I would like to thank Johan and Debby from Jenman Safaris for inviting me on this fantastic educational. I have so many awesome memories and far too many pictures to share. I have jotted down some highlights of each day which I would like to share with you...
DAY 1 ~ DURBAN-JOHANNESBURG-NAIROBI
DAY 2 ~ ARUSHA
Debby (Jenman Safaris), Lynn (Topwin Tours) and myself took the midnight flight to Arusha, stopping over in Nairobi, Kenya, for a couple of hours and finally arrived in Kilimanjaro International Airport, Arusha at 09h50. What a lovely place, I got the feeling of old school 70s style. Quiet and lush green. After meeting the team at Jenman Safaris, we stopped for lunch at an amazing colonial restaurant called Blue Heron and ended at our hotel, Moivaro Coffee Plantation. I learnt very quickly that locals do not like cameras pointed at them as they believe their spirit goes into the camera, so had to learn to be rather sneaky and got really good at it. Having said that, I did hand out many $1 notes in exchange for taking a photo! I also learned that the words POLE POLE means NO RUSH!
DAY 3 ~ LAKE MANYARA NATIONAL PARK
Debby and I started the morning off with a run around the Plantation, we almost got hideously lost but were very relieved when we found our way back! I had asked our driver Charmy if he could arrange some bean bags to steady our cameras on the vehicle. When he realised they didn't have any he actually got his sister to make us 3 beautiful rice bean bags. I was so amazed and humbled. We spent the afternoon at Lake Manyara and saw many things, some of which were: Sykes Monkeys, Olive Baboons, Paintbrush Lily/Fireball, Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, White-backed Vulture, Blue Waxbill, Green Sandpiper, Juvenile Marshall Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Von der Decken Hornbill, Wildebeest, Crowned Cranes, Bee-Eaters and many more.
We spent 2 nights at Ngorongoro Photographic Lodge, the lodge is build around a massive Baobab tree. In the evenings the flowers on the tree open up to the most beautiful massive big white flowers. We swam in the pool, saw the most incredible sunsets and we had a hedgehog visit our room. Funny story, big dung beetles kept falling into the pool and I kept wanting to save them. The Masai working there did not understand what I was saying and misunderstood me. He thought I was complaining about the pool being dirty, so every time he saw me, he would grab the pool net and start cleaning. And the worst part is, he would scoop up the dung beetles and then keep dunking them while cleaning the pool! Poor dung beetles! * thanks Debz for the pic!
DAY 4 ~ TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK
I really enjoyed this park and can't describe what exactly my favorite part was. When we arrived there was a tiny tortoise the size of my hand just making his way across our pathway. I saw hundreds of ellies. We watched several lions lazing under big baobab trees with blue and white skies. It is a stunning park and I recommend 2 days here. Every now and then you see a blue/white flag, this has been dipped in poison which attracts the tsetse flies. Much to the relief of both humans and animals!
DAY 5 ~ OLDUV(P)AI GORGE - SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
Today we headed off to Serengeti. We stopped at several curio shops, and thanks to me, we were behind on schedule! We had our first site inspection and saw the stunning Lake Manyara Wildlife Lodge. Beautiful old Colonial/Zanzibar feel to it with stunning old furniture. I loved the drive to the Serengeti, huge open spaces with white sand and little thorn trees everywhere. We saw several Maasai boys going through their initiation phase. We listened to a very interesting talk at Oldupai Gorge, although we were very distracted by the gorgeous birds flying around us and it wasn't easy concentrating! From entering Serengeti in the Southern Gate to exiting in the North Western Gate, we saw 2 seperate lion sightings, 3 golden jackals, several hyenas, various types of buck, giraffe, many bird species, hippos, buffalo, hundreds of wildebeest and zebra.
