Day 13: A day to get lucky along the Seronera River

It was a lucky day...in so many ways.

We had a fantastic sleep last night.  I was hoping to hear more noises, but apparently I slept soundly.  Some of the group did report some noises:  elephants (Beth), hyenas (Abby) and lions (Grayson and Tom - we believed that one the most).

We left around 8am.  The plan was to head over to the small Seronera river and trace it up and down in search of some predators.  With the savannah so dry during the winter months, the big predator cats were known to be close to the river to take advantage of thirsty prey.

Not long into our drive, we spotted a lioness with a tracking collar about ten meters from the car.  Right behind it, low and behold, was a beautiful male lion.  Apparently It was mating time as before we even realized it, the male did his business, let out a roar and got off (in both ways...) the lioness.   

We were kind of bummed that we didn't realize what was going on.  We got some great shots of both lions as they crossed in front of us.   At one point, the male couldn't see the female that was hidden behind a jeep and he let out a huge crap-in-your-pants roar. 

As this was going on, Grayson explained that we will sit here and watch because they would continue to mate.  In fact, lions will mate for seven days straight - starting out at once every ten minutes (!) and slowing down to once every twenty or thirty minutes by the end of day seven.  They will "connect" close to nine hundred times over those seven days, and usually not eat during that period.  What??!?  

During the explanation, we had to pause as the male "took" the lioness again, with a roar.  It was very quick.  By the third time (ten minutes later again!), Beth got her phone setup and got the whole thing on video.  Crazy.  Cool.  Funny.  Watching the kids car, especially Robin, was hilarious.  What luck - for us and the lioness....or lion.... or both... depending on your perspective!

We saw a lot of other lions, some fighting gazelles, a crocodile, lots of elephants, and even a bunch of cute little fat rodent type animals at a rest stop / info center....but come on, lions mating?   We couldn't believe our luck.  

We headed back towards Kati Kati at around 12:30, but just as we were almost home, we spotted a regal Simba posing for photos all alone on a large rock oasis.  They really do have a fantastically powerful aura.  Beautiful.

We had a very chatty, excitable lunch, then headed back to our respective tents.  I did some laundry and sat out front to read, the kids payed cards and the rest of the adults slept.

Suddenly, four guys ran in front of my tent then around to the back.  A fifth guy said "can we use laundry bucket" as he ran by.  I dashed behind the tent and about fifty meters away was a blackedned circle.  Fifty more meters beyond, a raging grass fire burned.  With the relatively strong winds blowing (away from the camp thank god) the fire was expanding in a circle very quickly.  Before long there were twenty guys outside trying to douse the fire with water buckets.  Their effort was pretty disorganized, and I'm not sure how much the water was helping.  The only saving grace was the roads perhaps five hundred meters behind the camp.  The wind wasn't strong enough to carry the fire across the roads so after about forty five minutes things were under control.   When I made my way back to the tent, Beth came out with bed head and said in a sleepy voice "can you ask them for shower water?".  Lol. I thought the use of water then might be a little soon...

We found out later that the guys responsible for shower and laundry water had resorted to boiling water over a fire because the solar system wasn't working.... at lunch, the untended coals kicked up into a fire that started onto the grass.  Here we are (some of us) all worried about proximity to animals and we overlooked the hazards caused by humans!

At around four o'clock, we decided to do a family car game drive (for the first time!).  The Tyndalls hopped in Tom's car, and the Versly four in Grayson's.  On the way out, we passed by "Simba Rock" again and sure enough, he was still there.  This time the majestic male lion was sitting at the very top of the rock outcropping, enjoying the late afternoon breeze.

We headed slowly back to the Seronera River banks where we spotted a jackal carrying off a baby Gazelle in his mouth.  Later, we'd heard that at the same time, the Versly car spotted a hyena mother carrying her baby in her mouth then dropping it in their den.  Kim got a great picture of it.

We cruised for a while, eventually spotting a group of jeeps.  When we made our way up there, we saw a pride of 13 adolescent lions lounging by the road.  Tom thought that they looked a little desperate; perhaps a little under fed.  The lioness of the pride was elsewhere (maybe it was that pair that were hooking up this morning....875.....876....877.... back in two days kids!).  These guys got really close to the cars, sometimes using them as shade.  One walked within inches of my window then parked herself under Tom's front wheel.

After about a half hour of cruising after leaving the lions, Tom stopped and said "look in that tree, a leopard has a gazelle".  I don't know how he spotted that but it wasn't a radio call.  Sure enough, with binoculars and my zoom lens, we got a pretty good picture of what was going on there.  Beth hadn't seen it yet, but made Tom laugh by asking "is the gazelle alive?" (Editors note: the only way a gazelle climbs a tree is between the jaws of a leopard).  I felt lucky to see my favourite animal again, although it was still at a distance.

We started to head buck, and stopped briefly when we noticed two gazelles having a pretty good fight, though they stopped as soon as we drove up to them. You're welcome!

We were following Grayson at a distance on a remote looping road home when he stopped, turned and went off the road.  I could tell by the excitement of Matt and Jeffrey that it was something big.  Tom pulled ahead of where they left the road, then we did the same.  Two leopards were stalking through the grass in front of us - I was giddy.  We leapfrogged jeeps, staying in front of them.  Tom was positioning our jeep with extreme photographic expertise.  At one point, we were in front of a tree when the large, older male came out of the brush, and leaped up into the tree to take a look around.  No sooner than he was up, he was down again and began stalking some nearby gazelles.  The much smaller female trailed him by about two hundred meters.

The gazelles scattered, but we soon learned that the leopards weren't in a hunting mood...oh no.... they were in an altogether different mood.  The female lay down and waved her tail...wait a minute, we'd seen this before somewhere.... oh!  It was time to get busy.  The male mounted her from behind and was done very quickly with a growl.  He mock bit her shoulder and she slapped him away and then rolled on her back.   Five minutes later (yes, five minutes), they did it again - this time the female began cleaning herself and Robin declared  "I wouldn't be doing that right after!"....lol.

