Hands up if you have ever driven down a motorway/ major highway (416/401) and passed a camel and an elephant? I can now proudly raise my hand.
In transit: So we left Andrea and Simi's at 1pmish on Saturday afternoon and here is our journey to Delhi -
Bus ride to central glasgow 20 min
Train to airport 1 hr
Plane to London 1+ hr
Bus to Central London 1 hr
Underground to Heathrow Airport 1 hr
Arrived at 1030pm overnight in airport
Plane to Delhi at 955am, landed at 1055pm
When we got to Delhi we had to wait for 1hr for a gate to open up so we could deboard. We got to our car and were hit by the warm, sweet smelling air of India. After we changed the flat tire, drove to the gas station and repaired the flat tire, we headed through the crazy traffic to our hotel.
Along the way we had the craziest driving yet. If you have 3 lanes of traffic on your side,which lane do you drive in? Well, in India you drive in the middle, on the side, 5cars wide or wherever you like pretty much. It was mayhem. And the traffic was as busy as rush hour. Cars and bikes and trucks and a camel or elephant, each vying for a place. You just have to be aggressive and ultimately bigger. The one condolence was that this white knuckle driving was not done at the break neck speeds of Africa. We finally arrived at 130am and although we should be exhausted, I think the adrenaline rush of the drive kept us awake.
So far the scariest driving record goes to India!!! We drove around the next day to see the sights and it was insane. Round abouts? Just swerve across 5 lanes of traffic cutting everyone off - no problem. Red lights? Do they really mean stop -we ran a few. Traffic jam? No problem just turn around and drive into oncoming traffic. Anything seems to go.
We did get to see some amazing sights aside from the obvious hubub of the city. We went to a hindu temple, the lotus temple,Ghandi's park, the gate of India and ate breakfast for 2 with drinks for $3.
Off to Kathmandu:
Train ride -16 hr
Bus to border 4 hrs
Tuk Tuk across border
Bus to Kathmandu 12 hrs
Quite a long transit all in all. It was pretty funny to see Greg try to squish in the back seat of a bus for which he legs were definately too long and there is absolutely no way he could fit,so he sat side angle as they filled the bus. Apparently, local buses follow different rules, as in fit in as many as possible, even though there are 5 seats, let's put 7. Greg needless to say had his legs stuck sideways in an awkward way as they stuffed him into the seat.
We arrived in Kathmandu at 530am finally to get some much needed sleep.
Pics and more tales to follow!
Here are the pics as promised!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
African Safari - Continued
Day 2 - Lake Maynara National Park
The hippo pool was incredible, in the distance were herds of zebras, wildebeests and various gazelles. At first glance you search for a hippo to appear and then realize the large mass of what appears to be mud is actually dozens of hippos sleeping in the sun, then you realize that the slight outcroppings in the water are actually hippos having a snooze in the cool water. We saw once active hippo who went for a wander and then walked into the water and disappeared below the surface of the water - who knew hippos could hold their breath for so long!!! In a tree to the left is a monkey checking out the action with calls to other monkeys in trees around, birds singing their hearts out and a cool wildebeest taking a drink.
We saw alot of close calls in the crater. We saw a couple of lions scoping out a herd of zebra's, the hyena's and jackels were slinking in the background waiting for a piece of the action. We also saw one water buffalo have a narrow miss with a lion. The lions were out and were ready for a hunt, but their prey was too fast or too smart for them on this day.
One incredible sight that we came across was a pride of lions laying at the side of the road, so close it was incredible.
Lastly, we had one animal left in the Big 5 - we had seen Lions, water buffalo, leopards, elephants and the missing link -the rhino! Just before breakfast we came across the rare siting of a rhino and her baby laying in the grass, so we hunkered down and waited it out over breakfast for her to stand so we could get a good look. I have to admit I had to shake my head several times, because here we were sitting in a 4x4 jeep in Africa on a freezing cold morning, drinking coffee and eating breakfast while watching a rhino and her baby. It just doesn't get much better than that. The previous morning we were having breakfast and watching lions. We probably watched them for more than an hour as they got up walked towards us, ate a little, walked away from us, walked back towards us and then lay back down. They look as though they are from a prehistoric era and are generally quite shy and hard to see. There are only about 75 in the park in total.
You would think you might start to get tired of seeing the same animals, but as you will see from our pics, each animal and each moment is incredible and we were in awe all the time. The animals were incredible! Each day was amazing and we had an unbelievable experience on safari. These few stories are just a taste and the pics as well. If you want to see the uncut version of our safari adventure, we will post the link site to all the pics, but I have to warn you, there are loads of them. Next out to the coast of Kenya!
