Day 219 to day 222 - Safari: Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro
Thursday, February 7th to Sunday, February 10th, 2019.
I don't even know how to even start writing about all the wonderful animals and parks we visited. I was nervous and anxious about going on a safari. Mostly because of all the reviews that Gregory read to me about how close the animals are around the campsite. I didn't take my laptop for obvious reasons but here I'm trying to catch up on what has been the 4 best days of our trip! Why? Mostly for how I felt around nature: it is a feeling that I can not describe but made me feel very much in tune with myself and God.
Shabani, our guide and driver, came to pick us up Thursday morning at 9:00am -- half an hour late but again, this is Africa [Gregory's note: wow, she got it! I didn't even have to say it. Actually, I did have to remind her.] and they just take their time. When we got in the car, we met the two people on safari with us. Tanaka was a shy and quiet Japanese boy who didn't speak much English. Kristin was a young Australian doctor volunteering in Arusha for 2 months, very sweet and outgoing. She clicked right away with us.
I'm not going to write about each single day because I don't remember and it would be boring to tell you what we did every hour, considering that we drove many hours to get from one park to another.
The first park that we visited was called Tarangire and it took us like 5 hours to get there. Shabani took care of the permits and entrance fees. We stopped for lunch in a designated area and he gave us lunch boxes with a lot of food, mostly made for white tourists. When Shabani showed us his local lunch, we all wanted his food! We told him that we wanted African food next time! [Gregory's note: we didn't get African food. I kept requesting it, but our cook, Jimmy, either didn't have the ingredients or had explicit instructions to only cook mzungu food for the tourists. Only crazy people like me want to eat local food. On the other hand, I'm the only one who hasn't gotten sick.]
Tarangire National Park is the sixth largest national park in Tanzania, located in the Manyara Region. The name of the park comes from the Tarangire River that crosses the park. The Tarangire River is the primary source of fresh water for wild animals and it is almost guaranteed that you will see elephants which we did. What was amazing was to see the herds of elephants very close up. The highlight for us here was when Shabani drove very close to a huge bull elephant with long tusks while it stared at us! Besides elephants, we saw wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, and hippos.
The vegetation was amazing. My favorite trees were the baobabs and you could see how scratched they had been by the elephants. We were also impressed to see herds of ostrich. The whole experience was amazing, mostly because you know that you are watching the animals in their natural habitat.
After several hours in the park, we drove to a lodge where we got a nice room with a shower! I was happily impressed but I didn't say anything. I thought that we were going to camp in the park, in the middle of nowhere, with no running water. Well, I found out the next day that we were supposed to get a tent in this lodge (the tents here were very nice as well), but since they didn't have any available, they gave us a room! It was a real treat because after so many hours of driving, with the heat and all the dust, a hot shower is the best present I could get!
We also had a great dinner of fish and ships and vegetables with watermelon for dessert! We were all more than happy, and to finish the happy day, there was a troupe of dancers, acrobats, and musicians who performed after dinner. We had a wonderful time. We also met an interesting guy who happened to be one of the producers for Survivor! We chatted with him until 10:00pm. I slept extremely well and was ready for our seven-hour drive to the Serengeti in the morning.
It was a very very long and bumpy road to Serengeti. The nice flat dirt and paved roads from yesterday were gone, now it felt like the beginning of the safari. Plus, we read bad reviews about tonight's campsite so I was prepared for the worst. I forgot my worries because it was super cool seeing different kinds of animals in the Serengeti.
The landscape here was different than Tarangire: no more hills, just a large plain with fewer trees. We saw some of the same animals that we saw yesterday, but we also saw lions -- not just one but a whole pride, right by the side of the road! It was amazing. We even saw the cubs hiding in the bushes!
Shabani drove us to a pool of hippos. The water was very smelly but it was fascinating to see the ears flipping and seeing the hippos throwing water on their backs by using their tails!