What a day to get lucky...a lucky day... or, whatever.  What a day.

With a bright orange sun just finishing its final drop below the horizon, we began speeding home to Kati Kati.  Just before we got home, the boys spotted two cheetahs fooling around on a dead log.  When they noticed us, the walked, jogged then ran right in front of our jeeps.  Even to see them run at a fraction of their full speed (120 km/h!) was amazing.

We didn't end up getting back until seven.  Man, were we all pumped!  Even Grayson and Tom seemed pretty jacked up.  To make things even better, the staff came by and offered us two free bottles of wine due to the inconvenience of the afternoon fire - don't mind if we do!

Dinner was great... a little more of an Indian flare tonight.  It was so good, that Abby spotted a hyena a couple of meters away when it came in and went after the dessert plate on top of the serving table.  Nice spot Abby!

We have an early day tomorrow.  I can't imagine tomorrow will be better than today, but I've been saying that for a while now an I've been wrong every time.

Day 12: Into the Serengeti

When we woke up for breakfast this morning, the light from the sun was just coming up while a heavy mist blew around the front of the Rhino lodge.  It was moving day again today, but first up, a two hour nature walk along the forests on the rim of the crater.

We picked up our guide, Yohana, a twenty something man dressed head to toe in military garb and bearing a rifle, and drove about twenty minutes to the start point of our walk.

About five minutes in, we were walking along a dirt Masai herding road, when Yohana points straight ahead - "oh, elephant there".   All we could see was the path eventually disappear into the dense jungle on either side.  I grabbed a pair of binoculars and sure enough, about a kilometre away, I could see an elephants ear.  What the hell?  I don't understand how their eyesight can be that good.  Unbelievable.

We cautiously stalked up the path.  When we got close to the area where he'd spotted the beast, he told us to hang back a bit.  Beth scream-whispered "are we safe?" And Yohana gave the exact wrong answer "mmmm..... maybe.... yes".  It wasn't the most reassuring response.  Basically, we were trying not to frighten the elephant so we wouldn't get trampled.  We heard another two moving about just beyond the first elephant.   Then, we heard the familiar cowbell sound (familiar to the Tyndall's from trekking in Nepal) of a Masai herd of cattle coming down the path.  That gave emough notice to the elephants to move up the slope and away from the path.

After the cattle passed, we saw another three elephants walking down the hill about two hundred meters from us.  Cool.  

Yohana explained some of the uses of the various plants and fruits along the way - largely medicinal, including a fern that had a high quantity of Quinine, the active ingredient in anti-malarial drugs.  He also pointed out all kinds of different animal feces...water buck, buffalo, elephant, giraffe and more.  

Near the top of a rise that brought us out of the jungle and into a high plain, Yohana showed us multiple leopard tracks going each way on the path.  Very cool.  There were of course, the occasional Masai photo salespeople - it seems that the tourists over the many years have turned the entire Masai tribe into tourism entrepreneurs... not good for them in my opinion.

We spotted a....ok....we didn't.... Yohana spotted a few giraffe across the meadow and in the middle of a nearby forest, so we traipsed over there to get a really close look.  They are so majestic.   Turning back and presumably heading back to the main road for our pickup, we climbed another hill and down into a valley where we got really close to five more giraffe that really looked like they were studying us.

By 11am, we were back to the cars (much to the chagrin of a few hungry members of our troop who had expected to have a snack at more like 10am....lol).

By 11:30, we'd dropped Yohana off at his ranger station and we were headed down and out of Ngorongoro.  The conservation area is quite big, and the border of it would signal the start of the Serengeti - the most anticipated part of our trip.  But first, we had to get through two hours of serious massage roads.  I'd never been bumped around so much in a car.  The road was carved out of the gentle sloped sides of the volcano range and into some serious Masai territory - dry fields with the occasional shade tree, and every so often a circular Masai settlement.  Every couple of kilometers you would see Masai holding out for a paid photo stop - two small boys, a lone woman, a pack of jumping teenaged boys - there were all sorts represented.  

We all kind of napped....in and out...up and down.  At one point we hit a bump and all four of us flew in the air in slow motion (Inception-style when they flew backwards off the bridge), stopped only by our lap belts.  We all laughed but Grayson issued a humble apology...he's so professional.

By lunch, we'd finally reached the end of the Ngorongoro and the beginning of the Serengeti!!  We got out a fairly developed entry station.  There were perhaps a hundred jeeps and a dozen huge Overland vehicles.  Half of the people were leaving the park, half were coming in.  While Tom checked us in, we ate our boxed lunches and chatted up a couple at our table from Maryland.  They'd just been to Rwanda, trekking with gorillas which sounded awesome.  We also got plenty of current info about Capetown as that's where they'd started their trip.  I'm always amazed at the Americans we meet on our travels - great people who travel a lot.  They got us thinking a lot more about a future trip to Ecuador and Machu Pichu.

Out trip into the Serengeti started with a bang.  Not five minutes after entering through the gates, driving the main road through the middle of a barren grass plain, we saw a lioness walking towards a lone tree by the road.  Wow, two cubs were following here.  Hey, another lioness was sitting under the tree!  Thirty seconds later we are parked two meters from the two lions and two cute cubs grabbing shade under the tree.  We were snapping away when one of the lions looked me right in the eye and I felt the immediate need to slide my window shut.  They instill so much fear and exude power - it's awe inspiring.

