Nancy's Travel Adventures!

Saturday, September 16 – Thursday, September 21 - Ineffable beauty

We FINALLY made it to the camp!!! We were very tired after being in 4 countries (Italy, Paris, South Africa and Tanzania) so when we landed in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, after being on a plane for over 24 hours, we discovered there was no one there to pick us up. So, we called our contact who said that sure enough, there was someone there….. we finally realized we were at the wrong airport! We should have been at Kilimanjaro but instead we were at Dar es Salaam (which is an 8 hour drive from where we were supposed to be).This airport is not your typical airport, you feel like you have gone back about 20 years in terms of the conveniences we are used to in the US and there are loads of cab drivers everywhere who want to know your story and help you. So, when two blondes (who were very tired) had these confused looks on our faces, they all wanted to know what was going on and how they could help. We managed to find an airline that could take us there at 6p (it was about 3p when we discovered we were at the wrong airport). A VERY helpful and sweet guy named Yonas bent over backwards for us and helped us get our tickets to Kilimanjaro and told us to go upstairs and get something to drink and eat – we would be safe there. We definitely did not feel in any danger but I could see that there were a few guys who wanted to chat with us and we just were not up to it. One of the very inquisitive cab drivers, who was listening in on our dilemma when we were talking to Yonas managed to get his “cousin” over to help us with our many bags upstairs to the restaurant. His cousin was in the Maasai tribe and was wearing the traditional garb.It was sort of an odd thing to see but also very entertaining.

We did make it to Ndarakwai camp and were very happy to arrive! The camp is definitely out in the bush and is very rustic but very nice. We were desperate to take showers, so after they escorted us to our camp and told us to beware of animals on our walk back, they filled our water tanks with warm water. Little did I know that you had to really monitor your time in the shower, so the water ran out while I had soap all over me and conditioner in my hair. I was just happy to be clean, who cares if you have a little soap residue and conditioner still in your hair?

We had a very nice dinner and really enjoyed the peacefulness around us. It was such a contrast to our time in Europe. We had a great time there but this is such a polar opposite experience. The sounds around us were the bush babies running around, the monkeys hollowing, and wrestling bushes that some creature was nibbling on, but there was a peaceful silence to it that puts you in such a relaxed mode.

The tent I stayed in was called Chui (Swahili for leopard) and it was just that, a tent but a nice one. It did not have electricity in it (I arrived at about 9:15p that evening, so you can just imagine the whole shower scenario) but it did have candlelight and lanterns. Thank God I had my headlamp! (Dave if you are reading this, you know what I am talking about). This was my lifesaver! I got it for my volunteer work but was so happy it was useful for my time at this camp.

At any rate, they heat your bed with hot water bottles and you feel like you are in something out of “Out of Africa.” I literally went to sleep with the sounds of the African bush so close to my ear but it was so calming and relaxing. I know there was some large 4-legged creature just outside my tent that night but it did not bother me (yet I was too scared to look).

I woke up the next morning to Blue Monkeys right on my porch. The one was definitely a large male that I named Bart. He was very curious about what was in my tent but luckily when he saw me, he ran away (like most men!).

We went out on a game drive with Thomas, the manager of the camp that Peter Jones (who Lindsey knows) owns and runs. Thomas is in the Maasia tribe and learned English through a researcher who came to his village. He taught himself how to read and write and now wants to a write a book about the Maasaid tribe. He says most books are incorrect or do not give the whole picture. He is still very traditional about practicing but says he also has a foot in the western world. He has the earlobes with the hole cut out of it and he also has gone through the stages of being a Maasai (circumcision when he was between 14- 21 to become a warrior and now he is considered an “elder” in the tribe – at 42!). But he also doesn’t practice a lot of the tradition. He has a job, has been to the US, wears Western clothes and has one wife.

