Uhuru

For those of you that are worried...I'm alive..and yes, I made it to the summit. I'm wiped today...but more to come for sure...I love you. Pictures from the last 10 days are on their way!!

Britt

btw...so proud of the comeback dawgs beating those nerds!

Kilimanjaro

Well...this morning we will set off for Kilimanjaro. 6 days on the mountain, should be great. I'll have pictures from the last week and an update for you when we get back.

To the summit!! Brittany

Friday, May 30th 2008...Finally...CHEETAH!!

This morning's 6am drive came wa to early...but there was excitement in the air as we loaded up. It was till dark and Madili was urging us into the Rover so that we could be the lead car. We actually ended up being the 3rd. When the first car saw a cheetah cross the road, he swerved around the 2nd and got us right us on it. It was a small female and she was beautiful. The lead car raced off, but we slowly crept forward and Madil was able to spot 2 more in the grass watching our car. We waited and they jogged across the road only about 10 feet from the jeep. SO AWESOME!! They were watching a herd of gazelle, but the way they were sitting also made them look like they were just enjoying the beautiful sunrise along with all of us. There were a total of five they were smaller, Madil said they looked like cubs that had just been forced out on their own. It is a good mother that can have 5 cubs survive. I was speechless for the whole interaction and I know these guys are by far my favorite of all of Africa. They walk so lightly and have so much speed and power in their bodies, it's astounding.

We drove around some more looking for leopard and we never did find them, however we did see jackals and some more of the various grazers. A quick breakfast and we were on the road for the 8 hour drive back to Moshi. It is really weird for us to see sights that we recognize in Tanzania, but some of these places we have passed multiple times. These long car rides are always the best chance to get to know one another and I have loved getting to know all of the people on the trip!!

When we got back to Springlands Hotel, we had a grand welcome and a very large dinner. it was amazing. Before we hit the bed, I spotted some climbers that had just come dow from Kili and I thought I would ask them for some advice. They were 6 Irish guys that had travelled for the holiday and they were all successful in their trek. Good to know, they said it was cold, tiring, but amazing...so I am very excited. Well...it's late, I've been up all day. I need to rehydrate and start resting for this new adventure that awaits... Until Tomorrow.

Also...I will be trying to upload photos soon! miss ya'll Britt

Thursday, May 29th... SIMBA!

I couldn't sleep last night knowing that I am in the middle of one of the best game parks and that I'll get a chance to see all of the animals that I have been obsessed with since it was little. Driving out of our hotel to the main roads of the parks we saw the usual grazers of impala, gazelle and zebra. However, one awesome sight before we made our first turn was a herd of elephant. There were 11 adult females with 7 calves. One was small enough to walk underneath her mother's belly. They were marching just like the Jungle Book across the road about 6 feet from the front of our jeep. There massive bodies gave me chills, thankfully they're grazers too.

There was an awesome herd of Zebra that had been at the watering hole and were walking to the shade. They had to cross the path in front of us and they got spooked and started a mini stampede. Listening to their barks and hoofs thundering was straight off of Planet Earth.

A fun giraffe moment was watching it drink. He had to bend awkwardly to get far enough to get to the water. This is really rare because the giraffe are so vulnerable with their head down. Around that same watering hole were two female lions lounging in a dead tree for the morning. Just cat napping.

We went to another pond and saw the most disguting hippo pond ever. We could only stand the smell for about 3 minutes then we left to see the biggest croc I've ever seen. It had just finished eating a junvenile hippo so it's belly was huge too.

Ther mission for the day was to find lions close up, cheetah, and leopard. Well we were lucky enough to see those two lionesses at the water, then two more walking and lying in a bush, and one more watching a herd of very nervous zebra. After 5 lionesses we were ready to see the real simba. Wouldn't you know it, our driver, Madil was able to happen upon a lioness and her accompanying male. We saw another pair relaxing together too. In the heat of the day all these guys do is nap. But I would too if I only ate once or twice a week. The huge male with his beautiful flowing mane demanded repsect and awe. It was so great! The cutest picture that I got today was anothe lioness sleeping in a tree. She was hugging the branch with her face smashed against it too. I just wanted to climb up there and lay with her. When we came into this park we were so excited for lions and so happy to see as manuy as we did. We continued to drive around looking for the other cats, and ended up seeing another lioness resting on a huge rock, and two juvenile males that were celebrating after they just brought down a wildebeast. They were tackling each other in the grass and prancing around with mud all over them, too cute.

