African Safari Pics (and TR soon)

“Hey there, Tango! I read this a little while ago and thought of you.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/13/people.pitt.reut/index.html”

“NS, no fires, not even any smoke!

Treebait, I had a little bit of a sore throat and a mild case of the sniffles. I saw when he went into the hospital. I joked that with our symptoms Brad goes to the hospital and I go to work! I am over it now.

I didn't think anyone was still reading this thread so I will put up the rest of the report.
last edited: 7/14/05 12:28:17 PM”

“the pictures are incredible! I'm sitting here looking at them at work and my coworkers are all huddled around my computer, going "oooh" and "ahhhh". LOL

That is one amazing trip...how long were you there?”

“Thank you AmyG, you're very kind. It was trhilling just taking the pictures. I was there for 17 days and 2 days of travel time each way.
last edited: 7/15/05 12:25:17 PM”

“DAY 6 TO MASAI MARA

Today we have to drive 230 KM. To make this story a bit shorter 200KM of the roads were horrible and bumpy and enough about that. We got to the Mara at about 1PM. We were met with moist, hot towels, which were very welcome. The roads were so horrible to here that I thought my back was done for. We got situated and had lunch. We met with Titus at 4PM for a game drive. We didn’t have to go far before we saw the herds of gazelle, zebra and wildebeest. We saw a group of vans and decided to find out what they were looking at. There was a lioness. She was gorgeous and sitting in a field of high grass.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/390345767/390370842ynSeDA

She starting stalking some topi that were at the edge of the field. The hartebeest were walking toward her. She got down until we couldn’t see her at all. The tension was horrible. The two hartebeest kept walking toward her and closer and closer until they walked right past her.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/390345767/390370405MyUZan

They never knew she was there! She must have been full. Well, we all started breathing again. She moved to a base of a tree and stayed there for 5 minutes and got up walked toward our van, then passed right in front and left all of us. WOW!!! We headed over to a lion kill that Titus knew about. 3 males had killed a cape buffalo 3 or 4 days ago and were still there eating on the carcass.



It smelled horrible. There was one male actually eating and the other 2 were dead to the world asleep. We stayed as long as we could stand the smell and then headed back to go to dinner. Ha no problem eating the food was great. It was very cold 60F. Thank God we got hot water bottles in bed.

DAY 7 MASAI MARA

Got up early and it is cold mid 50’s so I got layered up. We started out to go back to the lion kill and were waylaid by some bat eared foxes, but they were very far away. The lions were still at the kill and the same lion was still eating. Titus turned off the van for us to take pictures of giraffes that were very close to the road and couldn’t get it started again. Thank gosh there was another van behind us, it turns out the battery terminals were dirty. They push started the van. Just imagine if we were somewhere back in the bush! Breakfast was great. We were to visit a Masai Village at 10AM.



So we met up with Titus and he took us to the village. Joseph the son of the chief met us. I asked if ‘female circumcision’ was practiced. Joseph said, “Yes.” They do practice female genital mutilation. I was HORRIFIED! Titus had told me earlier that they didn’t do that, he didn’t know. Well of course I didn’t pay my money and explained why I wasn’t going into the village or support them and I explained why. I walked back to the van and Titus and told him what happened. Joseph came over and explained they only do it because of tradition. And they do it in secret because they know it against the law. I explained that it was tradition for the Masai to wear animal skins and when they found a better way, cloth, they changed. He said that when the elders die that he would stop the practice. I said that’s good but I cannot give you money because you do it now. I also said that all it does is hurt the women and is not for any practical purpose and how it takes away any pleasure the women may feel for the rest of her life. A few of the elders came over to speak with me. I explained to them what I just said to Joseph. I also said that maybe they were missing out on more money because other people wouldn’t come to the village because they do this barbaric thing. One of the elders said they must do this to help women have babies. God, I wish I had come back with what animal do they have to do this to so it can have babies but of course I was traumatized by this info. Marriage age for men is 24 and for females it is 14. Cynthia and Sue still went in. I was busy trying to figure out whom to write or call to report them. Titus also went over to where the elders were gathered and had a little discussion with them. If I had a gun I could have killed every one of those elders and stopped the practice a little sooner, I swear!

