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Depart from Newark aboard KLM airline
Arrival at JRO airport 8:40 pm. Stay the night at
KIA Lodge.
    
Depart in the morning for Arusha, enjoying a buffet
lunch at the Cultural Heritage Center before heading
to the Arusha Garden Resort for dinner that evening.
Early to rise with wake-up calls featuring hot coffee
or tea before breakfast. Travel to the village of
Madunga, the birthplace of my daughter Melania. She
will introduce us to family members who still reside
there. We will headnorth to the vicinity of Lake Buringi
with a picnic lunch and arrive back to camp for dinner
and sundowners around the campfire.
Breakfast will be cooked by our chefs on the outside
grills next to the dining tent. After breakfast we
head cross country to the Selali Swamp, a really wonderful
place where, depending on water levels, elephants
bring there calves to bathe. There is lots to see
in shallows of the swamp…, the largest wetland
in the National Park. This is the home of tree climbing
pythons and a great place to encounter leopard and
serval cats. An al fresco lunch will be enjoyed overlooking
Selali Swamp from the food packed in a picnic basket
prepared by our camp chefs.
    
Depart Tarangire for our long drive west to the
bustling town of Karatu on the way to Ngorongoro Conservation
District.  Spend
four days at Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge Lodge. The lodge
is situated at an altitude of 2,200 meters, a few
hundred meters from the rim of the Crater. There are
fantastic views of untouched high mountain forest
with Mount Oldeani (3,200 meters) dominating the background.
Head west to Ndutu Lodge for three nights.
Back to Newark on KLM Airlines
Luxury Canvas Lodging (All new 10x13x7 ft tents
with flush toilets, hot & cold showers, hot &
cold vanity sinks. Separate dressing room & toilet
compartments. Twin beds with 5.5" foam mattresses.
Canvas safari chairs on verandah with writing tables.
Bedroom fully lit powered by generator separated from
tents with comfortable separation. Full insect protection
on all sides + zippered doors Amenities: Daily Laundering/ironing/shoe
polishing. Daily wake-up service with hot coffee,
tea & chocolate served in or outside tents by
properly attired tent staff. Meals catered for individual
needs including vegetarian diets.
 Alcoholic
drinks charged on a /drink basis, total collected
upon completion of safari. Alcoholic drinks with mixers
and stand/alone drinks and soft drinks charged likewise.
Bottles of spirits and/or bottled beers for consumption
at tents will be up to each client. We will stop for
those purchases on the way out of Arusha and/or at
our favorite booze shops. Beers likewise. Wine at
dinner complimentary, Bottled water complimentary
on safari in vehicles, Liter-size bottled water ordered
during meals will be charged/person. At Ndutu Lodge
chilled bottles of wine sold at the bar to carry to
your rooms available. Bartender will keep your purchases
by the drink or bottle on your room tab
Melania and I would love to
hear from you.
Jim Brett
The Gol Kopjes (Copies) make an unforgettable impression
and they have obviously implanted themselves in the
human mind for unimaginable periods of time. Kopjes
represent the oldest rocks on the planet and have
continued to heave through the volcanic ash exfoliating
as the pressure from above subsides. Many kopjes are
surrounded by large stone circles, made by ancient
man, a hundred thousand years old. Others possess
a delicate pinnacle or spire that could easily have
been toppled by a minor act of foolishness. Over there
is a row of monoliths standing in an arc, hooded monks
contemplating the cosmos. Kopjes are shaded by one
or two full-sized acacia trees pruned to ideal proportions
by the Maasai. Easter Island meets Stonehenge in a
Shinto shrine, but on a panoramic scale.
At the southern end of the Gols, a local rainstorm
has invigorated a large kopje with a display of brightly
colored flowers. Squat, red fireball lilies throb
violently. In a setting of severe gray stone, delicate
red and yellow gloriosa lilies dangle from the branches
of a wispy green thorn tree. Orange candelabras sprouting
from the aloes attract metallic-green sunbirds. At
the top of the dome weird succulent and sturdy white
vines loop down in a circular pool of water, an unexpected
scene in the Savannah.
We head up to the central cluster of the Gols, the
high point on the plains here, the great divide between
the western drainage system which ultimately flows
into Lake Victoria, and the dead-end system then empties
into Olduvai Gorge. Each kopje up here has a shape
of its own. One is a simply pyramid of watermelon-
size stones, another is just two massive grey spheres
separated by a perfect acacia. A third forms a stark
granite wall, lined on either side by a half dozen
well spaced trees. At the very top of the ridge stands
a balanced rock about eight feet high on a flat anvil
of stone. I found there in the middle of the flat
anvil a punched down area which formed a pool where
the water was clear and cool. I've gone there often.
'Some time ago whilst camping at the base of
this kopje I liked to bathe in the pool before the
baboons had fouled the water. I would carry a glass
of whiskey to be with the setting sun—a sun
which sets so quickly in the African evening. Angelina,
following her bath, would approach from behind smelling
of jasmine drying her black skin in the warm Savannah
wind. We both stare out over Hadza land and listen.
On occasion we w ould
linger with the pleasant evening longer than the
sun, longer than is wise because we are undoubtedly
being watched. Angelina was of the Mbulu Tribe,
Totoga-warm-skinned, leather skirted girls with
striking angular faces softened by the southern
winds who are the most lovely women that I have
been with in Africa.
On those dreary days at home when I wish with
an intense pang that I was in Africa, this is the
spot I long for. This is the spot where I always
spend at least a full day when it is endlessly green
and a million wildebeest graze in every direction.
The countless black profiles on their felt landscape,
grunting contentedly; the air permeated by a barnyard
smell of freshly digested grass. If I want a moment
of mystical exaltation, this is the spot that sends
me six inches off the ground. This is my place of
worship.'
Alcoholic drinks are your own responsibility on
this safari both in camp and in lodges. In camp we
will have a full supply of spirits, wine, beer, liqueurs,
soft drinks and water. There will be red and white
wine, vodka, gin, scotch whiskey, Jack Daniels, brandy
and Amarula (the African equivalent of Bailey's, but
much better; proper mixes, but seldom ice. Please
indicate your choice so that I know what and how much
to stock. We can get Diet Coke, but I have to know
before I leave. There are plenty of vegetarian foods
included at each meal.....all meals are family style.
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January
29
Luxury
Safari.
Some
Notes on Kopjes