The Wildebeest Migration of One

August 17-19 2017

Ron and I have become so aware of how precious life is at this point as we move through our 70’s. One of our dearest friends died while we were in Iringa, less than two or three months after he found out he had cancer. As a result we decided to splurge and go on a safari while we were in Tanzania. I suggested we see the famous wildebeest migration where over a million animals move from Kenya to Tanzania following the grazing areas and rain fall. We booked with a travel agent in Dar Es Salaam before we left home, specifying that we were only interested in the wildebeest migration. Before we left home I again reminded her that we wanted to see the migration and she wrote back that they couldn’t guarantee it but there was a very good chance we would see it.  We met with the travel agent the night before we took off and she gave us the name of the camp where we would be staying. After she left I looked it up in the internet and discovered that the wildebeest traveled through that part of the Serengeti in March and April. I became irritated and disappointed but knew there was nothing to do but go with the flow at that point.

Zanzibar island

Our trusty plane to the Serengeti

We left early this morning and flew to Zanzibar (15 minutes) to pick up more passengers. On the way we passed by Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

Mt Kilimanjaro from the air

Our GREAT guide Lenga

Then we flew to an airstrip where Lenga Nasa, our guide, picked us up. We entered the park immediately and drove to our camp stopping along the way as he pointed out various wild animals. Although camp was 75 minutes away we spent several hours getting there as we stopped frequently to view and photograph game. Neither of us could believe how many animals there were to see! 

A happy leopard after the kill

Leopard kill awaiting a future meal

Ron ended up taking 700 photos in two and a half days. So I won’t go through what we saw each day but will have Ron post some samples. Briefly we saw one leopard resting under a tree where she had deposited her kill on a branch in the tree and we could see where she had eaten part of the carcass. 

Lilac breasted roller

Female mwanza flat head agama

Male mwanza flat head agama

Lappet faced Vulture

The one wildebeest who didn't migrate

Cheetah cub

Wart hog

White  bellied bustard

Superb Starling

Black faced velvet monkey

Green bee eater

Grey breasted francolin

Bateleur eagle

Hartebeest

Mud pie shrike

Elephant

Giraffe

Wart hog

Topi Antelope

Wart hog

Geraffe

A Thompson Gazelle

Topi Antelope

Mama Cheetah

Hekmeted Guinea fowl

Secretary bird (on the way to the office)

Tawny eagle

Superb starling

Verreaux eagle owl

Egyptian Goose

Geraffe

sunset in the Serengeti

another elephant

An elephant cooling off in the water

more Serengeti vistas

more Vultures

Cheetah

Cheetah

Female Ostridge

resting Hyena

Steinbok

Banded mongoose

African Buffalo

Black faced velvet monkey

   

Serengeti vista

female Lion

Thompson's Gazelle

Hyena

Zebra standing head to read to look out for cats

Superb Starling

We saw numerous cheetahs which was a thrill. On our drive back to the airport we spied a mom with three cubs. What a gift! We saw hundreds of zebras and thousands of various antelope: hartebeest, Thompson’s gazelle, topi, and  Grand gazelle. We saw jackals, hyenas, mongoose, warthogs, monkeys, giraffes, lions, cerval, lizards, elephants, and so many birds including an adult and a juvenile eagle.  And one lone wildebeest on our last day! 

Our tent

inside our tent

After arriving at our Serengeti camp around 1:00 we freshened up in our incredible accommodations before having a wonderful lunch. There are eight guest tents, a kitchen tent, a dining tent, and a lounge tent. The staff area is set back from the guest area. There was a small tent near the common area that was a bathroom with toilet inside and washing station outside but under a canopy. During our stay we met people from CO, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and London.

Panorama from our bed

 Our tent was huge with a sitting area, a king size bed, a wall 
of window screen to observe wildlife that was ever present at our front door. Our windows faced the small river where animals came to drink or cool off. Elephants would draw water into their trunks then splash themselves at midday to cool off. 

Tricia cleans up her act in the Serengeti

Our bathroom had two sinks and two showers: one inside and one outside with a privacy screen yet I could easily view the Serengeti and animals near the camp. Soap, shampoo and body lotions were provided as well as washing powder for washing our underwear. All other laundry was done free of charge.  I managed to use both showers in the time we were there. I like showering outside as much as I like eating outside. 

Panorama view from the toilet

The flush toilet had a full view of the river with the wildlife. What a treat. We had good lighting in the tent, all solar powered. The company, Asilia, has won international awards for their energy innovations. They collect rainwater, use solar power to heat water and to provide electricity. They do not use paper product unnecessarily and no plastic water bottles. They take a potion of their revenue to support community projects including 12,000 kids in primary schools.

 The tent floor was an integral part of the tent made of a strong but smooth material and then covered with area rugs.