The highlights of the day were the two cheetahs that we spotted and later a leopard resting on a sausage tree.
We spent several hours game driving and it was fascinating. Afterward, we drove to our campsite. We got there late because most of the other tents were already set up and it was already dusk.
Shabani and Jimmy rushed to set up all the tents. Gregory helped and he noticed that they were missing a pole for one of the tents. [Gregory's note: Oops! Since we wuzungu had all paid, we got tents while Shabani and Jimmy would do without.] Shabani told us not to worry because he was a Maasai and was used to sleeping outside. I joke with him and told him to sleep outside my tent. He found that hilarious but I was serious!
After that, Jimmy went off to prepare our meal that was served around 8:30pm. We were starving by then, on the other hand, I was surprised by the food, which was pretty good. We all liked dinner except Gregory, who wanted local food. We ate and had a good time chatting. I tried to ignore the mice running up down the empty tables. The kids were joking and kept telling me to ignore the lizards!
I was happy that we finished dinner late so I could go late to the bathroom. That was my main concern: what would I do if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? The worst part is that I always have to go! I drank less water on purpose and prayed that I could sleep through the night. There was no way I was going to get out of that tent, especially after hearing the hyenas near the bathroom! [Gregory's note: Hyenas weren't anywhere near the bathroom. I only saw one next to the dining room. Besides, as everyone kept reminding Lili, hyenas are harmless, unless you're dead, in which case you have other concerns.] Luckily I slept through the night. I did wake up twice and once I heard a lion roaring. Shabani said lions don't come close to the camp, that the roar was only to mark his territory.
Next morning we left early to see the amazing, stunning sunrise and see more animals around Serengeti! Shabani started out on one path, but he heard something on his radio that caused him to turn and race to another location.
We drove off the road along with a few other trucks, which was unusual. We saw a semicircle of trucks on a ridge. We drove right up and stopped a few meters from a pair of female lions, one in the shade and the other eating a fresh buffalo carcass. Our guide told us it was fresh because the buffalo still didn't have many flies. We took some pictures and he drove away. I was disappointed because I wanted to stay longer to watch, but he explained that we couldn't be there long because we were off the path and we needed to give the other trucks a chance to see. We also saw a small pride of lions with a couple of cubs walking that direction. Shabani said they were probably the same pride as the 2 at the carcass and they were going for their meal. It was very impressive.
The kids had a great time seeing the animals so close. In the morning we spotted more lions, zebras, gazelles, wildebeest, buffalo, etc. We went back to the campsite for lunch and left immediately after for several more hours of driving. That's the only part that I would complain about: hours of driving on very bumpy dirt roads. Luckily, I was able to nap and finish my book A Very Long Way, Memoirs of a Soldier Boy. It was a very strong and sad book. I wanted a story set in Africa and I found this one. It did have a happy ending, in case you want to read it!
After many hours of driving, we finally made it to our campsite near the Ngorongoro Park which was beautiful and much nicer than the Serengeti campsite. [Gregory's note: it is a crime that you pay $60 per person per night to sleep at the Seronera campsite in the Serengeti -- primitive bathrooms, no hot water, dirty facilities, full of bugs and mice. Who is stealing all that money???]
We made it by 5:00pm and several other groups were at the campsite already. Shabani and Jimmy set up our tent and later, Sunshine and I went to take a shower because we heard there was hot water. Well by the time we made it, there was no more but I really needed to shower. It was OK because it was warm outside. By the time we went in to dinner, it really cooled down.
Before dinner, we were interviewed for a documentary on Ngorongoro. We chatted with the people making the documentary and asked them to send us the link when the video was ready. After the interview, we heard some girls speaking Spanish so Sunshine and I walked over and introduced ourselves. They were dentists from Chile volunteering in Arusha. They shared some interesting experiences at the clinic and we talked with them until dinner time.
