East-Africa magic Karibu, welcome.

As soon as we enter Tarangire National Park we spot herds of elephants, my first encounter in the wild. We immediately stand up with our roof open, binoculars and cameras in hand, ready for action. Some of the elephants get so close, I feel I could reach out and pet them...no, not really as I am a bit nervous about their massive size and super strength. Our guide plays it cool and tells us that as long as we stay in the vehicle and keep our voices down, we will be alright. I have difficulty believing that but I pretend to be chill and hold on tight. We spot some zebras, giraffes, impalas, warthogs, velvet monkeys and a few ostriches. But the big prize is still to come. Our first but not last encounter with a couple of young lions that rush for cover under a tree as soon as the rain starts. Crossing the road ahead of us, is a female elephant in heat. All the bulls are acting crazy, showing off, sending a strong scent into the air. The female walks away, the bulls follow, testesterone levels high. Whom would she choose? Who will be the one? I need to know. When we finally leave, it is quite obvious who her mate will be, the oldest and the biggest is her choice. What happens next? Well, we don't stay to watch. The landscape in front of us is breathtaking. Baobab trees, acacia trees and termite mounds. Because of this year's unusual level of rainfall, numerous tsetse flies surround us. Our guide hates them with a vengeance. He swats at them, slaps the air, slaps his face, slaps his body, tries to kill them without much success. I get enthusiastic myself and follow his lead in waging war against the tsetse. Soon, I get anxious that our distraction from the road and the belligerent sounds we all make, will get us all into an accident. Luckily, one has to get bitten hundreds and thousands of times for many days in order to get the African sleeping sickness.

While lounging with sundowners on the terrace of Tarangire Lodge, the scene unfolds in front of us with breathtaking panoramic views. The plains are colored with different hues under the cloudy skies. What a delight! Tonight is our first night in a safari tent, the ultimate experience of being in the bush, of waking up to see the plains from our bed and hearing the wild animals. The luxury tent comes with a bathroom, a shower and a nice spot to sit outside and merge with nature. Our tent sits under a big baobab tree, one of those beautiful, ancient, iconic African trees with their massive trunks and root-like branches. Once you leave the main area of the lodge, you must be escorted by a guard as elephants and lions can roam around the area at night. The story goes that during the dry season, elephants will come drink from the swimming pool. At night you zip up all the windows and you hope you won’t wake up with the roar of a lion or the footsteps of elephants. I kid our escort and ask when was the last time anybody encountered either elephants or lions in camp. A while later, Inside our tent, as we turn off the light, we hear very heavy breathing. Very close, very present. We look at each other perplexed but within about ten minutes the breathing is gone and we don’t give it another thought and we go to sleep. The next morning we get up to learn that the heavy breathing we heard was a lioness roaming in the parking lot. The guards kept chasing her out but she kept coming back. Is it me she was after?

Two or three million years ago, a giant volcano erupted, collapsed on itself and formed this unique crater, a UNESCO world heritage site. The floor of the crater is covered with grass, lakes and forests which creates a haven for animals. Set within the lush Ngorongoro conservation area, on the highest point of the crater, is the remote Sopa Lodge. Climbing through the misty clouds on a narrow wet, muddy road, the lodge slowly appears in front of us. From the lodge's open terrace we can appreciate the view of this dramatic setting. Dinner in the traditional African architectural style great room with a beautiful wooden tiki hut roof, 30 feet above us and a fire pit in the middle. A choir performance by the locals is a nice touch to a great dinner.

Sunrise is sweeping across the savanna as we descend the 2000 feet into the crater. We are one of the first vehicles to get into the park as it opens in the early AM. Excited, we are ready for the game drive to see the BIG FIVE. Numerous impalas, gazelles, hyenas, elephants and some lazy lions either laying down resting or walking slowly with their stomachs full. The animals parade in front of us like in a theatre. And we are here to watch! As the day progresses, the nice warm day gives way to some clouds. Rain starts in a drizzle. The holes in the dirt road fill with water. We pull a car out from the middle of a hunk of mud with a rope. Off we continue, finding a leopard lazily lying on a tree in the distance. A big line of 4x4 vehicles jammed close together forms with excited tourists ready for the spectacle. But the leopard has its own mind and decides to stay on the tree. Off we go to the lake, spotting glorious pink flamingos and many cape buffalos. We are still one shy of our big five, missing the rhino. Searching for the rhinos, the sky becomes darker and darker and we hear big thunder. Just then, we see fifteen rhinos in the distance. The rain continues and the sky becomes ominous. We decide to have our lunch in the car as we rush to exit the park before we get flooded in. Calls for help come via the walkie-talkies. We count eight cars stuck in the mud off the road where there is no gravel. From the safety of our vehicle we watch as the cars' wheels continue to spin, drop mud on the vehicles, on the windows and just dig their graves deeper and deeper. We maneuver our way out, trying not to to slip and slide too much. Finally, we arrive at the promised gate of the park. Just then, where the dirt road ends and the paved road is supposed to start, a river of water gushes down towards us. Several of the guides get out of the vehicles with their rubber boots on, measuring the depth of the water with no clear way forward. Jokes go around on the air. Tourists locked in their vehicles ask if we have enough food in the car to spend the night. it seems inevitable that we will sleep this night in the car. My mind is racing, I cross my fingers praying for the park rangers to be able to come rescue us somehow. I find comfort in the thought that at least we succeeded in seeing the big five today. Then, in a quick turn of events, our driver decides to go on a suicide mission, a harakiri, and cross the river. The vehicle screeches and tilts. I close my eyes to not see the disaster coming and I grab the car's railing so tight, I get another black bruise on my hand. My heart is still pounding.

