Raise the Roof!

 Cool, but dry morning today. I awakened early, rose & listened to the African bush as it was waking up. Slowly, birdsong replaced the rhythmic crickets. After a quick breakfast, we climbed into the land cruisers to see what the day held for us. As has become customary, our giraffe companions heralded the day. As I was not raining, our guide Bernard raised the roof of the cruiser which allows us to stand for optimal animal viewing & picture taking. Raise the roof has another implication in colloquial speech meaning to surpass prior performance or to perform in extraordinary fashion. Today’s experiences completely fulfilled this.

 

We drove past a few gatherings of our antelope friends: Thompson’s gazelles, Grant’s gazelles & impalas. We drove quietly for nearly 20 minutes with only a few bird sightings when we suddenly were immersed in a sea of zebras, who accompany the wildebeest on this Great migration trek from the Serengeti to the Masai Mara in Kenya. To describe it as a sea does not encompass the magnitude of animals present. Our guides estimated that there were a few thousand zebra total! It was a very stirring sight and personally I was verklempt, rendered speechless & awestruck, with tears filling my eyes. Not an emotion I expected at all but the extreme privilege of being present here and now witnessing this sight was quite emotional.

 

Each day here has brought exceptional experiences and we wonder what the next will bring, & how it can possibly surpass the prior day’s experience, & yet, Africa does not disappoint, & continues to reveal herself in ever expanding glory. 

 

Awestruck & humbled at the experience.  

Dik dik

Baby elephant walk

Early into our morning game drive we encountered a small breeding herd of elephants with a very small baby in their midst. It was adorable & we were all enchanted by its antics. It was working hard to try & use its trunk, but hasn't quite reached mastery yet. He ended up taking browse (branches & leaves) away from its older sibling! 

What a glorious morning

An Auspicious Beginning

Red breasted Starling

 Village weaver

Spotted thick knee

Another village weaver

Ostriches

Male impala 

Black-backed jackal

Those of you who have followed my travel blogs before may recognize this title. On a prior trip to South Africa, we were told by our tracker that seeing a giraffe early in the morning's game drive is a portent or harbinger of good things to come throughout the day. This morning there was a giraffe in the clearing near our breakfast tent.. It proved to be a very good omen indeed. 

Soon we came across many giraffes. Kathy counted 18!

Along the river bank we found a large male lion (likely the one we heard chuffing in the night). 

Sorry for the formatting of the blog. It's hard with bandwidth to accomplish everything as desired. Please enjoy the images. More to come as our internet improves after the bush 😊

Dallying in Doha

 The shortest distance between 2 points remains a straight line. After an uneventful flight last night from San Diego to London Heathrow and a layover of approximately 3 hours, we were delayed over an hour after boarding for the 2nd leg in our flight journey through Doha in Qatar. As a result of the delay, we missed our connecting flight to Kilimanjaro and are spending nearly 8 hours in the Hamad International airport in Doha. Not much happening here at our arrival time of 130 a.m.  Gratefully, we are rebooked on a flight later this morning, albeit with a stop in Dar es Salaam before our terminus of Kilimanjaro. Silently entreating the travel gods to have our duffel bags arrive along with us! We have been "killing time" without a lot to do save email communications to our tour operator and home to apprise both of our misfortune and some rather disinterested gawking at the over the top opulence of the designer stores in the terminal..

We will overnight in Arusha, joining the rest of our tour group which is composed exclusively of women travelers, except for Josh and Leslie! What we are most looking forward to are: a hot shower, clean clothes & desperately lacking sleep. 

An early morning start is planned tomorrow as we head to the South/Western Serengeti in the Ndutu area to the first of our tented camps.

Ndutu Pure Migration camp

www.sense.co.tz

Serengeti bound

 After being thoroughly captivated in 2018 by a safari journey to South Africa, Botswana & Zimbabwe, my travel gal-pals & I vowed to return another season to the continent for the Great Migration. 

We had a trip planned in 2020 which was curtailed by the global assault of COVID-19. This year, myself, my son Josh & dear friend Kathy Shepherd are realizing this dream.  What I initially described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is now on its third iteration with this trip. Blessed indeed. . This time of year the Serengeti is glorious green from the plentiful rains. Come along with us for the next 18 days as we travel (again) with Leslie Udwin & Red Sun Safaris. 

As is my habit, I will journal/blog, posting on the days where we have substantial bandwidth to do so. Don't worry if several days go by that you miss a post as several nights will be spent in more primitive tented camps which will likely only permit email or small-size  photo posting to Facebook,, I'll catch back up when increased internet speeds are available.

Terry, Josh & Kathy