Beginnings...

{If you just arrived for the first time, please look at the Start Here... page!]

How in the world did we wind up in Africa?

Well, Catherine and I had decided, about a year ago now, that it was time for another grand adventure. Several years ago we went to Italy, then about four years ago it was New Zealand. We were getting the travel itch again, and starting to toss around ideas. I was leaning towards South America - Bolivia, Chile, and Patagonia - and Catherine gravitated towards Spain and Portugal. We both thought England, Ireland, and Scotland would be fun, and it would make good use of the left-hand driving skills I picked up in Enn-Zed (before they deteriorated past the point of no-return).

Decisions, decisions.

One evening while we were trying to sort through the options I had a random thought - what about Africa? It wasn't entirely random, I guess - I had seen something recently on the internet about the push to build a highway across Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. There was a lot of concern that the highway would drastically alter the ecosystem and the character of the Great Migration. Would be our last chance to see the Migration? Hard to say. In any event I suggested the idea to Catherine. We kind of looked at each other and, in that moment, the decision was made.

Tanzania!

Are we nuts? (thats rhetorical, by the way...)

A Chance Meeting...

OK, now what? There are a lot of little details that go into a trip like this: language, money, transport, accommodations, and food, to name a few. Books help with the research - Lonely Planet and Rick Steves are great resources. There was a lot to learn, though, and now we were on the clock. Our target was to be in the Serengeti in August/September to see the Migration and it was already December, so no time to lose. And then one day...

Catherine was standing in the coffee line at work, talking to her coworker Lee, when she mentioned to him that we were going to Africa. Lee asked where and Catherine said, "Tanzania!" Lee told her that we should talk to his brother-in-law David Mark Erickson, who lived and worked in Tanzania for seven years and just happened to be staying with them in Seattle at the moment. He explained that David is, among other things, a photojournalist and had organized a wonderful safari for the family a few years earlier. Catherine got David's phone number, called him up, and they decided to meet for coffee one afternoon.

Catherine came home from her meeting with David very impressed. He was friendly and knowledgeable, and offered to help us at whatever level we wanted - from information and advice to travelling with us and acting as our guide. Catherine thought I should meet him, and even though I have to admit to wondering "Who is this yahoo that wants to go on our trip with us?" I agreed and we made arrangements to meet up with him again. That meeting went well, and I came away with the same good feeling that Catherine had. We went home, talked it over for a few days, and decided that we were going to take the plunge; we wanted David to be our guide and accompany us to Tanzania. We would tell him what we wanted to do and see, and he would take care of everything from the time we arrived in-country to the time we left. It would cost more, of course, but having someone familiar with the territory, fluent in the language and customs, with a background in conservation, and with contacts in the safari industry seemed to add so much value to the trip that it was worth the price. It wasn't easy, particularly for me, to put that much trust in a stranger, but in hindsight it was the best decision we could have possibly made.

We told David what we wanted to do and see: game, the Migration, Olduvai Gorge, Ngorongoro Crater. We also told him that we wanted to have cultural experiences, meaning interactions with the Maasai, perhaps a visit to a school, and exposure to Tanzania off the tourist track. He suggested that we visit an orphanage run by a friend of his, and possibly a hospital started by other friends. We agreed, so he took this information and started organizing an itinerary for us. Our job would be to get the travel booked as soon as possible so we could pin down specific dates.

Suddenly, everything was coming together. This was really going to happen.

Are we crazy? (again, rhetorical)

Logistics...

Its a long way to Tanzania from Seattle. Ten time zones and about 55 degrees of latitude, to be exact. In other words, just about halfway around the world. Clearly, this would be a hard trip - more than 20 hours in the air no matter the route. In the interest of retaining our collective sanity, we decided on a couple of strategies. First, we would try and scrape together enough frequent flier miles to go first class. This would have the dual advantages of making us more comfortable and easing the burden on our wallets. Second, we would schedule in some rest time on leaving the bush and then break up the trip back with a stopover. Sounds simple? Hmmm....

As it turned out, things worked out pretty well. We had spent several months scraping together nearly 140,000 frequent flier miles each for the tickets, which turned out to be easier than expected, and by the end of 2010 and our first meetings with our guide David we were almost there. A few hundred dollars (all we spent out-of-pocket on the flights) purchased the remaining miles we needed.

Now we just need to book flights, right? (Right?)

Well, by this time we knew we wanted to shoot for August/September to catch the Migration at the north end. Unfortunately, first class frequent flier seats for a trip like this are pretty few and far between by 8-9 months out. Catherine went to work, though, and pretty soon things were starting to come together. Seattle to Chicago to Istanbul to Nairobi on the way out, then a local flight to Tanzania. Pretty simple. Now the return flight. Where did we want to lay over for a few days? London? Zurich? Paris? We finally settled on Barcelona, so the return would be a local flight from Tanzania to Nairobi, then Nairobi to Zurich and Zurich to Barcelona. After a few days layover we would return to Seattle via Toronto. Catherine managed to find first- or business class seats for all the legs except Barcelona to Toronto (quite a feat!), and as it turned out, the plane on that leg was configured for a single class, so there wasn't much we could do, anyway.

That just left a decision about where to go for the rest days after we exited the bush. This was a no-brainer, actually. Where else to go but Zanzibar! An island off the Tanzanian coast, hub of the historical spice trade, known for its beaches, and location of Stonetown, a UNESCO world heritage site. Even the name evoked adventure and mystery. Zanzibar is part of Tanzania, but maintains a special status with a certain degree of autonomy.

So, the big decisions were made and dates were picked. It's a good thing Catherine enjoys planning travel. When it comes to sorting this stuff out she is a wonder! With David on board organizing out time in Tanzania, we could now focus on preparing for the trip and making our arrangements in Barcelona. The dream was starting to look like reality, even if it was still several months off!

Ouch!!!

One of the less fun aspects of travelling to East Africa is the need for multiple immunizations. We knew we needed to get them, but were not sure of what we should get or when. We looked at different sources (NIH, CDC, Tanzanian Embassy, etc.) and got different answers, so we made an appointment at the travel medicine clinic at Virginia Mason to get some advice.