The staff were incredible. Every need was anticipated. They kept my eye medication in a refrigerator in the kitchen and ran to get it for me twice a day. Any time we came back to camp we were welcomed at the disembarking area with a damp scented wash cloth to wipe our faces and hands to refresh. No plastic water bottles here. Our room had an endless supply of drinking water in stainless steel bottles that were refilled each time we left the tent. Staff came in when we were out to tidy up, keeping the tent spotless. Our first night I peeled back the covers on the bed and lo and behold we each had a hot water bottle to warm our bed. It gets chilly at night. Yahoo!!

Each evening we were asked when we would like to be awaked up and if we wanted tea or coffee. Each morning someone came to the tent with a tray with a thermos of hot filtered coffee, mugs, cream and sugar. What a treat. We could get used to this. Between 6:30 pm until 6:30 am guests were to be accompanied to their tent from the dining tent or the lounge tent to ensure safety as animals are in the immediate region. Our escorts were dressed in traditional Masai robes and beaded jewelry. The only woman on staff was Diana who was the manager. All the staff were courteous and fun to be with. All  staff were black Tanzanians who spoke English.

The intrepid explorer

Lenga at the wheel of our chariot

Our safari schedule started from our airport pick around 9:30 and went until we reached camp, a 75 minute drive but we took hours, stopping to view game quite often. We arrived around 1:00.  That first evening we left camp at 4:00 and returned at 6:30 when it was starting to get dark. 

A picnic breakfast

Second day we started at 6:30 in the morning with a picnic breakfast in the bush and returned to camp at a 12:30. Our second day we left at 6:30 and had breakfast around 9:00 in the Serengeti served by Lenga complete with a table with tablecloth and chairs. Our meal was an egg and bacon sandwich on French toast, watermelon, sausage, various breads both savory and sweet, and French press coffee made on the spot.Again we went out at 4-6:45. 

Our last day we started at 8:00 and viewed game until time to be at the airport 10:30. That is the day we saw the cheetah with her three cubs. They came within a few feet of our vehicle. That was such a thrill!

three Cheetah pups

Our guide was excellent. Lenga is 27 years old, a Masai and has an eagle eye for spotting wildlife. He also knew the animals’ behavior, habitat and information about unusual physical attributes of various animals. He was very courteous to us and to those in the field. He would go behind a vehicle that had stopped for clients to view wildlife instead of crossing in front of them. Not everyone followed this practice. In additional he was a great birder, knowing the names of each one we spied and there were many.

2 female lions

Lions cleaning up after a kill

On the second day we got caught in a torrential rain on the afternoon safari. We were in an open vehicle each day. It had roof.with open sides making for excellent viewing.  When the rain started Lenga asked if we wanted him to close the sides of the vehicle with drop down tarps that had windows and we declined. Needless to say we got drenched. He asked if we wanted rain gear and after a while we took it. Probably should have done that sooner but after decades of white rafting neither of us minds getting wet. This is when we spied two female and two males lions. They just waited out the rain storm. We changed into dry clothes when we returned to camp which had not gotten one drop of rain!. 

The male lion looks on after the women do the work

                                            

Food: each meal was healthy, mostly western cuisine and well prepared. In a word: delicious!  Upon arrival we were asked if we had any food allergies or special needs. I mentioned that I was lactose intolerant and they easily accommodated my request. No cream on my desserts! We had fresh salads, fresh veggies and a variety of meals: beef, pork, chicken, lamb and fish. Lunch was served outdoors and the other meals were in the large dining tent. While out on safari snacks were available, roasted cashews, peanuts and freshly baked goods like an apricot loaf or cookies. Each evening at 7:30 we had cocktail hour before dinner around a camp fire which they called Tanzania TV! . The sky was incredible: two nights with lightening. It was quite a show.

Salads included watermelon with feta, roasted veggies with mozzarella, tomatoes and cukes. Meats were lasagna with beef, bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, beef with gravy.  In camp breakfast included three fresh fruits: pineapple, watermelon and another melon we didn’t know. Egg sandwich, eggs to order, sausage, ham or bacon, various breads as described above.

We left the Serengeti around 11:30 and we were so grateful for our safari. We felt as though we had a magical experience in every way. The Asilia organization had really thought through how to ensure a wonderful time for their guests. Although we didn’t see our migration we had no complaints about our time in the Serengeti. 

We were picked up at the airport by the travel agent’s son and delivered to our hotel. We showered as it had been a dusty day on the trail. We ordered lunch in the room and in the evening went out with project staff and volunteers, eating at a local bbq place where we ordered fish. It was delicious and the setting was…plastic: tables, table cloths and chairs. The restaurant was owned by a Muslim couple and was frequented by many Muslims, and a few expats besides us.

The next day we went to a National Museum with Wes Hare from Albany OR, someone Ron has worked with over the years and another couple from the project who live in Atlanta. We dined at a seafood place overlooking bay with boats bobbing in the water. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful time in Tanzania.