The dining room here was much nicer and cleaner than the one in Serengeti. It was well built and enclosed so we didn't see any mice. [Gregory's note: it's not government-run, so there's no one to steal the money. No wonder it's nice!] We enjoyed our dinner and went to bed around 10:00pm. This night I was more relaxed and didn't even think about animals around the tent. Around 3:00am, a noise woke me up and kept me awake. At first, I thought it could be a gazelle eating grass because it was a ripping noise but then I realized a gazelle wouldn't be that loud or that close. I woke up Gregory and he opened the tent a little bit to look out. He turned around and said, it's just a buffalo. What?! I leaned over to peek out, and I saw a huge horn in front of me, about a meter away!!! I have to confess that I did not get scare but I didn't want to move, either. We could hear another one behind us, near the boys' tent. Gregory asked me if I wanted to go to the bathroom, and truly I had to go but I wasn't going to step out of the tent with those animals so close so I told him to forget about it.
Shortly after, someone who hadn't seen the buffalo came along with a headlight and a flashlight, which scared the animals away. We both agree that it was a good time to go to the bathroom. I held Gregory's hand very tightly and we made it to the bathroom. When I came out, I saw a huge, live beetle on its back. I wanted to help but didn't dare to flip it over. Gregory did! We walked quickly back to our tent and slept very well! Next morning we asked the kids if they had heard the buffalo and Daniel said yes, but he thought they were warthogs!
We had a quick breakfast and left around 7:00am to descend into the crater, which is really a caldera. Ngorongoro is great because all the animals in there are pretty much trapped. Animals can get in and out, and they do, but it's a 600 meter climb, so most either stay in or out, meaning there's a huge concentration of animals in an enclosed area.
There are no words that can describe the view going down to the crater. Everything is super green and there is a lake in the middle. The moment we were down in the crater, we started to see all the animals that we had seen in the other parks but much closer together. It was just amazing to see so many! It seemed like an animal paradise! After seeing zebras, wildebeests, gazelle, and eagles, we entered a forest area which was even more beautiful. Our comments were, it looks fake, it looks like Disney only real! There we spotted elephants behind the trees. We didn't stop since they were hiding and we were on a mission to find the rhinoceros, the last of the "Big 5" to check off our list. [Gregory's note: I have sworn off checklists, so I couldn't care less about finding the "Big 5." I was happy with the animals we had seen, especially the elephants and giraffes.]
After the forest, we came back to the plain where we saw a jackal chasing a baby gazelle. The mother was trying to defend her baby, but the 3 of them ran straight into a pack of hyenas, who took advantage of a free lunch. Everything happened so fast. I was trying to follow with the binoculars but when I found the animals, I saw a white part of the baby gazelle in the mouth of a hyena! It was exciting to see the chase but we were all sad and the kids decided they hate hyenas but that's nature! We asked Shabani if the mother gazelle had feelings and he said yes, absolutely. She is grieving now! Oh, that just broke my heart.
Another highlight of the Crater was the encounter between 2 lion brothers and a female. We saw many trucks parked on the side of the road so we went there as well. At first, we couldn't see what were they watching but when Shabani drove closer, I spotted a lion. Then he drove closer and there they were: 2 male lions and a female, lying in the shade of the safari trucks. One truck moved and gave us a chance to move closer.
Sure enough, one male came right next to our car and lay in the shade. The female followed and lay down next to him. Then, the other male lion came and when he sat walked by the female, he touched her tail. The female complained and immediately the first male got up and roared at his brother! It was very impressive because it happened right next to us and we had the windows open. I could have touched the lions without any effort. Shabani said they were big!
All I did when the lions fought was yell at Gregory to close his window. [Insistently and repeatedly.] He was happily filming the action, saying that the lions wouldn't get in! Well, I knew they won't get in but they could accidentally scratch or bite his hand. The good thing is that Gregory got an amazing video and didn't lose his hand.
