Africa, the final push

We left the Serengeti behind headed for one of the most significant archaeological sites ever discovered, Oldupai Gorge.  Not being much of an archaeologists myself, I wasn't sure what to expect.  They had a very well put together museum overlooking the gorge, which we toured and learned all about the history of the site and its significance (this is where the first hominid remains dating back more than 3.5 million years were discoverd as well as the first place to uncover the use of stone tools by early humans).  After the museum we sat through a very informative short lecture by one of the local guides.  Our friend Phil, who we travelled with in Africa and also happens to be a wonderful naturalist full of knowledge, asked if we could drive down into the gorge and visit the actual site of the discovery, which we did next.  We got to ask more questions and learn more from the local ranger - it was all in all a great way to start the morning.

The second destination of the day was Ngorongoro crater, which was actually a caldera, home to abundant wildlife and is a typical starting point for a lot of Tanzania safaris.  The drive up to the rim was steep and the views down into the crater once we reached the top were nothing short of breathtaking (and of course we didn't get any pictures that come close to doing it justice, guess you will just have to visit to see for yourself).  Due to the number of visitors who go to the crater each day, all the vehicles are required to stay on the roads.  There were plenty of animals in the crater, and we saw a majority of the big five during our visit, but after being spoiled with up close and personal encounters in Lewa, the Maasai Mara, and the Serengeti, it was an almost anticlimactic end to our guided game drives.  How lucky are we to think that far aways animals (lions, rhinos and flamingos) are just so-so!  We left the crater and headed to our home for the next two nights, the Plantation Lodge.  It was located a little over an hour outside the park and we were all grateful to get there after 10 hours of sitting in the car.

When we arrived at the lodge we were greated by the very helpful staff and shown to our rooms.  The place was very nice and they had wifi so we could check our emails to see if the people we had emailed about helping arrange our Patagonia trip had gotten back to us.  We met Phil and Heather for drinks at the bar before having dinner and heading off to bed.

We got up early the next morning and drove back towards Ngorongoro, around the rim of the crater, and on towards another crater where we planned on taking a hike.  The trail started to climb slowly, and before we knew it we were ascending so steeply we were all out of breath and forced to take multiple breaks (it was also at an altitude over 8,000 ft). We made it to the top of the hill, which also happened to be the rim of the crater and the views were worth the effort.  We rested while we took in the sights and our guide offered to take us down into the crater via an equally steep trail to look a little closer at a waterfall we could see.  We politely declined because if we went down we would have to come back up! We made it back to Plantation early and spent the afternoon reading by the pool.

The next morning it was time to part ways, with Heather and Phil heading to Zanzibar, and Julie and I going back to Nairobi for one night before jumping across the Atlantic to South America.  East Africa was absolutely amazing, thanks to Heather and Phil for planning it all out!!!

Cheetah Stalking

We knew it would be a long travel day heading from the Mara in Kenya down to the Serengeti in Tanzania, but none of us were prepared for the multiple delays. First we waited almost an hour for our plane to leave the Mara north airstrip, and after a fairly easy trip across the border with Tanzania via taxi we sat at a small airstrip with three other people waiting until 4 for a flight scheduled to take off slightly after 2.

We finally met up with our guide David at the Ndutu airstrip and headed to camp while making a short game drive as it was already late.  In the Serengeti cars aren't allowed to stay our past 6:30 pm so we got settled into our tents and enjoyed some drinks by the fire where we met the other guests and shared stories of life and traveling.  We all sat down to an outstanding dinner before heading to bed.  Overnight we heard the lions roaring in the distance and the buffalo grazing just outside our tents.

Our first morning game drive gave us views of the vast plains that make up the Serengeti (which in Swahili means endless plain) and they were covered in so many wildebeest it was hard to tell if they were animals or trees!  We managed to find a cheetah with two cubs who were playing while we watched them for a little while.  Not long after we started watching they left to go hunting and of course we decided to follow.  It was a slow process as the mother stalked some gazelle and the two cubs stayed in the background and as such we were quite late eating breakfast when she finally made a run at her target.  It was an exciting few seconds but ultimately ended with the cheetah getting confused about which particular gazelle she wanted to pounce and they all ran off without harm.

After the failed hunt we ate breakfast under a shade tree and went back out to see if the cheetah was still hunting.  It didn't appear to be the case so we moved on and drove out into the massive heard of wildebeest - it was absolutely amazing to see so many animals grazing in one place.  We headed back to camp for lunch and a nap before leaving again for a quick evening game drive.  We found the same group of cheetah and watched them for a little while before finding a different group comprised of a mother and 4 cubs.  We again got to watch the mother stalking an unsuspecting gazelle but ultimately she lost interest when several land cruisers parked between her and her cubs.  We assume all they wanted to do was get some good pictures but felt bad for the cheetahs who were going to go hungry after these human intruders broke up the mother's hunt.

