Category: 2013 Africa

Although we leave Melbourne on the 4th of August, this page is just the time between our departure and the evening of the 5th of August.

Syd and Sharon have left from Sydney flying direct to Johannesburg and on to Cape Town.  The rest of our group left from Melbourne flying to Perth for a 2 hour lay over before a 12 hour flight into Johannesburg where we spend 4 hours waiting for our 2 hour flight into Cape Town; a total of 18 hours in the sky. All flights were very smooth except for a couple of minutes while coming into Perth and the landing at Perth was a little jerky on touch down. We had dinner on the flight out of Melbourne and then again out of Perth (that was 3:00am Melbourne time) and from then on, the cabin staff kept us ‘in the dark’ until we had breakfast just prior to our 5:00am Johannesburg landing.

12 in the group have travelled on tours with us before so there is less ‘initiation’ to go through this time.  Someone commented about the way South Africa handles crowds; we almost started to “bahaaa” and “moooo” as we went through many ‘races’ towards immigration, customs and security points.  Lots of walking around airports from domestic to international keeps you fit too.

Johannesburg airport was quite busy at 6:00am but definitely not like Dubai.  We chose a quite spot to rest and get to know our new travel companions that we hadn’t travelled with before.  There was very little success for anyone to get on ‘FREE Wifi’ and so relatives and friends back home have remained unaware of our travel adventure until our arrival into Cape Town.  The sky was clear all the way into Cape Town which enabled us to see the rugged landscape surrounding this interesting bustling city.  The final approach takes us over many shanty houses as we land, and then do some more walking to collect our baggage.  We are met by 3 drivers and taken to our accommodation on the Cape Town foreshore near the stadium where the World Cup Soccer tournament was held in 2012.

As we walk into Radisson Blu Waterfront, someone says, “you’ve done it again – Lyn.  The best accommodation one could expect.”  The butlers and attendants look impeccable and smart and are very well mannered.  Our rooms are not ready for occupancy just yet but we need to experience lunch on the foreshore of Cape Town’s ocean view.  The afternoon is spent getting adjusted to the time variation and, for Lyn and I, changing from a smokers room to one much more pleasant with the afternoon sun beaming in.

We meet for dinner (not more food) and some are missing, presumed in bed catching up on some shut-eye.  The idea of an early night is a good one and voted and approved by all.

Seniors Moment/s

One has left all her USD cash at home.

Another turned up for dinner with their vest inside out.

Travel Agent arrives in Cape Town without doing up her seat belt for landing.

The Plan

After breakfast, continue your journey via Arusha and travel north into Kenya to Amboseli National Park, located beneath the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro.  Late this afternoon, en route to your lodge enjoy an Included game drive through the national reserve with its wide, dry plains and where the horizons stretch into the furthest distance and become one with the sky.  FB L D

How the day turned out

It is Lyn’s birthday today and this is to be a day she will remember as a ‘hard’ travelling day.  An early start requires an early rise.  Our breakfast is at 6:30am with departure at 7:15am as we have a lot of ‘hard’ travel to do.  Much of the time on the road is to be hard, corrugated road surface.  Enduring such an experience is something we all hope can be put out of our minds for the 36 hours we are at Amboseli, until we return on the same 70km of rough road.

We stop at the Tanzanite shop for a comfort stop that ends up taking 45 minutes or so as folk want to purchase whatnots to take home.  We drive on a sealed road for a further 2 hours to our lunch break at Arusha and another 2-3 hours to the Kenyan border.  As mentioned in a previous day’s post, border crossings can be time consuming with many of us having our fingerprints taken at exit from Tanzania and also entry into Kenya.

Leaving the border, we get onto the ‘special highway’ as one of our drivers has named it; special because you get a free massage as you drive along.  The wait at the entry gate takes quite some time but we are ‘entertained’ by Maasai Mara people selling their jewelry and head dress.  Our windows are kept shut tight.  If you give one of them eye contact, they seem to think that they have a buyer and so keep hassling you no end.

Ol Tukai Lodge is like an oasis in the true sense of the word.  For miles around is just flat, bare countryside where we can see elephant, hippopotamus and buffalo in the distance.  The grass appears to be lush near the lodge with ‘desert’ in the background.

The accommodation is appropriate for the remoteness of the location but they can still put on a good feed.  The kitchen staff come out from their workplace in single file, singing a once a year song, eventually making it to our table to present Lyn with a chocolate cake for her birthday.  Ah just 3 more years to retirement.

The Plan

Don’t miss the chance to rise early this morning and witness a spectacular sunrise over the crater.  Following breakfast, enjoy an Included game drive through Ngorongoro Crater, reputed to contain the largest number of predators in Africa.  FB L D

Some Information

In a landscape reminiscent of the volcanic upheavals of the Rift Valley, Ngorongoro – the unbroken caldera, 600-700 m deep, scarcely covers 300 sp km.  In this restricted space, exceptional climatic conditions have favoured an explosion of animal life.  Some 20,000 great mammals are permanently in residence: gnu, zebra and antelope, not to mention elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus.  And, in the ranks of the more exclusive, 400 hyenas and 100 easy going black-maned lions.  West of the bowl are the waters of Lake Makat, at certain seasons carpeted by clouds of dwarf flamingos.  White pelicans prefer to fish further from the shores, in deeper water.  Cormorants, storks, herons, kingfishers and 400 other species nest here permanently or take up residence for the winter.

