Outer Ring Road

There is a road named the "Outer Ring Road" that makes its way most of the way around Bangalore. So, it probably isn't really a "ring", but it makes it most of the way around. There is another road named the "Inner Ring Road", which does not appear to come very close to actually forming a ring. Perhaps, someday they will form more complete rings. From what we have been told, Bangalore has grown so fast that the city planners have not bee able to keep up with planning and actually building new or expanded roads- or other infrastructure for that matter. While the Outer Ring road was probably intended to be more or less that, the reality is that an awful lot of offices and residences and shops, etc. lie well outside the outer road.
The parts of the Outer Ring road, on which we have ridden, are generally in good condition, but there are sections where construction is underway and there it is less pleasant to ride over the bumps or to be delayed. There are other factors that make this road less attractive than it could be. In the US it would be called a "divided highway" the traffic in each direction is divided by a fairly substantial "median". At least, mostly it is divided. One problem is that there are places where the median has been damaged or altered by frequent use so that vehicles often cross over from one side to the other to make a U- turn or left turn. Mostly it is motorbikes and pedestrians who do this, but there are many areas where cars, lorrys and big buses take advantage of the opportunity to cross over. It is, at least, a little dangerous and at best it slows down the flow of traffic. The road is marked with white lines indicating 3 lanes of traffic in each direction- so it is a substantial road. Of course, it often carries 4 or even 5 lanes of traffic in each direction because the lane markers are only regarded as a "suggestion". Actually, the left lane, which here would be the "slow vehicle lane" is used for many purposes like breakdown lane, bus stop, pedestrian lane, bicycle lane and vehicle maintenance lane. That lane also appears to be narrower than the other two - so maybe the designers understood how it would actually be used.
There are "service roads" on each side of many parts of the Outer Ring road. These are 1- 2 lanes wide and meant to carry traffic in both direction to places where they can either cross the ring road or enter the ring road. Many drivers find that they can drive faster on the service road than they can on the ring road, so traffic can be heavy there. Most of the places it is really 1 lane, but they manage to get vehicles to pass eachother anyway. At the traffic lights the vehicles can sit for a fairly long time waiting for the lights to change or for the traffic police to wave them on. This is true for the ring road traffic as well as the service road traffic.
One thing that seems most confusing about the Ring road traffic is the wide variety of vehicles that travel on it. At any time it is quite likely that you will see any or all of the following ON the road itself: pedestrians, bicycles, maintenance people on foot, people with pushcarts, motorbikes (always), ox carts, horse carts, 3 wheeled vehicles, small cars, large cars, tractors pulling heavy loads, small trucks or lorrys, big trucks, tractor- trailer trucks, small buses, big buses and COWS! (There are probably others too!)
Just yesterday we were driving along the Ring road and traffic slowed rather suddenly at a place where a flyover takes 1-2 lanes of traffic off of the road and into the city center. In the right lane (what we would think of as the "fast lane" was a cow. She was just standing there- no food or water, just standing. In the road just left of the cow were two very large (and improperly loaded) tractor trailer trucks moving slowly (they were in the "fast lane" moving slowly and had to move left to avoid hitting the cow). Left of the big trucks were two smaller trucks moving slowly and to the left of them was a tractor pulling a wagon full of construction debris also moving slowly. Thus, on a road that is a little over 2.5 lanes wide we had 3.5 lanes of "traffic" either moving slowly or standing still wondering what all the fuss was about (the cow)! Of course, as is nearly always the case here, everything works out just fine. The traffic moved on, the cow was probably picked up by her owner later and taken to give milk and no one (except us) thought any more about the whole thing!

