Why...

Two mature aged people who love travelling and learning along the way... Our names are Rob (Robyn) & darian in the 60+ vintage of travellers keen to visit parts of the world which will stretch us mentally, physically and emotionally.

28 March 2015

Rwanda Part 1. - Africa 2015

We arrived at Zanzibar airport around 9:00am and checked in, only to find our flight had been changed to 1:00pm!  We had been warned often about ‘African time’, with this sort of change without notification not being uncommon.  We were however proactively offered seats on the next flight at 10:00am, which we accepted because the airport in Zanzibar was basic to say the least.

After a short 20 minute flight to Dar Es Salem and going through security just to enter the airport’s check-in area, we then discovered we couldn’t actually check in until 3:00pm, so settled in for the wait in a non air-conditioned waiting area, 35 C temperatures and plenty of humidity.

After 2 more security checks before even reaching the gate, we boarded our sleek and comfortable Bombardier jet for a 2 hour flight.  The flight also foretold the sort of weather to expect as the jet deftly ducked around soaring thunder heads before finally landing into the ‘land of a thousand hills’.

We had arrived into Kigali International Airport, Rwanda, and were met by Rama, our guide for the next 6 days, and were soon also joined by Catherine from Jambo Tours.  It was immediately clear as we drove into the capital Kigali, there was something very different about Rwanda, compared to Tanzania.
flight path from Zanzibar to Kigali, Rwanda
Raymond had told us whilst game driving in Tanzania, that Rwanda has a fiercely protected reputation for being virtually free from corruption, something many/most other countries in Africa cannot claim.  In fact, there were signs in the arrivals hall reinforcing the Rwanda focus.

A second observation that stood out, ignoring the greenness everywhere compared to dust, was how clean the place was.  Catherine proudly explained that on the last Saturday of every month, every community spends the day cleaning up around their local areas.  It was very obvious it was working.

We were only having one initial night in Kigali and checked into a very nice boutique hotel called Flame Tree.  In Africa, there is a certain process you go through at check in.  First they usually bring you warm face washers to refresh with, followed by a drink of some sort.  Here we were provided with the washers but no drink… no big deal but a little odd!  Next, the staff took us through a briefing which cannot be rushed, and finally Catherine wanted to walk us through our agenda for the next 6 days in the ‘land of a thousand hills’.

Having spent most of the day sitting in hot, humid and sweaty airports, we weren’t overly keen for all the briefings, preferring to have a shower. But as Catherine finished her briefing, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted someone carrying some drinks our way.  Behind him was a blonde person carrying a small camera and obviously videoing as she went.

My eyes looked at both people and recognised who they were, but the brain just didn’t accept what I was seeing.  It made no sense, it couldn’t be, it was impossible!!  Over what had seemed a long time which in reality wasn’t, my brain finally accepted what it was seeing.  “Rob, have a look, turn around, quick”.  Rob first looked the wrong way then swung around and went through exactly the same reaction.  It just couldn’t be.

But it actually was, Jarad, our eldest son who lives in London, carrying the drinks towards us and daughter in-law Rachel, sporting a huge grin doing the videoing.  What an amazing surprise, quickly followed by a few tears from the both of us and hugs all round.  Many months previously they had asked about joining us in Rwanda but had later decided not to.  

Only 3 weeks ago due to Rachel’s insistence, they had changed their minds and would now be joining us, just truly wonderful.  All of the hotel staff were in on the surprise, as were Rama and Catherine, so there were beaming faces everywhere.
We had heard about the genocide in Rwanda, especially through movies like ‘Hotel Rwanda’, but it wasn’t until we visited the genocide memorial site next morning and learned much that both shocked and impressed us during our time there.  What was impressive was how well the memorial had been done to share the facts and remind people this simply should not happen again.

What really shocked us were some of the facts.  First, the genocide happened in 1994, a short 20 years ago and next we learned that in a mere 3 months after it started, nearly 1 million people had been massacred including friends, neighbours and family turning on each other.  It was very brutal and included women and children also losing their lives.

The seed for the genocide was when some well meaning European anthropologists in the early 1900s decided to segment the population of Rwanda into 3 ethnic groups, the Hutus, Tutsis and Pygmy and ethnic identity cards were issued.  Eventually the largest group and traditional peasant Hutu class turned on the more privileged Tutsi class.
250,000 people buried under the concrete slabs here!