At 4PM we met up again for our afternoon game drive. We stopped to take pictures of some wildebeest that were very close to the road. As we were driving away, I noticed something moving in the bushes, it turned out to be a black-backed jackal. It was a bit far away but I took pics anyway. They turned out half decent. One of the other drivers told Titus that the 3 males weren’t at the kill anymore. So we started hunting other game. We saw some animals but nothing new and exciting, boy we’re getting jaded! Anyway we drove around for a while and ended back at the kill. 2 of the lions were near the kill on a rocky outcropping and the third (the same one) was still eating. We stayed and watched and took huge amounts of photos. We left and saw 4 bat eared foxes. We were kinda late getting back; we were driving in the dark (a no-no). Dinner was great of course. After dinner we sat in the lodge near a central huge round fireplace. Wow!

DAY 8 TO NAIROBI

We have a 6-hour trip today. We had a morning game drive; we ended up back at the kill. We thought maybe the boys would be gone and we would see hyenas and jackals. The jackals and vultures were there but not getting too close because the lions were still there. The jackal was very shy staying far away, so no pictures. And we left. We were driving when we saw something off to the right of our vehicle. It turned out it was a hyena with a kill. He was far away and Titus sped up to reach him before he crossed the road. But he dropped his kill and took off. Back to the lodge for breakfast and we left at 9AM. There were some great rock formations on the way to Nairobi. We got to Nairobi early. Let me just say that driving in Nairobi is uncontrolled chaos. Wow! Back to the Safari Club. Then boring stuff till morning.”

“17 days - wow! That is a trip of a lifetime. Awesome.

"We saw some animals but nothing new and exciting, boy we’re getting jaded!"

LOL - that is too funny. I know exactly what you mean...it is the same phenomenon whenever you spend a lot of time in any place and the novelty starts to wear off. Although, this was friggin AFRICA...come on!

Good for you for taking a stand on what you believe in. That mutillation practice is horrific...and you never know how you may (or may not) have impacted those elders to make a change. At the very least, I bet they will talk about "that crazy white woman with her radical views" for quite some time. Good job!”

“I have reported the village to Amnesty International. It just made me want to cry. I just hope the loss of money will make them think a bit.

The Tanzanian album is up at webshots.

http://community.webshots.com/user/tango313-date”

“A month later and I finally read all of your report and saw all of your pictures. FANTASTIC! What a very cool experience! And such great pictures. I hope I see half of what you've seen. I'll be there in October.:)

Do you have any advice to give or anything you'd do differently?

I hope your back and knees are back to normal.”

“Wow, that's great. What is your itinerary? I would have eaten fresh fruit from the first day I was there. I was told not to eat fresh fruit, but the hotels were so clean and are well versed in the needs of travellers that it never gave us a problem. I wouldn't have taken my tripod. I would have taken more donations.

I did take a conversion chart that I printed out for dollars to Kenyan shillings (sp?).

I'll think some more on it.”

“I fly in to Kilimanjaro on the 8th and start the Kili mountain climb the next day. The whole climb is 4 and a half days up and 1 and a half days down. Then I'm doing a 4 day safari. We are going to Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and Tarangire. After that, I'm flying to Mombasa to relax on the beach for 3 or 4 days. Then I'm flying to Nairobi for a day and a half before I fly home.

It should be quite an adventure. I'm very excited!!!

