Tanzania Safari - 2009

Photo stats

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:01:00 +0000

On one travel site I saw that the photographer showed what type of lenses and his focal length he used while shooting on his safari. I found a program that would make graphs for this. I ran the program on my top 750 pictures. Here are those graphs. You will see that I shot most of them at maximum length of my 300 mm lens. I would have used more lens if I had had it. The next most popular was 75 mm. This is at the other end of my zoom lens. I shot most of my pictures with the camera with that lens on it. I also had a second camera with an 18-55 zoom lens.

The program is Smart Photo Statistics by SoftSymphony
http://www.softsymphony.com/photostat_descr.htm

Photo stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:57:00 +0000

I printed two small books from Walgreens. This is a nice way to see the pictures. No gluing or plastic sheets to hold the pictures. We are working on a larger book with more pictures. I see they have a poster too. I might make my own travel poster.

I created several slide shows of varying lengths based on number of pictures and length of time each one is shown. From 350 pictures in 50 minutes to 25 pictures in 4 minutes.

I presented a slide show at work. The 50 minute show took a little longer than expected. I showed pictures of our other trips while people came in and sat down.

Sorting pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:53:00 +0000

I spent 8 hours on Sunday looking through my pictures for the best and ones that show what we did. Monday I made copies of the pictures so I can crop and resize them in preparation for slide shows.

The count was about 5180 pictures. I whittled this down to 750.

Making an arrow, the Hadza way

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:43:00 +0000

[This is a write up my father did for my brother]

Select the tree limb or reed. I'm not sure which, but they were at least 5 feet above dry ground. You can see it's very woody dense pulp. Get the right diameter and the best straightness.

Before the arrow making started, from afar, we watched and listened to a rite that we did not have explained to us. We think is was a blessing and thanks of the arrow materials and asking a 'spirit' for a good arrow and good hunting with the arrow.

The sample arrow is one used against small animals or birds. Arrows for larger game would have a metal tip fashioned from perhaps a nail by pounding between rocks into a point and ground sharp be rubbing on a stone. The tip would be attached as the feathers are attached and noted below. The natives sharpened their knives the same way. Metal tip arrow may have poison added. After hitting the target / animal, maybe as large as a giraffe, they would follow the creature , if necessary, until it fell down and died.

Using only a knife, remove any bark and small side twigs or bumps. At the same time trim the full length to make the shaft as round as possible.

Sharpen one end to a long point. Again round out the tip with the lathe type action noted below.

Lay the notch end of the shaft on upper leg thigh and hold and press shaft there with left hand. Hold knife blade at about a 20 degree angle to the shaft and not perpendicular to the shaft axis. Roll the shaft between the hand and leg, from knee toward crotch, while dragging the knife from the tip toward notch end of shaft to scrape the shaft more round. Of course, you have to 'reset' the shaft on the leg and remove the knife between passes down the shaft. This a lathe type action creates a very round shaft.
The natives were always checking the shaft to see how round and straight it was. To straighten it, they held the shaft, vise like, in their teeth and bend it the right amount in the right direction. If that didn't work they would heat it over an open flame of fire to make it more flexible, then bend it a little.

Next the grooves were cut into the shaft while the shaft turned on the leg. Some were long spirals for various lengths and some were simply around the shaft at various spacings. Some grooves had cross hash marks cut in them. The later appeared to have no function except maybe decoration. Another possible reason could be to identify the maker. We saw 5 men making arrows and none made 2 arrows, so we don't know about the identity idea. However, each arrow is *unique *in decor, length and tip shape.

At the tip end the spiral grooves are well defined to leave the groove with a barb shape and feel. That is: feathered from the tip toward the notch end of the shaft. This is so the arrow would not fall out of the prey or less likely to go through the prey. That is: if the prey wasn't killed outright.

Again more was done to the arrow, probably for decor. Cooking fat was rubbed into the grooves and charcoal was rubbed into the fat.
The notch end was cut off and a the notch cut into the shaft.

