Travelin' Fullers Blog: September 2013

Monday, September 23, 2013

Last day in the Crater before heading home

Well, all good things must come to an end and so we find ourselves at the last day of this incredible adventure!

We have loved this gorgeous Lodge and its amazing staff! We have enjoyed magnificent views of the crater from our room while sitting in front of the fireplace-- including looking at Zebra right on our front porch steps!

However, I do,have to say the game drive here was "ho hum!" We have been spoiled by all the magnificent animals we have seen so close to us! There are a couple of reasons why the game drive here wasn't as exciting. The first thing is that none of the guides talk to each other by radio unless they are from your company. This results in 10 vehicles lined up on the road looking at something and you have no idea what it is until you spot it yourself! Another reason is that no vehicles are allowed off the road. Most of the animals stay far away from the vehicle traffic so when you do see something, it is usually quite far away. We saw a pair of lions mating but it was too far away for photography.. The animals that stay close to the road are Wildebeests and zebras. We've seen so many of them that now it's like seeing a herd of cattle on the range! There are so many vehicles on the road that you are eating the dust and exhaust fumes a lot. When you try to slow down to provide "dust space" another car comes racing up to pass you...It does make you glad you are in an enclosed vehicle with a "pop top for viewing" because of the dust and cool temperatures, but its not as easy to do photos, especially if your short. I had to stand on the car seat in order to shoot and when you're moving, that's not easy!

We did see a very pink necked (their necks turn pink in breeding season) male Ostrich try to mate with a female, but she was having none of it and took off running. She was faster so he gave up. Guess his neck wasn't "pink" enough...And speaking of pink, we saw over 1,000 pink flamingos in the lake. Quite amazing!

Despite some of the drawbacks to the game drive, we have enjoyed the stop. Thank you to all the new friends we've made and the amazing memories we are taking home. Africa is an amazing continent and we've all loved every second of if!!

Dinner in our lodge!

Good morning from the porch balcony!

Zebra having a dust bath!

Jackal who wandered by..

Our friends on their way to water,,

This funny guy is a secretary bird!

Buffalo seat!

Note his pink neck!

The one that got away!

Our lodge..

A couple of photos I left out the other day. Daniel and Grant found this abandoned Ostrich egg at Mara Plains!

Zebra outside our door.

This big guy was standing in the middle of the road and didn't want to move! Had to wait for him to decide to move on!

And you thought I was kidding about the flamingos! I couldn't even get them all in the camera shot!

Goodbye Wildebeests!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Ngorongongo Crater lodge in Tanzania

We left our new friend this morning at Mara Plains after one last early morning game drive. We found two lions and one beautiful male Cheetah! We even had a small adventure of getting stuck in the mud with our vehicle! Daniel jacked up the back end and Bill and Grant sat on the hood on the right front side and we made it out!!!

After four flights, we arrived at the 7500 ft Ngorongoro Crater lodge. It is beautiful! Crystal chandeliers and roses everywhere! I'm blogging in front of a fireplace in our room! Game drive tomorrow! Upon our arrival, there was a lovely birthday welcome for Mary! Champagne and a yummy cake and the whole staff out singing happy birthday!! We aren't sure how it all came to be, but decided it was in honor of Mimi's birthday which is today!!

After a lovely dinner, Grant is watching the Dolphin game on his iPad and I'm blogging with photos again!!!

Tomorrow is our last day so were hoping for more "spectacular!" Nothing has disappointed so far!!!

Male Cheetah at Mara Plains

Big baboon!

Observation point at the crater!

Duffy's happy birthday celebration!!

Happy birthday Mimi? And Duffy?

Beautiful lodge. Zebra grazing on the lawn.. Sort of like zebra lawnmowers.

Dining room.

Living room.

Setting up dining room..

The crater lake from our room...

More tomorrow !

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Hot Air Balloon Ride , Lions, Hippos, Rhino and visit to Masai School

Well, it was definitely worth getting up yesterday at 4:15 am for our hot air balloon ride. We were a little concerned early because it was raining as they were loading the baskets, but it stopped before we got off the ground. We had a very experienced lady pilot, Ellie. She gave us the softest landing of any of our 7 previous balloon rides..I will post her picture. She currently has almost no hair. She cut it all off ( it went down to her waist) in support of her best friend who has breast cancer and is losing her hair with chemo...

On our return to camp, we had a great game ride. We saw a 12 ' crocodile, hippos galore and lions. Grant also made an extremely rare sighting of a Rhino! We even saw the kill of a leopard that had been hauled high into a tree to protect it...grant is getting really good at spotting the animals!!! Even the guide was impressed!

Our visit to the Masai School was awesome. It was a primary school with 600 children, 300 of whom are boarders. They built two dormitories 3 years ago. The girls dorm has 50 beds with 100 girls! That means two children per mattress and some don't even have mattresses. We did get to see some of the classrooms. One classroom has 100 students in it that are 6-7 year olds. Our guide , Daniel, attended the school when it was just one room. The head teacher that showed us around was his classmate!

I had publishing issues last night so I'm also going to tell you about today's game drive to the Mara River. We spent a long time watching a small herd of Wildebeest decide if they were going to cross the dangerous Mara River. They went to the edge three or four times, but never leaped. They were spooked by two enormous crocodiles. We did see four female elephants cross the River with two babies. One of the babies was too small and we thought it was going to drown. The mother was frantic! They all made it but I don't know how the one little guy did it. The River was way too deep and swift for him! All you could see was his little trunk going up and down as he was tossed around!

We saw tons of Hyenas several lions and a VERY curious young cheetah who came up to the back of another vehicle and started chewing the spare tire!!! We thought he was going to jump on t, but he was content to rip the tire cover! We saw several GIGANTIC crocodiles!!! They were just so prehistoric looking it was unbelievable! We did see the crocs feeding on a recently deceased Wildebeest who didn't make it across the river. In addition to the depth (deeper then usual at this time of year because of the early rains) and the very swift current, there are large crocs just waiting for their dinner which makes it very dangerous for them!

One of the MOST amazing things we saw today was two young male lions who started out hunting. They hid beneath bushes thinking about a small baby Cape Buffalo as a meal. They changed their minds, but the head of the herd saw the two lions and started to charge them!! Then the rest of the herd came running and they chased the two lions into a tree. The Buffalo really tried to get them, but they were just high enough that they couldn't quite get them. One of the lions stood on top of his brother for a short time trying to stay away from the Buffalo. It became a Mexican standoff and eventually the Buffalo left. The lions came down and went on their way.

We also saw a warthog eating a dead cow that wandered away from the Masai.. Warthogs are not meat eaters and our guide who grew up here has never seen anything like that before!

We really had to hurry home this afternoon because big rainstorms were headed our way. The problem is not getting wet, it's that the river we have to cross to get back to the lodge gets very high with rain. It can get so high that we can't cross and then it takes 2 hours to go around the long way! We made it before the river got too high!

We're off tomorrow for Tanzania. The game viewing here has been breathtaking..

When we go to sleep, it's not to the sounds of crickets and frogs, but Hyenas and grunting Wildebeests!