Thomas was a great host and took us out on a game drive. We saw elephants, zebra, impala, kudu, bushbuck, very pretty birds, and some wildebeest. Later that afternoon, we went to the watering hole and watched the elephants drink, bathe and play in the water. I loved that. We were up on a perch and the sun provided such a beautiful glow to what was below us. A few elephants got in the mud and rolled around and one even was rubbing its rather large derriere up against the back of another elephants that was wallowing in the mud. It was so hysterical, it looked like they were doing some sort of booty shaking!

Later that evening, we went to visit a Maasai family. It was a very small one but we were able to go due to Thomas, who is still very much respected in the Maasai tribe even though he has learned English, is working full time as a manager of camp, and has only one wife. The children greeted us with huge grins and head butts (the greeting for children is to put their heads out and the other person touches the top of their head). The kids had pure joy on their faces and such beautiful smiles. Their lifestyle is so different than ours. For one, they literally LIVE amongst the cattle and goats. Yes, that means they have their mud huts that are right next to where the sheep and cattle are. The place we went to had two brothers and I think five wives, multiple children, and LOTS of cattle, and goats. The children were so adorable and really loved Lindsey’s digital camera…. They kept screaming “look at me” in Maasai every time we showed them a picture. Next thing you know, the kids are running off taking pictures with the camera. It was unadultered pleasure for them and we were happy to provide the entertainment! These kids do not have a lot. They maybe have one pair of sandals, a few garbs, maybe a toy (there was one sweet girl who had a homemade doll that she carried on her back) and that is it. Yet they are so happy. They do not even know what a computer is (although some of the men have cell phones) yet they are happy in their simple world. They do find entertainment by wallowing in the manure and throwing chunks of cattle and goat dung at each other.... hmmmm. But each village is different in size, etc. and this one was pretty small. Not sure if this is the common practice in all of them.

The next day we got up and drove to Arusha to meet our guide Jombi. Arusha is a very busy town with crazy drivers and bustling streets but you still saw people from the Maasai tribe wondering the streets in their traditional garb.

After shopping at a cultural center, I met Jombi, our guide. He is 29-years old and is from the Maasai (although he does not have the earlobes with the large hole in it) tribe as well. He says he is of the “new generation” of Maasai because he was educated away from his village and works full time (not as a herder), speaks English and does not want an arranged marriage. Yet, he went through the circumcision ceremony at 14 and definitely still maintains some of the traditions. Jombi really gave us some interesting information about the Maasai Tribe, which is very present in Tanzania and Kenya. It is fascinating to me that they still practice so much of what they did hundreds of years ago. They live in villages with mud huts amongst their cattle, sheep and goats. Their wealth is based on how many cattle they own and they live off their land. They drink cows blood, get circumcised between the ages of 14 – 21 (every 7 years) for BOTH the males and females. For those of you who are not familiar with this practice, they do this as a sign of becoming a man (a warrior). It is a huge ceremony with lots of pomp and circumstance. When they perform this procedure, the men cannot move even a finger because that is a sign of weakness and warriors are not weak. After the circumcision, the Maasai have elaborate ceremonies where the men who did not go through the painful procedure, dance by jumping up and down repeatedly, the village eats a sacrificial cow and drink its blood. I had seen a National Geographic special about it before but did not realize they circumcised both the boys and girls. In their world, women should not have pleasure, just the man. Their thinking is that women will go out and be prostitutes if they enjoy it. However, the funny thing is that both the men and women have “boyfriends and girlfriends” outside of their marriages and it is common knowledge that this happens. When a spear is pitched outside a hut that means that the woman is having relations with another man and that the husband should stay away. However, with this is the speard of AIDS and the Maassi do not understand why they are sick when they get the full blown disease. They think they have cattle disease, so they continue to have unprotected sex, share knifes, and have babies and soon whole families are wiped out. It is very sad. Jombi has a friend who tries to educate them but they still do not grasp the modern idea that a disease could be caused by this. His friend gets very depressed about it but wants to continue to help. They are trying to do this by educating the younger generation.

