Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

July 5, 2008 – Reaching the End of an Excellent Trip!

Hi, this is John Banks checking in on Saturday morning on July 5, 2008 at the Seronera airstrip getting ready for our flight to Arusha after five great days in the Serengeti. We ended up seeing every major land mammal that walks around these Great Plains. This morning on the way to the airport we saw a male lion and three cheetahs. We’ve been having a great time! Yesterday we had an intense afternoon rain storm and we spent the afternoon in our tents but otherwise the days have been long and hot. We’ve been having some great meals and some great accommodations especially at the Migration Camp. We were also awakened last night at about 1:00 am by some hippopotamus flopping around our tents eating noisily. We got up to see them but it was too dark.

Hi, this is Ellyn. We’ve been on safari for the last five and a half days. On safari we’ve had a different rhythm to our days. We have been riding for hours in our jeep visually hunting for animals. Sometimes they are easy to see like the hundreds of wildebeest we’ve come upon during their migration north. Zebras, too, are in large herds and we have seen numerous giraffes. Some so tall they hearken back to prehistoric days. We are becoming adept at distinguishing the various antelopes. It’s hard to imagine that one can drive for five days through endless, vast lands and continue to see so many animals in their natural habitat. Our guide and driver, David, is so jovial and nice. He has excellent vision and knows what to look for and where to look. One day he spotted a lion on the hunt simply by seeing the tips of its ears which were showing just above the grass line. It’s been an absolutely perfect trip, multi-faceted, many experiences and now we are on the last leg and are ready to head home.