African Safari Pics (and TR soon)

“I took over 3,000 pics, I stopped counting.

Here are a few:

http://community.webshots.com/album/387802811Vjxhpg”

“Cool pics!”

“WOW! I want more! Those are totally awesome.”

“Absolutley phenomenal, Steph!

Each one as good as a postcard. Glad you had a great trip. Welcome back!!!!”

“Fan-freaking-tastic!”

“Thanks all. It was totally Kick A$$ to be so close to those animals. But I have to say I wish I had an image stabilizer. I had so many throw aways because of camera shake.”

“3,000 pics...WOW!!!! Yhese are great..nice trip..”

“Adrenaline will do that, Tango...”

“Hakuna matata, Tango! :)”

“"Hakuna Matata" - Treebeard

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase!”

“Asante Sana- Thank you very much”

“okay...thank you very much. now i got that darn song in my head.

Great pics Tango! Africa is on my list of places to visit.”

“Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase

Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze

It means no worries for the rest of your days

It's our problem-free philosophy

Hakuna Matata!

Hakuna Matata?

Yeah. It's our motto!

What's a motto?

Nothing. What's a-motto with you?

Those two words will solve all your problems

That's right. Take Pumbaa here
Why, when he was a young warthog...

When I was a young wart hog

Very nice

Thanks

He found his aroma lacked a certain appeal
He could clear the savannah after every meal

I'm a sensitive soul though I seem thick-skinned
And it hurt that my friends never stood downwind
And oh, the shame He was ashamed
Thought of changin' my name What's in a name?
And I got downhearted How did ya feel?
Everytime that I...

Hey! Pumbaa! Not in front of the kids!
Oh. Sorry

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze

It means no worries for the rest of your days

It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna--

It means no worries for the rest of your days

It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
(Repeats)

I say "Hakuna"

I say "Matata"”

“I love it already! Rolls off the tongue well! Just like aloha mahalo...”

“Wow Tango! Those are incredible! What an experience!”

“Awesome, Tango!! Can't wait to see more”

“awww look at the cute little kitties! haha. for real, those pics are insane!!”

“What great pictures! You're teasing us. Trip report, please!”

“Sweet! I wanna see more!”

“I particularly like the picture of that lion eatin' the ass outta that dead rhinoceros.”

“Welcome back. I'm really glad you had a fun and safe trip!! And great pictures so far. I can't wait to see the rest and read your TR!!!

I'm hoping to be there in October.:)”

“wow tango.
waaaaaaaaaay cool.”

“more picks!!! we want more pics! how close did ya get to those lions?”

“AWESOME pics!!!! I bet that was a great experience! I made one of the elephant pictures my background!”

“Great pics. That must have been some adventure. Anybody that wants to take a trip to Africa has got to read (sigh....yes, there are pictures for those who don't) any of the books by Peter Hathaway Capstick. Might make you a little leery about taking a trip but it does give a pretty clear picture of what life (and wildlife) is like there. I would love to see it someday.”

“Sorry I've been out of touch. My neighbor cut my phone line last night and they just showed up and fixed it.

Thanks for all the compliments. The lions were 5 ft away. The lioness walked right in front of our van. It was totally cool. To be so close to the animals with no fences or motes.

I started my trip report but it sounds boring and not as exciting as it was. I'll try harder.”

“The first 3 days pictures are up on webshots:

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

“Great Pictures! Thanks for sharing!”

“Nice!”

“Beautiful pics. Thanks for sharing.”

“dangid...and just when I thought my tent was big enough...you have to post this...
http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389044944glkDcH”

“Thanks all. Yeah, Gem try to top that!

I will have the next 3 days pics up soon. And I am working on the tr.”

“Tango did you wear your fluffy puffy thingy?”

“Cool pics so far!!”

“Nope I took my long underwear,mango fleece and a windproof jacket. I was only cold a few times. Though I debated taking it. I did take the pants but didn't wear them.

Thanks ltwt!”

“WOOT!
Very nice shots.”

“ok...you know what? What the hell does WOOT mean????”

“Very nice.”

“Steph...I knew you were going on a very cool trip. I knew you were going to have some great shots to share. However, I wasn't aware that you were going to share pictures that good! You have a great eye for these animal shots. You totally pulled my interest in! Great job and thanks!”

“Thank you for your kind words Treebeard. I would love to learn more from some of the great photogs here!


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

Hope you enjoy.”

“Great pics! But I'm curious, why did your neighbor cut your phone line?”

“Thank you Ruby.

