August 4. Baton Rouge
We flew Delta to Atlanta and then on to Johannesburg where it's 6 hours ahead of CST and August 5 when we land. We were met by a representative of 6 Degrees, our travel agency who guided us capably through the incoming foreign visitor protocols. We spent one night in a luxurious suite and then flew on to Cape Town the next morning.
August 6, The Winchester, Cape Town, South Africa
Recovering from two days of flying (Baton Rouge-Atlanta-Johannesburg-Cape Town) and waiting for Jenny, Lauren and Mbark to arrive. We stayed overnight in a luxury suite in J-burg before flying on to Cape Town.
The jetlagged sisters and Mark have arrived on a direct flight from NYC to Cape Town! ❤️❤️❤️
August 7 Cape of Good Hope National Park
Shelley, our loudly eccentric guide is driving us out to the Park to see Cape wildlife and much beautiful scenery.
Along the way we see penguins, seals, ostriches, a zebra and baboons!
August 8 Cape Town
Today, Shelley drives us all around Capetown. In the morning we drive up to get a scenic view of Table Mountain and Lions Head, the iconic peaks standing behind the city, and the shore to the south.
Bo Kaap (above the Cape) is the oldest surviving neighborhood in Cape Town. It was segregated under apartheid and mostly Muslims of Malay descent lived there, restricted by law from owning their homes. With freedom, the residents bought the old houses and painted them in a rainbow of colors.
August 9, Babylonstoren
Visit to a wonderful farming estate. These photos only scratch the surface. 🇿🇦 #westerncape #southafrica
August 10, Stellenbosch, South Africa
An amazing dinner at the Fat Butcher in Stellenbosch
August 11, Lanzerac Wine Estate, Stellenbosch
Sitting down for breakfast to Dickie Betts rocking out on "Rambling Man!"
August 11, Grootbos Nature Center, Walker Bay, South Africa
My first chopper ride and it was a great one!
August 11, Grootbos Nature Center
Our guide, Kyle, is passionate about native flora and fauna
August 12 Grootbos
It's rainy with fog today so I'll post a few food pix from dinner and breakfast: sweet potato soup, pork belly, pear in cream sauce dessert, bowl of oat and quinoa porridge. The bowls look black from the side and copper from above.
August 12, Walker Bay, SA
Exploring the limestone caves at Walker Bay
August 13, Grootbos Nature Center
August 14, Oyster Bay Hotel, Dar Es Salaam
Yesterday we flew from Capetown to Nairobi to Dar Es Salaam arriving at 2am local time. Up at 8am to fly over to Zanzibar where we'll spend two days before moving inland to Arusha, Tanzania on the border with Kenya to witness the Great Migration.
August 14, Dar Es Salaam
Heading out from Julius Nyere International Airport to the small island of Zanzibar (Unguja to the locals)
August 15, Stone Town, Zanzibar
In Zanzibar I first encounter Swahili, the lingua franca of Africa's east coast. It's the predominant language of Zanzibar, where it originated, and Tanzania. The hotel staff welcomed us wirh a lively rendition of Jambo Bwana, a catchy Swahili pop song thar has been adopted by tourist hosts throughout southeast Africa. The lyrics include useful Swahili phrases for hello (Jambo), How are you? (Habari gani), I'm fine (M'zuri sana) and No worries (Hakuna matata).
Doors of Stone Town, Zanzibar City. Unguja. Zanzibar is an archipelago, autonomous within the federation of Tanzania. Unguja is the name of the main island but is referred to as Zanzibar by tourists.The doors are of two styles: Indian (arched top) and Arabic (square top).
August 15, Unguja, Tanzania
Muslim girl in traditional dress. Muslim women of Zanzibar wear burkas of many colors but don't cover their faces in public.
August 15
We drive out to the ocean for a snorkeling excursion in the clear blue waters off Ujunga
August 16. Arusha, Tanzania
Flight to Arusha, safari gateway and the "African Geneva." The flight from Zanzibar was about 90 minutes. We stay overnight in Arusha at Legendary Lodge. Driving to Lake Manyara Tree Lodge the next morning we have our first elephant sighting. He was casually munching leaves by the roadside on the drive to our big safari experience!
