Serengetti and Ngorongoro Crater - gorgeous!

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Not really much to say about my last tour, it was only 6 days long and it was just the three of us again with a new guide and driver. Tanzania is by far the most beautiful country i've visited - they have just about every kind of landscape: rolling green mountains, rocky mountains, forest, tropical jungle, grassland, prairie, savannah, you name it i saw it! And tonnes of wildlife... its breathtaking to see wild predators, and we saw 2 prides of lions and some cheetah up close. But i'll just let the pictures do the talking.

I'm back in Capetown now, and i have to say its a relief! East Africa really sucked the life out of me, all that driving (on those terrible roads) and 20 nights of camping on the cold damp ground has worn me out. The morning I woke up in the Serengetti, i woke up to the sound of a river. Which was funny, because there wasnt a river in the campsite the night before! The long story short, everybody and all our stuff got soaking wet because apparently when your tent is sitting in a couple inches of water - its not waterproof! So, I'm glad to be back in South Africa where toliets actually EXIST and its nice and hot and dry.

I'm heading to Simon's Town tomorrow for a couple days, which is just down the peninsula. It's a nice quiet beach town (the same place where we saw all those penguins in the first week) and i plan to spend my time doing a whole lot of nothing! For example, today i handed in my laundry to be washed, went for a walk to visit an ATM, browsed some stores, came back and had a nap on a beanbag chair outside, jumped in the pool a couple times and did some sun tanning. And tonight... i'm going to Nando's for dinner (mmmm... South African chicken deliciousness... it's like my replacement for McDonalds while i'm here!) and then i'll come back to this fantastic hostel i'm at and have a beer and go to bed early! Yay! This IS The Life :o)

But, it's T minus 7 days now until i head back to the cold and snow... i have mixed feelings about that. I'm positively dying to get home and see everybody again, and go back to my old life in a fantastic country (really, if you need to reappreciate your life and your WAY of life, just take a little trip to East Africa!) but on the other hand - i really do hate winter :o)

Anyway, it feels like ages since i left home, and it will be a nice change actually to put on several layers of clothes and sleep under a pile of blankets. And i definitely need to get back to walking dogs - too much beer drinking going on here! :o)

Probably only one more post before this trip is over - i am going to try getting up Table Mountain ONE MORE TIME!! And dammit if the weather sucks again..... well i'm just going to have to come back to South Africa again!!!

See you soon, Janine

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Photos

Sunrise on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater
Okay, i can admit it: i just cant stop taking pictures of the sky!

Sunrise on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater
We camped here on the rim of the Crater and damn it was cold! I guess being more than 2000m above sea level will do that... and god it was beautiful...

Mount Kilimanjaro
Okay, so the big downer of the trip - it was too cloudy/rainy to actually really SEE Kilimanjaro... but if you look reeeeeally closely you can spot the snow cap on her

Ngorongoro Crater
Again, it was very rainy and hazy so it's not a fantastic view of the crater, but you get the idea

On the floor of the crater
These are greater flamingos (lesser flamingos are white - ooooh, i'm learnding!)

On the floor of the crater
A pride of lazy lions were hanging out on the road. I took tonnes of pictures, but this was the best. See the puncture wounds on the one lion, that would be from a fight with a buffalo, and judging from the happy look on his face i'd say he won!

Maribu Stork
These birds are everywhere and they're HUGE! Almost 3 feet high, 4 feet if they stretch their necks out. But they're always walking around ominously and bear a striking resemblence to old, balding, englishmen

Into the Serengetti
Mama cheetah had three cubs following her... she paid us NO attention, but the cubs seemed confused and wary - sooo cute, and definitely a rare sighting!

Hippos!
We saw tonnes of hippos in the serengetti, but they are masters of disguise! In the water, they manage to look like black rocks on film, and out of the water, they somehow always manage to be standing behind some tall grass... they're sly creatures i'm tellin ya!

A Hyrx or a Dassie
Hyrx are somehow related to elephants (dont ask me how! i'd have to do some research into that...) but here in South Africa they're called Dassies (aka: hamsters on steroids!) and you should SEE these things jump around in the TREEES! They dont look very nimble, but they really are!

Our driver checking out the road
Torrential rains in the Serengetti washed out many of the roads... i thought it was hilarious to see our driver testing the road under the water with his feet

Sign at Serengetti campsite
First time i read this i thought it said: animals may attract human beings

Out of the Serengetti
A small pride of lions gave us a fantastic goodbye as we were leaving the Serengetti

Out of the Serengetti
The Big Boy