Entries about tanzania

Even before we got back from the Funeral | I was planning this trip

18 May 2018

I am leaving for my last grandchild trip on Saturday the 26th. She's the youngest of my 11 grandchildren. I've taken six of the others on trips. (The other five were unavailable mostly because they were older- when I started this, the oldest ones were 27 and 25)

Schedule is as follows:
I leave here on SouthWest airlines (I hear they have their planes all inspected now) to fly BWI to Houston May 26th - stop over in Atlanta but do not change planes. Arrive Houston (Hobby) 1710

May 29 KLM-Delta Flight to Amsterdam leaving Houston-Bush 1505. Arriving Amsterdam 7:20 May 30

Hotel in Amsterdam: Ibis Amsterdam Centre
Address: Stationsplein 49, 1012 AB
Telephone number: +31 20 721 9172

We have breakfast at the hotel included. I have a scooter to be delivered to the hotel. The lady who has arranged the Amsterdam part of the trip is Desiree van Es with Sage Traveling Tel: 1-888-645-7920 Ext 1 and she actually lives in Houston. She has arranged for us be picked up at the airport, to have a canal boat tour, a walking tour of Amsterdam (well my granddaughter will walk) and we will drive out to Volendam and some outlying villages on the last day (June 1st). Then we will go back to the airport

June 2nd, We leave Amsterdam for a flight to Kilimanjaro airport Dep: 10:25 am Arr: 1950

I have gotten Visas from Tanzania for both of us using a company called CIBT. This was a somewhat expensive process, but when I read the original directions from the tour company they said the visa could be obtained at the airport when we got there and then last night when I went over them again they said that we might be refused entry. So I thought I should go ahead and get the visas. Since I was in a hurry (as I was leaving the following Saturday) I paid to have someone hand carry them to the embassy. I had to FedEx the passports to them with the application and we had to supply photos.

We have a car and driver for the African part of the visit.
Sat 02-Jun-18 Arusha : Rivertrees
Sun 03-Jun-18 Tarangire : Mawe Ninga Camp
Mon 04-Jun-18 Ngorongoro Karatu : Bashay Rift Lodge
Tue 05-Jun-18 Central Serengeti : Ronjo Camp
Wed 06-Jun-18 Central Serengeti : Ronjo Camp
Thu 07-Jun-18 Serengeti Grumeti : Grumeti Hills
Fri 08-Jun-18 Serengeti Grumeti : Grumeti Hills
Sat 09-Jun-18 Southcentral Serengeti : Olduvai Camp
Sun 10-Jun-18 Arusha : Rivertrees

Monday 11 June- we have a day room at Rivertrees because we leave to fly back to Amsterdam 20:55 and arrive Amsterdam 7:25am Tue 12 June after a stop-over (no change of plane) in DAR ES SALAAM (which is a port in Tanzania).

Leave Amsterdam 9:50am arrive HOUSTON-BUSH 1305

I'm starting to pack. I need to get insect repellent I think I have most everything else. I have cameras for both of us and also a passport holder for her

24 May 2018

In the last 6 days things have progressed. Sometimes in a straight line and sometimes in a confusing tangle.

Bob found some OFF in the medicine cabinet but it was a big heavy aerosol can and I didn't want to take that. My daughter has enough for both of us to use I think. He also wanted me to take an alarm clock and I said I would use my phone for that.

Lynde had packed me on Thursday except for my hat, my medicines, and the different plugs for the different kinds of electrical outlets, so I revised my packing list organized by where things were packed rather than by category. I was able to get the suitcase closed when things compressed a little and I also zipped the gusset shut.

