Leaving Africa

I know I will miss the beautiful images that Africa has to offer.

The beaches in the North

This is at Kendwa Beach, pictured here is a dhow, which they still use for fishing.

Zanzibar

The trip ended in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The island where the slave markets were. Now you can sit on a rooftop and enjoy this scenery

or you can wander the streets and

get hopelessly lost...

or look at the wonderful doors.

English as a second language

I get a kick out of signs in countries where English is obviously a second language.

Two male elephants fighting over...

a female elephant, what else?

Cheetahs

We saw 3 cheetahs attack a wildebeast at a speed that was astonishing. They did not succeed because hyenas interfered. The problem with this is the energy was consumed and now they have nothing to eat.

Giraffes

There were approximately 30 giraffes in this area. Giraffes are wonderfully alien-looking.

All animals great and small

The Serengetti doesn't disappoint, there is the full range of animals. Here are doves and they are as one would expect together.

In the Serengetti

This lioness had such an intense look, she was staring straight into the lens. I am so impressed by how she is a part of this, in my opinion, very photogenic tree.

Pink flamingos

There weren't many flamingos in the area because there had been too much rainfall, there was less food for them as a result.

Wave upon wave...

of birds. These are thousands of birds that travel en masse, they simply lift all at once and then land all at once and then again, it looks like waves. Really erie, just like the movie!

Women of all ages

These are the women of the village near Lake Natron. That Lake is the world's most caustic body of water. The salt content is so high that if one was to simply wade in it for one hour it would be fatal as the salt would have drawn all of the fluids out of the body.

A pretty smile

What a wonderful smile!

The Morani win the girls over

After hiking the rift, we saw the Morani do the jumping dance with the young ladies of the village in attendance. The men jump and they make sure they land in front of the young lady they fancy to show their interest. But, it's the ladies who choose when it comes to their turn to dance. They move the collars around their necks in a particular manner to show their acceptance.

The dance of the Morani

When our group came across the Morani, it was the highlight of our hike. It was one of those spontaneous moments that one cherishes long after the trip is over. These boys (to us), aged 12 to 19, but warriors to the Maasai were herding cattle when we came across them. The guide told us that they are separated from their families and the rest of the villagers after a ceremony. They hunt when called upon to, herd cattle and other times they practice their singing and dancing. In this dance, they jump as high as they can without bending their knees and land as effortlessly as possible. This particular Morani could jump waist high as the tallest of them and none of those boys were under 6 feet.

Market day in Nyobi, Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The village of Nyobi is fairly isolated, they see foreigners about 2 to 3 times for the week and only during the tourist season. The supplies were coming in when we were there and was so excited. When the supply trucks arrived it was surprising that they were just essential things like cooking oils and staples.

Young Maasai warrior

This young Maasai warrior was carrying his machete as natural as can be.

Author in hiking gear

This is a picture of me with Ol Donyo Langai in the background. The mountain is an active carbonate (the only one in the world) volcanoe and is sacred to the Maasai.

Maasai children

Children in the Maasai villages were fascinated by our video cameras.

Maasai villages

The Maasai homes in the villages are referred to as "boma". The vistas are sweeping, the sound of goats and cows being herded echos in the valley.

Here the bomas are arranged in a semi-circle. The guide tells us that this is a "household group". This means there is one man with many wives. Each hut has a wife with her children residing in it.

Hiking in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Up until now we have been doing the standard tourist circuit. Until we started a 3 day hike in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is a part of the Great Rift Valley. The first stop for the night was at Empaki Crater. There we met a Maasai couple who stopped for a chat.

They Maasai couple started pointing to the hairy arms of D, one of the members of our group. His wife said, "that's nothing wait until you see this" and she lifted up D's t-shirt, exposing his chest. None of us were ready for the young Maasai woman to run away in real fear and then spit in order to rid herself of the bad omen.

Here she is looking very unsure of all of us being in the company of such a hairy person.

Check out those teeth

At first we were taking photos of lions that were so far away all you could see was tufts of fur. We assumed that was the closest we were going to get. Not so. This lioness was sitting right on the path that the vehicles use because it was nice and warm as opposed to the wet grass. Close enough to appreciate the strength of these incredible animals.

...her mate.

He had a badly infected eye, I felt both sorry for him and terrified of him at the same time.

Zebras have figured out how not to stand-out???

Despite the fact that Zebras have these stripes that make them stand out virtually anywhere (except maybe standing against black and white striped wallpaper) they actually use the stripes to their advantage. It's called a "defence posture", they cluster together and create a kind of optical illusion with their stripes in order to confuse predators. I couldn't see how they could "disappear" as a group, only on an individual basis. It's like that saying, Q: How fast can you run? Answer: I only need to run faster than the slowest person.

Here are some more pictures of a lioness stalking a zebra and missing out on the kill. As you can from the blurry photo both animals were moving very fast.

Simba

The approach to the Ngorongoro Crater is quite dramatic. The trucks climb up to the rim, there was some paperwork to do in order to enter the Ngorongoro Park and then we descended into the crater. No animals were visible until we were right into the Crater. The Crater is huge, 16 km across and there are a lot of animals, all of them wonderful and exotic, I was delighted to see the zebras, lionesses, elephants, rhino and happy to leave it at that. But, one afternoon there was a lot of chatter on the radio in the truck, the driver announced there was a male lion, a "simba" in swahili over by some rocks, we made double time to get over there. I wasn't ready to see this animal, he was absolutely gorgeous, in his prime, no scars and regal in his bearing. He owned this place, he knew he had no equal.

The Maasai watch over us

When it came to planning my trip to Africa, Tanzania, I wasn't sure what the guide meant by camping. It's the real thing, not that "glamping", meaning 5 star rooms with canvas walls. This is actual tents that are pitched right in the middle of the park with wild animals all around us. At night not only could we hear the lions roaring, we could hear them exhaling.

It was frightening at times but the safari companies hire Maasai as camp guards. I would sometimes look out at night and saw the Maasai with his lantern patrolling the campsight and I felt safe.

My biggest priority is travelling and taking pictures. As you may have guessed from the photo on the right, I have a double standard, I like taking pictures but I don't like mine being taken.

If I am not actually travelling I am planning the next trip and then the next one after that. After that I like to cross-country and skate. I just started to play ice-hockey just so I could improve my skating.

I am also in touch with my feminine side, I like wearing saris, I think they are just so elegant.

As for being a political junkie, well there is no good excuse for that.