Update #1 from Farrell
10 years late, but I made it to Africa! TLDR: We're very lucky and seeing a ton!
Jambo! I'm writing this from the air as we cross over Tanzania.
The trip has been amazing so far! After a fun 24 hours in Seattle, Brian and I boarded the impressive Qatar Airlines flight and made ourselves comfortable in Q Suites. We changed into airline provided PJs, watched a few movies, had an elaborate dinner, and made the most of the open bar. We slept fairly well in our double bed in the sky. We landed in Doha, met up with John & Ellen, and went straight to our hotel. The hotel was immaculate, and were lucky enough to be upgraded to a suite! We had dinner and went to bed to avoid jet lag.
The next day we looked at the pool and the beach but with a high of 110°F+ we were happy to lounge in the room. After a big buffet brunch, our tour driver picked us up and we drove around the city. Unfortunately, due to the airstrikes the week before, the Muslim leaders of the world had been brought to Qatar to discuss peace options, and the king closed all of the museums and many of the roads for the summit. We made the most of it and saw the beautiful city skyline and architecture. The only thing more incredible than the wealth was the heat! Bopping into shopping malls filled with luxury brands was the best way to stay cool. My favorite part was when we visited the historical Souq (marketplace) to see the diverse vendors and experience the local culture. We had a delicious Persian barbecue of lamb chicken, beef, and prawns with all the rice and fava beans we could handle. After dinner, we went back to the airport and enjoyed the very impressive lounge until our 1am flight.
Exhausted with almost no sleep, we landed in Nairobi at 7am, easily passed through immigration, and claimed a table at a coffee shop. We waited there and laughed at the stray kittens until our driver came to get us. We rode the 45 minutes from the international airport to the local airport, boarded a small plane and then flew to Kilimanjaro. We went through immigration again in Tanzania and waited for a while in the terminal. I dozed off, so I'm glad I had travel buddies to make sure I made the next flight. Our last connection of the day was a 12-seater that took us to Kuro airstrip in the heart of Tarangire National Park.
We met our driver, James, loaded up in our safari Land Cruiser, and with the top popped, we started towards the hotel. Immediately we saw so many animals!!! Lions, zebras, and giraffes - oh my! We stopped and took in the first elephant pod and their size was truly amazing. The highlight was a group of baboons. There were over 100 crossing the road in front of us. Many had small babies clinging to their underside. Some bigger makes stared at us taking pictures, clearly unhappy that we were only a meter away. We then had a beautiful sunset ride ....but after noticing we'd been riding for a bit and knowing the camp was only a few kilometers away, we started asking how much longer. Our driver drove us around for 2 more hours! Brian pulled out his off-roading maps he uses for camping in Utah and directed our guide the whole way. We arrived around 8pm, late for dinner and grumpy from exhaustion. We ate, went straight to the room and fell asleep.
The next 2 days turned our moods around and quickly redeemed our rocky arrival. They were again filled with countless animals! We saw the big grazing animals: wildebeest, water buck, cape buffalo, giraffes, zebras, elands, dik diks, gazelle. We saw cats: geret, cheetahs, lions, and leopards. We saw birds: saddle horn bill, red-billed hornbill (Zazu), secretary birds, buffalo weaver, Marshall eagle, ostrich. We saw so many others: warthogs, hippos, hyenas, foxes, jackals, mongooses. And of course we saw elephants! There are over 3,000 in the park and we must have seen 1000. The highlight for me is watching the babies. They try to use their trunks, but they are so uncoordinated. Their moms keep them under their legs and nudge them in the right direction. The babies switch from mom's milk to leaves from the low branches. Another highlight was our night safari! We were so fortunate because the springs right by our camp turned out to be the local saloon for all the nightlife. We watched a pride of about 12 lions stalk the cape buffalos. The lions would spread out and try to isolate a buffalo, but the buffalo would gather together and huff and puff and the lions would fall back and regroup. They had a few cubs with them and the smaller male seemed to be limping, so it appeared they weren't highly motivated to win the standoff. We watched the back and forth for about 2 hours before heading back to the camp. So glad we had that experience!
We left early this morning and are heading to North Serengeti National Park. We'll be almost on the Kenyan boarder, trying to glimpse the great migration across the Mara River. The only animal left on our bucket list is the rhino. The camp was amazing, and the next on is owned by the same company so we expect the wonderful food and service to continue! I've added a few cell phone pictures, but I can't wait for us all to enjoy the photos from Brian's camera. Love you lots!!
Hakuna Matata!
Update #2 from Farrell
Jambo jambo from somewhere in the sky on a tight 12 seat Cessna!
Our time in North Serengeti was just as incredible as Tarangire. As soon as we landed we started our game drive by heading to the banks of the Mara River. The entire reason for choosing this particular vacation was to see the great wildebeest migration (Brian's dream trip!) We couldn't have predicted when we planned our trip, but the rains came early driving the animals south. While September is usually peak season, most of the herds had crossed by this time. We didn't know how lucky we were when we saw a river crossing just a few hours after touching down! One wildebeest was brave enough to start, and once it began, they all followed. About 2500 wildebeest ran down one side, jumped, swam, and ran with all their might, and clamoured up to the other side. I hope the videos do it justice because this was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen.
After the crossing, we bumped along the bush in our Land Cruiser and the afternoon heat was draining. We headed to our camp where we were greeted by cocktails on a wide back patio with a beautiful view of zebras grazing in the sunset. The next few days were filled with game drives and waiting by the river for more wildebeest crossings. With the migration already mostly out of this region, we had to hunt a little harder. Highlights for me were watching the hippos play in the water, seeing 5 crocodiles take down and tear apart a wildebeest, being about 20ft from a mating pair of lions, and watching a group of 7 giraffes bend down to drink from the ponds. There was also A LOT of sitting by the river, using the binoculars to spot wildebeest, listening to our guide's radio, and rushing to any groups that looked like they might be crossing. We watched MANY hesitant groups graze by the banks and never decide to cross. We only saw 1 other crossing in our 4 days here.
My bucket list and dream request on this trip was granted - a hot-air balloon ride over the plains! We saw the hippos in the river, lions sprinting after each other, hundreds of zebras, impalas and topis, and an orangish pink sunrise that I'll remember forever.
The last surprise was a dinner in the bush, complete with a bonfire. We even had personal Masi watchmen who stood by scanning the fields with their flashlights, armed with bows and arrows. Our butler Bill, who we had become quite close with, and the rest of the staff organized the whole thing including a celebration song that had us all laughing and dancing along. The perfect ending to our time here!
One downside was that some of us had to skip out on different days because we weren't feeling 100%. No one is seriously ill, and I think a few days back on our normal diets will have us good as new.
3 flights down. We'll split up with John and Ellen in Nairobi and we have 3 flights left to go. Again - I cannot wait to share Brian's videos and photos!! What he's shown is so far is amazing.
Hakuna Matata!
