Animals of the Serengeti (well a few)

I love safari. I have managed to experience quite a few, all up to now in Kenya. We have been to Tsavo, both East and West, Maasai Mara, Samburu, Amboseli and Mountain Lodge on the foothills of Mount Kenya. I have seen the Big Five on more than one occasion but sadly in Tanzania it was not to be. The problem in the Serengeti is the ban on off road driving. There is a perfectly good reason for this ban, they are trying to preserve the grasslands and stop erosion and destruction by four wheel drive vehicles. In the reserves of Kenya there are many many tracks which can be used in order to get close up to the animals, but in the Serengeti the tracks are few and far between. Our guide/driver was kind enough to sneak off road to enable me to get this photograph of a lovely Cheetah, but it is the only really good close-up I got.



It is rare to see a hippo out of water in the day time and this one reminded me of myself on the way to the pool! We did have a remarkable experience one day when the guide to me down to the river (on foot) where a hippo had killed a crocodile. Apparently the croc had attacked and killed the hippo baby and the mother hippo went crazy and killed the croc. She was lying beside the crocodile and took a bite out of it which is also unusual because hippos are vegetarians. It was quite a sad sight especially as we could also see the baby hippo floating alongside the crocodile. I will post the pics after this so you can bypass the photos if you are at all squemish.

A safari would not be a safari without lions and we did see several, but not up close enough for me, still this was a big pride with an enormous male who seemed to be camera shy

Another rareity, a one eared giraffe!

To me this picture just says AFRICA an Umbrella Acacia standing on its own in the vastness of a remarkable land.

Tanzania - The Serengeti

We flew our of Arusha and dropped of some passengers at a small air strip just inside the Serengeti.

We changed planes and David was lucky enough to be able to sit next to the pilot for the flight to our final destination, well inside the Serengeti. We could see Buffalo and Giraffe as we flew low over the plains. The man in the foreground with the big gun was there just in case of lion attack!

They tell you " if you see a lion, don't run"

This was our room at the Serena Serengeti. It was lovely and overlooked the savannah. The lodge was not fenced so the rules were that if you wished to leave/return to your room after dark you had to telephone for a guard. Apparently buffalo and leopard have been spotted in the grounds and hyena often raid the bins at night.

We were lucky enough to see a variety of birds within the confines of the lodge and in the early evening we could sit on our balcony and watch the dic dics at play just below us.

The lodge looked spectacular at night with big terracota bins glowing in the dark.

The pool was lovely, with bar service of course, its only downfall was the number of flies which made it impossible for anybody to have a snooze. As usual the service and accommodation at the Serena Serengeti was second to none. I can recommend their chilled Cucumber soup which was to die for.

The big disappointment for me was the fact that the well publicised animals of the Serengeti were obviously on holiday at the same time as us!

We took a holiday In January - Stage 1

We had intended and indeed booked a holiday in Kenya but politics put paid to that idea and so, at the last minute we changed our plans and flew to Tanzania for a three night safari and two weeks by the beach in Zanzibar.

We spend our first night in Arusha, and the Mountain Village lodge which is one of the Serena Lodges. We have been to Kenya six times now and we prefer to stay in Serena accommodation as the service is, in our opinion, second to none.

Dont just take my word for it, splash out and book a holiday yourself

http://www.somak.com/


Our room at Arusha Mountain Village was in typical African style and was airey and comfortable It had the most fabulous views over the gardens and lake beyond.

The plants and trees in the area were beautiful and varied and there were lots of colourful birds in the gardens which covered several acres.

We had an excellent eveninng meal at the Lodge and a very filling breakfast the following morning.

Our guide arrived at around 9am to take us back to the airport where we boarded our "little" plane which was to take us on to the Serengeti





This photograph shows the view from our room at Arusha .

