Monthly Archives: July 2023

Bette tried to keep a list of all the animals we saw. The spelling may not be correct.

Baboons with babies

Lions – females with cubs, huge group hunting, males, males with females keeping other males away

Thompson gazelle

Elephants – huge herds, lots of small groups, one memorable time with a 2 week old that the females protected

Zebra – huge herds, migrating with the wildebeest

Cape buffalo – huge herds

Wildebeest- one day we estimated there were 10s of thousands, pictures can not describe what we saw, they were migrating along with the zebra also in the thousands

Hippos – huge pool with literally hundreds, small water areas with some, even saw a few out of the water to include one on the way to our balloon ride that was in the road

Topi – big antelope

Warthog

Silver backed jackal

Ostrich – both the colorful males and the drab grey females

African white hooded vultures and several other types

Spotted hyena

Eland – the biggest antelope in Africa

Cokes hartebeaste

Serval cats – saw them 2 times very hard to do

Tony eagle

Impala – identified by a “m” on their butt

Rock Hyrex

Masai giraffe

Black faced vervet monkey

Crocodile

Black bat jackal

Cheetah and 3 cubs – saw once on the side of the road and a second time from our balloon

Leopard – we had 5 amazing spotting of these very elusive animals

Agama lizard

Secretary birds

Egyptian goose

Black heron

Yellow billed stork

Banded mongoose

Botha reedbock

Brown snake eagle

Waterbuck

Leopard turtle

Martial eagle

Grant’s gazelle

Flamingo

Masai ostrich

Sedo billed stork

Crowned cranes

Kori bustard

Blue monkey

Red billed hornbill

Mongoose

Eastern goshawk

Cattle egrets

Southern ground hornbill

Fish eagle

Crowned plover

Hadada ibis

Brown snake eagle

We may not have been able to get a photo of each one, but are amazed at all we saw.

First, our lodge is very different. The main lobby and dining area is built around a huge baobab tree. It is all open facing the pool and waterhole. The rooms are spaced very far apart and are built next to or touching baobab trees. The rooms are framed with wood but the walls are all screens. You have to climb a spiral staircase to get to the room. At night they close a trap door at the top to keep “visitors” out. Unfortunately it did not work for Jennifer and Sunny they had a mouse visit every night. The fist night it opened the cookie jar and the second it knocked over the water bottle. Not the animal excitement they were looking for.

This day we had a full day game drive to a different area of the park. It was along a beautiful lake that ran for miles. We saw lots of zebra, Cape buffalo and huge herds of elephants. There were also many beautiful birds.

We then had another bush lunch and headed back to the lodge. We need to tell you that the lunches prepared by the lodges were amazing. They usually had 2 different meat dishes, several salads, fruit and of course dessert. We had expected sandwiches and chips and were very surprised and pleased.

When we arrived back at the lodge we had some elephants at the waterhole.

For our final evening we had dinner in the boma with Richard joining us. It was a fabulous end to an amazing trip.

This was our wake up call the last morning. Right next to our treehouse.

We have now started back. Jennifer, Sunny, Jacob and Abby are off to Zanzibar for a few days. Bob and Bette back home.

It was truly a wonderful, eye opening trip. We saw so much and learned quite a bit about Tanzania.

We left the crater area and were on our way to Tarangire National Park. On the way we stopped at a fabulous shopping gallery with all kinds of native and traditional goods. There were wood carvings, beaded goods from the Masai, copper goods, cloth, art and Tanzanite. We had an enjoyable half hour buying some things for ourselves and to bring back as gifts.

Then we were off to Mto Wa Mbu village for a guided walk. We met our two guides and we were off. They said that they live “the banana life”. We walked through the banana plantation and they told us about how they use every part of the banana. We then went to an art school. We saw the village school, which was out for the month of June for vacation. This school looked like they really were teaching the young people, unlike the Masai school which did not look like much education happened in it. We stopped at the local tavern for banana beer, we did not try it because it looked like we might get tummy issues if we did. We then went to the local market and walked and saw what was being sold. The people of this village grow most of their food and the vegetables on display were very good looking. We had some very interesting conversations with our guides. They asked questions about our lives and it was difficult to tell them about the excess of our lives in comparison to theirs. When we talked about the houses in the village we were told that the first one you build is a mud and stick house, followed by a mud house and finally if you save enough you might build a block house. It was hard to say we lived in the type of homes we do with water, electricity and all the other amenities we take for granted.

Then we went to lunch in the Tarangire National Park and did a game drive to our hotel. The Tarangire National Park is known as the home of two giants – the baobab tree and the huge herds of elephants. Our hotel, called Treetops was actually built on or around the baobab trees.

This day we were scheduled for 2 activities. A crater rim walk in the morning and a game drive after lunch. However at this time of year the mornings are very foggy so we did them in reverse. The road into the crater was one way and was paved with cobble stones. All of the roads we had been riding on so far were dirt. It is the only unbroken caldera in the world. It covers 264 square kilometers and is from 10 to 22 kilometers wide. It is 610 meters deep. In the center is a huge salt lake. We saw a lot of animals. Here are some photos of them.

We also saw flamingos and a rhinoceros but they were way in the distance and our pictures were not too good.

Then it was lunchtime. We went to the picnic area and used the restrooms. Then we started driving down a path that said rangers only and not to the picnic area. Suddenly there was a tent and servers and a cook. It was an amazing lunch out on the floor of the crater.

We then left the crater and came back to our lodge. We met our ranger guide and did a crater rim walk. On the way we learned about the plants, saw Masai herding their goats and cattle and had amazing views.

Today we left the Serengeti National Park and entered the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It took almost 2 hours to drive from our hotel in the Serengeti to the exit. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is right at the border.

Our first stop on the way to the crater was at the Olduvai Gorge, called the Cradle of Human Civilization. The first excavations there were done in 1813. It was in 1931 that Louis Leakey began digging in this area, but did not discover the first human like skull, until 1959, that lead to the conclusion that life of the human species began there. We learned about the geology of the land and how the various layers of soil came to be. There was a very good exhibit with many archeological items. The site is still active in June, July and August when college students and others come to continue to make discoveries.

We were then on the road again. We next stopped at a traditional Masai village. They greeted us with singing and dancing. We were then clothed in their attire and had jumping and dancing contests. The Masai are known to jump very high. Not sure many in our group got too far off the ground. We also went into a home to see what it looked like, visited the village school for the young children and got to shop for some of their handmade items. The Masai are herders, have no electricity or running water. They cook over wood in their house, which has no windows. At night all the animals are brought into the center of the boma and are corralled their to protect them. It looked like a very hard way of life.

We then continued on to our hotel, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, on the rim of the crater. We had a late lunch and walked around the property. Then we had a very wonderful dinner. The pictures are from both nights, very fancy in a very remote place.