How the day turned out

Our local guides decide that it is better to leave the Sopa Lodge later than the 7:00am as planned.  This allows us to have a more casual breakfast before venturing down into the crater to view the waiting wildlife.  So it’s roof up and top class viewing for the adventurous.

We come across a troop of baboons eating the grasses beside a small creek.  They don’t take any notice of us at all (must be used to human gawkers).  We find plenty of zebra, wildebeest but no impala or giraffe.  The giraffe cannot find a way down into the valley and if they do, there are so few trees to have a meal from.  The impala like to hide from their predator in thicker forests.

We meet up with five or six lions lying lazily out in the grasslands, resting from what was probably a recent meal.  The many visitors photograph even a slight movement.  They have heard the message via CB radio, that ‘someone’ has noticed – lion.  When one decides to sit up and then stand, cameras go wild.  This male lion is so graceful as it moves toward us and then through the traffic on the roadway and across to where other males are.

Later on, we make our way to another spot where you can see there are many 4WDs. (This is a sure bet that something spectacular is happening).  Yes, it sure is.  A male lion is mating with a female – Sid and Bruce have photos to prove the ‘moment of the day’.  I was temporarily diverted to an elephant along the way and so missed filming ‘the act’.  When lions are ready to mate, the female sits close to her chosen male with tail up.  He comes along and satisfies her request, which lasts for less than 10 seconds.  Then 5-10 minutes later, she lines up again.  This can go on for many, many episodes until fertilization.

We find a picnic spot to have lunch and over 80 4WDs pick the same spot – there are toilets there too.  Ahh! That’s why.

After lunch, we go on the hunt for black rhinoceros and notice some pink flamingo in the distance, too far away to get good photos.  We will have to wait for Lake Nakuru for flamingos by the 100’s of thousands.  Travelling for over an hour on the hunt for rhinoceros, we give up and come back to the lodge to enjoy the fantastic sun shinning into our room as we look over the great basin of Ngorongoro National Park.

We have an early start in the morning as we make our way to Amboseli National Park in Kenya.

Senior Moment/s

A warning to all “Gents”.  Be prepared!  Today, it has been revealed that two ladies, together, were noticed coming out of the men’s loo, completely unaware that they had past urinals to get to the cubicles; and then a third did the same.

The Plan

Enjoy an Included early morning game drive through this beautiful and incredibly diverse park, which is well known for its lions, elephants and large troops of baboons.  After an included lunch, travel to the world famous, Ngorongoro Crater, often called “Africa’s Eden” and the 8th Natural Wonder of the World.  This evening enjoy your included Scenic Enrich traditional dance performance by a local tribe performed in the grounds of the Sopa Lodge.

How the day turned out

This accommodation has been the tops but we must move on.  Today, we take 4 hours to ‘safari’ to the main gate.  We see ostrich, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, baboons, and a blue duiker.  Duikers are a small secretive forest antelope characterised by sloping backs and richly coloured coats.  Most of the 18 recognised species are confined to West Africa, but the blue duiker is common in the forests of the eastern coastal belt.

We come across a troop of baboons wandering towards the water supply.  Lots of little fellows are riding their mothers.  A couple scurry up a palm tree and drop nuts for the others to feed on.  They take no notice of our vehicle as the play fight amongst each other.

Near the end of this safari, we meet up with many wildebeest and zebras.  They often depend on each other for anything that is of danger.  This wildebeest is not the migratory type of wildebeest like those in the Serengeti area, which we will see in a few days time.

Our lunch is provided in a picnic box eaten at the entrance gate to the park before a 3-hour drive to Ngorongoro.  It is time for more sleep, if you can put up with the slowing down for the speed traps in each village along the way.

There is a great fertile rift valley that stretches for thousands of kilometers from Egypt to Botaswana.  The vegetation suddenly becomes lush and the villages have much fruit and vegetables for sale.  We climb up a few thousand feet up the escarpment to a village where the ladies are waiting for – a souvenir gift shop that also sells the precious tanzanite.  A few ‘valuable’ purchases are made. Tanzanite is the blue/purple variety of the mineral zoisite (a calcium aluminium hydroxy silicate) discovered in the Meserani Hills of Manyara Region in Northern Tanzania in 1967, near the city of Arusha and Mount Kilimanjaro.

Then it is on to Ngorongoro Crater.  This is the largest crater in the world teeming with some 20,000 great mammals.  The lodge here is another architectural dream situated on the edge of the crater looking out over the floor of the crater.  We see another African sunset before another sumptuous evening meal and some African entertainment.