Bob was looking for the little binoculars and I told him that he would find them if he cleaned off his dresser so he did that and found a better pair of binoculars that neither of us remember having. I found the little ones that he was actually looking for in my computer bag. I am only taking the better ones. I figure one of us will be taking photos so we only need one pair of binoculars

He asked me if I wanted his passport holder for our granddaughter and it was the one I had been looking for and could not find. I put her passport that was FedEx'ed to me from CIBT with the visa into it and put it into my money belt which I wear under my clothes

Bob complained that he did not have the information on the flights on Southwest to and from BWI so he did not know when I had to be there, so I sent him an email with that information and we discussed it. He thought I could print a boarding pass already, but I can't do that more than 24 hours in advance - SW was wanting me to pay for pre-boarding. Since my plane departs BWI at 1:25, and he wants to be there by 11:30, he wants to leave here at 9. He said he will also be at the baggage claim with my scooter by 2:55 when I get back.

I decided to take a couple of things out of the packed bag and put different things in there. Lynde took out a shirt and my coat, and put in a camera, my hat and some of the medicine in. I put the little bag with the different plugs in it into the computer carry-on bag along with the power strip

Bob weighed the bag on the bathroom scale and said it was 55 lbs. Lynde looked over his shoulder when he did it and said it was only 52 lbs. He complained that it was packed so tightly that the pull out handle did not work. He's been pulling it out and pushing it back to make it work better. (This is a suitcase that was new when I gave it to the baggage people in Ft Lauderdale for a cruise and came to the cabin with one of the two rods completely disconnected and the other one twisted so badly that it could not go back into it. It is the one I shipped to Hawaii for the cruise last year. The safari tour company says that Africa is hard on luggage so I'm not taking a newer bag)

I got my hair cut Tuesday.

my photo for the Tanzania visa

Passport photo - much more flattering

I got a voucher for the driving trip from Accessible Travel. So I printed it out. I also got a survey to fill out from them, which I did.

I then asked about whether I needed one for a walking tour as I had one for the canal tour. They did not know anything about a walking tour. I asked Desiree of Sage Traveling whether I needed a voucher for the walking tour and she said I didn't need one for either the walking tour or the driving tour. And I said I had one for the driving tour. She asked where that one was from and it was from Accessible Travel - Oops - I assumed that since they knew about the driving tour it was the same agency and it wasn't. She wanted to know how Accessible Travel got my email and I finally found the relevant emails and I had given it to them when I rented the scooter.

So I got an email from Desiree this morning and she was quite annoyed. Accessible Travel was the agency subcontracted by Sage Traveling for the driving tour. Accessible Travel should not have contacted you about the driving tour and I have already been in contact about that with them as no vendor ever can / should contact our clients directly as then confusion and mistakes can happen and we do not want that to happen.

So that's sorted. I called the credit cards to tell them I was traveling and the debit card place said they didn't need to be notified, but there would be a 2% foreign currency charge (that's new). The guy at the credit union had a hard time with Tanzania - he couldn't find it listed under the country list. He tried under Republic of Tanzania but it wasn't there either. It is the United Republic of Tanzania, so it was listed under U and not R or T

Bob went out and started working on the garage again yesterday. He should have the end painted today.

garage painted

He had a dental appointment and he was disgusted to find that he had a cavity. He said 9:00 was too early for a dental appointment.

That's progress to date

26 May 2018

Yesterday, I sat on the internet to get the boarding pass at the first possible moment and got B19. And I was trying to figure out how to tell SW that I would need a wheelchair. So I called them, and the hold time was 15 minutes. I stayed on the line and while I was waiting I read about all the things I could not take. My medicines were not in the original pill bottles, but organized by day and I was afraid that would be a problem so I put all of them in the checked bag which I never do, and I also put my other Canon camera and the 100-300 mm lens (which is probably why it is heavy).

I realized that SW would not feed me so I made two sharp-cheese bagel sandwiches and put them in my pocketbook along with the water bottle.

Bob said we probably would not actually need to leave until 9:30 (v.s. 9:00) and that would give him time to feed the cats and have breakfast. So I got up fairly early and finished up on the computer, got dressed and came downstairs at 9. That gave me time to read the Sunday comics before I left. I had decided to put the water in my water bottle into the bottle in the car that was almost empty and that way I wouldn't have a problem at security.