The doctor we saw at Virginia Mason was very knowledgeable and helpful. We needed to get a number of vaccinations, including:

Yellow Fever (required to enter Tanzania)
Typhoid (this would be a live oral vaccine, pills taken over 4 days)
Measles, Mumps, and Rubella booster (MMR),
Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussus booster (DPT),
Flu,
Polio booster (there was a recent outbreak in neighboring Uganda), and
Hepatitis A and B

As it turned out, we were just in time. Our trip was about 6 months and 3 days off, and the Hepatitis A/B vaccine was a series of 3 shots of a combined vaccine called Twinrix given immediately, after one month, and after 6 months. We would just be able to complete the series before we left. Notice that the MMR, DPT and Polio are "boosters". This isn't really true - these were new courses of vaccination. Vaccines do wear off with time, and since most vaccinations are given in childhood it makes sense to get revaccinated as an adult. This isn't a big issue for most people in the US because of good sanitation and low incidence of disease, but if you are travelling to a third world country revaccination is a really good idea.

In addition to the vaccines, we were prescribed a few doses of Cipro to carry as a cure for, ahem, traveler's malaise, and Malarone as malarial prophylaxis. Malarone is expensive and doesn't guarantee you won't get malaria, but it helps, and malaria is endemic to the region we would be visiting. We had to take it on a strict schedule, starting a couple of days before we entered the malarial area and ending a few days after we left. Since we were spending so much time on the road and crossing so many time zones, just trying to figure out when to take the pills each day was an exercise in head scratching.

The shots were uncomfortable, and some of them stung like crazy, but the oral Typhoid vaccine was probably the worst. It needed to be refrigerated and taken first thing on waking (on an empty stomach, and we couldn't eat for a couple of hours after) with at least 16 ounces of cold water. The water left us feeling a little nauseous, and then as the day wore on the effects of the vaccine left us feeling completely exhausted. This would be gone by the next morning, but of course then it was time for the next dose. We could have gotten a shot for Typhoid instead, but this would have only lasted for three years while the oral vaccine lasts five years. An unpleasant dilemma.

Paperwork...

Most of the time when we travel, the paperwork is pretty simple. If you are going to most western countries (Canada, Europe, New Zealand, etc.) you just have to show up at your destination with your US passport. Unless you've been convicted of something serious, you will probably be asked a couple of questions and be allowed entry without much comment. Heading for Tanzania, however, was a little different matter. A picture visa (US$100 per person) is required of most people arriving from outside of East Africa, and the information on the website of the Tanzanian Embassy indicates that this should be obtained in advance. However, this requires sending your passport, two photos, and application in with appropriate payment and waiting for two or more weeks. If you are as uncertain about sending off your passport as I am, this isn't an especially appealing prospect.

David advised us that we could obtain our visas when we arrived - that it was a fast process and the officials were hardly going to turn away US$200 in hard currency. The disconnect between this advice and that of the embassy website gave me a little heartburn but poking around on the Internet revealed that others were able to obtain their visas in-country and recently with little problem. After fretting for some time about this (until it was almost too late to apply to the embassy anyway) I finally decided to go with David's advice. I figured that even if there was a problem, we would be able to find a way around it. One interesting thing I found in my internet research, however, is that payment should be carried in the form of crisp, new US$50 bills. Apparently the US$100 bill is so often counterfeited that it isn't widely trusted in Africa. The US$50 is preferred because it is rarely counterfeited. Furthermore, new bills (the colored ones) are preferred because they are more secure.

Aside from our passports, vaccination certificates, and visa payment, we brought a number of other documents:

Copy of marriage certificate (our last names are different, and in Zanzibar we would be in a conservative muslim area)
Copies of our itinerary and plane tickets
Copies of our passports and vaccination certificates
Contact and emergency numbers in Tanzania and the US
Health insurance information
Travel interruption insurance information

We would also later receive from David our emergency evacuation insurance cards. This was provided as part of the package we signed on for, and is an important thing when travelling in the bush. Bad roads and drivers, wild animals, serious illness and injury are all things that need to be considered when travelling in East Africa. This insurance would provide for immediate medical care and evacuation by air to the nearest appropriate facility, probably in Nairobi. At that point, our health insurance would kick in and the travel interruption insurance would get us back to the US. It is an odd thing to think about. Not something that has to be dealt with much in the US where health care is always as close as 911.

Money...

The official currency in Tanzania is the Tanzanian shilling (Tsh). One shilling is worth, approximately, US$0.0055, or about 1/2 of one cent. A lot of transactions, however, are done in US dollars. Most travel-related businesses accept dollars (hotels, etc.) and tipping is usually done in dollars. I'll be honest - I don't know why the dollar is valued so highly. It is probably because of the relative stability of the currency but I can't say for sure. Shillings, on the other hand, would be more useful for purchasing gifts and other small items.

During our discussions in Seattle, David impressed upon us the importance of tipping in Tanzanian culture. The employees we would encounter at camps, for example, would all be paid a wage. However, all of the camps, hotels, etc., have tip boxes. It was important to use these boxes as a way of acknowledging the staff, particularly the back-of-house staff, for their efforts. This money would be divided by some schedule between all of the staff and would go directly into their pockets to pay for school tuition and uniforms for their children, household expenses, bills, and maybe even go into savings to fulfill the dream of starting a business. In addition, people who provided a particular service (drivers and walking guides, for example) are tipped separately in cash. This acknowledgement is important to Tanzanians. Tanzania spent much of its history under colonial rule, and because of this white westerners are still held in high regard. As one such white westerner, it feels very odd and uncomfortable to be shown such deference. In effect, our opinion of their service carries weight because we are white. If you grew up in the kind of households we did, that statement probably makes you squirm a little. It certainly does us.

One final complication is that credit cards are not terribly useful in Tanzania. Some transactions could be completed this way, but I can pretty much guarantee that the Maasai fellow trying to sell you beaded jewelry won't be able to accept your Visa card. What this all means is that you need to develop a budget and carry a significant amount of US currency with you in a variety of small denominations. David helped us develop a tip budget, giving us an idea of how much per person per night should go in the tip boxes, and how much per person per day we should tip those providing particular services. Once we knew how much we needed for tips, we added in some for the visas (we missed something here, but more about that later), gifts, and a donation we planned to make to the orphanage. I also had some cash in my pocket when we left Seattle, and Catherine withdrew a similar amount in shillings in Arusha. We thought we were being generous in the budget, but in the end we cut it pretty close. How close? Well, in retrospect that is an amusing story, but I will leave that for a later installment.

Hardware and Software...

How do you pack for a trip to Africa? As light as possible, it turns out. We were to be gone three weeks, but David told us that we needed to keep our bags small and totalling no more than 15 kilograms (33 pounds) apiece since we would be traveling in small airplanes at times. That had to include binoculars, camera gear, clothes, toiletries, and the weight of the bags themselves. Catherine and I travel pretty light anyway, so 15 kilos seemed reasonable. In the end, we were under by a few pounds, which allowed us to take some small gifts to the orphanage, and return with some gifts for friends.