The cheetah and leopard eluded us even on our drive back to the lodge. This was doubly frustrating because one car of people in our group had seen 5 cheetah the first night. It was the car with my fav driver, madil and it was the only day I hadn't ridden with him. I made him promise we would see one and that I could get a cub to take home. His response "if you can catch it, you can keep it" I'm up for the challenge.

We made it all the way back to the lodge and saw some awesome hyenas, giraffe, and elephants, but the cats were nowhere to be found. Tomorrow's our last chance.

We ate a great dinner and celebrated having Heinz ketchup. I was lucky enough to get some cell service and got to hear some much needed voices. Sometime I think that may make me more home sick, but only two more weeks until I'm stateside!

This was by far my favorite day of the trip. There are enough positive words to explain all of the emotions of the day. I have dreamed about seeing these things for almost 20 years and I'm so happy and thankful for this experience.
We have a 6am drive tomorrow and the animals are normally more active at sunrise, so I'm off to bed. Until tomorrow's 10 hour car ride back to Moshi.

I miss you all, Britt

Wednesday, May 28th...Cradle of Life

another misty morning with a chill in the air at the top of the gorge. Sitting in the rover for our 7 hour drive to the serengeti was not the first thing on my wish list. So I was happy to hear that we had three pit stops at sites on the way. Our first stop was Oldupai gorge which some call the "cradle of life". They call it that because of old minkey man fossils that they have found here. The anthropologists on the trip died when they saw the old bones, tools, and footprints. Our next stop was a real Masai boma. When our cars pulled up the wives were working in the yard and they sent some of the children to get the husband who was tending the cattle. They took us into their huts to show us how they live, and they let us play with their baby goats (some if the cutest little things I've ever seen). The final pit stop was at a sand dune called Shifting Sands. It moves over 100 meters a year! The sand came from a local volcano and it is really dark. Some of the particles are magnetic, so we had fun playing with them.

Now the drive to the largest wildlife park in Africa. After such an amazing say at the gorge, I thought it would be tough to top. But, the giraffe came through in the clutch. They are my favorite animal to see up close. They are awkward and beautiful and graceful all at the same time. I love their long limbs and how calculated every step seems to be. So awesomely gorgeous. The rest of the drive consisted of gazelle and other grazers, nothing out of the ordinary because we weren't even in the park.

When we did finally get to the sopa hotel here in Serengeti. We took showers and went to a great meal with tribal entertainment. My favorite moment though was watching some gazelle graze about 10 feet away from our room's balcony. This hotel is truly nestled in the thick of things.

Until tomorrow, waiting for another chance to see some big cats... Britt

Tuesay, May 27th... Wildlife Retirement Home

We packed our land rovers and headed into the brisk morning as the clouds wrapped the road in a misty fog. The jungle lined the road, but off to our left was a steep drop off into the Ngorongoro crater, our destination for the day. We dropped our bags at the new hotel ( the Sopa, a 5 star suprise from Mama Zara).

We popped the tops to the rovers and headed for the gorge eager for the animals ahead. Our first encounter was a family of baboons playing in the misty trees on the side of the gorge. We jostled and jolted our way down the rim of the crater to the plains. This caldera is a huge protected area of about 100 sq. miles. Lion King songs were repeating in my head as we drove in search of Pride Rock. Wandering in the grasses were huge herds of cape buffalo, wildebeast, and Thompson's gazelle. One cool moment was when we drove by all of the buffalo lying and chilling in the grass. Douglas started playing his African drum and they all stood up and stared right at our car. We were hoping they enjoyed the music, not sure though. We didn't stick around to ask. My personal favorite of the grazing animals were the zebra. The foals were born in Dec. So now they are 6 months old and still in their adorable awkward and fuzzy stage. Their brown baby strips are just too cute. We ate lunch at a watering hole that was full of hippos, but when you get close they smell pretty bad. We had to eat inside of the jeeps because the local birds are known to dive bomb your hands for food.

