Wildebeest herd on Serengeti plain (click to enlarge picture)

Who knew there was such a variety of antelope? We remember getting excited just seeing deer roaming residential neighborhoods when we lived in Austin, so this was a delight for us. The big draw at this time of year is the 1.2 million strong wildebeest herd that arrives by January for the calving season. But we spied each of the antelope pictured below several times during our safari. To us, their horns exuded simplicity and elegance, which made us wonder what Africans would think of the multi-point antlers of our American deer species.

(L) Mother & calf, (R) Wildebeest play group?

Wildebeest sparring

Impala have adapted to the woodlands; they turn on a dime and leap bushes with ease

Male impala: that’s a pretty good McKayla-Maroney-not-impressed face

We saw antelope species we had never heard of before – such as this topi

And the closely-resembling hartebeest

A female waterbuck with a lustrous “bib” growing on its neck

Thomson’s gazelles head-butting; the cheetah’s favorite prey, they practically fly when they run & randomly zigzag

Grant’s gazelles look like bigger brothers to Thomson’s but are a separate species (almost double the size and no racing stripe)

An eland — the largest antelope species

And the smallest antelope, a dikdik, barely taller than the grass and about the size of a large rabbit

Are zoos bad then? I think all people would prefer to see animals in the wild, but that’s not really possible. This safari trip actually makes us appreciate zoos more, especially when geared toward education and conservation. Think of zoo animals as involuntary ambassadors for their brethren in the wild.

Looking closely at a majestic African elephant

Baby elephant and mother

It was mesmerizing to watch all the ways an elephant uses its trunk: eating, washing, caressing, trumpeting

An elephant enjoying a thorough mudbath

A very popular hippo pool in the Serengeti. In video below, everything is peaceful until one hippo decides to switch positions.

In another pool, an elephant intimidates hippos by splashing with its trunk

Elephant family crosses the water

A baby hippo tries to figure out how to get in the water

Remember “Hungry Hungry Hippos”? They really do open their mouth that big to eat a small bite

A herd of cape buffalo in the Serengeti

A posse of buffalo relaxing on Lake Manyara shore

A big bull buffalo – dried mud embellishes the fanciful horns

Giraffes in the Tarangire River

(L) Symbiosis with the birds, (R) Close-up with another giraffe

A giraffe family in the Serengeti

Baby and mother zebra in Ndutu area

Another, slightly older juvenile zebra

A very pregnant zebra in Lake Manyara

For some reason, the pregnant zebra was chased; Susan thought maybe it was a way to induce labor

Only 26 black rhinos live in the Ngorongoro Crater; the first two we saw from more than 1000 yards away

Our best view of this extremely endangered species

Eye to eye with a young lion

We are all spoiled by the outstanding footage captured by BBC Nature. Let’s just say we were hoping to watch a big cat stalk, chase, and ultimately catch one of its prey, but our safari company told us only about one in twenty trips are lucky enough to see a kill (we were one of the 95%). We learned quickly that most of the time, cats in the wild are like the cats in a zoo: they just laze around in the sun. The differences in the wild are the sheer number, the occasions when they do prowl, and of course the lack of fences or walls. All the big cats we saw made us want to watch an old episode of Thundercats.

Lions
You will definitely see lions on a safari; we saw 51 in our short week. They are far and away the most fearless animal, cowing to nothing in the savannah even the Toyota Land Cruiser. This cat is also the most social — sleeping with their prides and playing among the siblings.

A lioness on the lookout from a tree trunk

Lions have spots, too! They fade with age.

Lions gathering at a watering hole

Two male lions resting in the shade

Young male lion on the prowl – notice the mane growing in

Lioness walking through a crowd of nervous wildebeest

Pride of lions resting on kopje rocks in the Serengeti

Brave lizard staring down the lions

Siblings playing (see video below)

Cheetahs
Our cheetah count hit ten on this trip. We learned afterward that the Serengeti is one of the best places to see cheetah in the wild. We were lucky to spot two families in the Ndutu area and drove within feet of their resting place under the tree.

Cheetah family in the shade

Mothers raise cubs alone – so this mother successfully raised four cubs!