After getting our fill, we continued on.  We veered off the main road, checking out some of the rock outcroppings that form the occasional oasis that are a big feature of the central Serengeti.  Moments later, Grayson makes a bee line off road to a small tree - a beautiful cheetah and two cubs were now sitting five meters from our vehicle as we stared with jaws open.  What beautiful cats they are.  Their tiny heads don't seem to quite fit their long lean bodies, but they definitely have a much smaller build than their lion cousins.  We stayed there for close to half an hour.  Grayson had to give Tom this description to find our car "look for the large tree with two vultures just past the rock oasis with four big red rocks and one white rock, four hundred meters from the main road" - crazy but he found us shortly thereafter.

Twenty minutes later and back on the main road, we came across two lionesses getting shade from a small group of four jeeps parked in the middle of the roadway.  They were nice looking, but looked to be pretty relaxed so we didn't linger too long.

One of the cool things we noticed on the drive today were thousands of gazelles, ninety percent of which were standing still, facing the same direction.  Grayson explained that they were not heavy water dependant animals and that if they stood facing the oncoming wind they could extract enough moisture from the faster moving air to meet their water needs - crazy.

At close to 5pm, we reached our home for the next three nights - the Kati Kati mobile camp.  While it is mobile, this camp has been in place for two and half years and is due to move in six months.  The whole setup of the camp was exactly as we had pictured a tented camp in the Serengeti to be, but it was also so much more.   After the group checked out the tent options, it was decided that the kids would stay in the huge, two room, four bed tent, and the adult couples would each share a double tent.

Now I say tent, but each tent had the following setup... a porch with clothes washing station, a huge zippered front door, a main bed area that was about fifteen by fifteen feet and seven feet high.  In the bedroom there were side tables, a "makeup table" and clothes hanging area.  Behind the bedroom was a little vanity area with plenty of room for all your toiletries.  In the back there was a separately zippered area with full functioning toilet and another zippered room for showers.  Showers?  I was up first - basically you shout out for water, a guy fills a cistern with twenty litres of hot water and you have enough for a great one-man shower.   Abby was impressed that there were even "complimentary" (her favourite hotel and restaurant adjective) soaps and shampoos.  

One of the guys helped Beth with doing some laundry, and before you knew it the laundry was hanging out to dry and we were all out in front of a bonfire, watching the sunset with a drink in hand, watching the "Serengeti TV" as they called the view here.  At 7:30, the chef came out and gave everyone a heads up that dinner was to be served soon.  He then described the dishes to be served which had us all drooling.  The dinning tent was a thirty meter long, ten meter wide tent that had one side open to the Serengeti.  The tables were set with nice linens and elaborate place settings, and before long we were served dish by dish by staff that came around to the tables.  

We are in heaven.  Thankfully, we're here for three days then two more nights and days in North Serengeti.   Heaven.

Day 11: Ngorongoro Crater

Well we learned just how good Grayson was today, predicting two African carnage scenarios exactly as they were to unfold before our eyes.... we had an amusing and fantastic day today.

Bright and early, the eight of us joined the boys for breakfast.  The plan was to bring boxed lunches and do an all day game drive in the crater today.

The drive along the crater rim to the one way entry road down into the crater took about forty minutes...which shows you the scale of the volcano.  The crater itself is something like 300 square miles....so, big.  Near the last checkpoint, we passed a number of Masai settlements on the left, on a dry, moon-like landscape.  Through the gate, we were immediately on a sharply twisting, steep, switchbacked road that snaked down into the caldera.  

Being at the base of the crater was a bit surreal...it kind of felt like we were extras in Jurassic park.  The first thing that really amused the kids and adults alike was the large flock of fat, blue, dough ball guinea fowls running away from our jeep... enjoy the freedom while it lasts guys - they looked like walking rotisserie chickens.

The little wart hogs were also everywhere today, as were the pretty gazelles.  We drove down a flat clay road straight into the heart of a wide open, wheat coloured plain.  It wasn't long until we spotted some jackels (fox-dogs, really), and then the detestable hyenas.  Man, they are ugly, and though the little field guides we had described them as "unfairly labelled and detested", I pretty much stand by that label.  They look like little mangy bears with sharp noses and dirty matted hair.

We eventually made our way to a road that tracked next to a river that had a bit of vegetation and cover.  Tom's keen eye in the kid truck ahead of us spotted a lioness lazing just out of site by the river bed.  Occasionally we would see her tail, then she'd peak her head up for a look around.  We drove a little further and I spotted a wart hog taking a bath.  He got out when we drove by and headed to the other side of the river and back towards the lion...hmmm... Grayson reversed back to the lion and we watched and waited as a little drama unfolded, but at the end of the day the lioness really didn't look into it.

Soon after, we came upon a pair of ostriches that we soon learned were attempting to go through a mating ritual.  The female would bend over and flap her wings.  The male?  He just kept eating, not paying much attention.  Apparently ostriches are very shy, so every time another jeep would pass by, she would stop "shakin' that ass".  We stayed for quite a while, but nothing happened.

Right before lunch, we pulled up next to an older, handsome zebra.  It was literally six inches away from Alex and Beth's window - Alex even asked if he could pet it (lol) and Grayson said he would get bitten.  That would have been good drama for the blog though...hmm....

It had been about four hours of game driving, so we stopped at a picnic area for lunch near a large pond surrounded by reeds - quite a nice setting.  We noticed a flotilla of about thirty hippos, just floating away in the middle of the bond.  Occasionally another hippo would cruise on in from another section of the pond.  They seemed to be quite social, but man do they produce a lot of gas and shit.  Every fifteen seconds, you would see an explosion of poo-water that would land on one of the other members of the flotilla.  Over and over, it was like a well choreographed horn section of a hippo orchestra.

The boys recommended we eat our boxed lunches in the car, as there were a number of Black Kites around (like large hawks) and they were known to prey on anything brown in the lunches.  They speak? We listen!

Another group of British looking tourists came out to the rocky outcropping surrounding a tree overlooking the pond with their boxed lunches.  Grayson said "look there, they will get attacked, most definitely".  Sure enough, one Kite began circling and dive bombing at the family.  Soon the skinny patriarch of the family began doing what I can only describe as "the old white guy whip" in an attempt to show the Kites he meant business.   It didn't stop them.  

