hey sally here!
we just finished our african safari. it was definetly a dream of all of ours and it was so awesome. our safari was guided by Maasai Wanderings, a safari group that also works with the maasai tribe (but that comes later.) we had 2 awesome guides and safari trucks that had pop-off roofs so we could stand up and check out the animals.
we saw everything! elephants, zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, antelope, impala, tons of monkeys, cheetahs, lions, warthogs, the list goes on and on. i was surprised by how close the animals got, we literally had to stop to wait or we would run over zebras. at one point, the car i was in got in a standoff with an elephant. they cant see very well but their hearing is super sensitive. so a bunch of elephatns were crossing in front of us and a big mama turns towards us and is literally starign at our car. keep in mind elephants are huge. so shes all protective of the herd and starts flapping her ears to hear us, since she cant see, and to make herself as big as possible to intimidate us. (it worked) we all stoood compleetely silent and luckily she didnt hear us or she might have stampeded our truck! so she just turned aroudn and walked away with the rest of the herd PHEWWWW
we also saw a skeleton of an antelope that a leopard caught and dragged up into a huge treee to eat. the guide said it was about a month ago, and the bones were still hanging there! it was crazy. we also saw a stand-off between a cheetah and a warthog, it was awesome, and im pretty sure the warthog won….
each night, we camped at a campsite and had our meals cooked for us as part of the safari package. each day, we went on safari for most of the day- the first day we went to Tarangerie (sp?) national park, and the other 2 days were spent in the Ngorongoro Crater. One of the days we woke up super early adn got into the Crater early in the AM to see different animals and were hoping to see a hunt, since they usually hunt at night/in the morning, but werent so lucky. but it was still really cool seeing the sunrise over the crater so totally worth it.
maasai wanderings dropped us off out in the maasai village that we’re spending the next week. we turned off the main road and drove about 3 miles out into the middle of the desert where we found a Boma, or a big circle of thorns outlining the home of the Maasai family we’re staying with. The thorns are to keep the animals out, since the desert is directly between the Tarangerie park and the Crater, so animals migrate right through the village. today was our first full day with them and we ahd the day free, so a bunch of us came into town. to give you an idea of where we’re staying for the next week i will describe our getting-to-town process. First, we walked 3 miles to the main road. We then watied 20 minutes for a taxi, which was packed with maasai people, 5 goats and a sheep. we then got dropped off at the market, and 3 of us were to come further into town to use internet. we started walking for another 20 minutes or so with our guide and ended up hitchiking the rest of the way into town. all in all it took 2 and a half hours from our Boma.
T.I.A. (This is Africa!)
We miss you all and love you but we’re having the times of our lives! <3