Many in the group loved the huge male elephant that walked by about 15 meters from the jeep. They say this crater is the retirment home because a lot of the older animals move here where predators are scarce. Some other really cool animals that we saw were warthogs and the much larger "cousin" the black rhino. The rhino mom had her calf with her so we were lucky to see 2 of the 20 rhinos that live in this park. We drove up on a sleepy hyena who had just taken a mud bath. I thought he wasn't alive until he peeped his head up to check us out. I felt bad that the rover woke him up.

A shocking experience was seeing osrtiches crossing the plains, I had forgotten that they lived in Africa... They looked neat though. I guess people just forget about birds because there are so many. Speaking of birds...we saw a couple thpusand pink flamingos in a lake in the cebter of the caldera. The sheer number of animals is overwhelming. Another cool bird that we saw was the Cory Bustard, the world's largest flying bird. I wish I would have seen lions closer. We saw two males at the top of a hill relaxing in the shade of an acaia. I'm crossing my fingers that we will be closer in the coming day.

The wildflowers in the grasses were so increduble. As the breeze whipped through the plants and over the rover, the aroma swept me away. This is the first time I have smelled that "fresh wildflower" scent.

After a long day of wildlife spotting (it felt like a treasure hunt), I was ready for a break at the hotel. Windburned and sunburned we were ready to chilax and watch the sunset. It slowly rolled onto the rim of the gorge and slipped behind the clouds, a perfect ending to a breathtaking day. Miss ya'll. From the safari world, Britt

Monday May 26th... Camels! And Other Travel adventures

Today we flew from Zanzibar to Arusha then drove 4 hours to a new hotel near the game parks.

When we got to the airport, we had to wait (shocker, I know... More about that later). Then we got into out plane, it was more like a 14 passenger tin can but I was loving it! Chris was our co-pilot for the flight. The only casualty was an eagle who hit our wing as we were landing. Better the wing than the prop (a lot more cleanup for the prop). Eish. We were sfae though, which is always good.

On our drive we made a pit stop with 3 attractions. First, camel rides! They were so awesome and awkward. I was full of fear and joy as Connor's camel trotted next to mine and threatened to spit. The long face is kinda cute in an ugly goofy sort of way. Second, the reptile park. Equipped with two pythons who have actually eaten people and enough cobras to kill our whole tour... I was loving the danger! We held a olive snake, but he was small. I also held a baby croc (Trying to make the Erwin family proud). It was tough to be nice to a gator, but I sucked it up. Third was the Masai museum. There were creepy wax figures that depicted everyday life, but I learned a lot about their culture. A couple practices have me rethinking this Masai wife thing...I'll let you look that up on you own.I'll say it's this: When the women get married they wear a long chain around their neck, how fitting.

That was it for traveling today. When we got to the hotel we ate and celebrated Bryan's 22nd birthday. The hotel brought in traditional dancers and they pulled me into the circle to dance. My Masai partner and I put on quite a show, I owe eveything to the Loft...haha.

Now to random thought from Zanzibar...they tell us to report on what we think would make businesses run better. First, power (electricity) a basic necessity that cannot be trusted on this island. Evry store, hotel, and restaurant has a generator and they are relying on it for power 90 percent of the time. It's a tough life to run a restaurant where the fridge won't work or to sell clothes to people trying them on in the dark. They make due with candles. But we had to take a lot of fabric out in the sun to see the real colors. Service/ Time Management: I've heard of beach time but people her take that to the extreme. We actually napped at the tables while waiting for our lunch and one night for dinner took 2 hours to cook 3 burgers. Their hospitality is great, but they need to increase speed to keep business flowing in and out.

Enough ranting... I want to tell you about the highlight of my day. As our Land Rover at away miles of African savannah, the huge orb of the sun slowly snak into the horizon. it cast colors of deep red,peach, and pale yellow across the sky. The grayish pale blue slowly lingered across our natural ceiling and the mountains shone with a mistyy purple. Still no pictures for now, I'm sorry. As the Lion King sun set into the west, I saw the plains lightly salted with acacia trees and scattered Masai huts. The people were gathering theor cattle in for the night. This was the Africa I imagined and I couldn't have created it any better in my dreams.

It is amazing how that 15 minutes can make your day perfect, no matter where you are in the world.

Until the next sunset: Britt