Back at the beautiful Manor after our day in the Ngorongoro crater. This place is like La Residence we never want to leave. A great dinner last night with a tomato basil appetizer we all ordered again for breakfast. Wonderful butternut soup and a snapper that was outstanding. This lodge is set in a coffee plantation and the coffee served here is from these beans and as good as coffee gets.

East AFrica is very different from South Africa. The crater itself is a marvellous thing to see. Our drive started very slow we saw a few plains animals but all from the road of course no off roading here. After upclose and personal safaris in South Africa this was not as exciting. However as we moved further into the crater we did get large herds of wildebeast, buffalo, zebra and saw a few hyenas and lots of wonderful birds. The last sighting we were surrounded by about 400 wildebeast with some zebra mixed in - absolutely incredible to see so many animals. Anne will write a far better review.

Tomorrow we are off to Singita Faru Faru where you can go off road so we are looking forward to that experience.

Ken is working on pictures hope he gets some posted tonight.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Michele nailed our day as soon as we got near the turn off for the crater (technically a caldera): "It's like a journey to the center of the earth!" It had rained overnight, meaning our drive involved a fair amount of deep mud ruts in the red dirt and clay of this area. We loaded up our picnic lunch (making sure to have diet cokes pre-boarded) then heaved and hopped through it to join the main road. It was a total of 40 minutes from the Manor to the Ngorongoro Crater National Park. We checked in, hit the restrooms one last time (Western toilets but still pretty nasty) and headed through the gate.

The circumference of the crater, Ami the guide reported, was 100 km. This led to much discussion, and an unexpected seminar by Champ on dimensional engineering analysis for geometric calculations of diameter, area and even volume within the crater. Ngaire looked at us and simply said "It's BIG." Nuff said.

We passed by a supply Land Rover that had gone over the side of the narrow road. The rescue folks were hanging on to vines and rappeling down to the car. Geez! This is one place a winch is no where nearby to get your land rover out of the brush. Fortunately, injuries were of the minor variety.

The first overlook was a sea of fog. We opted to skip staring into nothingness in favor of heading down to the floor. The fog started to lift about half way down, and by the time we arrived at the floor, we had deep blue skies, light winds and plains, watering holes and steep, green sides as far as we could see. Fluffy clouds rested gently on the top of the crater. Game could be seen all around - but well out of reach of anyone's camera lens. It was truly an 'aha!' whoosh of wonder throughout our vehicle.

As is true in US national parks, off road driving is also not permitted in the national parks in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda or South Africa (those I know for sure). Once you've been off road to see animals in a private game reserve, though, it's tough to go back to another way of appreciating the animals and nature. Keep in mind we had 265 square kilometers to cover so getting an accurate flavor of the crater would take some time. We saw flamingos in the distance massing in one watering hole, lone hyenas looking for either water or leftovers near the middle of the day, and a black rhino hanging out. We did catch a pair of zebra in the last gasp of procreation. We've probably seen at least 25 animals we missed in South Africa in two short Tanzanian days. Still .. the photography opportunities were few and far between.

We opted for an early picnic lunch near a marshy area. Hippos were snorting around the watering hole. Crowned Cranes, the national bird of Uganda, were flocking in the largest groups I've ever seen. Egyptian geese were also in large groups, and the Rufus weavers, golden weavers and the superb starlings sent in their air force to grab our leftovers. One Rufus weaver with a bum leg kept up the begging. Another golden weaver swooped into the open roof in our car. I followed 'em in and urged them to leave, providing a few very good bird photos. A sacred ibis showed up and decided to strut his/her stuff. Zebra were running just past the marsh, forward, then backward, then at the top of a small crest. It is so much easier to appreciate the interaction by watching or using video than by trying for still pictures.

The picnic was terrific and we packed up to ready for a speedy trip back to the Manor. It was not meant to be. We came through the wildebeest and zebra herds. Mating season for the wildebeest will start shortly, so the bulls are duking it out for who will garner the 'reproductive opportunities' and who will have to toughen up for next season. They were all calling out to each other .. then head butting .. then chasing off the competition and/or falling back .. while the zebras bark (it is a WEIRD sound) and mingle amongst the wildebeest. We were mesmerized and stopped for a good 30 minutes to immerse ourselves in the giant plains herds daily grind.

I am so glad we took the time to stop at the Crater. It's a one day, one-and-done experience. You can stay right on the crater (Crater Lodge, Sopa Lodge, Wildwood, Serena) or stay a bit outside at other locations. They range from the ridiculous (Crater Lodge is approx $1400 per person per night) to the basic. There's no apparent advantage to getting into the crater at 6 am (for the one hour drive to the floor) versus getting in at 8 am. The wind picks up in the afternoon, and the supply trucks barrel past you at 60 km/hr and cover camera, nose, hair and mouth with lots of dusty detritus.