Independence Day - Aug. 15, 2009

Saturday Aug. 15, 2009 was the 62nd anniversary of Independence of India from the British Empire. Starting a few days before that we noticed that a lot of the street vendors started offering Indian flags for sale in all sizes from a few inches by a few inches up to several feet by several feet on wood staffs. There were more vendors each day selling flags until Sunday the 16th. There were celebrations at the "parade grounds" which is an area near the center of the city near military posts. Bangalore has a military past and still has army and air force barracks around the city. The parade grounds were part of the army post and probably still are. We did not attend the doings there. It started early, security was tight too. We have been hearing warnings about terrorist threats, but nothing specific enough to indicate a clear action to be taken. Advice like, "stay away from crowds" is hard to follow in India.
H1N1 is spreading in India now. This could be a big problem, just because there are so many people. It is very difficult to isolate oneself or anyone who is sick and if it does spread, even a small percentage of people who might get seriously ill is a large number of people. The past several days we saw many more people wearing masks, which may or may not help. Wearing a mask in the dusty air here might be wise all the time. The traffic police often wear masks, and they probably all should as the pollution from cars and buses and such has to be bad for them.
On Independence day, most shops seemed to be open. We went to a musical instrument shop to look at a "veena". These are often very nicely carved wood with some sort of inlay in plastic (old ones would be ivory) or mother of pearl or nice woods. They are string instruments. We don't know much about them except that they look nice and can make nice sounds. The shop had 3 veenas and several other indstruments that appeared to be variants. They also had a "Sarod" and some variants. The veenas were interesting but appeard to need some work. We liked a sarod which also needed new strings and some cleaning which they said they could do in an hour. Most of the shop is new guitars and electronic instruments and a lot of people came into the small space. While we waited for them to put strings on the sarod and clean it we walked to another music shop which said they had no veenas even though we could see one in a second floor window. We also stopped in a bakery, which is also a food store. Every such place we go in seems to have something we like, but don't find in another store! Of course, they also LACK some things we find in other stores. So, one has to go to several places to get what you want, but we do usually find things we want. The biggest thing we have trouble with is cat supplies for the Z's.
We also stopped at a toy store to get a sort of squirt gun we can use to spray water at the monkeys who like to come on the balcony- we'll see if it helps.
While walking along the road Janet saw a dog that looked thin and old so she bought some puppy food to give it along with some water. Our driver said that the dogs won't eat that food because they are used to more human food that people give. So he got some biscuits of some sort and we gave the dogs a plastic bowl of water. Of course the dog was lying in front of a shop and had no interest in either the food or water! They may be skinny, but they eat only when hungry. Our driver returned the puppy food to the store while we waited in the car. While we waited a guy and his friend, to whom he was talking walked over to the tree next to our car and urinated. The car windows are darkly tinted so he probably did not know we were in the car, but it may not have mattered. However, this scenario is not unusual. All over the city and countryside, it is common to see men urinating on whatever is handy. There was a funny commentary in the local newspaper about the phenomenon several months back- it appeared to be written by an Indian, who had lived elsewhere and returned.
In most of the world one will see men urinating near roads when they need to, but it seems much less common. It is partly the large number of people in India, but also the lack of public facilities that are both in good repair and convenient. Hopefully, as the economy here continues to grow, money will be available to help alleviate this situation, but that will probably be a long time away.
We went back to the music shop and found they had done a reasonable job getting the sarod back in shape, so now we have one to learn how to play!
We went back home and while Janet had physical therapy for her knee, Jim went to an excellent craft fair which we visited one evening earlier. The handicrafts in India are widely varied and often of very high quality for little money -especially fabrics and wood carvings. Of course, foreigners generally pay a higher price than Indians. (We think that the sellers feel they were cheated if they don't get at least 20% more from foreigners, but this may not be true, still the prices can be very good.) So, Jim went to the fair and found a few items of interest. It helps a lot if one has a maximum price in mind and a real willingness to walk away if you don't get the item for that price. The vendors will generally act like its impossible, but they may come after you if you walk away and they will accept the price. Bargaining for items on a daily basis is a skill that most Americans and Europeans don't use any more, but here it is routine. If the deal is agreed upon, then there are no hard feelings. (But we still have the feeling that they think we should have paid more!)
Ziggy and Zoe have been pretty quiet lately... wonder what they are plotting?

African Marathon Chickens

As we were riding with Ernest to the airport at Manyara we passed a house where some chickens were walking around. Ernest slowed down and said "do you see those chickens? Those are African Marathon Chickens!" We did not understand what he meant so he proceeded to tell us this story.
Ernest and his wife were expecting company for dinner at their house. He said it is customary to show them the freshly killed chicken they would be having for dinner. It is some way of showing that the people are special enough to have fresh food from the household. So, Ernest had the task of going out to catch a hen and bringing about her demise. He went outside and tried to grab a hen... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave me alone! Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak!" he began to chase. ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave me alone! ...Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak!" he chased some more ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave me alone!" He was getting tired ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave me alone! ...Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak!" The other chickens bagan to chime in
... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave her alone! ...Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak!" ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave her alone!" ...he chased some more - the hen went on the roof of the house ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave me alone!" the others saying ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave her alone! ...Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak!" Ernest went in the kitchen panting after the chase where his wife asked "where is the chicken? You need to get a chicken!" Ernest says, "hhhhh I'm getting it! hhhhhhh I'm getting it!" He rests a bit and goes outside again. the hen is still on the roof, so he throws some pebbles at it ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave me alone! ...Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak!" ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave her alone!" ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave her alone! ...Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak!" ... "Bwaak! Bwaak! Bwaak! leave me alone!" and the chase contiunes.

So that is why he calls them "African Marathon Chickens".

