Serengetti Tanzania, it not easy for the migrating herds or us to get here. We left Sri Lanka flying to Maldives then on to Gwenzow China for a 19 hour layover.
Dopey us we left Sri Lanka wearing shorts, tee shirts and sandals well China is winter time and the JFK sized airport was well not tropical. Joy finally gave up
after buying a $90 China Polo sweatshirt and somehow got the airline to pull our luggage out of the system and get some warmer clothes.It was pretty amazing that
out of all the bags they could get these bags to us in the airport.I decided to stay cold and just have some soup. Well when waiting around 19 hours the minutes take hours.
Finally we were off again in a warm plane heading towards Kenya a quick stop there we were in the air again and this time we flew over
Mount Kilimanjaro and the Captain dipped the plane sideways so we could see the Glacier and crater at the peak.It was great inspiring me to want to climb her well that was
until we landed and I saw just how tall she was 11,000 feet our plane at a hard time getting over her what was I thinking. Anyway soon we were on the way to Ngorongoro crater
and with a four hour drive ahead of us we were just about to expire.We finally made it 55 hours after leaving Sri Lanka we were on the edge of the world looking down.

Ngorongoro Crater is a extinct volcano that blew her top 3 million years ago and left a ten mile crater with shear walls and only a few ways in. Over the years animals
have moved in and now there is a great kind of closed ecosystem here.Once we were in the crater nothing on the outside seamed to matter.There were everykind of animal you could amagine.
From cats to Buffalo to Zebra.We spent a whole day there driving from a lion kill to a Python crossing the road it's like the worlds best drive through Safari.I have to keep this short
as there is no way to discribe the day here in one sitting and have anybody with the time to read it all. SO after a short sleep we woke the next day for our drive to
out next stop before the Serengetti.On the way we stopped at a Maasi village, the Maasi Tribes are nomads that live on the land surrounding the crater and for that matter
a large area of Tanzania. They make the Amish look like Rockafellars.They live in huts made of branches,grass and cow dung.We had a look in one it was very small about the
size of a horse stall except you could stand up straight unless you were in the middle.There was a campfire in the middle and two areas where people would sleep.
Included with the people sleeping in here there was a small penned area where up to five calves would spend the night and when we were there a day one goat.
In the center of the village was the pen where the 140 cows lived and needless to say the place was over run with flys.The flys you
see on TV asking for money to save the children.These children didn't need to be saved they were living how the Maasi have lived for hundreds of years.

Well after our visit we headed out again in our Safari LAnd Rover.These must be the best built trucks in the world as we spent hours driving on a road
that makes Training Center Drive look smooth as a baby butt. You think you have seen dust at Fairhill nothing compares to the dust and boulders we kicked up.
And drive slow?No way we were doing 40-50 mph at times and somehow our Land Rover stayed together well until we got a flat but thats okay we had two spares and
I wanted to get out for a while.Now having two spares is great having a short jack and no hadle to jack with thats bad.SO with some Tanzania rocks and me and our guide David
putting our heads together we got it done in no time flat.Back on the road we noticed that the road was very quiet too quiet.ANd once we made it to camp we found out.
Behind us there was an accient on the bad road.People were hurt and the guides had decided to go on strike because of the road conditions.Luckily we were ahead of the
mess but heard there were 183 Landrovers stopped and striking.Each Land Rover probaly had two to four people so it was a big mess.ANyway the next day the guides were all
buzzing about the strike which ended after some Government guy said they would fix the road soon I would probaly think not as we get plenty of
promises too that never get done at home.Back to Serengetti.

We stayed in a tented camp with no electrcity,just crank flashlites and some solar powered lights in the room.SItting by the campfire drinking cold beer and looking at the milky way
it was great.All night we could hear lions and Zebra and Hienas.Back into the Land Rover we headed to main street Serengetti. What a site! Tens to thousands of animals moving north.
It was like the crust of the earth was moving.If you just stood still it was like a river of animals.We didn't think there were that many Zebras on earth let alone
in this one spot.Writing and taking pictures will never tell the story of how moving seeing this journey of animals is.There were Wildebeest with hours old babies at their side.Wildebeest
babies can walk in 15 minutes after birth and run in 30 minutes and they need too.Lions were just a couple hundred feet from some of these babies and if they were hungry watch out.
In the Serengetti there is plenty of life but with it comes death and there were bones and skulls everywhere.It wasn't sad but amazing how the cycle worked here nothing was wasted.We did see a
couple of things though.There was a down Zebra and up the road her foal was running around and we followed for a while the foal slowed to a walk back towards the herd only then did we see the
lions just a couple of hundred feet away from the walking foal.Our hearts pounded we wanted to jump from our Land Rover and save the foal.Luckily the two lions were what they called "Honeymooners"
and never even looked up to see the foal.The foal joined the moving herd and we never saw it again.

We ended the day at a water hole filled with farting Hippos and watched as they exited the vile water they had been laying in and pooping all day in.Back at camp we were ready for our
five gallon warm water shower.Now I had given hundreds of baths to 1100 pound horse while they moved around with only two five gallon water buckets so I knew I could get this done
without running out of water. See I started at the track working for Debbie and Hector Pilar and I would be giving a bath and Hector would hold the horse while I bathed them and if this wasn't done quickly
you would get a tougne lashing in Spanish to hurry it up.So with this training under my belt I took a five gallon bucket shower with water to spare! Heck I even wasted some! Thanks Hector!
Anyway, having all of the days dust rinsed off we gathered around the campfire with mutiple other accented people to talk about what we saw during the day.Camp dinners were resturant
quality and plenty of it we waddled back to our tent to watch the stars and listen to the thousands of Zebra in the Serengetti.

As we ended our tour of the Serengetti we passed a small airport our guide pointed it out "Thats where you fly from" to our surprise we were booked to exit the Serengetti by small
plane to Zanzabar by small plane.We knew this was happening but not so close.No bad road out of here for us! That was the only way to do it too as seven hours back to Arusha would have
about ruined the experience we had. The road had cause a small coup and we didn't want to chance that problem.We bid our Guide David good bye as we stepped into our small twin engined
plane and soared high out of the Serengetti seeing hundeds of Zebra as we went.Instead of seven hours we arrived in Arusha in 55 minutes refueled and we were off again to Zanzabar.
We left home in a A380 the worlds largest passenger plane and now were on a single engine plane for an hour and a half.Really cool as it doesn't fly so high and we bumped around a bit.Laying
on he beach now in Zanzabar we are far from our tented camp and closer to the end and our home in Fairhill. Our memory cards almost full and our pockets nearly empty I feel a kind of sadness that
a week from today we will be home.All of this a distant memory.Our tans fading and our cell phones again ringing (we hope) nether one of us has driven anything since january 10th.We land in Washington DC
just before rush hour so we hope to beat it.But until then I have one maybe two more updates and many more pictures to upload as we approach Paris and the cold weather we have already counted out our clothes
and are ready for long pants again.Thanks again and we love the comments and people who rate our photos! Keith and Joy.