Thanks for your insight! I should start collecting donations now, huh? :)”

“DAY 9 TO AMBOSELI

Before we left I emailed my Mom to say I was still alive, she was worried. After we were about 30 minutes out of Nairobi, the roads turned horrible no need to elaborate. We got to the Amboseli Park and Titus had to go get paperwork and so of course we were asked to buy carvings and jewelry. None of us succumbed. We had to drive through to the near to the other boundary of the park to get to our accommodations. We drove past what used to be Lake Amboseli; it was nothing but a dry lakebed. We saw the normal assortment of hoofed mammals. We went through a treed area that had some other lodges. It was fenced heavily to keep out mostly the elephants. They had an ingenious way to keep the elephants from entering on the road with out gates. They had 2 tall posts 12 feet or so high with a cross beam. On this beam wires hung down to about 5 feet off the ground. At 9PM they electrified these wires. I was impressed. We got to the Amboseli Sopa and were met by Sammy a Masai warrior and an attendant with wet towels. Found our rooms and dropped off the luggage. Lunch was served.

At 3:30 PM we met up with Titus for our game drive. We went to a marshy place where the elephants were enjoying the water. We drove on some more and Titus found some lionesses. They were lying down in a field; I don’t know how he saw them. There were 4 zebras intently watching them. They didn’t take their eyes off them. The lionesses were just kinda lying there. We thought a wildebeest was going to buy it; he was pretty far away when he noticed (smelled?) the lions. He started to come closer, and closer, and closer. We were all thinking this dumb animal; he did get pretty close stayed there for a few and then took off.

One of the other drivers met us on the road and told Titus of a cheetah. So we went there. It was a cheetah on the other side of an embankment. Not a good position to see him at all. Titus moved the van so maybe we could get a better vantage point, but kept going. We were wondering what the heck he was doing. There was another cheetah up the road. We got in perfect position. It was the cheetah on the dead tree. Gorgeous!







Little by little the other vans that were down the road came up. There was some jerk ‘meowing’ very loud and making loud noises to get the cheetah to look his way. Jeez. Titus said not to scare it. The guy’s own driver said nothing. He was cool after that. The cheetah stayed there 15 minutes or so, then walked in between the vans and left. Thrilling is not the word.

This dinner is the first that wasn’t a buffet. The menu was set and we chose from several selections of appetizers, soup, main course, and dessert. It was good.

This lodge turns off the electricity between midnight and 5 AM. I woke up at 3 AM and found just how profoundly dark a hotel room can be.

DAY 10 AMBOSELI SERENA

We got our luggage loaded up in the van and started our game drive after breakfast. We were moving a few miles away to the Amboseli Serena. Very nice! Saw Mt. Kilimanjaro this morning.


It was awe-inspiring. I took about 100 pictures of it. In about 15 minutes from when we first looked at it, clouds completely obscured it, which is why we didn’t see it yesterday when we arrived. After the herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest we saw a hyena in the bush. We couldn’t see him/her very well. Titus again left the area and went down the road. He saw another hyena, it turned out that it was a Mommy hyena at her den with babies. Only one was adventurous and came out of the den. We were no more than 10 feet away. Very Cool! We were on our way after we all took 100’s of photos. So as we were driving Cynthia wanted to stop and make a movie of the wildebeest moving across the road in front of us and crossing a low marshy canal. So I was bored and not taking any pictures, I looked behind us. I saw a herd of wildebeest on the low sloping banks of this marshy area- all of a sudden they take off and stampede. I said something and we all saw 2 cheetahs tear out and down a smaller wildebeest. They pulled it in to the tall grass so we didn’t see it. But we heard it cry for a few minutes. I didn’t like that but that’s life and death. We couldn’t see from where we were so we drove about ½ a mile down the road and crossed over to the other side to see if we’d have a better vantage point. No such luck. We’d see the top of a cheetah head every once in a while. Then we left went to check into the Serena and have lunch. Of course buffet with probably the 2nd best variety (Samburu being the best). Since our Kenya time was coming to an end I tipped Titus (which is considered part of his salary, kind of like a waiters here).

