A{nother} Change of Address

I'm goint to take a small break from my Tanzania posts (still two more to come!) and write about my past week, maybe you'll understand why I have been so delayed in posting all of my pictures and stories from Africa!  Last weekend I finally finished packing up my old flat at 5 am, just in time for the movers to arrive at 8 am! We loaded up and moved over to my new address in Camden!  I am so in love with my new flat, it is so much smaller than my old flat, but it is so cute and I LOVE my new location.  I am so much more centrally located and it takes about half the time to get to work every day {best perk ever}.  I am only one block from Regents Park, which will be so great in the summer!  I am {of course} still unpacking, I swear it is never ending!  I didn't get to spend my first night in my new flat because my friends Elsa and Laura Gray had a Mardi Gras party at there house over on the West side of town.  The party was fantastic, Laura Gray went all out and made Jambalaya, homemade King cake and Milk Punch!  Milk punch, is my official new favorite drink...milk and whiskey mixed together, it's like it was made just for me!  Now, I don't know all of the ingredients but it tasted kind of like a white russian, but better.  I was planning on spending the night at my old flat, since it was closer to the party, but we ended up staying up until 4 am so I just stayed at the girls place.  The next morning I had to go over to pick up some final things and let the cleaners in to my old flat. I dropped 8 trash bags of clothes, shoes, etc off at the charity shop...EIGHT!  How is that possible?? 
This week I have meant to focus on getting unpacked, but I have had a hard time getting that done.  Monday night Annie came over to see the new place and we went out for Thai food and then came back and I tried to help Annie enter the 21st century by uploading her new iPhone!  Tuesday I headed over to Meg's to watch The Bachelor with Meg and Lauren {downloaded from iTunes, of course}.  Vienna.....seriously!!! That is all I have to say about that.  Wednesday, I was planning for a night of unpacking, but Kelly called and invited me to go see Vampire Weekend with her at Brixton Academy since she had an extra ticket.  The concert was great, but I think my favorite part was sushi before hand at Tsunami...amazing! Thursday, Meg came over to see the new flat and we cooked dinner in my new "kitchenette".   We had a great time catching up and cooking a healthy dinner (we were both in need of some vegetables).  Then Friday, again I planned for another night of unpacking but Meg called and was going to see a Valentine's Day at the movie theatre that is just two blocks from me so how could I resist! If you see a trend developing, it is that my new neighbor Meg is going to keep me from being productive!!
Today I am going to get my flat totally unpacked and then I have all of next week to finish my Africa posts!  If I blog it, then I have to do it, right!?!

Tanzania - Serengeti

After we left the amazingness that was the Ngorogoro Crater after my lunch from hell, we struck out west headed towards Serengeti National Park.  The drive took ages and it was hot and dusty! We all spent most of our time over the next 4-5 hours in the 'Mean Green' like this.....

I woke up from my nap sunburned on my left side with a thin layer of orange dust coating my body.  The highlight of the trip came at my expense, obviously, when a HUGE dung beetle came flying in the top of the vehicle and pegged me on the arm! I thought a rock had hit me, it hit so hard.  After I screamed I looked on the ground of the truck and saw a little guy very similar to this...

I mean...sick! Those guys are big and I can assure you that their shell is hard and durable.  He was still moving so Annie started screaming and crawling on top of her chair.  Dave came to the rescue and flung him back out of the truck.  I mean, seriously, hit by a dung beetle in a moving vehicle...I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!

We finally made it to the entrance gates of Serengeti where there is a big gate, so like the tourists we are we all got out to take a picture under the gate.  The local Masai ladies have caught onto this, so they were there to greet us at the gate and were more than happy to pose for a picture with there precious naked babies...and then accost you for money afterwards.  And then follow you to the car and ask you for more as the 1000 ($1) shillings you gave them was not an adequate payment for a photo.  I mean to their credit, they did get up and put on all of their fancy jewelry and do their hair and everything...okay so they just put on their fancy jewelry.

After we sufficiently filled their pockets we finally got our group photo...