So I did that but it was a little hard to do while Bob was driving as it was bumpy and the first time he put on the brake both bottle tops slid off the arm rest to the floor. I was able to pick one up with my toes, but I had to undo the seat belt to reach my feet and when I did the lens cap of the camera came off and went flying into the back seat.

We had a fairly peaceful drive up to BWI- except that on 381 we began to over take a lot of bicyclists. All the way up Aquasco Road (which was not so bad because there were shoulders), but then on Croom Road (which does not) there were more of them, (and signs saying the cycles could have the 'full lane') and eventually we saw them coming back the other way.

arriving at BWI

We got to BWI about 11:15, and at first we pulled into the curb for SW but there was no curb check there. So we went a little farther up and there were two guys with wheelchairs there on the median. I flagged one of them down, and got into his wheelchair (after I retrieved the lens cap I had flipped into the back seat), with my pocketbook and carry-on, and he took me and my checked bag into the airport. Bob was pleased that it was so easy.

I told him that the bag might be 5 or so lbs overweight, so he first tried to get me to take stuff out of the bag and then got a baggage tag at a kiosk and took it over and put it on the conveyor. I don't think it was weighed. And then he took me through security. In addition to having to take out the computer, he also wanted all the food separate. Then he found what the gate was and took me there and parked me right in front of the desk. I gave him $5.00.

I sat and read my Kindle until near time to board the plane, and then my cane, my pocket book and my computer bag got on. I picked a window seat, and the flight attendant put the cane and the computer bag in the overhead. A lady named Debbie from Harford County who was going to meet her husband someplace near Lake Charles Louisiana sat in the aisle seat. Then one of the flight attendants came and put a reserved sign on the middle seat. She said no one was to sit there. She gave me a note that said they wanted my flight to be comfortable.

Taking off from BWI - Arundel Mills Casino

When we got to Atlanta, the flight crew changed to a different flight crew. All of us that were going to Houston used the lav, and when I came out they were asking who had a metal seat in the overhead. When I looked up, it was my cane. I did not recognize the description of a metal seat.

taking off from Atlanta

I changed the camera time and my watch time, but I was unsure of the watch time, so I looked at my cell phone and made it an hour earlier than that. (So it was 3:30 instead of 4:30 like it had been before). I checked the camera and it said 6:30. I guess I went the wrong way. Fixed that.

coming in to Houston

I read some more of the Kindle. When we got to Houston, they got the wheelchair people off the plane and put us in the middle of the concourse to wait for people to push us to our destinations. I waited some time and then a lady took me down the elevator to the baggage claim - my daughter and two granddaughters were there. I forgot to tip the wheelchair lady.

Eventually my bag came along and my daughter went back up the elevator and (after some confusion about what level was 'arrivals') my son-in-law brought the car around.

I gave my granddaughter her passport and carry case in the airport, and I called Bob on the way to my daughter's house. He said he got 56.7 mpg for the trip. He mowed the lawn and then fell asleep and was awakened by the cats who wanted their din-din.

My granddaughter practiced with the various cameras, and we had dinner. I'm in her brother's room as he is doing a summer internship

practicing with the cameras

May 27 Memorial Day Sunday

Had a nice Memorial Day. Clear and sunny. Son-inlaw's parents came over and he BBQ'ed and we had hamburgers and deviled eggs and broccoli salad. Phyllis brought some delicious cupcakes - a lot of frosting like Berger cookies. My granddaughter took some photos with the cameras (I didn't take any) and we looked at the U-tube video of the Netherlands in 1950 of my dad's movies. I reorganized my packing somewhat.

May 28 - One Foot Up

My daughter says we need to leave about 11 tomorrow to get to the airport timely since Bush (airport) is very crowded and the TSA is always backed up. She also says they will not allow you to have anything in your pockets and she does not think they will allow the money belts under your clothes. She got some more OFF wipes and some snacks.

