Tanzania 2015 - Index

These are the pages for our trip to Tanzania in July-August 2015.

Airline Preparations

Stopover in Bruges, Belgium

Western Kilimanjaro

Exploring Arusha

Tarangire, Day 1

Tarangire, Day 2

Maasai Village and Local Art

Serengeti, Day 1

Serengeti, Day 2

Serengeti, Day 3

Serengeti, Day 4
 
Ngorongoro Crater
 
A Day In The Life

Homeward Bound

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Tanzania 2015 - Homeward Bound

Back To Arusha - Tuesday, 11 August 2015

The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and headed back to Arusha. We stopped at a couple of shops along the way and bought more stuff.

At the first stop, we bought a small painting and an elephant statuette. The second stop was an artist coop. We talked to an artist, bought his painting and took his picture.

We stopped for lunch near the local airport. We had one of the best meals of the trip. We could see and smell it being cooked. Rice and lots of vegetables. This was the final meal for us as a group, as two of us were leaving for Zanzibar.

Back at the Moivaro Lodge in Arusha, we sat with the others as they ate a light dinner. They left for the airport at 4 pm. We bought some OAT T-shirts. We hung around our cabin and then ate a nice dinner. Another OAT group had just arrived for their main trip. We sat at a small table with charcoal burning under the table. It was very cozy.

Off To The Airport - Wednesday, 12 August 2015

The next morning, we ate a late breakfast and had a late checkout at 11:30. We ate a light lunch, like the light dinner that the others are yesterday. We were the only ones at lunch and ordered from a limited menu.

We took a taxi to the airport at 1:30. Our flight was on time and we arrived in Addis Ababa on time. We had several hours to wait and did not make the same mistake twice: we got through security early. The plane for Toronto departed 30 minutes late.

The flight was listed as 16 hours and 40 minutes. I doubted a plane could stay aloft that long. As soon as we boarded, the pilot announced we were going to Dublin, not Toronto! We checked with the flight attendant. Dublin was for refueling and changing crews, no passengers would embark or debark. We left late from Dublin but arrived early in Toronto.

Toronto - Thursday, 13 August 2015

We took a short shuttle to our hotel in Toronto. We ate a delicious and complete breakfast buffet. We napped and took a short walk in the neighborhood. We were too exhausted to explore Toronto and the train to town was expensive. We ate dinner in the hotel. We fell asleep watching Big Bang reruns. Early to bed.

Final Leg - Friday, 14 August 2015

Up early the next day. We arrived 2.5 hours early for the flight. On the last flight of our trip, I had a problem with the name on the ticket not matching the passport. It took an extra 45 minutes to get our boarding passes.

Next stop was immigration into the US, which is on Canadian soil. Even if we had not had a problem with boarding passes or had arrived three hours early, it would not have mattered. People could not queue until the agents called the flight time. This kept the line as short and quick as possible for catching planes, but annoyed people who arrived early to avoid a rush. As it was, everyone was rushing to the gates. We arrived five minuted before boarding started.

Back in Miami, Jack picked us up at the curb with some delicious iced teas. It was a wonderful welcome. We regaled him with tales of Africa as he drove us home.

Tanzania 2015 - A Day In The Life

A Day In The Life - Monday, 10 August 2015

Trips by Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) include visits to the local community. OAT supports schools in the countries where it travels. When we were in China we visited a local school and had the opportunity to spend night in a Chinese family's house. For this trip, we have already visited two Maasai villages. Today, we visited a local, primary school and a local farmer.

Primary School

We started the day at the primary school. The principal greeted us and brought us to a 4th grade classroom. The English teacher joined us, too.

The students sang several songs for us, including the Tanzania National Anthem and If You're Happy And You Know It. After the songs, we had a chance to sit and communicate with the students. There was a lot of pointing and smiling and not so much talking.

We went outside and were entertained with singing and dancing by 7th graders. They do not start school until age 7, so seventh graders are 14.









Ombeni gave out prizes of pencils, pens and calculators to the students who could ask and answer questions.

We were able to talk to the students after the quiz. Some students had a fistful of pencils and pens. The students with the calculators were very happy that they couldn't sit still.

Local Farmer

Next we visited a local farmer. During the dry season, they dig clay out of the ground and make bricks. The kiln they use to fire the bricks is made from the bricks. Mohan helped stoke the fire.

We were welcomed into the farmer's house. We were dressed in the Iraqw tribe tradition. Their language has guttural sounds. Iraqw is pronounced with a guttural growl at the end.

The entire family was good natured. We all got into the fun of it.

Bobbi created a quick bond with the wife and son. The farmer's kids were fascinated with technology.











We were served some lunch of pumpkin with corn. After lunch, we danced and sang with the family. This family is the group that was performing before dinner at the Ngorongoro Farm House several days ago.

Farewell Dinner

We returned to the lodge and had a few hours to rest and pack.

We met on the veranda for a debriefing. Ombeni reviewed the trip and then asked for our thoughts. Some of the thoughts were that other safaris had a lot of down time during the day (but not OAT), a joke about an elephant eating cabbages was told, someone noted that the guides were patient with us, even when we went to great trouble to see a zebra a kilometer away on the first day, when they knew we would see hundreds of zebras by the end of the trip.

Tanzania 2015 - Ngorongoro

Ngorongoro Crater - Sunday, 9 August 2015

We drove with Ombeni today and left the serengeti. On the way out of the park we saw many familiar animals: ostrich, Thompson gazelle, great gazelle, impala, elephants. We stopped at the entrance station to pay the fee for Ngorongoro Crater. We climbed to the top of the kopje for a grand view.

We drove back to the Ngorongoro overlook, but this time we took the road down to the bottom. It is a long, winding, one-way, dirt road. We needed to engage the 4-wheel drive to navigate the road safely.

As we reached the crater floor, visibility was poor because the clouds were still hugging the crater rim.

The crater is open and flat. Animals can be seen near and far: warthog and Thompson gazelle near and wildebeast far.








The gray-crowned crane posed and flew for us.

As the morning passed, visibility improved, until we could see the top of the crater rim. Lots of groups of animals: zebras, wildebeests, impala, cape buffalo and humans in safari vehicles.





We drove by a small lake and saw a group of hippos resting on each other. A calf was nursing.

 Somehow, Ombeni spotted green snakes in green reeds.











We also saw sacred ibis, blacksmith plover, kori bustard, black egret and yellow-billed storks.

It was the middle of the day and the animals were resting.

We stopped for lunch at a rest area that had a lake with resident hippos. The view to the rim of the crater was still obscured this late in the day.

Rufous-tailed weavers and yellow-billed kites were buzzing the diners.

After lunch we saw a new born gazelle. Ombeni thought it had been born that day.

We saw some more lazy lions and a lazy hyena. As we were taking photos, Ombeni scanned a distant herd of wildebeest and saw a rhino.

We drove out of the crater, seeing beautiful panoramas on the ascent.

We drove back to the Ngorongoro Farm House, but this time we stayed at the sister lodge on the hill, Ngorongoro Valley Farm House.