Good bye KURMUK

This is a Nomad boy on his cow...

RANDOM!!! This was in our market... You know, you go to the store and you want to buy one of those "PET THINGS".... LOL!!!!

Well I am at a point that for me has come very quickly. I am on my final days at Team site Kurmuk.

I was appointed Acting Team Site Leader (TSL) last week as our Team Site Leader (TSL) was away at a military conference in Damazin. The conference opened his eyes to the games the two military leaders and representatives played during these committee meetings. I was also finally able to play my game as well. Now that I was the TSL I was finally able to question the higher command on any issue that I felt was in conflict to our orders. I have a funny feeling that the higher command was shocked at what it was like to operate with a Canadian at the helm. I entered into an email war with the person who gives us orders. He sends us to places without justification which in the long run can cause safety and security issues for us as UNMO’s. Let’s just say I had fun and they are happy that I am not TSL anymore.

During my time as TSL we also had the President of Sudan – BASHIR come to our town by helicopter for a campaign stop. You may recall the ICC has a warrant out for his arrest for war crimes and genocide. Our higher command sent a one line email saying that we should avoid the rally area. There was no thought about what could go wrong and what actions we (UNMO’s) may have to take. Thank goodness that there is now 3 Canadians and a German on the ground as we entered into a tactical role and game played some of the greatest threats. All went well.

So now that I am leaving I finally have two more Canadians on the ground living at the team site. Chris and Drew arrived on the ground about a week ago. They are getting used to the heat and the mode of operation here. They will both be here until Aug. The worst part for them is that they will be here during the rainy season in which almost no patrols get done due to the roads being washed out.

I visited the village of DOYA last week. I handed out a bunch of pencils and school supplies. I also taught the local kids how to play Frisbee. We had about 15 people all playing Frisbee.
On one of my patrols I happened to meet a three star General form the southern army. Not too often we see that rank driving around our villages.

The bar now has a new set of lights, it’s painted and the disco ball will go up tonight. We have hired a contractor to build the bamboo part of the bar and it will be finished by the week’s end. Unfortunately I will not see the completed bar other then in pictures.

Don Don is doing well. I received a couple of gifts for him with my last gold bags. He loved the Canada soccer ball and the chew rope. He is a little bit of a suck though. He whimpered and wouldn’t go near the rubber squeaky chicken. He also thumbed his nose up at the dog treats that he was offered. Weird dog!! Drew has a friend that is a Vet in Canada and will be sending some medications and dog items for him. I think he will be the most spoiled dog in Sudan!

On Good Friday Drew, Chris, Kai and I decided to climb Kurmuk Mountain. It took us around 1 hour to get to the top. It was a beautiful view. While climbing I even had time to use the binoculars to spy on the southern army’s tank camp. Once at the top we sat on a rock that overlooked the UN Camp. Then we came up with a Canadian idea. Why not leave something here for others to fine. So you may of guessed it we built an INUKSHUK. Unfortunately we built it from memory and although it was good it was did not quite look like it was supposed to. BUT anyone seeing it would not know what the real ones looked like anyways. I have finally left my mark in Kurmuk and it’s at the highest point!

Notice the Canadian flag and the team site in the background.

Yesterday I turned over my job to Drew from Canada. He will take over all of the CIMIC work that I was doing. Today I feel lost as I am no longer needed. I have time to myself. The plan is that I will leave the Team Site on 7 Apr and go to the sector HQ. Due to flight plans, inefficiency and tea I will have to stay at the sector level for 6 days. I am NOT looking forward to that as I have nothing to do there. However I have started another online military course and I hope to finish it while I am stuck there. On Monday 12th I will fly back to Khartoum and be residing at Canada House. Once again I will be bored as I complete my check out procedure at the UN in two days and then sit around waiting for the flight home. If all things work out I will be leaving Sudan around the 22/23 Apr and making my way through Amsterdam and back to Toronto.

Pics

When a helicopter lands in a remote village everyone comes out to see!


Handing out pencils, bubbles and Frisbees in a village


Jose Avalos (team site leader) during my going away party



The G-1 office - Romanian, Chinese, Bolivia




Kai and Bao (German and Chinese)

My first pic of these guys, they are the fastest critters in the camp and its very hard to get their pic...

