walk the earth: 2006-02-05

After our spectacular time on Kili, the three of us spent a day or so relaxing in Moshi, Tanzania; and arranged a 4 day Safari. Safari means 'journey' in Swahili, and what a journey we had.

The Safari we planned included 3 days/2 nights in the Serengeti National Park and 1 day/1 night in the Ngorogoro Crater. These are about the two best parks to view game in all of East Africa, and perhaps the world. To say I was excited about it, would be quite the understatement. Andrew was also really looking forward to it and kept saying how much he wanted to "see animals eating other animals." While that didn't quite happen, we did see some of earth's most amazing creatures and had a fantastic time. We again went with MEM tours for our safari, and rode around in one of their pimped out Land Cruisers. Enjoy the photos below with captions explaining the trip...

The crew on the rim of the Ngorogoro Crater, Tanzania. We drove around the rim of the crater on our 6 hour drive from Moshi to the Serengeti. Ngorogoro is on the way to Serengeti, so we got a glimse of what we'd be coming back to see in a few days, stoked.

Ngorogoro is a volcanic crater with a surface area of 20 square kilometers. It's packed full of wildlife and is probably the best spot to see the most animals because they're all confined in this small space. Steep, heavily vegetated slopes shoot up to the rim 600m above. This shot was taken from the south east rim looking north west.

Mr. Swahili, Andrew Eckert. He took it upon himself to learn a lot of Swahili while in Africa. He bought a English-Swahili phrasebook and kept it on his person at all times. The phrasebook was hilarious, it must have been written back in the colonial days because it contained some really insensitive phrases. Our favorites included: "Show me native dances," "This needs more salt," "Try to be cleaner," among many others. Andrew would use his Swahili skills, not the previously mentioned phrases, at shops and to our safari guides much to their amusement. They really appreciated his efforts with their language and it was just good fun. I wish Andrew was still in Africa! It was really great having him here.

Upon arriving at the entrance gate to the Serengeti National Park, we immediately came across a heard of elephants as they walked past the visitor center. As seen behind Andrew. One of the bulls (male) elephants mock charged a group of tourists that got a little too close. Good fun, and a great start.

After passing through the visitor center and main gate, we entered the vast plains of the Serengeti. Small 'islands' of rock stick out of an ocean of gold grass to provide these lions with a nice spot to relax before sunset.

We were extremely lucky to see this leopard up in a tree on our drive into the park on the first evening. It was either hunting or harassing a group of monkeys also in the tree, and then jumped down and slowly walked directly in front of our truck. A fantastic start, I had hoped to see a leopard, but never expected it to be so soon or so close. Leopards are very rare to spot and are usually only seen from a distance.

my favorite animal for sure.

Sunset over the Serengeti.

Our driver, Mike, let Matt and I take a turn at driving, it was great fun. Matt was keen to put the pedal down and Mike had to tell him to slow it down a few times, the Cruiser had some serious go.

I took a turn for a while and pulled up next to a lion with a buffalo kill, good times.

One of the many colorful lizards around our lunchtime beer spot.

Andrew chasing and trying to catch one of the many colorful lizards around our lunchtime beer spot.

Three examples of the elusive homo siapen siapen (aka human). They are a bipedal primate of the superfamily Hominoidea, together with the other apes. However, humans have an erect body carriage that frees their upper limbs for manipulating objects, and a highly developed brain capable of abstract reasoning, language, emotion, and introspection. A rare find in the Serengeti, especially these three with their unusually light skin tone. They must apply protective layers of 'sunscreen' up to 3 times per day to protect their delicate skin from the harsh equatorial sun. In this acacia tree one can be seen sleeping after a hearty feed, one is looking for possible mating opportunities and/or food, and another showing his powerful teeth to ward off would be aggressors.

Giraffes are hilariously awkward creatures that look the most silly when trying to run. The scene is not captured well with still photography, you must see it in person.

We sadly got a flat tire on our way back to Ngoro from Seregeti, but luckily were met by a few local Masai guys and had a good time hanging out with them.

Andrew looking tough, next to a Masai warrior.

One of my favorite shots from the whole trip, a Masai in Matt's avaitors.

The landscape in between the plains and the lush Ngoro crater.

An elephant decided to raid our campsite on the rim of the crater. We did our best to ward him off by standing far away, staring, and taking many photographs. None of our techniques proved effective as he walked into the middle of camp to have a cool drink from the water tank.