To see the "Abbreviated Best of Tanzania" please look here:
http://janehoffswell.smugmug.com/2010/Tanzania-and-Zanzibar/Abbreviated-Best-of-Tanzania
And to see the "Best of Tanzania and Zanzibar" please look here:
http://janehoffswell.smugmug.com/2010/Tanzania-and-Zanzibar/Best-of-Tanzania-and-Zanzibar
Now, for a slight teaser of the pictures to come with their captions:
The trip to Tanzania was huge: it consisted of two days of flight to arrive and could be imagined as another world. It has a culture and style all its own, and it looks nothing like the comfort of the United States that we know as home. Because of this, I was definitely nervous about taking such a trip. But it turned out to be an incredible and fun experience.
We spent July 15th and 16th simply with constant plane flights. We met Bruce at the airport and flew from Seattle to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, we met up with Chuck - David's dad - and flew to Tanzania. Even though it was only two flights for us, it was still two full days of travel.
On July 17th we woke up in our hotel called Kingangoni and left for our first day of Safari in Arusha National Park. As we were pulling up to the gate of the park, Bruce spotted our first safari animal: the giraffe. Since our guide Allan needed to get paperwork, we had a little time to walk around and look at the giraffes in the distance. We then entered the park for a few hours of safari inside our vehicle. That afternoon, we had a hike scheduled with an armed guide to protect against the cape buffalo - one of the more dangerous animals in the park. During the hike, we saw a pack of cape buffalo, and a group of giraffe. Halfway through the hike, we stopped for a picnic lunch that Allan had set up. Then we continued for a little while longer. When the hike was finished, we returned to our hotel for the night.
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| July 17, 2010 - A giraffe that we saw up close during our hike. |
July 18, 2010 - The day began with a drive towards the next Safari location, Tarangire Park. On the way, we stopped in a village to look at the local market and walk around the village. Unfortunately, like many foreign countries, the obvious fact that we were tourists attracted a large crowd of street vendors who proceeded to incessantly try and sell us souvenirs. After leaving the village, we continued into the park. One of the highlights of today's safari were the baby elephants and the lion that had just finished feasting on a kill - a poor little zebra. Following the Safari, we drove to our first tented camp, Whistling Thorn. We were greeted by the lovely staff and given a warm, damp towel (which was more than welcome to wipe off the dust from the drive) and a cool, sparkling drink. The tents were very comfortable, and the dinner was absolutely lovely with an incredible soup course to start!
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| July 18, 2010 - The baby elephant is being very cute, rubbing up against the others. |
July 19, 2010 - The day began very early, so that we could enter Tarangire Park as the sun came up. The light was beautiful, and everything had a slightly golden glow. We drove around the park for about half a day, and then returned to Whistling Thorn tented camp to relax. That night, some native Masai men came to perform a dance for the people staying in the camp (our group and another couple).
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| July 19, 2010 - A baobab tree in the light of early morning. The story of the baobab tree is that he was the most beautiful tree of the time and went around bragging about his beauty and luscious leaves. So, as punishment he was picked up and put back upside down, so that his roots were sticking up in the air. Or something like that. |
July 20, 2010 - The day began with a drive to a Masai village for a tour of their way of life. Here, we saw the school (which, unfortunately, seemed fairly poor since the children were not in full health). The children in the school sang a sort of welcome song, which I was able to film. We then visited one of the bomas where we saw the men working on the construction of a new hut. The women in the boma sang and danced a traditional welcome, and then we had the opportunity to purchase some of their beaded jewelry. Next, we drove to Lake Manyara for a safari drive in the park. It was here that we saw what Allan told us was a black mamba, however, Mom's research has concluded that it was actually a black spitting cobra. That night, we stayed in a very nice lodge, the Bougainvillea Safari Lodge in Karatu.
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| July 20, 2010 - Allan said it was a Black Mamba, but he did not see the actual snake. Mom believes that it is a black spitting cobra. |
Ngorongoro Crater and spent the remainder of the day in camp relaxing and reading.
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| July 21, 2010 - The Elephant Caves were gouged out of the rock be elephants looking for minerals/salts. |
July 22, 2010 - The day was spent solely on safari in Ngorongoro crater. We descended into the park, where we expected to see many different animals. And we certainly did! We saw lions everywhere; the first set was a mother and her cub asleep in fairly tall grass. Next, we came across a pride, with two females, two cubs, and three males. Then, we came across a lone female lion. At one point, we saw a black rhino - which is very rare - off in the distance. It was hard to see, but in the photos I have, you can make out the tusks. The animals did not stop there - there was a single cheetah, a serval cat, and many others. The last part of the day was spent relaxing in our camp.
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| July 22, 2010 - A lone female lion, probably fairly old. |
July 23, 2010 - The plan for the day was to take a hike up a mountain to see the view from the top. However, when we got to the top we realized that the hike was much longer than we had expected. Allan also had planned for us to hike down into the valley, then up and down again to leave. So instead, we decided to just hike down to the waterfall, and then back to our safari vehicle. On the way to the waterfall, Mom got scared by the cliff edges which we had to navigate to get down and returned to the top with Allan, Chuck, and Pat. David, Bruce, and I continued down with our guide, William. When we got to the bottom, David stopped at the river, not wanting to risk crossing. Bruce and I continued to the waterfall (which was basically down a cliff face). William held my hand all the way to help me down the edge. The waterfall was beautiful! Two other locals came by, and were absolutely fascinated by my camera. They sat down next to me and I showed them some of the pictures I had taken. We then returned to the top of the hill, where we learned that Pat had bought a genuine Masai knife from someone passing through the top of the mountain. We returned to the car and drove to a fancy lodge to relax for a little while, with a cool drink. Then we returned to our private mobile camp to relax for the rest of the day.
