Stupendous Safari!

Prologue:

I can't believe the day is finally here! My parents have been waiting for 10 years for this, and I've been waiting for this for, like, 4 years. It was worth it! Our trip to Tanzania with Thomson Safaris was perfect! The guides, the wildlife, our accommodations, and just the idea of being there was amazing.

Date: 6/13/15
Place: Arusha; Weather: Cloudy

We met with our guides - Charles, Mohammad, Ali, Mustapha and our mentor Emmanuel. We are going to head to Tarangire National Park in a Land Rover. The van is filled with talking, laughing and rule-reviewing. People in Arusha have nice clothes. Today is market day so many people have booths for food, clothing etc. Many villages have houses with advertisements on them. I saw a green automatic rickshaw!

We went in a land rover to Tarangire. The road was smooth and we saw a lot of wildlife. We saw Zebras, Starlings, Impala, Ostriches and lots of lots of elephants (the babies were so cute) and Waterbuck. We even saw a lion!Then we veered off into a side road. It was really bumpy. After a while I got used to the bumps and started loving it! We were allowed to stand up on our seats and watch wildlife from above. Then we got to our camp and played soccer for a while. Then it was dinnertime and then we went to bed. The tents were very well made. There was a bathroom with pump-flush toilets (you pump a knob to flush them), and hot showers where you ask the staff to fill them for you. There are actual twin beds inside the tents!!! There were also solar powered lights.

Date: 6/14/15
Place: Tarangire; Weather: Sunny

We drove in the rover again. My friend spotted a lion! We sang songs. Elephants are commonplace around here. One even tried to scare us as she had a small baby. It sorta worked. Many starlings and white headed buffalo weavers were found. We also saw a lot of Masai Giraffes.

A little game of soccer when we came back, a class on the main language Swahili (not click speaking), good food, cake and a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we are going to Ngorongoro

Date: 6/15/15
PLace: Ngorongoro Crater; Weather: Cold

We drove from Tarangire to Ngorongoro. On the way we visited a school, the Ayalabe school and we learned how they take tests, their schedule and the school history. We then played soccer with the school kids. I was shy. We then left to have lunch at Gibbs Farm.

Soon we were at Ngorongoro Visitor Center. There were a lot of baboons. We soon arrived at our Nyumba. We played soccer and I found a game table, so my friends and I played Uno, Jenga. We ate dinner, a real African dinner that was very good and went to bed. The hot water bottle really helped!

Date: 6/16/15
Place: Ngorongoro; Weather: Cold

Today we drove to the crater floor. We saw Zebras hugging, lots of lions, buffalo and Three elephants! Wildebeest noises were really annoying. My mom thought she spotted a rhino but it was a warthog. We did see two black rhinos. On the background behind the rhino were a thousand flamingos.

We then had a picnic lunch. There was juice and chinese style rice and vegetables. We saw hippos in a pool. Then we returned and on the way back we saw more animals.

Date: 6/17/15
Place: Way to Serengeti; Weather: Moderate

Today we left for Serengeti. On the way we stopped at Oldupai gorge and saw early hominid footprints and also had a talk. Then we left for Serengeti. We stopped for lunch and are a puff, chocolate and juice and did a small walk to a view point.Serengeti was full of animals.

We saw many (putting it lightly) zebras. We saw a leopard in a tree licking itself. 6 lions were on the road! Too much wildebeest (migration is happening!). We also saw a serval cat hunt.

Then we came to our camp, played Uno, ate dinner and went to bed.

Date: 6/18/15
Place: Serengeti; Weather: Moderate

Today we are going to do storytelling! We started the day with a nice breakfast and went on the land rover. We saw like 30 lions including 3 cubs! CUBS!!! They even had spots on them. A little while later, we saw two cheetahs! Only, they were just stickin' their heads out of the tall grass.

We then had a picnic lunch and on the way back we saw more lions including two lions on a tree.

We then returned to the camp, played games, had dinner. Then it was story telling time and I talked with Emmanuel. He told a Masai story about a two-mouthed monster. I really liked it! I even guessed the moral really good. I told a Madlib. Here is how it turned out

Zebras have black and red stripes. Each zebra is disgusting. Zebras dance plants. They are herbivores. We see them all over the Taj Mahal. Zebras are komodo dragon like. They are very chunky animals. Zebras hug to sleep each other. The Swahili word for Zebra is tembo.

As you can see the Madlib was total nonsense. The Swahili word for Zebra is actually Punda Milia.

Then it was time for bed.

Date: 6/19/15
Place: Serengeti; Weather: Chilly and Rainy
 
Today we woke up got ready and set out for track identification with Emmanuel. We saw a bunch of hyena tracks, wildebeest, zebra, dik dik, gazelle, reedbuck and guinea fowl tracks. When we came back we ate breakfast and once again set out on a Land Rover journey. We saw the hippo pool, where we saw a hundred hippos, and a dead one with a crocodile sneaking bites of it. It was so stealthy. After a picnic lunch we saw mainly birds and we saw a Ground Hornbill with a puff adder in its beak, and a Martial eagle with a guinea fowl in its talons. It started raining heavily, while we returned to the camp. We needed to enter into the lounge under umbrellas. After a while, the rain turned into a light drizzle. We headed back to our tent (#7) and took a shower and put our things away. We had dinner and then I completed a beaded necklace. Then I went off to bed.