We headed back up the road and had two nice views from overlooks. I took advantage of another napping opportunity on the drive back to the Manor.

Tanzania is somewhere between Rwanda and South Africa in terms of development. There are many more cars, bikes and general infrastructure than Rwanda here. The first president of Tanzania insisted on Swahili education, so the 120 tribes who each had their own education were brought together by their children learning Swahili as a common tongue. It's certainly a less volatile political climate here than Kenya right now; but for me personally, I connected more closely with the Kenyan call of the wild than I've found so far on this trip. I hope to find that same connection when we head to Faru Faru tomorrow.

Cheers, Anne

PHOTOS OF RWANDA AND THEIR GORILLAS:

GORILLAS OF RWANDA:

FANTASTIC!!!!

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Eugene

Ken, The photos are beyond AWESOME!

That baby with all the hair is adorable! Thanks Ken for the wonderful pix!

These pictures are fantastic Ken! I love all of them and that baby couldn't have been any cuter !!

PHOTOS OF THE GOLDEN MONKEYS OF RWANDA AND THE MOUNTAIN CAMELEON:

Great photos! Love the gorilla shots, especially the baby, and those golden monkeys are very interesting!

Love the photos--really happy to have the opportunity to just look at the pictures rather than actually doing this myself. Whew--I'm tired just thinking about it.

Me, too, Peggy, but I sure am enjoying Ken's pictures and Anne's travelogue!

Oh my........how wonderful are those pictures! I'm not sure I would have had the energy to do that after Roar.........kudos to you all. Fantastic pictures. thanks so much!

Beautiful. Those golden monkeys look like a painting. Thanks Anne and Ken for posting text and pics.

Looks like Faru Faru is another lodge fit for a princess. Can't wait to hear and see more!

Faru Faru (means "rhino rhino" in Swahili) IS another lodge fit for a princess. We took the morning milk run flight here from Lake Manyara. Our very cute South African pilot, Rian (pronounced ree-an) gave us commentary and assured us we'd get the entire Serengeti safari experience via an aerial morning game drive. He was right.

We started out flying over the massing of flamingos at Lake Tanganyika. they were flying around, in the water and generally turning the coastal area neon pink. There was another couple of Texans when we boarded, so we decided the Texans constituted a majority and we would travel as the Lone Star Republic.

Four stops later (and about 3 hours after take off) we'd seen running herds on their migration north, an incredible number of herds, and a few eland (giant antelope you don't see too often outside of the Serengeti or its northern neighbor, the Masai Mara). We touched down at Sasakwa Airport, home to the three Singita lodges. There were several men pulling up canvas around a bamboo building. Yep .. we're back at Singita.

A Plush Tush in the Bush experience awaited. Flushing toilet, hand cream, mirrors and an easy chair was at the disposal of the lucky occupant. After a much-needed biology break, we were on our way to Faru Faru. This concession (just north of the main Serengeti Plains on the eastern side) is GINORMOUS. It's got 74 beds for the same area as the Serengeti National Park (within the plains) which has 2,000 beds. We're likely to encounter only one other vehicle (if at all) on game drives while we are here. Everyone's fingers are crossed the migration gets here before we leave. Based on our aerial safari, the animals are very close to crossing into the Grumeti concession.

It turns out the owner of this property (Paul Tudor Jones for all you hedge fund or University of Virginia alums) has flown in two black rhinos from the London zoo to repopulate this area after significant poaching in the 1970's resulted in a permanent absence. The only trouble is .. 4 years later and they are still not in the mood for procreation. They will be released into the wild fairly soon with strict monitoring. Hopefully, some of the other black rhinos figure out that spot is uniquely safe and come on down in their quest for procreation.

The other unique feature of this section of Africa is Tse Tse fly traps. Everywhere. For those flies who elude capture, they are blood suckers. Moving blood is their main objective - including us. Remember the old Ban roll-on deodorant? We've got roll-on insect repellent. I assure you, I will be liberally applying it for this afternoon's game drive.

There are eight of us in camp today. The decor is described as 1940's botanist camp style. The managers are delightful folks (South Africans by birth, Tanzanians by desire) and are only too happy to make our stay enjoyable. If we like, we can eat a meal at either of the other two Singita properties on the concession. We are planning that for tomorrow's game drive and breakfast. Suzie, I'm planning to peruse that wine list and have a bottle or two sent down in your & Hoop-de-do's honor.

We had a lovely set lunch served family style overlooking the Grumeti River. We've decamped for some down time before the 4:30 game drive. I'm watching a brown kite sail by our panoramic glass wall in the comfort of air conditioning.