The funny thing was the commentary in the car.  It was as if we were watching lions going in for the kill... we were really cheering for the Kites to get some action.  Hey, you don't listen, shit happens.   Grayson talked to their guide later and sure enough, he had warned them.

The boys had received reports of some action ahead so we took off.   On the way, we saw a male gazelle chase/court a female by basically running after it in long ovoid patterns.  When he tired, another male tagged in, then a third...it seems a little unfair, but eventually everyone was tired and they stopped.

You can always tell the signs of something interesting.  Up ahead, we saw seven or eight other jeeps parked st the end of a turnaround area.  A large lioness was eating a wildebeest around 300 meters away.  By the time we got there, it's face was covered in blood and it looked like she had had her fill.  A hyena waited patiently to the side, and there were about twenty or thirty vultures waiting even more patiently on a rise a little ways away.

Grayson felt there wouldn't be much action, so after about fifteen minutes, we left.  However, after driving four hundred meters down the road, Grayson spotted four more hyenas generally trotting toward the lioness.  Grayson said that if those hyenas joined up with the other one, there could be some good action...and there was....

He turned around and we perched back in our former spot.  Sure enough, the four hyenas, spotting vultures now swirling around the site of the kill, hurried to join their compadre.  Suddenly there were now five hyenas circling the lioness as she pretended to casually eat.  She must have been nervous.  The hyenas got bolder and bolder and eventually made a brave snatch at the carcass.  There was scuffling but the lioness backed off.

Grayson shouted "more are joining!".  Looking in the far away distance to each side, we could see at least a dozen more hyenas making a beeline for the area.  Back to the carcass, the lioness was now scuffling with the hyenas, trying to reassert her dominance.  But, when the other hyenas arrived on the scene, it was over.  The lioness backed off about thirty meters and the twenty hyenas gorged themselves.  All you could see were writhing, hairy bodies in one giant scrum.  Vultures were also trying to peck their way into the fray, and the group of vultures that had been watching from a nearby hill were now on the ground near the scrum.  In the air and ground, there were maybe eighty vultures.

Grayson shouted excitedly "a male lion is coming!"  We looked way to the right where one of the groups of hyenas had come and we saw him....the king of the savannah - Simba himself.  With a giant mane and powerful body, the king of the lions was arriving on the scene at a run.  When he got to within two hundred meters, the other animals noticed him and bolted like a gunshot had gone off.  It was incredible.  The amount of power he exuded was unbelievable.  Not only did every hyena and vulture scram, they completely vacated the premises.   They knew that there was no chance they would get even a scrap of the dead wildebeest now that the king was on the scene.  Even the lioness stayed a comfortable distance away.  Grayson narrated the entire time, teaching us that the male lion would get his fill of food before letting the lioness and any others in the pride join in.  When they were full, they would stay with the carcass until they were hungry again, even if it was the next day.  Nobody messed with the lions, especially not the king.

What luck to see such a scene play out right in front of us.  I almost didn't mention the four-way panorama we had as that scenario played out... to our left we had about sixty hippos.... some of which Jeffrey nicknamed.  They were in various states of rest, but a few were actually mating as we watched (most of the others were letting fly explosive bouts of, what I have called shitgas (trademark, patent pending) - the shitgas would fly all over the backs of the flotilla of hippos...it reeked...badly).   Behind us, large herds of wildebeest were forming then reforming in a ragged sprint as some hyenas were trying to find the weakest link.  To our right, maybe the best scene played out:  our four kids watching the action in fascination - the whole reason for coming to Africa was before us in a giant 360 degree panaroama.

We left, and Grayson soon got a report that the elusive black rhino had been spotted.   After twenty minutes of driving, we found four jeeps lined up on a rise.  Two rhinos or tiny blocks of black dirt sat grazing far in the distance.  Even with the best binoculars on board, we couldn't even make out the horns, oh well.

We looped back to go through a more forested area on our way out of the crater.  We stopped as a huge troop of baboons filtered by (including one poor fellow who'd had his nose ripped off recently). 

As we climbed up the steep one way exit road, I looked at the car clock...4:30!  I couldn't believe we'd been on the game ride for nine hours - now I know why people want to keep coming back to Africa.  More delights every day.

When we got back, we made a beeline for the deck patio for the best eight person debrief.  Everyone was pumped.  We recounted the day, with every story getting better and better.  We watched video of the tourists getting attacked by the Kites, which was quite funny - our running commentary sounded as cold yet funny as the Seinfeld finale "the Good Samaritan".

Abby and Jeffrey put on a little demonstration (from watching a YouTube video Tom had showed them) of the male and female ostrich mating dances.  We them moved to discussions of our favourite movies and TV shows that got quite heated.  It was so chill and so fun.   I've convinced the Versly parents that we must watch Team America in Capetown (the four kids, Alex and I were singing and quoting the movie quite a bit).

After the kids went to bed, Tom and Grayson and the adults talked for another hour.  They regaled us with some great animal stories as well as some human stories.  Tom actually had worked with an Overland company (it's basically a large truck that takes backpackers all over Africa on do it yourself camping trips...it's a very low budget way to see Africa and we'd briefly contemplated it in 1997) and he had some pretty funny stupid human stories.

What a day.  I know I've written that a lot, but I don't care.  What a day :-).

Day 10: Headache!!!

Unlike the sour tasting Masai village experience on the way to Lake Manyara, today's time with the Hadzabe bushmen tribe was exactly what we were looking for.  Though it came at the expense of learning exactly what "headache" really means...

