#waiting for the others to turn up - monkey elephant zebra and deer are the ones i spotted. Any others?

[aliceisathome]

I need fluffy. All the fluff. Bring me cuddly and sweet bls with low angst. In this frame of mind I started watching Caged Again (HELLO MOO DENG!!!) and am already feeling stressed because one penguin seems to love another penguin and I know there's going to be a panther and omg are they brothers or is it a love penguin, penguin, panther triangle. Also it's 18+. Are we going to get sexytimes with our panther and penguin boys?

It's at this point I realised that I have, in fact, lost my mind.

[seabreeze2022]

Photo safari to Tanzania Jan. 2024, part 1

Nancy and I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go on a photo safari. A friend of Nancy's mentioned she was leaving in 30 days for her 30th trip to Africa. Nancy said that would be cool and her friend said “come with us.” So we did.

Ruth and Bob had been with our guide Raffy recently and he was starting his own guide service. So here we are on a 10-day safari with a new business owner who is going to pull out all the stops for his first clients. Plus Ruth is almost as knowledgeable about the birds and animals of Africa herself.

Above is Ruth, Nancy, Dana and Bob at the gateway to the Serengeti about day 7 of our adventure.

Here is Raffy, Nancy and Ruth having breakfast in the middle of the Ndutu Conservation Area. This is typical of our days. We are always the first jeep out of camp as the sun is just lightening the sky. After several hours of viewing lions, zebras, wildebeest, and gazelle. Raffy parks us in the open and we break out the breakfast provided by the camp.

Did we get to see animals up close?

You bet we saw them all, here is a tonsil check on a male lion of the Upper and Lower Marsh Pride. Hopefully, I have your attention and will start over at the beginning of the journey.

Nancy and I flew Miami-Philly-Doha, Qatar on American Airlines. Doha is about the cleanest prettiest airport in the world. Since we had a 7 hour break there and needed to get on Tanzania time. We opted for a private cubicle to sleep in. Pay by the hour, nice bunks and just what we needed. Leaving Doha at 0115 in the morning we flew 5 hours to Killamanjaro Airport (JRO) in Tanzania.

Changing of the Guard. Turns out that the Captain flying us from Miami to Philadelphia is none other than a former First Officer of mine in Miami, Brandon Lozano. On our flight was his soon-to-be in-laws, Dawn and Mike. We have to get back quickly from this journey since we are invited to Brandon and Jackie’s wedding in Key Largo. Super smooth flight, Capt. thanks for the ride!

Doha airport and Nancy in our “Sleep N’ Fly” bunk room.

Kilimanjaro Airport and Qatar aircraft we arrived on. My visa had been approved prior to the trip but Nancy’s had not. Turned out not to be a big deal, and they allowed her in the country. Everyone we met in Tanzania could not have been nicer, starting with the Customs and Immigration officials. This country knows their future lies with tourism. Every person we met including all the camp staff, asked us to tell our friends about Tanzania and to come back soon.

This is “Simba” a 10-year-old 300,000-mile 4-wheel drive Toyota Jeep Land Cruiser. Raffy and John met us at the airport and drove us to our first lodge, Shamba. We were the only guests at the five-cabin lodge. Outstanding staff and great food. “Simba” is Swahili for Elephant.

This cabin has a loft with a huge bed upstairs, bath and kitchen downstairs.

Mosquito nets surrounding the beds is standard in Africa. Even though there very heavy rains the weeks before we arrived, we only had one or two mosquito bites.

Sitting by the “Camp TV” in the evenings as it chilled down. Nancy at dinner.

While we waited for Ruth and Bob to arrive in Arusha, Tanzania. We spent one day with Raffy in Arusha National Park. This was going to be our appetizer for the parks. A small park but it did have a monkey we would not see in any other park. So we got to see our first giraffe, elephant, zebras and baboons.

Once into the park, Raffy took a side road through the heavy woods. It was a road less traveled. Which is Raffy’s style. We ran across several giraffes which made the entire safari worthwhile in Nancy’s eyes. Things would only get better. The only giraffe in Tanzania is the Masai Giraffe.

Above is a very elusive “Harvey’s Red Duiker”, which is a very small deer. We saw a couple and were lucky to get this photo. I think they get the prize for the homeliest-looking deer.

This is the seventh-highest mountain in Africa, Mt. Meru at 14,980 ft. It is inside the park. Many hikers spend three days hiking up to the summit. Each group of hikers is required to have 2 armed Rangers to protect them from predators.

Above Nancy is standing up in the jeep and taking photos. Tremendous viewing with the top raised.

Nancy face to face with her first of many elephants. This is an older male. He was a half mile behind a female with a juvenile. Elephants have 7 sets of teeth. They wear each of the sets out in about 10 years. This guy was probably on his last set. He was not in great shape. You may have heard about elephant graveyards. Where there are multiple elephant skeletons. These graveyards are in the easiest food-gathering places for elephants that have lost their teeth. Once they lose their teeth they basically starve to death.

This is our lunch break at a park site, that provides picnic tables and restrooms. Armed park rangers are nearby and ready to escort hikers to the top of the Mt. Meru.

This is life in a third-world country. Using gravity, not much to break; just saying….

Out of permitted photos. check out part 2. above.

If you are interested in your own African Safari, check out Raffy’s website: https://maweafricanventure.com