Kenya - Masai Mara

We arrived in the afternoon of the 24th after the 4 plane flights and various forms of paperwork to leave Tanzania and arrive in Kenya. We were met at the little airstrip adjacent to Masai Mara Park in Kenya by our guide/ driver for the next 3 days- Boniface. This is his adopted name rather than his Masai name. He was very nice and as we got to know him we found he is very knowledgeable about the animals. He said something to us about the plane normally landing at another airstrip, but we didn't quite follow what that meant. As we drove along we saw a number of familiar animals, but he pointed out that some dark clouds were coming and it would rain soon in some areas. We had not seen any rain in Tanzania. He started driving toward the camp and we got a few sprinkles, but it got quite chilly. We wrapped ourselves in the Masai blankets in the open car and road along. "Boni" said something about taking this road and it sounded like he was saying that another is very rocky. however, it turned out that he was saying that this "road" was very rocky. This turned out to be the understatement of the whole trip. A more accurate statement would have been something like " The planes usually come in at another airstrip where the road is really bad to get to and fro. However, your plane landed at this airstrip where there may some day BE a road to go to and fro!" It was really bad! Huge ruts and boulder and gullys- most of the way, the only thing that implied this was a road was the lack of vegetation on it. The zebra stood in the path in places starring at us and wondering why any creature would take this way! The "road" actually passed through a village before it became more of a "cliff" than a rocky path- but no one was moving along on the "road"- they only walked along side it where they could. After we went down the cliff- where, by the way, we saw a brand new looking cell phone tower- we were at the Mara river. Fortunately the bridge was actually OK and we drove across, but as we passed signs advertising the road commission we hit more rough spots. Finally, we came to a little sign saying "Olonana camp"- home for the next 3 days. We went in and unloaded. The camp managers were very nice and explained that the planes normally come to the airstrip that has only the bad road and not to the strip where we had to take the non-existent road! Boni said that he had made 4 trips on the non-existent road this day- a hardy fellow!
We checked into the lodge and were then led to our tent where we relaxed awhile. We did not want to go out again after the long day of driving, flying, flying, flying, flying that culminated in our drive off a cliff. We relaxed and had a good , but not great dinner. This place is similar to the Grumeti Camp in that it is along a river that is inhabited by hippos. We liked hearing them again, but there were fewer here and they seemed less vocal. We slept pretty well. We had seen so much already that we decided not to go out on a drive in the morning. We were sharing the car and driver with another couple who were taking a balloon ride over the area. but they had to get up before 5AM and we would need to leave the same time because Boni would then drive to pick them up. We rested instead. We arranged a walk with "Benson" whose real name is something like "Oreu" (Or-ay-yu) He was dressed in traditional Masai garb and we walked out of the camp. An armed guard soon caught up. We were going to go to the river to see the hippos up a little closer, but the guy with the gun spotted a hippo in the bushes and said we'd better go another way. As we walked along we came upon a young guy watching a herd of cows. Janet wanted to take a video of the cows and get the audio of the bells. Benson said we should give some money to the guy, as the Masai don't like having people take pictures of them or their animals or their homes without permission. She gave him $1. Benson spoke to him in Masai language, but while Janet and Benson did video, the guy came over to me and introduced himself in perfectly good English as "Tom". Tom told me that he once had to stab a leopard that had killed one of the cows when the leopard threatened to attack. He used the steel spear he carried. He said the leopard ran away and he did not know if it lived. He implied that he killed it, but the whole story might have been made up. We had to head back to camp as Janet had an appointment in the spa. As we walked back we saw "dung beetles" rolling little balls of cow dung around. There was a film about them a few years ago "microcosm". They are about 1/4" long, but they looked huge in the film.
We went out in the afternoon with Will and Cheryl from Florida and they said the balloon trip was great, so we had to decide if we wanted to do it the next day. (We finally decided not to do it as it was quite expensive and there might be either 6 or 14 other people- depending on the balloon.) We went looking for leopards and rhino. We did see one male rhino who was 2.5 years old, then later we saw his mother with her new calf, but they were far from the road. The rangers watch out for the rhino very carefully and they stayed around to make sure no one bothered the rhino.
Near the end of the day we drove along a road where Will and Cheryl saw lions kill a buffalo the day before. We saw 4 females and 4 cubs. They were mostly sleeping and protecting their food from scavengers. One cub- who was a little older saw a group of Giraffe across the road and decided to practice hunting, so we watched as he (or she) crossed the road and slowly made his way toward the Giraffe. We saw that the adults were watching- probably to make sure that the cub did not get into trouble. It was amusing because it was clear that the giraffe knew exactly where the cub was and when the cub got close enough they galloped away. We returned to the camp and had another good meal. Here they told us that it was safe to walk around the camp, but they recommended getting one of the watchmen if you needed to go out.
We decided to rest the next morning and not go out. Boni would take Will and Cheryl to their plane while we rested. We turned down an option to visit a Masai village here. In the afternoon we went out with Boni on a game drive. We looked for the rhino and leopards, but Boni said it had been quiet all day with no interesting sightings. We went past the site of the lions from the previous afternoon and found one female checking the carcass and then leisurely walking down the road looking for other family members. It was great to see this when there was no one else around. She looked up in one area and we saw another female stick her head up and then move over close to the road. They were probably working their way toward rejoining the pride, but since they had feasted on buffalo for 2 days they were probably not hungry. Boni said that the pride that covered this area had 11 members- 2 males (which we did not see) 5 females and 4 cubs.
The Masai Mara is a sort of extension of the Serengeti into Kenya. This is where all the zebra and wildebeast were migrating to from Tanzania. We saw plenty of them in Kenya, but not the hoards we some how expected. We could see WHY they were coming- the grass was greener here and the rivers were flowing!
We made another pass through an area where leopards are seen, but saw none, but as we rounded a bend in the road Boni saw an "eagle-owl" sitting on a low branch of a tree near the road. He said they are not rare, but they are rarely seen. We got fairly close and watched as it looked around. It was a small find, but very interesting anyway.
We went back to the camp and packed up some for our departure the next day- the 27th. We had a nice breakfast and then Boni took us to our plane. There were 2 planes, so we had to see which one we were on and he made sure we got on the right plane. We flew to Wilson airport in Nairobi where we were met by two people from our tour company.
We went to "Carnivore Restaurant" for lunch, but we wanted to see their gift shop so we ate quickly. The only exotic meat on the menu this day was "ostriche meatballs" which were good. It is a huge restaurant and very popular with tourists. The gift shop was very nice- much better quality than most we had seen, but we just bought a few small things to bring back.
We headed off to Jomo Kenyata Airport which is the large international airport. We checked in and bought some coffee to bring back as gifts and finally flew out on Emirates Air about 5PM after they announced a delay due to VIPs arriving or departing.
On the flight to Dubai, they had double booked Janet's seat so they gave her an upgrade to first class. We later saw that first class was practically empty, so we were disappointed that they did not upgrade both of us since they had adjacent seats. Emirates air seems very good, but this seemed like an unnecessary slight. We arrived in Dubai and had about a 4 hour layover until our flight left for Bangalore about 3:30 AM. Meanwhile, the airport was bustling all night. It is like one gigantic shopping mall where we saw a number of products that we do not find in Bangalore- or at least find only rarely. We bought a few odds and ends and then took our flight home.
We slept some on the plane, but were tired when we arrived in Bangalore. No one asked to see our yellow fever vaccination records and no one asked to see our residency permits either- we were told that they will sometimes ask to see those, even though no one would know that they are supposed to carry them when returning to the country. We got our bags quickly and Janet had here little mobile phone so we called our driver who met us at the entrance of the airport. We rested the remainder of the day- as much as we could anyway. Zoe and Ziggy seemed good and happy to see us. We mentioned before that Zoe was sick while we were gone, but was better by the time we returned. Did we mention that one road was really bad in Kenya?
It was a remarkable trip- lots of relaxation with lot of exciting animal sightings! We will add a couple stories that Ernest told us soon.

