Easter and Safari

HAPPY EASTER!! Well ok, its a few weeks late, but it still counts. My Aunt Sylvia and Uncle David came to Africa for a visit! It was so nice to spend some quality time with them J Its their daughter that I am living with so it was neat to for them to come over and spend Easter with their grand kids all the way in Africa. (Now if you are confused of this family situation, so was my 3 year old cousin…I am living with my moms, brothers daughter, who is my first cousin, her daughter is Ellis and is my second cousin which makes my Uncle David, Ellis granddaddy. Make since?? It’s ok if not.) ANYWAYS…we got spend Easter together! We went to church came home and had Easter lunch, and then had an Easter egg hunt. It was so much fun, Here are some pictures of the afternoon. 

Since our house keeper had 4 days off, we got put to work cleaning.

My last week in Africa I went on a Safari to Lake Manrya, the Serengeti, and the Ngorogoro Crater. It was WONDRFUL! It was just my Aunt and Uncle and myself who went on the Safari, we left the kids and parents at home for the week. It was probably for the best too because it would have been ruff for a 3 year old, shoot it was rough on a 25 year old!! It was a ton of driving, on horrible roads and a lot of sitting. It was quite enjoyable, but after about 3 day I was done with Africa and its roads J

The roads...with monkeys

My uncle and I on Safari!

The first place on our Safari was Lake Manyra. It is just this giant lake in the middle of Africa and all the animals stay there and never leave because they have a constant water source. We saw like a billion animals on the first day! It was a nice way to start out trip!

The thing to do when you go on a Safari in Africa is to stay in a tented camp. In my mind I was thinking Ok, tented camp…like what I slept in for Kilimanjaro, or what you would sleep in when you go camping right? Wrong. This is the “tented camp” we stayed at.  I could get used to this kind of camping.

The second day we drove about 6 hours to the Serengeti. Along the way to there we passed through the Ngorogoro Conservation Park. This is the where a lot of the Masai people live. They are the only people allowed to live in this area and still hunt in this area. They are a fascinating people and culture. They really don’t like you do take their picture, so this is one that I got as we drove by slowly J

we also passed lots of Giraffes. These were prob by far my favorite animal to see. They were so graceful and just amazing to look at! About 100 of my pictures from my safari are of giraffes…my bad.

Look at the horizon, there are 6 giraffes standing out there. Amazing.

 

These next few pictures are from the trip in to the Serengeti. It was just so vast and you could see for miles. These pictures do not even do it justice.

The Serengeti. 

  
While we were in the Serengeti we had the chance to see something that very few people get to see with their own eyes. If you have seen the Lion King, then you know what this is, but it was INCREDIBLE to see and hear right in front of me. It was the Wildebeest Migration. This only happens twice a year, and over 50,000 wildebeests migrate from Tanzania to Kenya. It is amazing.


                                                                                             

The Serengeti, its what everyone thinks of when you think of a African safari, and I am here to tell you that it is exactly what you have dreamed of. It is incredible!! But I am also here to tell you that it is not the end all be all place to go for a safari. There is another place that I think it 10 times better than the Serengeti, but it is not as famous, it’s like Africa’s hidden gem. It is not really hidden, but people in America do not really hear about it as much, it is the Ngorogoro Crater. It is a volcano that collapsed on itself 100s of years ago and created this large crater. Since then animals have became inhabitants of this crater and they have never left. Granted, they can’t really leave because they can’t get out, but why would they want to, they have everything they need in this MASSIVE crater! The pictures of this thing do not do it justice. So, if you ever decided to go to Africa and do a safari, yes go to the Serengeti because it’s the Serengeti, but make sure you include the Ngorogoro Crater!

Looking down into the crater

Two female lions and one male lion chilling in the sun

these things are scary and ugly.

Those are Warthogs

A cheetah in the wild hunting! We didnt see it kill though :(

These my friends, are Rhinos. They are very rare to see!

Hippos! One of the most dangerous animals in the wild.

Over all the Safari was incredible. I am so glad that I did it. I could not leave Africa with out going on one! I would have to say that my African experience has been one of the most incredible things I have ever done. I still cant believe I have gotten to do some of the things that I have done. People tell me that they are jealous of my life, and my response to them is, I am jealous of my own life! I cant believe that I get to do this! I am very blessed. 

I only have a two more blogs left because I leaving Africa. It is a very bittersweet ending.

Until Then, Siku Njema.