Beautiful spots and markings

Yawn and stretch

This male cheetah in the Serengeti had just finished eating (face still bloody) and got up to look for some shade

He found it under a tree right next to the road

Leopards
By far the toughest cat to spot is the leopard because they are naturally shy and camouflage so well. We only saw three leopards and would have missed them all had it not been for our guide. See if you can spot the leopards in the pictures below. We needed much assistance from Thomas as he showed us where to look in our binoculars and camera lens.

Try to spot the leopard – click the image to blow up to 4000 pixels

Hiding in the right tree of the two trees on the left of the previous picture

Ready for another leopard spotting test?

Right in the middle of the previous picture

Tarangire National Park
Two things distinguish this park: trees and elephants. In one afternoon of game driving, we easily saw over 800 elephants. Tarangire also has the distinctive baobab tree, which inspired Disney’s “Tree of Life” in the Animal Kingdom.

So many elephants! (see video below)

The landscape of trees but still with good visibility

Baobab in Tarangire – note the lions laying in the shade

Lake Manyara National Park
Underground springs and the lake define this park. Thick forest rings the lake which looks nice, but makes animal spotting nearly impossible. The lake itself was dry when we visited, and our guide promised that every year it fills up during the heavy rain season of April and May. If your time is limited and you had to skip a park, this is a good one to miss.

The thick forest at the entrance of Lake Manyara

Near the source of hot springs feeding the lake

This dry lake will fill up in the next two months during heavy rains

Lake Ndutu of Ngorongoro Conservation Area
While not a separate park, Lake Ndutu sits inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area between the Crater and the entrance to the Serengeti. This was probably our favorite game drive location for one reason: off-roading. Everywhere else we went, vehicles had to stay reasonably close to the unpaved roads, but here our guide was free to drive anywhere.

Lake Ndutu

Grass and trees in Ndutu area

Serengeti National Park
Serengeti comes from the Maasai language and means “endless plains.” We knew about the grasslands that stretch to the horizon, but there were also granite formations called kopjes creating islands of vegetation. Susan made the unusual and fitting comparison to Matsushima Bayin Japan. The endless plains do resemble the ocean, especially when the winds whip up “waves” in the high grass.

Flat-top acacia trees in the Serengeti Plain

Elephant grazing in the endless grass

Granite kopje interrupting the grassy horizon

Giraffe eating and another kopje in the background

Ngorongoro Crater
Being an UNESCO World Heritage site also means that the crater is suffocatingly popular. Vehicles are limited to only six hours in the crater, and you spend at least ninety minutes of that time just going into and out of the crater. The attraction is the density of the animals: they are all here and concentrated in one place. This is also one of the few places where you can see the extremely rare white rhino. The drawback is the limited roadway access and the crowds; this was by far the most congested park we visited.

View of the crater from the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge (click to enlarge)

View from inside the crater up the wall (and flamingo studded lake)

The Serengeti

Where?
The first question to ask when figuring out a safari. The three most popular options are Kruger National Park in South Africa, Okavango Delta in Botswana, and Serengeti/Masai Mara in Tanzania/Kenya. These are quick impressions of each from reading opinions online. We didn’t really research other options such as Zambia, Uganda, Namibia, or Zimbabwe.

• Botswana: least crowded, but also most expensive. Unique boating and walking safaris. Best lodging options and getting close to animals.
• S. Africa: Park was fenced in past, so better animal density but can feel like zoo. Accessible but crowded. Self-drive safari possible.
• Tanzania: the Great Migration. Expansive landscapes. Greatest number of animals.

We chose Tanzania because that was the image of Africa in our mind (see picture above) reinforced by all the nature shows I watched on PBS as a little kid (and on BBC as a big kid). After traveling all over the world, we learned how much a stunning landscape can humble the soul and inspire awe for our Creator.

Wildebeest calf suckling

When?
This question is equally as important as the first. Wild animals move around constantly, especially in the Serengeti where they can migrate without regard to borders or fences. We knew we could only travel in February and finding out that the wildebeest herds were calving in the Serengeti area clinched our decision to head to Tanzania.

