Travels With Maria

Tanzania 2017

Safari Vehicles

Game drives in safari parks are a rough affair. Everywhere the bumpy ride is referred to as an "African massage". An ad hoc network of tracks generally consisting of two ruts through the bush, never maintained, made worse by traffic during the rainy season mud, treacherous in sandy soil. The typical safari vehicle starts out as a Toyota Land Cruiser which is a rough, tough pickup truck, rear wheel drive that can convert to 4 wheel drive. On older versions you have to get out of the truck and manually lock the front hubs when you shift to 4wd.  There is an African industry that converts this workhorse into a…
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Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
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Giza

We arrived in Cairo airport at 2:30 pm on Wednesday. A guy met us and took us through immigration and customs, called our driver and off we went into terrible Cairo traffic. Smooth, no problems at all. Mustafa, our driver, took us to the apartment in Giza where we met our host Ashi. The apartment is a 4th floor walkup, 2 bedrooms, bath, living room, kitchen and a great view of the pyramids. The view is now partially obstructed by the people across the way who added a new illegal story to their house. There is lots of this going on. One morning at 4:00am, we were awoken by the…
More

Safari Vehicles

Game drives in safari parks are a rough affair. Everywhere the bumpy ride is referred to as an "African massage". An ad hoc network of tracks generally consisting of two ruts through the bush, never maintained, made worse by traffic during the rainy season mud, treacherous in sandy soil. The typical safari vehicle starts out as a Toyota Land Cruiser which is a rough, tough pickup truck, rear wheel drive that can convert to 4 wheel drive. On older versions you have to get out of the truck and manually lock the front hubs when you shift to 4wd.  There is an African industry that converts this workhorse into a…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

Giza

We arrived in Cairo airport at 2:30 pm on Wednesday. A guy met us and took us through immigration and customs, called our driver and off we went into terrible Cairo traffic. Smooth, no problems at all. Mustafa, our driver, took us to the apartment in Giza where we met our host Ashi. The apartment is a 4th floor walkup, 2 bedrooms, bath, living room, kitchen and a great view of the pyramids. The view is now partially obstructed by the people across the way who added a new illegal story to their house. There is lots of this going on. One morning at 4:00am, we were awoken by the…
More

Safari Vehicles

Game drives in safari parks are a rough affair. Everywhere the bumpy ride is referred to as an "African massage". An ad hoc network of tracks generally consisting of two ruts through the bush, never maintained, made worse by traffic during the rainy season mud, treacherous in sandy soil. The typical safari vehicle starts out as a Toyota Land Cruiser which is a rough, tough pickup truck, rear wheel drive that can convert to 4 wheel drive. On older versions you have to get out of the truck and manually lock the front hubs when you shift to 4wd.  There is an African industry that converts this workhorse into a…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

Giza

We arrived in Cairo airport at 2:30 pm on Wednesday. A guy met us and took us through immigration and customs, called our driver and off we went into terrible Cairo traffic. Smooth, no problems at all. Mustafa, our driver, took us to the apartment in Giza where we met our host Ashi. The apartment is a 4th floor walkup, 2 bedrooms, bath, living room, kitchen and a great view of the pyramids. The view is now partially obstructed by the people across the way who added a new illegal story to their house. There is lots of this going on. One morning at 4:00am, we were awoken by the…
More

Safari Vehicles

Game drives in safari parks are a rough affair. Everywhere the bumpy ride is referred to as an "African massage". An ad hoc network of tracks generally consisting of two ruts through the bush, never maintained, made worse by traffic during the rainy season mud, treacherous in sandy soil. The typical safari vehicle starts out as a Toyota Land Cruiser which is a rough, tough pickup truck, rear wheel drive that can convert to 4 wheel drive. On older versions you have to get out of the truck and manually lock the front hubs when you shift to 4wd.  There is an African industry that converts this workhorse into a…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

Giza

We arrived in Cairo airport at 2:30 pm on Wednesday. A guy met us and took us through immigration and customs, called our driver and off we went into terrible Cairo traffic. Smooth, no problems at all. Mustafa, our driver, took us to the apartment in Giza where we met our host Ashi. The apartment is a 4th floor walkup, 2 bedrooms, bath, living room, kitchen and a great view of the pyramids. The view is now partially obstructed by the people across the way who added a new illegal story to their house. There is lots of this going on. One morning at 4:00am, we were awoken by the…
More