"An epic Tale of Africa..." - the Guardian

Our first morning in Africa, rising early to the sound of the Muezzin calling the faithful to worship.

We had arrived in Dar es Salaam late the night before, and when we checked into our hotel, there was only one room available.

What a surprise to be escorted to a penthouse suite with 4 large bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room, and dining room for 10. This photo was taken from one of the terraces.

Dar is the largest city in Tanzania and its business hub. By mid morning, the streets are bustling and traffic is chaotic.

On the rooftops, though, the landscape is remarkably calm.

Zanzibar is an archipelago off Tanzania's eastern shore. The ferry to Unguja (Zanzibar's largest island) takes about 2 hours.

Zanzibar gained independence from Great Britain in 1963, and almost immediately erupted into a bloody civil war resulting in the genocide of hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Indians.

In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form modern day Tanzania.

Stone Town is the oldest section of Zanzibar City. It was the Gateway to Africa for traders in the middle ages, and was the center of the African slave trade well into the nineteenth century.

Zanzibar is devoutly Muslim, but its architecture reveals African, Arab, Indian, Chinese, Indonesian, and Persian influences.

Spiked doors are designed to keep elephants out of buildings. Elephants were never a problem on Zanzibar, but elephant doors were a status symbol for wealthy Indian merchants.

The childhood home of Zanzibar's most famous son - Freddy Mercury.

Emerald seas and white sand. This is taken from our room at Dongwe.

The End of a Day of Fishing

Beer Commercial

A fisherman seals his outriggger's hull with fire.

After a few minutes of baking, he quenches the smoking hull in the surf.

The Sun is relentless at Dongwe. By mid morning, the tropical heat is settling in for the day.

Hotel workers sweep seaweed at low tide.

Morning - Setting Out

Heavy rains mark the end of our trip to Zanzibar. I snapped this picture out the window of our taxi while enroute to Dar es Salaam Airport.

Next stop: Arusha - our departure point for the Serengeti.

Carvers in Arusha's Mount Meru (Masai) Market working with ebony. Ebony has a dark core surrounded by lighter wood, and "real" ebony carvings often have light and dark patches.

I bought a carving of a hippo from this friendly fellow.

From Arusha, we catch a puddle jumper to Ndutu Airstrip in the heart of the Serengeti. Enroute, we cross Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater.

The flight is freeform. They stop wherever they have a passenger, and cross the country in a series of short hops between airstrips.

Our flight passes over the Great Rift Valley.

From this height, it is easy to see how plate tectonics have ripped apart the landscape.

The rainy season is over, and lake beds like this one (seen from the air) are drying up.

Passing low over Lake Manyara, the Rift Valley Escarpment is clearly visible in the distance.

The green tint of the airplane window adds a surreal tone to the scene.

This gravel landing strip was our point of entry to the Serengeti.

Little was I to know that while I was happily snapping pictures of the departing plane, our day pack was still onboard - headed ever deeper into the Serengeti.

Almost immediately, we begin to see wildlife. A hundred feet from the airstrip, zebras cross the road

Thompson Gazelles

Family Portrait

Every year, millions of Wildebeest migrate from the Masai Mara in southwest Kenya to the Southern Serengeti seeking water and grazing grounds

Wildebeest follow the rains, and it is not unusual to see large groups of them running hard towards distant rain clouds.

A newborn Wildebeest can stand within minutes, and run with the herd within a day.

The awkward appearance of the Wildebeest belies its speed and power. They can inflict considerable damage on potential predators such as lions.

A million and a half wildebeest are joined by hundreds of thousands of Zebras and Gazelles on the Migration.

The result is a huge mixed herd that stretches from horizon to horizon.

Giraffes investigate a recent kill - a wildebeest baby.

Shadrach is our guide and driver for the Safari.

In this photo, Shadrach searches the grasslands for cheetahs. He found them.

Our vehicle is a modified Toyota Land Cruiser. The roof can be raised, and provides a perfect observation platform - out of the reach of predators.

From our base at Ubuntu Camp, we set out on multiple game drives (or walks) each day.

Game drives are unstructured events with the drivers seeking out the most interesting animal encounters that can be found that day. Drivers communicate via radio about what animals they find.

The first day finds us driving north from Ndutu Airstrip to Naabi Hill (to recover our day pack) before heading south to Ubuntu. Other days, we explore the Serengeti closer to home.

Ostriches

The giraffe is the most elegant of beasts - especially when they run.

The cheetah cub is part of a group of 3 - a mother and 2 cubs.

Females live alone except when raising cubs. The mother teaches her cubs what they need to know to survive - how to hunt for prey and how to avoid predators.

At eighteen months, the mother leaves the cubs. Female cubs also go their own way, but young males remain together for life.

A cheetah cub with a meal of fresh gazelle.

Always alert, the Mother constantly scans the long grass for signs of danger while her cubs eat.

Up to 90% of cheetah cubs are killed by lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, and eagles.

The hyena is primarily a scavenger, though it will attack and kill any defenceless animal it can overcome.

Hyenas "laugh" when they celebrate a kill.

On Naabi Hill, a male Agama Lizard struts its stuff for potential mates.

The dung beetle lays its eggs in dung which it then rolls into an increasingly larger ball (like building a snowman).

It walks along the ground on its front legs and pushes the ball with its rear legs. When the ball gets sufficiently big, the dung beetle buries it in soft soil.

Jutting high above the Serengeti, Naabi Hill is a popular lookout spot for predators such as lions and eagles.

Acasia Tree

Giraffe in the Morning

A couple of hundred meters from our tent, a wildebeest was killed in the night by a lion.

By the time we found him the next morning, the lion was long gone, and the vultures had moved in.

The Remains - 8 Hours Later

In the evenings, we would sit around the fire and have a couple of cold ones before dinner.

On our first night, giraffes were striding across the landscape below.

It was a surreal experience.

Nata is a Masai guide who leads us on hikes from Ubuntu - the first to the nearby Hippo Pool, and the second to a viewpoint overlooking Lake Eyasi.

Safari Camps in Tanzania are not fenced, so they hire local Masai as security against predators, and as guides.

Men always carry a stick and a knife. When they are in the wild, they also carry spears. In the past, a young Masai would be required to kill a lion with his spear as a right of passage to manhood.

I asked Nata how old he is. About 20, he thinks.

The Masai are the only permanent inhabitants of the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro.

Masai wear coloured robes because wild animals fear the bright colours. It is also said that the animals fear bright colours because the Masai wear them.

The Masai live in small villages called bomas. A boma consists of a group of huts within a fenced compound, and the grazing lands around it.