The next phase of our trip was safari in northern Tanzania, but to make it possible we had to spend a hungry day organizing travel details in hectic Dar, where finding daytime food wasn't happening in the predominantly Muslim city center. Luckily nightfall magically transformed the streets into barbecue feasts. We also found time for site seeing the German buildings, drinking extremely strong coffee with locals, and touring the smelly fish market and sea shell stalls. Then it was an all-day bus to Arusha through sisal plantations and Rift Valley landscapes, including an up-close view of Mt. Kilimanjaro and its disappearing glaciers. We went with a "luxury" bus company so even though it was 10 hours at least we had our own seats. We had already done our homework sorting through potential scams and booking a safari tour since it is nearly impossible to visit the northern parks without your own 4x4. We chose a camping safari so our Land Rover was packed with tents, sleeping bags, pads and all our food, along with affable Cosmas, our guide/driver and Luc's new best friend and Sokoine the cook and another Italian couple. To describe in brief, the luck on this safari was the kind that happens once in ten years. It was like driving in a National Geographic documentary, seeing highlight reels that take naturalist thousands of filming hours to compile. Janet had specifically requested cheetahs, and presto! Our first day in the Serengeti we see a cheetah chasing a Thompson's gazelle, which escaped leaving the winded sprinter panting in plain view 10 feet from Janet's window. Serengeti means 'endless plain' in the Maasai language and the scene was indeed that, a sea of golden grass so easy on the eyes, punctuated by the iconic flat-topped acacias. We also saw Pride Rock, islands of granite called 'kopjes' dotting the otherwise flat landscape. Speaking of Simba, we saw more lions than we can count, sleeping, eating, playing with their cubs, posing next to the road and on our last day, in Ngorongoro Crater, providing some serious fireworks for the grand finale. A pride of 15 lions took down an adult buffalo, the specific event our guide had coincidentally told us the first day was the most exciting thing he'd seen in his 7-year career. He even let us climb on the roof of the safari vehicle to get better views of this once in a lifetime spectacle. Janet teared up as the lions struggled with all their force and cunning to take down the mighty beast. Eventually the roars, grunting, and splashing ended as the buffalo surrendered and the lions chowed down. Time to make our exit from this amazing bowl of wild animals... but wait! What's this? There a lioness in the road. She had been stalking a herd of wildebeest for the past three hours and we happened to arrive for the exciting climax. We had the prime spot and quietly watched her creep closer and closer to her prey, carefully peaking over the berm of the road until she had just the right spot, her skill and patience apparent to all except for the unfortunately oblivious wildebeest. So with Janet silently cheering her on, she made her leap and in a cloud of dust, came up with a wildebeest by the throat and slowly suffocated it to death over the next 5 minutes. Exhausted she laid in the grass to recovered, exposing her bloody fur. Janet was also exhausted and tearing up again. The thrill of this final encounter was the intimacy, taking place all within 10 feet of Luc's front seat window. The extraordinary of watching what is ordinary for the lion and the completion of the circle of life is a memory we won't forget, especially since we have so many amazing pictures we hope to post as soon as we get a good connection. Although totally overshadowed by all the lion drama we also had lots of other amazing safari moments: Janet spotting a hidden serval cat while our guide tracked the illusive black rhino, flamingos flocking in the alkaline Lake Manyara, ostriches, huge herds of zebra, wildebeest and buffalo, a leopard in a tree over the road causing a traffic jam while munched on yesterday impala catch, gazelles prancing and swishing their tails, and all our other favorites, like giraffes, elephants, hippos, warthogs and the rest of the Lion King menagerie. Cosmas told us that when he has good clients, good things happen; we just felt lucky to witness so many aspects of Africa's natural riches on our five day safari.
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