Date: 6/20/15
Place: Arusha; weather: nice

Today we headed off to Arusha on a plane. Funny airport, Serengeti airport! Just toilets, a grass landing strip, and a place for you to stand and wait for the plane. Right before the plane lands the guides are supposed to chase off the animals from the landing strip so the plane can land. It looked so funny from afar. After a while the zebras were chasing the trucks instead of the trucks chasing the zebras.

I was really, really sad to leave, but once we touched down in Arusha. We bought some souvenirs, had a snack of Bajiya, visited a workshop for the disabled called Shanga. We saw glass blowers, weavers, and painters. Then we left for Mount Meru hotel where we had shower and a nice break before we headed off to the airport to take off to Amsterdam.

Epilogue:

Overall the trip was one of the best I ever had. Tanzania is very much like India. When I grow older you can be sure I will go back. Everything was well planned and the accommodations were more than I expected of what camping could give me. Just observing the animal behavior was really interesting. I did not expect to see so, so, so many animals!!!

Dear reader, this trip can change perspective and can make anyone a better person! Observing wildlife has changed me and I became more interested in field biology. I would really like to share this interest with you.

Domesickness for Yosemite, yes, yes!

Day 1:

At 3:10PM we arrived at Yosemite Wawona Hotel. The beds are very plush, yes, yes. I am sitting at the front porch while enjoying the view and fresh air. Beautiful place, Yosemite, yes, yes. In fact i think the earth is an artist, and the National Parks, its carvings.

A little while later, we took the bus (whilst thou was still there, thank goodness), to the famous Mariposa Grove of BIG trees about 7 feet in diameter! We took a short walk there, and found that Mariposa grove had a lot of woodpeckers, yes, yes. At the end of the walk there was the GRIZZLY GIANT! Very, very scary! (I am just joking, the Grizzly giant is just a very very very large sequoia tree). It's branches are the size of thin trees!

Grizzly Giant at Mariposa Grove

On the way out we went through the California tree tunnel. A very large tree with a big tunnel cut into the middle of it! I bet I could live in there! We took so many pictures, yes, yes.

Once again those trees, yes, those trees! They were so big, that if my parents and I joined hands, we still couldn't hug the tree. We took a bus back and we made it just in time for the last bus at 5:30. At 5:34PM we came back from Mariposa Grove of Big Trees.

It was time for dinner. The food was not that great. My dad took portobello mushroom, and my mom took the garden salad. I took spaghetti (of course food from home could be mistaken for ambrosia). We came back from the dinner, and took a shower. Then we fell asleep.

Day 2:

The day began with a pancake, very very large pancakes, yes, yes. Then, the fun started. (Sing song voice) We drove into Yosemite valley! Too bad Wawona is not in the valley. My favorite part of the drive was when we were at Tunnel View (there was a tunnel right in front of us) where there was the perfect, most amazing view of my BFF, HALF DOME! (or Domy for short). Domy is the most famous rock in Yosemite!

We parked in the day use parking, and took a shuttle to the Valley Visitor Center. I got my Junior Ranger packet there. Then we took a shuttle to the Mirror Lake trailhead. We only did a little bit of the walk, just enough to get to Mirror Lake. We were expecting a reflection of Half Dome there, but we didn't see it and had to turn back as we didn't have enough time 'cos we had to go to lunch.

Terrible lunch, yes, yes. We had lunch at Yosemite Lodge. I had this bad Ziti that left an after taste in my mouth for a real long time. Then from the lodge, we boarded the shuttle for the Glacier Point tour.  We learned about Bear safety, different types of pine trees, and saw many famous landmarks of Yosemite. We got to the top, WE GOT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VIEW EVER! WE SAW HALF DOME, NEVADA AND VERNAL FALLS AND MORE FROM GLACIER POINT! A lovely spot to have your picture taken with all the view is a little jutting rock, that I like to call "Domy Mountain".

Half Dome, Nevada and Vernal Fall from Glacier Point

Then we hiked down the 4 mile hike. Little did I know that I had terrible shoes. The 4 mile hike has a very "creative" name. In reality the hike is almost 5 miles long.  Thanks to my shoes I was slipping a lot. Along the way we stopped in a place called Union Point where we had a beautiful view of the valley, and thanks to luck we saw a lizard that John Muir wrote a whole paragraph about. The lizard was very beautiful bluish-green.

BluishGreen lizard at Union Point

When we finally got down it was 6PM, and we had to take a little walk to the nearest shuttle stop through the swinging bridge. By the time we got there, my feet were aching!