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| July 23, 2010 - A picture of me standing in front of the waterfall. Photo taken by our guide, William. |
July 24, 2010 - We woke up early and left Ngorongoro Crater. We drove to a store to do some souvenir shopping, where we bought a number of different things - including some very cool masks. Next, we drove to the airport. At the airport, we were put on a little plane that would take us to Zanzibar. Pat was pulled out of the line getting on the plane and put in the co-pilot's seat for the whole flight. When we arrived in Zanzibar, we drove to the Tembo House Hotel in Stonetown. Everyone took a nice shower (after the short showers we had in our tented camps), and then we went out for a walk around the town. We started out by the water and then walked through a market where we did a little more shopping. For a while David and Bruce looked for an Italian restaurant, and I eventually found it. We sat down for a lovely dinner and enjoyed the sunset, and then returned to our hotel for the night.
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| July 24, 2010 - We sat down for a nice dinner at a recommended Italian restaurant in Stonetown on Zanzibar. As the sun was setting, the boat came floating through. |
July 25, 2010 - We woke up at the Tembo House Hotel, packed up and left our stuff in the lobby. We then took a boat to Prison Island for the Prison Island tour. Here, we went to the giant land tortoise conservatory where we were able to feed and interact with the tortoises. We then walked over to the prison which had also been used as a quarantine area for people with smallpox. When we were done looking around the prison, we spent about 15 minutes on the beach, then took a small boat to a snorkeling area. I got out of the water fairly quickly after being stung by something invisible in the water. We then returned to Stonetown and took a shower in the pool shower to rinse off the salt. We then took our luggage and left the hotel. We drove to a house for an 'opulent' lunch. The lunch was good, but did not really meet my expectations for the word 'opulent.' We left the lunch area, and started a tour of a local spice farm. The tour was interesting, and we saw a huge array of different plants. Everything smelled delicious! The tour guides made us grass crowns, purses, and jewelry - which was a fun addition to the tour. We tasted every type of fruit on the farm, and then had the opportunity to purchase some of the spices. When we left the tour, we drove to the Mnarani Beach Cottages in Nungwi and had the rest of the day to relax.
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| July 25, 2010 - I believe that this is nutmeg or something in the hand of one of our guides at the spice farm. |
July 26, 2010 - We woke up and had a village tour of Nungwi. For the first part of the tour, we walked around the village buildings. It is a very Muslim community, so it was impossible to take pictures of the people - particularly women - and the children were ready to demand money for any photograph. The tour then took us down to the beach where we saw how the curved wooden boats are made. Next, we visited the Nungwi Aquarium where we saw the sea turtles. It began to pour at this point, so we were trapped in the aquarium for a little while. Finally, when the rain stopped, we returned to our hotel, Mnarani Beach Cottages. That afternoon, Mom and I had nice massages. They were very relaxing with the sound of the waves and beach in the background. When that was done, we got some henna (the synthetic kind) which ended up not holding up as well as I had hoped.
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| July 26, 2010 - The turtles in the pond were taken out of the wild for safety reasons (I believe) and put in the aquarium for their protection. |
July 27, 2010 - We woke up and left Nungwi for our final hotel of the trip, Mchanga Beach Lodge between Pwani Mchangani and Matemwe on the NE Coast of the island. We arrived at our hotel, looked around, and settled down for some time to relax with a book.
July 28, 2010 - We slept in late to relax. In the early morning, we took a nice long walk down the beach and spent the remainder of the day relaxing at the Mchanga Beach Lodge. At night, we could definitely here some sort of animal on the grass roof.
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| July 28, 2010 - In the early morning we took a quick walk on the beach, and saw these women working in this little enclosed area on the beach. |
July 29, 2010 - We woke up for the forest tour. Mom was not feeling well, so she and Pat stayed at the hotel. The forest tour took us to Jozani forest where we saw the rare red colobus monkey, the mangrove forest, and the swamp forest. After the tour, we returned to the hotel to relax for our last real day in Tanzania.
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| July 29, 2010 - A red colobus monkey with her baby. |
July 30, 2010 - We woke up early to drive to the airport where we took a short flight (20 minutes) to Dar es Salam. We waited there for a flight to Arusha. From Arusha, we drove to a large gift shop for more shopping and lunch/dinner. Then on to Kilimanjaro airport. That night, our flight flew to Dar es Salam and then on to Amsterdam.
July 31, 2010 - We left Chuck in Amsterdam and flew from Amsterdam to Seattle and arrived home.
That trip was a great success and everyone had a great time! For more pictures, follow the links above. And remember, all of my pictures for everything that I have ever photographed are available at:
http://janehoffswell.smugmug.com/
Thanks!
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