The next morning we all decided that we weren't interested in watching cheetahs for hours at a time so we headed off in search of hippos, which we found at a small lake.  They weren't doing much since they are nocturnal but they made a great backdrop for our breakfast.  We drove around the lake without seeing anything too exciting but as we continued on we came across a family of elephants.  The biggest bull of the group was tusk less but was also the largest elephant any of us had ever seen!  After leaving the elephants we headed back to camp and somewhere along the way we saw a baby wildebeest, still wet from being born, running full speed towards the road.  We all thought he was cute and stopped to take pictures but when we all shifted from the right side of the vehicle to the left to continue snapping the wildebeest stopped near the front tire and attempted to adopt the landcruiser as his mother.  Our guide had to shoo him around the back of th evehicle and then quickly take off in order not to run him over.  The poor thing chased us for quite a while before he could no longer keep up.  Although it was kind of sad to know that he lost his mother and would never be adopted by another, at least one of the many predators would benefit by getting an easy meal.

We were very tired and I took a nap after lunch before our last evening game drive in the Serengeti. We went in search of leopard but with no luck we eventually came across a group of lions who were sitting very near a wildebeest herd and stopped to watch, thinking they may be ready to hunt, but the wildebeest eventually wondered off and the lions just slept. We spent another wonderful evening in camp with great food and great company before heading to bed.

Check out the rest of our Tanzania pictures here

Topi-riffic

We left Lewa heading for the Masai Mara in southern Kenya.  Our journey by plane lasted just over 3 hours and included 2 stops to drop people off and pick people up before it was our turn.  We enjoyed a brief game drive on the way from the airstrip to our camp, Kicheche, where we were briefed about how things would work over the course of our two night stay.  We arrives in time for lunch, which was outstanding, and then had some time to relax before our first real game drive at 4 that afternoon.

Waterbuck

Topi

Wildebeest

We met our guide, Benjamin, and discussed the things we had seen in Lewa along with our hopes for things to see in the Mara while we headed out.  We were able to immediately add a couple of new animals to the ever growing list including tons of wildebeest and topi.  Before long we found three cheetahs lounging around on top of a hill.  Not long after leaving the cheetahs, it started raining but that coincided with spotting a leapard so we didn't mind at all. We sat in the jeep and watched the cat hangout under a tree until the rain stopped and then spent another forty minutes following it around while it walked and groomed itself.  It is one of the prettiest cats I have ever seen.  Here we were, barely 4 full days of safariing under our belts, and we had seen all three of the big cats!  We returned to camp for dinner, which was every bit as delicious as lunch, and then headed to bed excited to see what we might find the next day.

We left for the morning game drive at 6:30 with the goals for the day being to find hyenas, hippopotamus, and lions.  The first one we found was a hyena, but Benjamin was high tailing it towards a lion that had been spotted not far from where we were.  We found ourselves watching a lone female walk across the plain, causing several topi and impala to be on high alert.  She found a little shade under a small acacia tree and plopped down, where we watched her do nothing for a while before heading off in search of more animals.  We came across a couple of hyenas guarding their dens before we stopped for breakfast overlooking the Mara river and a couple dozen hippos.  After breakfast we followed a baby giraffe walking with her mother who was so new she still had her umbilical cord attached.  We then found a large group of elephants destroying trees before finishing up with our first glimpse of hyena pups. Not a bad morning by any standard!

After our linch and afternoon break we headed out at 4:00 to see what else we could find in the Mara.  We came across a group of three lions first but they were just resting, not really interested in posing for our pictures.  We left the lions after observing them for a while and went in search of more baby hyenas, and found two who were willing to oblige us with a few poses.  After the baby hyenas it was more lions, first another group of three, then shortly thereafter a group of four who looked like they might be preparing to hunt.  We watched as two warthogs approached, completely oblivious to the lions presence, and two of the four cats were getting lower and lower to the ground in what looked like a pouncing position.  Unfortunately before either one got the chance to jump, a third lion stood up from a nap and scared off the warthogs.  I don't think it would have been enough food anyways!  We finished off the evening with a sundowner under one of the prettiest sunsets we had since arriving in Africa.

You can see more of our pictures here

Honeymooning Lions

I can't believe we have already been in Africa for 4 nights.  So far the trip has blown away our expectations.  We spent one night in Niarobi and caught a flight to our first camp, Lewa Safari Camp, early the next morning.  As the plane prepared to land we looked out the window to see a herd of elephants and then a dazzle of zebras right next to the runway.  Needless to say we were all pretty excited.  On our drive into camp from the airstrip we were in awe.  At every turn there was another animal.  We saw gazelles, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, ostrich and tons of other birds and animals I forget the names of.  Many of the animals would only be 10 to 20 feet from our jeep!  Upon arriving at camp we were shown to our "tents".  They were spread out all over the camp with great views of the surrounding plains.  We sat on our deck and counted giraffes on the hill.  At 4 we loaded up in the jeeps again for our first official game drive.  The highlight of the night is when our guides spotted a cheatah.  They pulled the jeep right up to the cheatah and spend about 20 minutes watching it move from shady spot to shady spot.  200 and some odd pictures later we were again in awe of Africa.  We were able to get closer to a lot of animals then we had on our drive to camp and got some great photos.  Each evening drive ends on a hilltop to watch the sun set and stretch your legs.  Not too bad for our first safari day.

