Zanzibar Now that we had 2 ½ weeks of safaris, it was time for some R&R. So we boarded a plane for Zanzibar. Off we went to Pongwe beach resort. Both of us have done many beach vacations, but this was out of this world. First, our accommodations were amazing. We had a little hut, on the beach (sand outside our door) complete with our own beach chairs, shade and trees as well as a hammock. It was just decadent! Second, the tide in Zanzibar is very dramatic. When it goes out, it leaves less than 12 inches of water for [View Full Entry]

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Lake Manyara Lake Manyara is the only place in Eastern Africa with lions that fall asleep in trees. While we were not privileged enough to witness this phenomenon, we did see lions, baboons, more monkeys, elephants, hippos, zebras, gazelles, giraffes and many new birds. So it was good fun and a pretty low key end to our last safari. The lake Manyara area is quite affluent and fertile. There is lots of rain and agriculture and it shows in the homes, shops and roads. People are not quite as desperate and needy. They seem to have a reasonable standard of life. [View Full Entry]

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Ngorongoro Crater The crater is one of the most famous reserves for black rhinos because it is so easy to protect them in the crater. There is one road in and one road out. We did not see any, but the trip was really amazing. The views and vistas as well as birds and other wildlife were great. We saw more hippos, more lions, plus all the usual suspects (zebras, ostrich, toppees, gazelles, giraffes, and elephants). We also saw a great deal of Maasais. The Crater itself was created by volcanic activity and left a plateau 22kms in diameter. Perhaps the [View Full Entry]

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Serengetti, Tanzania As we drove into the Serengetti, the first rain of the rainy season began to fall. As that happened, many animals came to drink out of the ditches on the road. At that point we had been travelling for about 12 hours, and of course get stuck behind a herd of elephants with babies on our way to the lodge. No recourse but to wait. The next morning we headed out for an all day game drive. We had heard some rumours that there was a leopard in the area eating a kill. So we went off in search [View Full Entry]

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Jambo Mengi Sanna from Home! Well, we know it has been a while since we updated our blog, but we were unable to find internet access for almost three weeks. Now that we are home, we can bring you up to date. You will also be happy to note that we have posted a fraction of our 3000 photos. So Enjoy! Let us bring you up to date. Aberdares National Park & the Ark I believe when we left you, we were off to The Ark. The Ark is a novel experience in the Aberdares national park. It attempts to mimic [View Full Entry]

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Jambo Again! Knowing it has been a couple of days does not mean the fun has not continued! Saturday, we spent the day in Sweet Waters. Sweet Waters is a privatly owned game park that should not be missed. While we saw many animals (zebra, giraffe, wart hogs, and impala) there are two other major attractions to Sweet Waters. The beautiful Black Rhino, which I had an almost unfortunate incident of being charged by. While he was beautiful to look at and rather tame, Rhinos have very small brains. And I guess he forgot I was a human and not a [View Full Entry]

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Jambo Again! Knowing it has been a couple of days does not mean the fun has not continued! Saturday, we spent the day in Sweet Waters. Sweet Waters is a privatly owned game park that should not be missed. While we saw many animals (zebra, giraffe, wart hogs, and impala) there are two other major attractions to Sweet Waters. The beautiful Black Rhino, which I had an almost unfortunate incident of being charged by. While he was beautiful to look at and rather tame, Rhinos have very small brains. And I guess he forgot I was a human and not a [View Full Entry]

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Jambo our friends! Well we had another fabulous day on Safaris. Today we saw some lion cubs that were less than a month old. They played and had fun about 15 feet from our van. They were a joy! This afternoon we had another experience of a lifetime. We visited a real Samburu villiage outside of the reserve. We were greeted by the chief. The women greeted us with a tribal dance. We danced with them and talked with them and had a moment to enjoy their children with them. For a people who have nothing, they showed us a great [View Full Entry]

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Jambo again from Samburu Well we had 2 more game drives today and a nature walk and just had another amazing day! We saw a herd of elephants, more lions, baboons, water buffalo, giraffes, cheetah, camels and many many birds and small animals. We apologise, but we are having a great deal of difficulty downloading pictures. We may try again later, but for now, it takes too long. Good Night and talk again soon! -Julie & Karl [View Full Entry]

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Jambo friends and family! We made it! We are really in Africa, after 19 hours of travel. 31 hours Karl was awake straight. We landed in Nairobi (nothing to write home about) got up early this morning and headed on north to Samburu. We crossed the Equator from the southern hemisphere, back to the northern hemisphere. We arrived at our lodge (which, by the way, is gorgeous) and headed out on safari (the real thing) an hour later. It was amazing, we had been in the reserve about 3 minutes when we saw Ostriches in the wild. We saw many beautiful [View Full Entry]

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