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NOTE: JAMBONI (Hello) KARIBU! (Welcome!)
Division of Wineland-Thomson Adventures, Inc.
July 8th, 2007. After 11 eventful days in Tanzania (plus 2 additional days in flight), my companions ( Roberta and Keith) and I reluctantly returned to a hot and humid Boston. It had been winter in The United Republic of Tanzania - located below the Equator in Eastern Africa between longitude 29o and 41o East, Latitude 1o and 12o South.
MAPS:
ITINERARY: DAY 1: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 DAY 2: Wednesday, June 27 DAY 3 - Thursday June 28. 7:00 AM Breakfast. Met our Thomson guides, Ojukwu and Mohamed, and other members of the safari we did not met the night before/ • Roberta and Keith and myself
• Tamar and Ricard from New Jersey • Mike from Sarasota, Flordia • Terry, Jane, Greg and Kathryn, from South Bend, Indiana. • Peter, pastor of Catholic parish in Youngtown, OH - friends of Terry etc. 8:30 am - Orientation meeting; then packed our two Land Rovers and left the lodge. Drove through outskirts of Arusha and stop at Cultural Heritage Center. Walking and bicycle seemed to be the common mode of transportation. We start our safari with a scenic drive through Africa's Great Rift Valley.
Driving west from Arusha, we pass vistas of extinct volcanoes and WaArusha postoralists tending there herds of cattle... then we turn south entering onto the rolling plains of "Maasai Steppe" with many Maasai bomas (also called ngang or manyatta - meaninng 'homestead' or 'village') and herds of cattle. Maasai male children are responsible for herding the wild-stock (cattle & goats); women and young girls are responsible for the household, cooking, construction and maintenance of the boma houses; men (the patriarchs) apparently do few everyday chores... 12:00 NOOM: arrive at entrance of Tarangire National Park (map) where we had box lunch and viewed our first wild-life (Zebera) and Red & Yellow Barbet on a termite mound After lunch we headed down the main dirt road into the park: WILD-LIFE VIEWED: • small herd of Elephants • male Maasai Giraffe nibbling on the top of a small acacia tree, • herd of Zebra grazing alongside a herd of Wildebeest. Zebra and wildebeest herds often travel and graze together. the zebras graze on long grasses. The wildebeest go for the short grasses. They have a symbiotic relationship caused by an increased chance of predator detection. Wildebeest have poor eye sight and are not adept at defending themselves. Zebra, have excellent eyesight and can kick and bite ferociously. No two individual zebras have the exact same pattern of stripes • Common Ostrich • glimpsed our first Wart Hog and Grant's Gazelle • More herds of Zebra and Wildebeest • Baobab Tree with hole in trunk and Weaver bird-nests. • Head of Elephants with Mother and young nursing Elephant. • Another herd of nine Elephants - very close to our Land Rover. • (5 "Old" male Elephants - after losing the dominance of their herd, male (and Lion) elephants go off on their own) 6:00 pm - arrive at Thomson Tarangire Nyumba ("home" in Swahili) • greeted by camp staff and assigned to our tents (I'm closest to dining tent) . each tent has 2 solar lights hanging from roof of tent. . its own chemical toilet, washing basin and water jar and camp shower. • Refresh myself with a hot water shower. • before entering dining tent we wipe our hands warm damp wash cloth. • excellent dinner with candles, sculptured napkins, homemade bread,delicious pumpkin soup, etc. • after dinner, conversation, and sunset around campfire • a guard, with rifle, will be on duty over-night • while settling in tent, heard a very distinctive lion roar, more roaring around 2:00 am and 5:30 am I thought the roars were a hoax, but I'm more likely incorrect. Spent two overnights at Thomson Tarangire Nyumba (staff) and two days viewing wildlife in the 1,005 sq miles park noted for vast amounts of Baobab Trees, termite mounds, and a wide variety of wild-life - especially elephants and numerous birds. EACH MORNING: • Wake up call: JAMBO, JAMBO, (Hello in Swahili) by staff-member. we are expected to respond in like...or with "JAMBO X 2" • pitcher of warm water is left on table in front of tent for morning clean-up. • hearty breakfast - eggs, meats, large variety of fresh fruits, hot & cold cereal, juices, teas & coffee. • select items for boxed lunch; pack Land Rover for day's wild-life viewing. DAY 4 - Friday, June 29. DAY 5 - Saturday, June 30. We drive through Tarangire, then continue with a scenic one-hour drive through Africa's Great Rift Valley en route to the village of Mto Wa Mbu (meaning mosquito creek) halfway between Arusha and the Ngorongoro Crater... and continue through the verdant farmlands of Mbululand and onto Gibb's Farms. DAY 6 - Sunday, July 1. Left Gibb's Farm after a buffet breakfast (with Rick Thomson) and guided walk with Honest through the forest to waterfall, and coffee plantings, surrounding the farm.  