"Long journey" -the phamly on safari...

The term safari means "long journey" in Swahili, and that is a good word for our extended search for animals on the African Serengeti Plain and Ngorongoro Crater.  It was an amazing, thrilling, once in a lifetime four days for me.  I left behind the cares of the world and enjoyed a mental vacation from reality unlike anything I've ever experienced before.  I had no internet access to speak of, and I was too exhausted each day to write a blog post, anyway.  So I will catch up now in a series of posts for each of the four days.

Saturday, May 26:  Our guide for the safari, Ema, picked us up in his safari truck at 8 a.m. to set out for Olduvai Gorge and the Serengeti Plain.  After a stop for a couple boxes of water, and an interesting short cut around the rush hour traffic (we quickly learned short cuts were one of Ema's many talents!) we were on our way.  Frankly, the road to Ngorongoro Park was better than a few I've traveled in the vicinity of my house, which was the first of many surprises in this adventure.