Our plane left at 11:00 p.m., allowing us to sleep for five or six hours after taking a sleeping aid. We arrived in Amsterdam about eight and a half hours later. After a two hour layover with hot Americanos we boarded the plane for home. We missed the eclipse although we had daylight the entire 10 hour flight. We were too far north and we had been requested to keep the shades down so people could sleep.  Neither of us slept on the return trip. We arrived in home in Portland at 1:00. I walked over to the coop and picked up three salads and after eating those, we took a nap, two hours for Ron and four for me. By 8:00 he could hardly keep his eyes open. We crawled into bed at 9:00. I slept until 4:00 a.m. and he slept until 7:00. Just as Dorothy in the Oz said ‘There’s no place like home!’

Finishing up on a high note

August 11

Ron worked very hard all afternoon on his draft report and I suggested we go out to celebrate. We returned to Mama Iringa’s for another fine Italian meal. I had veggie lasagna that had shredded veggies and cheese but no sauce. It was mighty fine. Ron had scaloppini and it was delicious as well and Robin eggplant Parmesan which if we were here another week I’d like to try it as it looked rich and fabulous. Ron even ordered a beer.  A good time all around.

August 12 

Ron worked all day today, Saturday, on his report. Around 5:30 I proofed it with him and we made corrections. At one point I asked him if he was being paid more than me to work on this report. It was a joke since this is a pro bono job. It took us an hour to get through it all. Afterwards we walked over to the Greek Club and had a great meal. The owner sent us off with a batch of peanut butter cookies that were sitting on the counter and that Ron had admired. YUM!

August 13

Ron worked on his report until 3:00 and we went to town to get some cash, 400,000 TZ schillings is a bit less than $200. Makes one feel wealthy walking around with that kind of cash. Not much is happening on Sunday in downtown Iringa. We came back to our room and Ron worked on his report some more. Tonight we are going up the Sunset Hotel where we had lunch earlier this week. Ron will get some photos of the grounds and the sunset with any luck.

Tricia and Robin

The intrepid phtographer

Only a few photos were possible as there was a large cloud on the horizon. We met Nathan whom Robin had met on safari. He joined us for the evening. He works for a Canadian NGO. We sat on the deck and as the sun went down it got quite cold so the staff brought out the charcoal terra cotta heaters and placed them on each end of our table. We ate starters on the deck then went inside for our meal.

August 14, 2017

I woke up with a cold and a very drizzly nose. After blowing my nose for an hour I gave up and took a pill and it took hold around 11:30. I went to town and got some change for the staff tip envelopes I had prepared and went to a pharmacy for some throat lozenges. After lunch with Ron and Robin we said goodbye to the woman who owned the eatery where we have lunch every other day. We each wrote a review for her on Trip Advisor.

Ron went back to work and I headed back to the guesthouse to rest. I watched CNN to see the uproar over Trump’s poor response to the Charlottesville protests and the murder of one of the anti-protesters. What a sad state of affairs. One can only hope we will survive this administration.

I stayed home and had soup for dinner as I really was tired from the cold. Ron joined Nathan, Robin and Rachel, another person working on the project who just arrived. They walked to a new nearby restaurant and had …Indian food! After dinner I started packing for our morning departure. We went to bed around 9:00.

August 15

We woke up around 5:00 and I got up around 6:00 to start the day. We didn’t have to rush.

After breakfast we went by the project office to say goodbye but missed Elise, who staffs the office. Ron called her but her phone was turned off so he texted our goodbyes. We went through check-in at the airport which only takes minutes because there is only one flight this time of day and the plane holds 12 passengers. As we started towards the waiting area there was Elise who presented me with a lovely present, a beautiful beaded necklace. She had been in a meeting and came out to the airport, about 2-30 minutes from town. I was very touched by her gesture.

On our flight back to Dar, we had a loaded plane. All 12 seats were taken. One couple was going on a safari and we fly into a safari ‘air strip’. No buildings, no nothing other than pole structure with a thatched roof for shade. As we approached the primitive runway I saw a giraffe standing on the edge. We got so close to it I decided it was a statue of a giraffe…that is until it starting running away as we passed by it. It was a first for us: seeing a giraffe on the side of a runway. I said this out loud to the other passengers and the man in front of me said he has lived his entire life in Africa and has never seen it before. It was a real thrill.  I can see why people are so enamored with this part of Africa and stay here even with all the things one must do without when living in a developing country.

We were an hour late arriving in Dar and had awful traffic getting to our hotel. It took an hour. By then it was 2:00 and we grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel.  Then Ron went to work at 3:30. I rested hoping to kick this cold I have. At 6:00 our friends from Albany OR picked us up to go out to dinner. Wes is a retired city manager from OR and his wife Evelyn has often followed him around the world where Wes frequently volunteers for posts like Afghanistan, Iraq,  Sri Lanka, etc.

We ate at an outdoor restaurant in a high end mall sitting by the bay. What a treat. We couldn’t resist ordering fresh seafood: calamari and perch. Oh my it was so good and so fresh! The best part of the evening was our visit with the Hares. We so enjoy each other’s company and regret we don’t get together more often when we live just a little over an hour away from each other. Wes and Evelyn told some funny and some harrowing travel stories. Evelyn was leaving tonight for a flight home as she has a grandbaby due any day now. She will return here as Wes has signed up for a four or five month stint here as a volunteer. He is a generous soul.