Shabani was impressed that Sunshine didn't get scared. My heart was beating hard because we witnessed that so close to us! The lions settled down with the female in the sun and the two brothers in the shade. We left and gave other trucks a chance to see. The animals don't mind the trucks at all. We were all happy and thankful for all the amazing things we had witnessed in some hours of the safari.
We are only allowed to spend 6 hours in the crater so around noon we went back to the campsite for lunch. On our way, we saw a male and female lion walking together. It looked like the female wanted to hunt but we couldn't stay long enough to witness it, plus Shabani said he didn't think so, since if the male and female are walking together, they're thinking of other things besides food.
At the campsite, we sat on the grass for lunch along with some large storks. Shabani warned us about the eagles and vultures flying above. He said, "be careful with that one because it can take your finger." Poor Daniel didn't even sit down because he was too nervous. The storks were walking very close to people, looking for food. They reminded me of old people with black suits! [Gregory's note: storks are ugly. They are definitely not the cute ones that deliver babies! They look like they were beaten repeatedly with an ugly stick. They're over 1 meter tall, with a wingspan of about 3m -- that's over 3 feet tall with a wingspan close to 13 feet! And they are NOT afraid of people. They are scavengers, which means they love to eat your leftovers.]
Well, I was being very careful with my food, I even had my lunch box closed and I was taking out one item at a time. Well, I guess I wasn't being careful enough because when I was eating my chicken, I felt something grabbing my chicken with such strength that I fell sideways! When I looked up, I saw an eagle dropping my chicken, only because Shabani made a noise that scared the bird! I'm so thankful to say that I still have my fingers and besides, the chicken was too dry!
We finished lunch and left the beautiful Simba campsite at Ngorongoro. Several hours later, we made it back to Arusha. It felt really nice to arrive at our luxurious house. We took a nice, long hot shower, made dinner and watched a movie. The kids were frustrated because Netflix wasn't working and the internet was slow. [Gregory's note: all our devices reconnected to the Wifi, which made it slow. Daniel still has trouble with that concept. The next day, the host told us we had used 15GB, which I seriously doubt. 1.5 maybe.]
I still miss the previous home. Even if it was more rustic, we had more privacy and we had a cook, sniff! Anyway, I can not complain after the most amazing experience we had!
Some photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/moUYXLqcuzJGJ4NWA
I don't even know how to even start writing about all the wonderful animals and parks we visited. I was nervous and anxious about going on a safari. Mostly because of all the reviews that Gregory read to me about how close the animals are around the campsite. I didn't take my laptop for obvious reasons but here I'm trying to catch up on what has been the 4 best days of our trip! Why? Mostly for how I felt around nature: it is a feeling that I can not describe but made me feel very much in tune with myself and God.
Shabani, our guide and driver, came to pick us up Thursday morning at 9:00am -- half an hour late but again, this is Africa [Gregory's note: wow, she got it! I didn't even have to say it. Actually, I did have to remind her.] and they just take their time. When we got in the car, we met the two people on safari with us. Tanaka was a shy and quiet Japanese boy who didn't speak much English. Kristin was a young Australian doctor volunteering in Arusha for 2 months, very sweet and outgoing. She clicked right away with us.
I'm not going to write about each single day because I don't remember and it would be boring to tell you what we did every hour, considering that we drove many hours to get from one park to another.
The first park that we visited was called Tarangire and it took us like 5 hours to get there. Shabani took care of the permits and entrance fees. We stopped for lunch in a designated area and he gave us lunch boxes with a lot of food, mostly made for white tourists. When Shabani showed us his local lunch, we all wanted his food! We told him that we wanted African food next time! [Gregory's note: we didn't get African food. I kept requesting it, but our cook, Jimmy, either didn't have the ingredients or had explicit instructions to only cook mzungu food for the tourists. Only crazy people like me want to eat local food. On the other hand, I'm the only one who hasn't gotten sick.]
