Posts From July 2013

By Russell Temu – A Magical Experience

Jambo again! My name is Russell Thomas Temu, a professional guide based in Tanzania employed with Africa Dream Safaris. This time I guided a group of 7 persons from the USA. The safari started on June 25th and ended on July 1st, 2013. We had four nights in the Serengeti and two nights in the Ngorongoro. We also visited Lake Manyara National Park for a day trip.

The adventure started in the western side of the Serengeti National Park after watching the wildebeest migration and the giant Nile Crocodiles along the Grumeti River.

Thereafter we had an amazing sighting of a lion pride hunting a wildebeest and preying on it, on our way to the Central Serengeti. In the Central Serengeti around Seronera valley we watched a Cheetah attempt to catch Thomson Gazelle and a mother cheetah with two yearling cubs.

In the Ngorongoro Crater the game viewing was incredible after watching two lionesses fight one lioness. It seems she intruded on their territory though she survived after showing submissive posture and running away. We were also looking for a Black Rhino and came across one lying down about 200 yards away in the plains.

Below are my two favorite pictures which I would like to share with you about this magical experience. The first is a mother cheetah in the Seronera plains of the Central Serengeti and the second is of a pride of lions preying on a wildebeest in the West Serengeti.

Thank you,

Russell T. Temu

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By Claude Shitindi – Beautiful Tanzania

Hello, it’s me Claude here with my latest safari report for my trip that finished on 04th July 2013. I was with four lovely people that I took on safari i.e Erick, Anna, Alec and Adrian. It was wonderful up in the Northern Serengeti as we had thousands of wildebeests everywhere all over the Nyamalumbwa plains in the direction to the Mara River.

We had one night in Lobo Valley and then we were off to Mbalageti and the West Serengeti where we found more of the migration and also other species including the big cats. This area was very productive.

At the Central part of the Serengeti the wildlife was a little scattered. Seronera Valley, Moru Kopjes, Sametu Kopjes, and the Marshes of Maasai Kopjes were the best places in the Central Serengeti for wildlife viewing.

At Ngorongoro Crater on our early morning game drive we had a rhino crossing the road twice very close to our vehicle. It was just us alone and I heard that was the only sighting on the entire day making it even more special. Here are just few of my pics to share…

 

Black rhino crossing the road in the early morning – Ngorongoro Crater
A freezing dik dik antelope in  Seronera Valley 
Zebras resting in the middle of the day but still alert for predators
Vevert monkey in Lerai Forest at Ngorongoro.
Curious little lion cubs near Sametu Kopjes in the Central Serengeti
Black rhino in the early morning coming towards our vehicle – Ngorongoro Crater
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By Peter Meena – Safari Report July 3, 2013

My name is Peter Meena the driver guide for ADS. This time I had a great group with the last name of Kedda where our trip started from 21st to 27th June. There were seven adults it total and it was nice to all be in one vehicle together. We started our safari by visiting the Western Serengeti (Mbalageti Lodge), Central Serengeti (Seronera Sametu Camp) and then we finished up with Ngorongoro (Crater Serena Lodge).

Here are a couple of interesting pictures to share with you. It seems everyone is sharing pictures of the big cats (lions, cheetahs and leopards) plus the other big 5 animals (elephant, rhino, buffalo). Here is something to mix it up at they say.

GIRAFFE: This solitary giraffe was quenching his thirst in the Grumeti River. It’s amazing to see this alpine animal spreading it’s fore limb’s and tossing it’s long neck into the water. It was very interesting to see how he was bringing his long neck up and down as if he was playing see – saw.

STUCK ZEBRA: The Zebra in the photo was deeply stuck in the mud of the Seronera River. To my experience he was trying to cross and make it through the water not knowing that sometimes mud can turn into quick sand.

MATING PUFF ADDERS: This couple of Puff Adders were seen mating. We stayed on to watch this exercise. It’s unbelievable to see how long these Serpents lasted in the affair because we left before they were done. It was awesome.