August 16, 2017

Ron is giving a debrief  presentation on his project today and he expects that will finish his obligation. The project went well and he is pleased. We both have had a good experience on this trip: the people are incredibly friendly, we have felt safe and there have been no incidents thus far. We are thankful we got to see two different areas of Tanzania and tomorrow we will fly to yet another area, the Serengeti.

When Ron gets home we hope to do a little exploring but after the traffic we experienced yesterday I am going to suggest we stay on the little peninsular where we are staying rather than going into the heart of Dar. Dar is notorious for its awful traffic.

Ron came home and reported the presentation went well.  The Chief of Party is known to be demanding and asks lots of questions or seeks clarification on some issues.  He did not do this with Ron's report.  In fact, he was very complimentary and said he was very impressed with how much got done in such a short amount of time.  The staff gave him two rounds of applause when he was finished.  YEAH!!!

We had dinner with Wes and Evelyn one last time in our hotel and had really good snapper. We made it an early evening as we needed to repack things for our safari.  We will leave out big suitcases at the hotel and only take what we need in our computer bags.  We leave early in the morning.  Better get some sleep,

Going to the birds and testing our luck

August 7

I walked around the area where we are staying to explore and to get some exercise. It has been very windy here but it is sunny every day and is a comfortable temperature by 10:00 AM until 6:30 PM. Then it is cold, at least if you don’t have a sweater…which we don’t have. While I was walking, a woman approached me and asked for money in Swahili. I wasn’t carrying a purse and I told her I didn’t have any money. She followed me for awhile and asked again. It was the first time that has happened here. It happened again when a man asked me on the way to meet Ron for lunch.

I typically work on emails, the blog and watch or read news throughout the day. I am also reading a non fiction account of a journalist in East Africa. It is a great read if you are interested in Africa and to want to learn more about the newspaper business. The book is Love, Africa. By Jeffrey Gettleman of the NY Times who covered 13 East African countries for ten years.

I got a call from Ron for lunch and walked to town. We went shopping first. Ron wanted to get some African print fabric for a shirt. I had seen a shop in town from the car on Saturday when we were out sight seeing. We had fun looking at several choices in his color range before settling on one. This particular piece came in a six meter length, a little over six yards. It cost $11.14!!!! I think a yard would cost that much back home. I will use the leftover piece to have a jacket made but want to get some more fabric to use for cuffs and collar if I can find something that will work. Think patchwork!

August 8

Today is a government holiday so Robin and Ron have the day off. Both need to work on their project but we decided to go birding for a bit in the morning. So on Monday they made arrangements with a guide and car/driver. We got picked up at 8:00. Leon was our guide. He was raised by a white family from the time he was nine. His mother had been their chef and his grandfather had worked for the family as well. The family lives here now. They had moved here in 2008 from Arusha up north near the Serengeti. Because we told Leon the guys had only two-three hours to spare we stayed nearby for the excursion.

bee eater

Robin Chat

First we walked through a field about four km from town and spied a number of birds including a green bee eater and Robin Chat and a . Then he told us his family had a deck with lots of bird feeders and he had asked his family if we could come out to bird watch from their deck It was  another few km on dirt and dusty roads. We stopped a couple of times to spy some birds including the drongo. We also saw a mongoose (very cute)

It turned out the his ‘parents’ have published one book and are preparing to publish another one that targets the best places for birding in Tanzania with maps and information about what birds you will see in each area.

Purple crested Tucaro

WOW! What an experience. Neil, Leon’s ‘dad’, was quite the host. We sat out back and couldn’t believe our luck. The birding was fantastic which you can see from the photos. But Neil was an added bonus. Their house is off the grid. Neil was a power engineer. They heat water with solar panels, they have their own well, they cook with gas so I assume they use canisters since they are way rural. Neil is a true environmentalist and stays up to date on what the Trump administration is doing. I was impressed. In addition to bird feeders they have areas for birds to drink and wash, small concrete bowls as it were. We sat still while three purple crested tucaro took their time to make sure it was safe to come down and have a drink. They are so beautiful and colorful.

Doves

We also saw doves and a small bird that flew in flocks

Add caption

A bulbul

Leon told us about two nearby restaurants. He drove by the Greek Club on the way back to our guesthouse. We would never have found it as there is not a single sign. It must be some sort of town secret. We asked to see the menu and said we would come back for dinner. Leon said he and his wife would join us.    The other restaurant is up the hill from us he said. So after Ron worked for awhile we decided to walk up the hill to the Sunset Hotel restaurant. It was much further than we had anticipated. You can have a perfect view of a sunset because it is a very steep climb up the side road, high above any other structures. But wow, this place is literally nestled in between huge boulders. I wish I knew more about geology to understand what was happening when these boulders were strewn about willy-nilly like ping pong balls. The boulders are 10-15 feet high. Our two sandwiches took an inordinate amount of time to be served. Fortunately we had a great view from the deck overlooking Iringa. Many people still cook with wood so there was a definite haze. There was also some active burning going on but it was too far away to see what was being burned.

