Tanzanian Safari and a Little Beach Time

In what turned out to be one of the best decisions of our trip, we decided to go on safari with a very small company called Green Footprint Adventures. We chose them because they offered activities like canoeing and mountain biking in addition to more traditional driving safaris. What we didn't know until we arrived is that they are the only company in Tanzania that had permits to do these kinds of things. We canoed with hippos in Arusha National Park, went on a nighttime drive where we saw huge groups of elephants and hippos grazing out of the water, took a wet and very muddy bike trip in Lake Maynara National Park, visited a missionary hospital and a public elementary school, ate a Tanzanian home-cooked meal, and visited a banana beer "brew-pub."

Of course, even the "normal" game drives were spectacular. Our guide, Protti, had the amazing ability to find animals almost on command. Highlights included two cheetah enjoying an afternoon meal and giraffes that definitely knew that they had the right-of-way on park roads. We thought that we would be lucky to see lions at all. But in one day we saw a half-dozen prides with lots of cute cubs. But even without animals, the endless plain of the Serengeti, the Maasai villages dotting the valleys around Ngorongoro Crater, the forests of acacia, and sunsets and sunrises were incredibly spectacular and impossible to capture fully on camera or even to describe.

The last few days of our trip were spent on the island of Zanzibar, just off the coast of mainland Tanzania. It was a wonderful, relaxing way to end our adventure. We drank "Kilimanjaro" brand beer while sitting in hammocks and playing an uncountable number of games of mancala. Our one exciting activity was a snorkel trip which started out as a quiet day looking at starfish and parrotfish and ended with a bone-jarring speedboat ride through a driving thunderstorm. Ah, the travel gods weren't going to let us off too easy at the end of the trip. We spent the afternoon commiserating about our bruised butts and the state of world politics with a friendly Belgian couple. It was great way to spend our last day of vacation.



On our first day of Tanzanian safari in the small Arusha National Park we witnessed what can only be described as an elephant traffic jam. Once we started eeking our way through, this young guy looked up and seemed to say to us, "What the heck are you doing with your head out the roof of a car? Don't you know you look really goofy?"



The Serengeti sunset. This photo was taken from the porch of one of our lodges.



We thought we would be lucky to see even one lion during our safari. But we lucked out and saw several prides, some of which were only a few feet away.



Cheetahs on the Serengeti with a young wildebeest that hadn't had a great day.



Sadly, the last photo taken on our wonderful trip while standing on the beach at our last stop on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. The clouds were gathering over as if to say "now you have to go and get a job, ha ha ha ha."