ME! In my UN Car

My final parade.... Farewell....

Going away party (Ghana, China, Yeman)

The dinner

Don Don and his new Toy!

Kurmuk

Ok read this!! LOL

General Pics

On top of Kurmuk Mountain



More Nomads moving for water



This is my town, picture shows the market where I go shopping each day for bread ect..



An old reminder of the war

This IS a river!! This is why they call it dry season

My party

Gifts given on behalf of the Air Cadets

Chillin

The boys

Last boat from Cairo

Our last night in Cairo was interesting. We headed off to our new favorite restaurant with the large white tent. Kai had mentioned that maybe we should take a light jacket. We didn’t. When we arrived at the restaurant it was interesting to see how many people were wearing full winter parkas, gloves, scarf’s and turtleneck sweaters. I was amazed. It was around 14 degrees outside. That night the temperature dropped to 12 degrees. This was winter in Cairo.

In the restaurant we finally decided to participate in the local pastime of smoking Shisha. It was an interesting experience. It involves smoking a molasses tobacco, which has been flavored, through a glass structure which is filled with water. The tobacco is not tasted, only the flavor is noticed.

I, as always, try to watch and learn from the locals. I like to see what customs and traditions they have between each other. I found that it is very interesting that in Cairo men, like in Sudan, walk arm in arm (not hand in hand like Sudan) and that when two men meet, if they know each other, they kiss each other on both cheeks. When I man meets a woman it is customary only to shake the hand. So men kiss men and women kiss women. Men walk arm in arm with men and women with women. The interesting think that shocked me was that Cairo actually has a special police unit whose job it is to find gay Egypt men and arrest them and make their life very difficult. Very interesting for a culture where men walk arm in arm and kiss only other men and not women!

Our host met us the next morning to take us to the airport. He said we are lucky to be flying as the weather reports are calling for a sand storm to hit Cairo in the next 2-3 days. They come about once a year and cover the entire city in a thin layer of dust and sand. I had heard of them in Khartoum and they are known as a Haboob. The storm is being tracked as it traces across the Great Sahara Desert.

I talked to our host about the driving in Cairo which is chaotic at best. I asked about the pedestrians that cross the highways. He said it is no problem. In Cairo if a car strikes a pedestrian on the high way they do not get in trouble. It is considered the pedestrians fault. I did notice that throughout all of Cairo the cars have the right of way NOT the people crossing the street! I have to admit we ran many times to get out of traffic as it sped towards us.

When the plane landed in Khartoum and the captain made an announcement there was cheers and clapping from the passengers. I didn’t know what was said because it was in Arabic. Then it came over in English “Welcome to Khartoum where the local time is 630pm and the Temperature is 41 degrees! Now I know why the people were clapping. When I got off the plane the heat hit me like a wave. My eyes felt like they were melting.

The next morning as I headed to the UN Airport I noticed the sky was grey. As the sun came up I discovered that it was not grey but brown. The sand storm had arrived in Khartoum. Several flights were cancelled but mine got off the ground. As we flew to Damazin I noticed that the sand storm was quite high and was covering most of Sudan. Often you could not see out the plane windows. In Damazin and in Kurmuk the sky was clear and the sun was hot. Kurmuk had been having a little more of a heat wave. Last week they were getting up to 52 degrees.

On Friday morning I woke up to fine the sky very brown and the sun was not visible. The sand storm was here. Everything is being coated in a thin layer of dust much like talcum powder.

I have found out that another Canadian will be coming to Kurmuk to replace me in about a week. I have also counted that I have only 19 days left in Kurmuk before I begin my out clearance procedures.

I am looking forward to home.

Cairo - Final Day

Final Day in Cairo

We decided to take the day off and enjoy our final day in Cairo. I slept in, downloaded some pictures and then went for a walk around town. We had one goal today. For the past 3 days Kai has stated that he wants to try KFC! That’s right the German wants to try Kentucky Fried Chicken! They do not have KFC in Germany and that have hundreds here in Cairo. So we had KFC for lunch and it did taste exactly as it does in Canada. After the meal Kai understood why I said I can only eat it once in a year. We walked around for the next hour trying to burn off the fat and grease we just ate.

