September 6 early rise and down to the crater floor.

  September 6 early rise and down to the crater floor. 

 

 

 

We woke up at 4:30 to get ourselves together to meet our group at 5:30.  We had a quick cup of coffee and it’s still very dark out.  We left the lodge at exactly 6 o’clock.  I found out that vehicles safari vehicles are not allowed to leave lodges until six in the morning, even though the gates open at 6. We made our way down to the Crater floor finding a pride of lions, hippos, and just about everything else that you can imagine.

In the crater, we had breakfast outside by the hippo pool. It was an area we had been to before and is really enjoyable, marabou storks were there, as well as vultures, zebras and an elephant greeted us.

After breakfast, we made our way back up to the lodge where we got to our room, did a little laundry got the cameras cleaned up and ready to go for the next day. We had lunch followed by a shower and relaxed for a couple hours before we meet the group tonight for a presentation.

The speaker this evening was Lois Leakey, the granddaughter of Louis Leakey.  Her family is continuing to work in Kenya. Very interesting, wonderful presentation, learned a lot.  We had  great dinner and finished it up by going to bed to be ready for tomorrows  0700 breakfast, and we will be on the road to the Serengeti at 8 o’clock. 

For more images of this journey you must  follow the link below. ENJOY!

https://soggymoosephoto.smugmug.com/browse 

 

Tuesday, September 5 going to Ngorongoro crater

  Tuesday, September 5 going to Ngorongoro crater with a Masai a visit along the way and then will go to the bottom of the crater for a game. Drive should be great. Really looking forward to it.

After breakfast, we jumped in the land rovers and drove towards the Crater. Along the route we stopped at a tented camp where we met with a Masai Chief. The Chief explained to us about their culture, their society, and how the old ways are kept alive.

We were then shown a typical male hunting camp. Here the group of men had barbecue of goat, and then made a soup that consists of boiled pieces parts of the goat mixed with a tree bark tea. It  looked different.

We return back to the tented area where we were greeted by several of the men and ladies from the tribe who danced and sang for us. The men were jumping as the ladies sang and the children chanted, very entertaining. The Masai are a beautiful people,  Lynn had a chance to buy some souvenirs from the ladies of the tribe.

https://soggymoosephoto.smugmug.com/Masai-Portraits/

Next, we made a beeline to the crater to get down onto the crater floor for a few hours before closing time.

On the crater floor, we were very lucky. We actually saw three black rhino, that’s better than we’ve had on our previous trips. I can’t even begin to name all the animals we saw, buffalo, Thompson’s gazelle, grants gazelles, crowned cranes, several ibis, owl, wildebeest, zebras, elephants, and a ton of birds, photos later on the website.

From the bottom of the crater, we made another beeline to the exit as you have to be out of the crater by 6 o’clock in the evening as that’s when the gates are closed. There are fines and other penalties imposed if you’re not out of the crater by that time.  

We then drove to directly to the Serena Crater Lodge.  We have stayed here twice before. I just can’t describe this place and will post some pictures here to show you the rooms and common areas.  One very nice feature is that each room has a view of the Crater.

It was here years ago that we were awake before the sunrise, having coffee while watching the sun rise over the Crater.  This got me into the habit of getting up and watching sunrises. This is where it all started.

We got into our room, did the laundry, took showers, and then headed to dinner.  Early day tomorrow starting at  0530 with coffee and tea and then back down to the crater floor for more exploration and game drive. 

So much was experienced, so to see more images follow this link. 

https://soggymoosephoto.smugmug.com/browse 

 

Monday, September 4 - a return to Lake Manyara

  Monday, September 4 - a return to Lake Manyara

We were up early for breakfast. We had nice porridge and eggs and all kinds of stuff, very good food here and we’re allowed to order and I had pancakes.  The portions are nice for us so we don’t over eat.

After breakfast, we drove about one hour back to Lake Manyara National Park for a game Drive which lasted until about 1 o’clock. During the drive we saw hornbills, buffalo, and we got a quick peek at a giraffe. We saw a real nice crested eagle feeding on a monkey. Too many observations to list them all.