Bird feathers were saved from a previous hunt. Also sinews were from a previous animal hunt. The string like sinews were chewed to moisten them and make them stretchable, sticky and flexible. The sinew was stretched tightly and wrapped around the shaft. The tip end of a feather was attached to the shaft under a wrap of the sinew. Two more feather were added and wrapped to the shaft. The feathers were now projecting beyond the notch end of the shaft. The feather were then bend over 180 degrees so that the quill end of the feather lay against the shaft. The quill end of the feathers were lashed / wrapped tightly to the shaft.

The arrow is now done except testing by shooting at a target. If target practice or other use dulls the tip, it is resharpened.

Finish geotagging photos

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:26:00 +0000

One advantage of waking up at 4 AM is that I have had time to geotag the photos that were not automatically done from the GPS. I have now completed that portion of the photo editing. Now I have to look at the content.

Geotagging is putting the longitude and latitude of where the picture was taken into the image file. I had my GPS on most of the time and this was done automatically when I copied the images to my computer. There were several hundred I had to do by hand though.

Home to computer problems

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 09:02:00 +0000

I noticed while we were on the trip my home weather station was down. So I knew there was some problem there. It turned out the computer hooked to it is not working. It won't boot now. It seems the hard drive has gone bad.

Our DSL modem needed to be reset as well. The connection was down.

And finally the laptop I carried with me during the trip will not stay running. It starts to boot up and then just shuts down. I have all the pictures backed up. I backed up some of the GPS data. I will have to see how much I have if the computer doesn't start working. The hard drive is working so I could just take it out and read the information from there.

[Update: right after I posted this I tried the laptop. It decided to boot this time.]

We have returned home

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:12:00 +0000

After being awake for about 16 hours and then traveling for another 22 we have arrived home. We are all exhausted from the flying.

Tutaonana Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:25:00 +0000

In English "Until we see Africa again"

After our tour of the National Museum we took a city tour. Duncan showed us the national buildings. I must admit I fell asleep. Mainly because I was awake early again.

We met Fred at his Tamambo restaurant. We met his pastor Jimmy. He had a wonderful meal of very traditional Kenyan food prepared for us.

We leave for the Nairobi airport very soon. In about 26 hours we will be home, ready for a nap.

We have enjoyed ourselves. It is fun to have time to talk with people and exchange stories of our lives and countries. This is how the world will be a better place.

Peace.

Last day in Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:59:00 +0000

We don't leave until 11 PM, so we will be visiting the national museum this morning. Robin has some more shopping she would like to do.

I think we are all ready to return home. Three weeks on the road has taken its toll.

Return to Nairobi - Thur Mar 19

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:47:00 +0000

After Robin's last swim in the pool we made our way to the airport. We had a nice view of Mt Kilimanjaro along the way. Our driver friend, Duncan, was at the airport in Nairobi to meet us.

We went back to the gift shop for some more shopping. Then we went to Carnivore to pick up Fred and his parents, George and Mary. They were quite impressed with our use of Swahili. The one phrase we learned was useful.

We went out to Fred's other daughter's school. Natalie stays in a boarding school. We really surprised her.

We then drove to the hills and saw tea and coffee plantains and some country around Nairobi.

We walked over to the Fairview hotel for dinner. We went right to bed when we returned.

Back to the pool

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:53:00 +0000

We all went back to the pool after lunch. We enjoyed floating and swimming for over an hour. It will be hard to go back to work next week.

Made our own meal

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:51:00 +0000

After we got back from the ocean trip we walked to the Hakumat, the local grocery and everything store. We got some cheese, turkey, and crackers and made our own lunch. We will have plenty of room to eat a hearty meal tonight.

Visit the Indian Ocean - Wed March 18

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:42:00 +0000

After breakfast we got a taxi ride to two hotels where we could walk out to the beach. The sand is very fine, almost a powder. The first place had a private because, but there were still a few people selling items and trips on their boat. Robin and I walked in the water along the shore. We didn't go swimming though. The second place had a public beach. There were lots of guys waiting for us to come onto the beach. We stayed on the hotel grounds.