You won't find excruciating detail here about the many items we took with us. You will find, however, the packing list I used on the Resources page of this blog. The remainder of this entry deals rather with some of the unique aspects of packing for wandering around in the bush.

CLOTHING There are a few important rules when choosing clothes for the bush.
1) Avoid dark colors - they attract insects and, in particular, Tsetse flies. Trust me, you don't want to attract Tsetse flies.
2) You want to blend in, so tans and light greens are the order of the day.
3) You also need to protect yourself from insects and the sun, which can be vicious, and that means sunglasses, hats, and long pants and long sleeve shirts.
4) You will be spending a lot of time in the car, so comfortable shoes and socks are important. Tan sneakers work well.
5) The nights can get cold, so take a jacket or sweater and plan for layering.
6) Don't forget the raingear - it does rain in Africa, and it can rain very hard (more about that later).
7) If you are susceptible to heat and humidity, bring an absorbent towel (like the microfiber camp towels available at REI) that you can soak and wrap around your neck.

TOILETRIES Bring the same things you would on any other trip, but don't forget to add in plenty of 30% DEET insect repellant, plenty of hand sanitizer (like Purell), and plenty of high SPF sunscreen. Make sure to throw in some Immodium, Pepto Bismol, antibiotic cream, and bandaids also.

OPTICS You are going to want a good camera and telephoto lens, and you are going to want to get lots of practice before you leave. Don't forget to practice at dawn and dusk, as well - a lot of interesting things happen at the start and end of the day. Everyone has an opinion about what the right rig is, but we took a Canon T3i with a Tamron 18-250 telephoto lens. Make sure you have an extra battery and charger, as well as the appropriate plug adapters, and don't skimp on memory cards for the camera - you are going to take a LOT of pictures. As for binoculars, take the best you can afford. Renting is a good option here. We borrowed a small pair of "secondary" binos from a friend, and rented a pair of Leica 8x50 UltraVid binos from Glazer's Camera in Seattle. These lenses were expensive to rent, but well worth the cost. DO NOT SKIMP HERE - THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOOD SET OF BINOCULARS ON SAFARI!!!

That's about it. The packing list is more complete, and is an accurate representation of what I took with me. It was developed by combining and filtering several lists I found on the Internet. I'm pretty happy with it as I used, essentially, everything I packed. There are a couple of things I could have left at home, but I also didn't find myself wishing I had brought something else along.

The Waiting Ends, The Adventure Begins...

Departure day, at last. September 5, 2011. The bags were packed last night, and we actually managed to get a little sleep. The anticipation was palpable, though, and we could hardly wait to get on the road. Our friends Bob, Jean, and Aly took us to the airport in our car and dropped us off with hugs, well wishes, and a bag and knapsack apiece. The morning was not without its missteps, though. I left my new jacket on the back of the couch (I had planned to wear it, but it was a beautiful morning) so I would need to pick a replacement up on the way.

First class does wonders for speeding you through an airport. We skipped past the lines at the checkin counter and checked our bags through to Nairobi. Next came security and a special line there, so we were at the gate with time to spare.

The flight to Chicago on United was uneventful but comfortable. Once in Chicago we had a brief (three hour) layover. I used this time to find a replacement jacket in one of the stores, then it was on to the gate and our flight on Turkish Airways to Istanbul. This was a long one - about 10 hours, and the seats were not that comfortable for a tall person. They only reclined about 150 degrees, which left me constantly sliding into the footwell. I did manage a little sleep, though, which helped. Catherine seemed to be much more comfortable. I will say that both the food and service on Turkish was excellent, both on this leg and the subsequent leg to Nairobi.

We arrived in Istanbul in the afternoon, and the city looked beautiful from the air. We wish we had had time to explore a bit, but that will have to wait for another trip. Once in Istanbul, we had a relatively short (two hours, or so) wait before our Nairobi flight. Enough time for some refreshment and a chat with a couple on their way to a wedding in Kurdistan. Back on the plane then, and on to Africa!

Whoops. Not so fast. We had checked in at the gate in Istanbul, cleared passport control, and boarded the bus to the airplane. All of a sudden we heard our names. When we responded we were pulled off of the bus! Apparently there was a problem with our tickets. We sort of expected this as there had been a glitch in Chicago, as well. United had made an equipment change at the last minute for our first flight of the day. This meant that the tickets had to be reissued under a different ticket number. Since our subsequent flights were on Turkish, our tickets in hand did not match up with the tickets in the Turkish system. This was quickly resolved in Chicago, but caused considerable confusion in Istanbul. We sat quietly and patiently while the gate crew at Turkish sorted things out, watching bus after bus of passengers leave the gate for the airplane. You could tell, though that the Turkish staff really wanted to get us on that airplane, and finally we were allowed to reboard. Fortunately, we had kept our previous boarding pass stubs as they had contained some critical information that facilitated sorting the mess out.

The flight from Istanbul to Nairobi took about six hours, and was almost entirely after dark on a clear night. I was astonished at the long, long stretches where no lights were visible anywhere on the ground. The land isn't (necessarily) empty, though. There is just no electricity in the vast stretches of Egypt, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya we overflew. This was our first hint at the level of poverty endured by much of the population of Africa.

We landed around midnight local time in Nairobi, about 26 hours after we left home. We were in Africa! Just a long layover and short flight from our final destination, Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania, where David would pick us up and take us to our first night's lodging. All downhill from here, right? Right? Uh, oh...

A Night in Hell (The First Test)...

Africa! Well, here we are: Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. As we stepped off the plane it was about 11:30 pm local time, and our connection to Kili wasn't until about 9:00 am. Its a long layover, but we planned to find a comfortable corner in the transit lounge and hang out.

First, though, where does our outbound flight leave from? We have to pick up our bags, so I guess we go this way... Hmmm... Whats this line? Passport control? OK. Uh, oh, wait a minute. These people are buying visas...

This was the first indication we had, despite all the research we had done, that we would need to get transit visas to get from one airplane to the next. The line moved slowly because there were only two people processing visas, and they were doing a lot of paperwork by hand for each person (on top of a lot of data entry into their computers). To make matters worse, a Muslim gentleman at the front of the line was having trouble getting one of his two wives through and was arguing vehemently with the officials. Finally we got to the counter: passports... look into the camera... fingers of right hand on the fingerprint pad... now the thumb... left fingers... left thumb... payment! (US$20 each)... another several minutes of paperwork... Stamp... here you go... Next!

It would have been easier to get into the Oval Office.

A quick side note here - not only did we not know about the transit visas, we didn't budget that $40 in cash we just spent. Remember that...