So I had forgotten to mention something about my last day in Tanzania. I had forgotten to mention that on the road trip back from the Safari to the hotel in Moshi I had seen about 3 dead people. There was a car accident that we came upon just as the police loaded the bodies in the back of a pickup. That right there was no ambulance in site. I figure that 2-3 people died in that accident. The car looked like a small aircraft crash as it was in the middle of a field and completely crunched up. It reminded us of how vulnerable we were in Africa as there are no seat belts, no real traffic laws, no ambulances and no trauma hospitals. About 30min later we were driving through another town and on the side of the road there was a crowd and sure enough another body with a police officer looking over the crowd. The man was probably about 50-60years old and was laying there dead in the road. I only bring this up because as we were walking today there was a commotion near one of the bridges which involved the police, ambulance and some people. They were searching the water, the Nile, for a body. We stopped for a while to watch the police divers arrive. We decided to move on.

Life is precious….enjoy it!

Tomorrow I am heading back to Sudan for a night in Khartoum. The following day I will be flying back to my team site. I only have a short time remaining in this mission. I hope that I can accomplish a few more things before I depart my team site on the 6th of April.

I won’t be writing for about a week unless something tremendous happens….like someone actually covering my position in Kurmuk and keeping all of the files, I manage, up to date….LOL as if! This is the UN!

Cheers!

Mike…..PS as of today it is approximately 1 month until I fly home!!

See You Soon.

Cairo Pictures (Click Here).... Words to follow

My Pics of Cairo can be seen by clicking the title above of by going to this link:


http://picasaweb.google.com/113337861842515615988/CairoEgypt2010?feat=directlink



Cheers

Old Cairo - Day 4

Old Cairo – Day 4

Memphis, no not in the USA, Cairo is also known as the old Cairo. We went to the site of King Rameses II statues. He was one of the most influential kings of Egypt. Memphis was the old capital of Egypt. There have been many capitals over the many years of Egypt’s existence.

We also went into the area called Sakara which is very well known for its Egyptian Carpet Schools. These schools train children from the age of 6 and up to manufacture Egyptian and oriental carpets. These kids live in Sakara which is a very poor area. School is not mandatory in Egypt and families must pay for school uniforms, books and any other fees that the school has. So in this district the families find it easier to send their children to be carpet makers. Some of the children will get some schooling however most are just carpet makers for the rest of their lives. This also helps the children to help support their families when they get older. The pay of course is not great. To me this seems a little like child labour however if they weren’t in these schools they would be receiving no education and never have a possibility for a future job. A hard reality to think about. It’s a shame the country could not improve education in the poorer areas.

We arrived at the next set of pyramids called the Step Pyramids. It was the first of a new style of pyramid that included 5 steps in the slope of the pyramid. There was also a pottery pyramid which was called this because the pyramid was covered and built with broken pottery. This area, in total size, is massive and they think that they have only uncovered the beginning of what will turn out to be a massive ruins area. The excavation is all done by hand and takes a great deal of time. This project much like the one in Italy at Pompeii will be continuing for years.
Tonight we went on a Nile Dinner Cruise. The food was ok. It was a small buffet. There was a belly dancer, live band and an Egyptian twirler. The belly dancer needs to go back for more training…Oh did I say that? LOL. The twirler – a male dancer wearing a colourful Egyptian dress who spins around non-stop for about 15 minutes was awesome. He impressed me and the others on the boat. 98% of which arrived from 4 buses of a Japanese tour.

We cruised around the Nile for 2 hours. It was a nice way to spend the evening in Cairo.

The GREAT Pyramids -Day 3

Day 3 – The GREAT PYRAMIDS

Wow, what a site. Three pyramids all in great shape considering how old they are. The Nile was once a mightier river then it is now and was wide enough to actually flow very near to the pyramids. Now it is quite a distance away. I learned a great deal about the 3 main pyramids and the other 3 minor ones. I was warned that absolutely NOTHING is free in this area. I also read that you need to guard your camera. Well sure enough as soon as we left our guide and were taking a few pics a police officer approached me and in broken English asked for my camera and then made me pose. This is where I got the funny shots of the pyramids. After he made Kai and I pose the camera became ransom for a tip. So he made some money off of us that day. We had many other people offer to take our picture or offer to pose with us….It was all about offering you something for free and then holding you hostage for the tip. It was also awesome to see the boats that they burry next to the pyramid for easier passage to the afterlife. The boat beside the Great Pyramid was massive!

