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Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

June 29, 2013 – An Amazing Safari – Goodbye Tanzania!

Hello this is Patty, or should I say Jambo*! It is the end of my last day for my Berg Adventures trip and it’s been incredible. I don’t even know where to start, I guess I do know where to start by saying that my guide David has been absolutely awesome. He is my safari guide and he has the eye of an eagle; he can spot an animal from a distance which is outstanding; he’s like an eagle eye and he extended my world view and certainly my knowledge of Tanzania and the animals and the terrain. So, what did I do on the last day? Well, yesterday, after being in Lake Manyara, I visited a Maasai Village, a Maasai hut; got a welcome dance, pretty incredible there, a very resilient people who maintain their culture; then we went to the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge; which was phenomenal and beautiful.

Today started out before 6am to see the animals in the crater; we saw a jackal, right off the bat on the road and I am going to list animals, not necessarily order of importance but what I am remembering; jackals, monkeys, baboons yesterday and today, 2 ponds full of hippopotamus and we also saw a black rhino, two of them, twice, which is amazing because they are one of the top 5*. We saw 4 lionesses, male lion, hyenas, gazelles, waterbucks, flamingos, we saw crowned crane, pelicans, wildebeest, zebras, it was amazing!

Jambo* - Jambo is one of the most common words you will hear spoken throughout Tanzania. This is a Swahili greeting and means “hello”.

Top 5* - The big five game animals are the lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. The term big five game was created by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot; also due to the danger involved, not for their size. The term is now used by safari guides.