I awoke with a start to Beth scream-whispering at Abby and I to wake up: "craig!!!! You're late!!!!  Everyone is waiting!!!".  Wow, we had switched sleeping arrangements last night and Abby and I were on our own right next door to Beth.  I kind of figured Timex would wake us up at 5:45 but that didn't happen.  However, in the end...we all miraculously survived...

On the bumpy road to meet the bushmen, we picked up our guide Rasuli, a really nice twenty seven year old guide who could speak the Hadzabe language that incorporates the clicking and crazy tongue maneuvers similar to the Namibian bushmen made popular in the Gods Must Be Crazy.

We arrived at a remote outcropping of rocks that the tribe calls home.  They sleep in caves and small mud huts, and while they used to be strictly nomadic, nowadays with tourism and help from the government, they've been able to retain their culture with no doubt some added creature comforts.

We introduced ourselves to a small group of men of varying ages.  They were all huddled around a small fire, in various phases of preparing some weaponry for the morning hunt.  The way they kibitzed back and forth around the fire reminded me of a group of Canadians sitting around a Tim Hortons table drinking double doubles before their day started.  Rasuli said that nights were quite cold so they started their day with a fire to get their bodies moving.  They didn't wear much - some western clothing like shorts or ratty t-shirts, with more traditional covers to keep them warm and camouflaged - most popular was the Vidal Sassoon baboon coat, or the DKNY squirrel or sabre cat head wrap.  

We followed the little fellows out to the bush and the hunt was on!  They carried bows and arrows and we had our trusty cameras.... we felt.... ready!  

The little buggers moved very quickly, and our group who has done nothing but eat and drink was actually starting to raise our heart rates for the first time in weeks just trying to keep up with them.  It didn't help that the terrain they just passed through easily would turn into a fence of barb wire for us....these guys had tough skin!  

Soon, we were in a dry river bed valley when they started hooping and hollering and getting very excited.  They surrounded a set of trees and we saw the objects of their excitement - two very small squirrels.  Before long, one of them came out with a dead squirrel - somehow they had shot it down with their little arrows.  Robin came and grabbed it by the tail and we got a "conquest shot" for fun.  It was impressive that they could get the little creature from a fair distance away through a thick mess of branches.

They kept shooting at the other squirrel while we waited on the river bed with Rasuli.  In a not-so-urgent voice Alex said "headache, headache" - with that seemingly innocuous hint of a command, the other Versly backed off while the four Tyndalls turned to Alex to try and process just what the hell he was saying.  I then looked up, seeing an arrow generally heading in our direction - I couldn't decide whether to start debating with Alex on just what would be the point of having an "insider" sounding warning message like "headache!" (For christs sake...lol), or move out of the way of the arrow.

So I moved.  The other Tyndalls followed suit.

Headache?  Really?  Alex later explained (after the laughter died down) that that's what he learned while playing soccer in the States growing up... what?  That's normal right?  Ahhh...no.  "Heads up!", "move!", "arrow!", "danger!", "look out!", "move it!", even "fourrrrrr!" would have done the trick.  A headache is a condition not a warning.  Fuck.  Lol.  

Alex then disappeared into the bush, and I half thought we was going to ask the bushmen how to say "headCLICKache" in their language, but it turns out he was joining the hunt as an embedded reporter.  Not moments later he came out of the bush with a gigantic five inch long squirrel!  The guys had shot another one down and our reporter, complete with binoculars (to study the squirrel from close range no doubt), phone and chest mounted GoPro was there to see it all.  

When he came stumbling out of the bush with the squirrel, it was so funny.  We kid Alex a lot, but he really is the adult equivalent of Robin: so enthusiastic and he will literally try anything and go anywhere.  I almost picture the bushmen reviewing their secret GoPro footage of the hunt later and laughing their asses off.

After an hour or so, we ended up with two squirrels and two birds.  It was time for a little impromptu campfire.  The men made fire in about a minute using a hardwood staff drilled by hand into a softwood branch.  It was amazing how quickly they could do it.  Before long, they had Chet's nuts roasting on an open fire (that's what we'd named the first squirrel), as well as the other squirrel and one of the birds.  They saved the fatter birds to give to the kids back in the village.  

When the meat was charred and the innards were cleaned and the carcass was recooked, it was time to sample the bird - guess who?  Alex and Robin had the two small morsels of meat on the bird's body....tasted like chicken - go figure?

We walked back to the village area and saw a bunch of bows and arrows strung around a large Baobab tree.  It was time to try our hands at archery bushmen style.  Our little Katniss from Sri Lanka was disappointed she didn't hit the target gourd right away...she blamed the inferior equipment, but Abby was the first of us to get a wonky shot to hit the target and stick.

It was time to go.  We tipped the tribe $20 and they seemed ecstatic, suddenly accompanying us back to our cars with big smiles.  It was quite a nice experience, I have to say.  For the kids, it was exactly what they were looking for and it turned the Masai experience on its head as to how to mutually benefit from a cultural exchange.

Before we were done, we paid a visit to a nearby trade that were known as the "blacksmiths".  They used a couple of cow udders, a clay funnel and coal to melt different recycled metals and make them into crafts (or arrows for the bushmen that they would trade for honey).  The process was pretty interesting.  We also got to visit one of the low mud houses to see how the women made corn meal.  The main purpose of this stop was to peruse the metal crafts, and we ended up buying a number of copper, brass and tin bracelets as a show of support.

We returned to Tindaga around 11am (the name of the tented camp literally means marshy area, but it was pretty dry here in the winter season) with the promise of a brunch... oh yeah, we'd missed breakfast (but not snacks.... we westerners are like squirrels, always hiding snacks in case of the prospect that we will ever have mild hunger pangs....).  The brunch was hilarious.  First, they served us eggs, pancakes, fruit and toast.  Immediately after, they served us a huge plate of spaghetti with meat sauce...so funny.... here's your breakfast, here's your lunch - there's your brunch!

