African Safari Day 9 and day 10 our last day.

Today is 27th July 2014 Sunday.

We get up and have BF and start for Lake Manyara.  It is very hazy and foggy.  We drive down to  the Lodge at Manyara.  We go  to a shopping place owned  by an Indian origin Person.  We buy some wooden carvings, bead necklaces etc.  We want to see a local shop and  go  to a  local shop owned by a  Masai .  Masai Tribe people live here also. They are different from the Masai of Kenya .  Here they are   taller and  have adapted to modern ways  better than the Kenya's Masai .

We come to Lodge have lunch.  As usual the staying place is exotic.

In front of our Room.

  We  go for game drive after lunch,  in Lake Manyara area.    It is a thick jungle and not much game is seen here as this is  not an open grassy area .

We go to the Lake  and see lot of Birds, Pelicans, Geese, Storks etc,.  Many of the birds are hatching the eggs.

Storks.

                                   
We see some Zebras, Wildebeests, Buffaloes and also some Giraffes and an Elephant and baboons and few Impalas.

I was told I could see the elusive red Flamingos at least here,  as this place is famous for the Flamingos.  But the Flamingos are very elusive and am not able to see them.     I understood later  through the  web search, that the season for Flamingos is December and not when we went there.

We could not see many  animals, compared to other places because of the dense forest  area.    It was not easy to locate the animals .

                                              Free Ride on a Zebra!

                                                       The Relaxed Wildebeest

                                                   The Majestic Impala.

Nice Flight.

                                                         Another Display

                                               Many varieties of Birds

 
                              It is amazing to see Birds which look like Locust!

The Egyptian Geese.

                                                           Oh  so many of them.

                                                      Some more Storks.

                                 What is a Wild Buffalo doing in Birds Territory?

                                                                  Pelicans.

Some of these Birds look like they are hatching the eggs.

 
                                                        Some Black birds with Storks.

                                                     How lovely this Bird looks.

                                      Giraffes,  One last time we are seeing them in this trip.

 

                                             Birds , Birds and more Birds.

                                                   Looks like a  Baby . not sure.

                                                                   Baboons.

                         Lake Manyara.  The view from the Road above the lake.


We decide against taking the night safari.

Next day 28th July 2014 Monday  We start for Arusha after breakfast and go to the same place we had gone previously and request them for some packed lunch which they oblige.  We decide to go to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro which is called the Machame Gate.

This was not in our schedule,  We request the tour guide by paying extra  to go there.

We  thought we would be able to see the snow clad mountain, but to our disappointment we could not see it due to  clouds.

It is more than an  two hours journey  from Arusha and we go  to the base.

For both of us the place is extra special as our two  boys had climbed the Mount Kilimanjaro  about four years ago from this same  route.

                                                Machame Gate.
 We have  our packed lunch sitting in the base watching many people preparing to climb to the summit.
After lunch,we are dropped in the Kilimanjaro Airport.

It is a small Airport but very nice and neat. We  reach the airport by 4.30 p.m. and our flight to Nairobi is at 7.30 p.m.  We  go to some shops in the airport and buy some knick-knacks.

We reach Nairobi and we take the night flight to Mumbai and reach Mumbai on Tuesday Morning.

We are met by my friend and her family,  spend the day with her and the next day we are back in Kuala Lumpur  .
My heart is still with the African Wild and given an opportunity I would love to visit the place again. This time would want to go to Serengeti in Tanzania .
Thanks to my hubby for the excellent photographs.  The only problem for me was to pick and choose from so many pictures.   I really did not know which one to  discard.

African Safari Day 8

Please click on the pictures .

Today is July 26th 2014 Saturday.
We are in Serena Lodge. We have Break Fast and  start around 8.30 a.m. We are to go down into the Crater today with packed picnic Vegetarian Lunch Packets. These programs  are all pre arranged and  properly packed food is given for each one of us.

                                                   The Beautiful Serena Lodge.

With our Tanzanian Guide.

                                                       The Rocky Walls.

We are smeared with dust powder as many vehicles overtake us. haha.

We drive down to the Crater. It is quite dense forest all around.  Crater is plain grass with few green patches.   It has some water holes some thick trees.  We can see Mountain all around us .  Whole drive is very nice.

                                                                       The Crater.

On our way we see Masai Giraffes. We see lots of Zebras and also Wildebeest.  We see many Hyenas, the wart hog and the big birds.  We drive around,  in circles and see more animals.

                                                          The Masai Giraffe.

Elephant

 Fox

Wildebeest.  This one's colour looks lighter than what we saw in Masai Mara.

A Grants Gazelle sitting.  We could see many Gazelles and Wildebeests sitting  here in the Crater.

A Zebra.  In the background the water body can be seen.

The Beautiful Big  Crowned Cranes.

                                            Some more Gazelles sitting lazily.

The Wild Buffaloes.

A Hyena

A spotted Hyena.  We were thrilled to see the spots so clearly.

                                                                A Jackal

                                                       Two more Hyenas.

            I am fascinated with the Zebras.  Look at the tails .  The design looks as if 

some body had plaited their tails.

  We were very lucky to see a Leopard , which is the one of the Big Five we had not seen so far.

 They are very difficult to spot as they are nocturnal and sleep in the day time.  This time also one Leopard is sleeping on a tree branch very high branch with its tail and one leg hanging down.
 It is very difficult to see it.  We are able to see it only with the help of the binoculars.  As we are quite far off, camera even with zoom lens is not able to  capture it well.

With the binoculars we are able to see the classic posture of the Leopard which is sleeping peacefully.

The Elusive  Leopard  It is sleeping in the thick Branch in the centre of the picture.  It looks more like a branch than an animal.  We can just make out the outline.

We see two healthy black Rhinos .

The Black Rhinos.

 We see   many Lions sitting , sleeping.  We wait for the sitting Lions to hunt . But they don't oblige us.  Some guests had told us the previous day they had seen  a hunt.

Different Poses of Different Lions.  This one looked as if it is going to hunt but nothing happened.


The best thing about this park is they have built clean bathrooms with running water and also tissue paper.
We are taken near a water hole where there are lot of Hippos.  We get down from the vehicle and sit on the banks as this is the place where we are to have our picnic lunch, looking at the hippos.  Cool. Lots of vehicles have stopped here lunch.

Picnic Lunch watching the Hippos. Oh What a Picnic Spot.

So many Vehicles have stopped here for Lunch Break.

The Hippos in the Water.

Ready to start after Lunch.

After lunch we drive around and see 3 female lions we want them to get up  but they don't.

                                The Lions which decided to take afternoon nap.

 So we decide around 3.30 to return  and come back to the lodge around evening.  We have coffee.  and relax  till dinner.

Inside the Crater.   We drove down here from the top.

In  the Balcony of our Room.