The Cheetah Cub

Don't Meet This Guy While Out Walking Alone

                       The Spotted Hyena 

Cheetah Needing Sunglasses

I'm Just a Little Shy (Click for better view.)

Mom and Me

Lion Checking Out Zebra Checking Out Lion (Click Photo to Enlarge)

Yumiko Takes Off for NYU

It was a happy sad day today.  Our wonderful, beautiful, kind, sweet little girl grew up and left the nest.  We packed up our friend Barbara Reid's SUV with all of Yumiko's stuff for NYU and drove her to New York City today.  All went smoothly until we had to leave and I started crying, then Yumiko started crying, then Ken, then Barbara.  But in the end, we all hugged and kissed and said good bye and now begins the new chapter.  Talked to Yumiko on the phone when we got back and she was with a new friend in the cafeteria having the time of her life. We will all survive.... maybe.....

Yumiko and the Packed Car

Yumiko and Kitty (with new perm where rollers were left on a bit too long.)

Yumiko, Ken and Barbara Reid

Yumiko still with a few tears in her eyes and new roommate Raquel

Baby Giraffe Posing for His Headshot on the Serengeti

Cheetah Cub Almost Fully Grown

Yours Truly with the Safari Guides

Every single minute of every single day of the Tanzanian safari was pure joy.  We would leave our sleeping quarters a little after 6:00 a.m. and ride in land rovers with pop tops over bumpy, dusty dirt paths all day and into the early evening.  We would have a picnic lunch out there somewhere with the hyenas looking on.  I was too short to see over the top of the land rover, so would stand on the seats holding on for dear life.  When someone spotted a cheetah or lion or whatever, I would haul my ten pound bean bag up onto the railing at the top of the land rover, then haul my big lens up there too and try to focus and take a picture before the action stopped.   I truly could not have been happier.  Not only was the wildlife magnificent, but there is no way this would have happened without the professional, experienced and good hearted guides who knew exactly where every lion, every bat eared fox, every python, could be located, every minute, every hour, every day.  Oh it was so much fun!!  From left is:  James Urio, Maulidi Omari, Yuda Mkai, yours truly,  Steven Massey and Emmanuel Joseph.

Papa, Mama, and the Little Tyke (click to enlarge)

Migration of the Wildebeest

There were thousands and thousands of wildebeest in the Serengeti migrating in long long lines.  We parked our land rover in front of one of those long lines as they were slowly ambling towards us.  All of a sudden there was a stampede and everyone took off at top speed.  They thundered right at us and veered off just in time, but also just in time for a tremendous adrenaline rush.  (Click photo for adrenaline rush.)

Cheetahs in the Serengeti

We found these two beautiful cheetah on the Serengeti Plain last week.  That's the mom on the left and daughter (I think) on the right.  A few minutes later the mom pounced on a small reedbuck antelope, dragged it into some brush to hide from lions and gave it to her cub to devour for breakfast.  One good thing about cheetahs and lions and leopards.  They kill their prey quickly and then eat them, as opposed to the nasty hyena who start from the back and devour their prey while it is still alive.  We witnessed both versions.

Home, Home on the Range

Last night about 6:00, I finally got off the plane after some 24 hours from Arusha, Tanzania to Dar As Salam to Amsterdam to New York to Philadelphia International and into the arms of Ken and Yumiko  and Hsiumei who were all waiting patiently in the baggage claim area.  So great to be home and see my beloveds.  And, oh what a magnificent two weeks.  Cannot even begin to say how wonderful it all was.  The wildlife was spectacular - wildebeest migration, lions and more lions and more lions, and leopards, and elephants, and oh the birds!!!  The accommodations were over the top - way beyond expectation.  And all the fellow safareeites could not have been more fun, more adventurous.  I'll post a few photos for a few days to give you a flavor of what we saw.  Here's one of a lion charging a hyena who had ventured too close to the lion's recent buffalo kill.  (Click photo for better view.)