Departure to Kilimanjaro

Looks like I may win the pool on when we will depart.

Suppose to be 0730 I took 0930 and it is 815 and not all of the vehicles have arrived.

I know African time but that should not apply on such an important day



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The Masai Village

Up the road to a Internationally funded program that focuses on the advancement of the Masai women


The cow dung architecture, I will write a blog on just the Masai culture on the flight home.








The children were too cute





Ben was showing them their photos











They start herding very young


And the modern Masai


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The Negotiation

We stopped at the Masai market and surrounding town to shop on our way to a real Masai village. Like any International market the only goal is to obtain the best deal possible while I enjoy this many don't find the bartering at all fun.


The Masai wear a sandal made from old motor cycle tires


Pick the best tread


Some are decorated but not at this shop


Some antique carvings


More


Lots of Obama ?


I bought you one Mr. Deer





Enough shopping time for a beer, a few of the group had already sat down along the street and order beers, like a swarm of bees we were the target of opportunity and we got hit hard.


Randy bartering with a very persistent peddler


Last offer


The local beer is very good

28 Dec Coffee Plantation Hike

It was nice to sleep in a little bit not I woke wide awake at 0130 and wrote 2 very long blogs that some how vanished during upload.

My ZAGG keyboard died or it won't charge via the IPAD USB pwr adapter.

After a nice group breakfast we took off with David our tour guide with Lemma directing who is never short of words


A close up of the flowers on the tree


David pointing to the tree


A group photo


Erika & Lemma the owners of Serengeti Pride Safari.

The best thing about this walking tour was shooting photos of buildings off the main roads


The frame for a new house


A bigger home


And no it is not vacant


A few children playing








Oops the coffee plantation


The house are made from cow dung cement


They have three main ways of transporting stuff on their heads, by bike or these carts that come in many flavors





Off to the Masai Village

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26 Dec The Tiffany Monkey

It was nearly 1330 and once again the crew was hungry and pretty tired so Lemma pulled into another picnic site.


All fresh local produce prepared table side


There was cheese, onion, bell pepper,avocado,carrots,oranges,bread,chips and soft drinks or water.


There were the ever rare Tiffany (really blue) Monkey, SPS warned us to keep all windows and food secured, others weren't as smart.


This happened several times


One of his friends


A third cousin


The Jerry Spring Monkey


And the encore


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26 Dec Breakfast with Hippo's

While the tourist natives were getting restless late morning without caffeine we were all glowing and sporting big smiles from the initial encounters within the Caldera.

The hippo watering hole was an outstanding place for a picnic breakfast


I had walk just walking over to the group and they were being dive bombed by a kite an African skua ;-)


Looking for a free meal


I wish I had a video camera, should of bought the new SLR with HD video when the hippos were breathing it was a very strange gassing sound would of been great to overlay that onto a jib jab.


A ginny hen


I was walking around the pool and in the distant I saw an an Elephant approaching


It wanted to come over for a closer look


And closer


Maybe we should move now


I think he maybe pissed


Off to hang with the Zebra & Wilde Beast











A wart hog


a few Thompson Gazelles


Enough for now time to do gear check for the Kilimanjaro climb

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Location:Ngorongoro Crater