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.
Hola! I’ve been following your blog for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead
and give you a shout out from Austin Tx! Just wanted to say keep up
the great job!
Hello! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone 3gs!
Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts!
Keep up the excellent work!
I believe everything posted was very logical. However, think on this, suppose you added a
little information? I am not suggesting your
information is not solid, but suppose you added a post title that makes people want more?
I mean Day 3 – Safari (Moru Kopjes & Gong Rock) | African Adventures of Peep and Pickles is kinda boring.
You could glance at Yahoo’s front page and see how they write news titles
to get viewers interested. You might add a video or a pic or two
to get readers excited about what you’ve got to say. Just my opinion, it would make your blog
a little bit more interesting.
Sometimes, the sheer magnitude of the information seems overwhelming.
Unlike CoolSculpting, which ices up fat cells, SculpSure ruins fat cells via heat (a process called apoptosis).
This will be helpful for my family.
Hey! awesome blog! I happen to be a daily visitor to your site (somewhat more like addict 😛 ) of this website. Just wanted to say I appreciate your blogs and am looking forward for more!
bookmarked!!, I like your site!
부산호빠 가격은 어떤가요? 부산호빠의 주대는 1시간 기준 평균 100,000원~250,
000원이며, 술 세팅은 양주 또는 소주맥주무한 등 가게마다 달라요.
주대와 T/C 이 외에도
I like to spend my free time by scanning various internet resources. Today I came across your website and I found it has some of the most practical and helpful information I’ve seen.
Might we expect to see more of these same problems in the future?
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your website.
It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for
me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme?
Great work!
You write Formidable articles, keep up good work.
This is valuable stuff.In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers developed their content they way you have, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever before.
Great info! Keep post great articles.
Hello. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!
Just what I needed to know thank you for this.
each time i used to read smaller articles which as well
clear their motive, and that is also happening with this article which I am reading at this place.
I Am Going To have to come back again when my course load lets up – however I am taking your Rss feed so i can go through your site offline. Thanks.
We’re developing a conference, and it looks like you would be a great speaker.
This information is critically needed, thanks.
Howdy I wanted to write a new remark on this page for you to be able to tell you just how much i actually Enjoyed reading this read. I have to run off to work but want to leave ya a simple comment. I saved you So will be returning following work in order to go through more of yer quality posts. Keep up the good work.
Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
“PIX instantâneo cassino” virou o filtro número um nas reviews de plataforma 2026.
The post is absolutely great! Lots of great info and inspiration, both of which we all need! Also like to admire the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer! I will bookmark your website!
A friend of mine advised this site. And yes. it has some useful pieces of info and I enjoyed scaning it. Therefore i would love to drop you a quick note to express my thank. Take care
hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve certainly picked up something new
from right here. I did however expertise some technical points using this website, as I experienced to reload the web site many times previous
to I could get it to load correctly. I had
been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will very frequently affect
your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with
Adwords. Well I am adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for much more of your respective interesting content.
Make sure you update this again soon.
That is very fascinating, You are an excessively professional blogger.
I have joined your feed and look ahead to looking for extra
of your fantastic post. Also, I have shared your website in my social
networks
Im impressed. I dont think Ive met anyone who knows as much about this subject as you do. Youre truly well informed and very intelligent. You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. Really, great blog youve got here.
Howdy! I just want to offer you a huge thumbs
up for the great information you have here on this post.
I’ll be coming back to your blog for more soon.
That’s some inspirational stuff. Never knew that opinions might be this varied. Thanks for all the enthusiasm to supply such helpful information here.
There most be a solution for this problem, some people think there will be now solutions, but i think there wil be one.
I will share you blog with my sis.
Is it okay to put a portion of this on my weblog if perhaps I post a reference point to this web page?
A friend of mine advised me to review this site. And yes. it has some useful pieces of info and I enjoyed reading it.
Hello this is a wonderful write-up. I’m going to e mail this to my friends. I came on this while searching on yahoo I’ll be sure to come back. thanks for sharing.
I’ll immediately grab your rss as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or
e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please allow me know so that
I could subscribe. Thanks.
If you wish for to take a great deal from this piece of writing then you have to apply such techniques to your won blog.
Hello this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!
Spot on with this write-up, I truly believe this website requirements a lot much more consideration. I’ll probably be once more to read much much more, thanks for that info.
This is my first time i visit here. I found so many helpful stuff in your website especially its discussion. From the tons of responses on your posts, I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here! keep up the excellent work
Thank you pertaining to sharing the following great subject matter on your website. I ran into it on google. I am going to check to come back after you publish additional aricles.
I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the net will be much more useful than ever before.
Developing a framework is important.
Wow, wonderful blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is excellent, let alone the content!
There is definately a great deal to find out about this issue.
I love all of the points you have made.
This contained some excellent tips and tools. Great blog publication.
Thanks for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience!
Write more stories, more chapters.
Thanks for your posting. I also believe laptop computers have grown to be more and more popular currently, and now are often the only form of computer used in a household. This is because at the same time actually becoming more and more cost-effective, their working power is growing to the point where these are as robust as desktop coming from just a few years back.