mediterraneo hotel north of Dar

Our very last night in africa until??

We left tangarire park at about 8 ...drive slowly i to Arusha. had a funny BBQ lunch ...wonderful BBQ pit, it was a huge circular affair, with masses of hot coals and very long iron rods /squear s of lamb, beef, chicken, sausage etc 

this was served with a series of hot sauces and a potato anf some slaw. Our flight was called early somwe had a cheery farewell nto our drivers and the rest od the group who were on their way to 

Rwanda da via Nairobi.  Another two were leaving for London so there were eight going to the Big Apes.

We Arrived half an hour early, having been kept in the plane for 45 unairconditioned minutes on rhe ground at Zanzibar air port. We finally flew the twenty minutes to Dar es Salaam  We had ordered a driver but as he was expecting us after six he was not  there and we were HOUNDED by the other taxi drivers, more or less lying to us about our driver etc.   eventually David from the hotel came, But It  took 95 terrifying minutes to drive through ama😰zing traffic.  ten lanes where two was the reality.  It was i ncredible how polite the drivers were inthe  melee.  We saw more people than ever equally crowding the streets, selling everything....from red warning triangles to dvds.

We are now at breakfast having walked the beach beyond the limits of the hotel and inabout ten mi utes one of the Masai from the hotel caught up to us   and encouraged us to return.  he walked us back to our beach and gave us a thumbs up as he climbed back onto hotel grounds.

 

a good day. Tarangiire.Park

crenOur last  day with the he group.  We had a wonderful game drive unto this park called Tarangire pzrk famous for its large population of elephants and Baobob  trees.  And certainlt it was as advertised... masses of both.  We have two trucks in our griup a nd onee was surrounded bty passing elephants for a long time...

there are also giraffes..it os a peaceful lace to be,,

We had a  wonderful song send ogff fron the staff

cren 

tufted herons in a tree at sunsey

boab tree

baby rubbing against tree

wow. all posted

We are in a location on thw rim for fast(ish) internet,,managed to sit in the bar q...without drinking and send off the. blogs.

hope the photos come through also 

The meals are lavish in this Sopa hotel.  we arrived here late i. the PM for four course meal,,,soup. thenchoice of starters...salad    cold.  or hot mushrooms on toast.  thenfour choices for main meal,,,great vegetarian choices,,,always fish, I had chichen with masala sauce.   A lot of the food is Indian and there are a lot of Indian famlies travelling..this evening the first woman in an Abaya.  running around on the lawn with her little boy and the a photo done with hier husbands arm around her  but her face was covered.

There are restrictions for hot water...here from 0500 to 0800. and in th evening. 1700  to  2000

Electricity goes off at 2300 but there are battery lights for emergencies. Alos there is a whistle at the door to blow if you need help.  Heavy patrols all night because of the mear by animals.  Lots of lions. 

Every night there is some kind of entertainment and tonight it was 8 male Masai blowing through an  hollow antler and the rest of them singing and doing there straight up ans down jumping.

odds and ends of photos

wananasinging ,,Jambo jambo B

babies

we drove on leaving the wart hog. but stopping for a black jackal.in the crater the elephants do not bring their young as it is too steep.  but there was a cry from Glorria...baby  gazelles

...but they were only half g rown and not real babies.

We are now by an alkaline lake and itis,full of pink flamingo.  We had,watched,them, eat,elaewhere, they turn their heads upside down.  and do,a back,and forth movement,,,a bit,like,vacuuming,

aha. a baby gazelle.

there is a greater flamingo and a lesser flamingo the lesser are pink and live on the green and blue algae

the greater eat in deeper waters

We are now in throes of raptures as we can see baby Cape Buffalo! there were two of them

A den of baby hyeneas can suckle for a year..they are born with full incisors.  they immediately fight for place. usually only one survives.  

next we saw young

masai children herding  cows,,,,the Masai may not live in the crater but they can bring their cattle/sheep to water. I tried to capture  the wonderful scene of a long line of cows coming down the steep,winding trail from the crater to,the water hole. There must have three hundred cows with their herders in Masaii red!!!!! Rosemary asked the question, what do,you wear under your skirts?  Answer, nothing but if you have been to,school out of the village the young weaar underwear.

A rich masai man has 1000 cows.

Giraffes cannot make the descent. Leopards because there is too much open ground...and another reason impalas  do not come  or elephants is,that,the food,is not adequate.. 

We are now stopped at a family of warthogs..lots of babies...some of them grown but are still a family.

We drove like mad to see lions stalking wildebeast,,,waited a while but realized it would be ages, so we left for our picnic site, nearly an hour ago ....We are now stopped to watch Ostrich, a large herd .

Rosemary shouted out that the wildebeadt were having "at each other" but yhe lady was not interested.

it is now 1400  and  we haive eaten our lunch boxes. 

 boxed lunches.have to eat inside as the large Kites  sweep down  and will steal the food right out of your hand  and mouth.  One driver put out a table and begore he bli ked the Kites were there. They quickly collapsed the table and ate in the cars.

familyfamily

clan of hyenas

We were up atm0530.  bfast,at,0600. suitcases out at,0600' leaving the rimand descendingmimto,th,rncrakter.   We came to a hippo,pool but near b.y.  the hyenas has,chased a 

wildebeast into thw,water and before the beast was,dead theymbegan to,rear pieces of flesh from the belly and elsewhere.  We rajther,ghoulishly watched , when. from afar, we could see lins cominf at a brisk trot.  the hyenas ..all eleven if the,m vacated themwater at a dead run.  the lions rushed to,the water and one brave lioness  slowly descended imto,the,waywr, but bymthis,time,the wildebeast had been drowned.  the lioness swam around for a while and the got out.   The malr lion came over and seemed to irge hermto rr enter,,but no shemhas.so far,stayed out. 