At 6:30 the next morning we went on our first morning game drive.  We started laughing when we realized that zebras were now nothing to get excited over.  How lucky are we that after one day of safari we have seen so many zebras that they were almost like cows in the Midwest of the United States.  We managed to come across two male white rhinos who were fighting over territory so we stopped and watched them dance around for quite a while.  Next we stopped for breakfast on a hilltop where Phil made friends with approx 200 little red ticks, yuck!!  The evening drive was spent searching for lions, and we found 2 different pairs.  The first pair we spotted was a male and female on their honeymoon.  They were so hidden in the grass that I didn't realize there was a female lion there until she stood up, and we were only 15 feet from them.  We left the first pair after getting a radio call about more lions across the park.  We took off and our guide, Alex, wasn't being shy about getting there.  Up to this point our Land Cruiser probably hadn't topped 20 km/hr but we might have approached 80 as we raced past things we had already seen in our search for more lions. The second pair were sleeping away the afternoon perched on an overturned dead tree and we were able to get a few good pictures before moving on to enjoy our sundowner.

Our third day in Lewa repeated the same schedule, starting with a morning games drive where we were lucky enough to find the honeymooning lions again and watch them mating before we stopped for breakfast.  After eating we went in search of garanuk, the last animal we needed to spot to finish out the "Northern Five."  On our way to a remote part of the conservancy we passed a watering hole where there were 15 or so elephants drinking and splashing themselves.  While we were watching them play another family came down the trail and before we knew it there were 25+ elephants all hanging around.  We took enough pictures to run our camera battery out of juice!  Not far past the watering hole our wildlife guide spotted the garanuk across a valley s owe took off in that direction.  It wasn't until we were right next to the animals that any of the rest of us could actually see them which is a testament to his eyesight.  Or evening game drive sent us on a quest for leopard and so we explored parts of the conservancy we hadn't yet seen.  We managed to get caught in a rain storm and saw plenty of wildlife, but we had our last sundowner at Lewa without having seen  the third big cat.

We left Lewa with over 300 photos (after we edited out the bad ones) and you can see our favorites here.

Check out the rest of our pictures here

Lady Elliot Video

Lady Elliot Video

This is a quick peek at some of our footage from Lady Elliot Island.  We were on the island for 5 days, but only got to dive on day 1.  Ex-cyclone Oswald set us indoors for days 2-4.  Luckily on day 5 a nest of loggerhead turtles come to surface and made their run for the ocean.  It was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.

Losing our third wheel

We were able to get out of Bundaberg heading south to Brisbane since those were the first roads to open again after the flood waters started to recede.  After dropping off the camper van we spent the night in a 3 bedroom apartment/house which was the only hotel room we could find.  After spending so much time cramped together in the van we were excited to be able to spread out a little!

We flew to Sydney only two days later than we originally planned and got busy exploring right away.  We stayed in Darling Harbour and visited the Sydney aquarium our first afternoon.  The next day we walked down to the Opera House and bought tickets to see a show called La Sorie later that evening.  We caught an IMAX film about coral reefs and then caught the hop on hop off tourist bus to see what we could learn about the city.  Although Julie and I have had great luck with these buses in other cities, the tour of Sydney was more of a dud.  The commentary was always way ahead of our physical location and when we hopped on the bus to Bondi Beach, it started raining and the roof of our bus leaked so bad it looked like we had taken showers with our clothes on!

We got back to our apartment and cleaned up before heading off to our 10:00 show, which turned out to be the highlight of our time in Sydney.  We caught a ferry from Darling Harbour over to circle quay and were treated to stunning views of the Sydney Harbor Bridge with the Opera House in the background all lit up.  The show was two hours of non stop amazing ness.  Between comedians, puppeteers, acrobats, gymnasts, tap dancers, and other circus type acts we couldn't take our eyes off the stage.  

We packed up and shared a cab to the airport the next morning where Tyler left us - he headed back to California and we headed to Perth for a week in Western Australia.  It was nice to have some company after spending so much time just the two of us.  We really appreciate that Tyler was able to take a month of his life to spend with us in Australia.  We wish him the best of luck in his job search!

After landing in Perth we picked up our rental car and headed to the visitors center to make some decisions about how we would spend our time.  After looking through numerous brochures and talking to one of the ladies behind the desk we decided to head south to Bunbury to do some diving.  Our first day of diving saw us going to the Lena Dive Wreck along with two other sites where we saw numerous fish, nudie branches, and even a small ray.  We decided to keep our rental gear for an additional two days and check out a couple of shore dives on our own.  We went to Canal Rocks today and had a blast exploring all the swim throughs and hangovers.  We even saw a really large ray on the way from shore to the rocks.  Tomorrow we will dive Busselton Jetty which is supposed to be outstanding before we head back to Perth for ur last few days in Australia.