We went to Lake Manyara with Jombi and went on a game drive en route. We saw lots of game and realy enjoyed getting so much information from Jombi. He knows so much and has such interesting information and facts. (He worked with National Geographic on a feature called The Heartbreak of the Serengeti which came out afer the Africa issue, he is quoted in it, check it out if you can). We then checked into the CC Africa property called The Lodge at Lake Manyara (http://www.ccafrica.com/) which was incredible. You are greeted by the entire staff when you arrive and you check into a room that is a stand alone bungalow with an outside shower, bear claw tub, four poster bed with a mosquito net and electricity! (a huge bonus to use a hair dryer since we had not for the past few days.) The staff was great and I loved hanging out in their outside common area and reading their ecological journals about the game at the various camps that CC Africa owns (which is also a conservation society, so it is ecologically sound too). Sadly, we had to check out the next day but we did go on a very cool game drive where we saw all sorts of great game. The only bummer was not seeing their famous “tree lions” – the lions climb the trees and tend to go up there to nap which is not typical. We did catch a quick glimpse of a leopard which was very cool.

After lots of driving and bouncing around in the four wheel drive (the roads here are not paved and are very bumpy), we made it to Ngorogoro Crater Lodge. It is also a CC Africa property but different than the last one we stayed it. It sits atop the Ngorogoro Crater and looked like something out of the Hobbit. Little cottages set amidst a mountainous setting. I enjoyed a nice long shower (you get so dirty with all the dust and elements you encounter) and then made it to dinner. It is typical for the guests to gather for drinks and then seat you when you are ready to eat. We met a host of characters from all over -- a missionary, an investment banker who was an avid Safari Junkie, a photographer, a guide, hunters (not my pick of people to converse with at that time), a couple from Texas, another couple who we could not figure out if they were married or not (even though they told us they were on their honeymoon but neither was wearing a ring). But we shared some great conversation and tips with one another and then we sat down for dinner with Jombi. We had so much fun just chatting about his perception of the Western world. He is very smart but makes it very simple - like many of us, he cannot make sense of the war. I asked about what he saw from 9/11 and he said he was on Safari at the time and heard about it when he got back. He said he immediately did all he could to find out about it. He had to take a recording of what happened on 9/11 to his motherand hook it up to solar electricity so she could see what happened. He said she cried and began praying for all those innocent victims. He says overall, the opinion of Bush is very bad and they follow the politics very closely. It was interesting to get his perspective on it. And the overall feeling the Tanzanian peope have towards our politics, which like most people outside of the US, they follow very closely and know so much.

The Ngorogoro Crater was bizarre. Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest intact caldera (collapsed volcano). The crater was formed some eight million years ago when the cone of an active volcano estimated to be larger than Kilimanjaro collapsed. This formed a crater more than 600 metres (2,000 ft.) deep and 20 kms (12 miles) in diameter with a crater floor area of approx. 265 sq kms. The volcanic nature of the soils and plentiful water supplies transformed the volcanic cone into a spectacular sanctuary to the many species of wild game and birds that inhabit it today. There is so much wildlife concentrated in this area so it is a great place to see wildlife but the bizarre part is that is much like an African Disneyland. There are so many jeeps and people that you come across and you cannot drive off the roads, so you feel like you are just passing all these jeeps and on sides of the road is a pride of lions feasting on a kill, which is exactly what we saw.

We saw a large group of cars on the hill and knew we had to check it out, so when we approached we were excited to come across a large pride of lions gorging on a wildebeest. I could see out of the large amber grass the legs of the wildebeest protruding and jerking back and forth. This was the cause of about 6 lions (lions, lionesses and cubs) deavouring their meal. There were probably about 10 lions. Some were feasting on the kill while the others, with stomachs protruding, where napping underneath the jeeps. It was sort of surreal to see these "wild" animals so comfortable amongst the crowd of jeeps surrounding them with the people in them yelling in different languages and the sounds of clicking camers. At one point, one of the jeeps tried to leave but the lion laying next to it would not budge. He was that used to the vehicles!! They all were. The lion even started to play with the wheel of jeep similar to a cat plays with a dangling string.