I went on line to check to see if I had a wheelchair for the airport, and had to call and talk to a customer service guy. He said that I had the wheelchair for all the flights, but that our granddaughter's peanut allergy was only on the return flight from Amsterdam to Houston. So he had to go over to the KLM partner area to get it put on the other flights, since KLM is actually doing the flying. He did give me the KLM flight identifier for this flight.

When I went to check in I was on the KLM site, and fortunately I wrote down the KLM reservation number so I could check in. We copied our passports - the passport copy I had was for the passport that expired in 2012. So I did need a new one.

My son-in-law and the two girls are going to see the new Star Wars movie.

I woke up at 6:45 and repacked the red duffle bag so I could leave the big wheelie bag at Rivertrees, and just take the red duffle. I would have had to go to the reception to use the internet and I just did not have the energy. I walked to breakfast.

Rivertrees grounds

It was almost farther than I could manage, and then when I got there it was a buffet. I just could not do it. So they brought me an omelet.

Breakfast at Rivertrees

Our driver arrived (Jeremiah or Jerry for short), and we loaded into his vehicle (a Land Cruiser), and started off. Until about noon we were on real roads and watching life in Africa from the windows including one photo that I got of a guy giving someone the finger. My granddaughter noticed him and told me to look at the photos that I had taken from the truck.

Who is he giving the finger to?

Traffic

Selling furniture by the roadside

Camel Oil station

Roadside market

Roadside market

Crossing sign

roadside stores and Maasai

Even before we got to the park we saw animals - flies, cattle, goats, and burros

Maasai cattle

Donkeys at Sunday market

Jeremiah stopped at a Sunday market and picked up some BBQ for us to try.

Sunday market

Sunday market

Of course we were immediately surrounded by vendors selling trinkets.

Vendor at the van window

One of them was offering 5 necklaces for $10 and my granddaughter was interested, so I told him we would pay $1.00 for five necklaces. Eventually we settled on 5 for $5.00

Cultural Heritage Museum sign

Cultural Heritage Museum

Local airport

Candelabra tree (really a great big cactus)

Ebony carvings

Souvenir shop

We also stopped at a regular store to use the bathroom. I had purchased a Tanzanite ring for my granddaughter for her 16th birthday some time previous, so I wasn't interested in buying any more, which I think was a disappointment to them. Jeremiah stopped and picked up lunch boxes - My granddaughter's was marked - no cashews.

lunch box

eating lunch

We saw the following at lunch

red-billed hornbill

Diverse Cymru Kenyan starling

Starling in flight

Whiteheaded kingfisher

White-headed buffalo weaver

one of the few monkeys we saw

Then we entered the Tarangire National Park.

Baobab Tree

The first animals we saw were Impala

Impala

(herds of bachelors and some females but I only got a few photos)

vulture nests

Then we saw a bunch of vehicles clustered and Jeremiah spoke to some of the other guides, and there were several cheetahs resting in the shade.

Cheetahs

Cheetah

The three cheetahs did not like the attention they were getting so they sloped off to another patch of shade.

palm trees

We also saw Elephants

Elephant in tall grass

Elephant with a baby

Elephant

Elephant

Elephant from behind

A lot of giraffes

Giraffes

Giraffes

Giraffe

Giraffe

Giraffe

My granddaughter saw a water buck in the distance and we saw a zebra in the distance
Two herds of ostrich (I was surprised to see ostriches)

Ostriches

And a troupe of baboons.

Baboons

Baboons

Baboon family

The camp had these flags to capture tsetse flies which are supposed to be attracted to blue and black. They put insecticide on the flags. I do not know what scientific study has been done to determine that those are the colors that the tsetse flies like. It does not seem logical to me.