OK, baggage claim. Well our bags made it, thats a good sign! Now: Where do we go for our departure gate? First things first, though - where's the bathroom? Uh, oh...

And thus started our Night in Hell.

For the entire time we were in the Nairobi airport, there was no running water. Not in the sinks and not in the toilets. You can imagine what the bathrooms were like. Anyway, we worked around that, dug out the Purell, and made do. Best to be flexible when you travel!

We're now standing in a small concourse filled with taxi drivers who want to take us to hotels that we haven't budgeted. As we look around, we realize that the only visible gate related activities are back the way we came. Huh. OK, so we wander a bit and finally ask someone the location of the Precision Air check in counter. He takes us outside and points down the street; remember, it's midnight and there are no streetlights. It looks safe. Sort of. So we head down that way and a couple of hundred yards later find another terminal. We can't get in, but looking through the window it looks like there are check in desks inside, so that is a positive sign. Nine hours on the sidewalk is pretty unappealing, though, so we head back to the original concourse to see if we can find some chairs. At least there are lights and it feels relatively safe there.

Of course as soon as we were returned the taxi drivers came after us again, but we politely declined, only to realize that there were no seats to be found. Hmmm. We wandered around a bit and finally discovered the cafeteria - a small dimly lit space that could seat maybe 50 people. Several chairs were filled with people, some asleep, obviously in the same boat we were, so we woke up the attendant, bought some bottled water and donuts, and settled in for a long wait.

The next six hours were interminable. We did get up once and check to see if the other terminal was open yet (no), but mostly we just sat. And sat. And sat. Finally, the sun came up (0600 ish) so we went over to the departure terminal. Lots more people now, and we could get inside (getting our bags screened along the way), but there was nobody available to check us in. In fact, there didn't even seem to be a Precision Air desk at this point, and there was no evidence of our flight on the departure board. Nothing to do but wait, so that's what we did. We finally found someone who told us we could check in soon at a desk that was marked for a different airline, so we did that when we could, checking our bags, and passed through the door into the departure lounge. Where we found another visa desk. Another photo, more fingerprints. No charge this time, though. Just an exit stamp and a wave through to the escalator, which deposited us in a relatively nice, but small and crowded, airport concourse, albeit one still without water in the bathrooms.

There were a couple of hours remaining until departure, so we figured out what our gate was and started trying to find it. It turned out to be downstairs in a delapidated and spooky part of the building, but at least there were chairs in which to sit. We went through passport control (again) into the waiting area and there we sat for the last couple of hours in Nairobi. They finally called our flight (on time), thus ending our Night in Hell.

David's words ("Africa will test you...") kept coming to mind during this layover. This night was starting to give us a feeling for what it is like to step outside the cushy first world cocoon we call the United States. It was an easy test - we were tired, grungy, and we needed a bathroom really bad, but we were happy and excited to be near the end of our journey. At the time, this layover was an awful 10 hours and an exercise in patience. In retrospect, it is barely a footnote to the highs and lows that were to come over the next three weeks.

Tanzania!!!

It was cloudy in Nairobi when we departed, which was something of a disappointment. We were hoping to get a good look at Mt. Kilimanjaro but, alas, only the top thousand feet or so poked through the clouds. The icefields on the summit could be clearly seen though, much reduced in size from old pictures. Soon the descent began, and barely 50 minutes after we left Nairobi we touched down at the Kilimanjaro Airport. This small but busy field serves much of the international traffic in and out of Tanzania.

Stepping out of the airplane, we were ushered into the terminal. First we filled out arrival cards and were then asked if we had visas. Since we did not, we were escorted to the first station where we presented our documents and answered a few questions. We were then escorted to the second station where we paid the visa fees and picture visas were produced on the spot and pasted into our passports. Total elapsed time so far - 10 minutes. Visas in hand, we proceeded to passport control, then over to pick up our bags. We were trying to decide whether or not to declare the gifts we were bringing to the orphanage when the customs officer waved us to the exit. Total elapsed time - 15 minutes. If only Kenya were so friendly and efficient!

Entering the arrival lobby, we began looking for a sign with our name. No sign, but there was David, taking a picture of us arriving in Tanzania. This was something we would have to get used to: David is a photojournalist and is of the opinion that people never have pictures of themselves having fun on vacation because they are always behind the camera. One of his missions during the trip was to make sure this didn't happen to us by being our personal paparazzi. I have more sympathy for celebrities now - it is a little disconcerting to turn around and frequently discover someone candidly taking your picture. We very much appreciate him doing this for us, but we never really did get used to it.

After connecting with David, we headed out of the terminal and met our driver, Julius, who would be with us for the next several days. The bags went into the truck, and then it was on to our first night's lodging at Rivertrees.

The drive to Rivertrees was an interesting experience for a third world newbie. The road from the airport was paved, if narrow. What was surprising were the people who lined the road. People on bicycles. People hanging out. People walking on the almost nonexistent shoulder. Children playing in the ditches. There didn't seem to be much margin for error for Julius relative to avoiding pedestrians. Also surprising was the immediate evidence of poverty. Trash, small dwellings, lack of services like electricity, etc. We would see much more of this in the days to come, but this first exposure was shocking in its own right.

There are a couple of interesting characteristics of paved Tanzanian roads. First, they really like speedbumps. They are frequent and large to keep speeds down, presumably to help protect pedestrians. Second, as you drive along you see white pillars some distance off of the road at regular intervals. Apparently at some point the government decided that they wanted to widen all of the roads and so they planted the pillars to mark a right-of-way in which it is forbidden to post signs or build structures. The widening hasn't happened but the pillars still exist, though they are occasionally ignored.

The rest of the trip to our accomodation was uneventful. It was a little disconcerting to discover that Rivertrees was behind a large fence and a security gate with armed guards. I was starting to wonder a little about our safety, but decided to trust David. It looked like the trip was going to be interesting, though...

The Monkey Button...

We arrived at Rivertrees around midday, and were dropped outside the lounge by our driver. There we met Steve Chumbley, our ground operator. Steve, David, Catherine and I proceeded into the lounge where we were given a briefing on the facilities, meal times, etc., by the lodge staff, and David talked to us about various aspects of our itinerary, as well as the emergency evacuation insurance that was provided to us. After finishing our welcome drink, we were shown to our room so that we could get some rest and freshen up.

Before our escort left us alone, he cautioned us to never leave the door open. The reason was that the name of the lodge, Rivertrees, is very descriptive. It sits adjacent to a small stream with large trees on the banks, much like cottonwood trees populate streambanks in the US. These trees were home to monkeys.