Stopped briefly to meet Hubert Mmbaga, Assistant Principle at the Ganako Secondary School, near the village of Karatu. Travelled on to entrance of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (8,300 sq. kilometer area of geological and historical importance) and then on to Thomson Ngorongoro Nyumba set in dense acacia woodland on the Northern rim of the Ngorongoro Crater wall. Ngorongoro Crater (pdf) - often referred as "Africa's Garden of Eden' 12 miles wide, 2,000 feet deep, and covering an area of 102 square miles of mountain forests, lush vegetation, and fresh springs surround the rim of the crater's towering walls, which top out at an elevation of 7,500 feet. The largest intact volcanic crater on earth, it hosts an estimated 30,000 animals on its floor, including large herds of zebra and wildebeest, buffalo, eland, hartebeest, elephant, hippo, lions, flamingoes, and the endangered black rhino. Spent two chilly overnights at Ngorongoro Nyumba - with hot water bottles to warm our beds. During the days we desended 2000 feet below our campsite onto the crater floor to view a variety of wildlife. DAY 7 - Monday, July 2. On the afternoon of our last day we visited a traditional Maasai Boma near the crater's edge. The Masai still build their homes the traditional way using cow dung and mud over a frame of sticks. They are very dark inside (only one small round window) and are sunk into the ground. Beds are made of leather cowhide. DAY 8 - Tuesday, July 3. Left Ngorongoro campsite, on a cool and very foggy morning, for Serengeti National Park via the southern edge of the crater's circumference.  enlarge Simple Stone Monument on Ngorogoro Crater's western ridge to PROFESSOR BERNANRD GRZZIMEK and MICHAEL GRZIMEK 12. 4. 1934 - 10. 1. 1959 HE GAVE ALL HE POSSESSED INCLUDING HIS LIFE FOR THE WILD ANIMALS OF AFRICA
Descending from the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands into the Malanja depression we came out onto the open plains of The Great Rift Valley and enter the Serengeti Plains. En route we pass through Olduvai Gorge, where Louis and Mary Leakey made some of the most important discoveries in the search for human origins. We visit a small but interesting museum at Olduvai, where we learn about the discovery and significance of the site where the history of humankind is graced back more than 1.6 million years. In addition to the relics of our human ancestor, we see fossis of vanished forms of elephants and other wildlife that shared the ancient Serengeti ecosystem with the precursors of 'Homo sapiens.' Drove to the south-eastern entrance of the Serengeti National Park at Naabi Hill Gate. "Serengeti" in the Maasai language means "endless plains." The 5,700 sq. mile expanse of grasslands and forests as large as the state of Connecticut Scattered with kopies, herds of wildebeest, zebra and elephants, and a great variety of wildlife, including lions and cheetahs. Famous for the annual migration of wildebeests and zebras. Kopjes (copyies) are outcroppings of ancient stone - rounded piles of boulders formed into distinctive shapes by eons of wind. They occur as archipelagos, little islands of stone punctuating the Serengeti's sea of grass, and each has a very different character. Lions (and other predators) greatly favor kopjes as daytime resting places. We spent two overnights at the Thomson Serengeti Nyumba at Robanda DAY 9 - Wednesday July 4 DAY 10 - Thursday July 5 Drove northwest outside Serengeti National Park. DAY 11 - Friday, July 6. • visit border of Tanzania and Kenya.
DAY 12 - Saturday, July 7. After breakfast we packed our bags and headed for the dirt and grass airstrip on the Serengeti (next to Lemai Guard Post) for our flight to Arusha in a small 13 seat plane. DAY 13 - Sunday, July 8 Arrived at Amsterdam Airport; said goodbye to fellow safari travelers, eat once again!, then made our connecting flights home.
Tutaonana (We'll see each other again) Scattergood
SELECTED WILD-LIFE:
MAMMALS: • Antelopes (Swala in Swahili)
• Olive Baboons
• Cheetah (Duma) [ 2 ]
• Kirk's Dik Diks (stock photo)
• Elephant (Tembo in Swahili) [ 2 | 3 | Keith ]
• Gazelle (Swala): Grant's Gazelle & Thomson's Gazelle
• Maasai Giraffe (Twiga) [ 2 | detail | Keith ]
• Hippopotamus (Kiboko) [ 2 | Keith | Keith2 ]
• Cokes Harebeest
• Hyena (Fisi)
• Rock Hyrax & Tree Hyrax (the closest genetic relatives to elephants!)
• Impalas
• Jackals [ 2 ]
• Klipspringers
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Leopard (Chui) [ detail ]
• Lion (Simba) [ 2 | Keith ]
• Beisa Oryx
• Black Rhinoceros (Kifaru) [ 2 ]
• Topi
• Black-Faced Vervet Monkeys aka Blue-ball Monkey [ 2 | 3 ]
• Wart Hogs
• Waterbuck
• Cape Water Buffalo (Nyati)
• Wildebeest [ 2 ]
• Zebra (Punda Milia) [ 2 ]
NOTE: Photogrpahs linked to this page are
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