We had dinner once again at Yosemite Lodge where I actually got root beer and better food this time (I had black bean soup with oyster crackers.Oyster crackers are not made out of Oysters.) Then we took a shuttle back to the day use parking, and drove back to Wawona Hotel, had a good shower, and then slept.

Day 3:

I woke up to the sound of my dad snoring, yes, yes. We got ready and ate breakfast in our room and once again went to the valley.

We hiked up the Mist Trail from Stop 16 (Happy Isles). The Mist trail led us to Vernal and Nevada falls. The hike to Vernal falls meant I had to go through a slippery staircase of uneven steps, while getting sprayed by the Vernal falls with a cliff on one side, and wasn't allowed to bend down (so that I won't get dizzy). Very scary, yes, yes. But the Vernal fall was very pretty with a rainbow sparkling with it. It was such a relief when I got to the top of Vernal Falls.

Uneven slippery steps to Vernal Fall

Nevada Fall

Then we took the same Mist Trail from the top of Vernal Falls to the top of Nevada Falls. The last part was very steep with uneven steps, but I didn't get sprayed and the stairs weren't wet (thank goodness!). The really bad news was we missed lunch, so we had to have lunch with our snacks as the main course at the top of Nevada falls. There was a cute little squirrel right in front of us!

There was a separate trail back to the valley called the John Muir Trail. I decided to hike back the John Muir trail as it was easier although longer than the Mist trail. Along the John Muir trail I found a map.I was wondering where I was, so I asked my mom. She told me I was at Clark Point. I was wondering how she knew when there was a big sign on the map that said I was at Clark Point!

After we came back from the John Muir Trail, I had a late "lunch" at the Village Grill where I got a grilled cheese sandwich which I really liked along with a slushy and some French fries.

I got a souvenir from the shop - a stuffed owl, that I've named Sugar Pine after a pine tree seen in Yosemite. Sugar Pine is way too fat and big for her wing size.

Sugar Pine

Then we took a walk to see the Lower Yosemite Falls. Very pretty falls, yes, yes. There were many signs that said don't clamber around on rocks, but many people were still clambering around rocks. After we came back from Lower Yosemite Falls we were to have dinner at Curry Village. On our way there we met somebody who had spotted a crazy guy doing tightrope walking over the Upper Yosemite Falls.

We went off and had a pizza for myself with pineapple on top,  while my mom had some good tofu and my dad had a good salad and a couple of slices of pizza.

Then we returned to Wawona Hotel, had a good shower and a good night's sleep.

Day 4:

Today we woke up to the relaxing thought of "today will be take-it-easy day".  We started off with breakfast of some french toast for me, regular toast for mom, and a regular continental breakfast for dad. The French toast was a bit salty for a French toast(unless it is supposed to be like that and I've just had my mom's version).

My 10 Junior Ranger Badges, yes, yes

We left to the visitor center to get my Junior Ranger Badge (I've been doing my packet over the trip). There was a long queue to get my badge, yes, yes. While my mom was waiting in line, I explored the visitor center and learned an Ahwahneechee legend (Go to Yosemite to learn it). After I got my badge, I went to Degnan's Deli (in singsong voice). Degnan's deli had a caprese sandwich and I liked every bite of it without the mozzarella. This was one of the places where I got good food in Yosemite.

After lunch, we left for the Mirror Lake trailhead (talk about a "take-it-easy" day!). This time though we finished the entire 5 mile loop. Very flat trail and we got the best view of Half-Dome and I could imagine touching it, my best friend ever! We couldn't see the reflection of Half dome though as it was very breezy and the water was rippling.

We then stopped at Sentinel Bridge going on the shuttle. We got another perfect view of Half Dome

Half Dome taken by me - @ Sentinel Bridge

from there, and I learned a few tricks about my mom's camera and I took tons of pictures.  We also saw a common merganser in the Merced river as the Sentinel Bridge is right across the Merced river.

After that we went to Curry village to eat. But Curry village does not have any curry. It was simply named after Mother Curry. Once again I ate pizza but topped it with all kinds of vegetables and no pineapples, very very yummy.

In the end I wanted to do shuttle surfing, getting off at whatever stops we wanted to and exploring. But we didn't have enough time for that, so my mom was so wonderful (as usual), and suggested an amazing compromise of still going to stop  21, heading back to 1, but instead of getting off at 1, we went all around once again and back to 1. From stop 21 I got a very good view of Half Dome, and at every stop I thanked the stop for giving us a wonderful time and experience.

We returned Wawona for a nice shower and a good night sleep.

Day 5:

Today is the sad day. I woke up, and had breakfast of kid sized pancakes. Then we checked out and left for home. I was the one who DJed on the iPod and I went alphabetically.  We were to head to Rajdhani (a restaurant in Cerritos) for lunch. Due to the traffic in LA, Rajdhani closed by the time we got there. I decided we could go to another place called Udupi Palace. I saved our lives, yes, yes.
We soon arrived home.

I then became domesick. :( I still am...