We also traveled to the Salah El Din Citadel which stands high above Cairo. In the citadel there are 3 mosques including the most important to the Egyptians called the Mohamed Ali Bashir Mosque. We were able to visit and tour the inside of the Mosque. There were 365 lights that used to be candles. This represented the days of the year. There was a beautiful courtyard and the views from the outer wall of the mosque overlooked the city of Cairo.

When we left the Mosque we visited a Papyrus Paper factory and learned how the ancient Egyptians used the Papyrus plant for paper and as a method of recording historical events. I ended up buying a couple of prints.

We spent a couple hours at the Egyptian Museum which is host to hundreds of Mummies and their sarcophaguses. It was also host to thousands of other treasures found all over Egypt. Of course this includes the most famous of them all; the items of King Tutankhamen. King Tut was the king of Egypt from the age of 9 to 18 at which time he died without explanation. He wasn’t a famous king nor any better than any other kings. The only reason he is so famous is due to the fact they found so much in his tomb. We were able to get up close to many of the items found in his tomb. We were 3 inches away from his famous golden head piece. I was great to learn about the various symbolisms used in ancient Egypt and Rome. It was easy to start analyzing different statues and their status in Egypt based on the symbols that were used.

Enjoy the pictures……

Alexandria - Day 3

Alexandria – Day 3

Today we went to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. It has been a famous city throughout history. It was concurred by the Greeks, Romans and Spaniards. It is also where the Nile ends and spills into the Mediterranean ocean. The city has many beaches, oil refineries and large corporations.

I finally figured out that I have been to 4 sides of the Mediterranean Ocean. I have been on the beaches of Spain – west, France – north, Italy – east, and Egypt – south. Our tour included the palace of King Al-Montaza which sits on one side of the coast of Alexandria and the Citadel which sits on the other side of the coast of Alexandria. The palace has been closed for years and is still not open to the public.

We also toured the ruins of a catacomb which was found by accident. The catacombs went down 100 stairs. We were able to see where all of the bodies were buried. It was an interesting tour located in a poorer area of the city of Alexandria. The catacombs showed the overlap, through symbols, of the Greek/Roman and Egyptian eras. From there we went to visit another historical site called Pompey’s Pillar. It was the location of a single free standing pillar that is in excellent shape. The pillar is guarded by a very well preserved Sphinx.

We had lunch by the sea which included fresh fish of course. It was a good meal. After lunch we began the 3 hour trip back to Cairo.

That night we missed our boat cruise. We decided to find another restaurant and maybe to a bar crawl. We found a good Italian restaurant, enjoyed some food and found a couple pubs before we headed home.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the Great Pyramids.

Cairo - day 2 - cooler out

Forgot to mention how hot is was yesterday! I even had to switch rooms as my AC was broken and I couldn't stop sweating.

Cairo seems very spread out like Toronto. In the areas nearby there is not much to see. When you look at the overall map there are single tourist sites available however they are some distance apart and none are close to me. The city is quoted as being very safe. There is a definite presence of armed police and military and security guards at every second corner. Now I am in the embassy area and there are many armed guards surrounding every embassy.

The driving here is amazing. I was told by many people that the drivers in Cairo are some of the worst and best. The lines on the road mean nothing. Headlights are used at night for flashing other drivers not for having on while driving. During the day everyone honks all of the time. It seems to be a reverse onus that when you are driving it is not the other driver’s responsibility to notice you is it is your responsibility to notify ALL other drivers that you are one the road and driving. Therefore you constantly honk to let everyone know you are in the area. Seat belts are only required for the driver and definitely not required for children. The more people you can fit in a vehicle the more stable the vehicle becomes..LOL. Motorcyclists MUST have a helmet; however they do not have to wear it. These are just a few examples of things that I have noticed…. More to follow…

Cairo is a city of 22million people. To give that perspective Toronto has 3.5 million and Canada has 33 million people. So you could say that Cairo has almost the entire population of Canada within it city borders. Egypt itself has been under the control of many different cultures. Egypt was controlled by the French, Roman, Greek and Turkish. In 1956 it was finally its own republic.