Tanzania Part 4 Ngorongoro Crater

We had 2 or 3 more flights to get from Grumeti to Manyara. On arrival we were met by Ernest who gave us such a great tour of Tarangire. In our original plan we would have done this part and then gone to Grumeti, but after needing to move our itinerary by 2 days due to the canceled flight from Seychelles, this sequence was changed. Ernest seemed happy to see us. He told us later that he did not have other work while we were in Grumeti. He might have mentioned this to get a larger tip, but he was so good we tried to be generous.
We told Ernest that we wanted to see some Tanzanian crafts, so he took us to some shops to look. We were not terribly impressed because most things we saw were more like "trinkets", though they were not bad ones and they mostly seemed to be made in Africa rather than China or Malaysia or Indonesia. We bought a few little items and hoped to look more on our last day.
We took a very rough road to Gibb's Farm for lunch. This is a coffee plantation that is also a nice Inn. They had a very good lunch buffet and Ernest joined us for lunch. They also had a nice gift shop though the prices seemed a bit high. We saw some nice crafts on the walls here for decoration too. The grounds were very pretty and it looked like a nice place to stay.
After lunch Ernest took us to meet Daniel Tewas. He is a local man who is a member of a tribe called the "Irwaq" or something like that. He was obviously very bright and told us a lot about the Irwaq and how they came to this area about 2000 years ago. He told us about his farm and some of the customs of the people. He showed us how he built two underground tanks where he puts the cow manure and that these tanks supply methane gas to burn in his kitchen and supply light in his house. He learned how to do this by attending a local agricultural fair some years ago. He also showed us how people lived in huts mostly below ground level in the past and he demonstrated how to throw a spear and a club that the Masai used. Ernest and I tried throwing the spear too and we were only successful in showing that it must take a lot of practice for both accuracy and distance! Daniel's wife also made crafts that were for sale. We greatly regret that we could not afford to buy one of the Irwaq "wedding skirts" she made. They are made from goat skin and have a lot of beadwork on them. Daniel explained a lot of the symbolism used. Janet wore one of them for a little while. They are great folk art.
In Tanzania and many other parts of the world, the preferred currency is US dollars, though they have their local currency too. We had a shortage of dollars on this trip because we were not allowed to get much in India, which is very annoying.
Daniel also told us a lot about how Tanzania got its independence in 1961. We said that we remember trying to learn the names of countries in Africa in those years, but they kept changing names!
Ernest said that we had to leave so we could go into Ngorongoro conservation area to our camp before they closed the gates at 6PM, so we left Daniel and his farm. The ride to the park was hurried, but we got to the gate about 10 minutes before 6PM. There was then a fairly long ride up the side of a mountain on somewhat rough roads to the "Crater Lodge". This is a wonderful place with great accomodations! We saw zebra roaming the grounds as it got dark. At all of our camps were were instructed not to leave our tents after dark without getting an escort. The escorts were usually Masai who carried a flashlight and either a steel spear or a large stick. Problems are rare, but but they have more experience in what to do in case of some danger. It was actually quite chilly at the camp. The temperature probably went below 50 degrees F at night. They had a nice wood stove in the room and had a fire going to warm the place before going to bed. It was very cozy!
Ngorongoro crater was formed long ago when a volcano collapsed on itself. the top of the mountain is long gone, but the sides are still there and the inside is the crater. We read that the inside is about 100 sq. km in area and richly loaded with wild animals. The animals have no really good reasons to leave the crater, but some roam out from time to time. Ernest was worried that we would come across an elephant that decided to take a walk out on one of the exit roads- it is then a very long and slow journey as the elephants go at whatever pace they wish. This area is part of or close to the "rift valley" and to Oldapai gorge. The rift valley was and maybe still is a very "active" area in geological terms. The Oldapai or oldavai gorge is where, in the 1960's Louis and Mary Leakey found ancient bones of human like ancestors. So, this was about as close to "home" as any human can get.
We did not mention this yet, but one thing we learned from this trip is that African elephants are "bullys"! They push every other animal around- we witnessed them as they push Zebra out of the way in Tarangire and then at Grumeti we saw them pushing lions and later hippos out of their way. They are really the "kings". We saw a film on our plane trip about how elephants in southern africa were actually killing rhinoceros!
We had a good dinner at the Ngorongoro lodge and then had a good breakfast there in the morning too before we headed out with Ernest to the bottom of the crater around 9AM. We wanted to see Rhinos. We read that there are 13 here, but Ernest said he has seen babies so he thinks it is more like 20 now. These are "black rhinos" which were almost hunted to extinction by poachers in the 1980's. They were no longer in Tarangire because of that poaching.
The drive into the crater was a little slow and rough. There was dense fog near the top of the crater. Near the bottom we saw some Masai minding their goats and cows. They still use the crater from some grazing, but the amount has been decreasing over the years. We understand that there were agreements that allow them to do this, but those are being abolished or reduced over time. We presume the crater will be a park some day with fuller protections from humans.