Tarangire National Park is the sixth largest national park in Tanzania, located in the Manyara Region. The name of the park comes from the Tarangire River that crosses the park. The Tarangire River is the primary source of fresh water for wild animals and it is almost guaranteed that you will see elephants which we did. What was amazing was to see the herds of elephants very close up. The highlight for us here was when Shabani drove very close to a huge bull elephant with long tusks while it stared at us! Besides elephants, we saw wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, and hippos.
The vegetation was amazing. My favorite trees were the baobabs and you could see how scratched they had been by the elephants. We were also impressed to see herds of ostrich. The whole experience was amazing, mostly because you know that you are watching the animals in their natural habitat.
After several hours in the park, we drove to a lodge where we got a nice room with a shower! I was happily impressed but I didn't say anything. I thought that we were going to camp in the park, in the middle of nowhere, with no running water. Well, I found out the next day that we were supposed to get a tent in this lodge (the tents here were very nice as well), but since they didn't have any available, they gave us a room! It was a real treat because after so many hours of driving, with the heat and all the dust, a hot shower is the best present I could get!
We also had a great dinner of fish and ships and vegetables with watermelon for dessert! We were all more than happy, and to finish the happy day, there was a troupe of dancers, acrobats, and musicians who performed after dinner. We had a wonderful time. We also met an interesting guy who happened to be one of the producers for Survivor! We chatted with him until 10:00pm. I slept extremely well and was ready for our seven-hour drive to the Serengeti in the morning.
It was a very very long and bumpy road to Serengeti. The nice flat dirt and paved roads from yesterday were gone, now it felt like the beginning of the safari. Plus, we read bad reviews about tonight's campsite so I was prepared for the worst. I forgot my worries because it was super cool seeing different kinds of animals in the Serengeti.
The landscape here was different than Tarangire: no more hills, just a large plain with fewer trees. We saw some of the same animals that we saw yesterday, but we also saw lions -- not just one but a whole pride, right by the side of the road! It was amazing. We even saw the cubs hiding in the bushes!
Shabani drove us to a pool of hippos. The water was very smelly but it was fascinating to see the ears flipping and seeing the hippos throwing water on their backs by using their tails!
The highlights of the day were the two cheetahs that we spotted and later a leopard resting on a sausage tree.
We spent several hours game driving and it was fascinating. Afterward, we drove to our campsite. We got there late because most of the other tents were already set up and it was already dusk.
Shabani and Jimmy rushed to set up all the tents. Gregory helped and he noticed that they were missing a pole for one of the tents. [Gregory's note: Oops! Since we wuzungu had all paid, we got tents while Shabani and Jimmy would do without.] Shabani told us not to worry because he was a Maasai and was used to sleeping outside. I joke with him and told him to sleep outside my tent. He found that hilarious but I was serious!
After that, Jimmy went off to prepare our meal that was served around 8:30pm. We were starving by then, on the other hand, I was surprised by the food, which was pretty good. We all liked dinner except Gregory, who wanted local food. We ate and had a good time chatting. I tried to ignore the mice running up down the empty tables. The kids were joking and kept telling me to ignore the lizards!
I was happy that we finished dinner late so I could go late to the bathroom. That was my main concern: what would I do if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? The worst part is that I always have to go! I drank less water on purpose and prayed that I could sleep through the night. There was no way I was going to get out of that tent, especially after hearing the hyenas near the bathroom! [Gregory's note: Hyenas weren't anywhere near the bathroom. I only saw one next to the dining room. Besides, as everyone kept reminding Lili, hyenas are harmless, unless you're dead, in which case you have other concerns.] Luckily I slept through the night. I did wake up twice and once I heard a lion roaring. Shabani said lions don't come close to the camp, that the roar was only to mark his territory.
Next morning we left early to see the amazing, stunning sunrise and see more animals around Serengeti! Shabani started out on one path, but he heard something on his radio that caused him to turn and race to another location.