I ask you, what is not to like?

Cheers, Anne

Thanks so much to all the ROAR III'rs for your posts and photos of your adventurse....Ron and I are so psyched to begin our ROAR III adventure with Fred, Jan, Helen and Jerry. Another special shout out to Anne D.....her amazingly funny one liners during our gorilla and golden monkey treks made the adventure so much fun....even when we had gorillas falling out of trees around us! Also, a big thanks to Michele who knows how make a city tour an exciting adventure!
ROAR III - Part Deux (as Helen calls it) is underway. Fred, Jan, Helen, and Jerry arrived yesterday and we all got acquainted last night at our "welcome dinner" at Birkenhead. We have had amazing weather and even though it is quite early for the official season, there have been whale sightings all around. Jan spotted one this morning.
Today Jan, Fred Helen and Jerry have hit the ground running and are on the Great White Shark adventure as the weather is perfect....so cannot wait to hear their stories. Ron and I went into Hermanus today and hiked the coastal trail back to Birkenhead....lunch was served outside on the patio...it was spectacular. What a great life!
Anyway, thanks to all of you in ROAR III who posted and share your adventures....it was fun to read and we look forward to our own upcoming adventures!

Have a great time!

Enjoy this wonderful adventure!!!

Anne will write more I am sure but I will give you a quick overview of our time in Tanzania. East Africa is very different from South Africa.

We are in an area of vast open plains with some tree bush areas and long grass that makes it very difficult to spot game. This also creates a ton of tsete flies, nasty critters that sting when they bite. Fortunately not the type that carry sleeping sickness and the bite seems to have no lasting affect like an itchy mosquito bite. Still very irritating and not pleasant. This will pass when the grass dies down and some burning takes place.

That said when you see animals here you see a LOT of animals. Last night we had a group of 21 giraffe and a pride of lions with 16 members. Today we had a large herd of over 100 elephants and went back to our pride of lions again where we saw the two males and a couple of cubs in a tree. In the distance huge groups of wildebeast and zebra. Leopard will probably never be viewed here although they are present and getting the big five probably a rare occurence.

We went to see Sasakwa Singita the expensive property in the Grumeti grouping. WOW - over the top like nothing I have ever seen before. On a hill overlooking the plains. We all went for breakfast and soaked in the ambiance and the view - truly sensational. Tomorrow Ken and I are getting up early and going to see the Sabora tented camp so we will have some knowledge of all the Singita camps here. We will meet the other four at the airport for departure.

The wonderful thing about the Grumeti Singita private reserve is you can go off road. The Tanzanian public game reserves (Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater) you must stay on the roads. That is really not the same for those who have been to South Africa.

Tomorrow we start the long trek back home. From Singita to Mt Kilamanjaro airport (no idea how many stops on the way) then a flight to Nairobi and then the BA flight to London at about midnight, and then onward London to Dallas.

Roar lll has been a truly fantastic trip with the exceptionally compatible groups. We had perfect travelling companions, great weather, unique sightings and a ton of fun. Followed up with a great time at the gorillas with Linda, Ron, Gary, Anne, Don and Michele and now Tanzania as well. We all miss Ron and Linda but they are of couse in South Africa now.

Might be hard to get back into the grove on my return!

PHOTOS FROM LION SANDS:

Ngaire, probably hard to get back into the groove, too. Sorry I have no sympathy. Just jealousy ;) .
Nice Lion Sands photos.
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Eugene

OMG, we have left Birkenhead House where we thought we would like to stay forever and arrived at La Residence where we also would like to stay forever. Can life be better than this? These places are amazing.
Jerry went in the cage with the Great WHites and reported yesterday as the best day of his life. No sooner did he get in the cage than a HUGE shark approached and bit the cage where he stood, catching his/her tooth on the bar. Yikes! Jerry had a disposable underwater camera but wont know till we can get it developed if he got the picture. Jan Fred and I watched from the deck. Pretty cool experience. Dinner at Ruebens tonite and wine tasting tomorrow.
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Helen

Hope Jerry also had disposable underwear when Great White bit the cage!


I remember openings in cage were MUCH larger than I expected.

Thanks so much for the delightful commentaries and the gorgeous pictures. It sounds like a trip of a lifetime.

Helen, warms my heart to hear comments like this from a first timer to these places! SO glad to hear Jerry had this experience if, er....it made him happy. Would have unhinged me for days, forget about any pictures down there after this. Just wait, the best is yet to come!

