! So many babies, it was great to see. Some adolescents mock charged our van - it was great! 3 young males were play-fighting in the distance, wand we all kept our eyes on the male in musth (hormones raging!), as he kept an eye on us.

We started heading back around 08:00 when an excited call came over the radio - someone had spotted a lion kill! We all raced toward the area. When we got there, it didn't dawn on ANY of us why we were told to exit the vehicle, and walk toward the "kill". We just did as we were told, because we figured the men with guns would protect us!

Low and behold, there was breakfast for us, spread out over a tablecloth, overlooking the river. We had men on the lookout for wildlife, and some guys with slingshots to keep the monkeys away. It was a great breakfast!

........

Right now it's 10:20 and we're waiting for a camel ride. Trent is really excited, I don't know if my stomach can do it. It's been upset the past couple of days.

.......

I'm writing this entry while sitting on the deck of our room, overlooking the river. Some Samburu people have brought their sheep to drink at the river and there seems to be many babies! We'll be back after the ride!

.......

So, we waited 30 mins and fell asleep in the lobby, but no camel ride. I guess the staff are worried, as the camels are over 30 minutes late - never happened before! So, we're going to teh pool to people-watch, and listen to thunder roll in.

It's so amazing being here - Africa is so gorgeous and so unforgiving at the same time. We've been marveling at elephant, giraffe, lion and leopard almost daily.

January 25

We awoke fo a 7:30 game drive and a trip to a local Samburu tribe. For $20 USD we got to visit the tribe, see a typical dwelling, and the school. We met Grade 1, 3, 5, and 8 students. We met a woman named Maya who has a university education and returned to the tribe. The tribe is making great strides in progress due to her influence!

Trent helped start a fire at the village, using sticks! Maya later asked me how many cows I wanted for him.....

This was one of our favourite parts of the trip so far.

Trent and I gave all our pens and pencils to the school, they seem to be hurting more than otehrs we visited because they are so isolated. I talked with 2 grade 8 boys who want to become a teacher and an engineer, but post secondary is so very expensive.

After the visit to the tribe, we hung around camp for a short while. A few of us went for a swim! Oh it felt wonderful. After the swim we went for an afternoon game drive. It was pretty tame, except we did see some new species of bird we haven't seen before, some vultures, and -

A LEOPARD!

It was lounging in a tree - I got some great photos. We also saw elephant, and a whole bunch fo giraffes. There were nearly 30 of them, and the guides said they hadn't seen that many together in a group for many years.

Tomorrow we have an early game drive planned. When we get back, around 9, T and I will have a quick breakfast - and then off for a CAMEL RIDE! We're pretty excited and have no idea what to expect.

January 24

Yesterday was a hard day of driving to get from Mount Kenya to Samburu - about 6 hours of unfriendly roads. Our driver called it an African Massage, our butts HURT!

We have 3 nights at Samburu Intrepids, I'm looking orward to actually unpacking!! I have to run for another game drive, but I'll be back.

January 23

Today we got to go for a safari on the way to a chimp sanctuary, started by Jane Goodall. Here, they have 2 families of chimps - 26 in one, 15 in the other. 9 young in the first family are new arrivals. It kills me that there is still need in the world for a chimp sanctuary, where all the babies are confiscated from people who took them from the wild/the pet trade.

We drove through the Obajeta Conservancy and saw giraffe, warthog, impala, waterbuck, zebra, helmeted guinea fowl, and the back end of an elephant. African crowned cranes, fire finches, hippo, ibis, cape buffalo, crowned plover, and a black rhino.

I can't really say the black rhino was "out in the wild", as he's relatively tame. 33 years of tourists posing with him - it was odd, and seeing as he was laying down when we posed for pictures with him, it looks..... well, it looks like we're posing with a dead rhino! He lives with armed guards, 24/7/365.

Back to the trucks for the ride home for lunch. It was such a wonderful place, we had a marabou stork begging for food just a couple feet from us (Trent shoo'd him away), and black and white colobus monkeys in the tree!

A brief interruption with the ipod I got for christmas - Trent also bought me a camera converter, so I could upload my photos from my digital camera to the ipod. It wouldn't work! I've already taken 2-512 MB cards and I'm about 15% through the 2 GB card - which is... I don't know, almost 1000 pictures?!?! Can we say camera happy??