We drove off the road along with a few other trucks, which was unusual. We saw a semicircle of trucks on a ridge. We drove right up and stopped a few meters from a pair of female lions, one in the shade and the other eating a fresh buffalo carcass. Our guide told us it was fresh because the buffalo still didn't have many flies. We took some pictures and he drove away. I was disappointed because I wanted to stay longer to watch, but he explained that we couldn't be there long because we were off the path and we needed to give the other trucks a chance to see. We also saw a small pride of lions with a couple of cubs walking that direction. Shabani said they were probably the same pride as the 2 at the carcass and they were going for their meal. It was very impressive.
After many hours of driving, we finally made it to our campsite near the Ngorongoro Park which was beautiful and much nicer than the Serengeti campsite. [Gregory's note: it is a crime that you pay $60 per person per night to sleep at the Seronera campsite in the Serengeti -- primitive bathrooms, no hot water, dirty facilities, full of bugs and mice. Who is stealing all that money???]
We made it by 5:00pm and several other groups were at the campsite already. Shabani and Jimmy set up our tent and later, Sunshine and I went to take a shower because we heard there was hot water. Well by the time we made it, there was no more but I really needed to shower. It was OK because it was warm outside. By the time we went in to dinner, it really cooled down.
Before dinner, we were interviewed for a documentary on Ngorongoro. We chatted with the people making the documentary and asked them to send us the link when the video was ready. After the interview, we heard some girls speaking Spanish so Sunshine and I walked over and introduced ourselves. They were dentists from Chile volunteering in Arusha. They shared some interesting experiences at the clinic and we talked with them until dinner time.
The dining room here was much nicer and cleaner than the one in Serengeti. It was well built and enclosed so we didn't see any mice. [Gregory's note: it's not government-run, so there's no one to steal the money. No wonder it's nice!] We enjoyed our dinner and went to bed around 10:00pm. This night I was more relaxed and didn't even think about animals around the tent. Around 3:00am, a noise woke me up and kept me awake. At first, I thought it could be a gazelle eating grass because it was a ripping noise but then I realized a gazelle wouldn't be that loud or that close. I woke up Gregory and he opened the tent a little bit to look out. He turned around and said, it's just a buffalo. What?! I leaned over to peek out, and I saw a huge horn in front of me, about a meter away!!! I have to confess that I did not get scare but I didn't want to move, either. We could hear another one behind us, near the boys' tent. Gregory asked me if I wanted to go to the bathroom, and truly I had to go but I wasn't going to step out of the tent with those animals so close so I told him to forget about it.
Shortly after, someone who hadn't seen the buffalo came along with a headlight and a flashlight, which scared the animals away. We both agree that it was a good time to go to the bathroom. I held Gregory's hand very tightly and we made it to the bathroom. When I came out, I saw a huge, live beetle on its back. I wanted to help but didn't dare to flip it over. Gregory did! We walked quickly back to our tent and slept very well! Next morning we asked the kids if they had heard the buffalo and Daniel said yes, but he thought they were warthogs!
We had a quick breakfast and left around 7:00am to descend into the crater, which is really a caldera. Ngorongoro is great because all the animals in there are pretty much trapped. Animals can get in and out, and they do, but it's a 600 meter climb, so most either stay in or out, meaning there's a huge concentration of animals in an enclosed area.
There are no words that can describe the view going down to the crater. Everything is super green and there is a lake in the middle. The moment we were down in the crater, we started to see all the animals that we had seen in the other parks but much closer together. It was just amazing to see so many! It seemed like an animal paradise! After seeing zebras, wildebeests, gazelle, and eagles, we entered a forest area which was even more beautiful. Our comments were, it looks fake, it looks like Disney only real! There we spotted elephants behind the trees. We didn't stop since they were hiding and we were on a mission to find the rhinoceros, the last of the "Big 5" to check off our list. [Gregory's note: I have sworn off checklists, so I couldn't care less about finding the "Big 5." I was happy with the animals we had seen, especially the elephants and giraffes.]
