Photos of Tanzania

Our Land Cruiser was our base for our entire trip. It seats 9 in total, has a roof that pops up for safari viewing, a coller, power ports, etc

A typical sight during our drives. There seem to be about equal numbers of pedestrians and drivers. Animals grazing almost constantly along the highways, often tended by children

Entrance to Lake Manyara National Park

Superb Starling

Red Cheeked Cordon-Bleu

Red and Yellow Barbet

Barbet

Southern Red Bishop

Warthogs have a strange habit of kneeling when they graze

Impala have impressive curved horns. One male typically oversees a harem of 5-10 females (barely seen in background)

A pair of wildebeest on the wide mud flat of Lake Manyara (visible at top). At this time of year, the lake has receded considerably, providing fresh grazing land

Male African savannah elephant

The edges of the lake were rich with birds, including these white storks

Black face monkey

Black face monkey

Holy crap! That's a giraffe!

Lake Manyara, where giraffes and zebras just hang out together

Man are giraffes cool looking

Warthogs: I told you these things were ugly!

Even baby warthogs are ugly!

Nile monitor lizard

Mother and baby elephant

Mother African savannah elephant

African savannah elephant

This elephant had a strange habit of waving leaves around in the air and slamming them against her head before eating them

Elephants sure are wrinkly

Impala have distinctive stripes on their butts

Black faced monkey

Black faced monkey mother and child

This black face monkey baby was really enjoying being groomed

Baby black face monkey bliss!

Mother and child black face monkey

This Southern Ground Hornbill cracked Amanda up. It had a lot of attitude

Mother and baby olive babboon

Baby olive baboon

While nursing, the mother wore a blissed-out expression on her face

Olive baboon

Young Maasai men work as porters at the local lodges

We set out from the lodge by foot for a four-hour walk through the local countryside

Carrying water from community wells is a daily activity for women and young children

A typical local dwelling for animals

We walked along dirt roads and paths through fields and farms

Local dwellings are made of mud bricks baked in ovens

Many homes seemed prosperous, with a variety of farm animals and well tended fields and gardens

This farmer told us that he kept about 2 liters of milk each day for his family, and sold another 5-6 liters

Some kids were very friendly and willing to be photographed, others were quite shy

This school served those living within about 5km. It had grades 1-7

The 6th grade English class sang for us when we visited

The children loved posing for pictures and then seeing them in the camera

Typical 6th graders

The children welcomed the opportunity to practice English. They read from their readers and asked questions

Boys are boys everywhere

Love the kid in the back

The children were very welcoming and curious

The children sang and danced several songs for us, some of which we recognized

They seemed to enjoy the activity

We made a donation to the school upon leaving

The iron-rich red dirt reminded us of Kauai

Many fields appeared to be plowed and ready for planting

We always made sure to ask permission before taking photographs. The children said yes about half the time

All labor was manual, we didn't see any machinery at all

A local girl

Bananas are a common crop

This oven is used to bake bricks, with a small fee per brick

One often sees teams of animals passing through

This girl was quite enthusiastic about having her photo taken

Amanda and the boys learned how bricks are made

The local farmers had a tough time wrangling this team of 4 Asian buffalo

At the end of our walk, we entered a village and toured the market

The stalls sold produce and many types of dry goods, with shoes being especially common

The obligatory "foreign market bags of multicolored grains" photo - CHECK!

Maasai tribesmen put on a show in the lobby

Cape buffalo

Baby hyena, proving that even nasty animals can have cute babies

A lioness made a kill, a jackal ran off with a piece (if you zoom in, you can see a bone in the jackal's mouth), and a hyena chased the jackal

My god, there are ostriches just walking around!

A good view of the crater floor and rim

The black rhinocerous is extremely rare and endangerd. This one, about 500 yards away, was the only one we saw

A pir of adolecent zebras playing

(from left to right) A warthog, a wildebeest, and a black rhino

A jackal wallows in the mud to cool off

Hippos jockey for dominance in the wallow

A lioness relaxing in the midday sun

Her sister lioness cools off in a shallow pond

Sister lionesses

Leaping Grant's gazelles. It's hard to capture on film how impressive these leaps are

A baby zebra (notice the brown coloration that sets them apart) peaks around its protective mother

Adolecent zebras at play

Cattle egrets looking shifty

A typical scene on the Serengeti: An acacia tree with a herd of wildebeest passing through

Wildebeest were by far the most numerous animal we saw on the Serengeti, usually traveling in large gruops of several hundred

At times, the wildebeest herds would stretch as far as the eye could see in every direction

Giraffes seem so unlikely, loping along in slow motion

Zebras and wildebeest often coexist. The zebras eat the tall grass and then the wildebeest eat the shortened grass. The wildebeest have keen smell while the zebras have keen vision, so each group can provide protection to the other