We returned to the lodge for lunch, and then had some free time during which we tried to download pictures to hard drives, which didn’t work, and do some laundry.

At the 4 o’clock we took a walking tour around the grounds with the head gardener. He shared his passion for the amazingly immaculate grounds. Here they grow many of their own vegetables. Now it’s off to a lion presentation followed by dinner.  We hear it’s not so much of an early start tomorrow. We had a good day seeing lots of things.

We had a great presentation about the KopeLions really interesting to see the work they’re doing in mitigating the impact of the lions, tracking them and helping the population come back. I was surprised to learn how devastated the lion population has become in the last few years. https://kopelion.org/

Then it was off to dinner, and after dinner we were back at the room for a little organizing, getting ready for tomorrow as we head to Nongorongoro crater.

Photos taken during this journey can be found by following the below link. 

https://soggymoosephoto.smugmug.com/browse 
 

Sunday, September 3 off to Lake Manyara

  Sunday, September 3 off to Lake Manyara

After breakfast, we met with our group, got a rough itinerary of our plans for this whole expedition, and then went and jumped in our safari vehicles for the drive to Lake Manyara.  It  took about three hours to get here.

At Lake Manyara, we enter the park and saw several different critters. First was a troop of baboons, Bushbuck, blue monkeys, a warthog and several elephants.

We did stop at an overlook and had a sumptuous, rather large, lunch box to consume. I should say that water is available to us all the time.  

After lunch, we continue to drive down to the shore of the lake, where we saw three bull elephants and captured some good photographs there, and then back, reversing our track to the entrance of the park.

Then we had about an hour drive to the Plantation Lodge, a coffee plantation.  We have great rooms here.  We’re greeted with cakes and fruit juice, and nice warm wet towels. The wet towels are so welcome to wipe off the dust. 

 

 

In our room, we’re doing some laundry as we’re a little bit warm and sweaty and dusty and then will have a reception tonight, a lecture and then dinner and then we’ll call it a night because it’s a 6 o’clock breakfast call tomorrow.

We had a nice little reception and talk by our Nat Geo expert that’s with us, Laly. She told us about her life and her projects. I’ll have to elaborate more on that here when I can have something to copy.  https://www.africanpeoplewildlife.org/

After the reception and presentation, we made our way to the dining room where we had a nice sit down dinner, three course meal, soup, salad, I had a vegetable risotto that was really good. We really unique dessert, a very nice light date cake.  We went back to the room, calling it a night.

 

Photos taken during this journey can be found by following the below link.  

https://soggymoosephoto.smugmug.com/browse 

An Acclimatization Day at Rivertrees:

 

 An Acclimatization at Rivertrees:

I was awake at 0430 after a great sleep. The plan thus far is to linger over breakfast and then explore the grounds a bit more and get organized. 

I started the morning by going to the dining area and having a couple cups of coffee and get things going for the day. The coffee is a really nice strong Tanzanian coffee was perfect to start the day with.

Lynn eventually made her way down and she grabbed a cup of coffee. We had Blue Monkeys running around the trees above us. Then a little light sprinkle made us go for some shelter.

We then made our way back to the room and sat on the porch, looking for birds, and a few monkeys running by.

We did a morning guided walkabout of the property here.  It was really interesting, we learned a lot of neat things about various plants and critters, saw a Sunbird but unable to get a photo due to too much bouncing around.

After a break in the afternoon with a short nap, we did another walk about the property and found two Blue Monkeys munching on a banana tree plant and were able to get some nice photos, they were almost too close for the lens I had with me at the time. 

We got cleaned up and went for an evening drink before dinner. We sat by the fireplace, had a cider and a ginger beer and for dinner we had another woodfired pizza.

Back at the room after dinner, we got things packed up and prepared to meet the group tomorrow morning before we drive away.