We met back up at 4 PM and back on the trail of game. We went to Observation Hill. Nothing great up there just the view, the animals are too far away. But I saw the hot pink and brilliant blue gaiters! 2 Asian women had surgical masks on the gaiters and white gloves! I wish I could have gotten a better picture of them. Off the hill and back in the van Titus had heard of 2 lions. We went to see them. It was two juveniles in a grassy part in between a road and road beside it avoiding a huge cavernous pothole. They were just sacked out. We went back to the cheetah kill area to see if we could see them better. There were a bunch of vans there and the cheetahs were still not easily seen and even more so now that they were full and lazy. It was getting late so we started back. The sunset was gorgeous so we stopped many times to take pictures. The clouds had cleared the top of Kili, very pretty. Dinner, I ate way too much; I’m going to have to stop that! Did some chores and to sleep I went.

DAY 10 TO ARUSHA

Today we have to say goodbye to Titus, kinda sad. We drove back to the border town. I watched Kilimanjaro the whole time. We then had to go through the process of crossing over into Tanzania. We filled out a information card to leave Kenya, stood in line and presented our passports to the clerk, who basically rubber stamped it and away we went. We had to walk through a no mans zone. I always thought the border between countries was like a line, one side Kenya and the other is Tanzania. It’s not like that at all. There is the Kenya border then about 100 yards of nothing, then there was the border to Tanzania. We had to fill out another card to enter Tanzania stand in another line get our passports stamped by the Tanzanian clerk. It was tedious but the lines moved quickly. We met our new driver, Aaron. I hugged Titus goodbye. We loaded up and took off in a 4WD Toyota Landcruiser. We got to Arusha and met up with the head guy of Good Earth Tours, he gave us our itenirary. Instead of the hot lunch in Arusha we were going to have we had a boxed lunch to eat as we drove to Ngorongoro Crater. It was, and we all agreed, the worst, the driest chicken we’ve ever had. Also a problem cropped up, Aaron smelled, horribly! We wondered when he had bathed last. Also Aaron told us we were also not going to have time for the scheduled game drive in the Crater today. Wow, we sure were getting off to a good start. We were dismayed at the lack of planning and or promising what couldn’t be done. Oh we decided to just go with it. As we were driving we drove past Mt. Meru and the roads were really good. It was almost like being in the states. It was a very long drive to the Crater, the ride in the Toyota was bad, not like the soft ride of the van we had been in. We arrived at the entrance to the Crater park. We thought we were close but no another surprise, we still had 2 hours to drive to get to the lodge. Here the roads declined. It was like driving on a very narrow dirt road up a mountain. We finally got there and again were met with wet towels and juice. I love that, it is always so welcome from us road weary travelers. When I own my campground I will incorporate this practice. It was 5PM when we checked in. The room was huge! It had a small picture windowed overhang facing the bottom of the crater. What a view!!! The room was cold but I had to take a shower and wash my mop. I saw that the room had registers but the heat was not going to be turned on until 7PM. I washed a bunch of my clothes and hung them over the registers so they would dry. It is cold here it is above 5,000 feet so that is a major factor. We all met up and went to dinner. It is Sue’s birthday so Cynthia spoke with our waiter and set something up. We went in and were seated for dinner. We were near the fire, but not near enough for me. They had a fixed menu that had choices for all the courses. I like buffet better. After dinner the wait staff and Masai warriors came out with blazing spears singing their song Jambo, Hakuna Matata which means hello, no problem. Sue was very surprised and happy. The cake was dry but oh well. We went to the gift shop, the prices were horribly high and I went back to my room. The heat was on and some of my clothes were dry. I went to bed since we had to meet up at 6:30AM.

DAY 11 NGORONGORO CRATER

After a wonderful breakfast buffet we met up with Aaron. We were to spend the whole day at the bottom of the Crater. We got our boxed lunches and took off. Well Aaron had no shower last night and the smell was horrible since the windows were closed because it was in the 50’s. We ended up opening the windows anyway. It took about 40 minutes to get to the bottom. And started seeing buffalo, zebra and gazelle. We then saw our only black rhino. He (or she) was far away from the road, but it was wonderful to see.




