Day 3 – Safari (Moru Kopjes & Gong Rock)
Breakfast at the camp this morning before leaving at 7:30. We are heading South today in search of the Black Rhino. It was quite the drive so Ally drove with a purpose today so we could get there, search then begin the long drive back. Driving with a purpose here has a whole new meaning for me…lol!
There is a Black Rhino project here where the monitor the species to help from extension. Poaching here is still a huge problem so there are rangers in this area who live on top of the cliffs to help protect them. We learned that often poachers are just killed here because too many have been arrested but go back to poaching when they get out so it’s easier to just eliminate them. Something to be said for repeat offenders of violent crimes in the states. Visited the Rhino information center to learn about their history. A great guide full of knowledge and passion for these animals. You would have to love it to live way out here. You sure can’t just run down the street for milk if you forgot it on your way home.
No luck in spotting a Rhino today though. Since there are only 23 monitored animals on these planes, and they mostly graze alone, there was no telling where they were. The trip however gave us the opportunity to see the Kopjes, which are forms of rocks like none I have ever seen. There are many difference Kopjes, named for the tribe that lived there many centuries ago. This is Massai country. When in Arusha, we saw many of the Massai tribe which are easy to spot as the men still wear the red draped clothes as their daily attire. Would have been something to see these people still living upon on these rocks. There was one particular area where steps have been built so that you can climb to the top. Ally said he normally would not allow us to climb there unless there were other vehicles around because it has been known to have lions up there. But we all agreed we were game to try it. I know…wreckless right? Ally led the way making lots of noise to scare anything that might have been visiting the area. A few remnants of lions were present but no lions to be found. Let me say how glad we are we made that decision. What an amazing site from up there.
Back in the jeep and off to a lunch spot for a packed lunches. Arrived a favorite spot by many and were told we couldn’t be here because the President of Germany and the President of Tanzania would be visiting there soon. They were already setting up a huge spread for them by the Zebra refreshment company…lol! So we left in search of a new lunch spot.
Now for the excitement of the day. On our way to find a new spot we ran across a pride of lions laying in the shade of a huge tree not far from the road. It was an amazing site. 10 juvenile cubs in all and 7 lionesses (we never did see the males) however it was the same pride we saw yesterday, noted by one with a monitoring collar and one with a huge gash in her nose. Within a few minutes, one of the females raised her head and they all looked in one direction towards a herd of zebras who were making their way across the road into the area of the lions. In a split second 5 of the lionesses each rose and moved with grace to do their particular job. Can you believe this? A kill is just about to happen right in front of us. I didn’t think I wanted to see this at all until I watched how these amazing animals worked together with patience and purpose to feed their family. In a matter of maybe 15 minutes, they had completely formed a parameter around the herd and were waiting for their opportunity. In a split second one lioness made a move and the herd scattered, charged, ran…you name it. One of the lioness had to lay down in the road to keep from getting trampled. In that split second their opportunity was lost…they got away! We have a video of the whole thing and believe it or not it was sad. I hate to see the zebra loose it’s life but it was such an amazing thing to watch. Ally put it well, the lion laid down because no one wanted to die that day. They all made it back to the tree with the cubs to rest from their big chase.
We needed to make a trip back to the airstrip anyway (I’ll mention in a future post why) so decided to just have lunch at the airport. Now, keep in mind, without thinking, when were going to the same airstrip where both Presidents were expected in shortly. A guard at the entrance just let us on in, we parked and walked to the small building with our lunch boxes. We laughed because you can’t even get within 5 miles of the airports at home when our president is flying in. Tons of safari vehicles lined up to meet their arrival. A few armed guards and mostly people like us standing around with cameras. There was no concern to be standing along the strip for a photo op so I took it. Now, I have no idea who the president of Germany even is but figured it would be a great moment for Ally to have photos of “his” president. Planes landed and I snapped pictures of anyone coming off the plan. Ended up with great pictures of the German president but the Tanzania president was not there. Only the Interior ministers were there to meet him. Fun adventure to this trip, even though our original trip to the airstrip was not a success 🙁
Before heading back to camp we saw another Leopard in a tree. It’s so funny to see how they just chill and are so uninterested in us.
Back at camp at 4:30. Showers again at 6. Dinner at 7. Tonight we were joined by all the staff of the camp, except the chef. We had asked them all to join us when we first got there and they said they would on the last night. It was a great meal and a lot of fun. This crew has over exceeded our expectations. It will be hard to top it at the next camp. During our dinner, we were joined by a Hyena, just beside the tent. That just sort of cracks me up. I watched JJ leave the dining tent and walk to the kitchen tent, in the dark, with the Hyena sitting right there. He said, He knows me! They also shared that a few weeks ago a pride brought down a buffalo right in the camp area and stayed there for a solid week. JJ said they had approached him carrying the buckets of water to the tents to get a drink. He just dropped the buckets of water, walked away, let them get their drink and then picked up his buckets and carried on. OMG!!!! I guess there is something to be said for living in this country and feeling comfortable.