Besides tracking which animals will be where, the dry and wet season is also a major factor. While wet season sounds nice because the grass will be green and the land lush, animals are more spread out and harder to spot. Dry season concentrates animals near a few watering holes, and the short grass also makes animals easier to spot.

With our safari driver and guide – Thomas from Base Camp

Who?
Now that we narrowed ourselves to Tanzania, we had to find a safari company – and fast! We were scheduled to arrive in Arusha, Tanzania in less than two weeks. We emailed almost every company listed on this TripAdvisor post (see the fourth message). We narrowed it down to Roy’s Safaris, It Started in Africa, Base Camp Tanzania, and Access2Tanzania. Ultimately, we chose Base Camp because of price, responsive communication, and good reviews.

Since we booked so last minute, our only option was a private safari, but the cost was only marginally more than a group tour. We highly recommend taking a private safari over joining a group tour of more than six people (think G Adventures or even posh Abercrombie & Kent); to save money, try and travel as a group of four (hunt travel forums such as Thorntree to fill out a group). With more than four people, the vehicle will start to feel crowded especially when everyone is trying to position themselves for a good view or photograph. Of course, we recognize that our private safari for two is ridiculously unsustainable tourism and had a few conversations about how to control crowds better, which does nothing to absolve the guilt.

Anyway, a few good questions to ask:
• Is the vehicle a pop-top with shade? (You will definitely want shade)
• An exact itinerary including game drive locations and lodging choices
• What does the total include (park fees, insurance, water, etc)?
• What is not included (tips, extra meals, airport transfer)?
• Ask for a specific guide if you have heard good reviews
• Where are you based? (USA = easier payment/communication, Tanzania = money stays local)

If you’re going the private safari route, don’t hesitate to ask for changes to suit your interests. And tell the company what you hope to see or don’t mind skipping (we passed on the Masai Village and Olduvai Gorge tours). If there’s one lodge that you really want to stay at, ask for it or at least check to see what the price difference would be.

At the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Hello friends!

We’ve been silent on this blog for almost six months now, and just wanted to update on what’s been going on. As you can imagine, when you’re traveling full-time for a year, there’s ample time to reflect on life and the future. We became more sure that we wanted to build a family through adoption, and that realization hastened our return home. Our plans were to travel for two or three years but decided to cut that time short and start the long journey of adoption. It turns out adoption agencies don’t like prospective parents who have no jobs or permanent addresses!

We chose to move back home to Houston and settle here. Susan has returned to benefits consulting working with old friends. I am pursuing ordination as an elder in the United Methodist Church and working part-time at Spring Woods United Methodist Church, an amazing church family.

On the adoption front, our original hope was to adopt an infant through Taiwan. Right when we were about to enter the pool of waiting parents, the program in Taiwan closed because they needed to focus more on their domestic adoption program; they had been placing too many children internationally. At that point, we made the decision to adopt locally in the States, and we are presently waiting for a match with a birth mother. The standard wait time is a year to a year and half, but unexpected circumstances can surprise at any moment.

As for our travels, since we can be matched anytime, we knew any big trip had to be taken now. So we booked a flight to Tanzania, found a safari tour, and went to the Serengeti & back all in less than a month. Africa was our seventh continent, and we’re glad we could make the trip before our lives gets flipped upside-down!

I’m planning on sharing a flurry of posts on this blog: about our safari, some thoughts on a year of travel, and miscellaneous travel tips before slipping back into blog hibernation.

Rhodes
While technically belonging to Greece, we found Rhodes to be much closer to Turkey, not just geographically, but culturally. Nothing is left of the Colossus of Rhodes, a giant statue that straddled the entrance to the bay and one of the ancient seven wonders. But the town’s history reflects its location between the East and the West, a fortress city that has endured occupations and takeovers by a roll call of classic empires. Today, it’s tourists (just like us) that sustain the town, and we found Rhodes overrun with tchotchke shops that all sold the same items.

