Africa March 2015

Well, we finally made it back and what an Adventure!!!
Tanzania Outdoor Adventures is a fantastic Safari Company to use for your next adventure to East Africa.  The guides were fantastic and the lodging and accommodations couldn’t be beat. AND OF COURSE, THE ANIMALS WERE TREMENDOUS. This was of course with the driest wet season in years. This meant the herds were scattered and not as plentiful. No grass to migrate to. 
It all started with us leaving our house at 4:00 AM to head to the airport on Saturday, Feb. 28th.  We arrived in Kigali, Rwanda on Sunday evening and at our hotel, Gorilla Hotel near Volcano National Park at 11:00 pm on March 1st. This is with a 10 hours time change. 32 hrs. from bed to bed.   Jombi, owner of the company and chief guide met us at the airport and everything was arranged after that.
6:00 am:  Off to the Volcano National Park for the morning with the “Golden Monkey Trek”  At the park they had entertainment by the Sacola Traditional Dancers. The trek to the bamboo jungle was muddy and the people are really hard workers but poor. They only travel by foot or bike and carry pounds of potatoes to market either on their heads or by bike.








   Once you enter the bamboo jungle, you meet up with the trekkers.  These trekkers, go out early and locate the monkeys to take you to them.  You are only allowed one hour with the monkeys after you find them.  We walked though the mud and water for about 60 minutes before finding the Golden Monkeys.

      

     





   Can’t put all the photos, are you wouldn’t have time for the rest of the blog.

We went from the forest to a village that the government is relocating to homes from the forest.  This is a pygmy tribe.  We don’t know how good we have it in America. Even the homeless have more than most of the people here. No running water, no sewer, no shoes,






We headed back to the hotel so that we could have a late lunch and relax.  Due to the ebola scare and other factors, the tourist industry is really hurting . This is a hotel outside of the Volcano National Park and we were the only people registered. Most of this area depends on tourism to survive.
March 3rd, day 2, it’s up and out by 6:00 am heading for “Volcano National Park” for the Gorilla Trek.  It’s sort of a repeat of the day before, but we were there for Gorillas this time.  And the hike was just in another direction within the park.  The trekkers did their job and we were there within 30 minutes to see the Agashya Family. The big boy with this family is a Silverback is named Casanova. He took over the harem from another male and keeps stealing more females from other families. I got up close and personal.  He even brushed me on the way out.







    





    





   This is just to show how close we were.  
We drove back into Kigali  that afternoon, to stay at the Gorilla Hotel in downtown.  The next morning we went to the Genocide Museum there. This was during 1994 when one of the ruling tribes determined that one of the other tribes was inferior and had to be destroyed.  Up to a million people, (20% of the population) were killed.
After that we flew to Kilimanjaro and drove to Arusha to meet up with the rest of the Safari People.  The trip finally caught up with me and also, the malaria pills and I was sick and stayed in bed the next day.  Luckily, they were only going shopping in the town and it’s worst than Mexico with the vendors trying to sell you things. If I had to be down, this was the day to do it. No one really had a good experience. 

So on the Morning of the 5th, we headed out for the first day of the actually Safari. We went into Arusha National Park.  We walked for a couple of miles to see the terrain and animals, then loaded back in the land rovers for a game drive.  This was to be just a sampling of the rest of the journey.  AND it was tremendous!
   The entrance.  The elephant below isn’t real, but looked it.









Now for the real animals!


  





 





 










 No problem seeing from up here.  There were 15 of us and three land cruisers. 2 of them were extended with seating for 8 including the driver/guide. We had plenty of room to move around and position ourselves for pictures.

 





 











As I said, this was only a sampling. I didn’t go into the fantastic food and lodging, because I figure most people are more interested in the animals. 




But the next day we made our way to Tarangire National Park.  Of course, it’s a game drive to get there.  We stayed at Tanargire Safari Lodge.  This was a permanent tent camp. You could sit at the patio of the lodge and for that matter your front porch and view the elephants, giraffes. This was my favorite lodge (with a pool)
  





       













  

Morning Awakes!

   

I'm bigger and get to the kill next!