Tanzania Feb. 2019

Wed. February 13, 2019
Rivertrees resort. Usa River Tanzania

What a long trip it has been . We flew out of Daytona Beach on Monday at 2:00 PM and arrived here last night on Tues. at about 10:00 PM. There is an 8 hour difference, so it was 22 hours of travel on an overnight sleepless flight Monday PM. We are traveling with Mike and Jana. Our plan is to head out to the Serengetti on Friday for a week long safari, then we fly to Zanzibar for a week of R and R. We have been to Africa before, Namibia, but did not do lodging in tents so this will be interesting. I have never seen a wild hippo so that is on the top of my list as well as lions. Our lodging here is simple, but we have hot water showers and electricity so that is exciting. Not sure what we will be doing for the next couple of days. We meet our guide Ray later today. We booked ourselves extra days before we head out to rest up and get over the jet lag. It was dark when we got in so we did not see the property till today. We are in a cottage with ceiling fan and mosquito netting. We walked into town this AM, and were followed home by a cute little school girl about 6 years old who spoke no english, but just walked with us. We are planning on napping and hanging out this afternoon to rest up for the adventure !

Almost there......

Sun coming up in Amsterdam

The resort is on the Usa River.

Our cottage

Wheelbarrows used to bring luggage to rooms Below: the gardens were pretty bare, saw this monkey in action, then understood why..

walking form resort out to main road BELOW: video of the little town

This little school girl did not speak any English. She walked up to us an just walked with us for about 15 minutes back to resort.

Our cottage

Mike and Jana

Thurs Feb 14 2019
Valentines Day Usa River
We relaxed yesterday, walked to town, scouted around the property, and took a nap. We met Mike and Jana at an overlook on the river for cocktails, then ate dinner. Everything is slooooooow here, so dinner was over a two hour affair. We met our guide Ray, and guide for the villages, Haji at 8:30 AM and set off to Kilamanjaro. We got dropped off at a Chagurra tribe village, met the priest of a beautiful old church who was a hoot. He showed us around and we really enjoyed our time with him. He then set off for about an hour and a half hike. We walked through 3 villages, over rivers, and the climb was mostly up. It was pretty hot and we were all glad when we met Ray with the car. We then drove and walked on the base of Kilamanjaro. Next we went to a home and ate a local women's house. The local crop was Banana, so everything we had was made from Bananas, at the end we had banana beer, which was brewed with millet and quite chunky..... We got back around 5:30 PM, showered, met for cocktails, then ate dinner. Tomorrow we head out and start safaring.

Moshi, en route to Kilamanjaro

We arrived at a small Chagurra village where we strated our hike through 3 small villages at teh base of Kilamanjaro. These kids were part of the school run by some nuns from the local church - they were adorable !!

High fives from Jon

The local village Catholic church

This priest was in charge of the church and the school. He was absolutely delightful and we really enjoyed our visit with him !

Haji convincing me that our hike would not be all that bad.....

Jon and I, then the for of us - still feeling bouncy at this point.

Getting very tired when this young student came walking up the hill like it was nothing. I grabbed his hand and asked his to pull me - he was so cute, he actually held my hand and walked with me !

At the base camp of Kilamanjaro - at least we kind of hiked on it....

Jana and me

these guys who were guides - were so excited for us, they seranaded us with the Kilamanjaro song !

Lunch with a local - 3 types of banana stews, finished off with Banana beer....

The beer was chunky with millet, kind of the consistency of chunky coconut water, but with a yeasty taste....

Jon wore the soles right off of his sneakers. On the way back to the hotel, Haji found this cobbler who attempted a repair to the shoes...

Mike and Jana

Jon and I celebrating Valentine's Day !

Fri. Feb. 15 2019
Tloma Lodge Karuta Tanzania

We were off and stopped at a huge shopping area. Tanzanite is mined only in this area of Tanzania, so Jon bought me a tanzanite ring that I figure I will see at Christmas. We then drove into Lake Manyar National Park. It was amazing, saw lots of animals and birds. The best was at the end, we were surrounded within touching distance by a bunch of momma elephants and their babies. We arrived at the lodge around 7:00 PM We showered, organized, then ate dinner. It was a fabulous first day... The lodge is a beautiful old working coffee plantation. Our room had a big balcony overlooking the coffee fields and we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Huge tanzanite stone

great animal sculpture carved out of wood

En route to Lake Maynara - little tiny church

Huge termite mounds

Baboon getting a drink of water

Helmeted Hornbill

Saddled bill stork

African jacana

Blacksmith Lapwings

Water buffalo and bird friend - white egret

Above black egret - when he fishes below, he covers the area with his wings

Wilderbeast and spoonbills

Snack time - Mama and baby Wilderbeast

Nursing baby wilderbeast

Lone giraffe

I am not sure of the name of this one - may be a red bishop ?

Elephant crossing !

Road to our lodge

Sat. Feb 16. 2019
Tloma Lodge.

We went to Ngorongo Crater today. The drive both in and out of the crater was exciting !! It was amazing, the wild life, the scenery, we had sun, light drizzle, rolling thunder and even the hint of a rainbow. We saw elephants, jackals, hyenas, gazelles, lions, rhinos, hippos, zebras, water buffalo, wart hogs, baboons, wilderbeast. We were fascinated by a pride of lions with little Cubs. The male and female kept mating about every 20 minutes. The crater itself it vast with multiple lakes, and miles of flat grassy plains. The lodge we are staying at is a huge coffee plantation loaded with beautiful flowers and 100s of birds. We got back around 6:00 PM. showered, organized, had cocktails then dinner. Tomorrow we head to the Serengetti where we stay in a tented camp for three nights. The real adventure begins tomorrow, so far, so good !!

Entrance to Ngorongoro Park

List of the big "5" We were lucky and saw all 5 on our trip....

Driving on the rm of the crater

Ray our guide, and Jon, Michael, SUsan and Jana on the rim of the crater

Jon and me

Goshwak

Driving on the dirt roads, you see all kinds of animals, both domestic and wild...

Example of the one the roads we were driving on.. Below is video of what it was like inside the jeep on the roads.....

Driving down in to the crater, we saw lots of little villages like this one

Kids roadside

Gazelles

Bird nests hanging down from tree

Jackal on the move

the Superb Starling

Helmeted guinea fowl

The water buffalo were very prehistoric looking, and really not that attractive......

the bird on the water buffalo's back is the red billed ox pecker

Hyena crossing road, and a cackle of hyenas sleeping by the water

A flamboyance of flamingos......

Crowned cranes

We only had two rhino sightings our entire trip, this was the first one.....

I had never seen hippos wild hippos before and they were at the top of my bucket list. We spent over an hour at a water hole hole watching a huge pod of hippos with lots of babies..