The Plan

Today we travel to the Namanga border and enter Tanzania, home to interesting wildlife, inspiring landscapes and a rich, diverse culture. FB L D

Some Information

The acacia-strewn savannah of Tarangire National Park is the habitat of most African species, easily spotted along the banks of the Tarangire River.  From the lodge overlooking the water, you can watch them come to drink at dusk.  At the end of the summer, thousands of migrating gnu and zebra cover the plains.  The only drawback here is that the region is infested with tsetse fly.

How the day turned out

Wow, a third day in a row for travel. Today, we have is a land transfer.  After another ‘Scenic’ breakfast, we board our designated 4WD.  We have been divided up into five groups named elephant, lion, leopard, giraffe and rhino, with up to 6 people in each group.

We are to cross the border between Kenya and Tanzania this morning, which is about 3 hours away.  Borders in Africa are so busy with overladen trucks carting goods to and fro and buses chock full of passengers topped with a mountain of cargo.  There are many, many 4WDs transporting expatriates who are touring the game reserves.  It is sort of strange having to go through two immigration points in a short time as we are used to having a plane trip for many hours between points, normally.  This trip is 100 meters. Another 90 minutes and we are in the town of Arusha for a buffet lunch.

Then a further 2-3 hours of rough road conditions that people had to experience before the new road which is not long constructed.  There are a few in our group that have bad backs and find it a chore to bear the rocking and rolling in the 4WD.  We finally reach the gate entry to Tarangire National Park where a comfort stop is had and the roof of our vehicle is raised to enable us to stand and view the wildlife.  It is another 10 kms but because of the abundance of wildlife, we tend to stop at many spots along the way to photograph and experience the animals.

There are many elephants, zebra, wildebeests, a few giraffes, and plenty of impala.  We notice a few mongooses looking for snakes to attack and devour.

Animals don’t look for privacy when they want to perform procreation tasks.  A male ostrich has 3 females near him doing their ‘I want to mate’ dance but just the one wins today and we witness the process to the end.  That was our ‘special moment’ of the day.

The Tarangire Sopa Lodge is an architectural dream.  To erect a building of this caliber in the African bush-land is some feat indeed.  Each room is large and has a view of the distant African landscape. Missing is a well stock mini-bar and a TV.

Our well presented meal is followed by live entertainment, a small group of Maasai Mara tribe’s people.  These are the guys who do vertical ‘takeoffs’ as they sing.

Tomorrow, we travel to Ngorongoro Crater.

The Plan

This morning, fly to Nairobi, the thriving capital city of Kenya.  On arrival you will be met and transferred to your centrally located hotel.  FB D

Some Information

Kenya is everything you ever imagined the Dark Continent to be.  Its very name conjures up pictures of vast herds of elephant lumbering over the rolling, grassy plains, beneath the shadow of snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro.  For many years, Kenya is synonymous with big game – and for good reason.  With a land area almost two and a half times that of the United Kingdom (582,600 sq km), the country has more than fifty national parks and game reserves, covering 8 per cent of its territory – roughly a third of the size of England!  The Big Five – namely buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhinoceros – are more numerous here than anywhere else.  The population of 25 million made up of no fewer than 48 different ethnic groups.

How the day turned out

Today is another transit day to Nairobi where our ‘real’ safaris commence – so we are told.  Knowing that the International Terminal has burnt down 9 days ago, arriving is a little “I wonder what’s going to happen with Customs and Immigration.”  It does seem busy with tractors and trailer carting goods and machinery around.  There are a number of other aircraft parked near, but not attached, to the International Arrivals and Departures building and quite a number of marquees around where we find out that they are being used as immigration processing centres.

Our group is very patient.  Others, we shall not say from where, are not.  Pushing and standing your ground is the order of the day.  Considering the number of passengers that come through Nairobi each day, the authorities have organised the procedures the best that can be done.  Even photos are taken of everyone as we enter Kenya. I hope they frame mine against my ‘pretty’ kiwi passport and hang it is City Hall.  HAHA!

From arrival to getting into our 4WD jeeps was only 1 hour.  From the parking spot to the exit of the parking area, was 25 minutes.  It is thought it may take 90 minutes into the city where our motel, The Sarova Stanley is.  Through hotel security we go and into a very much, Colonial looking hotel.  After a briefing on what is in the plan for the the next 24 hours, we venture across the street to the ATM for some local currency, the Shilling – mind you, an accompanying security guard is required accessory.  We draw our 500 shillings and realise it is only $6.30 australian.  Oops, not much really so we draw another 5,000 shillings and then get it broken up to use for tips and small items we may purchase at markets along the way.

The evening meal includes a birthday cake – it is Darlene’s ??? birthday today.  The lemon lime and bitters (a common beverage for us on this trip) is $7.50 for a large glass.  Coke is $1.80.

There are not too many photos taken today but we will try and make it up from tomorrow as we travel to Tanzania for three nights and then back into Kenya for 8 nights before heading back to Australia.

Thank you to all the folk who have made comments on the posts and photos.  Lyn takes most of the stills on a Sony a55, with some on a compact Sony HS50V while I am busy with a Sony Handycam HDR-XR500 on a tripod.  We certainly are getting a lot of good pictures and video to enjoy in the future.  Much editing is to be done on our return.