Back to the tent to be zipped in at 8:30. We packed, well Rich packed, played a few hands of gin and I caught up on my blog posts. Heard several lions throughout the night. I don’t think I will ever get tired of this. We leave for 2nd camp location tomorrow.
Woh I enjoy your content , saved to bookmarks!
Howdy, a helpful article for sure. Thank you.
OK, you outline what is a big issue. But, can’t we develop more answers in the private sector?
Great blog right here! You seem to put a significant amount of material on the site rather quickly.
How long have you been in this field? You seem to know a lot more than I do, I’d love to know your sources!
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this
post was good. I don’t know who you are but definitely you are
going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
I think I might disagree with some of your analysis. Are the figures solid?
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts.
In any case I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again very soon!
I was skeptical, but after a few days of swapping tokens, the seamless withdrawals convinced me.
I’m partial to blogs and i actually respect your content. The article has actually peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and preserve checking for new information.
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later. Many thanks
However, it is virtually all done with tongues rooted solidly in cheeks, and everyone has absolutely nothing but absolutely love for his or her friendly neighborhood scapegoat. The truth is, he is not just a pushover. He is basically that special variety of person strong enough to take all of that good natured ribbing for exactly what it is.
I am very happy to look your post. Thanks a lot and i am taking a look ahead to touch you.
Hello.This article was extremely interesting, particularly since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last couple of days.
Hi there all, here every person is sharing such know-how, therefore it’s fastidious to read this web site, and I used to pay a quick visit this web site every day.
Hey very cool site!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your website and take the feeds also…I’m happy to find so many useful information here in the post, we need develop more strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
I have been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I never found anything that grabbed my interest as much as this piece.
We’re developing a conference, and it looks like you would be a great speaker.
Could not disagree with the main ideas. Wonder how things will develop over the coming years.
We need to build frameworks and funding mechanisms.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about these issues today. Your material helps explain things.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
I absolutely adore your site! You aggressive me as able-bodied as all the others actuality and your broiled PS is absolutely great!
Please let us know when you plan to publish your book!
Simply want to say your article is as amazing. The clarity in your post is just great and i can assume you’re an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission allow me to grab your feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the gratifying work.
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates.
I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some
time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with
something like this. Please let me know if you run into
anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.
A good web site with interesting content, that’s what I need. Thank you for making this web site, and I will be visiting again. Do you do newsletters? I Can’t find it.
Very often I go to see this blog. It very much is pleasant to me. Thanks the author
My spouse and I stumbled over here coming from a different web page and thought I may as well check things out.
I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to checking
out your web page again.
Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins
to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank
for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains.
If you know of any please share. Many thanks!
My relatives all the time say that I am killing my time here at web, but I know I am getting familiarity all the time by reading thes nice articles.
Hello there, You have done an incredible job. I will certainly digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I am sure they will be benefited from this site.
Fantastic piece of writing here1
I have been browsing online more than 4 hours today, yet I
never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me.
In my view, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet
will be much more useful than ever before.
Your thing regarding creating will be practically nothing in short supply of awesome. This informative article is incredibly useful and contains offered myself a better solution to be able to my own issues. Which can be the specific purpose MY PARTNER AND I has been doing a search online. I am advocating this informative article with a good friend. I know they are going to get the write-up since beneficial as i would. Yet again many thanks.
Good day I am so glad I found your blog, I really found you by error, while I was searching on Digg for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a remarkable post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the minute but I have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the great job.
Might we expect to see more of these same problems in the future?
Ellentesque mollis laoreet laoreet. Nulla ut nulla sed mauris tempor pulvinar. Morbi quis nulla sit amet mi vestibulum vehicula. Pellentesque lectus metus, gravida ac sollicitudin at, ornare vel justo. Sed id arcu ac ligula malesuada accumsan.
Nice piece of info! May I reference part of this on my blog if I post a backlink to this webpage? Thx.
I discovered your weblog site on google and verify just a few of your early posts. Proceed to maintain up the very good operate. I simply further up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader.
I came across an article that talks about the same thing but even more and when you go deeper.
I personally find that customer support was friendly, which gave me confidence to continue. I moved funds across chains without a problem.
Tremendous issues here. I am very glad to peer your article. Thank you so much and I’m looking forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?
Oh my goodness! an amazing article. Great work.
Amazing! Its actually amazing paragraph, I have got much
clear idea concerning from this piece of writing.
Incredible quite a lot of terrific material.
Good points – – it will make a difference with my parents.
소액결제현금화는 휴대폰 소액결제를 통해
구매한 상품권이나 디지털 상품을 재판매해 현금을 확보하는
방식입니다. 신용점수에 큰 영향을 주지 않으면서도 긴급
자금을
Good points – – it will make a difference with my parents.
whoah this weblog is wonderful i like reading your articles. Keep up the good paintings! You already know, many people are looking around for this information, you can help them greatly.