Last Blergg!!

Last time reporting from Africa.  Our flight leaves around 9 PM tonight.  So sad to be leaving all the animals 😦

Day: I Don’t Know. I Haven’t Checked the Time Either

Today we drove on real roads for a little bit.  What a treat.  We went to Lake Manyara, or as my grandfather kept calling it ‘Lake Marinara.’  There we saw a lot of baboons, vervet monkeys, and our first sighting of blue monkeys.  There should have been signs that said “Baboon Crossing” because we would wait while about 50 of them ran across the road.  Watching the baboons was too funny.  There was one baby baboon that kept running away from its mother, who, in an effort to keep it close by, grabbed it by its tail and pulled it back towards her.

Delinquent

We also saw our first monitor lizard.  At one point my grandfather was convinced he saw an elephant.  It turned out to be the backside of a buffalo.  Sorry Pop.

Then we went to Tarangire National Park which has the highest concentration of elephants in Africa.  And true to its reputation, two seconds after we entered the park, we saw a group of about 13 elephants.  We saw elephant after elephant, and a few small (well, relatively) baby ones.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Africa 😦

Too Tired to Come Up with a Title

Today we went down into the Ngorongoro crater.  It kind of felt like we were in an extra large snow globe or in the Truman Show; we were in a weird bubble that was a full ecosystem but enclosed by huge hills on every side.  We saw our first rhino, we actually saw six of them, but from distances.  So we have officially seen all of the Big 5 (rhinos, cape buffalo, elephants, lions, leopard).

Far away Rhino

In terms of cats we saw a lot of lions.  Most were napping and they came close to the cars so they could bask in the shade it gave them.  We did see a few lions eating a freshly killed wildebeest.  Yum.  From then on we were all on the lookout for lions in hunting action.  At one point, my grandpa was convinced he saw two lions stalking a wildebeest, but it turned out to be two birds.  Oops.  A little too much Animal Planet watching on his part.

Cats on cats on cats

We also saw a gazelle that was minutes old and we watched it learn how to walk.  Adorable.  It learned in about five minutes.  Much better than humans.

Right now, I am in a Crater

Apparently there are about 1.5 million wildebeest in the Serengeti and I am pretty sure I’ve seen just about every last one of them.

After seeing the massive herds, we visited a Maasai village, which was really interesting.  They are kind of equivalent to the Amish people of America.  They are a tribe of people who choose to strictly maintain their longstanding traditions and try to stop mainstream culture from affecting their customs.  But, they are not opposed to making a profit, which is what they do by giving tours of their village and showing visitors their lifestyle.  Their village comprised of small huts and other small structures (such as a school) and cattle related pens.  Their diet consists almost exclusively of meat, milk, and blood (of the cattle) and this obviously serves them well because they are very rarely sick and often live up to 100.  They are polygamous, but each wife is equal.  The existing wives are actually the ones who select the new wife.  Young boys work with the cattle, but when they are young teenagers, they are trained to be warriors.  The training prepares them to be able to defend the people of the village and the animals.  Then, when they are 18, they get married.  The women take care of the children, gather firewood, and prepare the food.

Then we went to Olduvai Gorge.  Originally named Oldupai, the German scientist who recorded the name, wrote it down wrong, and ever since it has been called Olduvai.  This is the site where Louis and Mary Leakey found evidence of early humans.

After that, we went to Ngorongoro Crater.  This crater formed when a huge volcano erupted and collapsed into itself somewhere between 2 to 3 million years ago.  It is an amazing place, comprised of a large lake and lushious grass.  It is now home to many different species.

Then, to the Ngorongoro lodge, which has a fantastic view of the crater, and internet so I can finally blog.  Right now I’m looking out the window onto the lake and I can see cattle being herded by a young Maasai boy on the hill nearest to me.  Quite an amazing view.

3 Little Genets, by my Doorstep

Yes, this is my second blog title that uses a Bob Marley reference.  So it goes.  As the title suggests, we woke up early this morning to see three little genets right outside our door.  Genets are small nocturnal cats with bushy tails and big eyes.  Very cute until they look at you face on and you can see that they resemble a ferret more than a cat.