We are going to walk to the market and get some more water and some lunch items.

Fort Jesus & Pool - Tues March 17

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:49:00 +0000

We had breakfast at the outdoor restaurant.

We went across the water to the old town. We actually took a taxi and drove there. Fort Jesus was built by the Portuguese in 1593. It has changed hands many times. After an hour we were ready to come home. It was already pretty hot at 10 AM. We drove through the one lane street in Old Town on the way back.

After sitting in the air conditioned room for a bit we all hit the pool. It is very relaxing and you forget it is hot outside.

I swam 25 laps for a birthday of a friend back in St Paul. The folks at the pool will be doing the same on Friday.

Off to lunch.

Travel to Mombasa - Mon March 16

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:32:00 +0000

We got on a plane for Mombasa this morning. We spoke with some people from the US at the airport who were returning to Malawi after 40 years. They were in the Peace Corps then. Even they were impressed by my parents traveling to Africa.

We flew on a deHaviland Dash-8. Some of us had been on these many times from Seattle to Wenatche. I had my GPS on the whole way. I had to have my external antenna plugged in and next to the window.

It was hot getting off the plane. About 80 degrees F and 60 % humidity.

We were met at the airport by a taxi driver and driven to the Tamarind Village. Another part of the company Fred works for. We have a two bedroom apartment suite. It has a living room and a kitchen. How can we ever thank Fred enough. We sat in the air-conditioned space for a while. Then we walked to the local store. It had everything; groceries, TVs, appliances, and pipe fittings. We bought a 10 liter bottle of water. It cost the same as a 5 liter and we think we will drink it over the next 3 days.

When we got back Robin and I went to the pool. It was warmer than the pool in Arusha, but still refreshing. I am sure my parents will get in tomorrow.

Fred showed up with some friends from his hotel school days. Four of them live in Nairobi. The other was in town from Toronto, Canada. It was fortunate that this worked out for Fred.

As I am typing, outdoors on the veranda, I can hear several mosques announcing evening prayers.

Photography notes

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:18:00 +0000

I brought along two Canon XT DSLR cameras. I had 5 lenses to swap between them.

I was glad to have two cameras. I had my 7o-300mm on one and a 18-55 on the other. This made taking close ups and landscapes easy. Just switch a camera. It does get dusty but I didn't think it was excessive. The camera got dusty but I wouldn't have worried about swapping lenses. I probably wouldn't have done it very often.

I liked having my double battery grip. I only ran out of batteries once with that. I also used the other shutter release quite a bit.

I only used the big wide angle lens Joe lent to me once or twice. The landscape is so expansive that that lens was almost too much.

I used my nephew's 20-90 lens when I was walking around town. It is small but does a good job. Dropping it in the dirt once didn't hurt it (sorry Thomas).

I shot mainly in program mode. A lot of the shots are a little over exposed. I was shooting rapidly so I didn't take the time to look at the picture quality as I was shooting. I wonder if I had shot in the full automatic mode if they would have come out better?

One feature that is good on a safari is the continuous shooting mode. This is only available in the manual modes. I got some great shots of giraffes walking, zebras running out of a stream, and impalas jumping the road.

I had about 7, 2-gig memory cards. I only used 3 on the heaviest day. That was because I had my laptop and could backup each night. I copied to my hard drive, 8-gig SD cards, and 8-gig flash drives.

I had enough batteries for the cameras (7). I luckily had a few chances to charge during the trip so I was never in a bind.

I had my GPS on all the time. The batteries for GPS were the things I was running out of . I shut it off a little early a few days when the low battery warning came on. The track data will show me where we were each day. I also used it to geo-tag the pictures as I backed them up.

I only used my monopod one day. That was when I was in Ngorongoro crater. The rest of the time we were driving down the road and it would have been in the way. It worked well because I could stand on the seat and have the camera at my eye level. People who used bean bags had to bend over to rest the camera on the car edge.