He didn't mean to, he was weedeating at the telephone pole at the road and there was no guard on the line as it went underground to my house. He didn't even know he did it. When Sprint came out the service man said that's what happened.”

“Wow Tango that is soooo coooool!!!
Great Pix!
One day... maybe I will get to see those sights too.”

“Don't understand it. Everytime I click on a link to your pictures, I get the:
SierraTradingPost.com




Not really.
LOL.

Your pictures are wonderful. Loving every bit of your trip that you show us.”

“I was lucky; I was on midnight shift at work and had already changed to Kenya time, which is 8 hours ahead of us. I know it seems it should be more. I was in transit for 23 hours, Orlando to Chicago, Chicago to Brussels and Brussels to Nairobi. My 2nd leg of the trip Chicago to Brussels was horrible I only had ½ my seat. A man of considerable girth sat next to me and talked and talked. Anyway Brussels to Nairobi was great the plane was half empty so I slept a bit. I got to my hotel at 9PM. I met my two co-travelers and got a briefing of the Kenya part of the trip.

Day 1 TO ABERDARE

Met Cynthia and Sue for breakfast. It is buffet style and has a huge variety. We didn’t eat any fruit on the advice of our travel doctors. Got underway and had to drive about 4 hours to get to the Aberdare Country Club for lunch. First I must say Nairobians have NO IDEA what a lane is! It is a comical and hair rising event to drive in the city. They have these small privately owned buses that are like taxies, and of course to maximize profit they have passengers hanging off the sliding door on the side and people are packed inside like sardines and they are kamikaze drivers! Oh the roads, I lament the roads. As soon as you are away from the city they are worse than any fire road that you can think of. On the way we saw zebras, warthogs and some gazelles they were too far away to take pictures but still a thrill. We had lunch, which was buffet again. Again we did not eat fruit, but saw others doing so. After lunch we took only our overnight bag for the hour-long ride to the Ark. It is a hotel that overlooks a waterhole and salt lick. Salt lick is a bit of a misnomer since it is an open area of high mineral content dirt. There is a 2nd floor deck and several glassed in balconies and a ground level open window “bunker” to take pictures. It has floodlights for nighttime viewing. There were several herds of elephants and cape buffalo and later some hyenas showed up. The elephants are very loud in every thing they do (not trumpeting), I was surprised. We had dinner buffet and I threw caution to the wind and had fruit. It was great. There was such a variety of everything. Impressive and of course trouble! We stayed up watching the animals until 2AM. Just as I was about to head to bed two rhino showed up. They were about 10 feet from me. The floodlights were not bright enough to take pictures and no flashes were allowed.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123962242&idx=17

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123962242&idx=16

Day 2 TO SAMBURU

Breakfast wow of course buffet. The pancakes were what we call crepes. It was great then we were on our way back to Aberdare Country Club to pick up our bags and get on our way to Samburu. On the way out we saw a troop of baboons on one of the greens, so we stopped and took pictures. We stopped at the equator.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123962242&idx=18

There was a guy there that did the water demonstration. You know water spinning one way north of the equator and the other south of it. Too easy to mess with but it showed what he wanted. I took photos with one foot in the Northern hemisphere and one in the southern. After we got off the main road the ‘road’ we were on was useless so we drove beside it. Titus our driver had to stop and get paper work to enter the park. We were surrounded by Samburu women selling their wares, such as; carved wood animals, beaded jewelry and wood masks. They sure don’t take no for an answer. We were on our way again. The road degraded again, I didn’t think it was possible. We pulled up to the Samburu Serena Lodge and were met with chilled damp washcloths. They felt heavenly! The fresh juice was nice. They unloaded our luggage and we had lunch. A short rest and then our first game drive. The van is a small 8 passenger and 1 driver Toyota. It has a roof that rises up so you can stand and take pictures without having to restrict yourself to window space. Samburu is a very dry almost desert area. The first thing we saw was the reticulated giraffe, this park is the only place it is found. Then there was an abundance and variety of hoofed mammals. Elephants,

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123962242&idx=5


then the biggie, the leopard in the tree.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/387802811/391288524TzpyLg

http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389006239WPtoQy


We were all marveling at the diversity this seemingly drought ridden area holds. And just like that 2 and a half hours was gone. Time for dinner, buffet again, we had our own beverage waiter and regular waiter. The watermelon was sweet as sugar. I had 2 desserts; I couldn’t choose! It was impossible. After dinner we sat out by the Brown River for a while. Then wiped out we went to our respective rooms. I uploaded all the photos I took today.

