In 2020 we planned a trip to Africa to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Covid caused a 2-year delay, so we were very excited to finally started our African adventure on Tuesday 6th of September. The journey includes 2 weeks in Tanzania on safari, 10 days in Ethiopia with local tribes, a week in Zanzibar relaxing and 4 days in England with family, will be quite a trip!
We didn’t arrive in Nairobi, Kenya until midnight on
Thursday 8th. What should have been 2 days of travel took 3 due to a
ticketing snafu with American Airlines that wasn’t identified until we tried to
board the Qatar flight in Washington DC. Not an experience I want to repeat,
but it worked out with only losing a rest day in Nairobi so could have been
worse. Qatar airlines is incredible, and the lounge in Doha is magnificent – a
good thing since we had 12 hours there. Well worth using the miles for the
business class.
Friday, we visited the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage to join the midday feeding of the 30 young elephants who have lost their mothers and families typically due to human wildlife conflict. Sheldrick has perfected the art of raising elephants as young as 1 month and releasing them to the wild about 8-10 years later. A few years ago Sara adopted Olorien who is now 3 years old. Incredibly Olorien stopped in front of us while Erwin the chief keeper was introducing her to everyone! Sara chatted to Erwin afterwards and learned Olorien is doing much better after some struggles over the last few years. She should move to the integration unit in Tsavo park soon to continue her journey back to the wild. Sheldrick is a wonderful organization, check out their history and work : Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
After the nursery visit we said goodbye to Lucy our agent in
Kenya who had arranged our entire trip, it was lovely to finally meet her after
our 2 years of planning. Patrick our driver began the trip to Arusha, Tanzania. Quite
a long journey with the obligatory delays at the Tanzania boarder, similar to
our transfer in 1998. We did stop for some souvenir shopping in Kenya. A bit
early to start shopping, but the one regret from our 1998 trip was not buying
some souvenirs at a local shop when we had the chance. We finally got to our
lodge around 9pm, about 3hrs later than expected, so after a quick dinner we
fell into bed exhausted – a pattern to be repeated!
Saturday 10th September we met our guide for the
next 12 days. Ben is one of those people you like instantly, and he quickly showed
he is an excellent knowledgeable safari guide. We spent the day in Arusha
national park. Although a small park there were plenty of animals, birds and
several lakes, all nestled in woodlands at the base of Mount Meru. Sara took a 1-hour
walking safari which she has long wanted to do. Three hours later she returned after
seeing cape buffalo, giraffe and warthogs up close, as well as a water fall and
many interesting trees. John and Ben
waited in the very comfortable Toyota land cruiser and fended off the blue
monkeys who tried to get in the truck through the open roof, they were after
the ginger snap cookies carelessly left in Sara’s bag.
It was late afternoon, so we headed to a lovely viewpoint
over the lake and enjoyed a hot picnic lunch, another pattern repeated most days.
We ventured up the road to an alkaline lake and were treated to the sight of
hundreds of flamingos one of John’s favorites. We spent over an hour taking
photos and then slowly drove back to the lodge, stopping of course many times
for more photos. Luckily Ben likes guests who want to stop and take their time
viewing the animals and taking photos. A good thing because that is exactly
what we planned for every day. The next post will talk about our four days in Tarangire and Lake Manyara national parks.
Might be a week or more before we have Internet access again as we are heading
to Serengeti, so in the meantime enjoy the photos so far!
Click here to see the photos of Sheldrick and Arusha
Wildlife seen: Orphan elephants, giraffe, cape buffalo, wart hogs, dik-dik (small antelopes that mate for life), blue monkeys, impala, zebra, black faced vervet monkeys, saddle billed storks, lesser flamingos (more pink), greater flamingos (white with pinks wing tips)
