September 2010

At

the beginning of September I was still in Zambia. Went to the South Luangwa National Park which was amazing. The first night while eating dinner we had a run in with a few Elephants. We were just finishing dinner when we spotted an Elephant at the camp ground next door. So we all quickly jumped into the truck leaving everything outside. We had been warned earlier that Elephants do come through camp. We were advised to stay in our tent if thats where we were or get into a building or the truck. So that is what we did. I had the not so bright idea of leaving my camera on my tripod by a tent. I was hoping to get a video of the Elephants going through camp. But instead I had left my camera in dangers way. We made our way to the top of the cab by the time the young male Elephant got to our camp. There was probably 10 of us on the roof. We watched as the Elephant came into camp and dug through our garbage dumping everything out on the ground. Eventually there were 3 adult Elephants and an infant. They tore out all the food items from the side of the truck. Flour, Rice, old fruit salad, everything. The owner had us move to the back of the truck. Then he fired to shots in the air towards the Elephants. It was quite accelerating. Everyone was fine but our bins took a beating. After I checked my camera which thank god wasn't even touched helped clean up all the garbage on the ground. That night after falling asleep I could hear/see a hippo eating grass less then a meter from my tent. Don't even have to go on a game drive here, the animals come to us. The next day we fended off baboons and vervet monkeys in the morning and

another Elephant. That evening went on a night game drive. I saw my first Lions. 8 lioness' by the river and a male and female. We also saw Zebras, Antelope, Water Buffalo, Hippo's and Elephants. The highlight was finishing the quest to see the Big 5. Saw the most elusive of the 5 a leopard. It was crouching in the grass getting ready to go for a meal. Amazing. Thanks to using Gab's 100-400mm prime I was able toget nice and close and get some descent pics. Left Zambia for Malawi where we spent a night in the capital Lilongwe. We spent the next few days at Kande beach where we chilled out at the "beach". I put it in quotes because it is a fresh water lake. Though there are waves and sand I still don't consider it a beach. Had a local wood worker make a Malawi Chair for me. On the seat of it it says to Kenji from Mr T. Lol. I found this a lot in Malawi and North ward. The Locals would give them selves nick names so the tourist wouldn't have to try and pronounce their given names. So there was names like Mr T and Hollywood but the best one that I heard was a guy

who went by "cheese on toast". Doesn't get any more original than that. Left Malawi and found our selves heading to Dar es Salam, Tanzania. We left Mark and the truck there and went over

to Zanzibar where we got ourEgyptian visa and hung out at the beach and in Stone town. Highlights of Zanzibar was snorkeling, night market and the spice tour. When we got back to

Dar es Salam we had a new driver since Mark had to go home for some vacation/personal time. We headed up to Arusha to go to the Serengeti and Ngorogoro crater. We stayed at Snake park which has a few snakes as the name suggests and has some crocs. The camp caters to overland trucks so there were a few trucks there.

We left the next morning and headed to Ngorogoro crater. Had lunch at the top then headed to the Serengeti. There was a mishap with the money we paid. The boss had collected it and was supposed to deposit it at the bank but for some unknown reason they were not able to use the company debit card. We spent 3 hours waiting at the gate for something to happen.

Eventually Sonya gave them her card so we could at least get in. Called Chris to let him know what was happening. The rest of the trip was amazing. Very good food and good animal sittings. Got to see another Leopard this time in the early morning with a kill in a tree. Saw a lioness with 4 cubs following her. Saw a black rhino. It was amazing altogether. Didn't see the massive migration but not everyone is lucky enough to be there at that time. When we got back from the Serengeti Chris had booked the Gorilla's in Uganda already. So we are going to rush through Kenya in order to get there by the dates he booked. Each Gorilla group has contact with only 8 tourist for 1 hour every day. This minimizes the amount of diseases they are exposed to and keeps them from being dependent on humans. We hit a few hic ups along the way including Ruby breaking down. Gab having Malaria and $500 going missing. Chris was able to push back the dates so we were able to limp our way to Kisoro where we did our Gorilla tracking. Went into Mghahinga Gorilla National Park.

I went on the second day. It was amazing. I would be lying if I didn't say that I expected to much so my expectations

weren't met so I was disappointed after I had done it. But thats just because people who had talked about it before talked about all these amazing things they saw them do. Our group we had was sleepy when we got there. So they laid around. We spent most of our time with just one of the Black backs. Which in its own way was awesome because we got to see a lot of the little things about the gorillas like how they roll over just like a human. I guess this means I have to go again. haha. Ended the month in Kisoro.

Pictures:

Top to bottom.

Lion and Leopard at South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

Dinner.......Yum. Kande Beach, Malawi

Children who were hanging outside the house that we ate lunch at after the Spice tour in Zanzibar

Zanzibar snorkeling trip. Mnemba Atoll.

Zanzibar pizza at the Night Market. Don't know what was in it but it was awesome.

Boys chilling out. Hyena cooling off. Cubs feeding. Lioness and cubs. Cheetahs in the grass. Leopard with its kill. All taken at the Serengeti, Tanzania.

Mountain Gorilla peeking through grass. Uganda.

Zebra Taken at Serengeti.