Ron worked more in the afternoon and I rested after working on the blog. Robin and the two of us took our flashlights and walked down to the Greek Club on unlit dirt roads. Leon and Jacqueline joined us shortly. The restaurant had about six tables and a few on the outside porch where it is too cold to eat after sunset. Five different people came into the restaurant who enthusiastically greeted Leon, some of whom had worked with him in the past. All were white expats. After a delightful evening Leon and Jacqueline walked us back to our guesthouse then called his brother to pick them up. We later learned that Leon is one of the top five birders in Tanzania! We are so damn lucky!!

August 11

We left home July 30^th and it is now Aug 11^th. Neither of us has been able to sleep past 5:00 since arrival. Today I woke up at 3:00 a.m., 4:00 and had difficulty getting back to sleep and then again at 5:00. Ron was awake by then so we snuggled and tried to get back to sleep but we were unsuccessful so we got up and read until time to get up and shower and dress for breakfast. One benefit of getting up so early is we hear the call to prayer each morning and it is a lovely experience. I think I mentioned early on that about 35% of the population of Tanzania is Muslim, 35-40% Christian and the remainder follow more traditional religions centered on ancestor worship.

Ron’s work is going well. Today he finishes his information gathering, will write up his interviews and then start on his report of findings. He is pleased the project has gone so well.

For two days I had diarrhea and Ron did after my first day but it wasn’t food poisoning. I pulled out the sheet on the malaria pills we are taking and discovered one side effect is diarrhea. Great. So we didn’t take a pill last night to test my theory. Neither of us had trouble today. Now our dilemma is how to proceed. When we fly from here to Dar we are in a small plane for 90 minutes with no toilet. We have never seen a mosquito in Iringa probably because it is dry season, it is very windy and it is cold at night and in the morning. I suggested we go off the pills until we return to Dar and hope for the best. I also think I will take one every other day and use my mosquito spray religiously. I will take the pills while on safari as well. It would sure mess up our schedule if we get malaria but when we asked Neil on Tuesday what he did about malaria prevention he said nothing. He has lived here for years and said he gets it about once every ten years. When we lived in Sri Lanka the doctor there discouraged us from taking the pills daily. The prescription is quite hard on the liver. We have our fingers crossed on this one.

Getting things going and a week-end to explore

August 3, 2017

We woke up at 4:00 and gave up trying to sleep. I barely slept at all and Ron slept fairly well until 4:00. We read until time to get up. I went to work with Ron and Robin who is another person from the US working on the project here. He arrived a couple of days before us and he is staying at the same lodge. A driver picked us up and I realized that I was mistaken. It is possible to walk to town fairly easily. I was thrilled. The three of us spent about ten minutes talking about an itinerary for Saturday. All of us want to take advantage of the chance to explore the area and quickly came up with a plan. Elice who is the staff member here helped us and will arrange for a driver.

I then left to visit a craft center that trains disabled people in various crafts to support themselves. It was a five minute walk from Ron’s office. I was welcomed and offered a tour. Yabet showed me the weaving room, sewing room, woodshop, ceramic studio, jewelry making area, paper making area, dying yard, silk screen area, and being sleep deprived I cannot remember anything else. I observed people who were deaf, were missing limbs or had damaged limbs, were wheelchair bound, and I saw two dwarfs.

 In addition the center has a 10 room guest house and a café with ESPRESSO!!! This small town just got bigger. Many of the waiters were deaf. In 2004 the population was 113,000. I feel sure it is much bigger by now. The craft center has a great shop where you can purchase lamps with shades made from fabrics they print, placemats and woven shawls, beautiful teak trays with carvings, dresses, shorts, men’s boxes, shaving kits, cosmetic bags, coin purses, jewelry, cloth toys, cushion covers, etc. I got a couple of cotton woven shawls for gifts and some cards made from elephant dung.

As I was leaving the man who waited on me asked where I was going. I told him to the grocery store and he went outside and called a friend, Ernest, to walk with me to help me find it. It was a sweet gesture. It took a few tries before we found a grocery with the items I wanted and then I spied a bank and wanted to get some of the larger bills changed into smaller denominations. It took much longer than I wanted but Ernest patiently waited. We then headed back to the intersection where he went back to where we started and I headed for our lodge. He invited me to stop by his shop sometime. I said I would. He never asked for any money. In my experience most often when someone in poor countries offers to help me  they ask for money afterwards. I was surprised. When I mentioned it to the manager of our lodge he said that will not happen in Tanzania. Florida in Ron’s office said the exact same thing.

