The first leg of the trip was a 14 hr flight to Doha. No biz class upgrades available, but economy seats weren’t too bad. Flight actually went pretty fast. Doha is an amazing new airport with lots of high end shopping ala Heathrow. We pre-purchased seats in the transit lounge for $50 per person and it was worth the money. Nice accomodations, decent food.

Flight to JRO was quick. Qatar Air served two meals on less than 5 hr flight in the wee hours of the morning (2:00am to 7:00am). Not something that happens on North American flights. JRO felt kind of like landing on Maui or Kauai. Very small airport and we deplaned onto the tarmac and walked to the terminal. Took a while to get through all the checks - COVID, customs, etc. but went through without a hitch.

We met our guide Willy who drove us to our hotel. He seemed a bit quiet at first but it didn’t take him long to warm up. The drive to the hotel was eye-opening. Lots of small, rundown homes and the landscape was a bit bleak. As we approached our hotel, things started to get a little greener. The lodge, The Rivertree Country Inn, was beautiful. Thatch roofed buildings out front, with cottages scattered around the tree covered grounds. 

We had to wait 40 minutes for our room, so we had coffee at the restaurant, which they made via French press. When we told Willy we were up for going into town (Arusha) to visit a couple of markets and have lunch, he really perked up. I think he was happy to learn that we were up for anything and he wanted to show off his home town.

The ride into Arusha was filled with more evidence of the local culture, which seemed a bit stuck in time. Women carried wood on their heads that would be used to make fires for cooking. Others raked out rice on their front yards to let it dry out, and some rode motorcycles weighed down with hay for their cattle. Willy told us about the crops grown locally, including rice, corn, cucumbers and coffee. He also explained how some people made bricks out of the soil, or sometimes out of the hills created by termites.

The motorcycles were everywhere, and many were brands we had never heard of - Boxer, Skygo, Toyo, TVS and Fekon, with a few Hondas sprinkled in. They were almost all single cylinder bikes and the riders would weave in and out of traffic, often with 1 or 2 passengers. Helmets were worn by about 1/3 of the riders.

When we got into town Willy took us to a souvenir market. Their products included paintings, carvings, baskets, and all manner of clothing. There were probably 70+ merchants, each with small little enclaves where they displayed their products. They were very friendly but also quite aggressive in their efforts to sell their wares. Prices were reasonable and the products were intriguing, but it was very overwhelming. In the end, Connor bought an oil painting and Justin a pair of “parachute pants” that he will wear kind of like PJ’s.

After the market we went to lunch at HK Sports Bar. Haji runs this joint, and he served us a variety of local dishes - chicken, beef, fish and some magical sauce with vegetables that we poured over rice. We had our first African beer too, which was Kilimanjaro Lager. The restaurant was not far from the Access2Tanzania offices and we met two other employees that happened by for lunch. During lunch there was an absolute deluge of rain. It only lasted 5-10 minutes, however, it was enough to knock the power out for a few minutes.

After lunch we drove through the heart of Arusha, and then headed back to the Inn to rest up before the real fun starts. Tomorrow we do a bush walk with a park ranger, and then a game drive in the afternoon, both in the Arusha National Park. It will be our first encounter with the animals we came down here to see.

Day two started with a buffet breakfast at Rivertrees that included omelets, fresh local fruit and a variety of different breads. After breakfast, we went to Arusha National Park.

Shortly after passing the gate to the park, we came upon our first game sightings. There were two giraffes right near the road standing side by side, leaning against each other almost as if they were holding each other up. They were doing this dance with their necks that seemed like it maybe a mating ritual, but they were both males and our guide informed us that they may be fighting. After a while it got slightly more aggressive, and you could tell that they were trying to hit each other in the neck with their horns (which are made of keratin). They seemed to mis more than they hit, but when they connected, it definitely looked like it hurt.

The giraffe were on the edge of a large meadow, and toward the middle, there were water buffalo, zebra, and warthogs.

As we went deeper into the park, we encountered a red duiker, and then just before the ranger station, a bunch of baboons, including an albino baboon.

We checked in at the ranger station and were assigned a ranger (Peter) and a recent graduate of a local school who is in training to become either a ranger or a tour guide. The two of them escorted us on our bush walk.

During the bush walk, we were able to get much closer to a large herd of buffalo, and then in amongst about a dozen giraffe. At one point we were wishing maybe 15 feet of one of the giraffe, who are very fossils.

We also walked to the base of a waterfall that was about 90 feet tall. On the way to the waterfall we ran across some warthogs and were able to get very close to them. They were grazing and we noticed that they were getting down on their front knees to get as close as possible to the ground. Even the little babies were doing this.

After the walk we took a break for lunch that included fried chicken, boiled sweet potato, bananas, watermelon and simosas.

After lunch we drove through the rest of the park. We went first to the arched fig tree. The road was very rocky and uneven, and along the way, we saw people packing food and tents up the hill for camping on Mt. Meru.