We went to La Petite Ferme today, had a tour of the winery and a wonderful lunch in just the most bucolic of settings. Then we just walked and browsed around Franschoek. A great day. We leave tomorrow back up to Jo'burg before heading to the game parks. It will be hard to top the great white sharks for my husband but cant wait to see the wildlife still to come!
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Helen

We are now in London Heathrow. Navigating Nairobi airport is something | will only do if ABSOLUTELY necessary. Starting early in the morning, a small plane flight with a stop and a pretty long layover in Kilmanjaro airport (not much there either) we decided to do a hotel room to shower and freshen up before our international flight home we had about three hours at the hotel but that was three hours we did not need to spend at the airport. It was a real hassle getting our Kenya visa to exit the airport but our transfer man was right there on exit and once we made it to the hotel we were glad. A lovely hotel with only a few problems, two power outages for a short time, no plug in the bathtub, mixed up room service orders and Gary stuck in the elevator. Rooms were nice and the hotel was modern and it did help a lot. We all hugged goodbye on arrival at the airport and went our separate ways.

We were so happy to board the plane and we were on the same flight as Don and Michele and we all managed to get some sleep. We were all so tired by then.

The last day in Tanzania was amazing. We ended up in the first wave of the migration, with zebra and topi (antelope). As far as the eye could see they just kept coming. The sunset was the best ever it was really magical. Finally the teste flies died down also as they do early in the morning and at sunset.

Got to run now more later.

We have a little time in Heathrow so Ken is going to try and post some of his pictures from Tanzania. Won’t get many up so he is working on his elephants right now. I thought I would share what the pictures are all about.

This was a large herd of over 100 elephants and there has been some interaction between the villagers and the elephants. The elephants can go right into the village and do a lot of destruction to the crops and buildings and the villagers try to chase them away, just as you have seen on TV shows. So our guide Joe approached them cautiously at first. A few head shakings by trumpeting by young bulls but overall they were very relaxed.

This proved to be a wonderful sighting with a lot of unusual behaviour and Ken’s pictures highlight some of what we saw.

A group of three youngsters were fighting over some dung on the ground. They were making a lot of noise and climbing on top of one another. One of the females finally had enough and came over with a lot of gusto to break up the nonsense taking place it was so much fun to watch this all happening.

A tiny baby was nursing not sure how old but the guide said about 6 weeks. His little trunk was wobbling all over the place and in the picture he has it straight up while nursing.

At one point a group of elephants came together and stood in a circle not moving at all. Many had their trunks on the top of the other elephants. Even a tiny baby stood very still on the outside of the circle. Our guide explained that an elephant must have died here and they can sense the spot and this was a mourning behaviour. He said that only direct family members would join the circle. Eventually they moved on and later a large bull crossed over to the exact same spot and did the same thing. He just stood there for a while sniffing the ground with his trunk and then moved on.

The next day a bull was NOT happy with us we got a lot of trumpeting, ear and head shaking and short charges forward. We watched him for a while then he started retreating but still trumpeting and generally telling us to leave.

Elephants here not as relaxed as the Sabi Sands elephants for sure but with a good guide we got just as close. He just moved slowly and in stages and they just carried on with what they would normally be doing. Hard to pick pictures he has some great shots we were with this herd for a long time and the only vehicle.

This is again a low density - lots of land and only a few vehicles. We only had one other vehicle at one sighting during our entire stay.

ELEPHANT PHOTOS FROM SINGITA FARU FARU LODGE - TANZANIA:

What can I say that hasn't been said before. Can't wait to go back. The picture are really amazing. What a great thing to see this special elephant behavior.

Ngaire, What a magnificent way to end your trip. Seeing the animal migration must be a sight to see. Ken's photos are great. I hope he will post more online when you all return. This trip sounds like a real adventure. I am sure all of you are exhausted, but filled with wonderful memories. Thanks to all the ROAR IIIers for your wonderful posts.

Looking forward to hearing from ROAR III/Part Deux.

What a fabulous start go Roar iII/Part Deux. From all the previous Roar trips, we had expected luxury..but what we got was jaw dropping beauty, service, and fun! Birkenhead House was so amazing and such a dramatic spot. We had such a good time and didn't want to leave yet Then we got to La Residence and just when we thought nothing could be as good as Birkenhead House, we arrived at La Residence!!! We had the Tibetian room with a wonderful view of the vineyards and mountains. The grape vines are turning fall colors with lots or red and golds. We really like the small town of Franschhoek. It was a cross between France and Napa Valley.

We are now at hotel in Johannesburg for our one night stop over before we fly to the game camps. What a way to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary today.

Jan

Jan & Fred:

Happy 40th Anniversary! What a stupendous way to celebrate it.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

Happy Anniversary!

yes yes

Wishing you all the best, Jan and Fred, on your 40th anniversary!

Cheers, Anne & Gary

Chiming in, Jan and Fred!