Home again...

After 7 different planes, 1 boat, 4 cars and countless miles behind us, we are again home and back to reality. We arrived home around 5 pm yesterday and were happily greeted by the dogs and the bird. It's good to be home of course.

This trip was amazing. We loved Africa the last time we were there which is why we chose to go back and this trip again confirmed that. Africa is an amazing place that everyone should experience and visit at some point. Of course there are huge differences in the 4 countries we've been to there in culture, language, society, wildlife, but the one constant has been the people and their true love and pride of their land. They really enjoy having people come see them and where and how they live. This are some of the nicest people we've ever interacted with and want to share that with the world. They may not have much in material goods, but everywhere we went they asked us to please be there "ambassadors" to our friends and family back home. Of course, we are not blind to the fact that western travels brings money to the area - this is the reality and, yes, a major reason they want people to come. But, we never felt that we were a means to an end only. The welcoming and openness was genuine.

Tanzania offers some of the most fantastic animal viewing in the world. We saw more animals in one day than we did in probably a week in Botswana (we loved Botswana and this by no means changes that - there's more to see there, or anywhere for that matter, than just the animals). If you were going to make one trip to Africa to see these animals, Tanzania - especially in the Serengeti during the migration - would be the place to go. In total we saw countless lions and hyena, at least 8 different cheetah, including the 3 cubs, and 3 different leopards. Not to mention of course the hundreds and hundreds of zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, elephants, giraffe, and others. We want to just mention a few people along the way that made the trip there special - of course Paul our guide was with us the whole time - he was good, but again he was not Stephen! Moses at the Lemala Camp went out of his way to make us comfortable and to make sure we everything we needed we had.

Uganda, though, was special. The viewing was spectacular there as well - not as dense in the traditional safari animals as Tanzania, but the gorillas and the chimpanzees were an unforgettable experience. The people of Uganda were amazing - because it's a less popular destination than their nearby neighbors of Kenya and Tanzania, they are not spoiled by western travelers. Hopefully this will stay that way. We will not soon forget the children who come running from the fields and from their gardens as we drove or walked by yelling "Mazunga!" - white person basically! And they all chime in with "Hallooo!" "How are youooo?" There's always the little extra "ooo" on the end! Many little kids, that all the English they knew. Unfortunately, in the larger populated areas close to popular tourist stops, they also have learned "give me some money". The funny thing, though, is that most of the kids probably don't know what that even means!

Our guide Stephen was amazing - made the trip that much better for us. We immediately clicked with him - personality and guide style and everything. He was personable and told us about his family, but at the same time could drive for hours and not say much at all - which was fine with us. There's a large part of the trip that is just watching the world that is going by. The people at Gorilla Forest Camp - Ian, Bruce, and Michael - were great. Aubrey and Claire (and the dogs of course) at Ndali were great as well - if ever they needed someone to "watch" the camp while they're away, we'd volunteer in a second!

The trip reminded us again at how cruel and sad nature can be. The wildebeest migration, while amazing in its scale and design, is at the same time an incredibly sad thing. These animals constantly walk for miles and miles in search of water - making the same circle through Tanzania and Kenya for probably thousands of years. To ensure their survival, most calves are born around the same several week period, yet thousands of these calves don't see their 1 week birthday. They get lost from their mothers which is an immediate death sentence - some chase after the safari vehicles hoping that the large moving object may be their mother. You can hardly bear to look back and see this poor little animal using it's limited energy to try and catch up to the car. The cars of course are probably part of the problem as while we drive around, we scattered herds and break up mother and baby. Even more sad are the poor little ones who've laid down and just lift their head up as you go by, but have resigned themselves to the inevitable. The lucky ones will be hunted by the large predators. The others will die of dehydration and starvation and then be eaten by the vultures and hyenas. You want to stop and pick up these refugees - but realize that this is the reality of the natural world. Their death feeds others and the circle goes around. Also, not sure our neighbors would appreciate wildebeest in our backyard!

Lastly, again, Karen and I spent virtually every minute together for the last 16 days. Again, there's nobody else that I would want to have with me and to experience this together. Thanks to her - for the patience to wait for me to be "finished" photographing something - for her near-camping experience at the tented camp - and for everything else in between.

One note has to be an acknowledgement of of the travel company we used for this trip - Natural Habitat Adventures (www.nathab.com) and particularly Aly who worked with us on planning the trip. They did an amazing job and we plan to use them in the future. If anyone is considering a trip, check them out - they've got trips all over the world not just Africa. Some look very cool - if only we had enough time off work and unlimited resources, we'd do many of them!

Enjoy and happy travels.
Jon

[One note on the blog - as you can see, I have updated the last few days of the trip that we had no access for completeness. I hope to at least put a few photos on the blog soon and maybe some video (if I can figure out how to make the files smaller). I will update the photo website as soon as I can.]