At the memorial there are a number of very long and large concrete slabs, some with fresh flowers on them.  I had great difficulty in comprehending that buried underneath these slabs were around 250,000 people!  More bodies are still being interred there as they find them throughout the country.

Rwanda is a very small county compared to most in Africa, and Kigali its capital surprised us by being a very modern looking city and the people were extremely welcoming and friendly, especially the kids.  

No matter where we were during our time in Rwanda, kids could often be seen running towards us yelling out things like, “hello” or more amusingly, “see you tomorrow!”.  Adults everywhere would quite warmly saying things like, “welcome to Rwanda” or simply “hello”.

We were in Rwanda for a very specific purpose as we drove 2.5 hrs north west of Kigali, but our agenda had us doing a few warm up activities before we got stuck into what we were all here for.   We reached the lodge, went through the check-in process and were handed umbrellas as we headed towards our rooms, more like independent units studded throughout the large gardens.  The umbrellas were soon needed as we walked back to the dining hall, a thunderstorm reaching us after forming up above the extinct volcanoes in front of us.
about to enter the Volcanoes Nat. Park
Our first warm up activity was a short trek into the jungle to try and find golden monkeys.

We were joined by 2 Rwandan army soldiers armed with AK47s as we entered the national park and they were with us to protect us from cape buffalo and occasional elephants that wander around.  

We were all aware of reports of people who cross the border from The Democratic Republic of Congo either looking for gold or poaching, but our park guides would not admit to this being another reason for the Army’s presence, albeit quite discreet.

It took about an hour, with many pauses, following various paths, ducking around some mud and water from the previous nights storm, when we were asked to leave our back packs and only take our cameras with us.  The path led us into a forest of bamboo, a favourite food for golden monkeys, we could hear them, but where were they?

Well… they are not shy let me tell you, as the first one I saw almost stood on my foot as it walked past me.  For the next hour, our group of 8 ‘trekkers’ tried to follow and photograph these beautiful looking monkeys as they climbed and swung around above us or walked around occasionally on the forest floor.

We learned much from others in the lodge for our first foray into the jungle, and by the way, it really is jungle.  

At the lodge, we had rented gaiters helped stop the mud getting over our pants and reduce the stinging nettles driving us mad as we brushed past them walking along the tracks.  You are offered the free use of timber trekking poles before you start, they are very useful.  They help with climbing up/down rocky and slippery, muddy tracks.

Next morning we were met by a local guide who lives in a nearby community, a very personable guy who spoke excellent english.  After a pleasant walk down our ‘african massage’ road from the lodge we started our visit of a local village and spent 4-5 hours learning about how Rwandans live and their culture.

We had already been told by Catherine that a large proportion of our Culture Tour fees actually go into the local community and I must admit to a touch of cynicism when first told this.  Our guide also described exactly the same thing to us and added that during the tour, we would be meeting some of the poorest families in the village, would be going into their homes and seeing first hand how they live.  Each of these families would be given cash directly from the guide and the kids in the village would receive school writing books and pens, also funded directly from our tour fees.

That was exactly what happened!  “Hello, hello” was the constant greeting from all the kids we met and soon their numbers grew as they started following us to every house we visited.
Of surprise to us when we landed into Kigali, was the significant presence of eucalyptus trees, they were everywhere, including all the way from Kigali to where we were in the village, gum trees as a far as you could see.  Only in the National Parks were there no gum trees.

eucalyptus reinforced walls
During our village visit, we learned how important gum trees are in Rwanda.  The original forests had been decimated over time as population grew and fires, their main source of heat for cooking, and housing reduced the naturally slow growing forests.  

So with a high rainfall, they introduced eucalypts which grow faster and re-shoot when lopped.

The guide and villagers showed us how eucalypts are used for building houses, fires for cooking food along with the very popular maize and banana beer, making beds and other furniture, the leaves used to make mattresses.  Like us, they also infuse the leaves in boiling water to help clear the head and nose.  The villagers knew where these trees originated from and were pleasantly surprised when they learned where we had come from.

the local 'pub' sells banana beer
We visited their ‘shops’ and small ‘pubs’ and joined them inside their tiny homes with only dirt floors to be seen everywhere.  Again we were impressed by how clean everything was, no rubbish visible anywhere, no matter where we walked and we were free to walk anywhere and photograph anything.