August 16. Lake Manyara National Park
The park is famous for its tree-climbing lions. We were fortunate today to see a female lion lounging in a tree at a distance from the road. This is the best photo I could get. Note the powerful leg casually dangling from the limb she's relaxing on.
August 17 Lake Manyara National Park
Yesterday we saw a group of hippos from long distance swimming on Lake Manyara. Today we saw a group out of the water and much closer!
August 18
Tanzania has quite a few species of snakes including many deadly poisonous types. This young rock python, a nonpoisonous constrictor, is the only snake we saw. Rock pythons are noteworthy for stretching themselves out in a straight line. This one who was lying across the road motionless as were driving on one of the many dirt roads crisscrossing the park. We stopped to watch and after a few moments, it turned and very quickly disappeared into the bushes!
August 19, Ngorongoro Conservation Area
First off, "Si jambo (I'm fine)". I'm way behind on posting photos and videos of which I've shot at least 100 in the past 3 days. But I haven't been dragged off by a leopard ( I haven't even seen one 🙁) or run down by a hippo (which has a top speed of ~20mph and can be very aggressive). I have so much I want to show and tell! I'll start by posting pix of some of the animals I've seen at our first two stops, Lake Manyara National Park and Ngorongoro (n-goro-n-goro) Conservation Area. I'll tell you about these places in another post.
August 19, Ngorongoro Crater
Ngorongoro Crater is what remains of a massive volcano that erupted and collapsed on itself ~2M years ago. The bottom of the mountain forms a talk rim around a flat plain with an alkaline lake in the center.
A group of tourists in Toyota Range Rovers have stopped to watch lions. Two males with black manes are in the grass to our right. I'm able to get fairly good photos with my phone. A group of females with cubs are in the distance on our left in the midst of numerous grazing animals including zebras and wildebeest. The female group is too far from us for me to see clearly, even with binoculars. But we watch patiently and then they begin walking slowly in our direction until the two cubs pass right next to us and then follow their mother across the road and march off across the wide grassfield to our right!
August 21, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Our last full day in Tanzania before we fly home. Here's a list of some of the creatures we've seen so far.
Hyrax
Ostrich
Penguin
Impala
Blue monkey
Ibis
Elephant
Baboon
Warthog
Giraffe
Dikdik
Lion
Hippopotami
Klipspringer
Eagle
Red duika
Water buck
Giant kingfisher
Grey Hornbill
African scooper owl
Black face monkey
Crowned hornbill
Cape Buffalo
Gray heron
Bush baby
Civet
Porcupine
Mongoose
Little bee eater
Grants Gazelle
Thompsons Gazelle
Spotted Hyena
Jackal
Wildebeest
Flamingo
Rock python
Superb starling
Tailor bird
Serval cat
Short tailed eagle
Africa fish eagle
Gray breastfed spur
Tourists do not go on actual safaris like the ones in the old Tarzan movies I watched with Mom on Saturday mornings where heavily armed white men in pith hats marched off into the jungle followed by a line of fake Africans carrying their gear. Tourists safaris are "game drives" where they pile into Toyota Range Rovers with a knowledgeable African guide who drives them around on dirt roads, pointing out animals and plants and answering their questions. When a guide finds something interesting he let's the others know so they can rush to the scene..
August 22
Dao, our very capable Maasai guide, drives all of us to the little airport near the Nyasi Migrational Camp. We enjoy a game drive along the way until Mary Lou and I are dropped off to begin the long journey home and the others drive off to continue their safari. They will be moving to Maasai Mara Park in Kenya before departing for home on Friday.
Our amazing safari ended with a 36 hour return trip home from Serengeti to Nairobi to Amsterdam, Atlanta and Baton Rouge. We had a long layover in Nairobi during which we were driven from Wilson Airport to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, giving us time to stop at a women's arts and crafts cooperative and have dinner at Carnivore, a well known Nairobi restaurant that specializes in, you guessed it, meat! Facing another 24 hours of airplane food after being spoiled by fabulous cooking for 3 weeks, we loaded up on protein before catching a midnight flight to Amsterdam.
