July - 2009

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Day 16: Back to the “Real World”

Day 16: Back to the “Real World”

Yesterday was my final day in Tanzania. We all felt sad as we said goodbye to our new friends. Mbise thanked us for being Ambassadors for his country, saying he could have easily spent more time with us. The six WGN members who went on this adventure agreed that we made an amazing travel team because flexibility was the name of the game on this adventure. Melissa and Melynda are on a different flight through Dubai home, the remainder headed back through Amsterdam. I connected

Day 15: Lake Manyara

Day 15: Lake Manyara

Today was our last full day in Africa. We all leave tomorrow. This morning we checked out of the crater lodge and drove to Lake Manyara, a lesser-known wildlife park. The new lodge was spectacular, obviously they saved the best for last. Spectacular views of the lake and mountains, a beautiful pool and grounds and lovely rooms. A few opted to stay by the pool, a few of us went on our last game drive. The geography was completely different, it almost seemed like a rainforest w

Day 14: Lake Manyara

Day 14: Lake Manyara

Today we drove down into the Ngorongoro Crater for a long dusty game drive. The drive down on hairpin curves was through a beautiful forest, prolific with baboons and other monkeys. The safari jeeps are fun because you can stand up with your head popped out of the truck and even stand up on the seats without your shoes. We all feel like high school seniors in the limo prom but instead of high glamour, we look like road-weary dust bunnies. The roads are so bumpy you feel like

Day 13: Ngorongoro

Day 13: Ngorongoro

We started out headed for the Ngorongoro crater this morning and went on a morning game drive on the way while still in the Serengeti. The first thing we saw was 25-50 zebras in the watering hole. They were so funny. They would all go in the water until they heard a noise and then they would all gallop out of the water and stare at us, then they would go back in and two minutes later run out again. We watched this for 30 minutes, it was hilarious. Moving on, we came upon a ma

Day 12: Serengeti

Day 12: Serengeti

Up early for the morning game drive. Today we added a leopard in a tree, eight female lions and a lone majestic male, little dikdiks, a huge herd of cape buffalo and many more of the animals we have already seen. Our guide and driver, Mbisi, has been doing this for 20 years and is wonderful. He has a great sense of humor, especially with six women who need to stop and use the bush in lion country. Must be a funny picture for the animals as we moon them! As we pass other safar

Day 11: Serengeti

Day 11: Serengeti

The driver picked us up this morning in a large 4-by-4 safari vehicle for our trip to the Serengeti. It took us three hours to the front gate and then we began our first game drive. This was for another few hours with picnic lunch boxes close to the truck. As I stood outside of the truck biting into my chicken, six elephants passed by. It was thrilling. On our first afternoon, we saw also saw wildebeest (1.2 million in the park), zebras (800,000 in the park), giraffes (the Ta

Day 10: Bukoba

Day 10: Bukoba

Our last day in Bukoba. We have somehow managed to convince them to fly us to Mwanza today. Too tired the night before to even think about a hotel, I get up and call the hotel I had heard about from the guide. It’s 8:00am and we leave at 11:00 and miracle of miracles, there are exactly 5 rooms left. Later I find out that the hotel stays booked 100 percent of the time. Stuart meets me while I'm eating breakfast with 98 beautiful handmade necklaces. I am taking them back to the

Day 9: Bukoba

Day 9: Bukoba

Up and out the door to "town" to see if we can get the airline tickets figured out. It seems as if our tickets "somehow" changed from 7am to 10am on Saturday, which is too late as we immediately hit the road for safari when we land. We have been back and forth to the office, which is not computerized. Their notebook of names is the Bible and we are having a tough time trying to change their schedule of 12-seater airplanes in Swahili. After much pleading, we are told to come b

Day 8: Bukoba

Day 8: Bukoba

I'm not quite sure who won the battle last night, me or the mosquito net, but at the end of it, I felt like The English Patient, trapped in gauze, unable to sleep an hour with the sounds of scooters all night, Michael Jackson’s funeral on the big TV out on the patio which started here at 11 and was yet one more example of the haves and have-nots, how we reward pedophiles and drug addicts for a little bit of glitz. OK, Ms. Grumpy, at least this was the first day with a hot sho

Day 7: Bukoba

Day 7: Bukoba

Awoke at 4am with my new "friend" the rooster who did not stop from then on. Staring at the "shower," it’s really more of a faucet over the floor. Since I had little hot water in Zanzibar, I'm wary. Sure enough cold again, thank God it’s not the dead of winter. We meet for breakfast, eggs, toast and fruit. We ordered lunch before we left as it takes between 1 and 2 hours to prepare. Then 15 of us piled into the van to head to the first village. Winding down dirt roads that

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Day 16: Back to the “Real World”

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