After the forest, we came back to the plain where we saw a jackal chasing a baby gazelle. The mother was trying to defend her baby, but the 3 of them ran straight into a pack of hyenas, who took advantage of a free lunch. Everything happened so fast. I was trying to follow with the binoculars but when I found the animals, I saw a white part of the baby gazelle in the mouth of a hyena! It was exciting to see the chase but we were all sad and the kids decided they hate hyenas but that's nature! We asked Shabani if the mother gazelle had feelings and he said yes, absolutely. She is grieving now! Oh, that just broke my heart.
Another highlight of the Crater was the encounter between 2 lion brothers and a female. We saw many trucks parked on the side of the road so we went there as well. At first, we couldn't see what were they watching but when Shabani drove closer, I spotted a lion. Then he drove closer and there they were: 2 male lions and a female, lying in the shade of the safari trucks. One truck moved and gave us a chance to move closer.
Sure enough, one male came right next to our car and lay in the shade. The female followed and lay down next to him. Then, the other male lion came and when he sat walked by the female, he touched her tail. The female complained and immediately the first male got up and roared at his brother! It was very impressive because it happened right next to us and we had the windows open. I could have touched the lions without any effort. Shabani said they were big!
All I did when the lions fought was yell at Gregory to close his window. [Insistently and repeatedly.] He was happily filming the action, saying that the lions wouldn't get in! Well, I knew they won't get in but they could accidentally scratch or bite his hand. The good thing is that Gregory got an amazing video and didn't lose his hand.
Shabani was impressed that Sunshine didn't get scared. My heart was beating hard because we witnessed that so close to us! The lions settled down with the female in the sun and the two brothers in the shade. We left and gave other trucks a chance to see. The animals don't mind the trucks at all. We were all happy and thankful for all the amazing things we had witnessed in some hours of the safari.
We are only allowed to spend 6 hours in the crater so around noon we went back to the campsite for lunch. On our way, we saw a male and female lion walking together. It looked like the female wanted to hunt but we couldn't stay long enough to witness it, plus Shabani said he didn't think so, since if the male and female are walking together, they're thinking of other things besides food.
At the campsite, we sat on the grass for lunch along with some large storks. Shabani warned us about the eagles and vultures flying above. He said, "be careful with that one because it can take your finger." Poor Daniel didn't even sit down because he was too nervous. The storks were walking very close to people, looking for food. They reminded me of old people with black suits! [Gregory's note: storks are ugly. They are definitely not the cute ones that deliver babies! They look like they were beaten repeatedly with an ugly stick. They're over 1 meter tall, with a wingspan of about 3m -- that's over 3 feet tall with a wingspan close to 13 feet! And they are NOT afraid of people. They are scavengers, which means they love to eat your leftovers.]
Well, I was being very careful with my food, I even had my lunch box closed and I was taking out one item at a time. Well, I guess I wasn't being careful enough because when I was eating my chicken, I felt something grabbing my chicken with such strength that I fell sideways! When I looked up, I saw an eagle dropping my chicken, only because Shabani made a noise that scared the bird! I'm so thankful to say that I still have my fingers and besides, the chicken was too dry!
We finished lunch and left the beautiful Simba campsite at Ngorongoro. Several hours later, we made it back to Arusha. It felt really nice to arrive at our luxurious house. We took a nice, long hot shower, made dinner and watched a movie. The kids were frustrated because Netflix wasn't working and the internet was slow. [Gregory's note: all our devices reconnected to the Wifi, which made it slow. Daniel still has trouble with that concept. The next day, the host told us we had used 15GB, which I seriously doubt. 1.5 maybe.]
I still miss the previous home. Even if it was more rustic, we had more privacy and we had a cook, sniff! Anyway, I can not complain after the most amazing experience we had!
Some photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/moUYXLqcuzJGJ4NWA
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