We checked out and got back in our rides.  The bumpy ride back to the main road somehow didn't seem as bad as yesterday.  The section of smooth "highway" didn't last long before we were at the gates of Ngorongoro conservation area (I learned the difference between a conservation area and national park in Tanzania was that some people still lived in the conservation areas (namely, the Masai) but that they had to abide by typical national park rules (no hunting, no development etc).  

The Ngorogoro park, and in particular the large alien like crater that sits in the middle of the extinct Ngorogoro volcano was one of the top sites to see in Tanzania and we'd really been looking forward to this.  Our first peak of the crater was when we'd checked in through the gates and climbed for twenty minutes up to 2,100 meters above sea level.  We got out at an observation deck and looked down into the crater....beautiful.   It is a massive bowl with dense trees and vegetation around the sloped sides of the crater and thinning vegetation around the base of the slope.  Inside that was miles and miles of grass land, surrounding a marsh which surrounds a lake.  Even with the naked eye, you could see large herds of animals far below, and Grayson even spotted a black rhino lazing in the afternoon sun.

We checked Into out lodge, called the Rhino lodge, which was like a really nice Nepali tea house but with a huge semi formal dining room.  We will be spending two nights here before heading out to the Serengeti.

Luckily there is no hunting allowed in this conservation area, so I have little to no fear of headache moments....

Day 9: Lake Manyara to Lake Eyasi

The program for the morning was a game drive through Lake Manyara National Park (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Manyara_National_Park).   We were up fairly early, Marco Poloing the kids, but they were pretty much all packed up by themselves... what travellers!

Lake Manyara is one of the oldest and smallest national parks in Tanzania.  It's only a few hundred square kilometers, and a good portion of that is taken up by the namesake lake that is 42 kilometers long.  Basically the entire park lies between the escarpment area where we stayed last night and the lake.

The park is known for its "tree climbing lions".   Lions don't normally climb trees very much (as opposed to Leopards who are often up trees, but the terrain around Lake Manyara was a little more dense at times - like a jungle or young rainforest and the lions have had to adapt in order to see their prey better.

Actually, Grayson said matter of factly, the lions were pretty hard to see here.  We were after some hippos, baboons, pelicans, more elephants, giraffe and more - all of which we found throughout the game drive.

We had some really close interactions with elephants and giraffe, and were more than once surrounded by a travelling pack of maybe fifty to seventy baboons.  A lot of times we would see baby or infant baboons riding on the backs of mothers, but a couple of times we saw them actually sitting up and riding their moms like a horse - it was pretty funny.

The hippos were out in the boggy areas surrounding the lake, but they were mostly submerged.  There were hundreds and hundreds of storks and pelicans hanging out in large packs and a huge group of buffalo lying closely together in the great plain between the bog and the start of the forest.

We stopped for a picnic lunch around 1pm at one of the designated sites in the park.  Tom and Grayson looked very relaxed, and upon saying so to them, they agreed - a long, relaxed Safari that we were doing was much more enjoyable for them too.  There wasn't a lot of pressure to see everything in four days, and there weren't as many long drives and really long days.  It has suited us perfectly so far.

On our 45 minute drive back to the front gates we passed a dry sandy river bed where six giraffes were all standing together, pretty much posing for us - it was beautiful.  They are such an odd, awkward yet graceful animal and I think I have a newfound appreciation of them after seeing them so much in the wild.  Still, if they got killed by a cat, nobody would complain.....lol.

A few more hippos lounging in the eddy of  a stream, a troop of baboons passing by and another few elephants putting on a layer of dirt for sunscreen and we were back at the front gates.

Tom was having some issues with the clutch in his vehicle, so we decided to stop at a little Masai market and shop around a bit and pick up some snacks for later.  After loading up and a pretty quick repair, we were off.  The next destination and tonight's stopover would be Lake Eyasi.

We stayed on the smooth highway for a while until we reached a fairly major crossroads town.  Every once in a while you would see a makeshift tourist shop that would have the same looking pretty crappy paintings and trinkets on display, but I wondered where all the customers were.   You sure didn't see masses of tourists or Safari cars, especially not in transit between destinations.  Last night's hotel, Kiruruma Tented Lodge, was pretty empty - just two other couples.   These "minor  destination" places that only required a night stay max must be pretty difficult to manage - their number of guests seemed to vary wildly from day to day.

The road we turned on after the crossroads town was a clay, dusty, bumpy road that put most of us to sleep.   The terrain here was way different than anything we'd seen so far, and as we got closer to our lodge, some of the backdrop made me feel that this area of the country had had outside help.  There was a World Vision office and another building labelled "women's trade training center".  One of our requests to Amanda when we booked our Safari was to do some real cultural experiences, and tomorrow would be one of those.

Our tented lodge rooms were very nice - it was basically the same as our place at Tarangire, but a little more rustic.  Alex and Kim opted to do a little walk through an onion farm and go to a sunset viewing area with our guide for tomorrow, while the rest of us opted to chill and play cards.  Ahh...relaxing.

The food has been fantastic so far, and tonight was no different.  Like last night, our dinner consisted of a three course meal - pumpkin soup, baked chicken, rice and vegetables for our main, and tonight was a rosemary cake with maple syrup (Abby reminds me that it was the good kind and not that Aunt Jemima crap...lol).  

We've had short opportunities to make sure the adult's phones (for photos), iPads (for blogs) and cameras are all charged.  Wifi has basically been non existent - sometimes I've been able to get on wifi for five minutes to upload a blog from my notes app, but attaching pictures and uploading video is next to impossible.... I will try and do that when we are back.  

On the bright side, the kids have not asked for their devices...not once.  They are such great kids and the Versly have been such great travelling companions.  We are all looking forward to the cultural experience tomorrow, but we're also peaking around the corner at the next week or so.... it feels like the Safari will be ratcheting up to the next level very soon.