After the fig tree, we drove to Momella Lakes. There were two lakes. At the first one, we saw a hippo lying low in the water. It turned out there were four of them together. We stopped to take pictures and heard a church group singing from a picnic area perched up on hill nearby. At the next lake, we saw flamingos, and were struck by how noisy they were.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, unfortunately. We were all tired and found ourselves nodding off, especially dad.

We drove home and had a mellow night, as we could all barely stay awake at dinner. It was time to get some rest and be prepared to depart Rivertrees in the morning.

Coffee in our room

Breakfast

Learned of COVID progression in U.S.

Monkeys

T-shirts

Pillow Covers (Winnipeg)

Motorycycles as taxis

Coffee (kahawa)

Harvested by families who pick the beans by hand

Multiple Crops (i.e. beans)

Exports: agriculture, cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugarcane

Litter

President Samia Hassan Suluhu - “Ana Maono”, means she has a vision.

Sisal - Looks like agave plant. Used to weave baskets, make cork for dart boards, etc.

Rum and Gin

Daladala - small, colorfully decorated vans that provide local transportation from one town to the next.

Sunday - Transit to Ndutu

Left Ngorongoro

Stopped at Olduvai

Learned about significant archeological findings in the area that have shaped our understanding of early human beings

Got WiFi and managed to change flights, phew

Drove to Serengeti

Stopped to help broken down car - family from South Africa. Willy fixed radiator while we ate lunch.

Drove to Ranger park which sits on an air strip

Short game drive - bat eared fox, lions (mating), cheetahs

CHecked in at Acacia - no Wi-Fi, so good that we got flights resolved.

J & C tent was two room suite

Had beers

Shower was 30 litre bucket of hot water - felt good

Gave Willy multi-tool and CREO hat at dinner, which he seemed to really appreciate

Crater on Christmas Day

Left at 6:00am

Realized we forgot Canon lens, but had Sigma and doubler

Came across lions right away 7 or 8 of them

Walked right past us

Doubled back for lens and saw rhino in the distance

Had breakfast, saw Maribu Stork

<Go through photos to see what all we saw, but Caracal, Servile Cat and rhinos were highlights>

Sat on the deck and tried to listen to Christmas music, but no luck

Found out about flight change, freaked out

Buffet dinner - discussed Gucci, Balenciaga and Jordans

Lake Manyara NP

Early departure after big breakfast and final photos at Mpingo

Game drive in Tarangirie before exiting the park.

Long drive to park gate. Very interesting towns / villages

Felt more like Costa Rica than Africa

Lots of smiling waving children

Park was a bit of a bust - no animals to speak of

Agame lizard was the highlight

Hot springs

Willy thinks that the village - Mosquito River Town - is in trouble when the rains come since last year’s rains redefined the borders of the lake

Stopped in a town for gas and beer. Blazing hot, yet people were wearing sweatshirts and beanies. Got hustled by a guy who spoke Swahili, English and some Spanish. Bought bracelet.

Bought beer and pringles at supermarket

Drank and played country music ont the way to Ngorongoro.

Milk containers

Elephant perfume

Day 2 in Tarangirie

More elephants

Check photos for more

Willy drove like a mad man trying to get us back to Mpingo by 3:00

Relaxed on the deck, had beers, talked to Greg

Another gourmet dinner, cocktails

Day 2 Ndutu

Game Drive

Lions

Migration

Servile Cat

Elephant

Cheetah and Cubs - 2 hunts/kills

Driving the Safari Truck

Nyikani Tent Camp to use the WiFi

People from France, Spain - two that went to Tufts

Ndutu Day 3

Started early at 6:00am

Darcy spotted lions - two males, three females. Watched them mate.

Then saw a honey badger. We were so excited, and I don’t think Willy could figure out why. One of the only times on the trip that he had to tell us to quite down. Found out later that honey badgers are fast and will sneak attack bigger animals (like antelope) and bite their balls off. True story.

We then went and found the wildebeest / zebra herd that had traveled into the marsh. After watching for a while, we heard that a lion was on the prowl. Sure enough, he eventually emerged and came tearing down the hillside looking for lunch. He isolated a zebra and ran him down, but failed when he lunched at him and the zebra got away. Still, was fascinating to watch. Later in the day, that same pride would take down a wildabeest. We arrived a little after it happened and saw the pride wander over to enjoy the meal that the alpha female had taken down for them.

After the morning game drive, we came back to the camp for lunch, which included more great African food. After lunch we played hearts and Connor shot the moon on only his second hand of hearts ever.

We climbed back in the car at around 4:00 and headed out for an evening game drive. That’s when we came upon the lions not long after the hunt that took down the wildabeest. We got another good look at the Marsh Pride of lions, but couldn’t really see much of their meal, as the kill took place in the tall grass of the marsh. On the way back, we saw a few random animals - a lone buffalo, some girrafe, heart beasts, and another Marshall eagle just before Acacia camp.