DAY 6 ~ SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
After a hearty breakfast we set off early to catch the early morning sun shining on the beards of the wildebeest as hundreds were crossing over our dirt roads. We saw a family of bat eared foxes playing in the distance. We saw a leopard sleeping in a massive big dead thorn tree. We saw 2 near kills by 2 separate families of lion. The first family being a mommy and her 2 year old cubs. Something has spooked the 2 cubs, which made the mommy run back to her young, we are still not sure what it was, but guessed it might have been a snake as we could not see anything large. The second near kill was a female lion that lured a baby zebra towards the whole family of lion, more than 18 lion were lying in wait for this poor little thing. However the lioness chased the baby zebra right towards our vehicle and it managed to dodge in between the 4x4's and escape the claws and jaws of several lions. We were all so relieved seeing the baby zebra reunited with his mommy was priceless! I tried to film the whole experience, but there is mostly grass and sky and lots of moans and cries from us girls! Too funny watching this movie clip! Just a dust cloud was evidence that something had happened. 
DAY 7 ~ SERENGETI - NGORONGORO CRATER RIM
Early start with breakfast on the road. I had an apple, which was obviously washed with normal tap water, I had terrible stomach cramps but luckily Charmy's "German tablets" sorted me out very quickly. We saw the same female lion with her 2 cubs. We came across a very unusual siting, there were 2 hyena and a leopard, each lying under their own tree. The leopard decided she wanted to be in the more comfortable shaded tree, but the hyena that was lying underneath it, refused to let her past. The hyena was particularly fat which made me wonder if perhaps she was pregnant. They stood hissing and glaring at each other for a couple of minutes and then the strangest thing happened, they both lay down and fell asleep, several metres apart from each other. Charmy said he had never in his life seen anything like it. And nor did any of the other guides who would not believe us when we told them! We saw another lioness attempting a kill but missed the wildebeest, however a kilometer down the road we came across the same family of lion from the day before feeding on a wildebeest. On our way out the park, we saw a dwarf mongoose with only 3 legs carrying her young baby by the neck, an owl in one of the Maasai kopjes, a female cheetah with her 2 young cubs and another family of lion sleeping in the base of the tree where the branches had formed like an enclosed fort. We did a site inspection of the gorgeous Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge overlooking the Crater Rim and we spent the night at 5 star Ngorongoro Farm House where we had bottomless cups of freshly roasted coffee. 
DAY 8 ~ NGORONGORO CRATER FLOOR
Another morning with packed breakfast on the road, we headed down the steep Crater Rim and spent the morning driving around the floor of the crater. Wow!! We saw several buffalo, birds galore. We found a huge male lion eating off an adult zebra where about 20 hyena and jackals were waiting patiently for him to finish so they could rip to pieces what was left. The male lion did something very interesting when he finished eating, he tried to cover the carcass by scraping heaps of sand onto it. I had only seen domestic cats do this so I was fascinated. We had lunch next to a fresh water lake, but were warned to beware of the falcon flying overhead as they were known to sweep down and steal lunch out of visitor's hands and giving them nasty claw scratches. We were fortunate enough to watch a female lion high up in a tree. Behind us a huge storm had been brewing and hit us faster than we thought, it made the lioness come back down and join her male friend and a few meters away were 3 young lions. All of them looking very miserable in the pouring rain. Charming Charmy was able to get us out of the storm and back up the crater with a few hair raising moments. On the way home we saw something that will be stuck in my mind forever, a truck had hit and killed a whole heard of goats. It was very traumatic to see someone's entire life and inheritance taken away in an instant, and the truck, was nowhere to be seen. We drove through downtown Arusha at night, it seemed as busy at night as it is during the day, buzzing with motorbikes, decorated in beautiful coloured lights.
DAY 9 ~ NAIROBI, KENYA
We traveled for most of the morning and had an hour transfer from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Osoita Lodge. The roadworks were terrible so we decided to skip all the excursions as it was already late afternoon. We spent the afternoon lazing next tot he pool and later I had 2 very special friends join us for dinner. It was nice to fianlly meet my "Kenyan Skype Friends" whom I have been dealing with for the past 4 years or more.
DAY 10 ~ NAIROBI-JOHANNESBURG-DURBAN
Spent day traveling and the end of an unforgettable trip....jpg)
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