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Published: January 12th 2008
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Leopard
with its kill in the serengeti Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We had Christmas in the Serengeti - how cool does that sound??? I left Mum and Dad in Zanzibar this morning when I flew back to Kilimanjaro (they are heading on to Dubai then back to Kiwiland). We’ve had a really great time and managed to pack heaps into the 3½ weeks they were here.
I picked them up from the airport the same day I got back from Zimbabwe, only to find that their bags had been lost as well!! What are the chances?? We stayed in Arusha and spent the next day having a wander around the city (and trying to replace the most urgent items from our bags). Mum and Dad’s stuff arrived the next day and it was like Christmas finding all the chocolate, twisties, pens, stickers, felts etc that they had brought me (apparently the pens etc are for the kids, but we’ll see . . . I dare them to try and get their hands on my chocolate!) I also got to open my Christmas presents from them and Shell, so finally had some more underwear which was quite exciting!!!
We began
cheetah
Tarangire our safari on the 20th with a day at Arusha National Park. We even got to have a walk in the park and got really close to giraffes! We spent that night in Arusha then headed to Lake Manyara the next day. Our third day was a really long drive through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti National Park (where we got to see some lions in the wild), then up to the edge of Lake Victoria - we were definitely glad to see our campsite for that night! The next day we went to a local fishing village and went out on one of the fishing boats for the morning, then had a walk around the village (accompanied by approximately 100 kids!), then it was a relaxing afternoon back at camp before watching the sunset over the lake. We left the next day to head for the Serengeti (after an interesting visit to a witch-doctor!) Didn’t see much our first night in the Serengeti, but we lucked into a great sighting of a leopard with its kill the next morning. The leopard had managed to drag a dead impala up into a tree (probably intending to have a quiet feed).
cubs
Serengeti However, it got spooked by all the cars arriving so dragged its kill back down the tree and away - I did feel a little sorry for it, but got some great photos anyway!
After a couple of nights in the Serengeti we had a night camping on the crater rim, then got a day in the Ngorongoro Crater. There was a huge number and variety of animals there, but it did feel a bit like a zoo with all the safari vehicles around.
Our last park was Tarangire, which still had heaps of elephants, but all the zebras and wildebeest had migrated so it seemed a bit quiet. Our first afternoon there looked like it was going to be a bust until we spotted a cheetah on an anthill practically right beside the road! Later we saw another which looked like it was hunting something, but an ignorant safari vehicle got too close so it just lay down and posed for photos for a while - very obliging!
We got back to Arusha to find that my bag still hadn’t arrived, so we headed for a few nights at my palace in Monduli. Mum and Dad got a great
sunset
Lake Victoria idea of African life when the first night we had no water, then the second night no power! Welcome to Africa!!!
Finally got the call on New Years Eve to say that, amazingly, my bag had turned up!! After 2½ weeks sitting around stewing, most of my stuff was pretty rank so I spent most of New Years day washing! We also popped down to the Snake Park and randomly ran into some of the awesome Aussies from my last safari - what a start to the New Year!
We headed to Zanzibar on the 3rd and had 3 nights relaxing at Kendwa Rocks - pretty much just lying in the sun, swimming in the sea etc - awesome. Our last 3 nights were in Stone Town so we got to have a look around at some of the history of the place which was cool. We also did a day spice tour which included a walk through one of the old caves where the Arabs used to hide slaves after the British abolished slavery - you could almost feel the terror and despair!
We spent our last day wandering around and shopping in Zanzibar, then went our separate ways
lions
in the wild in the serengeti! at Zanzibar airport. Fortunately this time my bag made it back with me! Am now back in Monduli ready for a staff meeting tomorrow - straight back into it!
Hope you are all having a fabulous summer! Take care,
j
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becs
non-member comment
WOW
Hey Jo, what amazing photos, they make me want to get there now!! Hope you had a great time with your folks, it looks amazing. Keep the photos coming, is really getting me excited.!:)