We stopped at the rangers station/rest stop to register and they have a big rock outcropping that we could climb up to have a view of the Serengeti.  When I made it to the top (I said big, it was really just one big rock that took about 2 minutes to climb up) I was gasping for air.  I was beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea for me to climb up Kilimajaro in a few short days.  But alas, the others were a little out of breath too so I made myself feel better about it.  The view was pretty spectacular, my photo didn't really grasp the magnitude of the size of the Serengeti or how beautiful it is so I'll spare you that photo since there will be many many more photos in this posting. The one photo from the rock I will share is slightly disturbing.  We found this creature on top. 

I wasn't quite sure what to make of him.  Opposing forces were tearing me in two different directions.  On the one hand he is a lizard and by sheer principle, I hate lizards, all lizards.  But on the other hand he was half hot pink and half purple, my two favorite colors!  I decided to hate him in the end, because lets face it, he's still just a lizard.  I did actually, in true curiosity, ask the Paulo if he was really that color or if someone spray painted him.  True story. Sometimes I even embarass myself with the things that come out of my mouth.

That night we stayed at a permanent tented camp just outside of the Serengeti, the name escapes me at the moment, but it was pretty cool.  There were permanet tents with cement floors and real bathrooms with running water attached.  Not too shabby. We got there just at sunset, which was gorgeous, but then we quickly realized when it was time to walk to dinner that we forgot to bring our flashlights with us. Now to say it is dark in the middle of Africa, miles away from civilization, is the understatement of the century.  It's comparable to saying something along the lines of The Hangover was funny or that George Clooney is handsome, while both are true they are both gross understatements. You see my point. Good.  So it was dark and Annie and I were stranded a 5 minute walk away from the dinner tent with only the light of my iPhone to guide us across the wild plains of the Serengeti to dinner.  A bit dramatic, I know, but it was really scary, we could only (just barely) see the ground in front of us and we had no idea what was lurking around us waiting to jump out and get us.  I mean, seriously, at night they had guards walking the perimeter of the camp with bows and poison arrows.  Luckily, we survived the walk to dinner and they kindly provided us each with a flashlight.

We had a great dinner that night, but the highlight was Paulo telling us all about the Masai and their customs and traditions.  Paulo is full blood Masai and is also a revered Masai warrior.  My failing memory would do a disservice to the stories he told, but I vaguely remember the following being mentioned:  A lot about bringing disgrace to your family (and how to avoid that), killing a goat with a single punch, being circumsized infront of the village without making a single sound, being left in the wilderness by yourself over night, worshiping trees and rocks and such, again...I have a failing memory. Anyhow, it was all very captivating and I loved hearing his stories. You'll have to go meet your own Masai warrior if you want more details.

After dinner Annie and I made the treacherous journey back to our tent and decided to sit on our back porch and star gaze and such.  That is where we met our friend Sam.  Sam is one of the aforementioned guards with bow and poison arrows.  Sam joined us on the porch and showed us his poison arrows and let us hold his bow.  We asked him to protect us during the night.  We think he may have misunderstood our request as he showed up on our porch the next night and sat on the chair outside our tent for an uncomfortable amount of time while we were inside of the tent getting ready for bed.  Awkward.

The next day we headed out into the Serengeti, whose size is unimaginable. It seems to go on forever! Unlike the Ngorogoro Crater, you can go for long stretches without seeing a single animal, but then all of a sudden stumble upon a lone leopard resting in the branches without the slightest warning. That is the beauty of the Serengeti

To avoid being too long winded here are some of my favorite pics from the day with a few stories along the way....

Giraffes in a V formation

Peekaboo!

We went to this hippo pool that was FILLED with hippos, literally hundreds! We were able to get out of the truck and stand on the side of the pool up on a ridge and watch them for about 30 minutes.  Hippos are loud and smelly!! They poo all of the time and they flip their tail around while they are doing it, flinging the poo everywhere. so gross. My feel also got attacked by ants while we were at the pool...I got 27 ant bites on my poor feet, I'll spare you the picture!

When we were crossing a river we pulled over to look at some crocs and notices a whole troup of monkeys on an island in the middle of the river.  One of the crocs slid into the river as the monkeys were crossing, and we quickly realized why they were jumping across the river!!  They would each back up and take a running leap one by one, I managed to catch this one mid-air!  The last monkey that you see on the left standing on the rock alone had cold feet! It took him a few minutes of pacing back and forth to gather the courage to make the leap.  No worries, he made it over just fine.