With about 20 or so small children now following us everywhere, we had a lot of fun with them by taking their photos and showing them the results on the camera screens, huge smiles and giggles the usual outcome.  Jarad was constantly surrounded by them, especially when he showed them their own faces live and moving on his iPhone screen.
'the pied iPhone piper'
It was palpable how grateful these poorer but proud families were for the money and education aids they received because of our tour, and we were constantly warmly greeted with huge smiles and hugs.  We have been on cultural tours before, but this had been the most encompassing and sincere experiences of this type we had ever been through.
To return back to the lodge, our guide and the four of us each boarded our individual postman sized motorcycles ridden by a local ‘taxi driver’ and headed off a few kilometres up the road until the rocky roadway to the lodge was reached.  The locals in the community who saw us go past were either shocked or highly amused, constantly waving to us or still yelling out the now very familiar “hello!”.
local taxi anyone?
That night, yet another and very large thunderstorm formed up around the volcano shaped mountains in the distance, spread out across the sky towards us, the rumblings of thunder joining its progress until it finally disgorged itself across the lodge with both torrential rain and hail for a few hours.

Little did we realise what impact that thunderstorm would have on us the next day!


If you want to see a few more photos, just click on the link(s) below.





21 March 2015

Zanzibar - Africa 2015

After 14 days of our daily routine of many hours of game driving, loading, deleting and backing up a stack of photos and video, washing clothes and removing the dust, our 2.5 hr flight east from the Serengeti was taking us hopefully to something very different.  We also hoped for sufficient ‘lala salama’ time which in swahili means ‘sleep tight’ in order to recharge, rest and relax.

After landing and being picked up as planned by Bramwel, we were driving out of the airport into what simply seemed like chaos!  We were now in the capital of Zanzibar, a large island in an archiplego off the coast of Tanzania.
Trip to Zanzibar, including flying over Ngorongoro Crater
Zanzibar is believed to have originally been inhabited by Africans roughly 3,000 years ago.  Centuries later, the island started its history of hosting foreigners from Egypt, Persia, Arabia, India, China and Europe, mainly for the purpose of trade.

By around the 7th century AD, Islam had made its way to Zanzibar via Persian and Arabian migrants who in the main, gave rise to the Swahili civilisation and culture.  Arabs over time established the very cruel slave trade which continued for hundreds of years until Dr David Livingstone pushed for its abolition in the 1820s.

There were numerous Sultans who built many extravagant buildings on the main island consisting of palaces, Persian baths and other estates for wives and daughters.

In 1890, the British gained control of Zanzibar when it became a British protectorate even though Sultans continued as the leaders.  Independence was achieved under a Sultan in 1963 BUT in 1964, there was an armed revolution killing thousands of arabs and asians, thousands of others were expelled.

Tanzania was formed when Tanganyika and Zanzibar were merged in 1964 and somehow, this union still allows the Zanzibar government considerable autonomy.

So on we drove, almost hitting numerous people on push bikes or oncoming vehicles or people casually crossing the road.  Our destination was a town called Nungwi and the Z Hotel, both located at the northern end of the island.  This was to be our ‘chill out’ zone for the next 4 nights.

view from our room...
Wow… after checking in, what a beautiful view we were teased with through the leaves of the palm trees from our bedroom window, the colours, both the sand and the ocean!

So was to start a new daily routine for the next few days as we cleaned off the last vestiges of dust.  

Each day sort of went like this.  Breakfast around 7:30am on an open dining balcony overlooking the beach and ocean, a long walk down the beach absorbing the ever changing sights.

Time in and around the pool before a light lunch, then more relaxing during the hottest part of the day (at around 34+C and humid) before finding somewhere for sundowners, watching a big red sun sink into the sea and finally dinner.  I know, a bit tough but we did ‘struggle’ not having breaky and lunch boxes or the dust.
Rob lulling in the Indian Ocean

We did break the routine one day when Rob wanted to swim in the Indian ocean on the other side of the planet.  The water was very warm and while she lulled in the shallows, I went out a little deeper and at some unfortunate point, put my right foot down on the ocean floor to test the depth.

“Ouch!” and a few other choice words erupted!  I soon felt the numerous spiky things poking out of my foot around the big toe, so it was back to shore and a weird waddle back across the beach with the spikes still protruding, to seek some assistance from hotel staff.

