Moshi Urban, Tanzania

We gathered together this morning for a group photo at the hotel shot by our NG photographer, Jay. Heading out of our hotel in India at 7:15am on our way to the plane for Tanzania. It was a quiet day on the streets of Agra as our bus drove through town. Sunday is a day of rest in India. The streets were still brimming with roaming cows, water buffaloes, monkeys and roosters. Our plane crew greeted us all decked out in Indian attire…beautiful sari’s and jackets that they commissioned yesterday! They all look so pretty and festive. They even did a Bollywood dance at the end of the flight to celebrate our newlyweds big day. Chase surprised his fiancé Claire Suzette with a wedding ceremony at the Oberoi. So sweet. Scheduled on board lectures today include Jay Dickman speaking on Photographing Wildlife & Nature. Maybe a lecture by Rob Hernandez on Africa (he has the flu). Team Doc, Emilie, is passing out surgical masks for health precautions due to all the sickness in the group. Had a nap. Cold is on the mend…just a persistent cough that many of us have acquired. Time to start drinking again. Hallelujah! Now enjoying Baileys pre-lunch! After a 7.5 hour flight, we arrive in Kilimanjaro and catch a 30 minute charter plane into the Lake Manyara airstrip (dirt strip). We’ll then hop into our safari vehicles for the 2 hour bumpy, dusty drive to the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. This was our most exhausting travel day so far. Really long day in planes and safari vehicles to get to the crater lodge. We got to witness firsthand the behavior of the very aggressive Baboons here. A safari vehicle stopped near us and the second the door opened, a Baboon jumped in to the vehicle to start ransacking things in the car. It was so funny watching the guys trying to shoo the animal out of the car. They’re a huge nuisance though. Apparently, when the population gets too out of control, they bring in some African bushmen tribesmen who hunt and kill and eat them. The drive from the airstrip to the entrance of Ngorongoro was a bit surprising. It was like Main Street Tanzania. Initially the roads were nicely paved and have what our driver calls “sleepy cops” ie speed bumps to control speeders. Lots of shops, people hanging out, Pepsi signage, tee shirt shops, etc. Not at all what I was expecting to see this far into Tanzania. Got to wave and say hi to lots of local tribes along the drive. We were greeted by locals singing and dancing for us as we arrived at the Lodge. They served us Champagne and Mimosa’s and fresh hot towels as we disembarked our vehicles. We enjoyed a great lecture by Louise Leakey, a NG researcher working in the Kenya area now on fossil exploration. Enjoyed dining with her after the lecture. She is so interesting and so very passionate about continuing the work started by her Grandparents and continued by her parents. We need to watch the Netflix Documentary about her husband’s work in the Congo, which is up for an Academy Award. He was the victim of an assassination attack recently, but amazingly survived and continues his work. We had a fabulous dinner in the lodge last night. Food is excellent. Jim has fallen in love with the local beer, Safari. I indulged in some great South African white wine. They served delicious appetizers during our lecture. No shortage of great food and beverage on this trip. Our Butler/Safari warrior has to walk us to and from our hut at dusk or dawn to protect us from the wild animals that can be roaming around the lodge. The Cape Buffalo are very aggressive and deadly. We ran into 3 of them on our way to bed last night. That’s a bit scary! Hotel: Ngorongoro Crater Lodge Gift: Wooden African Tongs and Appetizer Bowl $1 = 1600 TSH