FLOCK OF BLACK HEADED HERON’S: We viewed this flock of Black Headed Herons perched on top of an acacia tree accompanied by young chicks, together with females and males. The entire flock was busy. Some were mating and some were nurturing the young one’s. What a great great scenario.

With appreciation,
Peter Meena.

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Six Days On The “Endless Plains”

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

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By Godson Mbonye – Highlights From My Safari

My name is Godson Mbonye, a ADS driver guide. I have just concluded a 11 day safari with my guests from Denver, Colorado USA named Sara and Mark F. We explored the following areas: Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti and Lake Manyara.

My guests arrived on 21st June and on 22nd we started our game drive into Tarangire National Park, where we saw our first leopard in an acacia tree within just a few minutes. Within Tarangire National Park we had two full days before we proceeded to Lake Manyara National Park on 24th June, and further to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the same day. In Lake Manyara National Park, the vegetation consists of a tropical forest with wet savanna and short grassland near by the lake. We saw primates including oliver baboons and blue monkeys along with many species of birds. This park is situated at the end of the eastern great rift valley.

Arround 3pm we were entering the last gate of Ngorongoro crater for an afternoon game drive and we saw several species of cats including the rare serval cat. The funny story here is that somehow we picked up a hyrax hitchhiker on the crater road heading to Lion’s Paw Camp. Later we heard the hyrax’s noise under the car and we were all very surprised! The next day we took it back to its home range. Down on the Crater floor we managed to see two rhinoceros.

On 26th June we departured and headed to the Serengeti (specifically the Western Corridor), where we saw reptiles such as crocodiles, monitor lizards, snakes, also some of the wildebeest migration which were headed north to the Mara River and the North Serengeti.

The remaining days we explored the Central Serengeti including the area around Sametu where we saw cheetahs, leopards, and prides of lions. We ended by the Mara River where we saw two crossing.

I had a lot of pictures as follows:

– Young bull elephant in the Central Serengeti.

-Hyena puppies waiting for their mother to bring them food in the Ngorongoro Crater.

-Two big groups of wildebeests crossing the Mara River in North Serengeti

-Pied Kingfisher, standing on side bridge of Tarangire River looking for fish

-Rock hyrax  in a big rock in Tarangire National Park.

-Buffalo herd grazing in the open  savanna at Lake Manyara National Park.

– Blue Monkeys looking for tropical fruits into Manyara forest.

– Lioness down in the Ngorongoro Crater preparing to chase a wildebeest.


-At Lake Magadi in the Crater with grazing wildebeest and flamingos.


– The King of the jungle preparing to have young ones with the queen of jungle

– Three crocodiles close to the bridge over the Grumeti River, West Serengeti


– A Male Giraffe in the western corridor of the Serengeti browsing on acacia trees.

– Near Sametu Camp at 6:00am on an early morning game, cheetah preparing to chase a Thomson Gazelle.

– About 2kms from Sametu Camp in the Central Serengeit, a Serval Cat hunting rodents.

– At Swai’s rocks, a cheetah scanning for gazelles on the endless plains of the Serengeti.

– A hungry lioness scanning for zebras at 1.5km, on the way to barafu, east Serengeti.


– A lion pride out hunting in the Serengeti.

– African white backed vultures around a dead zebra eaten by lions.

With Kind Regards,
Godson Mbonye

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By Ally Dhulkfil – Lioness Catches Thomson’s Gazelle

Greetings from Arusha, Tanzania. My name is Ally, a guide with ADS, and I am home now after completing a safari with a really nice family from Connecticut, USA with a mother, father, 13-year old son, and a 9-year old daughter. Their names were Karen, Alan, Alexander and Isobel. We spent a total of six nights on safari finishing the trip on July 1st when the clients departed back home on KLM Airlines.

One of the most interesting sightings occurred in the Grumeti area of the West Serengeti. We watched a lioness catch a Thomson Gazelle but she did not immediately kill the gazelle. Rather, she seemed to play with it for quite some time. It was very sad to watch and even myself was holding back tears. I explained to the clients that this is how mother nature works. It is all part of the magnificent Serengeti ecosystem though sometimes it can be difficult not to get emotionally involved with the struggles of some of these beautiful animals.

