Day 48-50 3/03-05/99: Perspectives on East Africa Symposium

Day 48 3/03/99

If our trip to Tanzania is like a 10-course Chinese banquet: Kilimanjaro climb, Safari at Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Serengeti being the first 9 dishes, then the "Perspectives on East Africa" symposium is like dessert. We did not make a special trip to attend the symposium; this is just part of the overall Wilderness Travel tour package for this particular trip. However, we are very happy about the symposium--it's a great opportunity to meet and listen to Jane Goodall and Cynthia Moss (Being elephant lovers, we are a big fan of Cynthia Moss.)!

There were people from other Wilderness Travel tours attending this special symposium. Some are finishing their trip with this symposium--like us, some will start their adventure after. The tours are Tanzania Walking Safari, Ultimate Tanzania Safari, Tanzania Research Safari, Kenya Research Safari (sure reminds us our 1991 safari), East Africa Wildlife Safari, Serengeti Wildlife Safari, and of course, our Serengeti & Kilimanjaro Climb (there is a group of people doing the hike after the symposium).

The first place we visited as part of the symposium safari/field trip was to visit the Serengeti Lion Project.

We sat at the front porch. (I included in this photo the chair where I was sitting--it's about the most uncomfortable chair that I've ever sat on due to its strange angle of the back. However, I was not about to complain since this was out in the middle of nowhere.)

Speaking of out in the middle of nowhere, here was a young researcher Megan from U.S who was explaining the lion research that went on as well as telling us how she gave up a promising pre-med education in order to be here--much to her parents' dismay! She reminded Theresa one of our nieces. How would you like your daughters or nieces to be out here in Tanzania doing research? I know I'll be worried sick... :-)

  One of the research projects involved using a stuffed male with several different kinds of mane (light/dark; sparse/bushy) to determine the reaction of other male and female lions.

Sometimes this poor stuffed lion provoked an attack. Our dog Rondo can relate to this when he was attacked a few years ago. This lion, like Rondo, was almost as good as new after a few stitches to sew its wound. :-)

  I was looking forward to the Serengeti because this was during both the wildebeest calving season and the famed migration, which may involved hundred of thousands or even millions of wildebeest. Well, blamed it on El Nino. We did not get to see the migration. The animals were confused by the unpredictable and absent rain. Instead, these were about the best pictures of wildebeest migration I got. Okay, they are not exactly real wildebeest. These were actually small, metallic sculptures at this very nice interpretive center. Theresa was especially impressed by the genuine enthusiasm of one of the native docents.

[From http://www.gorp.com/gorp/location/africa/tanzania/ser_kop.htm ] 

 

"The Afrikaans 'kopje' (pronounced copy) is the term commonly used in East Africa for the rocky outcrops technically known as inselbergs. They consist of very old granite rock which, because of erosion and weathering, has broken up into a rough and jumbled surface. In the open grasslands, where the countryside has been more or less leveled off by deposits of dust and ash from volcanoes of the Rift, kopjes stand out against the surrounding plain.

 

Perhaps the most conspicuous form of wildlife on the kopje is the hyrax, of which two species occur. The Rock Hyrax is larger and more brown in color than the Bush Hyrax whose fur is grey. These animals differ in habits in that the rock hyrax grazes the grasses up to 55m from the kopje base while the bush hyrax is an outstanding climber and lives on the tender leaves of the umbrella acacias growing nearby.

Both species may live very close together on the same kopje in apparent harmony although each has separate living holes. These holes are small enough to keep out leopards, jackals, servals and caracals-their main predators. 

 

Hyraxes are notable for being the nearest living relative of the elephant, as shown by anatomical similarities. Can you find a hyrax in this picture?

A dung beetle and a ball of dung. Don't worry. This is only a sculpture.

Theresa in front of a kopje.

Bill Abbot facilitated the symposium. He is the founder and president for Wilderness Travel. He was friendly. We had breakfast with him one morning and also rode on the same plane out of Arusha.

Cynthia Moss presented her slide show, which Theresa and I enjoyed tremendously. I especially enjoyed those pictures of Amboseli elephants with the snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background! Click here to go to a page dedicated to her.

Day 49 3/04/99

Click here to go on the safari at Serengeti that we went on.

After lunch Theresa was reading a chapter from Jane Goodall's book "Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe"

The Serengeti Serena Lodge also has a beautiful pool like the Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge. Unforuntately, once again we did not have the opportunity to use it. Besides, even though my wound from Mt. Kilimanjaro was healing nicely, I hated to get the wound wet and infected.

Jane Goodall gave a most inspiring and moving talk. Click here to go to a page dedicated to her.

At  dinner we celebrated the birthday of two of the people attending the symposium. They brought out all the waiters, waitresses, and cooks to sign their version of the Tanzanian birthday songs--I do mean songs! It was great. Let me just say that I want to throw a big birthday party here at the Sergeant Serena Lodge.

  I had a combination lock for one of my duffel bags. The first night at the Ngorongoro camp I came back to the tent after dinner to get ready for bed. Well, I tried and tried, but the darn combination no longer worked. I tried most of the adjacent numbers for 20 minutes. I gave up after my fingers were raw and sore. Fortunately, I borrowed a cutter from Alex and was able to finally cut it with brute force. However, I was not willing to give up. I started with 000, 001, and so on. I came to the final few numbers of all 999 combinations before finally opening it over the course of several days. I finally solved the mystery! I threw away this stupid lock afterwards. We did not have problems with the other three combination locks by Eagle Creek. However, for the rest of our trip in Germany we always opened our locks with some apprehension!

Day 50 3/05/99

The very successful, informative, and sometimes deeply touching symposium came to a close. All the speakers were presented with a small token of thanks by Wilderness Travel. Click here to find out more about these speakers.

Theresa and I took a last picture at the Serengeti Serena Lodge.

We also said good-bye to Silulu, one of the four drivers on our trip, at 2 p.m. after another delicious lunch buffet.

At the Serengeti we made sure that we had our luggage before boarding these small planes back to Arusha. However, it will not be bad if we and our luggage were on our way back to Mt. Kilimanjaro!

Theresa, Lois, and Ede chatting.

Theresa climbed Kili without problems--getting on this plane was a piece of cake.

Is it my imagination, or is this plane a little cramped? It's a pity that Larry Ellison's (Oracle's Big Shogun) Gulf Stream V jet was not around to take us. :-)

Surprisingly, the ride was not bumpy.

We also enjoyed a nice view of the kopje from the air.

Our day room at Arusha was the Mt Meru Lodge. The room was nice and clean. Besides, we got to take a nice shower. Guess what, Theresa and I did some last minute souvenir shopping. We were delighted by our purchase. This was also the place I finally bought my Kilimanjaro map.

Were Ede and Bruce smiling because 1) they were on their way back to their comfortable house in Houston, 2) they were going to be skiing soon, or 3) they get to see their dog that was air-shipped to Phoenix to their daughter's house?

Actually Bruce was just smiling because it was a miracle that their souvenirs and his long legs all fit in this very tight seat right above the wheel well!

We had to stop at Dar to pick up some more passengers before our long flight back to Amsterdam. Here were Anne and Theresa. Theresa and I drank our last bottle of passion fruit flavored Fanta.

Wait, don't surf to another WEB site yet. Our vacation was far from over, Come with us for a Germany cultural "immersion" experience that Theresa and I will not forget.