Day 3 SAMBURU

Up early to meet Titus at 06:30. Baboons were our first sighting. Grevy’s Zebra was nice to see, it is only found here in Samburu of the places we are going. It is the largest zebra and has narrow stripes. As we were driving I saw some ears behind some small acacia shrubs and asked what they were. They were bat-eared foxes. They are very shy and sure enough when we stopped they high tailed it. We heard through one of the other drivers that lions were near the river. Our first encounter, and even though they were on the other side of the river, it was still thrilling. And just like that 2 hours were gone. Back to the lodge for breakfast. It was excellent!

After lunch at 2PM we went to the Samburu village. Joseph a Samburu man accompanied us.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389046323WJDupf


We paid $20 U.S. It goes to the new kindergarten that servers the 6 villages. We met the elders and they took us to this tree that was their ‘meeting tree’. It is a large tree that is has no branches at the trunk lower than 5 ft. The branches at their ends are about 3 feet off the ground. They then cut Acacia branches (the have thorns 2 inches long) and lean them on the branches to make a sort of wall. This is where they come to have discussions and make decisions about the villages. They showed how they start a fire. The have a 2-inch wide about 6 inch long soft wood stick that they lay on the ground. They then take a hard wood dowel and spin it in their hands with the end in the soft wood. The soft wood shreds and the friction makes it red hot, they dump this onto tinder and “let there be fire”! It did not take long. Then Joseph showed us a tree that they take a green twig from and chew on the end until it breaks down and makes kind of bristles and that’s what they use for a toothbrush. We all tried it. We all went into the village. The village is surrounded by cut acacia branches to protect it from lions mostly but elephants and other carnivores. They bring all their livestock goats and cows into the village at night and close up the opening in the branches that they use in the day. The huts in which they live are built by the women they are about 4 feet high and made of sticks and cow dung. They pick up scraps of plastic to help stay dry and incorporate that into the roof. The Samburu people believe in polygamy. When the first wife has children and they are in their preteens or teens the man may marry again and go live with the 2nd wife. The husband must be able to take care of how many wives he has and he must pay a dowry (Joseph has to pay 10 cows for his bride). (Not too happy about that) Anyway, the huts were not as horrible inside as one would think. It is divided into 3 rooms. 1 for the wife (and hubby if he’s there) and 1 for the children, there is no wall separating these and a kitchen dining area there is a wall between the bedroom and this ‘room’. There is a cowhide that is used as a door. They sleep on several cowhides. They subsist on meat about twice a week and the other days they drink milk mixed with cow or goat blood. The women do not eat meat as much as the men. The women string beads for jewelry necklaces and bracelets. I would go blind the beads are so teeny tiny. We then visited the school. It was concrete block and one room with picnic like benches and tables. This is for the 6 villages. Only 2 children of a family may go to school. The other children must tend to the animals. As you can see by the picture of the Samburu men they are all dressed in red. They do that so the lions will see them from far off and not bother their animals as they are grazing. Back to the kids. The children sang for us, 2 songs in Swahili and 2 in English. We then took pictures. With the children. They were slapping me five, which is a greeting. There were no books and no pencils; they had a chalk board (I don’t know about chalk). So Cynthia, Sue and I gave some of the donations we brought to them.

We walked back up to the village and the women danced for us. It was very energetic. And with that we went back to the lodge. So I went for a ride on a camel. It was fun, Sue has pictures. So when that was done I spoke with Joseph and a few other Samburu men some of which were employed by the lodge. I tried to explain my job. A few minutes to freshen up and the game drive was underway. Again the game drive was great! We saw some beautiful birds, Oryx. Then 2 herds of elephants, some of them got so close I felt like I could have reached out and touched them. Then we found some lions lazing in the grass. On the way back to the lodge we saw over 100 baboons in a dry riverbed. The light was waning by this time and the pictures didn’t turn out great.

After dinner, every other day, they feed a leopard. They have a pole and a branch set up on the opposite side of the river and they feed it 1/5th of a goat. It turned out not to be too great. It was pretty far away and the light over the area was pretty dim. But we watched for a short time.

I spoke with the hotel manager and arranged to meet with the doctor that tends to the Samburu people. She is the hotel doctor.
[url]
last edited: 7/11/05 11:56:59 AM”

“this is very interesting reading, tango.”

“Thanks Cyndee. How's the knee?

Here's some more”

“Day 4 TO SWEETWATER

We all had medical donations for the doctor. We met with her shortly before we were to leave this morning. I asked her about the instances of female genital mutilation, I was worried about it and very disturbed that I didn’t think to ask yesterday. She put my mind at ease. They do not practice that at the villages she said.

