I am travelling with an old college friend, Jeff Dallas, and we are having a great time. We have spent 7 days camping in northern Tanzania and 3 days at a wilderness lodge in southern Tanzania. We have seen so many wild animals. Here are the highlights followed by a brief description of the itinerary.

Highlights: Watching an elephant from 50 yards away in our camp run away in terror from a small jackel, tracking two cheetahs and coming upon them within 1 minute of a kill and watching them, still panting, as they attended to the kill, seeing two hienas play tug o war over a gazelle head and one ran away laughing with the head in his mouth, seeing Olduvai Gorge and where Australopithicus was found, finally showing in some beautiful waterfalls after 6 days of no shower, Kili Time every night in camp ( similar to Miller Time ), the camp food ( delicious ), seeing a lion pride of 20 from 10 - 20 yards away and watching the cubs play attack one another for about 30 minutes, coming within 5 yards of lions and looking them in the eye, watching 9 lions eat a giraffe kill ( similar to the average American Thanksgiving Dinner ), hanging out with some Masai teenagers at our camp ( we were very popular ), camping in the middle of the parks, alone, and hearing lions, hiena, hippo, and elephant at night, and staying at Mwagusi River Lodge and waking up to elephants going by our tent within about 40 yards.

We have seen so much in the last two weeks I do not have time to write it all because the internet is expensive here. The wildlife viewing, camping, food, and scenary have all been amazing.

Itineray:

7 days of camping in the National Parks of the north. Day 1 was Lake Manyara, great plain near a drying lake where all the animals hang out. We camped right beside the plain with views to all the animals as they walked by. Day 2: Traveled to the Serengeti through Masai country. The Serengeti is a huge plain or sea of grass with some tree country in the north. We saw a leopard, cheetah, and a huge lion with a fantastic mane. Camped two days and heard lions and hippos each night. Day 4: Ngorogoro Crater, we saw the elusive black rhino and camped at the crater rim. Day 5: walked into Empakai Crater and watched thousands of Flamingos take flight, tough walk back up and then we walked 10 kms to a campsite in the middle of Acacia trees next to a Masai village, with a Masai guide and donkeys. Next day walked 10 more kms to Lake Natron, also Masai country, with their holy mountain which is a beautiful volcano near by and ended the day by getting clean in some beautiful waterfalls.

Last 3 Days were spent at Mwagusi River Lodge in Ruaha Park in southern Tanzania. Tons of animals and wild. We saw a lot of lion up close. Our outdoor lodge was on the sand river and elephants walked right in front of us as they ate. It was luxury as well and we are sorry to leave.

Off to Rwanda in a day for gorilla trekking.

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