Day 8: Transfer to Lake Manyara

So, from the blah blah yesterday, we were presented with 3 options.  We chose the third for a few reasons, but it turns out the main reason for the kids and Alex to choose it was because we got to enjoy the full breakfast buffet instead of packing a breakfast box.  Lol.

We awoke to our alarms buzzing at 5:45.  We were told that the security guy would collect us at 5:50 (when it was dark, you were supposed to get escorted to the main building, for your own safety!).  The kids stood in front of their tent, the boys in front of theirs, the Versly in front of there's and I stood in front of mine.  I looked back and Beth was on the bed scream-whispering that we had to wait for security before going outside.  I've been chuckling about that image all day.   Well, safety in numbers and a little peer pressure later, and we all safely made it the 100 meters down the paved path to the main building without getting eaten by the lions...I look forward with earnest to the Serengeti....

Tom and Grayson were ready to go and we hopped in the jeeps.   The adults had planned on doing a family by family seating arrangement for this short game drive, but the kids avoided eye contact and I heard Robin mumble "nope, no way, no chance", so we were abandoned again to sit amongst ourselves in Grayson's jeep.

The ride in the early morning darkness was eerily quiet.  Every once in a while Grayson would angle off the road to point the headlights at something he'd seen: like the hilarious vision of a half dozen ostrich necks poking out of the grass as they'd slept....they are as awkward when they're asleep as when they're awake.

It was kind of cool to see train upon train of zebra and wildebeest herds heading in straight lines...all in the same direction:  the river.  It's kind of funny... the "prey" must live in constant fear, while the lazing predators seem to just sit and wait.  Everyone needs water, but the closer to water they come, the more skittish they are.  We certainly didn't see the walking buffet items linger for too long at the river yesterday.   Get in, get out, find a place to eat.  Grayson told us that the wildebeests hang out with the zebra because they have better eyesight and sense of smell, while the wildebeests can find and detect water more easily.   Friends with benefits!

We lingered around a pack of elephants for a good twenty minutes who were right next to the jeep.  They had a little baby that was so small and rambunctious, it was hard to look away.   Moving on and towards the end of the drive, we stopped across the river where Tom had spotted a mother cheetah laying down and her cub was playing just nearby.  They are so beautiful.

We got back at about 8... it's amazing how doing nothing can generate a ravenous hunger.  Maybe it's the fresh air.  In addition to the breakfast, we also packed lunch boxes as we were eating on the road today.

We did a nice little game drive on the way out of the park.  It's nice to see the big attractions, but I appreciate the way the guides have shown us the little things - the birds, the vegetation, the trees, the small animals, and how everything interacts.  The quiet times are also the best to pump the guides for information... topics we covered this morning with Grayson:  Religion (60% Christian and 30% Muslim, with the majority of Christians being catholic, however, though people are religious there doesn't seem to be any societal clashes or divisions based on religion), divorce (common enough, but frowned upon more from a catholic perspective and obviously more prevalent in urban areas), gay rights (illegal, so really frowned upon, more common in urban areas (that sounds funny...I think he meant gay people seek the refuge of cities)), inter-tribal marriage (no big deal, happens a lot), marriage ages (young in rural, older in urban), women in society (sounds like there has been a radical shift in recent years, better in more urban areas) and a softball...language (the current president is really pushing Swahili, which is currently spoken mainly in Tanzania and Kenya but in a limited way in the surrounding countries of Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda).

The guys gave us the option of stopping at a Masai village on the way to our next destination.  We had slightly mixed feelings... it was a paid "experience", so these are usually a bit "put on", but we looked on it as a potential learning experience either way, so we decided to do it.  The cost was $60usd per family, so we certainly hoped it would actually support the people in some way (rather than a miser entrepreneur at the top of the food chain...is that cynical?).

We were greeted by a few Masai, and about twenty men and women streamed out of a thorny bush-encircled small collection of mud huts.  They did a pretty cool welcome dance and song, and we were garbed in Masai outfits, the ladies got an additional necklace.   They had Matt and Jeff join the men in a jumping contest amongst what looked like a pile of dung.  Then Alex joined.  I used the opportunity to try and mine the head of the operation, Lucas, for information.  He had said he was the chief's son when he introduced himself.  Turns out, the whole village of 120 people were descended from the one chief... over sixty brothers and sisters who then produced offspring.   The chief had many wives, so I'm not sure on the whole interbreeding aspect of things or how that worked.  Apparently the chief was 101 years old, but we never met him.

Next we saw how fire was made, but it was already starting to feel like a "going through the motions" tour.  I had an open mind going in, I think, but I took one look at Abby's face and it confirmed what I felt...this didn't feel very good. 

We were hustled off to the "school" - a little enclosure of wooden sticks with small children singing at the tops of their lungs and a bored "teacher" woman near the front of the enclosure next to a black board.  In the center of the enclosure was a box for further donations to "help the school".  As soon as we left, one kid started crying.  It was very forced.

Next up, (and this was going very fast), each of our families had about a 30 second tour of a tiny dung and acacia tree hut.  Out you go, next step!

"Come one, come all - check out the Masai goods encircling the inside of the camp.  It will go to support....US!  If you like something, we will put it aside then negotiate a price after shopping!"  Ha ha...no!   D'oh, Beth picked a couple of little nick nacky bracelets up just out of respect for their process, and we went to the pricing lady (who also played the part of the teacher....those poor kids were now missing class!!!).  The guy showed the bracelets to the teacher/boss lady and she mumbled something one by one.  The first multi-layered bracelet came back at $40US, the second one-layered, shitty, crappy, k-tel, plastic bracelet came in at $25US.  When Beth refused, he came back "how much you pay".  Beth was really tired of this and said "three bucks for both, final offer".  No deal... see ya.   We felt kind of gross and couldn't get out of there more quickly.

Ew.

