Our family adventure to Tanzania and Rwanda was such an extraordinary trip. We are all still on Cloud 9–not sure if I’ll ever come down! Here are our favorite pictures from our trip.
We arrived in Tanzania and met the son of the Maasai chieftain the next morning. On this globe, we showed the children where they are, then Seattle and Nashville, where we’d just flown from.All dressed up.Bill joined in on the traditional dance!As we left, the Maasai sang goodbye to us.
Tarangire National Park
Noellie led the bush walk and Kimani and Maulidi brought up the rear. We felt safe!Sunrise outside our tent the first morning.Mongoose peeking over an ant hill.Our first giraffe in Tarangire.Oh, those orange, mud-caked beauties!Thrilling!Our resident ostriches. We always passed them on our way back to camp.Sunrise at fly-camp.Bill and Kimani comparing knives. They were best friends by the end of the three days. Kimani nicknamed Bill “mbogo,” which means “buffalo.”We had a great surprise when we rounded the bend! He was checking out the possibilities.You could not wipe the smile off of my face the entire trip.
Ngorongoro Crater
Our first look at Ngorongoro Crater on a hazy day. Be still my heart!Oh, how I loved the “striped donkeys”! Couldn’t get enough of those stripes!Using Bill for a tripod.There must be something nearby.A hippo!We saw an endangered black rhino…very far away, but glorious all the same.Maasai, vibrant in their red shukas, on the green crater rim.Why the long face?Who doesn’t love a baby?
Serengeti
Peek-a-boo!Naiman said, “get him yawning, he is missing a canine tooth.” How could he see that? Naiman had Superman powers of vision.The only jackal we saw.A two-headed giraffe?Spotted this honey badger and gave chase. He then turned and charged us! Honey badger don’t care!On this morning, we started out early, 5am wake-up, and it was FOGGY. Then we turned a bend and saw these beauties. How spectacular!I loved the staff so much in both camps.Our Trip Leader, Naiman, was family after 9 days. We love him!We saw a pride of 18 lions and shortly after our jeep bottomed out in a muddy creek (it was a serious bottoming out, but Naiman prevailed as usual), then we arrived here at a kopje. Naiman took this picture and then got his machete out “for safety’s sake.” Tilghman was a little worried, after all we had just seen 18 lions and some cheetahs.With Naiman’s safety precaution in mind, we approached the rocks cautiously and heard lion grunting, but then these three heads popped up! Surprise sundowners set up by the crew!Kapush in silhouette.
Rwanda
We arrived in Rwanda and took part in some drumming before we headed into the brush to meet the mountain gorillas.This black-back nearly knocked Will off of his feet while cruising through the brush, but then he was nice enough to stop and pose for a picture. Couldn’t wipe the smile off Will’s face for days.This momma and baby came out of nowhere. Momma whacked my leg and baby slapped my arm, “get outta the way!” I was in heaven!This gorilla’s nails looked better than mine ever do!Wow. More wow! They were all so different and beautiful. Glorious.We hiked in some serious jungle.We loved our crew. Theo knew exactly when to hold my hand!As we walked by, these children were dancing. They all waved and yelled, “hello, hello, hello.” It was one of my favorite parts of the trek.
I have about 1,000 more pictures. I look at them every day. I can’t wait to take another trip with you!
1 Comment
Love these!!! Would like to get them for our publications.
Brian McGilloway
Photo editor
Wilderness Travel