Around The World in 64 Days: A lifelong dream comes true……

Saturday, July 16 Day # 43, we witnessed the famous “Great Migration” in the magnificent Serengeti National Park, but more about that later.....

From Meru landing strip, Kenya via Nairobi Wilson Airport, we touched down at Kilimanjaro International Airport, Tanzania about 3 pm on Day #40, July 14. And yes, Toto, we did fly over snow-capped Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. It is just shy of 20,000 feet. Met there by "Leopard Tours" who are handling the logistics for the Tanzania piece. We are staying overnight in Arusha, somewhat of the gateway to safaris here and we are at the Arusha Coffee Lodge, an old coffee plantation transformed into a beautiful place for travelers to crash in route to the bush.

Cutting a bit to the chase, we spent the next day at the world famous Ngorongoro Crater. This is a 102 square-mile collapsed volcano from several million years ago that now contains one of the most diverse ecosystems in Tanzania, including the densest populations of lions in the world. From the floor of the crater, it is an absolute stunning site around the rim and the diversity of animals is just amazing. We spent two nights at the Neptune Ngorongoro Lodge nearby, a world-class property.

On July 14, we make the short drive to Lake Manyara airstrip for the 1-hour flight north to Lobo airstrip, the gateway to the magnificent Serengeti National Park. So far, every one of these safari bush planes has been piloted by a young African lady and copiloted by a young man. Very professional … and landings as smooth as glass.

The Serengeti is one of the largest game park in the world at 12,000 square miles … about one-third the size of South Carolina by comparison. The scenery is breath-taking: vast, open plains of golden sawgrass dotted by an occasional African tree. The amount and diversity of wildlife is just stunning. Hundreds if not thousands of wildebeests grazing among an equal number of impalas and gazelles, and mixed with warthogs, elephants and giraffes.

Our home for the next four nights is the TAASA Lodge, a beautiful, rustic tent camp on a hill overlooking those vast plains. We are met at LOBO by Erich, our guide for the next four days and Koreata, Erich’s tracker and native Maasai tribesman. Erich is the head guide at TAASA, very personable and clearly knows the Serengeti. Like all these African guides, he is well educated, professional and loves his job. We are in an open-air safari truck for the first time (which is our preference).

TAASA means “let’s go” in Swahili. It is co-owned by Jim Roane, an experienced travel consultant based in Minnesota. Fifteen years ago he took his family on safari here, fell in love with the country, the people and the lodge … and bought it. Since then, he has transformed it into a world-class safari destination. 70% of the employees are local Maasai and a lot of the lodge’s profits are plowed back into the local community.

Being twelve large tents on a hill, at night the cold wind howls through the air vents which makes for a disruptive night of sleep when mixed with hippos and elephants snorting. The lodge employs three Maasai men to patrol the sidewalk from dusk to dawn (with spears, no less!) in case the animals decide to explore a tent. The bed is king size with lots of comfy down blankets and rubber hot water bottles freshly filled at bedtime that somehow stay warm until morning. The daily routine is the same … early morning breakfast then game drive, lunch, naps and then another late afternoon game drive with sundowners, back in time for dinner and in bed by 9. Over the course of four days, we:

Were charged by an elephant in musth when we got in his way while he was trying to find a female,
Witnessed a “kill” … a jackal chased, killed and ate a gazelle,
Witnessed an attempted “kill” by a young lion chasing a herd of wildebeest,
Saw the “big five”: buffalo, lion, leopard , rhino and elephant, and
Witnessed the Great Migration, as described below.

The Great Migration is an incredible site involving over 1.8 million wildebeest making their way north over a few months in search of food and water. Along the way they must cross the Mara River where monster 14-foot crocodiles are happily waiting to eat them. They cross, mostly in single file, in herds, from a few hundred at a time to, in our case, nearly four thousand. All it takes is for one to start the crossing and then all the others in the herd follow behind. Might take a few minutes … or a few hours for the first one to go. Luckily, we saw two!

On July 18 at 0900, we loaded up in the safari truck and said goodbye to TAASA Lodge, the Serengeti and to Africa, and started the long trek to our next destination, Segment 7, The Maldives

Waiting to board