Sincerely,

Ally Dhulkfil

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Introduction to The School of St. Jude’s

A warning to unsuspecting readers – this blog post will not be about lions and rhinos, or any wild animals at all.

We are The School of St Jude, and we will be writing about girls and boys, and a whole community of teachers and volunteers working together to provide them with the academic skills that will help them become leaders in their fields.

This post is also about our neighbor Africa Dream Safaris, who joined our community of supporters by committing to a monthly donation to help us provide hot, nutritional meals for the students.

Five facts about St Jude’s that you might not know:

1. We have scale: we are Africa’s largest charity-funded school of our kind, providing top-notch, tuition-free education to 1600 boys and girls in the Arusha region of Tanzania. We’ve come a long way since 2002, when Gemma Sisia, a young, idealistic Australian, started the school with only three students and one teacher.

2. We provide academic excellence: In the latest round of Tanzania’s national Form 4 Exams, we were number 1 in the Arusha region and number 10 nationwide. Our students learn in English and Swahili.

3. We aim high: Our mission is to educate the future leaders of Tanzania in public and private sector organizations such as infrastructure, business and health. We work hard to help alleviate poverty and break the cycle of external aid dependency.

4. We are dead serious on equity: Only the poorest children can attend our school. Our rigorous selection process includes a number of visits to the prospective families. Our kids come from homes that subsist on less than $1.25 a day

5. We live on generosity: Our work relies on donations from businesses such as Africa Dream Safaris, plus individuals, families, schools and clubs from around the globe – all working together to fight poverty through education.

Let us add a sixth fact you’ll love to know: We sit at the shadow of Mount Meru – the second highest mountain in Tanzania, at a height of 4,566 meters – and we love visitors!

The school is open 8.30am – 3.30pm Monday to Friday during school term. If you cannot make it during these hours, we will do our best to show you the school at a time that fits your itinerary. If you are on a safari and want to drop in on your way in or out of Arusha, please let Africa Dream Safaris know in advance so they can incorporate this in your itinerary.

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By Anglebert Mrema – A Great Family Safari

My name is Anglebert Pantaleo Mrema, guiding for Africa Dream Safari, and I have just completed my safari with the De Jonge Family from Seattle, USA.  We covered the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara National Park.

We started our trip at the western corridor of the Serengeti for two nights where we visited the Grumeti River and the surrounding plains. It is the beginning of the dry season and in the Serengeti most of the ungulates animals were moving in long lines to the northern part of the Serengeti Ecosystem, which will mark the beginning of the crossing season.

There were still herds of wildebeests and zebras at Kirawira in the West Serengeti and we had great opportunity to see them rushing to the river while huge crocodiles were waiting. We did see two prides of lions at Kirawira and they were very healthy. One of the prides, tried to hunt but one of the unexperienced young males ruined the hunt.

After our two nights at the western corridor of the Serengeti, we moved to the Central Serengeti and spent two nights at Sametu Camp where we had two great sightings. The first was the Mama Leopard with two cubs on a tree and it was very interesting to watch the cubs feeding on a gazelle and later drop the kill from the tree. This was in the Seronera Valley.

At Sametu kopjes we had a great sight of the Sametu pride with a wildebeest kill. There were no signs of gnus at the area and it was probably one of the lost ones. It was nice to see two big males in the area.

Ngorongoro was great in the early hours. We spotted two nocturnal animals (porcupine and white tailed mongoose) and there was also a pride of lions with a buffalo kill with over fifty hyenas waiting to clean the carcass.

We covered a big area of Lake Manyara National Park and the highlight was to see the black mamba blocking the road.

At Crater floor, a big bull elephant.
Hyenas chasing young male lion from the kill at Ngorongoro.
A huge hippo.
Rare Huglins Courser.
Gnus drinking at Grumeti River.
Sametu Pride.
Sametu pride enjoying their meal.
Sametu pride.
Lions at sametu marsh.
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