We saw a few hyenas and all I could picture was the laughing skinny hyenas from the Lion King.  These hyenas were a bit more chunky and almost looked like small bears with bat faces.

Hyena

Then we came across two cheetahs in the grass.  Truly amazing.  So regal looking, but they still have the cute cat face that makes me want to pet them (but obviously I know that they are no house cats).  All of a sudden, both cheetahs stood up and were both looking in the same direction.  They were staring at a lion, which we then quickly drove over to see.  It was a male lion, who was of course, napping.  Then we drove back to look at the cheetahs again who were doing the funniest thing.  They were partially on guard because the lion was around, so one would sit up, take a quick look, and then fall right back down to napping position.  Every thirty seconds or so, the cheetahs would do this.  Just like my cats, who do nothing more active than they have to, so they can go right back to sleep.

Meow

Big meow

Just as our day started with genets, our day ended with them as well.  When we were eating dinner in the lodge, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, only to discover that a genet was inside the dining room.  It was perched on a ledge about ten feet off the ground.  Soon, everyone in the lodge was looking and taking pictures.  You could see the genet pacing, trying to figure out the best way to get down.  So, just as cats do, it scaled down the wall, scampered across the floor, and hopped out the window.

Stampede at Pride Rock

Wow.  What a day.  We saw herds of zebras, probably hundreds or thousands of them.  They are the animals that lead the migration, and they are pretty smart about it, too.  When zebras approach rivers, they let the wildebeest, who follow them in the migration, go through the river first.  Therefore, the wildebeest are the ones that get eaten by the crocodiles and by the time the zebra cross the river, the crocs are full and tired.  So conniving.  We also saw massive amounts of wildebeest.  They have dark stripes, skinny legs, and weird beards, so basically they are the hipsters of the animal kingdom.  They also have really short memories, so one will cross the road and all of the others will immediately follow, but then a minute later, another one will cross back to the side they just came from and they still follow.

Zebras

The hippest animal: the wildebeest

Then….the best of all.  The cats.  First we saw a lioness sun bathing on a rock.  Then we saw four cheetahs in the middle of the plains.  It was a mother with three cubs.  So beautiful.  Then we saw a female lioness napping right next to a wildebeest carcass.  A few yards away were 7 cubs who were also napping, obviously full from the yummy wildebeest.  And finally, the most ameowzing.  We saw a male lion (the first one we had seen) sleeping next to a female lion.  After watching them sleep for about 20 minutes, they both got up, yawned, mated for a whopping 10 seconds, and went right back to bed.

Cat nap after a long meal

The babies

Big daddy

Other animals we saw today: Crocodiles, warthogs, hyenas, foxes, gazelles, ostrich, and flamingos

3 New Posts Coming At You!

The internet is back and so is the blog.  Rapid fire 3 posts, here it goes….

Buffalo Soldier

I am alive after 12 hours of safari-ing.  From now on I’m going for witty blog post titles, but I have a fear that I may be sweating out all my wit and brainpower.  So, today we woke up a little before six, had breakfast, saw monkeys climbing on the roof of the lodge, and were on the road by 6:30. One of the first things we saw were a herd of 12 elephants (babies included).  Interesting fact I learned: elephants actually never forget.  They have such great memories that if they are ever injured by a person or people, they will come back and destroy that village for revenge.  Yikes.

Elephants on parade

The little (sort of) one!

One of my favorite animals we saw (besides cats, duh) were the dik diks, which look like small deer and are about knee-height.  They are one of the few species that mates for life.  So you always see them in pairs, prancing around.  They make me think of when a small tiny person marries another small tiny person and they make a small tiny couple and you know they will have small tiny children.  Adorable.