Some more baboons, hanging out on a bridge

Some impala displaying a little male bravado

This lady was NOT pleased with us being so close to her family...she danced around our truck, trumpeting for a while until we decided to save her the heart attack and drive away!

we drove right into the middle of a huge heard of elephants, we were completely surrounded.  it was a little scary to have so many of them around us with really no way out.  They weren't too bothered by us luckily.

One of my favorite pictures of the trip! We came across two eagles fighting it out.  You can't see the other eagle because he is hiding out in the grass.  When this guy took off the ground, I had my camera zoomed in so tight on him, I actually jumped back because it looked like he was coming at me!

Love me some lions!!

I LOVE these gnarly trees that are stripped down to their bark, against the blue skies...gorgeous!

After our time in the Serengeti was up we flew from a dirt airstrip in the middle of the Serengeti back to the Kilimanjaro airport to start the "easiest part of our trip" as Paulo would say!  

Annie flirted herself into the cockpit with Pilot Sean and he let her FLY THE PLANE for about 10 minutes, I have literally never hated someone so much in my life, I wanted to die with jealousy!!  I have since forgiven her.

There are many many more pictures on my Shutterfly site

Tanzania - Ngorogoro Crater

Okay, here I go...the first Africa installment of several more to come! I am up to my ears in pictures and I am still very early in the editing process.  I need to get my 1000+ pictures down to a more manageable number, even I get bored after the 50th picture of the leopard in the tree! It's so hard for me to stop taking picture, I am VERY trigger happy on safari!  Every fraction of an inch an animal moves warrants at least another 10 pictures! 

I'll start off by saying my trip to Tazania was beyond amazing and exceeded my expectations, which I didn't know was even possible! When I went to Botswana last year, my love affair with Africa began.  My trip to Tanzania has deepened that love to the 10th degree. The landscape of northern Tanzania is awe inspiring and quite literally leaves you a little breathless. See below for proof if you don't believe me!

Annie and I set off for Tanzania on Kenya Air, which my mom was a little worried about (but lets be honest, what wasn't she worried about!)  In the end she had nothing to worry about, Kenya Air was great and they even had little animals on the pillow cases, love it! We flew into Kilimanjaro Airport via Nairobi and met our new travelling mates and soon to be friends for the first time.  We had a very diverse group of 10....Annie and I were the youngest at 27 and the oldest was Mama Jenny at 63.  I believe the word is gumption, yes, Mama Jenny has gumption. She is one tough lady! We also met our tour leader, Paulo, who became a great friend over the two weeks.  Paulo is a fierce Masai warrior and shared his amazing stories with us...more on those to come! 

Upon arrival we piled in our minivan and headed off towards our first destination, the Ngorogoro Crater, also catching our first glimpse of Kilimanjaro!  We pulled over to the side of the road for pictures and the butterflies began, the mountain is HUGE! It took us a couple of hours to reach the crater, but we stopped several times along the way to enjoy the roadside scenary...like the picture above! The above picture is the eastern wall of the great rift valley that runs along the entirety of Eastern Africa.  Spectacular views! We finally had our first view inside the crater by late afternoon before reaching the Rhino Lodge, where we would stay for the night.

Me and Annie looking over into the Ngorogoro Crater

More roadside scenary

Sunrise at the Rhino Lodge

The next morning we woke up really early, the first of MANY early mornings! At least in Africa early mornings are rewarded by the most amazing sunrises! We ate some breakfast and headed off into the crater for a day of game viewing.  The Ngorogoro Crater is was created when a volcano imploded and is like it's own little (or not so little) oasis.  It is absolutely over run with wildlife, most stay in the crater their entire lives, they really have no reason to leave.  We were amazed once we got onto the crater floor at how many animals there were EVERYWHERE! The previous day when we had looked down into the crater, you couldn't see anything, it just looked like a giant empty crater filled with grass and a lake.  It just went to show us the sheer size of the place. Zebra and wildebeest were in the most abundance, they are scattered everywhere, intermingling and leveraging off of each others natural abilities.  The zebra don't have the best sense of smell but their eyesight is excellent while the wildebeest have a great shnoz but can't see too well.  They are a match made in heaven!