My UNMO mate Kai arrived at 930pm today. Once he got settled in we headed back to the same tented restaurant that I was at last night. He agrees that is was great atmosphere with good food.

Tomorrow we begin our tour of Egypt.

Day 1 - Cairo

I arrived at the Cairo airport at 200am after landing in 4 other countries. The tour company met me at the airport and was an excellent host. He even gave me a SIM card for my phone so that I could call him at any time if I needed something. At the hotel I was a little shocked at how the room appeared. But I was too tired to care and I finally went to sleep.

I woke that morning at 1030am. I decided to go for a walk around the area to get my bearings and to see what was available. My first impression of Cairo was that it was a dirty, but very upscale Khartoum. It is where Khartoum could be in about 20 years…..maybe. The first thing I noticed was that drivers honking at everyone and everything! Always!

My Hotel is in the Zamalek region of Cairo which is essentially an Island. It is surrounded completely by the Nile River. The Island is considered one of the upscale rich areas of Cairo. The Island is also host to over 20 embassies. The most interesting embassy set up of who is whose neighbor was the threesome of the Swiss embassy then their neighbors the Iraq embassy and their neighbors the Vatican embassy.

I stopped at the Marriot hotel for a bit to eat for lunch. It was beautiful inside, that is once I got past the armed guards, the bomb sniffing dog and the metal detector. They have 9 restaurants and bars. I should have realized that the price was going to be quite high. I think my bill was $25USD for a small chicken wrap and a bottle of beer. When I got back to my room I was shocked at the heat. It was a very hot day in Cairo and the AC in the room was not working at all. I asked for a new room and I got one immediately. The staff here are very accommodating.

I was alone for dinner that night so I ventured out and went to a restaurant that was recommended by the front desk. It was about a 20 min walk. When I arrive it was extremely busy and you required reservations. I sweet talked the hostess and sure enough she got me a table. The place is a very large white tent on the bank of the split in the Nile. It was filled with a very classy crowd. All the tables, chairs and cooks were in white. The food was great, the price was good and the music was perfect. Almost every table had someone smoking sheesha. I had a great dinner.


Enjoyed the people watching and headed home to bed.

Cairo - Egypt

I arrived at the airport at 0230am! I was tired and wanted a bed after flying through 5 countries. The hotel is located in the "wealthy" part of Cairo. I do not see too much as it is early in the morning. The hotel will have to do for now but it is pretty run down.

I have the 11th and 12th off to relax. My friend Kai from Germany arrived on the 12th night from Germany. We will tour for the 13, 14 and 15th. On the 17th we will fly back to Khartoum and on the 18th we will both fly back to the team site in Kurmuk....our home!

More to follow.... I'm off to bed...

Mike

My SAFARI Pics - Click here!

Click the title to see all of the safari pics. This only shows a few as Margo, Guido and myself combined all of our pics which ended up being over 500 pics!!!

Enjoy!

Mike

LAKE MANYARA National Park - Day 3

Me with the Termites!

Lake Manyara National park

“The cleavage, known as the Great Rift Valley, can be identified from space as the most distinctive feature of the African continent. The seam of this cleavage has developed a series of fascinating and beautiful lakes. One of these lakes is called Manyara. Lake Manyara is also a national park. Manyara is a fantastic big game park. The variety of habitats parallels its exceptional scenery.

Every imaginable East African animal is found here in abundance. There are great herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and several varieties of gazelle. Mahogany, sausage tree and croton are alive with blue monkeys and vervet monkeys. Some of the most amazingly large pods of hippos congregate at the rivers emerging into the lake, and the birdlife is plentiful. Lake Manyara used to be known for its "tree-climbing" lions however they have all disappeared due to humans.”

By the morning of this third day we were all pretty Safari’d out.

First sighting was the family of Giraffes. This included several baby giraffes. We ended up in between the entire family and this stressed them out. One mother and baby got separated. It was interesting watching them figure out how to get back together with the herd without getting to close to us. I have this on video. It was amazing to see these animals up close and being able to get an appreciation for their height.