We decided to leave the Crater and continue our very long and bumpy ride to the next lodge in the Serengeti. Our typical days were now comprised in the back of the Mercedes Jeep from about 8a - 6p. I have this bizarre theory that all the bumping and bouncing around has some sort of weight loss ability. Not sure if this theory is true but wishful thinking has always helped me rationalize not exercising and eating three full meals a day!

On our way to the lodge, I spotted a figure in the tall grass. Jombi said it was a cheetah! We stopped and waited and soon a female cheetah and her 5 cubs happily bounced out of the grass! It was sublime to see this since 50% of cheetah cubs don't survive past a certain age and these were all on the older side. Their mortality rate is pretty high due to the fact that the Cheetah females are solo (not within a pride like lions) and they go out during the day to hunt and oftern their cubs are captured by other predators or scavengers. Jombi said that this was a very good mother and it was rare to see that many cubs with her. Cheetahs are the most endangered of the cats, so it is encouraging to see that.

We arriveed at Serena Lodge in the Serengeti where Jombi handed us over to Peter Jones, the owner of Ndarakwai and the Safari company. Lindsey met him when she was here on a safari a few years back with Rebecca and Mac. He helped Lindsey scout some exotic camps and set up a safari for the two of us. Peter is a very interesting person. He is British, but grew up in Afghanastan, was educated at Oxford where he studied Anthropology and then decided to travel the world and started in Tanzania and never left. He has a wealth of knowledge about Tanzania, the wildlife, archeology, anthropology, photography, etc. I could listen to his stories all night but I think we both wore him out with our inquisition. He never got impatient and was a great host during our three days with him.

We went out on game drives with him every day and saw so many amazing scenes. Some tragic, all of them breathtaking. Some of the highlights were spotting a new born baby giraffe (maybe a week old) but that hard part of that was that it was all alone with the mother no where within eyesight of us. It stood very still and was probabaly about 10 feet away from us camaflouged in the trees. We at first thought maybe it was injured but we did see it move all its legs. I left feeling so sad if the baby was on its own. It was getting dark and predators take full advantage of these vulnerable offspring. But Peter said giraffes have excellent eyesight, so the mother could very well be out of our eyesight but within the calf's.

Some other moments included spotting a male lion on the side of the road only to discover on the other side of the road was a male and female, the stronger male courting the lioness. Peter said that the two lions were brothers and they will fight for the lioness. The lioness will choose the lion with the larger mane (a sign of strength and therefore a stronger litter). The lion was just waiting for the sign from the lioness who clearly ran the show. We watched as she got up, him following closely behind her, and sauntered to a rock that was warm from the morning sun. She lounged up there as he tentatively followed behind her. He tried making his move but she gave out a snarl that clearly told him she was not in the mood. We waited about 15 - 2o minutes and watched. The other male, meanwhile got up and crossed the road, keeping an eye on both. Not sure if he was just waiting for his brother or hoping to move in onthe territory. He didn't seem really bothered and just lounged underneath a bush and watched. Pretty soon, the lioness got up and laid down close to the rock and the lion approached her and climbed on her. This all took place within about a matter of a minute. Peter said they will mate every 20 minutes. We of course made some jokes about that -- where was the cigarette and drink afterwards? What about cuddle time?

We also came upon a hyena that was chilling out in a mud puddle in the middle of the dirt road. We got really close to him and he barely twiched. He was clearly enjoying his afternoon nap sunning and did not want to be bothered by cameras and curious onlookers.

I think two of the most memorable sightings were of a leopard and some lion cubs. This all happened within about an hour on our last day. Lindsey spotted the leopard, a very large robust male that was sitting in the grass. It was a good spot since they camaflouge themselves so well and are so elusive. We were able to go off the road at this particular park (Ndutu), so we cautiously approached him. He sort of glanced at us every once in a while but other than that didn't seemed to be too bothered with us, which was great because we could get up close to this remarkable cat. Peter pointed out that he was a very successful male due to his size, lack of markings from encounters with other predators/scavengers and he even had a few fat folds. It was rare to spot a leopard in this particular area but we happily watched as he snuck through the grass, stared down some distant impala, sniffed around and then eventually climbed the tree. It is extraordinary to watch this strong spotted cat climb up this tree with such ease. He then found a comfortable position and perched in the tree with the setting sun in the background. A remarkable sight.

