Sat am July 2

It's before lunch sitting on the porch of our tent watching baboons traipse around the dry riverbed. Large extended family with little ones playing tag and wrestling while the older ones are parked
around the periphery. On the bank under some trees a huge elephant is framed by some acacia trees flapping his ears. Impala are grazing on the bank and the occasional warthog trots across the river bed.

This morning we got up before dawn and a MassI escorted us to the main area for a quick Tea and coffee before heading out into the dark back to the National Park. Dawn here is unlike what we a familiar. Instead of the eastern horizon starting to glow the entire sky seems to lighten at once. Not sure if this is always the case but it was today. We drove into the park in the dark with wildebeest and zebra crossing in front of us. As the sky began to lighten the Savannah took on soft glow and we could make out elephant and giraffe along side the road.

That was david now from Melanie - last night (a weemawek a weemawek) He didn't sleep last night
In the jungle the mighty jungle he didn't sleep last night
And neither did his elephant friend

It was so cool. First I woke up to trumpeting. The elephant was obviously in camp because he was close by. I awoke a couple of more times to his trumpeting. Then there was a new sound. I'm getting paranoid so I woke David. That's a lion he said. Don't tell me that I said. So he said that's an airplane and went back to sleep. As if. Then I spent the rest of the night worrying how we would get by the elephant AND the lion. But by 5am they had quieted down.
So as David said the Massi came to escort us to the safety of the lodge carrying his trusty - flashlight. Oh this is gonna go well me thinks. So I start planning. If it's an elephant in our way the Massi can climb on Davids shoulder and I can climb on his shoulder and bop the elephant on the head with the flashlight. If it's a lion we can just reach out and bop him. If that doesn't work we'll die. Good plan, right?

I'm not sure if we mentioned our tent looks out over a river bed. The river bed has water during the rainy season which ended in May. It's dry as a bone now but it wasn't a very wet rainy season which is obviously a problem. Anyway the animals all walk down the riverbed just like we stroll through the mall. So that's what David was looking at when he described the baboons etc above.

I also should mention that Kruger park in So Africa has a fence around it and the hotels and campsites are outside the fence. Not so in Tanzania. No fence and the animals are free to roam. Pretty smart choosing Tanzania, huh? Really it's extremely cool. So when they built the park they said to the folks that they had to move 10 km outside the perimeter. They said no thanks we've been living here forever. The problem is many raise cattle and goats. The animals in the park, since there's no fence, roam wherever and cattle have been lost. The moral of the story is when we complain about the snow and cold it could be worse. Our cattle could be eaten by lions.


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Melanie Fri part 2

Note to self. Don't drink 3 cups of tea before going on safari. I forgot to write about the school of baboons I saw. Ok they're not called schools but I don't know what they are. Anyway if you ever want to buy A baboon a gift consider a baby pack front pouch. I'm blocking on the brand name. there were mucho mammas and babies and the babies were carried on their mothers backs holding on for dear life. Then there was a mom with a baby about 1 week old. He was holding on to her belly and she was walking along like that. Ouch.
This is my last story today. Promise. So this is what I hate. The guide said he'd pick us up at 6am tomorrow. We told the manager and he said please be careful walking Up to the lodge there are elephants and lions on the property then since it is still dark at that time. I've had it. I said how should we be careful in that situation. He said don't go. Great the guide will be waiting for us not an option. So he backtracked and said lions and elephants are rarely both in camp at the same time but if they are the make slot of noise so go back in your tent You can count on that. Sorry girls I'm making your dad walk in front.
By the way the pictures aren't uploading so you'll have to wait until we get home.


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Happy birthday Lew

- Posted from the ipadWe left the lodge and maybe quarter mile away we came to 5 zebras and a wildebeest. Zebra are pretty funny looking. I don't remember them having such striped faces from the zoo! Apparently wildebeest don,t have good vision or hearing so they hang around zebras and rely on them to warn them of danger. Next we came upon 4elephants. I wish I was articulate enough to describe them. They wereLARGE with the most soulful eyes I never realized how large their Trunks were. They brush the ground. The zebras don't have matching stripes. They kind of start horizontal and then go vertical. But they're so white they shine. Of course with black stripes. They young zebras are brownish with black stripes and they aren't as striking. Then there's a teeny tiny antelope called a dik dik it's the size of a dac hound with a longer neck. Very very cute. Next a baboon- no sway to say this politely - with blue balls. Actually they were teal. I was embarrassed for him having to walk around like that. Enough said. It reminds me we had lunch at a Punic area and our guide warned us the baboons and monkeys are very aggressive about food and we should be careful (again this kind of advice is less then useful for me. What should I do be more aggressive, go hungry. Help me with specifics please). Anyway were eating our wonderful lunch and there's a group of elderly (anyone 10 years older then me) when a baboon jumps on their table and grabs the box that has their lunch. They shouted at him but believe me he got louder and uglier then they did so they gave up and retreated. Then all his other baboon friends came to join him share . And no i did not share my lunch with those that were foodless. So you tell me who's the dumbest animal. After that incident some tourists fed a young baboon some banana from his hand. The baboons wanted more andante to take it. Then the tourists started throwing rocks at them to get them away and the baboons hissed and got scary so they retreated. Then mother babs came up and screamed and hit the youngsters and all of a sudden the tourists are going OH poor babies. I hated it when people screamed at me for hitting my children in public!

The adventure that is travel

Amsterdam has been pleasant. We got in at 6am and were able to crash in the KLM lounge till boarding at 10. Boarding was easy and civilized. We had a pleasant chat with a gentleman from LA who is also going on safari. He's getting ready to retire and using up all his sick leave by doing three trips a year. But he's getting tired!

Its pretty clear that this is a tourist flight. The aircraft is full with most everyone in kaki sporting a backpack of some sort. Quite a number of three generation parties with gramps reading the grandkids from the guidebook.

We've been sitting here in the plane for awhile and it was just announced that we'll here awhile longer - at least another 1.5 hrs.. Apparently things are especially hot in Libya right now so everything is being diverted around it which clogs up the lanes. Somehow the headaches in Greece add into this as well. Not quite sure how that plays into it.


Not going to stop Melanie from catching some Z's

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Location:Amsterdam

Sun over Ireland

Watching the sun rise over Ireland on way into Amsterdam


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Location:Vertrekpassage,Schiphol,Netherlands

Before and after

I'm testing a iPad blog app and figured I'd compare the apples when we leave with what they are like when we're back.

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Location:Tully

It's June. Everything is green, the roses have started blooming, the apples have set on the trees, strawberries are here. The school year is winding down and after a long day grading papers interspersed with making batches of jam, it appears it was time for a little bird cleanup.


Ya' think it's time we got our of Dodge?