We ventured to a Hippo pool/pond. Man these guys are LAZY!! They sit in the water all day and only really move at night to graze. So I have a couple of pics when one adjusted his position as this was the only good view of them. All the other views are only of their back poking out of the water.

We ended up in the middle of a flock/herd/troop/family of baboons. It was fun watching the interaction of the various members and especially the babies as they played tag with one another. Again I have some good video.

I was getting safari’d out as were the other two. So we started taking fun pictures of the animals. I have a few close ups of the Vervet monkeys… Can you guess what part?

We spotted an interesting animal just by chance. It resembles a miniature dear. It is called a Dik Dik by locals. It was the smallest cutest animal, again check my pics.



As we rounded a corner we came across a herd of elephant. This one included about 10-14 elephants and their babies.

As we left the park we were slowed by a family of Baboons on the road. I was able to get some good close up pics of them grooming.

Just "hanging out" LOL

Our guide lied to us and said that he was taking us to a real Maasai village and not a commercial village. As we drove up to this non-commercial village we noticed a sign on the road on the way in that said “MAASAI VILLAGE Dot Com”. Then we were met by a Maasai on a bike with a Manchester United hat on. He told the driver to take his time as he sped away on his bike. Once at the village we noticed another group of tourists being shuffled out of the site. As they left we were welcomed in, after we paid our $10.00 USD each LOL! The only goal from the village was to sell their stuff. All the ladies had tables laid out and all of the tables had the same things on them. I felt obligated to see every table. I bought 2 necklaces just to make them a little happy. They sang the welcome song and performed the male jumping ritual for us and had us get involved. From there we were invited to sit inside a BOMA (like a Tukul) and were told about the Maasai from the Chiefs son. They have a very interesting history and many of their customs (bad and good) are still practiced today.

I did learn a fair bit about their tribal customs and history. Check out Maasai on Wikipedia to learn more about them. The best part is that we could take their pictures without any problems.

The rest of the day was spent driving the 3.5 hours back to Moshi to my other hotel. From there I was invited out for Guido’s B-Day party. He had invited other people that he met during his two weeks in Moshi. There were about 20 of us that arrived at this little restaurant called “El Rancho”. The food was Indian, not Mexican as I would have thought! The food was awesome and the beer was cold. Most of the 20 were volunteers working in Tanzania and Kenya. Some were medical and others were students. I ended up spending most of my time speaking with a Medical student who has taken a year off 3rd year university to volunteer in a labour and delivery ward of a local hospital. She is from Germany. I also met Nick who is a homeopathic practitioner from Montreal. We left the restaurant at 2:30am…the staff left the restaurant at 1:30am! They just left us as it is an outside restaurant. There was only one problem. In Moshi when you want a Taxi you don’t call a company, you call a guy you know. We called 6 taxi’s from the restaurant with no luck.

We headed to Nick’s place to get the numbers of 4 more cab guys. They all failed. I ended up staying at Guido’s guest house. The crappy part was that I had a great new room at my hotel!!

The next day I relaxed and then headed to the airport. I did not realize that I was on a “milk run” from Tanzania to Cairo. I flew the following route: Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) – Nairobi (Kenya) – Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) – Khartoum (Sudan) – Cairo (Egypt). That’s five countries!!

Oh well…. Cairo here I come!

NGORONGORO CRATER - Day 2

DAY 2 – NGORONGORO CRATER Conservation Area

“Ngorongoro is quite unique as its physical protection from man natural beauty ranks it among the most pristine wildernesses on earth. It is regarded as a natural wonder of the world and has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is the largest intact crater in the world, being 610 meters deep, 16 kilometers across and covering an area of 540 square kilometers. On the crater floor, grassland blends into swamps, lakes, rivers, woodland and mountains - all a haven for wildlife, including the greatest predator population in Africa. The volcanic crater is packed with wildlife, including all the big game. Its pride and joy, however, is that it remains the last great wild refuge for the endangered black rhino.”

