20 Years of Travel #9: African Safari

The 20 Years of Travel series continues with an African Safari. Below you will see pictures from our adventures in the Serengeti, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater in 2014. If you want a bit more detail of this our adventures through Tanzania, please see the blog links at the bottom of the page for other posts related to this.

The Serengeti

First of all, I am not known among my friends as a person who loves camping. However, I loved this kind of camping, which I would classify as glamping. I did have to figure out how to take a shower with only two buckets of water, but I learned quickly and the water was a warm temperature. Plus, a tray with a pot of coffee would be waiting for us in the morning just outside our tent. It was lovely!

Second, I feel like I have a whole new respect for wildebeest. I just thought they were ugly large goats, but I miss waking up to their sounds. I wish I had recorded them and could set their sounds as my alarm clock in the morning. If you can plan your Serengeti adventure to include the Wildebeest Migration, I highly recommend it. It is absolutely thrilling!

Finally, I loved watching all the different animals from just a few feet away. They didn’t seem all that concerned with us, which allowed us to watch them for long periods of time. You definitely get to witness the circle of life up close and personal.

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 Lake Manyara

My takeaways from our time at Lake Manyara was how much I adore baby monkeys, and that you should always have your camera ready in case thousands of birds get scared and take flight all at once.

The Ngorongoro Crater

Who doesn’t enjoy a crater filled with beautiful animals, including lion cubs and a pond filled with hippos?!

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If you would like to read more about our amazing experience in Tanzania, please see the following posts:

• Wildebeest Migration – Tanzania (August 2014)
• Serengeti – Tanzania (August 2014)
• Ngorongoro Crater – Tanzania (August 2014)

HAPPY TRAVELS!!!

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20 Years of Travel #3: Sahara Trek

To continue with my 20 Years of Travel celebration, my third location feature is: The Sahara. In 2012, my husband and I decided to honeymoon in Morocco. This decision may have been completely inspired by the movie Casablanca, which we both love. However, while we enjoyed immersing ourselves in the cities like Casablanca, Rabat, Fez and Marrakesh, our favorite part of this trip was our trek through the Atlas Mountains into the Sahara, where we camped overnight.

Though the roads leading through the Atlas Mountains were windy and dangerous, the views were just stunning:

Of course no Sahara trek is complete without a little bonding time with some camels!

I really liked my camel. It was sweet to me (though a bit wobbly) – makes me almost regret eating that camel burger in Dubai a few years later…almost.

As we road a jeep into the Sahara, it was a roller coaster of sand dunes (see picture at very top of the post), and I prayed that the driver knew where he was going, because all I could see were miles and miles of hot hot sand with a few dust devils. I knew no matter how much I had my camera protected, with plastic bags and everything, there was no way I could avoid getting sand in it.

What seemed like at least an hour of driving we came to a tiny campground. How our driver found this place is still beyond me. There were just about seven tents total with a fire pit in the middle.

That night I felt like this had to be the most peaceful place on earth. No noise except for a few individuals place music by the fire pit and no lights except for the fire in the fire pit. Thanks to a Reese Witherspoon movie I saw as a child called A Far Off Place, I was aware that deserts, while very hot during the day, get very cold at night, so I had brought my sweatshirt with me. Unfortunately, my husband had not and had a very cold restless night. I slept like a baby.

The next day was just beautiful, so we told our driver that we would like to explore the sand dunes a bit. He said he would meet us on the other side. It took us a good hour to get to him. Sand makes walking difficult. It was worth it though!

It was one of the most amazing adventures I’ve ever experienced and would do it again in a heartbeat. I would like to give a shout out and huge thanks to the Naamani Groupe for organizing and guiding us on this part of our Moroccan adventure. You guys were the best!

HAPPY TRAVELING!!!