I came back to our lodge and was tired from being on concrete and asphalt all morning. The manager approached to say the plumber had come and was working on the bathroom faucet but left for parts. He wanted us to change rooms to avoid any inconvenience. I felt moving would be the inconvenience but after three tries telling him we would stay put I was nudged again to move. So I threw everything into our suitcases and they moved our bags and I set up the new smaller room. It has a hair dryer and it s brighter room with more windows. It only took about 20 minutes to get us settled. Ron called and invited me to lunch so I walked back to town and we ate at the crafts center café on the veranda and had a delicious meal of two sandwiches: roasted veggies with cheese on one and curried chicken salad on the other, each with a small side salad of cukes and tomatoes. Yum. Ron had a sweet tooth and I wanted an Americano so he got us a cinnamon roll and two coffees and we both were happy. The veranda was on the second floor so we could people watch easily and we delighted on seeing so many colorful African bright printed materials worn by the women on the stret below us.  Afterwards we walked next door to Ernest’s shop and bought a small painted stone bowl. It cost more than I wanted to spend but I wanted to acknowledge his kindness to me.

August 5

Notice the small rock on top of the massive one

Today we wanted a break so we could explore the area. We  hired a car and driver and headed out with a guide we had hired through Yabet, at Nema Crafts, the place that trains disabled folks. Goodluck grew up in Iringa. We drove a relatively short distance to the Igeleke, literally "rock under a rock" site. It is the site of ancient Here there are petro glyphs from 30,000 years ago. It was discovered by a German archeologist in 2008, hard to believe. The site is also called the Iringa Rock Art. There were paintings of homes (boma), giraffes, lions, elephants, humans, eland (largest Africa antelopes) at the base of this huge rock with an overhang. It was a thrill. 

Tricia next to a candelabra tree

The scenery overlooking the valley was gorgeous with mountain in the distance.

We drove back to town and let Goodluck off at the Nema Crafts center and we headed to Isimilia Stone Age site ,an archeological site about 15 kilometers west of Iringa. We were met by Christopher, a volunteer guide. He is trying to earn and save enough money to finish his degree in Archeology at a university in Dar Es Salaam. He has completed three years of his degree. In the 1950’s  archeologist unearthed one of the most significant Stone Age finds ever identified. Tools found here are estimated to be between 60,000-100,000 years old. First we visited the small museum with well displayed stone tools.  Then the gift shop after I admired the museum director’s shirt. None of the way cool shirts with African fabrics worked for us but Robin got a great shirt for his grandson.

Next we took a very long hike (over an hour) through a steep valley where there are pillars of limestone. These were formed when rain seeped into cracks in the volcano layer of crust over the limestone and eroded the limestone leaving pillars that were protected by a lava capstone. See photos. These were very similar to the ‘chimney’ pillars in Cappadocia in central Turkey that we visited when back in 2011. 

As we were coming back to the museum area we encountered an American couple and chatted for about 15-20 minutes. The man was a Peace Corps volunteer and the woman was visiting him from Alaska. They looked like they might be in the 50’s or 60’s. I thanked him for his service. He was teaching biology in a secondary school here. In Tanzania there are many tribal languages but Swahili is the official language and children learn it when they start school. They have classes in English starting in secondary school although they have not studied English before starting secondary school. What a challenge for teachers and students alike. The man spoke Swahili and I was impressed.  We have encountered many English speakers here.

We have been surprised at how little liter there is in town at the tourist spots. It is quite a contrast to our experience in Ahmadabad. The paved roads here are mostly in good shape, particularly the highways. Once you get off the highway the roads are dirt and rutted both in town and in the rural areas. Many women wear their hair very short, like ¼ inch and many women wear turban like head scarves in bright colors that match their dress. Today in the rural area we saw women carrying huge bundles (perhaps laundry)  or five gallon buckets of water on their heads. I cannot imagine what that much weight does to your spine.

We drove back to Iringa and stopped by the Nema Café at the craft center and had a delicious lunch. We were hungry as it is 2:00. After a good lunch we headed home to rest and read for the afternoon. I searched the web looking for other eating options. Our LP tour book only lists four places and one of those is our guesthouse. The three of us have grown tired of the Indian fare here and need to find other options.  Lo and behold the number one restaurant is Mama Iringa so off we three went. It was a long bumpy ride up the hill on several dirt roads to this lovely setting. The menu was Italian and so was the owner. I felt like I was on a movie set or back in colonial times. The dining area was large and opened to the courtyard. Because it is winter now and quite chilly at night they have festooned the wall facing the courtyard with while cloth that was some how anchored to the floor. I suspect there was a wooden rod in the hem of the cloth. At any rate it was quite lovely and atmospheric. We ordered pasta and bruschetta. Ron had pumpkin raviolis and I had gnocchi.  Robin had linguini with eggplant pesto. All of us enjoyed the meal. Afterwards we visited their gift shop with beautiful garments made by orphan girls learning a trade to support themselves. There were two beautiful jackets made from the fabulous African prints but both were too small for me. Bummer! Robin got a elegant purse with a beaded clasp for his wife. The prices here are amazingly inexpensive.

When we got home Ron headed for bed. I stayed up for awhile waiting to finish my eye medicine regime before calling it a night. 