There is a talk on the bush meat trade tonight by a friend of Les'. I don't want to go, considering the information will probably give me nightmares for a while, but I think I should.

Hello, all! This is the first time we've had internet access through the whole trip, so what I'm going to do is try to update you day by day....... we're having a great time!

Finally!

Phew, we just spent 29 minutes logging in to type this blog entry. And no, that is not an exaggeration! They have a verrrrrrrrrry very slow internet connection (dialup).

So, we are in Kenya, at the Mount Kenya Safari Lodge. It's a glorious place, but the amount of ivory is staggering. Almost every doorway is flagged by ivory - one set is taller than Trent. Trophys abound. Not my idea of homey :) But, this is a slice of Kenyan history.

I'll try to give a brief overview of what we've done so far, and then if time permits at another location, go into better detail..... the first day was full of activity from the moment we arrived in Nairobi. We got to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (elephant orphanage) in time for the noon "mudbath". We were first introduced to the 4 youngsters - Shimba, Lempaute, Lesanju, and one other. It was of course AFTER I was almost knocked over by Shimba that we were told we should remain standing. Oops. The youngsters played around for a bit, then left for their afternoon grazing. A group of 6 older orphan elephants came in for their mudbath and they played in the mud - very fun to watch :)

After Sheldrick, our group went to a marketplace but Trent and I couldn't barter the guy down low enough for the goods we were interested in, so we didn't get anything. The group split up around this time, and some of the folks went to the hotel. Trent and I had an appointment with Sheldrick later that evening to see the elephant I'm fostering, so we had some time to spare. We went to a giraffe center (funded by A.F.E.W. [African Fund for Endangered Wildlife]) and I got to kiss a giraffe! Yes, actually kiss its top lip. Awesome :) He licked my whole chin. Good photo.

The highlight of the evening? SHIMBA!!! We got to meet "my" elephant. Good lord he's cute. He's the life of the party :) We also met a 4 year old black rhino named Shida.

We visited a children's AIDS orphanage on our second day. We transported 2 boxes of medication to the orphanage from Calgary, which equates to over 10K in much-needed medication. It was a pretty emotional time for Trent and I. Trent had fun carrying a little boy around on his shoulders. I found a little boy, named Kevin, who wasn't interacting with anybody else or helping with the chores. It seems he was just getting over a sickness so didn't have too much energy. I didn't know if he even wanted me sitting beside him, but when I got up to leave he grabbed on to my finger. I sat back down with him and he sat on my lap for quite some time. Trent was having fun taking photos of the orphans and showing their pictures to them. Before we left, he came over to meet Kevin. Kevin realllly liked sitting on Trent's lap, listening to his Ipod with him. Kevin was tapping his foot to the music and I saw a glimmer of a smile. An emotional day for all of us.

Today is day 3! We visited a Chimpanzee Sanctuary, one of many started by Jane Goodall. All the chimps at the sanctuary were rescued from the pet trade. 41 chimps in all, and more arriving :(

We visited a black rhino that is guarded 24/7/365. He's relatively tame, and he was lying in the shade. We all posed for pictures with him. Actually the photo looks pretty morbid if you don't know the story - that he's actually alive!

So far we have seen giraffe, warthog, impala, waterbuck, zebra, helmeted guinea fowl, the tail end of an elephant, african crowned cranes, fire finches, hippo, ibis, cape buffalo, crowned plover, black and white colobus monkeys, and of course the black rhino!

We are very happy that Dennis and Sharon gave us a 2GB memory card for the digital camera, because the *@#$&!@&! IPOD camera connector isn't working. We've used up both 512MB memory cards already, so the 2GB card will come in handy!!

We are having a great time, and Trent even said it's better than he thought it was going to be. There have been very few bugs, and our food and accommodation have been spectacular.

Okay, so that is it for today. We'll hit the 'publish' button now and see how long it takes!!

Africam Live Feed

Hi folks: Check out my new favourite website:

http://www.wavelit.com/popup/playerAfricam.asp

or

http://www.wavelit.com/?ch=Wildlife&sh=africam

It's a live-feed on a watering hole in Nkorho Pan, Sabi Sands, South Africa.

A skinny lion with an impressive mane: