Marty and I want to thank you Lynn for helping bring our once in a lifetime trip to fruition. It was truly memorable in the very best sense. Marty caught a cold the day of the flight back home and hasn’t yet shaken it off completely, but that has been the only down side. I love telling everyone about our trip and love looking at my favorite pictures. Yes, I have culled through my literally hundreds of pictures that I took and have chosen about 20 as my fav’s. Let me summarize as succinctly as possible our thoughts/feelings.

We came away with so much more than we expected, even though I hadn’t really know what to expect. Actually I thought it would all be desert sand – that’s how little I really knew! It was such a good idea to spend an extra day recuperating first recuperating from our long flight to Tanzania. We then took the internal flight up north and were greeted by our guide and driver, David Chando. He turned out to be not only knowledgeable but also enthusiastic about sightings, as well as patient about stopping for my photographing as much as I wanted.

As you know, we spent 6 days on the “endless plains” (July 3 – July 8. We were driven from the Northern Serengeti down south into the Ngorongo Crater and then through Lake Manyara National Park. Even though we went in during the country’s winter, we saw so many animals. Some of my favorites were the beautiful zebras and giraffes, who became more numerous in the south. I also loved seeing some of the mothers and their young ones, especially when they were nursing, though I wasn’t able to photograph any. I even grew somewhat fond of the wildebeest.

I’m about to describe photos shown below. Marty and I found it most exciting to see two different lionesses laying in wait and then pounce and run after a warthog, but they were too slow to catch them! However, we did see the end result of a lioness dragging her kill – a lovely Thompson’s Gazelle. 1) That is pictured below. 2) Another special picture is the leopard, since they’re often difficult to spot. Indeed, I can see the details of this leopard better in the photo than I could that day in person.

I also loved viewing the elephants. We saw many different compositions of them – in small groups and a larger herd. Actually, we saw the different groups then walk from different places, as we were driving, and then come together at a large pool. Very cool! 3) The photo below of the two young elephants was taken at a distance. I think it’s so cute! 4) I also love the 2 hippos play fighting on land, since we so often see them resting their large bodies either on land, or in the water. 5) an adorable set of zebra I had to include, and 6) finally, a cheetah and her cubs hidden in the shadow of a tree and the grass; that might be too difficult to really see, but I couldn’t resist including it. I’ll stop myself from giving you more. I love so many of them.

Thanks again for ushering us through what was an extraordinary event.

Warmly,
Louisa and Marty L.
New York, NY
Safari Dates July 3, 2013 to July 8, 2013