Serengeti and Zanzibar

Lions, cheetahs and elephants, Oh My! About a week ago now, we set out to the Ngorongoro Crater for a game drive in the twilight of the morning. As we wound our way up to the edge of the crater, the African sun started to brighten the landscape. Switchbacks led to the top and our first glimpse of the crater floor was ethereal through the mist and morning light. Specks of black littered the floor; our game. Along the trek to the other side of the rim, where the descent was to begin, we were teased with a view out to the west of the vast Serengeti plains. But, that would have to wait. We were on the floor, and when I say there was a concentration of animals, I mean concentrated. We saw a rhino, elephant, zebras, giraffes, and about 5-7 lions. Quite literally, a lion strode past our Landrover, 2 feet below my hand and camera! You can see the grains on the hairs of its head in one of my pictures. Absolutely amazing. After the aotted 5 hours on the floor, we began our drive into the Serengeti. Oh, ho hum, we stopped briefly at the excavation site of the bones of the oldest human anscestor known en route. Then, the reason for Serengeti's fame became apparent. Immensely vast plains as far as the eyes can see, sometimes full to the brim with mingling packs of zebras, wildebeast, griaffes, cheetahs, birds, etc. etc. The drives to the game drives, became my favorite part of the trip. Just resting my head on the roof of the safari vehicle or out the window, I fixed my eyes on the horizon but kept aware of the plains grass whipping by me in the periphery. The immense feeling of being small in this "land of endless plains" was so overwhelming, so indescribable, that tears flowed.

And then there were the game drives... To see the big 5: elephants, buffalo, lions, leopards and rhinos is rare, due to the sneaky leopards. It sometimes takes people a lifetime to see them. We saw all five in one day, and we saw a total of 3 leopards, 20+ lions, 50+ elephants, multiple rhinos and 100's of buffalo. Not to mention cheetahs and giraffes. Mind-boggling to see these things in the wild.

We moved on from there back to Arusha, where the difficulties of shipping to Africa became very apparent. I had to jump off the tour and head to Dar es Salaam, to the airport to get my music. After doing that, fairly painlessly there, I met back up with the tour to head to Zanzibar. I am now sitting in Stone Town after 4 days here. It is paradise in its purest form. White sand beaches opening up to the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean. Dhow's, ancient arabic sailing vessels, dot the horizon, and the breeze never seems to stop. We had perfect weather the entire time here and I am pretty tan, even for African standards. I may have to explain myself at immigration due to not looking like my passport anymore. Nevertheless, beach volleyball, beach bars, and beach everything was the call of the day each day. We did the Spice Tour yesterday which was immensely cool. Wee were taken to a proper spice farm and given leaves of each of the spices, so we could try to guess which spice it was. Cloves, cinammon, everything, was so aromatic as to confuse the sense altogether. One of the boys climbed a 30 meter palm tree to knock down some fresh coconuts for us which the chopped open and from which we drank. Also, I had my first liche, which was so good, I just can't believe I had never tried nor heard of it.

Now we are on to Malawi, where I might be getting PADI certified so I can dive in the Seychelles and Red Sea. Bush camping and no electricity for the next few days/weeks...

Catching Up...

It certainly has been awhile... Back in Tanzania, awaiting tomorrow's journey into the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, I have become a bit reflective. It seems my want for adventure, excitement and the need to be enraptured by all things around me has come true to the extreme. Immense wealth of spirit and faith was gained by volunteering, followed by the lows of true fear and worry for life that civil war encroaching around you and your caretakers brings gave such a polar dichotomy of emotion. That was the first two months. The stress from having to escape a land I had immersed myself in, really just made me numb to exactly how "off" I felt. Subjecting my body to the physical stress of climbing a 19,000 foot mountain seemed to be a good tonic for the ill-will I was feeling to the world. Amazing how 10 days can be such a vacillating roller-coaster of thought. Joining the tour and eliminating all of the daily craziness of planning and, more importantly, implementing travel from country to country certainly has been the right choice. After the pinnacle of adrenaline was summited rafting Grade 5 rapids on the Nile, the fear of drowning on the craziest rapid, Silverback, was a slippery slope in which the bottom was only narrowly avoided. Having since acquired that as my nickname on the tour, I am even more confident that humor can heal almost any situation. It also proved to be foreshadowing something great. Being face to face with a real silverback gorilla deep in a Rwandan rainforest should be a requirement for all. The feelings that you envision having during the $600/hour are so lacking in what becomes an overwhelming sense that the world has stopped. To stare into the eyes of a 800 lbs animal that could rip you in two, at only 3 to 4 feet from yours is beyond description. The cost turns out to be one of the best bargains on the planet, and a memory that no souvenir could possibly match. Still mesmerized by the thoughts of standing in the middle of 38 mountain gorillas of the Rwandan clan "Sousa," we moved on to Kigali where walking through the Rwandan Genocide Museum took me on another immediate change of feeling bordering on despondency and shame. For as much as I had pawned it off as "just another example of African tribalism" so recently experienced first-hand in Kenya, I realized that history writes a vastly different picture of the root causes. Leaving that aside, the atrocities that were committed were every bit as grotesque and abhorrent as "the" genocide, yet it isn't even on the map of our conscience. Guess it is "just" Africa. There is something about seeing things for yourself, live and in vivid color that changes you and your views so greatly and abruptly.

Just as abruptly, however, is how fast this trip moves along and forces a shift in focus. No sooner than I completed wrapping my mind around what I saw than I realized I was on our tour bus staring at 40+ elephants grazing about Lake Manyara NP. If I was "checking off" things, I would need more boxes at this point. And, I have yet to reach the Serengeti.

Life has been a whirlwind. It is what I signed up for, expect and yearn for when its not happening. It is an amazing experience when you get exactly what you want. And more...