Tsetse fly trap

It was about sunset when we got to Mawenga Camp and I went out on the rock to take a photo of it. I had to be helped back

firepit to see sunset

Sunset from Mawenga Camp

We spent the night at Mawenga Camp. I sent emails from the bar as that is where there is internet. Jeremiah has got a wheelchair for me to use which is a godsend although the paths here are not very wheelchair friendly.

dinner table

Dinner started with celery soup, which both of us liked, and then chicken and rice and some vegetables (neither of us ate much veggies)

dinner

Granddaughter at dinner

And finished with what was called mango tart, but was a piece of pie crust with mango sauce, which I thought was OK but my granddaughter did not like. We got water to drink and it was $2.00.

Mango tart

Then two people had to push the wheelchair up to the tent. They zipped us in. No mosquito nets, but we had to keep zipped up so animals did not get in. I edited some photos and went to bed.

Mawenga Camp.

Bathroom in Mawenga Camp.

We had a wake-up call-which meant that they came to the tent and called to us as there were no phones.

Pathway in camp

It took two of them to get us in the wheelchair back down to breakfast.

Overlook in the morning

Granddaughter's watermelon breakfast

They had good banana shaped pancakes (long and thin rather than round). I liked them even though they were usually not hot.

pancake for breakfast

Then we picked our lunch from a buffet and loaded our luggage into the truck

loading the truck

Up to this point, my granddaughter had been using her cell phone for photos, but yesterday she discovered that a cell phone is not really adequate for wildlife, even as close as we would get. So she started using one of my cameras. Most of the photos of animals from here on are her photos taken with my camera with the 100-300 lens. I have a hard time using that camera as it is heavy and a day of using it gives me a sore neck.

We set off for Lake Manyara. On the way out we saw some more of the black and dark blue flags which they hang around the area treated with pesticide to kill the tsetse flies.

tsetse fly trap

Flies were very bothersome yesterday and we used some of the OFF wipes. I looked up sleeping sickness on the internet and it said that untreated it was 100% fatal. I told Jeremiah and he said that since the symptoms were like malaria, it was often misdiagnosed

I saw a tsetse fly on the back of the headrest and tried to take a photo of it but it did not stand out very well against the red and black check.

We saw vultures,

my vulture photo

my granddaughter's vulture photo

and then crossed a river and saw an

African fish eagle

a saddle-billed stork

I took a photo of one of the signs they have -the kind that the elephants can't tear up or push over (at least not easily)

Direction sign

Flowers

We left the park and I tried to take some photos of how they grow corn - they put squash or sunflowers in between the rows. (My photos weren't very good). We saw some more Maasai herds

cattle

cattle

Maasai

and then we went to Jeremiah's village.

Bananas

Roadside market

He stopped to give his mother something where she was volunteering at a clinic, and showed us where he went to school, and he also bought a paper showing the con-joined twins dying. He also bought some red skinned bananas for us to try.

red skinned banana

My granddaughter does not like bananas that much.

We saw more baboons

Baboons

baboon

Baboon

Baboon

baboon

and impala and my granddaughter got some better photos of them.

Impala

impala

impala

impala

impala

impala

impala

Then we saw a pair of wart hogs,

wart hogs

wart hogs

and herds of zebra,

zebras

zebras

wildebeest (Gnu)

Gnu

Gnu

The beard of the gnu

and also the Cape buffalo - the ones where the males have the big horns. There were cattle egrets around them.

Buffalo herds

Buffalo

(These are not water buffalo-water buffalo are bigger, have bigger horns and are not as bad tempered so they are not as dangerous, having been domesticated. Plus water buffalo are from Asia and not Africa)

I took a couple of photos of termite mounds.

termite mound

One of the roads we started down had been washed out so we had to turn around. .

We stopped for a picnic lunch.

I had potato salad, meat loaf sandwich (which they called roast beef), a hard boiled egg, something that was like a brownie, and ginger cookies

On the way out of the park we saw a giraffe,

Giraffe

more baboons,

The baboon baby eyes would roll up in his head so that the eyes were just white (like Orphan Annie), but we did not get a photo of that.

