Our new home!

We have received official word from Dakar- the bungalow with a pool, five minutes from the ocean? Yup- It's officially ours! Here are a few photos of the place. (including one Google earth image- see the five little round huts in the middle of the image? With the pool? We think that's us!)

Election Sunday!

Today, Sudan is hosting their first 'democratic' elections in over 20 years. You can see a slide show (and read some captions explaining the mess) HERE.

Lake Manyara

Our final day on safari- this time at Lake Manyara National Park. And wow! Check out the tree climbing lions! Our guide says he only sees them once a year! Lucky lucky!

other sights

The drive to Lake Manyara

Crater time!

We spent 6 hours cruising the basin of the Ngorongoro Crater, a completely natural and unique ecosystem. Animals travel in and out, but the steep walls ensures that there are always tons of animals to be seen inside. It feels like less of an adventure than the Serengeti, because there are lots of cars and people. But the game viewing is awesome! We had lions walking right next to our car, then circling warthogs, cheetahs, baby wildebeest. It was an awesome day!

Ngorongoro Campsite

A few photos from our wonderful campsite overlooking the Ngorongoro Crater. In the middle of the night, we woke up to some loud screaming and squealing. A bush pig attacked a tent near ours and ate their scented lotion. (Yes, with them inside the tent!) There was a lot of screaming, and in the end, the fancy NorthFace tent was destroyed. The two people spent the rest of the night with the cooks in the cooks' building (concrete with wire around the windows to keep animals out of the food).

The drive to Ngorongoro

We started our drive back towards Arusha- spending the afternoon in the car on the way towards the crater. The wildebeest and zebras were completely absent in the Serengeti- but in the Ngorongoro highlands, they were EVERYWHERE... This is also the area where the Maasai are still very active, tending their large herds of cattle alongside these amazing animals. The Maasai have a very iconic style about them- I'm sure you've all seen pictures. They are fascinating. We weren't comfortable taking pictures. (Mostly because in these days, they then expect money. And I don't do that.) So, enjoy the photos of the animals instead!

Final Serengeti game drive

Here are a few more pictures from the next morning, our last run through the Serengeti. We caught some early morning rain, but it cleared off really nicely. And we were lucky! CLOSE encounter with more elephants, tons of giraffes.. and our first cheetah!

Serengeti continued...

More monkey business

Once again, we managed to get ourselves into a little bit of trouble with monkeys. This seems to be a trend with us!
We were bumpin' along in the Serengeti and happened upon a few white vervet monkeys. We hadn't seen them yet, and were excited to take a few photos. We were both hanging out the top of the car, taking photos, when Emily started screaming "IT'S IN THE CAR!!!! AHHH!" I looked down through the top to see a vervet monkey in our jeep! The guide swatted at him with a jacket, and he jumped back out the window.
Em says he first picked up a book and wasn't interested. But he did find a small, sealed bag of popcorn in the seat pocket!! We were then able to watch several monkeys fight over the loot right next to our car!It probably is worth noting that these monkeys are known for the males having bright blue testicles. Sorta funny.

In the Serengeti

Some photos from the second day- over eight hours cruising the Serengeti plains. (Well, after an early morning campsite photo shoot.)

tracking a pride of lions... to no end. hippo out of water!

Day One continued

The open road in the Serengeti- amazingly beautiful. We both commented how it reminded us, in some ways, of the great plains, without the amber waves of grain.

(above) a leopard! A real, live leopard! Close enough to jump in our car, if it wanted to. Everyone says that these are rare to find, as they hide themselves away in the trees for most of the day. Jackpot!

(above) Our campsite for the first two nights. While we were camping, we were also pretty taken care of. It was just Emily and myself traveling with a guide and a chef. They would set it all up for us and make us delicious food. The campsite itself was pretty basic. It was also inside the Seregeti- no fences or anything, just open plains. In the night we heard lions roaring and hyenas wailing (cackling? laughing?). CRAZY!

Safari Day One

For the first day of the safari, we left Arusha and drove- a lot. We stopped for views of the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara, both places where we would later return. We passed from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the Serengeti National Park, where we drove another couple of hours to our campsite.

(above) looking into the Ngorongoro Crater(above) Chameleon on the arm of our guide(above) Emily, her box lunch, and her new friend
(above) A pride of lions resting on the rocks(above) Looking out over the Serengeti

Safe and Sound

We survived! We went on an amazing 5 day Tanzanian safari in the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara. It truly was a trip of a lifetime. There are many stories to tell and many, many pictures to share... We'll dedicate some time to that tomorrow. More photos in the next few days, I promise.