“Oh wow, you have stepped on a sea urchin” the calm lady informed us.  “Its probably hurting right now but it's okay, it will go numb fairly soon”.  With that she got some tweezers and tried to pull some of the 15-20 spikes out of my foot, but most of them simply broke off, the remains and a dark spot marking their location in my foot.

“The good news is, there is a local cure” she then told us still in a very relaxed manner.  All we had to do is for Rob using a sharp pin, break the skin above every black mark on my foot above every embedded spike and then rub papaya sap into the openings.  “It’s okay” preempting our obvious next question, “we’ll get our security guards to climb a tree and get you some papaya!”.

Next morning, most of the black dots were gone and the sap had dissolved most of what was left of the spikes and by the time we left here, there was no discomfort at all.
walking along the beach was a favourite for many

As we made our daily walks along the beach, we were constantly asked by locals touting for business, “do you want to go snorkelling”, “do you want a massage”, “do you want a sunset cruise”, or tried to sell us some trinkets.  

They get to know you after a few days of saying no to each question and finally met us with a simple “jambo jambo” (hello hello) and left us alone.

We hope some of the photos will convey a sense of the sights of Nungwi as we re-charged our batteries.

Before leaving Zanzibar, we had 2 nights in what is called Stone Town, or the old part of Zanzibar City.  Zanzibar is also known worldwide as a source for beautiful spices which we learned a lot about during a spice tour near Stone Town.  Cloves are what Zanzibar is most famous for, the funny thing being that cloves were originally brought to the island from Indonesia and Zanzibar now produces a much stronger version than the original.
the smell was bad with flies everywhere!
To get to know the Unesco World Heritage Stone Town, we did a walking tour through the labyrinth of narrow alley ways and streets, starting with a walk through the main central market for the local population.  What a pure assault on our senses this place turned out to be, especially in the fish and meat sections.  The smell was quite something as were all the flies over everything.





75 slaves at a time crammed in here
We then learnt about the very barbarous slave trade run by the Arabs out of Stone Town for nearly 4 centuries.  The slaves were captured in many parts of east Africa and shipped over to Arabia for their needs.

We saw where the slaves were kept in very cramped rooms with little light and virtually no sanitation apart from the tidal movements of the ocean and the actual chains used to control them.

Memorial to the slaves with actual chains used
Many slaves were also forced to carry goods like ivory from where they were captured to Stone Town.  If they got sick they were killed, if the women had babies, the babies were killed so as not to interfere with carrying goods.  When on the ships heading to Arabia if they got sick they were simply thrown overboard alive.
in memory of Dr David Livingstone

Dr David Livingstone was the prime driver for having slavery banned and when he died in Africa, his body was returned to England except his heart, which was buried under a tree near where he died.  

Timber from that tree was used to make a cross to remember him, the cross now sits proudly in a church in Stone Town.

We spent the following day visiting an old historic Persian Bath and simply wandering through this decaying labyrinth of a town, admiring the architecture, the very ornate old doors and very friendly people, so long as you don’t photograph them.  

Zanzibar is 97% Muslim by the way, not that it made much difference.

In some ways, the muslim culture of regular call to prayer was helpful in that the first one was around 5:00am each morning, which helped nicely as an alarm, especially on our last day in Zanzibar.  Feeling quite relaxed and refreshed, it was time to board yet another flight and head north westish to another country altogether.

So asante sana (thank you very much) Tanzania, twende (let’s go)!

If you want to see a few more photos, just click on the link(s) below.

CLICK HERE for more photos Nungwi - Zanzibar 2015

CLICK HERE for more photos Stone Town - Zanzibar 2015


15 March 2015

Tanzania Part 2. - 2015

By now Raymond was starting to teach us more Swahili words, the main language of Tanzania and this included one of my favourites, ‘hakuna matata’ and it really described the sort of mood we were in by now.  It means ‘no worries’!

The Crater
We reached this park’s main registration office around 5:30pm and after another elongated process to gain entry, Raymond returned with our paperwork and made it clear to us that we had to make some pace to reach the next gate.  Raymond also now introduced us to a new local expression called ‘an african massage!’.

Up till now and including the previous parks, we had been driving on either paved roads or pretty smooth dirt tracks.  As soon as we passed through the entrance into this huge conservation area on our way to another gate up the mountain, the road became very rough and rocky.  So the bouncing and jolting started and we started receiving our first true ‘african massage’.