Once again the landscape was completely different from the day before. Lake Maynara is in an incredible setting, backing against the rift valley that was formed by volcanic activity thousands of years ago, the white sand/salt beaches outline the lake, the woods are lush and green and the animals plentiful. Another amazing day for sight seeing, today we sat for long periods of time watching the baboons play, little tiny babies snuggled against their mothers.
The hippo pool was incredible, in the distance were herds of zebras, wildebeests and various gazelles. At first glance you search for a hippo to appear and then realize the large mass of what appears to be mud is actually dozens of hippos sleeping in the sun, then you realize that the slight outcroppings in the water are actually hippos having a snooze in the cool water. We saw once active hippo who went for a wander and then walked into the water and disappeared below the surface of the water - who knew hippos could hold their breath for so long!!! In a tree to the left is a monkey checking out the action with calls to other monkeys in trees around, birds singing their hearts out and a cool wildebeest taking a drink.
The park was magnificent and the animals incredible. We had our first water buffalo sighting, but better pictures will follow. The dik dik, is a small deer like animal, not much bigger than a jack russell.
Day 3-5 - Serengenti National Park
On our way to the Serengeti, we passed through the Ngoronogoro Crater and the Oldupai Gorge which has had some amazing discoveries into the hominid past.
The Leakey family discoveries here were numerous and the gorge itself was amazing.
SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
We made our way to the Serengeti after leaving the gorge. The drive in was dusty and narrow, with hair pin turns at the edge of a cliff and we sped along at breakneck speeds. Once we entered the Serengeti it was incredible, miles and miles as far as the eye could see of yellow grass and dusty roads. We popped up our top and started weaving our way along the roads, once again we were extremely lucky as we drove along for miles with no wildlife to speak of and then we saw spots in the distance - always look at every pic close because you never know what you will find! Below you can see the spots in the distance that spanned the horizon of a large herd of elephants.
Then we quickly came upon an amazing site, right at the side of the road, an incredible male lion, sunning himself with all of the trucks starring on in disbelief, I know we have included alot of photo's but he was amazing!
Shortly after we left this guy behind we saw a young female skulking through the grasses.
Dust was slowly setting over the Serengetti, so we quickly hurried to camp to set up. When we got to our campsite - a clearing in the grasses with a stone structure for the cooks, our guide decided we would set our tent up beside the cookhouse although this was conveniently leaving a spot free beside the other tents for his tent - hehe just kidding I think. As the tent was laid out we noticed a huge pile of dung and I mentioned to Greg that maybe we should move our tent, which our guide willingly obliged, 2 feet to the other side of the huge waterbuffalo dung pile. We had decided that it was no big deal until Greg looked up and noticed that the maker of that dung pile 50 yards from where we were setting up our camp!!!
The next day we spent hours searching the plains for various animals, here are a few of the amazing sights! We once again were very lucky as we spotted every kind of cat, huge herds on the horizons and loads of animals just steps away from us.
Thomson Gazelles
See anything in this pic?
Hyena
We woke up at the crack of down to dry down into Ngorongoro Crater. The sun was rising as we circled down into the crater. The most amazing thing about the crater is the huge herds of animals. It was amazing to see thousands of animals in herds across the crater, either merging together or walking nearby.
SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
We made our way to the Serengeti after leaving the gorge. The drive in was dusty and narrow, with hair pin turns at the edge of a cliff and we sped along at breakneck speeds. Once we entered the Serengeti it was incredible, miles and miles as far as the eye could see of yellow grass and dusty roads. We popped up our top and started weaving our way along the roads, once again we were extremely lucky as we drove along for miles with no wildlife to speak of and then we saw spots in the distance - always look at every pic close because you never know what you will find! Below you can see the spots in the distance that spanned the horizon of a large herd of elephants.
Shortly after we left this guy behind we saw a young female skulking through the grasses.
Dust was slowly setting over the Serengetti, so we quickly hurried to camp to set up. When we got to our campsite - a clearing in the grasses with a stone structure for the cooks, our guide decided we would set our tent up beside the cookhouse although this was conveniently leaving a spot free beside the other tents for his tent - hehe just kidding I think. As the tent was laid out we noticed a huge pile of dung and I mentioned to Greg that maybe we should move our tent, which our guide willingly obliged, 2 feet to the other side of the huge waterbuffalo dung pile. We had decided that it was no big deal until Greg looked up and noticed that the maker of that dung pile 50 yards from where we were setting up our camp!!!