August 6
I slept to 4:30 AM but couldn’t get back to sleep. Ron woke up at 6:00 and we read until about 7:00 then I got up to start the day. I went over to the kitchen to get a thermos of hot water so I could make us fresh coffee in the room. All that is available in our guesthouse is instant. Being snooty north westerners we don’t drink instant coffee. I brought two pounds of ground coffee from our source in Portland and two coffee cones to make coffee here. After coffee we had breakfast and came back to the room to work on our computers.

Ron had a very successful meeting on Friday with stakeholders in his project and he wanted to transcribe his notes. Afterwards we will head to town for lunch and to visit the cultural museum and the Masai market.

Our walk to town was fun. The cultural museum was housed in a beautiful building built by the Germans in the late 1800’s and consisted of five rooms, Other parts of the building were used for other purposes such as a gift shop and café. I assumed the upper floor may have been offices. The building was recently restored and the museum is about a year old. The displays were well captioned.

We walked over to the gift shop and ran into Bill and Mary, the couple from Alaska whom we met yesterday at the Isimila Stone Age site. They invited us to join them for lunch. We ordered lunch and visited until they left and we finished our meal. Next on our agenda was the Masai Market. It consisted of 15-20 small stalls with vendors selling beaded jewelry, wood carvings, baskets, a few had cotton pants for women and some had the Masai shawls Ron wanted. Upon inspection we discovered they were made of acrylic and factory made in Morogoro, a town closer to Dar. Ron decided to pass. Every single vendor urged or begged us to come into their stall and I refused because I wasn’t going to buy anything and didn’t want to pretend I was. But it drove home the point of how hungry these small vendors are. Some follow me around when I am out and about trying to get me to buy their wares, many of which are souvenirs for tourists and not what I am interested in buying.

We came back to our guesthouse and I worked on the blog while Ron worked on transcribing the rest of his notes from his Friday meetings.

On the jet stream again and happy landings in Tanzania

August 2, 2017

It’s been a whirlwind. We left home on a

 1:50 pm fight which means we got a good night’s sleep before starting the journey. We took a direct flight to Amsterdam, 10 hours and not bad on Delta. Along the way we crossed ver Greenland and Ron took a few pictures with his phone from 39000 feet.. Not much green in Greenland.  We also flew over Iceland, but weren't on the correct side of the plane for a photo. We had two hours before our next 10 hour flight to Dar Es Salaam with a stop in Arusha where 90% of the passengers deplaned to go on safari in the Serengeti. We were on the ground for about 50 minutes while the cleaning crew readied the plane for the return to Amsterdam out of Dar Es Salaam which was a 40 minute flight from Arusha. Neither of us slept on the plane even with taking one of our sleep aid pills. Bummer. About six hours into the second leg flight was I pretty uncomfortable with lower back pain and I was very tired of the confined space. We got to our hotel in Dar at 11:00 and to bed around 11:30 or midnight after being awake for 30 hours.

We got up at 7:00 bleary eyed. Ron left for work at 8:15. I hired a taxi later in the morning and went to an ATM, looked at a craft market and did a little grocery shopping. I had sticker shock when I spied our fave chocolate at $6.47 a bar. Ouch! Guess we will have to ration it. I was delighted to see many locals dressed in traditional garb. Ever see photos of the Masai tribe? Well many men here were wearing similar dress. There were two lengths of cloth of different fabrics: one wrapped around their body and one tied around their neck. It made for a colorful display. Women wore wonderfully brightly printed dresses, some tailored and some similar to the men in that they were draped and tied.

Ron picked me up at 1:00 to get a SIM card for our phones. That took an hour. OY! I got back after 2:00 and ate a salad in our hotel. Our hotel is quite nice with a mini kitchen that has nothing other than an electric tea kettle, instant coffee, tea and sugar. There is a two burner stove but no pots, no dish soap, no drying towels and no cutlery other than two teaspoons. I brought our coffee, filters and cones for pour through coffee from home as I had anticipated not finding good coffee here.  The gardens at the hotel have lush vegetation and the hotel is very attractive with open hallways where the breezes flow freely. Just lovely.

Ron got home early so we crashed for an hour’s nap a little after 4:30. I was in a deep sleep and having a dream. I heard voices and thought they were part of my dream but it was two women from housekeeping coming to turn down our bed. They walked in and said ‘housekeeping just as they spied us in the bed, groggy as all get out. They exited quickly. We snuggled then got up and got dressed for a dinner with the work team. Eight of us dined al fresco at a good restaurant near the ocean. Quite nice. We ate seafood and it was really good. Three of the people on the project are retired city managers from OR. Ron has known Roger and Wes for decades so it was a bit of a reunion. Wes brought his lovely wife, Evelyn and we chatted throughout dinner.

At dinner we found out we were to leave the next day on a 7:00 a.m. flight for Iringa where Ron will be posted. That meant getting up at 4:30. Jeez. We went home, packed and crawled into bed. I woke up before the alarm and gave up trying to get back to sleep after 45 minutes. But it gave me time to make us one cup of coffee. Our driver picked us up at 5:00 and appeared to be the only one on the road stopping for the red lights. I felt like we were back in the Rep of Georgia! The traffic was light that time of day. Dar is famous for its really bad traffic congestion. It is a city of four million.