It was getting darker as the sun set and we progressed up the side of the mountain, the 6:00pm deadline looming and it was about 6:05pm when we finally reached the gate.  As Raymond had predicted, the boom gate had been lowered and the area was now under armed guard.  The AK47 toting guard checked out Raymond’s paperwork with a constant stony faced expression and finally, almost reluctantly raised the boom.

We had just truly entered into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and more importantly, the mountain we were climbing up the side of was actually the rim of the famous Ngorongoro Crater.  The reason for the 6:00pm deadline and heavily armed guards is due to an intense focus on stopping poaching, especially within the crater itself.  The crater is home to at least 8 black rhinos, each of which has a location transmitter on it and each of them is closely protected 24 hours a day.

In the darkness we reached the large and comfortable Ngorongoro Serena Lodge where we would be staying for 2 nights, perched right on the edge of the rim of the crater.  We couldn’t see a thing, nor would we in the morning because the agreed plan was for us to head out before sunrise, at 6am (which is when the gates re-open), down a one way road into the crater.

OMG!  As the sun rose and we ‘massaged’ our way down the winding dirt track leading to the crater floor, we started to truly appreciate just how huge this crater really is.

Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest inactive, intact, and unfilled volcanic caldera and was formed two to three million years ago.  It is 610 metres (2,000 feet) deep, its floor covers 300 square kilometres (116 square miles) and is approximately 32 kilometres (20 miles) across.  It’s bloody big and very very impressive!
The Crater
With the light of a new dawn progressively streaming out across the floor of the crater, we also rapidly understood what an animal ‘paradise’ the crater is.  They are all here except for cheetah, giraffe and leopard, the latter which can be found up around the top of the rim of the crater.  The animals can come and go if they choose to, but most don’t because everything is here.  The crater receives plenty of rain to grow food for the grazing animals and there are plenty of those for the predators to eat.


So we started our full day watching hundreds of gazelles, wildebeest and zebra and plenty of their babies, then hyena harassing a small pride of lions who had just finished feeding on an overnight kill.  


Breakfast was enjoyed parked near a large herd of resting cape buffalo as we watched through binoculars, a black rhino and her baby wandering across the plains area.

After watching some huge bull elephants near a marsh and another make two game drive cars look very small, we eventually had lunch next to a hippo pool along with a small crowd of other people.
this bull elephant makes the cars look small
my what big tusks you have!
Other highlights included 2 vultures feeding on the carcass of a hyena, a first for Raymond that had him reaching for his camera again.  

The other involved three large male lions fast asleep in the grass after a long night feeding on buffalo.  Whenever key animals are found, like lions, any  nearby vehicles race to where they were.



We had found the lions earlier and when we returned to them, there were at least 10 cars surrounding them whilst the occupants took photos.  One of the lions however decided to make use of the cars by strolling across to one and lying down very close to it, head down, to get some shade.  

The sole tourist occupant inside could be seen leaning out of the top of his vehicle taking photos whilst looking straight down onto the lion, well that was until the large lion lifted its large head and looked back up him.  Boy did he disappear quickly!

Feeling confident
Ooops... time to retreat!



















One odd sight we weren’t expecting was when we spotted two people standing on the floor of the crater, one holding an umbrella over his head and next to them, a herd of goats… ‘what the!’.  Raymond chuckled at our reaction and explained that the local Masai have a long standing right to graze their animals in the crater but have to move them out by 6 pm each day.
wonder how many goats they lose??
There were many photos taken that day and as we climbed back out of the crater late in the day up another one way road and thunderstorms swept in over the crater bringing brief but heavy rain to the animals below.  

Back in the lodge for sundowners, we enjoyed surveying the crater from the observation room whilst some Masai showcased their dancing, jumping and drumming  skills. Over dinner we constantly talked about how spectacular Ngorongoro Crater truly is and how much we had enjoyed our day within it.
yes they can jump!
drive to the 'crater' in red and our game drive in the crater in blue