Some photos of last years flora and fauna

This is a very exciting place to live if you are interested in wild flowers, insects and experimenting with plants in your garden. The garden here as I have mentioned looked just like a concrete jungle, with hard baked clay and rocks. I took good advice from those who have gardened here before and decided to concentrate on plants which I have seen growing in other peoples gardens. To date I have probably spent about £600 on plants and havent even scratched the surface! This was our Plumbago which was covered in flowers on the terrace last summer but which looks now as though it is probably "done for" with the frost. They do say that these plants can recover from the base so we will just have to wait and see. I have also got an evergreen honeysuckle, we had the same variety in England and it is also prolific in Greece, and a jasmine. I was warned not to even try Bougainvillea but I bought a baby from the local supermarket and it gave us a lovely show last year, it has spent the winter wrapped up in garden fleece and I discovered the other day that there is still life after the frosts (which are not over yet), so fingers crossed for this summer.

Whilst out walking with Eddie, our Jack Russell, I was lucky to find an Swallowtail Butterfly just drying out its wings and got a rather good photo. We also found an ENORMOUS Emperor moth on the garage wall one day which was also rather photogenic and later in the year we found the caterpillar of the same moth. What a whopper!

So to sum up the garden, I have planted several roses because they really seem to grow well here. I have one or two trees including olives, a bottle brush plant, clematis, palms, lavender and several oleander bushes which we hope will form a hedge and protect us from the wind when we are supping the vino on the terrace.

THE SURROUNDING COUNTRYSIDE

Bize Minervois is located in the heart of the Languedoc Roussillon, the most productive grape growing area of France. Bize is situated on the river Cesse with a very pleasant summer bathing pool formed by partially daming up the river. Bize is surrounded by vineyards and is also well known for its olives. Just down the road from Bize is the village Pouzols. It is here where we go to buy our wine from the Cave. Wine on tap at just over a Euro a litre, or wine in the bottle or a box. The Garden of Bacchus, near the Cave is home to 87 varieties of grape. Each year in the garden the children pick the grapes and the resulting wine is sold in aid of charity. The Cave has an interesting museum of items related to wine making and offers visits to vineyards in the summer.

We are equidistant from Narbonne (on the coast) and Carcassonne which is a fascinating medieval city. We have yet to visit Carcassonne so hopefully an account of this city will follow at a later date. The Canal de Robine runs through the centre of Narbonne and joins the Canal du Midi. The Canal du Midi runs for 235K from Toulouse to the sea and has over 100 locks. There is nothing nicer on a warm summers evening than a meal or a walk alongside the canal.

SOME INTERNAL CHANGES

FOR SALE, OAK REFECTORY TABLE AND FIVE CHAIRS. Why does nobody want my pride and joy?

The old Ikea kitchen unit - Yuck!

The new kitchen - Quite French I think.

We inherited a really grotty Ikea kitchen which we replaced with the one above. Before the kitchen was fitted we knocked the wall down between the kitchen and sitting room so we now have a large open plan space, which is very light and airy. Too light sometimes as the glare from the sunlight can be blinding (not difficult when you are half blind already). We have replaced all the internal doors but I would really like to be able to replace the bathroom. It is a good size, just badly laid out and the colour scheme of large white tiles with a mustard coloured trim along the top is not my taste. We have a walk in shower but no bath and we would both like a bath occasionally! Maybe someday!

We have had to get rid of a lot of furniture, some we have given away and we are trying to sell one or two antiques which do not fit in to this "modern villa" My pride and joy was my oak refectory table which seats ten to twelve people and is just too big for us now. I have been trying to sell it for nonths but there are no takers and I will chop it up before I give it away!

Improvements to outside are on-going.

These photos show the old terrace and the new pergola and tiled terrace. The tiling and pergola also run along the side of the maison, and hopefully this time next year there will be sufficient climbing plants to make the "extension" of the living room look more lived in. The problem with gardening here, apart from the fact you need a pickaxe and not a trowel, is the fact that many plants I would have liked to have grown do not survive the quite severe frosts we have here in the winter. I had no idea it would be so COLD. One of my dreams was to grow Bougainvillea which is fine in the summer but dies of shock in the winter. Still I did manage a few flowers last summer and I will try again in the spring.

We have recently bought a few trees which should help but garden centres here in France are not cheap and I have to choose my plants carefully in order to get best value for money. The "compost" they sell here is absolute rubbish and expensive rubbish at that, so we have bought a compost bin which hopefully will give us some decent stuff. I started filling it up and would you believe it the wind blew the whole bin right across the garden, so now we have to secure it with stones to stop it blowing away again.