Onward to Ndutu in the southwest Serengeti. The afternoon miraculously turns sunny and the sky is scattered with beautiful clouds. My eyes continuously scan the horizon. Thousands and thousands of wildebeests and zebras are crossing the road just in front of us and as far as our eyes can see. It is spectacular. This is what is known as the Great Migration. The wildebeests zigzag along the way, making it hard to determine where the mega-herd is headed. They are accompanied by a large numbers of zebras and gazelles. These animals stick together. The wildebeests have a good sense of hearing but they run aimlessly and without a clear leader. The zebras see well, can spot a threat and steer the mass of animals - a match made in heaven. In February, when the calving season has just begun is a great time to see the mega-herds heading to the endless plains of the south. Thinking we are going to continue seeing this phenomenon for the next few days, we don't linger enough and take only a few photos. As we are about to find out, there is no guarantee. This was our only chance of experiencing such a mass of them so close. Nature is unpredictable.

On our way we stop for a visit at a Masai village. The pastoral background is misleading. The Masai community live off their livestock: cattle, sheep and goats. They still practice their ancestors' way of life. They are polygamists. They live without running water or electricity. As we arrive the whole village, wearing their traditional red cloth, come out to greet us with warrior's chants and dance. The women on one side shake their necks and shoulders, moving the heavy beaded jewelry back and forth. The men on the other side, jumping as high as possible, sticks in their hands chanting and making war like sounds. The energy level is rising while the women and the men advance towards each other. A big, tall man separates himself from the crowd and introduces himself in perfect English as the chief's son. A minute later, a woman comes out of the women's circle, wearing some sort of a cap on her shaved head, her earlobes weighed down with heavy earrings and introduces herself as the chief's son's first wife. To my question of how many wives he has, he replies without hesitation: "two, but I am shopping for a third". The woman grabs my hand and pulls me into the women's group. She holds my hand so tight I am afraid she will never let me go. There is sadness showing in her eyes. Another man approaches us and also introduces himself as the chief's son. He invites us to visit the Masai family traditional boma, their huts made of cow dung. It is completely dark inside and very smoky. No running water or electricity. It smells awfully bad and we hear a load of buzzing flies. We can barely see where we are, there is not enough room for us, the woman of the hut and the chief's son. The tiny space is divided to two parts, the woman sits on a bed on one side and we sit in what is considered the kid's area on the other. The chief's son sits on a bucket in front of us and explains how it all works. The man of the house alternates between his different wives every second or third night. They are all one big family he says, nobody leaves the village. Then we are invited outside for a chance to buy their handcrafted jewelry and other souvenirs. We are pressured to buy but without giving us any indication of how much each item may cost. We are told we will find out the price after we choose the items we like. Ok. We choose five items and are told the price is $100. I can't stop laughing, the price is outrageous and ridiculous. This chief's son reassures us that it will be fine and says: "now let's negotiate". We go back and forth several times. We feel obliged to purchase something to support the women of the village but also feel manipulated by the advanced capitalist tactics he uses. We ended up with two bracelets we didn't particularly like or need for a symbolic sum of $35, A bargain!

As soon as the clock strikes three, the downpour starts. We just barely make it to our mobile tent camp in Ndutu, Mobile tents move two or three times a year following the migration. Our tent is equipped with a bucket shower. To take a shower, we walkie talkie the manager. He then tells housekeeping to come with a bucket full of water to the back of our tent, The housekeeper dumps the water into a container above the tent and we end up with a twenty liter hot shower, about five to ten minutes worth. Clean and refreshed, I am relaxed. The camp is gorgeous over looking the lake. In the evenings, giraffes and zebras come roaming the main sitting area, around where the campfire is, or as they call it the "TV area". But we can’t see a thing. It’s misty and raining and... we are the only ones here.

