More Postings from our East Africa Trip

After numerous delays (I'm lazy), I finally added some blog postings about our trip to East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) in July. Go to the right hand column and click on "July" to see the blog postings from that trip and to see the animals. I'll be adding more in the next day or two.

Right now I've got to go feed our animals. Winston and Spencer are sitting outside my office door giving me that look indicating it's time for their dinner.

They went to the "day spa" today and got bathed and groomed. They are very handsome and they know it, prancing around like they're at the Westminster Kennel Club show.

Winston has this disturbing habit that as soon as he gets home from the groomer, he goes into the pool. It's like he got infected being around all the strange dogs at the groomer's and needs to cleanse himself of their smell.

Watch out for the speed bumps

Lions are lazy. They must sleep 22+ hours a day. No wonder they are a member of the cat family. We came across these lions laying in the road. It's their road - we had to drive off the road to avoid them. Did they budge? Of course not. Only when they wanted to change their sleeping position to stay in the sunlight. (We were 5-10 feet from these lions and they couldn't give a hoot that we were there.)

Serengeti National Park

We finally made it the Serengeti National Park in the northwest of Tanzania. Last major stop on our trip.

We had yet another long, bumpy ride to get here from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

We stopped at Olduvai Gorge - supposedly the crater of humankind, and several game viewing locations along the way.

We are at the tail end of the famed wildebeest migration from the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya. This time of year the migrating herds travel north. We saw the herds in the Masai Mara that had already made the migration. These guys either were late to the dance or too stupid to figure out how to get there.

Wildebeests are very dumb. Normally, zebras accompany the wildebeest herd and point them in the right direction.

Guess Who We Ran Into?

















This morning we visited the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. This place is enormous and teeming with wildlife.

As we drove along in our dependable minivan, who should we come upon?

Bill Clinton! He's in East Africa to visit five nations on behalf of his charitable foundation. The Africans mob him like a "rock star." They idolize him.

We got within a few feet of him. I hope his cardiologist doesn't see the photos of him with the cigar.

Just think, we and Bill Clinton were looking at the same group of hippos at the same time. (I'm not referring to former White House interns.)

When Men Try to Do Women's Work

We shot this video in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. As you will see, three male lions tried to attack two Cape Buffalo. Big mistake!

It's usually the female lions that do the hunting, and once they have a kill, they let the males eat first. I guess these males got hungry and didn't want to wait around for the females to do their job.

I think they went back to sleep for a while - they got tired out with all the exercise. They need some training.

Click on the arrow to start the video.

Off to Africa (again...)

This week we leave for another journey to Africa - this time to the East African nations of Kenya and Tanzania. We are flying to Nairobi (via London), spending nine nights in Kenya and three nights in Tanzania.

The cameras are ready, lots of memory cards packed, and the video camera is charged up. We even packed our "safari" vests - they look very geeky, but they come in handy.

Caren has been warned not to touch or feed any of the animals. We've started taking our malaria pills and the bug repellent and Cipro are at the ready.

Unfortunately, we first have to fly to NY, then endure a long flight from JFK to Heathrow, followed by an even longer flight to Nairobi. Kenya is 10 hours ahead of California - I hope the kids can figure out the time change when they call.

Here are the hotels/lodges/camps we're going to in Kenya:

Sarova Stanley Hotel, Nairobi
Sarova Shaba Lodge, Shaba National Reserve
Mt. Kenya Safari Club, Nanyuki
The Ark Lodge, Aberdare National Park
Sarova Lion Hill Lodge, Nakuru
Sekenani Camp, Maasai Mara National Reserve

In Tanzania, we're staying in a lodge at the rim of Ngorongoro Crater and a lodge in Serengeti National Park.

Even though we're going to be near/on the equator, it's the dry season (winter) where we're headed, so the weather should be in the 70s during the day and the 40s or 50s at night. Nairobi Weather Report: