George

Dean and I are having a great time in George visiting George and Karen. Dean met George on his last trip to Africa ten years ago. We have eaten more here than on our whole trip... :) They prepared a braai for us and friends...a traditional South African barbecue...delicious!
Tomorrow we heading back to Cape Town and plan to stop in a town by the sea to check into cage diving with the Great White Shark... chomp--chomp!!
-Pictures to follow-

Stone Town--Zanzibar

Tonight we are in a nice hotel just outside of Cape Town on our way to George. Our hotel has free wi-fi in the room so I thought I would share a few more pictures.
After our our Serengeti Safari we flew to the island of Zanzibar and spent the first night in Stone Town at the Narrow Street Hotel.
I was excited to finally sleep in a bed after a week of tenting...don't you just love my princess bed? :)

Stone Town-


This picture is for you Huib...

-note the boat in the background...




Getting help from the locals on our first bike break down...

One hot couple taking the Spice Tour...

Lion Video

Camping in Kruger

We are having a great time in Kruger Park. The landscape is so beautiful!
It has been fun having our own car and getting really close to the animals! We have seen almost all the animals on our list but we are still looking for a cheetah..
The park consists of many safari camps all connected with paved and dirt roads. We have been traveling to many of the different camps and setting up our tent and spending the night. The campers in South Africa go all out and have quite the set up…they even have microwaves.
For dinner Dean gathered wood, we started a fire, boiled water in our little pan ,and made our instant mashed potatoes. Then a friendly camper came over and told us that each campground comes with a kitchen which has boiling hot water and burners … :) Very fancy…it has come in handy when we make our coffee in the morning!

Kruger National Park

We arrived in Kruger-BERG-EN-DAL Camp- last night and set up our tent in between rain storms, Luckily we had a pretty dry night and woke up to sunshine...yea!

It will be a beautiful drive through the park today and we hope to see lots of animals.
Last night we saw around 10 white rhinos right by the road...super cool!

I am turning into Gypsy Jana...:)

Would love to hear from you...comments are very welcome.

Good Game

Our African Safari consisted of 4 days and three nights. We chose the camping safari with our own land rover,guide,and cook and spent the night in 3 different camp sites. Our first stop was Lake Manyara,then the Serengeti,and ended in the Ngorongoro Crater. WoW...Fantastic!

Elephant at Lake Manyara...stayed tuned Dean has a great video to come with the elephant interacting with two zebras.

Water Buffalo in Ngorongoro Crater

Gazelles in Serengeti...they are everywhere...even babies.

Giraffes in the Serengetti...they love to walk down the road.

Migration of the Wilde beast...millions of them ...really cool! As far as your eye could see in all directions.

Zebras everywhere!

We were very lucky to see five leopards...one was even eating his gazelle up in a tree...a kill for Dean...

The male lion found his prize...the female!

After smelling the female he came out of the long grass to find her...

Crossing the road to narrow the distance...

This is not a roar...this is how they smell if the female is in heat...I think he's a happy lion!

Yes he is a happy lion...truly The King of Beasts!

(lion story narrated by Dean)

beach bums

White sand,aqua blue water,grass shacks,fresh fish,local fruit...pretty wonderful!
Yesterday we went snorkeling which was very fun...the best I've ever done...so many fish and beautiful coral. It is very hot and humid here so we are feeling pretty lazy this morning...but when the tide goes out a little bit more we are going for a long beach walk. There are lots of locals fishing in their old wood boats and collecting clams which adds to the exotic feel.

The power goes out every night here so it has been quite interesting. It's great when your eating dinner on the beach by candle light but not so good when the fan stops working in your bungalow... :)

Tomorrow we head back to Stone Town for one more night and then take the ferry to Dar es Salaam and then fly to Joburg. I really like Stone Town so I'm excitied to go back there. Narrow streets,very old stone buildings,great architecture,etc... I ran out of shampoo and am looking forward to washing my hair there...the shampoo is too expensive in Zanibar...I am looking very much like a bum...a curly mop!

Our hotel has internet right on the beach ... a treat!

Dean is arranging to get our flat tire fixed so we can leave in the morning...it's Africa man...

Zanzibar

We are in staying in a bungalow on the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar. It is so nice here...the Hawaii of Africa. Yesterday we rode a motorcycle here and it only broke down twice... The first time it took a village to fix the bike and get us going again and the second time a local police pushed Dean down a hill... too funny but quite an experience...the local people are so nice!

We are having trouble with our camera's so pictures will have to come later.

Love it here! ...so romantic!
-this computer is so slow so I have to sign off.
UNION BEACH BUNGALOWS

Amsterdam to Arusha

It was a long flight from Amsterdam to Dar es Salaam but we made it. It was pretty easy to get a taxi to the bus station...we had a very nice taxi driver who helped us get our tickets and even walked us to the bus.We were so thankful for him because I can't even begin to describe how crazy what they call a bus station was.
The bus ride was 10 hours of bumping and me staring out the windows looking at the sights of everyday life...everything I thought I would see and more... Every time we would stop all the vendors would run up and try to sell us things from our windows. My favorite was a long stick with ears of roasted corn attached to it...it looked just like a palm tree.

In Arusha we got a taxi ride from Dean's new friend Mr. Moody to the Masaii Camp where we quickly pitched our tent because it was getting dark. The camp is quite cute with a rustic bar and eating area. There are hot showers and toilets with toilet paper... :)

The first night in the bar we met a girl from Gig Harbor and she is building a lodge in the area... too funny! She had connections and helped us book a 4 day-3 night safari with her friends. They arranged for a land rover,driver,cook,food and food for the two of us...it was nice to have a personal touch..even vegetarian for Dean.

The first day Mr. Moody took us into town so Dean could get a haircut from a local barber...which was quite the experience. He took out his razor and sheared Dean like a sheep leaving only a little hair on top...something was lost in translation... I did freak out a little yelling stop not so short...but it was too late. I'm starting to get used to it know that Dean's head is starting to tan.

For some reason the mosquito's are not biting me at all but Dean is getting eaten alive...too weird but I'm fine with it... :)

Sorry my pictures are out of order but I'm working on it... I'll save the safari for another day...it was awesome!!!

I am loving Africa...so much to say that I can't even put it in words.
Dean is smiling inside!! :)