Baboon baby

and some sweet elephants with two babies. One had no tusks and one had just little nubbins.

Elephants

Elephant babies

elephants

Elephants

Then we left that park and climbed the escarpment

View

and tonight we are at the Bashray Rift Lodge. We had a nice room

Bashray Rift bedroom

with a balcony, and I asked my granddaughter to go out and take a photo of the balcony. The door had a latch at the top and bottom and she was too short to reach, so she stood on her suitcase to open the top latch so she could get the photo.

balcony

bathroom

Main room Bashray Rift

We went up to the bar for dinner, but the dining room had four steps with no hand rails and I did not think I could do them, so they brought a table down and served our dinner in the bar.

Dinner table in the bar

It was very noisy because there was a group of 19 Italians having a meeting in the bar and doing a lot of cheering.

Italians meeting

The appetizer was a stuffed tomato - stuffed with a soup I think.

Appetizer

Granddaughter with appetizer

Then we had meat and a kind of spinach and mashed potatoes in a shell which was bread crumbs.

dinner

Granddaughter at dinner

There were lights above us which attracted moths, and one of them fell on my granddaughter's plate. I told her it was more protein (as a joke), but she texted her mother that she had not seen me eat any of them.
I had to go up to the bar to sent emails. The internet was excruciatingly slow and I cannot get AOL to come up at all

When we got up it was cold and our lights were still not on so it was hard to see. There were "windows" in the tent. If you unzipped and unvelcroed the canvas flaps over the windows, you could look out through the screens that covered the openings.

View from the toilet through the screen

Bar tent from our tent

At breakfast we got eggs -my granddaughter got hers with a hard yolk this time. And toast and there was watermelon and pineapple and pancakes on the buffet. I think there was also cold cereal.

Breakfast

Granddaughter at breakfast buffet

Wheelchair

Path from bar to restaurant

Lion paw prints

taking a photo of the lion paw print

Giraffe's near the camp

Giraffe face

Ox peckers on a giraffe

hawk

So today we saw three different leopards which completes the 'big five' (elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo).

First leopard

Leopard

Leopard

I spotted a serval cat,

Serval cat

Serval cat

Serval cat

Serval cat

Serval cat

Serval cat

Serval cat

and we saw baboons, wart hog, guinea fowl,

Baboons

Baboons

Wart hog

crested guinea

Milkweed

Red Lechwe Antelope

Red Lechwe Antelope

Topi

Topi

Lions in a tree

Lions in a tree

At one point we had smoke in the van and Jeremiah said it was a short in the radio, so we stopped and he took the radio out of the dashboard.

The vehicle we are in is a Land Cruiser and is at least 15 years old. Jeremiah says the new ones are flimsy and tend to drop parts on the washboard roads.

We stopped at the visitor's center for lunch

Visitors center

Rice dish with raisins

Barbet

Close-up of the candelabra tree

and saw an animal that looked like a big guinea pig - probably a hyrax.

Maybe a bush hyrax

Hyrax

After lunch we looked at the exhibit of bones

Exhibit at the visitor's center

Buffalo skulls

Bones

Bones

Skull

and saw a movie on Gnu migration (Gnu is another name for wildebeest). Then we came back to camp and I had a nap.

Granddaughter taking a photo of her own foot

I think Jeremiah did too as he was asleep during the bones explanation. He was awake until late chasing the lions out of camp

Maasai in camp

Maasai in Rondo Camp

I asked my granddaughter to take some photos of the thorns on the acacia trees

acacia thorns

acacia thorns

acacia thorns

munchies before dinner in front of the tent

We had a shower at 6, and then I took the computer in to charge and we talked to an Italian couple that was at Bashray Rift in that big group. Dinner was supposed to be onion soup but it didn't really look or taste like onion soup. There was chicken with some kind of orange sauce that my granddaughter said didn't agree with her.

Dinner

And what they said was marble cake, but I think was really a form of ginger bread.

marble cake?