One of the gates into the walled city of Rhodes

The Street of the Knights – who would fall to the Ottomans & flee to Malta becoming the Maltese Knights

The Ottomans eventually held the city for four centuries & the influence is easily seen

Looking across the city walls to the ship rising in the distance

Mykonos
Docking at Mykonos, we entered the Cyclades and our introduction to the colors and architecture of Greek islands. These islands are the peaks of an underwater mountain range, and each has their own mythical story (Mykonos being where Zeus battled the Titans). The charm of the old town pedestrian streets makes a baklava quest a certain delight.

Mykonos and the stunning ocean colors of the Cyclades

The photogenic Church of Panagia Paraportiani – icon of Mykonos

Pedestrian alleys spiderweb across the old town of Chora

Once functional but now decorative windmills

(Very) Little Venice of Mykonos named for a row of houses built against the sea

Sublime Orthodox interior of the Metropolis Church

Santorini
Our final stop in Greece is the one treasured by romantics (and sure enough, we witnessed a marriage proposal at an overlook). Santorini is a volcanic caldera—not unlike Deception Island in Antarctica—that birthed the legend of Atlantis. The island is shaped like a horseshoe with all the settlements built at the top of the volcanic rock. With the classic use of whitewashed walls, the caldera resembles a snow capped mountain range from a distance. Here, the tiny towns are overrun by cruise day trippers and begs for an overnight stay, but alas we could not accommodate on this trip. We have good cause to return given that Santorini vies for the title of world’s best sunset.

Approaching Santorini by tender boat from the cruise ship

Atop the caldera in the town of Fira

We headed to the town of Oia in the distance by public bus

In the town of Oia — unmistakably Greece

A stray dog settled in for a precipitous view

Oia sits at the tip of one end of the Santorini horseshoe

Oh to spend a week here…

Relics from volcano demolished Akrotiri are housed in the Museum of Prehistoric Thira

There’s old, then there’s 3800 year old marble basins

And also 3800 year old blue monkey frescoes — color preserved by mounds of ash

Save time and money by treading the donkey trail down instead of the cable car

A visual feast of Santorini

Ancient Ephesus near the Kusadasi port of Turkey

Our furthest point east was Kusadasi, Turkey where the ruins of Ephesus lie. This is New Testament country, and the first time we had really set foot in the lands of the sacred books. The seven churches of Revelation 2 are all located in this region of Turkey, and yet this cradle of Christianity is now 99% Muslim. Ephesus is not reachable by any public transportation, so signing up with a tour is necessary. We found the private tour option much more agreeable than the cruise excursions; the cost is half but you do assume the risks & costs if somehow you miss the embarkation time.

The major stop is Ephesus, where the site preserves the mystery of an ancient city. Here the throngs of tourists actually strengthened the experience of the city when we strolled down the main avenue and imagined ancient, urban chaos. Even after two thousand years, the buildings speak of the wealth that the city once possessed. Standing in the theater and recalling Paul’s dramatic time at Ephesus (Acts 19) was an unforgettable moment.

The Odeon – a small theater for 1500 wealthy patrons

All that remains of a temple to the emperor Domitian (a ruthless persecutor of Christians)

Carvings for Asclepius, god of medicine, and Nike, goddess of victory

The sloped main street through Ephesus

Public, communal toilets

The reconstructed facade of the Library of Celsus — all original stonework

The columns of the agora/marketplace

The Grand Theater — seating 44,000 and the largest of the ancient world

History (or legend) tells us the Apostle John eventually settled in Ephesus, bringing along his charge, Mary the mother of Jesus. A nun in Germany who had never been in this region had a vision about finding the house of Mary, and following her directions, Mary’s home was discovered. The home itself is humble and plain, probably not worth a sidetrip, but also likely to be part of a tour package. We much preferred wandering through the ruins of St. John’s Basilica. On this short trip, we had a chance to see the tombs of Peter and Paul, and this basilica is said to house John’s remains but when his tomb was opened, only dust blew out. It was here, on the hill of St. John’s Basilica that we heard for the first time the haunting Islamic call to prayer echo across the streets below.

The simple House of Mary

A wall of prayers outside the House of Mary

The Basilica of St. John

Sixth century baptistry inside the basilica

Where the remains of John were said to have laid