alanottini

I have started uploading photos to www.alanottini.smugmug.com There will be six days when all completed. Not sure about the videos yet. The trip back went okay. The doctor in Arusha gave me good stuff. Don’t know what it was but felt no pain all the way back. Got to Seattle about 11:30 a.m. Thursday morning. Starting feeling pain about 1 p.m. but was already on way to walk-in clinic. The nurse took one look and sent me to hospital. Has not been enjoyable dealing with kidney stone. Doc has me on Oxycodone plus 600mg of Ibuprofen every six hours. Have been twice to ER to get IV painkiller because pain so bad. Little energy to do anything. I enjoyed the time spent on the Serengeti and in the parks and crater. Not so much in Arusha ... read more

Oh, how plans can change. 1 a.m. this morning awoke by serve pain lower left side front and back--belly find, stool find, Constant pain with short sharp increases. Was not able to go back to sleep. Could not find a comfortable position. I can't remember the last time I felt pain like this. We left for an Arusha hostipal run by the Lutherns at 8 a.m. A very long, very uncomfortable ride. Did get better once we got to pavement. Pokea called head, ADS staff waiting at hostipal, they had already openned file and had appoitment. Unlike U.S., not alot of forms to see a doctor. I did not sign one document while there. 1 hour and 28 minutes to check in, vitals taken, see a very nice doctor, get meds. Cost to see doctor $6, ... read more

The lodge I stayed at last night was on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater at 7,400 feet. The Crater floor is at 5,400 feet. I believe on the drive down it only takes about 6,000 feet of road to drop the 2,000 feet. I don't believe the road would meet U.S. safety standards. When I got to the room the heat was on and the bed had two heavy blanks. I have determined that when it gets below 65 it is considered winter. Then they came and put in a hot water bottle while you were at dinner. I had to remove both blanks and the hot water bottle in order to sleep. This morning I would say it was somewhere in that 45 to 50 range at 5:45 a.m. when I got up. Not bad ... read more

Transfer day from Serengeti NP to Ngorongoro Crater. Stopped at Olduvpai Gorge, not Olduvai Gorge, on the way to the Crater. Some German guy was in the process of naming a butterfly found in the area and thought the natives said Olduvai instead of the proper Olduvpai. Every since the world has known it has Olduvai instead on Oldupai. Not much to look at--just a gorge. However, has a good museum and visitor’s center. Learned a team last week may have made an important find in the 1.75 to 2 million year layer. The items are off to the lab to verify the date. Arrived at the Crater at 12:40 p.m. Is kinda of impressive from a landscape point of view. Not impressive from a wildlife point of view once you have been in the Northern ... read more

Today was moving day to the center of Serengeti NP. Have left the tented camp and moved to Serengeti Serena. It is still an open lodge, animals come and go, but you are in an actual building. The CS here also carry weapons. Sleeping rooms are a round hut design. Each one has two rooms. I'm on the second floor. Should get a good night's sleep. Last night was a little better because I knew what to expect. Both Mr. B and Lyons made a return visit. The lyons were closer last night than the night before. Before I left this morning CS took me down the slope aways to find Mr. B and get his photo. Today, hippos were added to the list. Much easier to find since they only spend the day in water. ... read more

Left Arusha airport at 8 a.m. Only person on plane. Had to go through security - shoes off, bags x-ray, walk through detector. However, much nicer staff than TSA. They talked to you, the guy doing the bag x-ray gave thumbs up to you as your bags cleared. 25 minutes later landed at a grass runway, two people walked up to plane, put bags in storage area, got on plane. No security check what so ever. Makes no sense. At 9:25 landed at Lobo Airfield. Just a grass runway. ADS driver/guide Pokea was waiting. Transfered bags, setup camera, and away we went by 9:40 Did not get off to a good start. Went only about a half mile and had to stop to look at Elephants. Then had lion, Baboon, Giraffe, Agama Lizard, Eland, Topi, Reedbuck, ... read more

1st: This site does not alway seem to update pages. I suggest that after getting to blog press your browser's refresh button. 2nd: I will post more photos at www.alanottini.smugmug.com after I'm back. Will limit the number and size of photos posted here. These will be shorter than I hoped for. Access speed not what we are use to and the keyboard on the netbook not that great. Saw Colleen Wilson at Sea-Tac before leaving. For those of you who don't know Colleen, she is the Police Chief for the Port of Seattle which includes Sea-Tac. She walked with me to the S gates. However, she did not go through the same TSA procedure that I did. Being Chief has some benefits. The flight to Amsterdam arrived at the gateseven minutes late. My row mate (two ... read more