Quest for Beer - Africa (Tanzania)

5:00am came around really early! Somehow we all managed to get up, grab some breakfast, and pile in the landrovers for one last game drive. Getting up early was worth it! This beautiful sunrise photo also came from Cindy!

Although there were many facinating birds of all sizes, shapes, and colors, they took second fiddle behind the big animals when it came to stopping for photos. This was a sacred ibis I believe. We also saw some flamingos in the crater, but they were far away.

Here were some other birds we encountered along the way, some even ate out of my hand at the wayside stop. These photos are courtesy of Marisa (check out her photos if you haven’t already done so, she’s added some new ones!).

Here was a group of hyenas. We thought we were going to be in for some action, but nothing happened.

The inside of the crater is 11 miles in diameter and the height from the floor to the rim is about 2000′.

There are normally about 25,000 animals in the crater at any one time (mostly zebras and wildebeest).

and more wildebeests….

Here was a group of lionesses. All the animals seemed fatter in the crater - maybe the vegetation is more lush and nutritious this time of year as opposed to the serengeti.

Dusty Roads. About the only big animal we did not see was the black rhino. We thought there would be a good chance to see one in the crater, but no such luck.

Here is a good group shot with the landrovers (thanks again, Marisa).

At the oasis bathroom break in the crater. Maybe we should feed the animals.

Ok, we probably shouldn’t feed the animals. We had a monkey jump into the landrover as we were parked there.

This was the largest elephant we saw! The thing was huge! Look at the size of its tusks. Estimated at around 60 years old. It was kind of scary watching it walk our way.

The group seemed pretty tired out by this point, so we headed back to camp to pack up. We then drove on back to Moshi.

My camera’s memory cards filled up at this point, so I have no more photos. I will try to get photos from other people to post here. Once back in Moshi, we had the iciest, coldest beers ever at the Keys Hotel! Showered up and then hit the disco bar (Pub Alberto) for a cheese burger, fries, and some cheesy american disco music. This was our last night together. We toasted Jonathan at midnight for his birthday (shots of tequila), some people danced until 3am, others said their good-byes earlier and went on our ways. Kind of sad. It’s amazing how attached you get to people when you spend day in and out with them for over 2 weeks. Don’t worry, this isn’t the end of the blog. I will fill you in on the next couple of days including the trip home, and give a recap. I’ll need to track down some more photos, though, to keep it interesting, so stay tuned….

Chuck

Ok, I’m back. Sorry about the delay in the blog updates (just been taking care of some housekeeping).

I think we got to sleep in a bit this morning. Breakfast was in no rush. Breakfasts usually consisted of toast, peanut butter, jam, honey, porridge, breakfast sausage (hotdogs), and eggs. David, pictured holding the big pot, was our cook for the entire trip! Cooking for 28 people, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 weeks is no easy task - he was awesome! The dinners with goat and/or beef were always a huge hit, and it was amazing at how many soups he came up with.

This was a little gem, it seemed everyone thought it was a shower (there was another shower close by and the tarps looked the same - and there were other, not so clean, toilets with a different style tarp - thus the confusion). That’s too much information, I know, but here’s some more. I got to be the first to use it!

Ok, on to the drive. Another long, hot, dusty day in the landrover. We are heading back to Ngorongoro Crater, which meant driving back across the Serengeti. This elephant was out for a morning stroll.

We got very lucky and our driver spotted this leopard up in a tree. You can barely see its paw hanging down.

There were many Masai villages close to Ngorongoro, but it was hard to take photos of them from the landrover, and if you stop to take photos, they run up to you and ask for money. I snuck this photo in, though, although he did come over and tried to sell Mark his spear.

We got to camp around 4pm or so. For some reason we had to set up our own tents tonight - that was a challenge. We played some frisbee for a while and then got interrupted by this guy. He walked about 10 feet from our dinner tables and then proceeded to hang out near the bathroom stalls.

This photo is courtesy of Cindy (check ‘em out, she has some great photos!)

This was the last campsite - one more night of tenting it. Firewood was scarce and after seeing the elephant, we didn’t venture too far away to look for it. Sean H. and I walked about 10 feet past the toilets and he shined his headlamp into 3 sets of glowing eyes that belonged to these huge water buffalos - we made a quick exit and went back to the fire with no wood. Needless to say we partied again that night - it took a while for the fire to get going, but we managed a nice one with what little fuel there was.

(photo from Cindy)

The plan was to get up a 5am so we could be heading down into the crater at 6am (then out by noon - they only allow so many groups for a certain period of time in the crater). I lost a bet to Madhu about the fire being hot enough to melt glass - it actually did melt it, but did not disappear completely.

Jonathan, Adie, Brad, Jen, and Teresa hanging out at the dinner tables after the elephant went by.

Just a quick side note to add a link to Mary's very good photos (artistic and humorous). http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2114466343 Parental discretion is advised... Also, here is Cindy's travel blog: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/calyu/ See the column on the right (under My Links) for more blogs ... [Continue reading this entry]

It was hot, hotter than yesterday, and yesterday was damn hot! It's really dry, though, so it only feels hot, like an oven. It was so hot that this lionesse sat right next to the road and let ... [Continue reading this entry]

We got up really early this morning - before daylight even. We had a light breakfast and headed out for an early morning game drive - a few hangovers from the night before, but it was all worth it ... [Continue reading this entry]

It wasn't long before we started seeing animals (and lots of them). These were the only cheetahs we saw on the entire safari (they weren't moving too fast). [Continue reading this entry]

Woke up to a beautiful morning - the nights really cool off nicely here, but the days are extremely hot (at least it wasn't so humid, but that made it very dusty). [Continue reading this entry]

Ok, I better continue writing before I forget what happened. Anyone who is reading this that was on the trip, feel free to correct me or add to any of these posts. Day 1 continued with a drive ... [Continue reading this entry]

I noticed a few hangovers this morning - I had none, but my head did hurt after taking an hour to shave my beard off with a dull razor blade. It just so happened that our mountain guide Nickson ... [Continue reading this entry]

Just a quick note about gadgets. I did not realize I was so behind on all the ipod and mp3 technology. There were a few ipods amongst the group and Brian and Alexa even brought speakers on safari ... [Continue reading this entry]