We saw about 5 kills each time we ventured out, most often natural deaths. Vultures, eagles, and storks would pick a fallen animal clean in less than a day, leaving only the bones

Wildebeest are solid muscle, so seeing them thunder in groups across the plain is an impressive sight

These brother cheetas lounged in the shade of a tree

We managed to see all 3 big cats of the Serengeti this day

A larger view of the cheetas beneath the tree

This baby leopard stalked away from its mother, leaving her to hunt. It is rare to spot leopards on the Serengeti (since they are usually lone and skittish) and even rarer to spot a leopard cub

Mother and daughter leopards. Our diver anticipated their path so that they walked beneath our truck and out the other side

The mother leopard as she stalked unseen (by us) prey beneath a tree

The mother leopard kept creeping around this tree. We were sure that she was stalking something, but we couldn't see what

After pouncing and missing, the mother leopard climed a tree in several leaps and settled down for many hours

The mother leopard resting on a tree limb

A pride of lions lounging in the shade

A female lion looking peaceful and content as she rests

It's funny how similar the lions seem to a housecat

Although it looks fierce, this is just a yawn

We stumbled upon this family of elephants rounding a bend. Notice the baby elephants toward the middle

Baby elephant!

Upon noticing us, the elephants changed positions so that the baby elephant was in the cetner

The Serengeti: a place so tough even the little birdies eat scorpions for lunch

A lion enjoys a recetly killed wildebeest within the shade of a bush

A giraffe taking a drink reminds me of how I look trying to squeeze into a coach plane seat

Few things in this world are as visually amusing as watching an ostrich run

This cheetah was relaxing in the shade of a tree

Showing off its cheetah teeth

This lion wore the only radio collar I spotted in our trip

Closeup of lion

Death is a constant part of the Serengeti. There were fresh kills and bones all over

The photo just posted of the bones is the only one on all the web pages taken outside of the vehicle

Our lunchtime picnic spot

This lion was the only full-grown male we encountered on our trip. So well coiffed!

I was frequently struck by the house-cat-like nature of the big cats

This pride included two cubs, the only lion cubs we saw on the trip

Lion cub

A wide shot showing the full pride of 10 lions

This cheetah had killed this pregnant gazells about an hour earlier. Cheetas will gorge on their kills quickly since they are often too weak to defend them

The vultures gathering to move in on the kill. As their numbers increased, they slowly crept forward

A bat-eared fox

Yeah, we were able to get pretty close to the lions!

We came upon this family of elephants as they were enjoying a mud/water bath

The largest elephant in this group seemed to position herself between us and the rest of the family

The baby elephant just post-bath

A juvenille female spraying itself down

Closeup of an ostrich egg

The cheetah kept its eye on the gazelles

The elephane walked within a few feet of the front of our truck

Giraffes have very tough tongues that allow them to tolerate the spines on the acacia tree

How Eric spent his days on the Serengeti

Closeup view of a giraffe eating

A lone jackal wanders across the vast plain of the Serengeti

As usual, we had Maasai warrior escorts whenever we walked outside, in case of wild animals

A typical Tanzania home constructed from wood and mud, viewed as we drove by

This is the teachers' office at the Esilalei Maasai school

The teacher at the Esilalei school, he teaches about 60 kindergartners

Because this was Saturday, only a few doezn of the 60 schoolchildren were present

The children were happy to pose for photos, and always wanted to see them after

This little girl in her Sunday best yellow dress was particularly cute

Kindergartners at the Esilalei school

Kindergartner at the Esilalei school

Kindergartner at the Esilalei school

Kindergartners at the Esilalei school

Kindergartners at the Esilalei school

Eric posing with one of the teachers and the kindergardeners

Kindergartners at the Esilalei school

Reed was very interested in a Maasai walking stick, so we traded my watch for one

Our guide took a job in the city to pay his way through college, training to be a tour guide

The wall of thorns helps keep animals in/out

Dwellings are traditionally matted with cow dung, but this was just mud

Decorated gourds used for storing liquids

All the kids posed for pictures and then wanted to see them in the camera's LCD screen

The women gathered in a circle for us

I'm not sure what the woman on the right was doing, but she was mixing something

The women and girls danced and sang for us

Many wore circular hoops around their necks

The woman on the right seemed to be in charge

I was definitely the tallest person in the village!

The villagers set out handmade wares for us to buy

The ear decorations were quite elaborate

The handmade jewelry ranged from about $5 to about $20 per item

We were told that all sales were for the collective good of the tribe

Maasai girls

Our fist morning in Tanzania after a night spent at Ahadi Lodge near Arusha. We are gathering for a 9-hour drive to our tent camp in the Serengeti

At the entrance to Serengeti National Park