The days fly by with game drives, the nights full of stars over the savanna. I find out that I like to listen to the quiet, no urban noise. Lazy mornings, we are in tune with the wide plains passing by. No more thousands of wildebeest crossing, they are scattered here and there along the road. We slow down and stop where other vehicles are set and as we pick up our binoculars we immediately spot a female cheetah sitting in the tall grass, eyeing her potential lunch. An unsuspecting gazelle eats out in the distance. Cheetahs are the world’s fastest mammal, they can cover 7 meters in one stride and more than 25 meters in a second. So we hold our breath while the cheetah moves in very slow motion towards it's prey. Her movement so graceful, every inch of her muscles in complete harmony. Like a spectacular dancer, getting closer and closer to her meal. I whisper to Jason to pick up his camera. By the time Jason moves his head to pick up the camera, the cheetah accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in three seconds. All I can see is the wind blowing around her moving. I never saw anything that fast in my entire life. When Jason finally turns his head back towards the action, it is all gone. The sprint is over. Luckily, the gazelles are pretty fast too and when they sensed the danger they fled. The cheetah, disappointed but still patient, disappears in the tall grass. A few hours later we return driving the same route and who do we see? The cheetah feasting over her prize meal - the gazelle. Did I say she was patient? A flock of vultures sat off to the side, waiting their turn of the feast: the circle of life. But as we were leaving, the cheetah didn't seem to be in a mood for sharing.

It’s 4.40AM. I am in the car, wearing every piece of clothes I have in my possession. We are on our way to our hot air balloon flight over the Serengeti. The road barely exists, one has to use a lot of imagination to figure out where the road starts and where the river ends. It is a slippery, muddy mush from the heavy rains of the last couple of days. Along the dark road we hear a giggle sound. It is high pitched and loud. Hee-hee-hee, like a hysterical human laughter. We are a bit spooked, Our driver flashes his lights over a couple of hyenas crossing the road in front of us. Apparently, the laugh is their way of communicating and recognizing intruders and other nocturnal animals. Once again I am questioning my sanity: Why am I here? What on earth pushed me out of bed in the crack of dawn to do this? I am scared shitless. I am here - that’s it - no other choice.

As the first rays of sun break over the horizon, we arrive to to the place where the balloon is being prepped. Hot air balloons work by heating the air inside the envelope with a burner, the air than becomes lighter than the outside, which makes the balloon float upwards, as if it is floating in water.

Now I am up in the sky, gently floating in air. The captain commands me to get up from my seat down inside the basket, I hesitate to do as I am told, but I stand up trying to avoid my fear of heights and slowly open my eyes. Wow. It is so, so, quiet here and no wind at all. The crew down below wave goodby to us. We fire gas and the balloon goes higher and higher, up to 1200 feet, We see the earth below from a bird's eye view and it looks serene and very peaceful - phenomenal! As we can't really steer the balloon ­and it only travels as fast as the wind blows, we drift - in air. A while later we descend by reducing the gas in the burner, the balloon begins to slowly come down, to float on top of the animals. All the wildebeests, zebras, impalas, gazelles and many hyenas are moving on and on. The big migration heads southwest. From up here they look like a long line of ants.

As we descend for landing, right there, in front of us, we see - a lion eating a zebra. Our captain aims for a landing right there. Our vehicle picks us up and our driver gets us really close to the lion, like two meters away. Too close for my taste. The lion sure doesn't like us being there, he roars at us, shows off his old teeth. He is afraid we will steal his meal. Can't he see I am a vegetarian? I am intimidated, I need to get away from Mr Lion. Everybody laughs, the driver ignores my pleas. You know how the saying goes, "The fact that you are with a guide doesn't guarantee that you won’t get eaten"...

We are invited by our flight crew for an "Out of Africa" breakfast in the bush and a ceremony to celebrate our Hot Air Balloon certificate (what's that?) The car ride is long and bumpy. I measure the distance and the time with what I expect will be our English breakfast and I get impatient. When we finally arrive at our spot in the bush, I am speechless. A spot so remote and so charming. We are welcomed with hot towels, song and dance. The place is set for a feast, beautiful linen, fine china, freshly prepared breads and excellent food - delicious! Even the bathroom is a "Loo with a view". Adorable!

To top it all off our guide is challenged to provide us with something even more exciting. We are roaming the roads and then we see them. Lions on trees. First we see one lion a bit off the road, then we track two junior females resting with their paws hanging from the tree with their stomachs full. Standing just below them, they look so innocent and harmless I almost feel like climbing up the tree to pet them. I’ll say we had had enough excitement for one day.