The drive today was awesome as we departed from our hotel which was located in the “RIFT VALLEY”. The drive was a up winding road that climbed just shy of 2,000 meters! It was breathtaking! Once at the top of the Rift Valley we were able to look back over the massive landscape. Pictures never do this view justice. After about an hour of driving we arrived in the Ngorongoro (pronounced Gore-on-gore-oh) conservation area. When we arrived at the lookout point on the rim of the crater we were amazed. What an absolutely incredible sight! We looked into the crater and were a little shocked that we couldn’t see any animals at all. The crater looked empty! As we learned later on this is the amazing optical illusion of the crater. It is so big and yet looks so small to the human eye. I grabbed the binoculars to see if anything was visible and I was able to see a few small herds. But still, nothing spectacular. Again an optical illusion!

After taking some pics we headed down the steep road that lead to the crater floor. Once on the floor we found ourselves right in the middle of a very very large herd of wildebeest. There was probably 200-300 of them cutting across our path! Welcome to Africa. The rest of the day was amazing! There was so much wild life. The view from the crater floor was still creating an optical illusion. This place was so massive and yet so small at the same time. We went hunting for the African BIG FIVE: Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Rhino and Elephant.

We were able to find everything except the Leopard which is the most elusive animal to find.
The elephants here were different than the ones we had seen at other game parks. The tusks were very long and almost dragged on the ground. This shows how old they are and how they are closer relatives to the Wooly Mammoth. Even their skin was different.

I can’t say enough about this park. I think the pics speak for themselves. We found a pack of lions. There were 3 female, one male and one teenaged male. They were in short grass (2-3 feet high) near a natural stream. The incredible thing is that when they lay down you couldn’t see them at all. If you happened to be walking through that area the grass didn’t look high at all and you would have walked into 5 hungry lions.

Can you see 5 lions?

We stopped for lunch by a pond. In the distance we could see some humps in the water. This was a herd of Hippos resting. They only come out at night to eat.

We finally found the Black Rhino, an almost extinct animal. There were three however they were quite far away from us. We could not get close to the lake which had about 1,000 pink flamingos on it. What a shame as we missed a good picture opportunity.

The whole day was an awesome experience! What a great location and a great safari!

TANANGIRE National Park Safari - Day 1

Elephant Skull



This guy got my lunch!

Vervet Monkey

Angry Elephants!

The First Safari – Tarangire National Park - http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/tarangire.html

Upon arrival at the park we had to wait while our guide registered us and took care of the payments. We found a group of about 5 small monkeys. They are called the VERVET monkey. They have light brown fur and “Blue Balls” LOL yes they do! (see pictures)

I also took some pictures of a skull found in the park. It is of the Elephant! It’s massive! (see pics)

During lunch we were warned to eat our lunches carefully as the Vervet monkeys were very bold and they would run up and grab to food right out of your hand. Sure enough one was moving in on Margo. As I stood up and went to grab my water bottle the monkey shifted from Margo and ran after me. He was so quick I barely had time to respond before I realized he had taken half of my sandwich right out of my hand!!

The park was full of wild life in their natural habitat. At first we had thought there wasn’t much to see. Just then it got busy! That day we were able to see: Wild Boar, Warthog, wildebeest, gazelle, zebra, giraffe, elephant, Impala, River Buck, ostriches, Jackal, and mongoose.

During one of our photo shoots we were watching a herd of elephants on the other side of a river. They seemed like they wanted to cross so we got into position with 3 other vehicles to watch. We watched the herd as it went into the river and then began to play and roll around in the water. It was awesome seeing elephants rolling in a river and spraying water on each other to cool off. As we watched finally three elephants decided it was time to cross the river he3ading towards us! We watched with excitement as the animals grew nearer to us. Only three came across and they were the largest three. As they got closer to us there was something not right. They seemed agitated and not very docile. We started to get a little worried as our guide said it’s no problem. We didn’t have the fullest confidence in the guide yet. We actually felt that they were about to charge. All of a sudden there was a yell from another elephant from the river. The three quickly turned around and ran back across the river to join the others. They kept stopping to look back as if to say “we are watching you!”. What an experience!

That night Margo and Guido were supposed to be staying at a camp site while I was to be staying at a local lodge. The guide made a few phone calls and managed to have us all stay at the lodge together. He said he did it because he said he could see that we had all become very good friends and he figured we would want to be together for the night. He was right, but because it’s Tanzania I figure he saved himself some money somewhere there. LOL.

We all went to the lodge and sorted out rooms, got changed and went swimming while enjoying Kilimanjaro Beer…. What a GREAT DAY!!