Peter said we needed to head back since we could not be out in this park past dark, so we bid farewell to this leopard who we knew would continue to survive out in this unforgiving landscape. On our way back, I spotted some small movement amidst the dusk and dust. I realized they were lion cubs and alerted Peter immediately. I was so excited since I really wanted to see more of the lions cubs and this was our last day. But what we came upon, at first thinking was so sweet was ultimately very tragic. We approached five lion cubs that were in the middle of the road of this barren landscape, with no lioness in sight. Peter said the lioness would never leave her cubs out of sight like this. We got a closer look and they all looked very thin and malnourished. It broke my heart. Unfortunately in Tanzania, they do not have any rescue/rehabilitation programs, so if the rangers come across an injured or orphaned animal, they will do nothing. They will interfere if it is caused by something manmade in the park (for example, a baby elephant fell down a manmade water well and they rescued it) but other than that, it is illegal to do anything. Their thinking is that this is nature and we as humans are not to interfere. Something that I would like to see change. Peter said he is working on it but there is a lot of red tape and could take a while.

I left heartbroken and distraught. Peter has a friend that lives close by that has done extensive research on cheetahs and the lion pride in this area. He thought he may know about what happened to the lioness but his friend was not there. I am waiting to hear if there were any updates.

Tired, emotional and dirty, we made it back to camp. The camps we stayed during our time in the Serengeti varied from lodges to actual tents with no electricity to very simple rooms with hot showers allowed during certain times. I am fine with this since they are trying to maintain the integrity of the Serengeti. This is important since so much of the wildlife's land is being taken away from them. The environment is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed. Global warming has had its affect on Mount Kilimanjaro (the glacier is melting) and animlas are dying off due to droughts or flooding (as well as poaching and hunting). It is an issue that needs to be addressed in our lifetime. Not our children's or grandchildren's but ours. So much I am learning is being threatened and within ten years, we could be in some serious danger. Species can go extinct, weather can cause major catastrophies and the land is being eaten up by trash -- a very real threat. This is something we don't see when we are lounging at the beach in Newport or enjoying the view of the sunset during cocktails but it is real and I have had a personal experience with it now and hope to do some small thing to improve it.

Alas we said "see you later" to Peter (since I have a feeling I will be back to Tanzania) and boarded a chartered flight out of the Serengeti on a small 3-seater Cessna (our luggage took up most of the space), flew to Kilimanjaro airport, landed in Dar es Salaam and flew to Jo'burg. Long tiring day but it was nice to be greeted by our driver who had a great smile and loved to chat with us. I cannot recall his exact name but it meant respect in one of the 11 languages spoken in South Africa. He spoke 8 of the 11 languages, including the clicking language which they use clicking noises with their tongue. Really cool to hear.

We arrived at the Saxon, a far cry from the tents of the Serengeti. This is where Oprah stays when she is in Joburg, as well as Nelson Mandela, Will Smith (ok, those two have few similarities except for their fame). And hey, if Oprah stays here, I am more than happy to take advantage o the high-end accomodations. The rooms here are beautiful and classy. As much as I absolutely loved the experience in Tanzania, I really did enjoy the warm shower, plush robes and the feeling of being clean of the dirt and dust.

I have now spent the last two hours typing away and am ready to see Johannesburg. I miss my family, friends and the everyday routine of home but this is an experience I am so fortunate and pleased I am taking. Please send me emails and comments on the blog. I love hearing even the slightest updates from home. Hopefully I have not bored you with all the details but it really moved me and I hope to illustrate all the emotion and beauty I encountered.

posted by Nancy Chapman @ 12:29 AM