Maji Moto – part deux

Tierney and I finally made it to Maji Moto (remember last time for the maji moto outing, I stayed home with a sick Tierney?).  Our friend Elizabeth (from TNC) is staying with us this week, so we thought it would be a fun outing for her to see a different side of Tanzania.  After almost an hour down very dusty dirt roads, through villages, you come to this little oasis:  warm and very clear water rushing out from an underground cave surrounded by lush vegetation. 

I must say that I was a little nervous when we got there because there was a giant monitor lizard on the bank, but he quickly scurried away and I got over my fear of running into him again.   As much as I can appreciate monitor lizards, I really don’t want to go swimming with one.

The kids amazed me with their swimming ability – the current is very strong where the water runs out, so it’s hard to get anywhere.  Tierney was jumping in, Anderson was swimming with just his water wings, and Ash was showing off her swimming skills by swimming across the whole thing.  They all slept the whole way home. 

 

Yes, he’s a big boy now.

Don’t answer the ‘red’ calls

Last week, Mama Jackie and Elizabeth came to work on Saturday morning and starting telling Joey and me about how approximately 20 people from the village died when they answered phone calls from a ‘red’ number.  Joey tried to explain that there was no way a phone # could send something into their brain to kill them, but I don’t think Mama Jackie and Elizabeth believed her.  Then when I met up with Matt in the Serengeti, he was telling me that there was similar story that he’d heard while he’d been out, but that the people had received a red SMS (text message).  We were trying to figure out if we could even get ‘red’ messages/caller-id’s on our phones since they don’t have any color.  I must be safe then.  Phew!

Tierney helping Matt and Samuel build a banda (shade structure) for our hammock.

Sundowners in the Monduli hills just west of our house.  Gorgeous evening.

   

Visit to the snake park:  snakes, turtles and camel rides, oh my!

 

I made Mama Jackie come with me to do some fabric shopping.  She said that the shopkeepers were very disappointed to see her with me (because then they couldn’t give me the “mzungu” price).  I’m certainly glad that she came along.

We are really looking forward to Webb and Jeff’s visit next week ….and not just because they can re-stock my chocolate chip and parmesan cheese supply ;-)

Serengeti with Matt

  Amazing time.  I have never seen so many wildebeest (in my vast wealth of experience ;-)); they were everywhere – even walking around our tent grunting all night long.  We saw so many other amazing things; some of the highlights for me include the cheetah and seeing so many lions including a very pregnant mama and a cub feasting on a wildebeest.  The Sayari camp where we stayed was very high end – being greeted by name with warm washcloths as soon as we pull in from game drives, amazing food, and we even took breakfast out with us one morning so we could eat out ‘in the bush’.  Very cool.  Even the flight there and back was great – flying over Lake Manyara National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. They even had to clear the runway of wildebeest for us to land.  The only thing we didn’t see was a wildebeest river crossing.  Our last morning we sat by the river waiting and got to see thousands of wildebeest lining up along the banks (with a few zebra thrown in), but we had to leave for our flight and never got to see the exciting jumps into the water.  Good thing we’re heading back to the same area over the kids’ October break to try again.

Even after over a week on safari Matt still seemed to be confused by the wildebeest noises in the middle of the night and he kept thinking that it was his cell phone buzzing – in all fairness since we were right on the Kenya border he did get a welcome message from the Kenyan cell service provider, but when he kept telling me to check my phone I knew he was a little confused (it was turned off in my bag).  That did not help my plan to get a lot of sleep, but it was worth it, especially when our morning wake-up was fresh coffee brought to the tent with cookies. 

Landing strip at Kogatende

View of zebra and wildebeest from pool

Dining tent with our tent behind

Traffic Jam

     John (driver/guide) checking to see if it was safe to cross the river.  Check out the dead wildebeest on his right (didn’t smell too nice either)

 Although it may appear that he was '”happy” to see us, he really wasn’t.

Very pregnant lion. One of four lions that were walking away from the wildebeest kill pictured just below.

When we arrived here there were no vultures, but we watched them all swoop in as the lions retreated.  

Wildebeest as far as you can see.

Cheetah!

Marking territory (and you must need to be a cheetah to smell it; we checked) 

Cub feasting on a wildebeest

Isn’t he gorgeous?

View of cloud bank as we flew over Ngorongoro Crater on the way home.

 

Some more pictures:

And the kids all seemed to survive just fine without us; they may even have enjoyed it a little.  Looks like we might be able to sneak away again sometime.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, a HUGE welcome to my newest nephew, Michael Wilkinson.  Born Sept 10, weighing 6 lbs, 10 oz with a full head of blonde (??) hair. 

Congratulations Joanna and Mike!