 Photos taken during this journey can be found by following the below link. 

https://soggymoosephoto.smugmug.com/browse 

Flying from Denver to Tanzania

  Flying from Denver to Tanzania

Our flights took us from Denver to London, then from London to Addis, Ethiopia, and then from there to Kilimanjaro International Airport, outside of Arusha.

This whole journey took us about three days.  We spent two nights on airplanes, and we finally made it to Arusha very tired and sweaty, and I think our bags were the last to come off the airplane. 

We were met by a driver who took us to the Rivertrees Lodge, a beautiful place. The grounds are just splendid. I’ll post some photos of our room here in the blog so you can all see how really pretty cool this room is.

Our first order of business was to rearrange our bags and do a load of laundry and take a shower, after three days it was very welcome.

Our plan for tonight is to get rested up have dinner here.  We understand they make very nice woodfired pizza in this wonderful open air dining area.

Then tomorrow we hear that there are Vervet monkeys here as well as Colobus monkeys on the grounds. Also, the area looks great for some birding. I think we’ll just take it easy tomorrow and stroll around the grounds looking for the various monkeys and birds and just relaxing and trying to get used to this time zone.  

We enjoyed the evening sitting by the fire pit with fellow travelers. I had a Kilimanjaro beer and Lynn had a ginger beer. Then dinner, we split a bacon and avocado wool fired pizza. It was great.

A troop of Blue Monkeys clambered about the trees above the outdoor area, there are a couple house cats roaming about. The staff here is excellent, very friendly, warm and eager to ensure you have a great stay.

Then off to bed.

Photos taken during this journey can be found by following the below link.

 

https://soggymoosephoto.smugmug.com/browse 

ALBUQUERQUE BALLOON FIESTA 51st

 

 

 

 

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 51st. 

Yes, this year is the 51st  year for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF). Yes, we are very excited as it will be a very very big event. Yes, bigger than years past. 

There will be about 550 hot air balloons, a good number will be special shapes. There will be flying competitions, mass ascensions, special shapes, balloon glows, dawn patrols and that is just the hot air balloons. 

This year AIBF will host the Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race.  

There will be fireworks, skydivers, chainsaw carving, car shows, entertainment etc etc etc. 

This year there will be two Drone shows, RC Balloons, and Giant Kites will fill the skies. 

Yes, I will be part of the AIBF Official Event Photo Team. This means long days of taking the photos, editing, submitting etc etc. My days will start about 0430 and end at 2200 ish. Hence my time to write the blog is basically non existent during the event. 



Maybe a bit of AIBF History is in order. 

From a small gathering of 13 balloons in 1972, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has grown to become the largest balloon event in the world. Held each year during the first week in October, the Balloon Fiesta now features about 600 balloons and 700 pilots.

The first gathering of 13 balloons in 1972 was held in the parking lot of Coronado Center Mall in Albuquerque. The following year, 13 countries took part in the "First World Hot Air Balloon Championship", the world's largest ballooning event, held at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds.

By 1978 Albuquerque was playing host to 273 entries. The number of balloons steadily increased, with 600 in 1988 and 903 balloons in 1999. The organizers of the Balloon Fiesta registered more than 1000 balloons in the year 2000. Due to shrinking landing site availability, the number of hot air balloons is now limited.

In 1972 there were about 10,000 guests that viewed the first Balloon Fiesta. Hundreds of thousands of guests visit Balloon Fiesta each year, and hundreds of thousands more fans watch the balloons from outlying areas and on TV.

In 2017, fans around the world can now watch the event online via Balloon Fiesta Live!, a professionally-produced live stream, with expert commentary, of all the flying events. To accommodate the increases in balloons and guests, the Balloon Fiesta’s home field has grown from a corner in a mall parking lot, to its present home, a permanent site that is more than 350 acres.

I should add that over the years AIBF has added enhancements to the event, glows and fireworks and more. 

If you have AIBF as a bucket list event start planning a year in advance. The Best place to start is with the AIBF website: https://balloonfiesta.com/