Before,that,we,saw,a,family of Brothers ..four male lioms.   Theu were separate but slowly walked untilthey were close to eachmotjer,  Theymrubbed,noses, one laymdown his,back pushing st,the back of the other.   Then the fourth came ans the other three lumbered over and more or less lying down on top or very close they lay down.  

the masaii in the lounge

want to show you photos of our road this morning

om the road

,We are staked out waiting for a lion which is hiding in the long grass to Attack A small herd of wildebeast

We are a little weary of. very bumpy roads so in a sense it is nice to sit still.  I have decidedto begin  another edition

Well at that point the lioness came tp life running into the herd of wildebeast, they dispersed in all

directioms.   After a few moments she sauntered along our various vehicles Ans crossing over gave chase again,and with a tremendous burst of speed caught a wildebeast... we...and. many other trucks of people drove like mad to see her still smothering the kill.  Eventually it lay still.  

We waited for her to start eating but she eventually left it...some spculation  that she was going to fetch her cubs .    We waited for nearly an hour when someone shouted that they. could  see her coming with 3 cubs...Yes three,.  She crossed over the road  zig zagging her way through the vehicles. her cubs following...slowly.  We watched as she gently called and they came.    At first the cubs played at chewing, but then Moma came and opened her kill..a.everyone joined in but then the lioness pulled the kill out of sight and we ..drove off.

d

now on the Rim of the Ngorongoro Crater

We were up and away by 0700. driving through very difficult roads due to the heavy rain from the night before.  Our four wheel drive had to engage the wheels and the lower gear shift as we slithered through32kms of road before getting onto the main gravel hway. 

the road stops being a park but. not before we saw herds of elephants and two magnificent male lions

more and more wildebeast on the move,  We stopped to the cries of Rosemary , a bird, a bird. to see a bustead ..the heaviest flying bird inAfrica. 

We then turned down sandy black road to the Conservation Area via Olduvai Gorge.  there is a small museum and display area soon to be much larger.  The display was of Mary Leakey and her husbands work. since the early sixties.   stone age tools ..and the in late 80 s the walkway of humanoid foot prints of 6000 years ago...this was an extremely important find.    People from all over the world come to dig during the months of June July August..just after the rainy season. 

The valley is 55. kms across and about 45 wide...there are several intersecting valleys.

there are five obvious geological layers.. lava and basalt, the volcanic ash. then bed three  did not support life Bed four where many fossils are found and  homo erectus...about 100000 years ago They call this the soure of life.

 The name of the Gorge was spelt incorrectly by some German Entomologist...when he asked the name 

he did not hear Oldupai gorge which is thname of a very useful plant...one that looks like a sort of cactus but  provides water and food to many animals, especially during the dry season. the Masai called the gorge after this plant.

We then went to a Masai Village.   The villagers have been given money from the tour company and  the villagers greeted us warmly. 

We were greeted. by a well spoken young man,,clear english, who said he would take us to the school and the to see a house.   We were encouraged to ask questions....any and all.

When we visited the kindergarten class ,apparently all the off spring of the chief who has 14 wives, they sang a song for usand went to the chalk boardandcounted out numbers in english.  We then sang them a song.  If you're Happy and you know it Clap Your Hands ...we stomped our feet and did the turn around...... they seemed to like it,

a woman plastering

 over herhouse with dung

asleep inder a bench, the Masai believe that all animals are masai

more

the morni ng was beautiful and at  8. with packed lunches  we took off for a full day.

We immediately came across a herd of elephants with several babies, some of them very small.

there must have at leat 30.  theu cross the road in front and behind, and ea h time a large one crossed She would stop,and look at us. flappinf her  ears and trumpeting...while the rest crossed .  It was magical,

waiting for the Cheetah

, your grantWe have been holed up nere for an hour ...decided to eat our packed lunches...while waiting by this swampy lake where according to all reports there is a cheetah in the grass.  

Yesterday we saw two Rhino and to Glorias great shouts of. The Big Fives and high fiving it all round, we are now on the search for the smaller five meanwhile,looking for the ugly five.   Wart Hog.  Hyena, Wildebeast ??? cannot remember hippo.  crocodile?

W e have now eaten...and the chettah is a no show...

When ever one car stops before you know it there are twenty.   Most of those have now moved on and we think the cheetah was a mythical sighting.

Not true we drove around for an hour  watching a mating pair of lions sharing a small impala.  But we returnedto the Cheetah site and our driver suddenly put on a burst of speed...and there sitting up nice and proud was the cheetah....she was searching for something to eat ,,,we imagined that the lions had stolen her kill, a common occurence.  Everyone was thrilled.

We then made our long way home, arriving in the dark coming across the migrating wildebeast on the road. 

there were eleven lions disney like all in a row

thought she was in labour  but when we  in retrospect maybe she had eaten a lot

cheetah. 

wifi. slow and not wanting to send blog

We are on ohr 5 day of the Tanzania Safari.   This morning eight people got up at 0400 to be drive to the Serengetti Bslloon launch...the morning was a lovely clear day. Many were surprised at the method of entereing the Basket.   You apparently climb in feet first. while lying prone on the ground. 

you get out the same way.  the Balloon baskets are divided i to four, being room for a total of sixteen per basket.

They were on board for about an hour, flying low over tree tops and grass lands and rivers.  Our group all raved about the experience and were very very pleased that they went. 

there was sparkling wine with mango juice afterwards and thena drive to a place for breakfast...lots of fruit and the eggs ,bacon , i.e. e glish breaakfast and more sparkling wine.

r and I joined garth Nd. rent inan early game drive seeing lots of animals along the way.  We picked up the ballooners at around ten