We drove around various parts of the crater seeing many animals of species we had seen before. At one point we came closer to some buffalo than we had seen before. A little further along the road we saw a couple other vehicles stopped and then we spotted two female lions in the tall grass. As we watched them watching for possible prey (none in sight) one got up and walked right past our vehicle- largely ignoring us. Then we saw it going toward some other tall grass and 2, then 3 small heads of lion cubs poked up! The second lioness came over and escorted the 3 cubs to a stream where they all drank and rested.
We drove more and saw many more animals all over. We stopped to take pictures of a group of hyenas and jackals that were cleaning up the remains of a wildebeast. Eventually, we saw a black rhino, but it was far away. One end of the crater has a large lake where hippos live. As it got near lunchtime, Ernest said he was sorry but he forgot to pickup our picnic lunch from the lodge. He then drove on a rough little road to a quiet place under some trees where there was a table set up and a crew of people preparing lunch for us! It was excellent food and in a very special place!
After lunch we went back on the road and past - or through- a large herd of Zebra. On another road we stopped to take pictures of a group of 5 lions lying right next to and ON the road. They were sleeping during this part of the day.
We continued to look fo a closer view of a rhino when we saw 2 far from the road. We waited and watched as they eventually walked closer to us and the road. We could see well enough that it was a mother and her calf who was about 2 years old. The calf seemed nervous, but mom eventually brought him across the road a few hundred feet in front of us. Unfortunately, we could not see them so well because some other vehicles came along and got between us and them, but we saw well enough.
Ernest took us through a forest area in the crater. The leopards like this area and the elephants, and we soon found that the baboons like it a lot too. there was a large troop- perhaps 40 in and near the road. We watched them for awhile. There were several babies that were very funny to see playing by jumping on twigs and on bigger baboons. One female picked up a baby like a ragdoll and held it upside down by one leg as she pulled insects off of the baby- it was funny to see!
We left the crater up the steep road and made our way to a Masai village on the crater rim. We were wary of this because we read taht many such experiences are unpleasant because of the pressure to buy trinkets. This one was ok from that perspective, but some other tourists had arrived just before us and after the "welcome song" and "welcome dance" we went into the compound where they showed us the inside of one of the little huts. The huts are made from sticks and cow dung, which is a little hard to believe, but it did not smell bad. However there were a lot of flies. The inside was very dark except for a small slit to let in afternoon like and let smoke out from a small cooking fire. It was warm, but not hot inside. As mentioned, it does get quite chilly here at night. When we left the hut we viewed hundreds of bracelets and trinkets made by the Masai women and some wood clubs made by the men- we presume. We did not see any we really had to have. As we were walking around, a women from the other group was arguing with the Masai about her missing camera. She thought she had it in the kindergarten school room they showed us where we saw kids from 3-6 years old reciting the english alphabet and counting numbers. They also learn Swahili and their own language as well. The women was adamant that someone- probably a child took her camera. The village elders got into the picture- the elders normally are relied upon to settle disputes. The Masai have little use for cameras, so it seemed unlikely it was taken, but we continued looking at the trinkets. That group left and we later learned that the women's camera was found in her bus. We did not see anything we felt we wanted. We would have bought some beaded bracelets if there were a really good one or we might have bought one of the wood clubs, except that our travel agent had a very fine example given to us as a gift at the Crater lodge. So we left empty handed. There was a group of Masai by our car and we think they were asking Ernest for money, but they did not bother us.
We left the village feeling a little guilty that we had come from a place so much better off in terms of daily risks and health worries, but we also realized that here in India there are millions upon millions of people who live in equally primitive conditions. We see "tent villages" near every construction site where poor people live while they work at dangerous jobs for little money and then their plastic tents are pulled down when they move to the next place.
We returned to the camp and enjoyed its luxury as we packed up to leave for Masai Mara in Kenya in the morning.
We road with Ernest in the morning on the long road out of the crater conservation area and toward the airport. We stopped at a couple places to shop for crafts. One was very nice, but actually a bit overwhelming as it was huge! We bought a few more small items and continued to the airport. We did stop at an ATM and got money to give Ernest a good tip- in Tanzanian Shillings instead of our precious few dollars!
We had NO tickets for our flights from Manyara to Masai Mara, but Ernest assured us that we would be met at each airport and everything would go smoothly. He was right. We had a total of 4 flights this day- July 24. Manyara to Arusha, Arusha to Kilimanjaro. From there we went through immigration and got some help changing our remaining TZ shillings to dollars. We boarded a larger plane from "Safari Link" which took us to Nairobi and then one to Masai Mara after we paid our visa fees in Nairobi. It went smoothly- as Ernest promised!