Other favorite animals (okay I realize I’m saying that about everything but…) are the monkeys.  It is so amazing to watch them because they are so human-like.  It’s the opposable thumbs that do it.  So when monkeys are really little, they hang on the their mother’s belly and ride like that as the mother walks.  Like an opposite side piggy back ride.  One of the baby monkeys that we saw doing that was basically a newborn.  When he was riding with his mother, we were all like ‘how cute.’  Then, when he hopped down, we realized how uncute super young monkeys are.  Big head, not much fur, huge ears.  Kinda looked like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

Baby monkey looking like GollumThe actual Gollum

What I’m about to write is making me yawn already, but I’m going to do it anyways.  The whole thing about hippos yawning…isn’t exactly yawning, they are showing their huge teeth to each other as to intimidate one another. But it looks like yawning, because they open their mouths so wide and since yawning is contagious I’ve yawned 7 times while writing this.

I bet you yawned when you looked at this

The award for weirdest animal today goes to the mongoose.  They are not geese.  They look like ferret prairie dogs.  And when I say they run in packs, I mean they run in packs.  Legit, not one of them got more than a foot away from the others.  They looked like little CIA agents; one walking very slowly in one direction, getting up on its hind legs to look out, then darting back to the group.  And when a consensus was reached, they would all sprint away as a tight pack, so it looked like one blob of rippling fur.

And as per the blog title, we did see cape buffalo today.  Scary looking.  Their horns meet at the top of their head and the come down and out, almost like a Pippy Longstocking wig.  Not that the Pippy resemblance makes them any less scary.

Cape buffalo

See the resemblance?

We also saw giraffes necking (no, that does not mean kissing, literally necking).  Which means they were fighting by swinging their necks at each other.  Like fighters swinging right hooks, except in slow motion and with 6 foot necks.

Tomorrow we are off to the South Serengeti where there are…..wait for it……lots of cats!!  Meow

Day One in the Serengeti

The lone elephant

Tree cat

So.  Many.  Animals.

I’m too exhausted to type anything witty, so I’ll just give the run down of the day.  We woke up early, flew out from Arusha to the Serengeti on a small plane.  We got off the plane around 10 AM and got in the jeep and went out immediately.  We saw gazelle, impalas, storks, buffalo, lions, giraffes, guinea fowl, hyraxes, dik diks, baboons, elephants , hippos and monkeys.

The lions that we saw were all sleeping in one tree, there must have been about 12.  And at one point, one of them came down from the tree and walked right up to the jeep.  We also saw a lone elephant and got within 20 or so feet of him.  Slightly scary because lone elephants are agressive and have been known to attack.

We picnicked lunch and then went right back out again.  We stayed out until about 6.  I’m so exhausted.

Crazier than New Jersey Highways

City of Arusha

Pop and I sitting outside at the hotel

Just came back from our tour of the city of Arusha.  It’s home to about 1 million people and it seemed like all 1 million were driving on the roads today.  While traffic is very bad in many major cities, the cars are small and the drivers are going fast.  But, Arusha is full of Jeeps and vans, all which move rather slowly but are always within millimeters of another car, person, or building.  Plus all of the little bikes, motorcycles, and pedestrians.  Oh yeah, no traffic lights or stop signs.  Instead of cabs, they had vans that were used as public transportation, different lines drove people different places, like a subway system.  But, the strange thing was that these vans all had pictures of Jesus on them and next to it something in Swahili I couldn’t read.  So, is this for real?  Are these converted church vans?  Is it a joke?  Because the Jesus didn’t look too serious.  Googling ‘Arusha jesus van’ didn’t do me any good, so it will remain a mystery why he was on their public transportation.

Most of the buildings were one or two stories at most, very rarely were things built up.  Many of the buildings were poorly constructed and none of the shops were fully indoors.  Each shop of relatively small and specializing in usually just one thing, whether it was pants, car oil, soaps, or bananas.  It was a different type of city that I had never seen.  I have nothing to liken it to.  It almost felt like a small run-down little town, but with masses of people and cars.

Tomorrow morning we fly out to the Serengeti and start the safari.  Can’t wait to see cats!