They said they had fixed our lights, but they went out again after 5 minutes. I told my granddaughter to go out and find someone and tell them, but she refused to leave the tent. She said she could hear the lions roaring and that I was too deaf to hear them. She did eventually stand at the entrance and wave the flashlight until someone came.

sunset

They would do something to it and he would stand up and the lights would go out again. So eventually they gave us a different battery and they also left us a battery powered light.

My granddaughter was to go on a morning walk this morning and she set her phone to alarm at 6:00 so when it went off I woke her up. It was hard to get her started this morning. But eventually she was off-dressed and sun screened. She came running back for the camera. The walk took about an hour and she saw zebras, gazelles or antelopes etc. She took only 2 photos. There was another couple with her (French) and a guide and a ranger.

zebra

She said her feet weren't tired but she said she got into some acadia thorn/stickers. Then they had breakfast (table cloths and everything) right out there on the plain
.

breakfast outside

Land Cruiser and cooks

dove in an acacia tree

Meanwhile I was unable to find my inhaler. I had it in my pocketbook in the box but the box was empty. I guess I will use the rescue inhaler instead. I never thought they did much for me anyway. I went up to lodge and discussed the food problem. Finally found out that they cook with soy oil and my granddaughter has had a reaction to soy in the doctor's office. But my daughter said she can eat soy beans. Maybe the oil is more concentrated. Or maybe that's not it

I decided just to relax today and not go out again in the Land Cruiser. So after breakfast, I went and lay down and finished a book in my Kindle that I started on the plane. We are to go on a night drive tonight.

I came up for lunch and to use the internet. Lunch was strange - the bread is good. I had spinach soup and they brought my granddaughter fries and a salad. They said they would bring her pasta but they brought it to me (along with sausage which is another thing she likes). So I traded plates with her and made cucumber sandwiches from the salad with the bread.

We were to have a night drive tonight, so I thought that when I came up that I would do the internet up at the lodge, have dinner, and go on the night safari and they would not have to push me up and down the rock path but once. So I came up with the computer bag and sat on the couch and did the internet. I had some bathroom issues and I was trying to limit my fruit intake. I found that not only are there 7 steps up to the lodge headquarters, but there are steps down from there to the bathrooms. Definitely not handicapped accessible (although they do not say that they are) They do have some cabins with electricity for CPAP machines.

My granddaughter did go up to the lookout point without me to see the sunset

sunset

We had dinner and it was an "African dinner" but there wasn't much African about it. It was pork, rice, two kinds of potato and salad. My granddaughter tried each thing a small bite and waited for a reaction, and she got a mild one with the pumpkin.

We had an open air vehicle for the safari with just my granddaughter and me seated in it. There was also a driver, a man with a spotlight and a ranger. (The rangers have the guns) The other people had to stand in the vehicle that followed. Apparently in this area, off-roading is allowed. It is not allowed in the National Park.

We saw an aardvark, spring hares, white tailed mongoose, and dikdiks but didn't get a photo as they ran away too fast. It was tricky to take photos of animals which were moving and where the spotlight was also moving. Sometimes the spotlight made the place where the animal was too bright. My granddaughter got reasonably good photos of a rabbit, a Genet cat, jackal

rabbit

Genet cat

Genet cat

Jackal

Jackal

jackal

and some of a family of hyenas.

hyena

hyena

hyena

hyena

hyena

hyenas

hyenas

The baby hyenas were really cute and completely unfazed by the spotlights. They came up and sniffed the tires of the vehicle and one of them even walked under it. I suspect that the guide knew approximately where this group could be found because a lady who did the drive the night before mentioned them.

baby hyena

baby hyena

baby hyena

hyena

hyena

hyena

I did a little better with the impalas, and the eagle

antelope

impalas

impala

impala

eagle

We went to bed before packing, but I found my inhaler in the bottom of my pocketbook. I read the directions about the morning walk and the night drive and found that they were extra, so I took the money for them out and put it where I could pay in the morning.