Tanzania Part 3 Grumeti

We left Tarangire Park completely satisfied with what we had seen. We felt that anything more that we saw would just be "extra" and this allowed us to largely relax and not feel that we HAD to get out early and HAD to spend extra time trying to see more.
However, we both had sore backs and other parts too from sitting in the seats of the modified Toyota Land Cruisers were had been in. We needed hot water bottles to sooth strained areas at night.
We had two flights to get from Tarangire to the western Serengeti- Grumeti River Camp on July 19. First we went from Kuro to Manyara and then to Grumeti. The nice thing here is that the air strip is only 5 minutes drive from the camp. The stop in Manyara was interesting because we flew over the lake and saw thousands of what were reported to be Flamingoes below. The airstrip is located on a plateau high above the lake, so when we took off it was like flying off a cliff.
We were met at Grumeti by our guide- "Killian". He was very nice and seemed quite knowledgeable. We went to our tent and then relaxed while watching the 40 or so hippos that live in front of the camp in the river. It was our first siting of hippos in the wild! The camp is right along the river so we heard the various noises they made during the night and day. They are quite noisy at times! They graze mostly at night on the land by the river, but they come out during the day too. We learned that hippos kill more people in Africa than any other wild species. Many of those deaths occur when the people get between the hippo and water as they feel somewhat threatened when out of the water.
In the afternoon of the 19th we went on a game drive with Killian and Cindy and Ken who were visiting from Florida. They were nice people and pleasant company. As we started out we saw some crocodiles- also a new siting for us. We were not seeing a lot of new species, but as we say, we had seen a lot already! As we drove, we saw some vultures in one area and suggested that this might be interesting, but Killian took his time before going there. (We later learned that the presence of vultures most often did not mean much.) As we drove toward the vultures we saw a large family of elephants- maybe more than 15, but they were on the other side of the river from us. Killian then saw a group of lions and then we saw one of the male elephants charge at the lions! This was interesting to see. Killian quickly decided to take us closer by backtracking and crossing the river and we were the first to get there to see the lion pride consisted of 1 male, 3 females and 2 cubs. they were being chased further and further away by the charging male elephant. The elephants had babies and lion will sometimes try to take a baby elephant, so they were being chased away. The full grown elephants had little to fear. We got some good pictures of the lions- especially one that was behind a bush as we drove past. He/she paid little attention to us, in any sort of threatening way, but was annoyed by us, so he rejoined the family.
We drove on and ended the evening on top of a hill where we could overlook this part of the Serengeti ("endless plain" in Masai). This is "savannah"- mostly grassland with few trees dotting the land except along the rivers where it can be thickly forested. As we returned to camp it was getting dark and we stopped when we saw two large male elephants doing battle by pushing and shoving each other to assert their dominance. We had a very good dinner at the camp in an enclosure called a "burma" or "boma" made of old tree limbs placed close together to form a fence. As we ate a large hippo came up on the grass to eat and we watched from about 10 feet away.
We had a good breakfast on the 20th and went out with Killian, Cindy and Ken. We saw lots and lots of wildebeast and zebra. This was the time of the great migration northward and we did see that they were generally moving that way. We spotted the two lion cubs from the day before. They were alone together in some brush awaiting the call of their family. We saw lots of birds and Giraffe. We saw a hyena male guarding the den and a female sitting under a tree nearby. We also saw some jackals, which are smaller than we thought. This day we saw a more common variety, but the next day we saw a pair that is an endangered variety.
In the afternoon we were in camp after lunch when a large group of elephants came nearby. One large male seemed to have a particular need to show his dominance and he marched into the camp and started pulling branches from the trees. He came very close to the main camp building and swimming pool and our tent(!) before heading off down river.
The river here does not flow all year. The hippos stay in the parts that have some water. The camp manager told us that one year the water nearly dried up and one morning they found the pool water was all muddy and one hippo was particularly clean! It rained a day or so later. In another year the elephants pushed over the camp water tower in an effort to get water.
We saw deep ruts wherever we drove and, during rainy season the plains are too muddy to cross easily, so the camp is closed for about 2 months.
On this evening our drive took us to an isolated area where we met up with the other people from the camp for some snacks and drinks in the middle of the plains to watch the sunset. There was an armed guard present in case any predators thought we might be tasty.
On our last day at Grumeti we relaxed in the morning after a good breakfast. We were a little sore from the riding around. We went out in the late afternoon and told Killian that we had seen so much at Tarangire and the other days that we didn't feel the need to see much more. However, we said that we had not seen a "bat earred fox", which we had seen in pictures. We stopped and got a picture of a hippo, some crocodiles and a monitor lizard. Later we stopped an an area where "colobus monkeys" are found and we saw 2 in the trees, thought they were far away. These are only found in a few small areas. As we road around on the plains Killian suddenly spotted a pair of foxes! We were a long way from camp so he drove as fast as he could toward the camp as the sun went down . We had to cut across the plains near the end for a few km in order to get close to camp before complete darkness- this seemed like a "real" safari! We had another good meal at dinner that night. We left on the 22nd. As we packed up to go to the airstrip, Killian said that the pride of lions we had seen 2 days earlier had killed a wildebeast nearby and we could stop to see them. We found it interesting to see "nature" in action, but were glad we did not see the kill take place. We flew off to Manyara with one or 2 stops along the way where we were met by Ernest again.