The domestic airport is quite small and so are the planes that service it. Our plane was a 12 seater and there were five of us to take the 90 flight to Iringa, a mountain community. We flew at a much lower altitude than the big planes so got to see some scenery and the rest of the time we were flying in the big white fluffy clouds. We landed in a very dry area and I could smell the dust when we deplaned. It was pretty barren. As we were approaching the runway we spied some hills with large rocks protruding straight up as though they had been placed there. Our driver met us and we drove 15 km to Iringa, climbing the entire way. The altitude in Iringa is 5,000 ft. 

Along the way there were mud huts/houses with either straw or corrugated metal roofs on each side of the road with an occasional cinder block house. This trend was reversed as we entered town. This is a poor area as witnessed by the commercial area. As soon as you step off the road you are on dirt: no sidewalks or paved parking lots. No fancy shops here. However we did see two places with very large mansion like dwellings that looked like new construction.

Our lodging is arranged by the organization Ron is working with. We were disappointed with our lodging as it is out of town and too far to walk. This leaves me stranded and isolated. They do serve three meals a day here so we asked to see the menu. HA! It is an all Indian cuisine menu. If you read our blog from our 10 months in India you know we are very tired of Indian food. As a matter of fact we have only eaten it twice since we left India in late January. We used to eat it at least once a month. So that makes it a bit difficult for me. I will need to find a way to town most days and I assume the lodge can call a taxi on my behalf. Hopefully I will luck out and find someone I can use daily. But this is an adventure which means it isn’t America and an adventure requires being outside our comfort zone. We travel to developing countries because it requires us to stretch, to be uncomfortable, to be inconvenienced in hopes that we will be more open and open flexible in our dotage! It also means it is exotic and thrilling to see such different ways of living. The facility is small but our room is a good size but a bit funky but then so are we. The bathroom faucet leaks all over the counter when you turn it on. If you push the faucet back with one hand you can make the leaking water flow towards the sink. I will amble up to the office at lunch time to see about a repair but know that that may not happen based on previous experiences. We get CNN, BBC and Al Jazera on the TV so that makes me happy. The staff seems pleasant and there is no traffic noise because there is no traffic!

The Back Story

Ron and I returned from 13 months in India and Thailand in late April 2017. After such a long time away I really wanted to just spend some time at home nesting. We needed to spend some time settling in and it actually took two months for that to happen, surprising both of us. It was as if every closet, drawer and cabinet needed cleaning out or straightening up or organizing. It took days to get our phones and email up and running in spite of making arrangements for the internet before coming home. It took a few days to get the car working as the battery had died and jump starting didn’t work. Our hybrid requires a special battery. Our Quicken software had stopped working in India and it took a while to input data so we could then get our tax information to the CPA. You get the picture, lots of items on the ‘to do’ list.

Next we ventured to WY to see Mark and his family and it was a wonderful trip driving through a great snow in the Rockies en route, but with no problems. WY was sunny and snow free in Sheridan. That was in May I think. 

Bill, Sandi and Tricia

Sister Toni and husband Charlie

Then in late June  we headed east to visit family in RI, NY, PA and SC.

We got home on the 12^th   of July.     While we were traveling Ron got an email asking if he would like to do some pro bono work in Tanzania. Well of course!  Who would pass up another opportunity to travel to Africa? So we leave July 30^th and fly for 10 hrs to Amsterdam direct (yahoo!). We will have a two hr layover then board a direct flight to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, another 10 hr. flight. We will spend a few days in the capital where Ron will work with staff on the project before we head to Iringa, a mountainous community of about 112,000. It will be in the 70’s there during the day which sounds delightful. In Dar Es Salaam is will be in the 80’s and humid. Anything after the 115-120 temps in India should be easy. We will go back to Dar Es Salaam for Ron to debrief the staff and to review his work. Next we will fly to the Serengeti where we hope to witness the great migration of the wildebeest. They follow the rain where they can get green grass for grazing and we hope our timing will be just right to see them. If not I am sure there will be other sights in the Serengeti. I will post in the blog as time and internet access allows. We return to Portland August 21^st.

We will travel to Iceland and Norway from Sept 5-16^th with Sandi and Bill Rosen. Ron’s sister and Bill live in RI and we will meet up in Iceland for yet another travel adventure. I will use this same website for that blog. 

A new set of adventures

It has been a while since we've posted to this blog.  There were two other blogs used to cover two large trips.  The first in 2014 where we traveled for over a year to Asia, Mexico and Central America as well as places in the USA using a blog address of www.OdysseyRT.blogspot.com   The second blog was was for a trip in 2016 where we spent 10 months living in India and another 3 months traveling in Asia using www.rtindiasojourn.blogspot.com.

Postings hence forth will be for two more trips.  The first to Tanzania including a safari in the Serengeti to see the wildebeest migration and the second to visit Iceland and Norway.  Stay tuned!