The next day we came across the waterbuffalo having a bit of a disagreement, if they could talk I am sure the one would have been saying to the other - "Say mercy, say mercy" as they wrestled to the ground with their horns!
We had noticed the waterbuffalo's as we came in, however camping in the Serengeti means that you are really camping among the animals and with this somewhat notorious violent and huge animals standing just beyond our tent, we immediately decided that peeing in the middle of the night would not be an option!!! HAHA, seriously though we had hyena's, lions, giraffes, baboons and waterbuffaloo wondering through the camp day and night. The guide gave us strict instructions that if we were to pee in the night, we must first slightly open the tent and shine our flashlight around and look for eyes first. One night I have to admit I decided that I was going to brave the wild until I heard very loud and heavy footsteps beside our tent and some extremely loud grinding sounds, I think the waterbuffalo was actually eating the tree directly behind us! Needless to say, that is very convincing motivation to wait till daylight. On our second night we awoke to loud crashing noises and a fluster of activity outside as the hyena's began to wail when their attempt to break into the camp kitchen was thwarted!
Thomson Gazelles
Check out the horizon line above
See anything in this pic?
We came upon the above lions as we went out for an early morning drive, we saw the pride of females and sat watching them just after sunrise. Suddenly, the lead lion stood and all of the lions that were lazing about got very uptight, our guide then pointed out this male from another pride entering their territory. He obviously saw them two from a distance and for a very long time there was a standoff, we elephants dotting the hill behind the pride. Finally, this male must have realized he was not up for a fight and walked in a wide circle around the females. Luckily for us, it meant he walked directly in front of us, we could have petted his back! He was really skinny though and had not eaten in days. Lions usually eat once a week and when they have just eaten they are huge and bloated by the meal they have consumed. Leopards eat every 3 days.
Below you will see a lazy bunch of cheetahs.
It is not easy being a giraffe with knees that don't bend and a very long neck! Try drinking like this.
This guy was very camera shy, he just would not look at us for a pic.
HyenaThis next guy stole someone else's breakie, the hyena's don't usually kill for themselves, as you can see by all the animals in the background they aren't too much of a threat.
This cheetah was pretty antsy, we were just waiting for the chase to begin, but thankfully for the gazelles' they never got close enough.
Again here is a where's waldo.
This leopard has just taken breakfast into the trees, although, our presence made him shy, so he left his meal in the trees and will come back for it later.
We started an elephant when our driver went too fast and he turned and trumpeted at us and then took a menacing step towards us. I have to say as beautiful as they are, I would not want to make one mad. We also sat and watched as a couple of little elephants fought over a branch, one took it away and the other kept trying to reach his trunk over top of the other and steal it back. They then had to walk down a tiny hill and were hillarious as they tried to walk down what you would think was the side of the mountain. The one finally gave up, dropped to his knees, rolled over and basically rolled down the hill. Sooooo cute.
On our way out of the park, we stopped to pick up a lone ostrich egg.
Day 5-6 - Ngorongoro Crater
We saw alot of close calls in the crater. We saw a couple of lions scoping out a herd of zebra's, the hyena's and jackels were slinking in the background waiting for a piece of the action. We also saw one water buffalo have a narrow miss with a lion. The lions were out and were ready for a hunt, but their prey was too fast or too smart for them on this day.
I know, I know, so many pics but how do we choose!!!.
Now look in the distance - there aren't trees in the background.
Silver Jackle
Golden Jackle
Lastly, we had one animal left in the Big 5 - we had seen Lions, water buffalo, leopards, elephants and the missing link -the rhino! Just before breakfast we came across the rare siting of a rhino and her baby laying in the grass, so we hunkered down and waited it out over breakfast for her to stand so we could get a good look. I have to admit I had to shake my head several times, because here we were sitting in a 4x4 jeep in Africa on a freezing cold morning, drinking coffee and eating breakfast while watching a rhino and her baby. It just doesn't get much better than that. The previous morning we were having breakfast and watching lions. We probably watched them for more than an hour as they got up walked towards us, ate a little, walked away from us, walked back towards us and then lay back down. They look as though they are from a prehistoric era and are generally quite shy and hard to see. There are only about 75 in the park in total.
You would think you might start to get tired of seeing the same animals, but as you will see from our pics, each animal and each moment is incredible and we were in awe all the time. The animals were incredible! Each day was amazing and we had an unbelievable experience on safari. These few stories are just a taste and the pics as well. If you want to see the uncut version of our safari adventure, we will post the link site to all the pics, but I have to warn you, there are loads of them. Next out to the coast of Kenya!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
