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Published: August 13th 2006
Hello Friends and Family!
Well, I am pleased to report that no one became the meal for a hungry something. =) Our adventure started with visiting Lake Manyara where we were introduced to the art of watching wildlife.....see where the other trucks are parked, and go join them. I kind of felt like we were part of a giant herd of metallic wildebeasts! We saw some baboons (even baby ones, giraffes, elephants and flamincos, but the real animal watching started when we continued on to the Serengeti National Park.
We all became adept at scanning the grassland and shouting out if we saw something moving in the brush. Ironically, it was only the prey animals we could find....thompson and grant gazells, DikDicks(gazells the size of small dogs--so cute!), guinea fowl, and an assortment of birds. We had to rely on our guide to point out the cheetahs on the rock, the lions on the hill, and even the leopard in a tree! So beautiful! We were apparently lucky to see all the big cats....some only see one or none. The second day was even more amazing because we saw two cheetah hunting, and we saw a leopard trying to
hunt some gazelles. He failed, but it was fun to try and keep track of him in the grass. I can say this much, I would have been lunch! =)
After he failed in his hunt, he turned around, walked right towards the cars, crossed the road and plopped down on a rock not 12 feet away and just posed. Hmmmm....I get the feeling he's done this before! LOL We got some amazing pictures of him and of surrounding giraffes, hippos, warthogs (or Pumba!!! as we liked to scream out loud!), hyenas, and jackels. Our second night in a campsite we were greeted with the sign 'Do not leave campsite. Animals will attack.' Lovely. I had to go to the bathroom around 2 or 3, but then I heard the 'Wooo, Wooo' sound of a hyena calling its pack, and then REALLY close by I heard the whooping cackle of one! Apparently hyenas are huge babies and frighten easily, but I wasn't going to take a chance on that! =) Another night we stayed at a tented campsite which was basically like a hotel in tent form. They had a mess tent that opened towards the sunset with the
Then look what we found...
lying on the side of the road! :-)rolling grass receding into the distance. You could hear the occasional lion roar and just imagine something creeping towards you. At this site they said explicitly not to leave the tent after the lights go out, but that was fine because they came with a zip-up shower stall and bathroom! So amazing!!! I would love to stay there again! It also came with full-on beds and chairs on our 'porch' where we could sit and watch wildlife!
Our final destination was the Ngorongoro Crater, a remainder of a huge volcano that now houses thousands of animals! We saw huge herds of wildebeasts, at least 12 lions, a few elephants, and most amazingly one of the only 14 black rhino left! She was coming out of the brush and our guide knew she was going to cross the road and he positioned us perfectly! I have some great pictures that I promise I will post soon. We tried to go to an internet cafe last night, but it was closed.
We are going by bus to Dar es Salaam today, and we will try to do the picture upload tonight. Tomorrow we will be catching a ferry to Zanzibar
Cheetahs!
Sorry for the fuzzy image...they were so far away that zoom didn't work alone. We took pictures through the binoculars to try and get a better shot. and will hopefully go snorkling in a day or so. I have other fun stories, but my computer is set to stop in 3 minutes, so I will end here. I'm having fun, so far everyone is still healthy (we've become a bit obsessive with using our Purell, to our advantage!) and we are having a wonderful time. I can't wait to share more with you all soon!
Hugs and kisses,
Jen, Paul, Laura, and Vaughn
p.s. GU is a packet of maltodextrin that is worth 100 calories to use during exercise and gives your body a much-needed energy boost! =)
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Stacy
non-member comment
Animal fun!!!!
No need to become a meal! :) Amazing to read the stories of what is happening i feel like i am reading a book. Think about writing one when you get back. LOL I can't believe you saw all those amazing animals. I read this one to my mom and she says hello. Have more fun and take care. Hugs stacy