On Saturday afternoon, we arrived at Kambi Ya Tembo Lodge which lies in the Sinya Wildlife Conservancy in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. In addition to Mount Kilimanjaro looking down upon us, Mount Meru which stands nearly 14,000 feet above sea level and Longido Peak also paint an unforgettable landscape.
Mount Kilimanjaro is shown below.
This area of Tanzania is home to many Maasi People. While the Maasi people live throughout Tanzania, in this area they follow traditional customs and our interactions included joining a Maasi tracker on a wildlife hike. In some areas of the country, the tourism business has created a more commercial interaction between the Maasi and visitors.
After lunch on Saturday, the boys sat down for their first school session under Katie's command. While Dad initially felt a bit blue as he was enjoying teaching the boys, this feeling quickly diminished as Roman and Mabret laughed and smiled through a creative writing lesson as well as math class. We are proud of Roman who has mastered all of his multiplication tables through eleven. As a result, Roman and Mabret enjoyed a joint division lesson today.
Around 4pm, we departed on a nature hike with Sembeta, our Maasi friend and tracker. Below, Sembeta is pictured with John, the assistant manager of the lodge. John is also a member of the local Maasi community. Recently, John decided to forego his traditional Maasi garb.
Sembeta led us through the surrounding area introducing us to various plants and insects that form the foundation of the Eco-system here. He also oriented us to the landscape giving a preview to where our morning game drive would take us.
In the distance of the below picture lies Kenya and the Amboseli Narional Park.
Tomorrow's adventure will take us just across the border in search of wildlife.
Sembeta's shoes are made from old motorbike tires. They look comfortable and certainly get good traction.
Below is a photo of the dung beetle. Yes, its job in the Eco-system of Africa is to round up the dung so it does not overtake the landscape.
The boys found the below ant hill to be fascinating. The tunnels leading to the hill stretched farther than we could track.
Our day ended with dinner and a campfire. Sunday morning brings a 5:30am wake-up call for a 6am game drive.
6am peanut butter sandwiches with tea and coffee and we are off on another adventure.
The landscape is worthy of an early morning drive even if we see no wildlife today.
Not long into our drive we spotted some vervet monkeys enjoying the early morning sun.
There are two types of gazelles found in Tanzania. They are plentiful throughout the landscape. The Thompson Gazelle is easily identified by the black stripe on its side.
In a clearing, we observed a giraffe with her young one. Shortly after quietly pulling close, many more giraffes appeared from behind the bushes and trees. They slowly moved toward our vehicle and gave us an opportunity to sit atop the Land Rover and take it all in.
For those of you who have been reading the blog, you know that these are not the first giraffes that we have seen since arriving in Africa. However, each of the previous times Dad has exercised amazing self-control and refrained from telling his giraffe joke. Much to Roman and Mabret's delight, this time things would be different. Ok, so if you must hear the joke continue reading.
A giraffe walks into a bar and says...highballs on me. Don't worry, before telling the joke Dad took the time to explain that a highball is a type of adult drink.
Our next order of business was keeping all eyes peeled in the hopes of spotting bull elephants which inhabit this area. Some of the bull elephants living freely in this protected area of Tanzania can reach 50 years of age.
Success...
While spending time with these incredible animals at Addo Elephant Back Safari was unforgettable, there is nothing that equals watching them roam freely in the wild.
We also observed many wildebeest and impala.
Next, Ali turned the Land Rover toward the Kenya border. This area has seen heavy rain in the last few days. The ground has grown very soft and treacherous. Thus began another chapter for the RTW Adventure Family...
We first surveyed the situation before deciding upon a course of action.
The decision was made to collect rocks and branches and jack the vehicle up so that we could place the items under the wheels in the hope of gaining traction.
While we were successful in getting some rocks under the driver's side rear wheel (the wheel that seemed to be the largest obstacle), the other wheels sunk further into the mud.
We also tried the "rock it back and forth" like we used to do in Philly when stuck in the snow. This also did not work.
While the Maasi people do follow many age old customs, they are not averse to carrying a cell phone. Sembeta phoned a friend.
While waiting for assistance to arrive, Ali made good on a promise to Roman that he would find Roman's favorite animal - a turtle.
A shout out to Nico Nonemaker who also loves turtles. Christian and Nico, the boys are sorry that they will not be able to ski with you this winter. Have fun at Shawnee and we will see you soon.
Because assistance would take a while to arrive, we decided to take a walk to locate the border between Tanzania and Kenya. With the help of Sembeta who was acting as a spotter today, we located a marker at the border. Below, Mabret stands with one foot in Tanzania and the other in Kenya.
Help arrived and we were successfully pulled from the mud.
We left our mark behind to warn those who may follow.
Upon returning to the lodge, Mabret and Roman happily did their school work. Roman then built and lit the camp fire.
Monday morning was another early call as we said good bye to the wonderful staff at Kambi Ya Tembo Lodge and headed out for Arusha National Park.
Peace Out!