Tanzania Part 2 - an amazing day

(Remember that you can get a larger view of the pictures by clicking on them)
We did not fully realize it until a few days later but our second day on safari was an amazing one! We awoke fairly early and had coffee delivered to our tent to help us get started. We then had a very good breakfast at Swala Camp and then headed off with Ernest driving. He took us along a road where we carefully watched the trees to see if we might spot the tail of a Leopard hanging down, but no tails to be seen! However, a very large animal ran across the road in front of our vehicle and Ernest said it was a "Kudu"- we managed to get a couple pictures before it disappeared. Ernest said he "is with lucky people" because these are rarely seen. The males have long spiral horns or antlers- the picture shows this pretty well. Late in the day we saw two females- also unusual.
We drove around for awhile and saw lots of more common animals, then we came to a spot where two cars were stopped by the road and people were looking into some bushes. The driver of one told Ernest (in Swahili) that they had seen a young Leopard and were looking to see if it would reappear. So we waited watched and waited some more. At one point, Janet saw some momevement and we took pictures of something but could not quite tell what. Several cars came and went, but we waited. Ernest asked if we wanted lunch, so we drove down the road and he got our lunches from the back of the car and brought them forward. We then drove back to where the leopard was and waited and ate a very good lunch and waited some more. The we found him (or her)! In the picture you can get a pretty good idea why he was hard to spot!
Ernest thought he was about 8 months old and his mother probably left him here to hide while she hunted or rested elsewhere. So we saw a leopard- and a young one at that!
We then drove to another area and stopped to see a large herd of Zebra. While we watched a family group of elephants came marching right through the herd- pretty much telling everyone to get out of the way! The elephants stopped suddenly and looked around. The large matriarch looked at the cars in the road and suddenly decided to change the route of the family to the river and the turned 90 degrees and crossed the road.
We proceeded further along the road when we came upon another group of vehicles stopped by the road. Ernest pointed out the Lions! We watched and took pictures. There were 2 males, 3 females and 2 cubs spread out and mostly sleeping. One of the males got up and went over to rub against what was probably his brother, then he went over the remains of a buffalo that the pride had obviously been feasting upon. Ernest added commentary to what we were seeing " Oh brother, won't you get up and come help me drag this heavy buffalo under that bush?" with the reply being "Oh no brother! I'm much to tired and full, why don't you go drag it under the bush?" He then dragged the carcass under some bushes- an amazing sight! Evidently, he was trying to hide it some from hyena and all the vultures that were now watching from the trees! He went back to sleep. Apparently lion gorge themselves when they catch prey and then sleep alot and the gorge some more. Then they won't hunt for 2-3 days.
It was late afternoon so we headed back toward Swala Camp- probably an hour away. We were quite satisfied that we had seen almost enough to make the whole trip worthwhile! As we drove along we came upon some vehicles by the road again and this time we saw the scene in the picture- 3 young cheetah cubs playing! We loved seeing such cute little cats! Then we realized that the mother must be around and Ernest managed to get us a spot close to her when another car left. She was eating an antelope less than 30 feet from the road! She feasted away and the cubs would come over and eat too, then play some more. Mom growled at the cubs sometimes and she would go check on them too. It was an amazing thing to see from so close!
As we pulled in close to camp the sun was nearly set and we came around a bend in the road to find two large bull elephants right in front of us by the road. They were clearly a little startled- as were we- and we thought one might charge. Finally they settled down when we came no closer to them. Ernest said they were older males- one might be 50 years old. He said the like to 60 or maybe 65 years.
We pulled into to Swala Camp a little awestruck. We did not talk to othe guests much. We heard from Ernest, who spoke to the other drivers, that a larger group did not see too much this day. They had an expensive guide too. We felt very pleased with what we saw, but did not tell the others. At later places we found people tended to compare notes more on what they had seen. We did learn that it is very unusual to see a leopard. We did not meet anyone else on the trip who saw one while on their trip. It is relatively rare to see cheetah too. We heard that some people at another park saw 3, but they were far away and sleeping under a tree. The sightng of lion is more common than we thought- we probably saw more than 30 different lions on the whole trip- sometimes we saw the same group more than once. The Puff adder was also apparently unusual and the lilac breasted roller too. The Kudu was also an very rare sighting. That one was particularly good because our tent at Swala Camp was named "Kudu"! Very lucky people!