Ndutu - Ngorongoro Conservation Area
It was time however to move deeper into the 8,288 sq kms (3,200 sq mls) of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, so we departed next morning by the now ‘traditional’ 6:30am start, bound for an area within Ngorongoro locally called Ndutu.  The entire day was a game drive which meant the roof was up and we spent most of the day standing up trying to spot wildlife.
heading to our tent in Ndutu
Finally we reached our next accommodation for the next 4 nights at Lake Masek Tented Camp.  This was a mobile tented camp, which simply means the entire camp is relocated to a new area every 3 months until the rains arrive.  All the facilities are inside tents, including the dining and rest areas.  Our tent consisted of a flushing toilet area, shower area, dressing area and bedroom with a view out across the plains, which happened to have the largest bed we have ever slept in.  
They had pushed 2 double beds together!
'the bed'
You have to book your shower to allow staff to heat the 20 ltrs allocated per person per day, bring it to your tent, pour it into a canvas bag and then raise it on pulleys above the tent.  It was bliss each day to finish off the game driving with a nice warm shower and remove all the dust.

The daily routine here was to be in the breakfast tent by 6:00am and because it was still dark, we had to be escorted to breakfast usually by a spear carrying Masai.  Why?  Well, the camp is right out there amongst all the wildlife including the predators, there are no fences and only canvas at night between you and them.  Every night you also had to be escorted back to your tent and weren’t allowed to leave it during the night.  

Every night whilst drifting to sleep, we lay there on most nights listening to the sound of lions roaring somewhere relatively close to us.  On a few nights, the roaring was also joined by the infrequent trumpeting of distant elephants!

But back to the routine here. We opted to come back to camp for lunch around 1:30pm rather than do full day treks, so we could load photos and take some chill time before heading back out again around 3:30pm and returning at 6:30pm.  

enjoying the 'Bush TV'
Then it was a quick shower, wash clothes and head back to the front of the dining tent for sundowners and to watch ‘Bush TV’ each night.  There was only one channel and every night with camp fire ablaze, we all sat there gazing into the distance watching mother nature as the sun set or talking to other travellers about how each others day had gone.


Most evenings when we arrived back to camp, we would make our way to our tent as wild zebras grazed fairly calmly either next to or in front of the tents.  Occasionally during the night we were woken by their munching right next to our tent walls, a very different experience indeed.
Our key wildlife sightings during our stay at Lake Masek Tented Camp were:
  • multiple lion sightings each day, some walking right next to and past our car, others slowly munching on the previous nights hunt.  These lions were very big due to the abundance of food.
  • a beautiful cheetah sitting proudly near a lake and a mother and her 2 young cubs chilling out under a tree.
  • a very relaxed leopard with its wildebeest kill secured high up in an acacia tree.  This leopard was fabulous as it fed and moved its kill around up in the tree.  When it came down, it would almost ‘pose’ for all the vehicles surrounding it.
  • watching a very large herd of wildebeest crossing one of the large lakes, something Raymond had never seen happen in the last 9 years.
  • LOTS of birds including multiple species of the brightly coloured Rolas, Greater Flamingoes, eagles, hawks, Fischer Lovebirds and finally a very close view of the Martial Eagle, Africa’s largest.
  • Hippo mothers carrying their babies on their backs.
  • Back to the birds, we took numerous photos of BIFs (Birds In Flight), BITs (Birds In Trees) and BOGs (Birds On Ground/Water).
Drive from Ngorongoro Crater to Ndutu and daily game drives within Ndutu

Katikati Tented Camp
Again time to move and change to another mobile tented camp by crossing the border out of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area via the Ranger Post to get our permits to travel into the equally famous Serengeti National Park, with its huge area of 14,763 sq kms (5,700 sq mls).

In reality, the distance we travelled from the first tented camp to Katikati was probably no more than 8-12 kms but the borders are very strictly enforced by Rangers and means you can’t game drive across the border between the Ngorongoro and the Serengeti.  Any guide who breaks the rules is heavily fined and banned from visiting the park for 2 years.

Up till now, Raymond had not joined us for any of our meals but starting in the first tented camp he did, which was great, because we all continued to learn more about each other.  Raymond was very curious about Australia, our family, culture, the geography, climate and animals.  We wanted to know more about Tanzania, his family, culture and lifestyle, so conversation was never an issue.

Raymond also wanted to learn how to take better photos with his own camera so we started teaching him some basics and slowly getting him to change a few settings and try them out the next day.  Also explained the difference between good & bad light which would not only help him with his own photography but in positioning his vehicle for future guests.  Every day, little by little as he learned and tried new things, the better his photos became and the more excited he got.

