What a terrific time we had!!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
About This Blog
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Originally, I had decided that I would blog each day about our vacation to Kenya and Tanzania and I did so for several days. However, after a few days it became apparent that not only would I not be able to blog each day, but that also on some days it would be exceedingly difficult to even maintain simple notes. Our days were often very long ones, traveling over very rough terrain. We were literally up at dawn (or before) and in bed very early. Many of the lodges and camps had no power after a certain hour (often between 10:00 pm and 12 midnight). In addition, access to the internet was either very spotty or non-existent. So I decided that instead of doing daily blog entries, I would wait until returning to NC and do a retrospective blog. Obviously, this blog is from my perspective. I know I will inevitably leave something out. If there is something I've left out or not gotten right, just shoot me an email... The blog has an edit button and I can very easily add to or modify each entry.
Finally, click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of each page to see additional posts and you can click on any picture to view a larger version of the picture.
Back Home in Wilmington, NC
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Two Cheetahs
Beautiful Leopard
We have been back home sleeping in our own bed now for three nights, but we still are waking up each night between 2:00 am and 4:00 am. Hopefully, this will be short-lived and things will soon return to normal. The first night we returned we were naturally very tired, but nonetheless had a difficult time settling down. After playing with the dogs for about 30 minutes we began to unpack and to assess any damage. Skip's duffel bag was torn sometime while we were traveling in Africa, but thankfully MaryAnn brought some duct tape. That was a very smart thing for her to do and we have decided that we won't travel again without taking along some duct tape. The tape held up on our flights back to the US so nothing was lost or broken because of a damaged bag.
Maasai Warrior Jumping
(That pointed finger means he was not happy!)
Our first night's sleep at home was not restful. Skip and I both got up multiple times and we both were disoriented. At times we were in a very deep sleep. Once when I first woke up I didn't know where I was and was searching for my flashlight before I realized I was in my own house. That first night the dogs were stuck like glue to us, especially Sophie. She practically slept on top of me the entire night. Sally slept in her bed, but snored so loudly a few times that woke me up. I don't know, perhaps I was thinking her snoring was some sort of wild animal that we often heard at night!
The next day was a slow one for both Skip and me. However, I had a hair appointment that I could NOT miss. (Actually Skip had one as well, but his only took about 15 minutes compared to my 2 hours.) The second night home we both fell asleep early, but once again woke up around 3:00 am. I desperately tried to fall back asleep since I knew we would be gone almost all day to Durham for a previously scheduled appointment.
The third night home (last night) we again fell asleep early and awoke between 2:00 am and 4:00 am. However this morning we went ahead and got up around 6:00 am and completed our regular morning walk of about 7 miles. While we were a little slower than normal, it was great to be back walking and renewing familiar routines! While walking we ran into Bob, who appeared to be going to the gym for a workout. We chatted with him for a minute and got a real good laugh about the cab ride home we shared from the Wilmington Airport. It seems he and Vicky are also getting readjusted to eastern standard time. We also saw Jerry, who was also probably on his way to the gym. He said he and Sybil were also waking up a good bit in the middle of the night. It appears that Bill might be back on schedule since his truck was gone when we passed by his house. He was probably either at the gym or working on his dissertation. Skip thought he saw Mary Ann inside their house and we waved at her as we walked by. I have to admit that we were both much more aware of the animal life in our neighborhood as a result of this trip to Kenya and Tanzania!
Maasai School
Bushmen hut
Flights Back to the USA
Do we look like we have been on safari?
Our last day in Nairobi was indeed a full one. While we were not scheduled to depart on our walking tour of Nairobi until 9:30 am, many of us were up very early. Skip and I finished breakfast by about 7:30 am. After breakfast Skip finished printing our board passes at the business center (he and Bob did the first leg from Nairobi to London the night before) and I browsed at the gift shop at Intercontinental Nairobi Hotel. I bought necklace slide and a couple of scarves. Pat and Monja decided to go shopping independently and would join us in the evening for our farewell dinner. Likewise, Sybil decided to complete some last minute shopping and made arrangements to be escorted to a nearby hotel for additional shopping.
We began our walking tour right across the street from our hotel, by walking past a monument to Jomo Kenyatta, the first elected president of the Republic of Kenya in December, 1964. Interestingly, we were not allowed to take any pictures of Kenyatta's memorial, or for that matter any governmental buildings, police officials, or army personnel.