We were super lucky and within about 5 minutes of being on the crater floor we came across two cheetah roaming around together. I was thrilled as I didn't see any cats on my last trip to Botswana!  They said these must have been two young brothers, as they were still travelling together, adult cheetah travel on their own.  I will say that the cheetah is one of the most majestic animals I have ever seen.  They have so much grace and their bodies and quite svelt! Their heads are super tiny, pretty funny looking!  The black tear drops under their eyes are one of their defining features.  These guys are notoriously shy, but these two brothers didn't seem to notice us at all. They just carried on as if we weren't there crossing the road right between our two vehicles.  Then they just wandered off into the distance until we couldn't see them anymore.  It was definitely a highlight of the day!

After the buzz of our cheetah sighting wore off, we continued on and saw many animals all living together.  It was amazing, I kept feeling like I was in some game park where the animals had all been placed there for me to see, I had to keep reminding myself that this was nature at it's best! We saw herds of elephant, 1000's of zebra and wildebeest, both grant and thompson gazelle, many warthog families, monkeys, hippos, a lake full of pink flamingos (!), rhino, ostrich, etc etc etc!! Being on the floor of the crater was a truely incredible experience.  You look around you and you are surrounded by these giant walls, it makes you feel so tiny.

In the distance we saw several safari vehicles congregatings so we headed over to see what the big fuss was.  It turns out it was two lions having a little mid-morning snack...I think some sort of gazelle...sorry for the graphic photo!! We watched these two guys for at least 45 minutes as they devoured this little guy.  We didn't see the actual kill, just the aftermath.  They seemed to keep the carcass in between them and then they would just get up and go grab another piece, go back to their spot with it, lay down and tear in...then repeat until they were satisfied.  Towards the end, the hyena's started closing in, hoping for some scrapes.  They patiently waiting their turns, waiting for the lions to leave before closing in.  You could tell it took all of their restraint to wait their turn, as they kept inching in ever so slowly.

After the lions it was time for lunch and we headed to a nice little corner of the crater by a small pond and ate our packed lunches that we brought with us.  We couldn't get out of the safari truck to eat our lunches because the birds are onto the fact that this is where the tourists come to eat lunch!  They literally start dive bombing the cars!  So we staying in our trucks and ate our lunches...this was the lowlight of the day for me, but I think the highlight of the day for the others in my truck!  To start with, most people know I am scared of birds, well these little guys started perching themselves all over the top of our open-topped jeep and staring us down with their beady little eyes!  The bigger birds were dive bombing back and forth.  I was already on edge when I opened up my lunchbox to find that our main entree was a chicken leg! ICK!! I HATE eating meat off of a bone. I think this stems from the fact that I don't like eating anything that resembles the form it had when it was alive.  Hence I don't like shrimp, meat on bones, etc.  So there I was cowereing in the corner of the car, grimacing as I choked down what little meat I could get off of the chicken leg without actually touching the bone, all while keeping my eyes glued to the birds looking for any sudden movements.  I was a mess! I was laughing that is was my own personal hell.  Everyone on the trip was wondering how I had lived to the age of 27 by the end of the trip with all the things that I was afraid of!

Our lunch locale

After lunch we headed back up to the rim of the crater to make our long drive to Serengeti National Park.  On the rim of the crater and all along the roads almost the whole way to Serengeti there are tons of giraffes...I mean seriously, thousands of them!   There are actually no giraffe inside the crater because they can't get down the steep walls, so they just hang out up top with all of the trees!

When driving from the crater to the Serengeti you are in the heart of Masai country.  The masai are everywhere herding their cattle around to greener pastures.  It is pretty remarkable to see a huge herd of cows with one red spec in the midst.  Cows are everything to the Masai.  They are a reflection of status, food, currency, they are their sustanance.  I did find out that with my fair skin and my blonde hair, I'd be worth at least 20 cows, which is 13 higher than I was offered in Botswana.  So I think my future husband definitely resides in Tanzania rather than Botswana!  The Masai are nomadic, moving to the greenest pastures for their cows.  They belong to no single country and are allowed to move between Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda freely.  Some even make it as far south as South Africa.

Masaii and their noble steed :)

A Masai village, called a boma

By late afternoon, after 12 long hours in the safari vehicle we finally reached Serengeti National Park, which is where I will pick up next time!! As usual, there are many more pictures on my shutterly site. lwaterfield.shutterfly.com