We got back on the road, and came through a town at the top of the lake that was also the breeding grounds for storks.  There were thousands of them perched on the tops of trees...trees that were fully covered in white stork shit...it was crazy.  

The road turned to head up the escarpment that lay on the west side of the Lake.  We were taken to a rest stop (also run by an Indian) that had tanzanite and lots for sale, though we just ate our boxed lunches in the cool breeze and played some cards.

The lodge we were staying at was about ten minutes away.  We were warmly greeted once again with a welcome drink.  We got the debrief first from the reception guy and then had a blah blah with Tom and Grayson about the plan for the next day before we went to locate our rooms.

This place had rooms that were pretty spread apart in thickets overlooking the lake.  Separate paths led down to separate rooms.  The kids chose adjoining double rooms, and Kim and Alex chose a room directly above ours.  All had excellent views but they were all completely different.  We couldn't see the kids from our area (how far we've come!) but a quick shout of "Marco" got a quick reply from the little Frick "Polo!".  Cute.

I headed to the bar to check it out, and it turned out to be an ideal place to sit and read or blog.  The rest of the adults joined me, and they were soon all asleep to one degree or another.

It wasn't long before the kidlings came and we were soon embroiled in a heated game of 8-man Asshole er... President.  Ahh...what a way to whittle away a late afternoon.  By dinner, we had gained an appetite, and we forced down another great three course meal.  I miss my bike....

This lodge is really quiet but quite nice.  We've been pleasantly surprised with the level of accommodations so far.  Lake Manyara is mostly a stopover point between major Safari destinations, though the national park named after the lake which we will see tomorrow sounds pretty amazing too.  

Day 7: Tarangire Game Drives

Wake up.   It was easy to wake up - fresh air, early dawn light....Africa!!!  Oh my god, what a nice sleep.  Even the occasional deep breathing animal didn't scare Beth from sleep last night.

I went over to the girls tent and they were both laughing their heads off - "we were freezing last night, and didn't even realize until now that we were sleeping on top of the sheet!  Ha ha ha!".  Clowns.

I would say it was about 18 degrees at sunrise, which was absolutely beautiful.  Breakfast was great, though there was a huge lineup for the crepe/omelette station so we had to skip that.

We hoped back in the same jeeps as yesterday.  The kids were having no part of doing family jeeps.... nu-uh...no way.  Ok fine! :-)

Our game drive this morning went for about five hours, and we had a lot of good finds - lots of elephants really close to the jeeps.  A ton of giraffes, zebras and wildebeests again.  Grayson had a great find under the canopy of a tree - two huge owls sitting perched up in the tree, staring at us with their wizened faces.

We asked the guides what their craziest moments were...

Craziest Tom story:  Tom was in Serengeti one time and a pride of lions took down a zebra between his tents and his client's tent.  They basically had to sit there and listen to the kill, the bustle for position as they scrapped for scraps, the crunching of the bones and the post kill gastrointestinal effects of a large meal.  The lions were literally inches away from the tents and he keep having to reassure his clients to sit still and remain quite.  

Craziest Grayson story:  he was watching a group of three lions take down a zebra by the river.  They weren't that hungry, so after they killed it, they backed off fifteen meters and lay down.  A crocodile eventually slimmed out of the water in hopes of dragging it back in.  The lions didn't take well to this, so they started down to the water and had a tug of war with the zebra body.  Eventually they decided to surround the crocodile, who released the zebra from its mouth.  Then, and he'd never seen or heard of this being done:  the crocodile coiled up in a ball on the sand, uncoiled really fast over and over to crest a cloud of dust and sand as cover.  The lions (and Grayson for that matter) could not see the crocodile any more until he saw it slinking back into the water.  Grayson still doesn't know if that was a natural defence technique or something that was a fight or flight, do or die reaction, but it sounded pretty spectacular.

We got back to the lodge at around 1pm, but not before we saw a lion chewing on the remainder of a kill in some long grass by herself.  We also saw a cheetah and her cub from about four hundred meters away, and another set of three lionesses from afar.

Lunch was incredible - so many options and so relaxed. Alex and a Kim booked one hour massages, while Beth retired for a long nap and the kids went to the pool. 

The afternoon game drive was a big success.  We switched cars and the adults were now in Tom's car.  Tom and Grayson are a complimentary team - Tom is more of the joker, though seriously knowledgable, while Grayson is the strong silent type with the killer smile.

Not soon after we left the lodge, we were headed towards cat territory - late day near the river was usually best for some activity.  It wasn't long before we spotted a lioness in a tree, on the lookout, while two others lounged around in the grass.  We waited, hoping some stupid wildebeests would wonder over, but no luck.

We soon spotted a cheetah in a tree that was almost four hundred meters away.  Thank goodness for the telephoto lens.  Sometimes I can't even see the details of the picture I'm snapping but then the photo pops up on my screen and it's a "wow" moment!

We drove another kilometre and found a cat lying next to one of the dirt road tracks, and we spent some time there, trying to wake him up and hoping some stupid impala would wander over.  It was amazing watching the confidence this beast displayed by lazing around wherever she wanted, while the other herd animals seemed to always live in fear....twitching, spotting each other, always looking around.  It was nice to be at the top of the food chain - wait, I guess we're at the top - it is nice!

As the sun started dropping to the horizon, we headed back.  Suddenly we came around a corner and stopped - Grayson had spotted a leopard sitting on a large, horizontal tree trunk.  My favourite of the cats, the leopard is so beautiful.  Grayson says that when all other living things on the planet are dead, leopards will be the last ones standing as they are such great hunters.

The group was pretty buzzed when we got back as darkness was settling into the lodge.  We did our blah blah with Tom and came up with a plan for tomorrow, and then we gorged like hungry lions on a feast fit for kings.  I think our sleep clock is morphing with the daylight hours.  We are ready for bed and it's just 9pm.  We really are at the top of the food chain....