We took off to see lions. They were also far from the road. There were 9 lions that were being circled by 9 jackals and 17 hyenas waiting to get some food. It was very interesting to watch. After that we went to a dry creek bed we saw 5 hippos in a lake by us. Then we came up on 3 hyenas and their young. They are pretty good parents. Then we saw a cheetah. She/he was crouched as some Thompson’s gazelles were grazing heading towards the cheetah. They didn’t get close enough but we spent 45 minutes or so watching and taking pictures.





We decided to have lunch. As we were driving there we stopped at a watering hole with 11 lions lazing around it. We took pictures and then headed to the picnic area. It was pleasant. We ate in the van because of these birds that patrol the area and will swoop down and take your food. Yes if you’re wondering the meals weren’t good, but they weren’t as bad as yesterday’s meal. We headed back to see the cheetah. He/she moved and we took a bunch more pictures. We then went to a hippo pool and saw about 30 hippos lazing in the water and doing barrel rolls so you could see their pink bellies and stubby little legs. At one end of the crater there was a wooded area, we drove through looking for leopards, no luck. It was 3:30 so we started to make our way back to the lodge. So we stopped and took pictures of all the herds of animals, zebras, wildebeest and cape buffalo. We stopped for 2 wart hogs they are ugly. As we were driving up the side of the crater we got some close up pictures of Vervet monkeys, the males have robin egg blue balls, there were many jokes. We were back at the lodge by 4:20 and headed for a hot shower. Dinner was again was good. To bed.

DAY 12 SERENGETI

Breakfast was good and then we took off toward the Serengeti. It was to be a long drive and Aaron had not showered nor changed his shirt. We took a different road down the outside of the crater edge. We passed a Masai boy who had his face painted white and black, Aaron said he was just circumcised and had to live on his own away from his village for 5 months. When he goes back to his village he will be welcomed with a feast and given a cow. Then he is considered a man. We were on a major thorofare. We were passing big trucks that were taking goods around the country. It was a dusty dirt road that was as bad a Kenya’s roads. At the entrance to the Serengeti we stopped at a for lack of a better description, a big rest stop. There was a gift shop, cafeteria and the ticket booth for payment for entering the park. There was a small nature trail and we walked it. I went ahead because Cynthia wanted to know if we had to turn around or if the trail went back to the rest stop. It went back to the rest stop, as I walked out of the shrubs of the trail and there was a baboon sitting right there. We all go pictures of him, he was very compliant. We ate another boxed lunch, then we left, we had to drive through the Serengeti to get to the Ikoma Bush Camp, where we were staying that night. We drove into the park and started seeing boulders just jutting out of the field. Then we saw huge boulders grouped together they are called Kopjes, pronounced copy. These are where lions hide. At the middle of the park there was an information center that was very interesting, we spent some time there. We had a 15 minute drive to the camp. Aaron asked C and S if they wanted to go to the school today or tomorrow. They said today. So we went to a little village about 5 minutes from the camp. Some one had to scare up a teacher since school was done for the day. The head teacher showed up and while C & S were giving their donation to the teacher, I started making balloon animals for the kids who started gathering. I made balloon animals for the 10 or so kids that showed up. We also donated some money. And we were on our way. This is a roughing it camp. It was run on solar power and there was a tent for the bar and dinner room. There was a small library books that people have donated, not one was in English. The tent was similar to Sweetwaters. We got checked in about 4:30PM. Dinner was at 7:30PM. I sat outside on my porch. The animals were quite close and noisy it was neat. There are some flowers right in front of me and a beautiful bird keeps visiting. It has an emerald breast and black and purple body. It was getting dark so I didn’t get great picture. Dinner was very good. We sat by a man and his family from Holland. He was very interesting. C & S went on a night game drive. I was making myself a cup of tea (it’s really good here) since it was kind of cold, I got to talking with a guide for a National Geographic photographer. The photographer was working on a story about people’s rights versus animal rights. He is a very well educated Masai. He brings doctors to the villages to educate and treat the people. He was very interesting. We spoke about a myriad of subjects.

