Where I've Been

             My last couple of posts here were prepared weeks before they actually appeared. I scheduled them early, since I was going to be out of town. I’m back now. And I had the most wonderful trip. 

            I was on an African safari!

             I can’t possibly describe it all here, but I’ll tell you about some of it. My husband and I traveled with our younger son and his girlfriend, so we had good human company too. 

            We started in Kenya, then traveled to Tanzania. I won’t get into the airline troubles we had initially, but we did manage to get to Kenya in time to start our already scheduled tour. In Kenya, we stayed at Governors Camp, which was in fact an amazing campsite. All of the cabins were in fact tents, although they were large and had amenities such as bathrooms. We also had company outside. A large family of warthogs visited often. There was a small lake down the mountain from where we were, and hippo hung out down there. The vehicle we rode in was open and we went along lots of unpaved roads. Very bumpy! 

            And along our outings we saw warthogs, baboons, rhinos, elephants, lions, cheetahs, wildebeests, topis (a species of antelope), other antelopes, vultures, zebras, and birds I can’t now identify, although our guide pointed them out and said what they were. And of course there was more, including numerous termite hills. 

            After a few days we headed to Tanzania, where we stayed at Lemala Camp, with nice cabins that were less like tents. There, we were hoping to see some of the renowned migration, but it was a little late in the season. Though we saw a huge number of wildebeests, sometimes in the company of many zebras, often in single file, and their groups often got close to a river, they didn’t decide to cross, so no migration—although we did watch a female lion scare a small group of wildebeests so they crossed a river, and later came back. We also saw elephants, vultures, antelopes, giraffes and more, often the same types of animals we’d seen in Kenya. Plus, we saw a mama lioness first introduce her two new cubs to the rest of her pride. 

            Next we briefly went to Ngorongoro Crater, the remnant of a long-ago volcano eruption, and went on a safari there too, also seeing more animals. 

            I probably haven’t mentioned all the species of animals we viewed in the wild, but the whole experience was phenomenal! But it ended eventually, and we left on a plane from Kilimanjaro Airport—and yes, we saw some of Mt. Kilimanjaro despite the fog. 

            I’m home now—after a couple of plane rides amounting to over 24 hours in a row. And yes, being me, I did come up with an idea for a story. Don’t know where it will go, if at all, but it certainly will be fun reviewing my trip and photos as I perhaps plot it.