A LOT of monkeys.

Leaving the door open would be an invitation to the curious creatures to visit, possibly pilfering interesting items. In the event we did wind up with monkeys in our room, we were cautioned not to try and shoo them out ourselves. First off, they're wild animals with sharp teeth. Second, they're faster than we are so evicting them might not be easy. In this event, we were told, we should use the monkey button.

Yes, the monkey button.

Pressing the button would quickly summon staff trained to deal with the interlopers. I think this was when it really struck me that we were more than ten thousand miles from home. In all my years, in all my travels, this is the first hotel room I ever stayed in that had a monkey button.

Thus cautioned, we were left to our own devices until dinnertime. This meant a shower and a nap. Oh, and a glorious few minutes with the first working flush toilet and sink we had seen since Istanbul.

We woke not long before dusk, which is always around 6 pm or so in this part of the world, and went out to check out the grounds (carefully closing the door!) and found David. We shared drinks with him, then had an excellent dinner and retired for the evening. It was now about 48 hours since we had left Seattle, with not a lot of sleep. Our bed was calling to us.

Arusha (The Second Test)...

One constant on our Tanzanian adventure was the early wake up call. Unless you intentionally have nothing scheduled, the day starts early. Morning game drives, for example, typically leave at or before dawn, as the early twilight is when the animals are most active. Since dawn is always around 6 am, this usually means a 5 am wakeup. The same was true for our first active day after arrival. The plan was to first head into Arusha to buy some baskets for the vehicle (easy to carry and keeps things like cameras and binoculars from bouncing around), visit an ATM to pick up some shillings to use for souvenirs, and take a quick look around the main marketplace. Once we were done with that, we would head down to Oliver's Camp in Tarangire National Park. This would only cover about 100 miles, but about a third would be on dirt roads, and we were planning to "game drive" once in the park. This would mean lots of slow going and stops, so we needed to make an early start to ensure we could be in camp by sundown.

The drive into Arusha was uneventful. It was early in the day, so the most common sights were groups of children in their uniforms headed to school and women heading out to work in the fields. As we pulled into the outskirts of Arusha, however, the density of people and cars increased rapidly, and the smell of smoke permeated the air despite the light rain that was falling.

If you haven't been to Africa, it may be hard to understand the conditions. The city is crowded. People are living in close conditions with few basic services. Trash collection seems almost nonexistent, and fires to burn trash are common (thus the smell of smoke). Many buildings are in disrepair, and side streets often appear almost slum-like.

I'm not sure this is the side of Arusha that the Tanzanian powers-that-be want visitors to see. It certainly does not indicate modernity and prosperity. On the other hand, these are the conditions in which many, if not most, of the city dwellers live. I don't say this to be critical but rather with a heavy heart. Our experience with the Tanzanian people was wonderful. They were uniformly warm, generous, and welcoming. To see the conditions in which so many of them live is heartbreaking.

The last stop on our list before we left was a quick walk through the central market. I have to say that the variety of foods available was remarkable. At the same time, conditions in the market were, by first world standards, terrible. Dirt floors, no refrigeration or ice for perishables, flies and other insects. It was a real education for us, particularly me, in how much of the African population lives.

That was our brief exposure to Arusha. The emotional impact of seeing the extent of poverty in the city felt like a crushing weight which the rain and grayness of the day only served to amplify. This was Africa's second test for us; could we understand that we, in our simple existence in Seattle, lived lives of wealth and privilege as far above these people as Bill Gates and Paul Allen live above us? And. understanding that, would we show them the same kindness and respect they give to us?

We passed this test, but the memory of those hours in Arusha will stay with me forever.

Road Trip!!!

The first seventy miles out from Arusha were pretty easy. The road was paved, but aside from quite a few potholes and the occasional random speedbump it was largely a straight shot out to near Lake Manyara, where we would enter Tarangire National Park.

We had not seen and would not see any wildlife until we entered the park. The animals know where they are protected, and stay there. There were some interesting things along the road, however.

* Giving people a lift (hitchhiking) is quite common along the roads, and there is a whole system of hand signals between drivers and hitchhikers to indicate need and willingness to provide.

* People walk great distances. It is not unusual to see people walking along the road miles from the nearest building. This is how we saw our first Maasai - walking along the road, spear in hand, with no destination in sight. In reality, there was probably a herd of goats somewhere nearby in a draw, but the lone walker was the only person or creature visible at the time.

*It is also not uncommon to see both the Maasai and others sleeping on the ground alongside the road. It is a little disconcerting at first - at home I would think they were sick or unconcious, but they are just catching a few winks.

* If we were not fortunate enough to have our own vehicle, we would probably need to rely on the local buses, known as dala dalas. These are small, private, multi-passenger vehicles, minivan to short schoolbus in size, that are licensed to carry passengers. They tend to run fixed routes, and the particular route is indicated by the paint job. A green stripe, for example, might indicate the route between the Arusha Airport and the market, while a yellow stripe might mean the Kili airport to the Arusha government buildings (fyi, these routes and colors are just made up). You flag the dala dala down, tell the driver where you are going, and they tell you the fare. The twist is, since the vehicles are private, standards are nonexistent. You might see a minivan with 15 people in it, or 6 people and a goat or two under every seat. There was a part of me that wanted to experience the dala dalas, but in retrospect that may have been a little more Tanzanian culture than I was prepared for.

* Most of the bush vehicles these days seem to be either highly customized Toyota Landcruisers or Land Rovers. The latter are more comfortable, with better suspensions, but apparently tend to leak both dust and water quite badly. The Landcruisers have much stiffer suspensions, and are thus less comfortable, but are incredibly rugged and well sealed against the elements. The Landcruiser seems to have won the competition and is presently the bush vehicle of choice.

Overall, getting around in Tanzania might be a challenge if you don't have your own vehicle. Given the relatively low cost to hire a vehicle, this is definitely the way to go. We were very fortunate to have Julius as our driver - careful and reliable, he quickly earned the nickname "The Best Driver In The World" from Catherine, David, and me.

Look! A Zebra!!!

Once we hit the turn off for Tarangire, things started to change pretty rapidly. The heavily grazed land, almost completely barren in places, started to become scrubby bush with Acacia trees large and small puctuated by frequent Baobab trees

.

After a short ways, we came to the park entrance, which sported bathrooms, some interpretive displays, a gift shop, and the requisite bureaucracy. One does not simply wander into a Tanzanian park. There are forms to fill out, permits to obtain, and substantial fees to be paid. Julius went off to take care of the paperwork while we freshened up, got oriented, and talked about some of the interpretive displays with David.