Tanzania Part 1

We left the Seychelles on July 16 on Kenya Air, which seems to be a good airline. We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya about 2.5 hours later and waited for our plane to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (we found that people often call it "Kili"). The flight was only about 1 hour, which is good because we were not convinced that the interior of the plane would hold together much longer than that. (It was not not a Kenya Air plane). It seemed very strange to be in Nairobi and hearing flights to Khartoum, for example, being announced. Places like that seemed mythical, and yet we saw real people boarding planes to go there! Of course, maybe they feel the same way about Memphis or Portland. In any case, we arrived safely in Kili. We saw Mt. Kilimanjaro from the plane and from the ground. It does still have some snow on top!
At the Airport we had to pay $100 each for our tourist visas (cash- though there was a young couple on the flight who were apparently allowed to pay with Tanzanian Shillings at about 1300 to the dollar when they said they did not have that much cash in $). We did not have much cash, but saved enough to pay the critical expenses. We were met at the airport by a couple guys from our tour company, who took us in a big Toyota Land Cruiser to the town of Arusha, which is the usual jumping off point to several parks in northern Tanzania. We stayed at the Arusha Coffee Lodge just for a short night as we go there about 8PM and left about 7:15AM the next morning.
A little more about how we arranged this trip. In 2007-2008 we made a great trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong. Our local travel agent in the US had done very well for us on some trips in the past, but she felt that Asia was outside her realm, so she connected with another agent in the US who specializes a little more with Asia. That agent also knows more about Africa, so we contacted her a few months back to arrange this trip. She, in turn, dealt with an company in Africa which also works with some big name companies who do these trips for more money. It was expensive enough as it was. However, everything was well organized and top notch! The guys delivered us to our hotel and then picked us up in the morning to go to the local airport. They helped us check in and gave us a package of materials to give to our guide on the other end of the flight. It all went smoothly. As we went along we found that everyone was expecting us and, periodically, they checked on where we were to make sure we were not too late. It bothered us that we did not have plane tickets for what turned out to be 12 flights within Tanzania and Kenya, but they had our names on a list at each plane, so we flew without problems. We heard a few people having problems, but the people on the ground seem to figure something out.
Tarangire National Park was our destination on the 17th. This park is most well known for the large number of elephants . We did see a lot of elephants! They came in small groups and large groups, young, old, babies, huge and small!
Early July 17 we left Arusha for Kuro airstrip in Tarangire National Park. We were the only 2 people on a 13 passenger plane. Us and our pilot- Shawn. No co-pilot or crew. Just us. Janet was nervous about the small planes but found it was actually fine. This plane was only about 8 months old- only slightly younger than some of the pilots we had. About 20 years ago Jim took 3 flying lessons before having to stop due to lack of time. After just those 3 lessons he found he was able to take off and land a small plane- maybe not really well, but well enough to survive. So, we thought we'd manage. On one full flight there was a passenger in the co-pilot's seat. It turned out that he was a private pilot who volunteered to sit there in case the pilot needed him.
On arrival at Kuro we were met by "Ernest" - a lively and likable guy who was our guide for the next 2 days and then again later for a couple more days- he was great. He loaded our bags into the big land cruiser with extra sturdy suspension and 2 spare tires. It was about 9AM and after watching our plane leave with about 6 people leaving the park we were amazed to see Zebra all around! Were headed off on our first "game drive". It is customary to do these in the morning- as early as possible and then again in late afternoon. Many animals just rest during the heat of the day.
Tarangire is "woodland savannah" -that may not be spelled right- but it means a lot of open areas, but also a lot of trees. We saw lots of "Baobab" trees- like in one picture- they are strange looking things to our eyes. We learned that they do not have annual growth rings, so it is difficult to judge their ages, but some live more than 2000 years. They are scattered all over the park and look almost like they might move themselves around! We also learned that Acacia trees form the bulk of the tree species and these are food for all sorts of animals - including Giraffe and Elephants.
As we drove we saw one amazing sight after another in that it was the first time we were seeing truly wild animals roaming freely about. As we drove along one road Jim saw the back end of a leopard running away from the trail very fast. Ernest immediately said that he is "with lucky people- we will see a lot!". He turned out to be right. The leopard disappeared before we could take a picture, which is too bad. We saw a large family of elephant and started to follow roads to catch up to them, but we did not. However, we did see a group of Giraffe- one of which was only about 2 weeks old and still had part of its umbilical cord attached.
As we explored it seemed more and more amazing as we went. We spotted a very pretty bird with a bright torquiose underside. Ernest said it was something like a "lilac breasted roller". We saw it eating something which Ernest said was a scorpion. It eventually swallowed the whole thing. We took pictures but did not think too much about it at the time. That evening a guide for another group said he'd like to have a picture of this bird eating a scorpion. Now that we are back and have had some time to "blow-up" some of our pictures- here it is attached!
We went to Swala Camp in Tarangire. This is a fairly isolated place that has just been renovated. They did a great job! We had lunch at the camp and then went back out in search of leopard around 4PM. We did not see Leopard, but we saw a Puff Adder in the road. We also drove on some roads where the elephants had knocked down some trees to make it hard to pass through. We saw lots of interesting birds.
We saw many DikDik. These are tiny antelope or deer- the picture shows 2 males looking like they are about to butt heads in a test of strength- which is exactly what they were threatening to do! However, they both apparently thought better of it and decided to back off. They are very cute animals- probably not more than 18 inches tall.
Swala Camp is near a swamp and also near a water hole that was being carefully guarded by elephants. The elephants would roam away to eat, but always leaving several family members behind to chase away others who might take the water. There were Waterbuck who could not get to the water, so they came to the camp's pool and drank! The pool is new and while they have dug a ditch around it and made a wall, we watched, along with camp staff, as some of the waterbuck figured out how to get to the pool water. We were all fascinated.
We returned to camp about sunset, had a very good dinner and then slept well after our first day of "safari".

Seychelles

We flew from Bangalore to Dubai to the Seychelles leaving Early July 11 and were met at the airport by resort staff from Maia Resort who took us for the 25 minute drive to the resort where we began a wonderful relaxation. We were in danger of needing to cancel or alter the trip in a major way just a couple days earlier. First we got word that Kenya airlines canceled our flight from Seychelles to Nairobi on the 14th and did not have another flight until either 2 days before or 2 days later- both options being a big cut or addition to our trip. With the help of our travel agent- who is very good- we were able to shift all of the dates in Africa by 2 days, but it would have been a big cost adder in Seychelles. Next Janet was feeling quite sick with an intestinal bug, so we delayed departure by a day without too much trouble. So, we ended up with 1 extra day in the Seychelles instead of 2. Kenya Air gets some credit from us because they agreed to cover the cost of the extra night at the resort that was caused by their cancellation of the one flight.
The 5 nights in Seychelles were very relaxing. No responsibilities and we got copies of the New York Times to read each day! The accommodations were wonderful and the staff was great too.
We stayed at the resort every day but one. We went to the main town- Victoria so Janet could visit a clinic because she did not feel great and to see some of the town.
The doctor gave here some medication that helped her feel better over the coming days. In Victoria we went to the Botanical Garden and saw the giant tortoises there (about 25 of them). The trees and flowers were very nice too. It was rather hot and humid.
We walked to the center of town though Janet's knee was hurting too. In and old house we found a few nice crafts. In the rest of the town center we did not find much of interest so we ate a simple lunch and then met our driver to go back to the resort. We made 2 stops on the return to the resort. The first was at a craft village that was ok, but still disappointing. The second was at a sculptor's home- studio. His name is Tom Bowers and his wife. They are from the UK, but have been in Seychelles for 23 years. Many of their pieces are very nice. They make them in resin and then bronze casts are made in either London or South Africa for shipment any where in the world. While there we saw hoards of small brightly colored birds suddenly landing in the trees, then Tom threw a bowl of rice on the grounds and hundreds of birds flocked to get the food. It is a daily ritual in great colors!
We relaxed around our villia, on the beach and walked a little on the beach too. Mostly we relaxed and looked forward to the coming 11 days in Africa. Our first time there. We left on July 16 and flew to Nairobi and then Kilimanjaro.