And we were off. On the way out we got lucky and saw a Somali Ostrich, they have blue tinted neck and legs and another Grevy Zebra. We were just about out of the park.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389036399MDEWAD

If we hadn’t seen them then we wouldn’t have seen them at all. Back to the equator and more pictures. Then it was on to Sweetwater Ranch. Oh the roads, I wish I could give you some apt description. I will never complain about potholes ever again (yeah sure). It was about a 4-hour drive. When we showed up we got a hot towel and juice. Very nice. We were shown to our tents, they rocked! Lunch was next, of course buffet. The end of the restaurant was all French doors and monkeys were cavorting out there, making us laugh. It was a little chilly. When we went back to our tents we crossed the equator!

http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389052624OBLaII


We met up with Titus who took us to a chimpanzee center. Jane Goodall helped get it started. The fence was 12 feet high electrified and very sturdy. It had to keep the chimps in but it also had to keep the rhinos and elephants out. We had a guide take us around. The chimps didn’t really get close, except for one. I tried to take pictures of him but the wire fence was in each shot. Disappointing!

Titus then took us to the Rhino Sanctuary. This is where Morani lives. He was orphaned young and had been hand raised. We could pet him. Now I’ve touched an elephant before so I was ready (I thought) for this. But OH MY GOSH, when you touched him there was absolutely NO give to his skin. It was like touching a wall. With an elephant there is some give. This was nothing like that. Reach down and touch an asphalt road, that’s what it’s like.


http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389045481DFwxWH

We left Morani to his devices and started looking for game. After about 30 minutes it started really raining and getting dark, we headed for the lodge. It is amazing to me the disproportionate amount of time that seems to go by in an instant. The dinner was extraordinary and the company was great we had a leisurely dinner and dessert. When I got back to my tent my bed was turned down and a hot water bottle wrapped in a nice velvet cozy. That felt great since it was in the mid 60’s.

Day 5 TO LAKE NAKURU

At 6:15AM it was 57F. YIKES!! I kept my long underwear on and put on my layers. I was actually ok. We have a 180 KM drive to get to Lake Nakuru. We were on a main road for awhile, not too bad, but then we took a short cut…the rain had made this road a treacherous mess, the van with no 4 wheel drive was sliding into and bouncing out of ruts and pot holes. I can only guess we were going about 5 miles an hour! After this torture we had to stop for fuel. We bought a paper and read about the Roads Minister being fired after 2 years because he hadn’t done anything and in an editorial they said he was lucky only to be sacked but should have had charges leveled against him. We had to laugh after the road we were on. So we drove on and with about an hour and a half to go we stopped at Thompson Falls, which are about 160 ft high. We entered the Rift Valley soon after and it was beautiful. It sort of reminded me of driving in W. Virginia. Shortly we arrived at the gate and Titus couldn’t find our entrance tickets so I joked we were going to have a wild night on the town of Nakuru. As we drove in to the lodge we saw herds of gazelle and zebra. Very cool. Got in and unpacked cleaned up and back out for a game drive.


http://community.webshots.com/photo/388976877/389052624OBLaII

We saw a white rhino and her baby. The little one was pretty playful. Then we headed to the shore of the lake. It looked pink from all the flamingos as we approached. We were allowed out and were able to walk around. As I was waiting for Cynthia and Sue I was standing by the van with Titus as this girl from another tour group was walking closer to a rhinoceros that was grazing about 150 feet away. Titus yelled at her to stop. The stupidity of some people still amazes me. We loaded up drove over near the rhino and took more pics and watched him or her for a while. Then we came upon the lion. He was a ham! He was on a small hill and almost level with us. He yawned and I got a picture of his mouth wide open with those teeth. Pretty soon more vans showed up to enjoy him. He was so royal and above all of it. Definitely ham material! After I took about 200 shots of him we headed back to the lodge and dinner. It took about 30 minutes to get back. Dinner again was great (I am sure going to have to pay the piper when I get home). They had Masai singers and dancers. All the chefs were outside cooking beef and chicken 7 different ways on charcoal fires. It was fabulous. The fruit was just sugar melting in your mouth. After dinner I sure felt like it was Thanksgiving Day. I think I put myself in a sugar coma with 3 desserts.
last edited: 7/12/05 1:17:26 PM”

“right knee is still giving me problems and now the left knee may need to be done. the pain is keeping me awake at night.”

“Tango - Did you see any of the fires over there? Did they cause you any problems?
Fires in central Africa
Ignore these questions if covered in your report and I'm sorry. I have not read the posted sections of your report yet, but I will do it.”