I should probably describe our vehicle at this point. It was a converted Landcruiser with a built in thermoelectric refrigerator, inverter (capable of charging camera batteries, etc.), and a pop up roof that was high enough to allow us to stand for game viewing and photography. In short, it was just about the ideal vehicle for our purposes.

Paperwork complete, we headed into the park. We got, perhaps, a quarter mile before someone first uttered the words "Look! A zebra!".

To Catherine and I, seeing a zebra in the wild, especially our first, was a momentus occasion. David and Julius just smiled and indulged us, stopping whenever something new was spotted ("Look! A whole herd of wildebeest!", "There's a black backed jackel!" "Baboons!", and so on...). This made the first three miles or so take well over an hour. Of course, we (Catherine and I) didn't realize yet that zebras and wildebeest were as common as pigeons in Times Square. Nonetheless, many pictures were taken in the first couple of hours, kind of like Neal Armstrong kneeling down to scoop up a pocketful of moondust after Apollo 11 landed, just in case that was the only chance he had to get a sample of the moon.

Eventually, David mentioned that we needed to get moving - we still had a lot of ground to cover today if we were to arrive before sunset, and there was still more and better game viewing ahead. In this he was right, and we were treated to larger herds of zebra and wildebeest, not to mention impala and elephants playing in the mud. Eventually, though, we made our way to the Tarangire lodge, where we would stop for the views, drinks, and lunch.

Here are a few more pictures taken near the park entrance:.

The story goes that when the wildebeest were created, they were thrown together from all the unused parts left over from the creation of all the other animals. In reality, this antelope, also known as the gnu, is well suited for its environment. Its body and legs allow it to run for hours on end, while the air passages and veins in the broad, flat snout serve as an efficient cooling device, allowing the animal to avoid overheating under the African sun.

This critter is a black backed jackal. The jackal is a scavenger and opportunist, much like the coyote in the United States. We never got very close to one, however (this one is about 40 yards away). They are cautious animals with a large "flight distance". The flight distance is how close an animal will let you approach before it starts to run away.

The dwarf mongoose is not the mongoose of Riki-Tiki-Tavi fame (RTT was from India, by the way), but rather his smaller cousin. We saw these little guys all over the place - usually watching us carefully or investigating some hole or another. They are very social in their groups, and great fun to observe.

There are a lot of different types of antelope in Tanzania. This one, the impala, seems to favor cover. We usually found them in areas where there was plenty of scrub acacia, but enough room to run in an emergency. The males have big, beautiful spiral horns, and are usually either found in a group of bachelors or with a small harem of females.

How can you not love a giraffe? On the one hand, it seems so improbable that such a creature should exist. How can the neck support itself? On the other hand, it is a perfect example of evolutionary adaptation. The giraffe can reach parts of the big Acacia trees that no other plains browser can reach, not even the elephant. That the giraffe can browse on acacia at all is surprising. It needs a prehensile tongue and a tough mouth to manage the wicked thorns.

This I just threw in for the "Awww !!!" factor because, lets face it, everybody loves baby animals!

These guys were pretty ubiquitous, and the faster they run the more straight up in the air their tail sticks. Warthogs can be dangerous, though - those tusks are used not only for digging up meals, but also for defense. Catherine, smitten with momentary dyslexia, dubbed them hogwarts, a name that stuck with our little group for the rest of the trip.

The elephants, though, were the star of the early show. This family group was in a hurry to get someplace,

While this big bull walked within a few feet of us and then showed his displeasure at our presence.

When we happened on this watering hole in a mostly dry riverbed, it was remarkable to see so many species of animals peacefully coexisting. They all look out for each other, keeping an eye out for predators.

Farther down the road near the same watering hole we found this family group of elephants having a spa day, complete with mudpack.











All of this happened in the first 90 minutes and five miles. David and Julius indulged us through this initiation, giving us time to take it all in. It was starting to be hard to imagine what would come next.

Bush Boxes...

The problem with getting on the game trail by dawn and occasionally being out all day is food: You are up too early to eat a decent breakfast, and there aren't many sandwich shops in the bush. What to do?

The safari camps have solved this problem by inventing something called a "bush box". I'm sure many people have many names for them, but this one is reasonably polite...

This is a bush box:

Now, the bush box is just a box lunch. Nothing unusual about that. All of the ones that were provided seemed to come in the same size box as the one shown in the photo. The tie and fern were a nice touch on this one (provided by Rivertrees) that we didn't find on others, though. The rest seemed to be unsealed or closed with tape designed for childproof packages which, as we all know, really only keeps out adults.

The bad thing about bush boxes is that they are monotonous. Almost all had a couple of small sugar bananas (a staple in this part of the world), a bit of ginger cake or other durable pastry, and a juice box. Breakfast added cold bacon and/or sausage and some type of egg/bread combo that was french-toasty. If you are lucky, you can turn the whole thing into a breakfast sandwich. This was usually finished off with an orange or apple. Lunch was similar, often substituting in some sort of roasted veggie sandwich and vegetable sticks. All of the items generally came individually wrapped in a small piece of paper.

This doesn't sound too bad until you realize that you are eating essentially the same thing day after day for 1/3 to 1/2 of your meals. I hate to say this because I'm not a picky eater, but when I came home it was a couple of weeks before I could even look at a banana.

In defense of our hosts, the meals in camp were varied and tasty. In fact, the dinners were quite elaborate affairs at times. One interesting thing that I noticed was the preponderance of beef dishes. The beef is a lot different than what you find in the US; much leaner and stronger in flavor. The cattle here are allowed to graze freely, so the fat content is lower and the animals are obviously leaner when you see them. It was, nonetheless, tasty and probably a lot healthier than the grain fed beef at home. The in-camp breakfasts and lunches were often buffet affairs, with the food as fresh and enjoyable as the sit-down dinners.

Considering the remoteness of the camps and the ingredients available, I would have to give mealtime a solid A grade when eaten in-camp (at the places we stayed, at least). The bush boxes, though, rated at best a B; the quality was fine (if a little heavy), but a little variety could go a long way here.

This is such a first world problem. Sorry about that...

On To Oliver's...

One of the reasons that David wanted to start us in Tarangire rather than go immediately to the Serengeti was that he wanted to train us to spot and identify game. It seems the part of our brain called the amygdala is hardwired for this activity, but we use it so little in the modern world that the ability atrophies. Getting the most out of a safari requires that the ability be exercised, and Tarangire, with its varied terrain and large game population, is ideal for that.