DAY 13 SERENGETI

I woke up to the snorts and grunts of wildebeest and zebra. The great migration is late this year that is why all the wildebeest and zebra are not going anywhere. Breakfast was yucky. All kind of baked goods but they were hard as rocks. We got our stuff loaded and took off. We stopped at a clinic and donated some medicine and medical supplies. We stopped by the side of the road after we were back in the park to see 2 crocodiles, they were too far away to take pictures. We were starting to look for leopards when we came upon a huge herd of zebra. Some of them would run down to get a drink, get scared and stampede out of there. They did this 5 or 6 times, we never saw anything but who knows what lurks under the water. Aaron took a shower but is wearing the same shirt. We also saw some hippos out of the water, which is good luck. We then ended going to a hippo pool. It was amazing to see so many hippos but boy did they smell bad.


We drove into a Tse tse fly area, they’re big, I always thought they were big. It was already lunch time so we stopped in a picnic area and had lunch. We drove around some kopjes and Aaron saw a lion that was so well hidden. We ended up by a river and saw a leopard in a tree, the road was very far away but it was still beautiful and awe inspiring. We saw more herds of hoofed animals. We got to our lodge the Serengeti Sopa, checked in and did all my little chores. I went outside on my balcony and there was a cape buffalo. How cool is that!!! Dinner again was not buffet but it was good.


DAY 14 OLDUVAI GORGE

I woke up met with C & S for breakfast, it was ok, not up to this trip’s standards. We loaded up our stuff and were on our way. We had an extra rider, our waiter from last night was a friend of Aaron’s so he was riding with us almost to our next stop. We detoured to see a lionesses, they were off in a field quite a ways off. We got back on the road and almost immediately stopped for more lions. After more pictures we headed for Olduvai gorge. It was just a short ways off the main road. We were on the top of the canyon. This is where the Leakey’s found the oldest humanoid skull Austroalipithicus. Also the oldest human foot prints had been reburied because of erosion. A cast of them had been made and the prints were remade and were in the little museum. Another boxed lunch that totally sucked. We were on our way we had to go back to the top of the crater. It dropped in temperature from 83F at the Serengeti to 65F at the top of the crater. We got to the town and gave some more supplies to a school and a medical center. As we were driving to our next lodge Aaron got a message on his cell phone that we were to go to the Gibbs Farm. It was great. Each person had their own hut. It was all organic and they grew all their own vegetables and fruits. The landscape was lovely. They also grew coffee. After I was all checked in and had taken a shower I was cold so I went up to the main lodge. I had seen a fireplace there earlier. Just my luck it was already lit. So there were a few people there so I sat down and it turns out that there was a teacher and his father a recently retired business man from San Francisco. I had met the Manager’s wife earlier and now I met the manager. He was originally from California too. They had come there on vacation and loved it so much they decided to stay. So they went home packed up all their stuff, sold the house and came back to Tanzania to live and work. Dinner again was sit down and several choices were offered for each course. It was good. During dinner I had one of the porters light a fire in my fireplace. It didn’t help with the room temp but it was beautiful.