We continued our walk through a business district and ultimately to the Nairobi open market. In this market there were many small vendors selling things like flowers, fish, jewelry, fabric, wood carvings, artwork, etc. After our walking tour we returned to the hotel where we boarded our coach to travel to the Nairobi National Museum, where we walked through the museum for about an hour. We had lunch in a cafe on the grounds of the museum and did a bit more shopping at the museum's gift shop before returning to our hotel to shower and prepare for dinner and our departure from East Africa to London.
After dinner at a Brazilian-like restaurant we departed for Nairobi Airport, arriving around 9:30 pm for our 11:35 pm flight to London. Everyone in our group, except Larry and Lynne, departed Niarobi to London on the same flight. (After that, Sybil and Jerry were on different flights, as were Pat and Monja.) Thankfully, all of our luggage (loaded with souvenirs) was checked in easily enough and we were all happy to have cleared security. (Many clubs, spears, masks, sticks and other items were included in baggage. Bob was able to carry his swords on board, but officials made Jerry check his stick.) The boarding areas in Nairobi were different than any I have ever been in, in that there were no bathrooms, access to food, or shopping. If you needed to go to the bathroom once in the boarding area, you had to leave your boarding pass with personnel at a security point, exit to a common area, use the facility, retrieve your boarding pass, and then go through security once again. Boarding was likewise chaotic.
We boarded British Airways Flight 64 on time and began our 9 hour flight to London. I took a sleep aid (restoril) and happily slept like a baby until shortly before landing at Heathrow Airport, missing several meals. We (Bill, Mary Ann, Vicky, Bob, Skip and I) had a three hour layover at Heathrow, but it seemed much shorter.
We then boarded British Airways Flight 117 for New York's JFK Airport. That flight took almost 8 hours. We all agreed that the BA flights were among the more enjoyable ones any of us had been on recently. The attendants were pleasant and profession, the food was decent (in some cases even good), the snacks and drinks were free, and departures and arrivals were on time. REALLY, what more could you ask for?
Catching a taxi from JFK airport to LaGuardia airport was easy enough, with the six of us sharing two taxis. We had plenty of time to make the transfer since we landed at 11:00 am and our flight to Wilmington via US Airways was not scheduled to depart until 4:45 pm. Again, check in was easy enough and we made our way to the gate area, enjoying the free wifi and easy availability of restrooms, food, and shopping. Shortly before we should have been boarding, we learned that our flight to Wilmington had been delayed. After several more delays, we eventually took off for Wilmington about 2 hours later that scheduled.
As always, the arrival at Wilmington International Airport was easy. With all of our bags in hand we were in a cab on our way home in just a jiffy. Bob and Vicky shared a cab with us. We were all very tired, happy to be home, and a bit punchy from such a long trip. The taxi cab driver began droning on and on about some sort of "W" tag or sticker she had to have to operate her taxi that was making life very difficult for her. Anyway, you would have had to be there to appreciate the hilarity of the conversation. We all tried to maintain our composure in the face of her absurd prattering about the matter, but it was indeed VERY difficult.
The Animals
THE REASON WE WENT TO AFRICA WAS TO SEE THE ANIMALS AND WE DEFINITELY WERE NOT DISAPPOINTED!!!!
We saw the Big 5 and the Big 10. Larry told us the way to remember the Big 5 -BELLR, which stands for the Cape Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, and Rhino. We made up a pneumonic device for the next 5 in the Big 10 - CHEZGiraffe, which stands for Cheetah, Hippo, Eland, Zebra, Giraffe. In addition we saw hundreds of other animals!
In just one game viewing we saw the following: bush bucks, zebras, wildebeests, Grant gazelles, abdims storks, warthogs, spotted jackels, cheetahs, hyenas, Thompson gazelles, white storks, flamingoes, great crown cranes, bull elephants, spotted hyenas, lions, eland, silver-backed jackel, caracal cat, fowls, black rhino (mother and baby), white rhino, yellow-billed black kite, tons of other birds, and hippos. Whew, and that was probably in about a 4 hour game drive! Many of the animals, like the lions, were within 10 feet of us, some lying practically on the wheels of our vehicles.
Although we viewed game all along our driving routes and even outside our lodges and tented camps, much of the more densely viewing took place in the following areas: Lake Naivasha, Amboseli National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti National Park.
Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake in Kenya's beautiul Great Rift Valley which we followed for many days. The Great Rift Valley extends from Lebanon in the north to Mozambique in the south. It is home to crashes of hippos and more than 400 different bird species.
Amboseli National Park is located on the border of Tanzania and lies in shadow of beautiful Mount Kilimanjaro. Amboseli shelters more than 400 different bird species, including pelicans, flamingos, kingfishers, and ibis. Amboseli's elephants, which are said to be among the biggest in the country, are fond of the swamps, where they share the cool waters with the hippos that hide beneath the papyrus. Amboseli is also home to a very large resident population of wildebeest and Burchell's zebra.
Rising high above the plains west of Arusha, Tanzania, Ngorongoro Crater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to a uique and delicate ecosystem. The largest volcanic caldera in the world, (at nearly 13 miles across, with steep walls of over 2,000 feet), Ngorongoro Crater was once a volcano the size of Mt Kilimanjaro, with a rim set 7,500 feet above sea level, the highest altitude we reached on our trip. Because of a permanent supply of water and a precise balance of predator and prey, most of the wildlife remains in the crater year-round. In Ngorongoro Crater we encountered thriving populations of animals that, decades ago, would have been destroyed by the skin and ivory trade, such as cheetahs, rhinos, and in the crater's forested areas, older elephants with magnificent tusks.
The Serengeti, which means "endless plains" or "endless land" in the Maasai language, is without doubt one of the most famous locales in all of Africa. The Serengeti stretches over 5,700 square miles of plains, riverine bush, and acacia woodland. In this huge protected area, the multitude and diversity of wildlife species are unrivaled anywhere on the planet - especially during the migration season, when over 200,000 zebra and 500,000 wildebeest thunder across the plains in pursuit of the rains. This region also contains clues to our own origins. It was here in 1959 that scientists discovered the oldest known specimens of humanity in Oldupai Gorge (more familiarly known as "Olduvai" Gorge) in the Eastern part of the Serengeti.
We saw the Big 5 and the Big 10. Larry told us the way to remember the Big 5 -BELLR, which stands for the Cape Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, and Rhino. We made up a pneumonic device for the next 5 in the Big 10 - CHEZGiraffe, which stands for Cheetah, Hippo, Eland, Zebra, Giraffe. In addition we saw hundreds of other animals!
In just one game viewing we saw the following: bush bucks, zebras, wildebeests, Grant gazelles, abdims storks, warthogs, spotted jackels, cheetahs, hyenas, Thompson gazelles, white storks, flamingoes, great crown cranes, bull elephants, spotted hyenas, lions, eland, silver-backed jackel, caracal cat, fowls, black rhino (mother and baby), white rhino, yellow-billed black kite, tons of other birds, and hippos. Whew, and that was probably in about a 4 hour game drive! Many of the animals, like the lions, were within 10 feet of us, some lying practically on the wheels of our vehicles.
Although we viewed game all along our driving routes and even outside our lodges and tented camps, much of the more densely viewing took place in the following areas: Lake Naivasha, Amboseli National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti National Park.
Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake in Kenya's beautiul Great Rift Valley which we followed for many days. The Great Rift Valley extends from Lebanon in the north to Mozambique in the south. It is home to crashes of hippos and more than 400 different bird species.
Amboseli National Park is located on the border of Tanzania and lies in shadow of beautiful Mount Kilimanjaro. Amboseli shelters more than 400 different bird species, including pelicans, flamingos, kingfishers, and ibis. Amboseli's elephants, which are said to be among the biggest in the country, are fond of the swamps, where they share the cool waters with the hippos that hide beneath the papyrus. Amboseli is also home to a very large resident population of wildebeest and Burchell's zebra.
Rising high above the plains west of Arusha, Tanzania, Ngorongoro Crater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to a uique and delicate ecosystem. The largest volcanic caldera in the world, (at nearly 13 miles across, with steep walls of over 2,000 feet), Ngorongoro Crater was once a volcano the size of Mt Kilimanjaro, with a rim set 7,500 feet above sea level, the highest altitude we reached on our trip. Because of a permanent supply of water and a precise balance of predator and prey, most of the wildlife remains in the crater year-round. In Ngorongoro Crater we encountered thriving populations of animals that, decades ago, would have been destroyed by the skin and ivory trade, such as cheetahs, rhinos, and in the crater's forested areas, older elephants with magnificent tusks.
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