After we left Tarangire lodge, we had another 20 or so miles to cover before we arrived at our final destination, Oliver's Camp. There was plenty of game to see on the way, too - many of the same animals already seen, but also gazelles and a variety of birds including::

ostrich, instantly identifiable in the distance as a black dot hovering above the ground (this is a male - the females are more drably colored.

the brilliant lilac breasted roller (note the long double tail),

bee eaters, constantly on the move

fish eagles, this juvenile will become a powerful raptor the size of a North American bald eagle with similar coloration (but more white on th e neck and breast),

maribu storks, who always seem to be supervising vultures,

pelicans, efficient fishermen, cooperating when they can, and

vultures (better pictures later, but I liked this one because it was so foreboding).













Once we reached the Silale Swamp, however, we started to see some amazing things.

It is kind of hard to see in the tiny picture in the blog, but if you click on the image for a larger view and look carefully you will see a line of tiny dots in the distance. The lack of visual references makes it hard to determine how far away they are, but each of these dots is an elephant:

There are literally hundreds of them visible. We were soon to see them much closer,

with one family group in particular crossing a deep muddy area right near the road.

A couple of the little ones had some difficult negotiating the muck. This scene would come back to haunt us in a couple of days.

About this time we heard through the grapevine (the safari trucks stop and pass along information when they meet) that there were leopard near a picnic area up ahead. This prompted us to be extra vigilant and we were lucky enough to see two different leopards during our drive in to camp.

Leopard sightings are uncommon, and two in one day are rare. These guys were just laying up in trees waiting out the heat of the day. Leopards are stealth hunters active mostly at night, and while it would have been nice to get better pictures from closer, we're quite happy with these. Leopards are scary - much more so than even lions. I wouldn't turn my back on either, but leopards from a distance are just fine with me, thankyouverymuch.

The swamp gave us our first good look at a (very dirty) hyena, as well.














The star attractions here were the elephants and leopards, though. After a while it was time to move on, still aiming for camp before sunset. After we left the swamp the terrain was was covered with a lot of scrub acacia, so game spotting was more difficult. We finally rolled into camp about 5 pm, dusty, tired, and happy.

Calling Oliver's Camp a "camp" is kind of like calling a cruise ship a boat. Technically correct, but a considerable understatement. Oliver's, now permanent, was established by Paul Oliver as a seasonal camp some 20 years ago. After being sold to Asilia in 2004,, the camp was moved to its present location and made permanent. It is in a location in which both walking safaris and night game drives are allowed; activities not usually undertaken in the Tanzanian bush.

The accomodations at Oliver's, while technically tents (the walls can be unzipped and left open, if you are so inclined), are actually much more.

Our tent had a private outdoor hot shower (heated by a solar collector), as well as an indoor flush toilet and sink.

The decor was wonderful, the bed comfortable and netted, and the views exceptional. As this was Catherine's first camping experience of any kind, this was fine with her. She is a city girl, and her idea of camping is more "room service with a view" than "sleeping on the ground and cooking in a single pot". I think it is going to be hard to get her to go out on a real camping trip now, though...

The first thing that happens when you arrive at any camp is that you are given a briefing. Mealtimes, camp culture (happy hour around the fire pit, for example), and camp safety. It is strictly forbidden to leave the tent after dusk without an escort. There are no fences, and it is not at all uncommon to hear animals walking around your tent at night. Elephants, big cats, even a startled gazelle could do serious damage. If you need something, a radio is provided and always monitored. If there is a true emergency (an elephant decided to push over the tent, for example) an airhorn is provided to bring the cavalry running. The odds of something like this happening are remote, but best to be prepared.

We settled into our tent, had a shower, and wandered back up to the lounge area (we were the last tent to the north, about 150 yards away) to meet David for a drink. This gave us a chance to talk about the day and confirm our plans for the next day - a walking safari in the morning and a night game drive in the evening. Lots of anticipation in those activities. After meeting some of the other guests around the fire, dinner was convened about 8. I don't remember what was served, but all of the evening food in the camps was wonderful. After eating our fill, we were escorted back to our tent where we went to bed full, happy, and hardly believing that we were in Africa, let alone the things that we had seen so far.

A Walk On The Wild Side...

We had an early call the next morning for our walking safari. We were up, dressed in our bush clothes (i.e., khaki and beige), and at the meal tent right after sunrise for a quick breakfast. We then met up with our walking guide (Alex, shown holding an elephant jaw, with his very large rifle leaning against his hip) and our guard (Joseph, shown holding his very large rifle).

While things were getting organized I remembered that we had left the small binos in the tent, and decided to go get them.

I was about 30 yards from our tent when a small herd of waterbuck (such as those shown here ) hiding in the brush were flushed by a vehicle on the other side of the hill. They charged across the trail just a scant few feet away, scaring the bejeezus out of me. It seems my walking safari had already started. After restarting my heart, I quickly grabbed the binos out of the tent (fortunately I didn't have to change my shorts) and went back to meet the group. Today it would just be Catherine, David, and me with Alex, Joseph, and their large rifles, which they loaded as we stepped out of camp.

There are some real advantages to taking a walk in the bush. For example, you feel very exposed, and gain a greater appreciation of your true place in the web of life. Also, getting out of the truck lets you see a lot of things that might be otherwise missed: small birds, insects, tracks, and bones, for example. Our walking guide, Alex, was a walking encyclopedia of natural history knowledge about the bush, and brought a lot of humor and fun to the experience.

The tracks we saw were both interesting and a little intimidating. The first, an elephant, was enormous, and filled with fine veins captured by the dust. These veins are apparently so unique that they can be used to identify individual animals. Surprisingly, elephants are quite light on their feet, and wander the bush almost silently at night, When they step in soft mud, however, their enormous mass becomes quickly apparent.

During this walk, we would only see elephants at a distance.

The second track, of a lion, was almost as big as my hand. The pocketknife in the picture is almost five inches long. We saw this about halfway through our walk and spent the remaining time out feeling like we were being watched.

We saw a quite a few waterbuck and impala as we wandered about, but the real prize was a lesser kudu. This is a relatively rare species of antelope, with distinctive white stripes and spiral horns. Given that the lesser kudu has a large flight distance, we were pretty lucky to see this one embedded in a group of waterbuck.

At one point, Alex stopped and indicated a bright white marshmallow looking substance on the ground and invited us to guess what it was. After thoroughly exhibiting our ignorance, he revealed that it was hyena scat. Hyenas eat a lot of bones and their scat is filled with calcium. Although green when first deposited, the scat soon weathers to a very distinctive bright white.

After a few minutes he picked up another marshmallow-looking object stuck to a twig. This turned out to be a mantis egg case, and had a texture not unlike styrofoam.