DAY 15 LAKE MANYARA

Met C & S for breakfast which was great. We had our stuff loaded and took off. We had a busy and long day today. It was a short drive to Lake Manyara National Park. When we got there we figured we had less than 2 hours to spend there. So we took off, we stopped to see a group of elephants. We saw a blue monkey (it wasn’t really blue) but it moved off before anyone got a picture. We went toward the lake and saw some hippos out of water. We were really looking for leopard. We moved onto a wooded area Aaron shut off the jeep so we could take pictures of some birds. The Toyota wouldn’t start. We were getting kind of worried it took more than 10 minutes to get it running. Well no more shutting it off. As we were leaving we saw the baboons along with a mother and a very new looking baby. We all took bunches of pictures. The baby was soooooo ugly he was cute. They turned out to be Olive baboons. We stopped at a small tee shirt place. Yet another boxed lunch to eat, I swear if I wasn’t scared that I had gained 10 pounds I’d be totally ticked off. We drove to Arusha and got dropped off to pick up the shuttle to Nairobi Airport. After a few snags we caught the shuttle. It was a long trip to the airport. Of course we had to go back through the borders and fill out the cards again. After a 4ish hour ride we were dropped off at the airport. We washed up in the bathroom and got into the longest line to go through security. We of course had to fill out another exit card. I met a group of people who had climbed Kilimanjaro. They were very fun, they were from Illinois and were very nice. We boarded the plane, thank God we were not sitting together. I was kind of tired of Cynthia’s one upmanship with every person we met. It is quite sad really.
last edited: 8/20/05 9:24:20 AM”

“I'm very envious Tango, sounds like a great trip.”

“Great trip and beautiful pics! Just got done looking at all the pics! SnowDude walked in and saw the animals and wants to go next year (give up our Sierra trip). Another trip to add to the list! Thanks!”

“Dear God, let me visit Africa. Tango, I envy you. I will be visiting the same territory one day,gotta see central and South America first.”

“Ive always wanted to go, now I really do!”

“Thank you for your kind words. It was a trip of a life time. It was really cool to be in places I've only seen on the discovery channel!


Here are 2 pics I'm really proud of:





http://community.webshots.com/album/388976877tEEuwf

http://community.webshots.com/album/390345767ukypkq

http://community.webshots.com/album/395731819wyjEuQ
last edited: 8/21/05 12:10:58 AM”

“I have been down that way. It is much prettier than Djibouti.

Fantastic job with the photos!”

“Brilliant...this was the first thread I picked up this morning and I've been on it for hours looking at pictures (ooh....ahh...WOW! cool...ooh...ahhh..etc etc etc) and reading your very interesting trip reports...you did a wonderful job balancing the wildlife descriptions with the living and travel conditions...I loved that tent/room under the wooden shelter at Sweetwater:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389046020OGJocY

Your animal shots were magnificient...I agree with you..the shot of the cheetah in the dead tree and that lion (looked like he was lit by either a rising or setting sun) were your best...such a huge variation of wildlife...I found Grevy's zebra and the bat-eared fox two of the more interesting wildlife pictures as was the blue-balled monkey and pink-gaitered (ack!), white-gloved and masked tourist...

From your trip reports I would definitely avoid your last tour operator with it's poor, boxed lunch offerings and major, BO driver..

If you don't mind me asking, how much did this trip of a lifetime cost? And how long were you in Afrika?

Thank you for taking the time (and I know how much time!) to make those albums in Webshots with their accompanying text..pictures are so much more interesting when you know what you are looking at! and writing your trip reports...a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning! thank you, again...PS..glad you didn't have any major stomach problems..did you drink the water?”

“Mataharihiker and BWM, you are very kind, thank you. There was an abundance of bottled water to be had. It was free in every hotel room and during the game drives it was take whatever you want. I couldn't even drink all that I was given. The tea was excellant and I don't even like tea.

The trip cost all inclusive was around $5000.00 that includes airfare. It was 15 days with 1 1/2 days of travel to get there and 1 1/2 to get back.”

“Just be glad it is not as hot in that area as it has been here. Bleck!”

“OK, finished the report. It's a great one, Tango!

Now to check out ALL the photos. The ones I saw posted within the thread are fabulous!

(sure... phhhht, go to Africa and write off Utah this year.... LOL!)”