Tuesday June 23 through July 7, 2015
We started this “Excellent Adventure” on June 23, 2015. Departing from DFW airport, via Washington D.C., London to Nairobi. We arrived at Kilamanjaro Airport in Tanzania on June 25 to begin our safari. Two handoffs later we were with our first guide, Sumawe, in a Land Rover and passing by Masai herdsmen on our way to Tarangire, a national park with over 4000 elephants and untold numbers of giraffes, zebras, buffalo, lions, leopards, cheetahs . . . you get the picture.
Our first game drive was an amazing introduction to our safari. Everywhere we turned there were animals in the wild that you only see in zoos. The “roads” were an adventure ride in themselves as we held on over the bumps and rocks. Finally, just before nightfall we made it to our first camp, Treetops. Our room was on stilts built into a tree. Accessed by a spiral staircase, equipped with hot water from 5-11am and 5-11pm, heated with a wood burning stove. We were not allowed to travel the grounds unescorted from sundown to sunup. A Masai herdsman would escort us with a flashlight, just in case there was an animal on the prowl and then shut the trap door on the spiral staircase once we were in for the night. The trap door was opened with coffee and cookie delivery in the morning. We were hosted by Johan and Lori who shared stories of managing in the “bush” and were always ready with reference books to explain things like the aardwolf who came strolling up to the watering hole one evening. A rare siting, so we were told.
After three nights at Treetops, Sumawe loaded us into the Land Rover and drove us from Tarangire to the Ngorongoro Conservation area. Our next stop was the beautiful oasis called The Manor, surrounded by a coffee plantation just up from the village of Keratu. Sumawe made an obligatory stop at a tourist shop, which we named the La Jolla shop because Bonnie found out that the owners family home was in La Jolla, California. We had a chance to discover the local market in Sumawe’s home village of Keratu. We were guided by three young lads, who could make a fortune selling retail in any U.S. location. They explained everything to us and kept us safely on the path through all of the stalls. It was quite a juxtaposition compared to the luxury that awaited us in The Manor. Incredible! Lunch at a table for two on the lush lawn with a view of mountains, horses and the vegetable garden that supplied the chef. We had reliable wifi for the first time and we were able to FaceTime with Barbara. Our butler Shariff, that’s right we had a butler, made sure we were treated like royalty. He heard Bonnie say that we had planned this trip ahead of our 60th birthdays so he surprised us with a very private, special dinner in the cellar of the main lodge after our first day of game drives through the Ngorongoro Crater. He spelled out “Long Life” in flower petals gathered on the grounds. We were overwhelmed with his kindness.
The staff at The Manor, especially Shariff, Margareth and the GM Roddy, and the accommodations almost overshadowed the game. But since this is where we observed our first “kill” of a buffalo by a pride of lions, saw a male lion urinate on our vehicle while we were in the Crater, and where we completed our “Big Five” by seeing our one and only rhinoceros of the trip, the game wins. But still an excellent non-camp stay on a lovely property run by some of the kindest most interesting folks of the trip.
After only two nights, we were ready to make our first in-country flight. Sumawe said goodbye to us at the Manyara airstrip and we boarded our first 12 seat Cessna Caravan of the trip to fly to the Northern Serengeti. After an hour on the packed plane we made a perfect landing on a dirt airstrip where we were picked up by Oredi, our guide for the Serengeti. We were off to the Sayari Mara Camp, or Glamp. Our first stop after the airstrip was by the Mara River to view the crocs and hippos. Bonnie was explaining how lucky we had been on the trip, seeing the lion kill and an aardwolf. That’s when Oredi pointed out that two hippos were mating in the water and agreed that we must be lucky, because you just don’t see hippos mating everyday! The stay in the Serengeti was a highlight of the safari. The camp was everything you could imagine a modern luxury camp would be. The hosts, Roger and Annabel were welcoming and filled us with history and great stories. The team of Oredi, Dickson and Michael coordinated a special sundown celebration on the top of a landmark rock for us where we got to know a little more about their lives. Oh, and did we mention the day we got up at 4am to drive an hour through the dark plains to hop in the basket of a HOT AIR BALLOON! Fly over the animals for a couple of hours, land with a crash in the bush, tumble out of the basket, hike over a stream and ride to a champagne breakfast. After our ballooning, we spent a full day exploring the Wildebeest Migration, where we discovered lions just finishing their brunch of a freshly killed wildebeest and then turning the carcass over to the scavengers, hyenas, jackals and six different varieties of vultures. Plus a full run of the wild cats of the region, lions, cheetahs and a leopard making our second kill of the trip! We drove towards a herd of impalas and heard them honking like crazy. As we came around a bush, a leopard jumped on an impala and killed it with a ferocious bite to its neck. Just another day in the Serengeti! We could have stayed at Sayari for the rest of our trip but after three wonderful days we headed back to Kogatende airstrip to our next location.
We touched seven airstrips between Kogatende and the final stop in Selous National Park. We were nearly abandoned at the last airstrip, Stiegler, as our ground agents had fouled up on confirming our arrival and the staff at our final camp, Selous Serena Camp, were not expecting us. We waited at the airstrip for nearly two hours with our hero, the Coastal Air pilot Unami, who by the way was the only person within an hour drive of us and the only person with a cell phone connection. We were finally picked up by the GM and driven in a car with about a million Tsetse flies in it to our camp. We decompressed with lots of cocktails and food and the next day we went out with our last guide for the trip, Jumbe. Jumbe is a devout Muslim and since we were there during Ramadan this meant that Jumbe would take no food or liquid from sunup to sundown. He was a great guide! Not only could he find and name all of the animals, he could mimic the bird calls. We learned a lot from Jumbe in our two days in Selous, including how to make a thatched roof from palm fronds.
Our pilot for our return flight from Selous to Dar Es Salaam happened to be staying at our lodge the night before our departure. We had dinner with her and it is good we did. We learned that we were the only passengers leaving from Selous and that the flight was moved up from 9:30am to 7:00am. I was able to snag the prime seat, co-pilot!!! for the ride and thus began our long journey home. 46 hours from Selous Serena Lodge to our Southlake doorstep. Selous to Dar Es Salaam to Nairobi to London to Dallas. This really was a trip of a lifetime. Photo gallery to follow….
Our three guides
Our Camps
The Big Five
Our Kills
Some Wildlife Not In The Big Five