Not long after seeing the egg case, we found a mantis hitching a ride on our camera strap! The coloration and physiognomy of the mantis makes its camoflage perfect for the environment

Termite mounds are everywhere in the bush. In fact, it is thought that in terms of biomass weight termites are probably the most common creature in Africa. The mounds can be huge, with chimneys like this 20 footer reaching high into the air. They are also complex structures with chambers and tunnels for varying purposes and extensive thermal regulation systems.

One of the most interesting aspects of the walk was to get to see pelicans fishing as a group. The small river were were walking along contained a lot of catfish. The pelicans, as a group, drove them into a small area, then proceeded to feast. When the pelicans became disturbed by our presence and moved off, the pool practically boiled with the agitated fish.

It was about this time that we noticed a large group of zebra on the other side of the river. After a few minutes, they seemed to be departing, so we did, as well.

One of us (David, I think) turned around to look back only to see a small herd of buffalo coming down to water. This was our first chance to see these large and dangerous animals, though we would see many, many more before we left Africa.

There were quite a few other small wonders to be seen this day, and a lot to learn. I hope this gives you some idea of the beauty and complexity that is the african bush.

Creatures Of The Night...

After returning from our walk, we had a late lunch and retired to our tent for a rest. We would be leaving for our night game drive promptly at sunset, and return for a late dinner about 9 pm. It would make a for a long day, so we needed to take the rest when we could.

We mustered for the night drive at about 5:45, and sat around the firepit greeting some of the large group of new arrivals we would be sharing camp with that night. Once assembled, our group (consisting of Catherine, David, and me, a driver, an armed guard, and a guide/spotter) piled in the open vehicle and were off. It gets chilly in the bush at night, so warm clothes and blankets were requisite.

The depth of the darkness, despite the almost full moon, made it pretty hard to take photos, so I'm afraid there aren't many in this post. During a night drive, the guide wields a spotlight, scanning the bush for the reflections from the eyes of nocturnal wildlife. Special care is taken to not dwell on animals like zebra and antelope. It seems that in the past, when night drives would spot animals such as these, the predators quickly learned that a quick route to an easy meal involved following night drive vehicles.

A night drive is a bit of a roll of the dice. You always go out hoping to see drama - a leopard making a kill, a pride of lions feeding, etc. We didn't get to see these things on our night drive.

We did, however, see some of Tanzania's smaller and more elusive nocturnal wildlife, such as this chameleon who put on a slow-footed fashion show.

There are even nocturnal birds, such as the nightjar we found camped in the middle of the road.












The serval cat was a treat (although we did see them at Ndutu, but that is another story...), as was the African wild cat. The latter is an ancestor of our domestic cats, and looks much like an overgrown tabby with an attitude. Both are nocturnal and shy, so we were lucky to spot them. The star of the night, though, was an aardwolf. This nocturnal insectivore, which feeds primarily on large quantities of termites, is a close cousin of the hyena. Because of its relative scarcity, shyness, and nocturnal nature, the aardwolf is rarely encountered in the wild. This was an excellent find.

So in the end we did not get the splashy National Geographic moments we had hoped for on our night drive, but that's OK. We found some unusual and rarely seen creatures and had the opportunity to see the bush in a way few people get to experience. The National Geographic moments could wait for a few hours. First, though, a fine dinner at Oliver's Camp and some sleep after a long day. Tomorrow we would leave Tarangire for points north, and we wanted to depart as early as possible to be at the swamp at dawn...

Our National Geographic Moment...

We hit the road at first light, bush boxes in hand, for the 45 minute drive out to the swamp. There was a lot of anticipation; we knew there were leopards and plenty of prey in the area, and had heard reports from our campmates of both lions and fresh kills as well. Once we got to the swamp, we started working our way north looking for both some action and a place to eat our breakfasts.

The payoff soon came in the form of a cheetah on the hunt...













At this point, I want you to start imagining the National Geographic theme playing in the background. You know the one...

da da da DA...da
da da da DA da da...da da... da, dum dum

What was about to happen before us was so fascinating that we didn't even get many pictures; it unfolded so quickly and was so gripping that all we could do was watch in fascination the events less than 100 meters away. You would have needed a video camera to capture the action.

It was pretty clear from the cheetah's behavior that it had it's sights on something. We couldn't identify its target, however - whatever it was was laying in the tall grass at the edge of the swamp. Suddenly the cheetah charged and, at the same time a male reedbuck exploded from the grass.

(This is a picture of a reedbuck taken at a different time. Click on the picture to enlarge and get a better look at the reedbuck's relatively small but nasty headgear)










The cheetah quickly caught up to and tripped up the reedbuck. A brief struggle ensued, but the cheetah couldn't get a good grip. This let the reedbuck get up and start running again. The cheetah, of course, gave chase and again wound up on top of the reedbuck. To no avail, however, as the reedbuck was able to escape for a second time. This time, however, the reedbuck and cheetah wound up head-to-head. Suddenly, the cheetah was not so confident. Reedbuck are a medium-sized. aggressive antelope with razor sharp, forward pointing antlers well designed for self defense. The cheetah was now facing an opponent that could maim or kill it, and was clearly giving the whole enterprise a second thought. Soon, though, the reedbuck bolted again. The cheetah, not yet exhausted and hardwired to chase, followed and soon was sitting on the reedbuck again - this time with an apparent good grip in the reedbuck's neck. Game over.

Well, not quite. The cheetah had not counted on the reedbuck having help.

Large and angry help.

















The cheetah had made a critical error, carrying out the hunt a scant fifty meters from a small family group of elephants. A cheetah would be ignored by an adult elephant, but it could certainly be a threat a baby and the adults are suitably cautious. This group had a couple of tiny members, and the matriarch was visibly agitated by the cheetah's actions. Suddenly, this large female charged the cheetah on it's prey, trumpeting with trunk held high, and making quite a commotion. The cheetah, not wanting to end up the guest of honor at a vulture party, decided to retire from the field, at which point the reedbuck popped up and made good its escape in the opposite direction.

The cheetah scouted the area for a few minutes, apparently trying to get another fix on the reedbuck, which had run off then hunkered down in the grass again. With no luck, and seemingly tired and dispirited, the big cat walked slowly up the hill towards us, passing the car at a distance of about 20 meters, and proceeded over the ridge and out of sight. The entire hunt from first sprint to abandonment took about a minute. The amount of life-and-death drama involved, however, was amazing. This was without question one of the highlights of the entire trip.

da da da DA...da
da da da DA da da...da da... da, dum dum