In Central Serengeti we spot a big, fat crocodile that has seen many moons. It looks very well fed...who is it feasting on? I dare not ask. The giant beast is sprawling in the sun with a swollen belly. It looks so ancient and stoic I imagine it to be one of those statues they sell in souvenir shops around here. The only motion I can track is when his mouth in a very slow motion opens, his jaws and teeth appears... eerie!

Chapter3: Zanzibar.

Bumping on and off in a ten seater plane we finally land in Zanzibar - spice Island. Quickly pealing off our layers of sweaters, scarves and jackets, the heat is staggering. As we get through security, many Muslim looking men with the traditional turban gather around the busy parking lot, hustling for business. The women, mostly wearing a full black cloak, the buibui, completely covered from top to bottom with only their dark eyes peeking through. The cacophony of chatter, sounds, smells and colors immediately put us in a different state of mind. This is the territory of people,It is no longer the domain of animals. Omar, our driver, shoves us into his air-conditioned car and while driving in the slowest possible way, tells us about the mixture of cultures, the many explorers, traders and settlers that visited Zanzibar throughout it's history. Persians, Chinese, Arabs, Indian, British: they all sailed their vessels into the harbor over the centuries. His English is fluent and his story telling mesmerizing. I can picture all these different faces, colors and costumes passing before my eyes, Shyly, he explains his perfect English with his love of American movies. By watching and rewatching those films he says - comedies in particular - Eddie Murphy to be precise, he gained his English language high education.

Hakuna Matata: Everything’s great. We are sunbathing in Zanzibar. A large group of Italians lounge in their sun beds, tanning, baking in the sun facing the Indian Ocean. In between us and the horizon, in a parallel straight line, lays a long line of woven baskets and colorful pareos (sarongs) waiting for the eager tourists. Bargaining for our fifty minute boat ride north, up the coast to the private island of Mnemba is a whole new, fun experience. Rumor has it that right there in the small island, you can snorkel around the coral reef, swim with tropical fishes and on your way, dive in with a big group of dolphins. Riding the waves, Captain Ali is on the hunt for the dolphin family. Once he spots them, he signals to us to jump in the water, I put my flippers and mask on, oops, the dolphins are already gone! Our captain, a rather leathery, tan kind of a guy who has spent his entire life in the sun is navigating us carefully between the choppy water and the dolphins, As they come round again, I hold my breath and try to roll backwards as instructed. I barely avoid scraping myself on the side of the boat as I roll into the water. The dolphins are all underneath me, maybe twenty of them. I have a pretty good look at them. They play and then they come up again just passing by me and then disappear.

Small Medusa join in our reef swim party along with some biting shrimp. The water temperature is unexpectedly warm. On the other side, silky white sand is tempting and inviting for a long, nice nap. Colorful exotic fish swim all around us, the water is turquoise blue. Underneath us, the coral reef shows signs of aging and damage from reckless fishermen and other carelessness. Later on, Jason's feet swell and it looks like he has the chicken pox. A possible reaction to the jellyfish. The life guard smiles as he expertly prepares the table for what he calls "The surgery". With an experienced hand he pours vinegar on Jason's rash and cuts some fresh aloe vera to wipe on his legs. On the other surgery table another lost tourist moans after stepping on a sea urchin. These lifeguards have seen more than enough western fools like us.

Our last stop is at Stone Town a world heritage site. The city has experienced several invasions, different rulers and it was the main gateway for the slave trade from Africa. Going downstairs to the dingy slave quarters underneath the cathedral, we get a glimpse of how it felt for the slaves. Chained together, brutalized, without the ability to sleep or stretch and then auctioned off to the highest bidder. Pretty gruesome existence. Later on, walking the labyrinthine, winding, narrow streets of this historic city, we get lost between the different architectural periods and the 200 carved doors. Peeking behind the walls, finding some hidden treasures and local life. Bustling food markets, colorful shops selling spices, food, souvenirs, everything African. The negotiation, pleas and bargains are a way of life, Down the street is Queen's Freddy Mercury house, a source of pride and inspiration for all Zanzibaris. On top of an old colonial 19th century building that serves as the Emerson hotel and restaurant, we discover a 360 degree panoramic view over the city and the harbor. This hotel was once a home to the last Swahili ruler of Zanzibar. A nice breeze welcomes us to a very hot afternoon. Our last traditional Zanzibar five course lunch/dinner before we leave to our long journey back home. Sitting on hand embroidered cushions, Persian rugs under our bare feet, our hands rinsed in rosewater, a cold beer in our hands. All good signs for the feast that awaits us. A cacophony of calls to prayer, cathedral bells and Hindu mixed with authentic Arabic music. Ending our journey with a high note and a taste for more. KWAHERI: good buy. We will come back soon.