After going through the border formalities and experiencing the rather aggressive street vendors, we now have entered Tanzania, and the town of Arusha is our lunch stop.  Then we're off to Tarangire National Park and our accommodations for the next couple of days.

These are Quelea birds, or red-billed weavers, they swarm in vast numbers.  The famous Boaboab Tree.

There was a small mix-up in our reservations.  We were to stay in a lodge inside the park along the Tarangire River, but that plan didn't work out, and we had to relocate outside the park.  We were still able to get a lodge along side the river but outside the park.  It was a bit more primitive, we ran out of hot water and some of us even ran out of water all together.  It was only for two days and we coped with only a grumble or two.  On the left was our tent cabin, and here we're having dinner with Evonne, Patsy, Carlie and Linda.

The River Lodge main restaurant built around a Baobab tree.  Cooking breakfast.

The people from this area are absolutely gorgeous people.  She is a waitress at our next stop, Gibb's Farm.

Gibb's Farm is an active coffee plantation with a restaurant, gift shop, bar, and wonderful motel type rooms, a beautiful place.  The left picture was a view of the valley below the farm, and we had a coffee roasting demonstration with Evonne turning the roaster.

Most of the souvenir gift shops were overwhelming in the amount of merchandise they displayed.  There was row after row of mostly hand carved things.  It was a mistake to pick something up to examine it, because the salesmen wouldn't leave you alone.  They would follow you around, trying to sell it to you, even outside the store.  Toyota Land Cruisers were used most of the trip.

Here we are at our next camp, this was a nice place with hotel type rooms.  Except for the long flight of stairs, this place was another great place with a fine restaurant and bar.  I ate a lot of pasta on this trip, I wasn't all together sure what the rest of the stuff they were serving was.  So I kept to soup, pasta and wine.

The lobby of the hotel.  This was in Ngorongoro National Park, a collapsed crater with the hotel high up on the rim.  We had box lunches on many of the game drives because of the long distances we would drive.  This was a Superb Starling helping himself to my lunch.

We had game drives everyday, and to me, it became a little bit redundant, seeing vast herds of animals day after day.  It didn't seem to bother the other people in our group, so I kept busy watching birds, while the others kept busy watching the animals, and taking pictures.   The Japanese with their long lens cameras.  These cameras must have taken up much of their luggage weight allowance.

This was the scene of the Leakey's famous archaeology digs where they found fossils of early man at Olduvai Gorge.  Then on to Serengeti National Park.

Dinner time at the Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge, a very nice lodge.  The folks raising their hands that wanted soup.  The rooms looked primitive on the outside, but were very modern on the inside, just like a modern hotel.  We stayed here two nights and then another lodge for our last two nights together.  That will be on the next page, page 3.

Wildebeest and Zebras

Linda and Carlie out in the middle of the Serengeti.  I thought that the Park fees were a bit excessive.  The sign above says it all.  A one day per person permit was $50, and your vehicle was an additional $40, all the Parks were about the same.
On to Page 4.