We had 3 nights in Katikati Tented Camp which also happened to overlook one of the large lakes of the Serengeti and continued watching ‘Bush TV’ every night during sundowner time before finally being escorted to our tent after dinner.
Katikati tented camp
During the second night we were woken by a rapidly approaching and very active thunderstorm.  Every night when we arrived back to camp we would hand wash our clothes and hang them up to dry.  This tent had a small string clothes line outside the tent for this purpose and just as the patter of rain could be heard on the canvas roof, Rob’s instincts kicked in.

The sound of the zip on the front of the tent certainly woke me fully up as I said to Rob, “where are you going?  We’re in Africa and there are things out there which can eat you!”.  Our early morning game drive following the storm was interesting with water over the tracks.  Raymond did a great job not getting bogged bust came close a few times.

Rob also celebrated her birthday in the Serengeti by having to be awake at 5:00am!  After a fairly brief african massage, we were soon lying on our backs with 10 other people in a seated position, then were all gently lifted into the early morning sky.  We were in one of two hot air balloons, slowly drifting, quite often at tree top level out across the vast Serengeti plains.
preparing for lift off..
drifting over the Serengeti
lion 'game drive' in a balloon
The lions, gazelles and zebra were occasionally startled by the balloon’s burners being used, as we passed over the top of them and even managed to spot an African rabbit.  We travelled for over 60kms admiring the vastness of the Serengeti before it was time to land, an interesting experience involving 5-6 big bounces before a fairly abrupt stop in a cloud of dust.



Rob with baby zebra
To greet us were not just the support vehicles but a lost baby zebra.  It was very pleased to have some company so trotted a little warily over to us, with everyone soon wanting to have a pat and have their picture taken with it.  

Unfortunately it wasn’t going to last very long after we left with the number of predators the Serengeti is famous for.

That night and after the main meal had been finished, all the staff in the camp came into the main camp singing and dancing in amongst all the guests before finally reaching Rob.  She was presented with a proper birthday cake with candles lit which she had to blow out whilst everyone sang her happy birthday.  The staff singing in Swahili didn’t finish until Rob had made the first cut in the cake.

The daily routine of game drives continued, including a long day travelling into the very different central Serengeti.  The wildlife highlights whilst in Katikati included:
  • Seeing a small pack of African Wild Dogs, a very rare sighting indeed.  The last time Raymond had seen wild dogs was in 2008 and ALL the guides were excited about their presence.
  • we very luckily spotted a large cheetah standing on a fallen tree as it scanned for prey.  It was in hunting mode!  Over the next 4 hrs and the only vehicle there, we watched and followed it.  It made one unsuccessful sprint to catch an impala, had to rest for a few hours before finally going back into full stalking mode, a quick sprint and success.  We didn’t get to see the actual kill behind a bush unfortunately, but did see the still kicking impala in the cheetahs jaws straight afterwards.  We stayed watching this beautiful animal slowly devour its catch whilst all the time alert to other predators possibly wanting to steal it.
  • saw how quickly what hyenas and their strong jaws can do.  They had just found a zebra which had just died when we also arrived. Within a minute later, this is what had happened, a bit gross but as real as it can be.
  • in the Central Serengeti there our large volcanic rock outcrops poking up from the vast plains.  On one of these we watched a pride of about 13 lions enjoying the viewing position looking for prey and then one by one, climb down from their vantage point and meet near a small pool of water.
  • having lunch near another hippo pool, this one with around 100 hippos in it of all sizes including young but not much water.  The pool simply smelt shocking because of the amount of hippo waste in the water.  They don’t like extra hippos joining them and get very aggressive with each other.

When it was time to leave the Serengeti and Katikati camp, we even did a game drive on our way to the Serengeti bush airport.  We did not have any tickets, we didn’t have to go through any security (no building either) nor were any of our bags weighed.  When our plane arrived, Raymond went out and talked to the pilot and we were all set to go.
daily game drives in Serengeti
It was quite sad to say goodbye to Raymond, our terrific guide and now friend for the last 14 days, but after some very enthusiastic hugs all round, we boarded our single engined commuter plane with 10 others and Raymond started his 7 hour drive back to his family and home.  It had been truly a privilege to spend time with a truly skilled, caring, sincere and nice person.

time for our next destination...
We now settled into our 2.5hr flight east to the next destination and experiences of this trip!
the trip so far
More NEW categories of photos can be seen by choosing one of the links below.





Warning - gory photos in this link