Unfortunately we lost one camera. Luckily it was our point and shoot camera that I got on eBay for about $65. This was on the first day. It didn't really matter because most of my pictures were going to be taken with the DSLRs anyway. It would have been nice when we were walking around town. We think it was left on the top of the rover and fell off when we drove off.

I used Breeze Systems Downloader Pro program to copy my photos from the cards to the computer. It worked really well. It merges the GPS data as it downloads. It also makes a second copy at the same time. I had it go to my SD card. It is fast and easy. I highly recommend it.

All caught up

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:16:00 +0000

I have entered all the days events for the safari. You need to read the date in the title to know what day I am talking about.

Return to Arusha - Wed March 11

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:51:00 +0000

We decided to not take a long tour while leaving the park because Robin was still not at 100 percent. She did get up for breakfast though.

We drove through the drived out Lake Ndutu. Then we headed straight for the main road. This was right across the grassland. No path to follow, just the outline of a big tree in the distance. We stopped under the tree. Then we hooked up with the main road. It took us past the Oldavi gorge museum and back up the Ngorongoro crater.

We stopped at a curio shop and then had lunch along the road. The road was nicely paved, but the speed limit is only 50 mph. We stopped and looked at an ebony tree. The black portion is in the interior of the tree. There is more white wood on the outside. I think this was the longest day driving, 163 miles.

We checked into the Impala Hotel in Arusha. We got to our rooms, showered and went to the pool. It was a little cool, but it was very refreshing.

This was our first chance to email people since the first day so I worked on the computer for an hour uploading pictures.

Serengeti NP - Tues March 10

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:50:00 +0000

We are off to the Serengeti National Park. We said goodbye to Lomiak and LeMaria, the Dorobo staff. They were returning the Arusha as we headed north.

We had to drive north to the gate to enter the park. Then we turned south to get to our camp. We saw lots of animals along the way. We saw two female lions in the shade. Some Topi and Reedbucks. Lots of zebra and wildebeasts.

We had two special sightings though. One was a cat that is not seen often, a serval cat. The other was driving up on three cheetahs who had just killed a gazelle. It was a mother and two cubs. The mother was tired from the kill and retreated to the shade of a nearby tree. The two cubs then pulled the animal over to the shade.

Robin was not feeling well. We figured it was just traveler's crud. My Dad had a thermometer so we took her temperature. It was 102. That was not good. We put cold rags on her and she kept drinking. When we got to camp we went straight to the tent for a shower and she got in bed. Then I kept her cool with some ice and wet rags. She finally cooled down. I even amazed her when she asked for a straw.

The shower water was very slimy because it came from the local Ndutu lake which is alkaline.

Sunday in Nairobi - March 15

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:50:00 +0000

We were supposed to meet Fred and Agnes at their church. Unfortunately Duncan took us to their old church. We sat through the service there and then did not find them.

We then went to a nice gift shop. No one was trying to help us get a good price. We could shop casually.

We went back to the Carnivore for lunch. Fred and Agnes met us in the Simba Lounge. We just had sandwiches. I bought some t-shirts and a hat.

We stopped at the railway museum on the way back to the hotel. It was small, needed some TLC, but was very nice. We had a very enthusiastic guide named David. He talked about waving a flag when he was 8 years old when the Queen went by on the train.

First day in Nairobi - Sat March 14

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:12:00 +0000

After breakfast we were met by Duncan, who was a driver Fred had arranged for us. He took us to the world famous Carnivore restaurant to pick up Fred. Fred came with us. First he showed us the construction on their new home. It is very grand.

From there we went to the baby animal rescue center in the Nairobi National Park. We saw several under one year old elephants. Then the older elephants. Then a little peanut of a baby rhino. On the way out we saw some older rhinos. One would not stay out in the wild of the park when they released it.

From here we went to the giraffe center. We fed giraffes by hand. My mother was smiling ear to ear. Robin held a piece of food in her mouth and got a giraffe kiss.

We ate at the Carnivore restaurant for lunch. Fred's wife Agnes joined us. We finally got to meet Bella's mother. We had to try lots of meats cut from skewers. It was an amazing eating experience.

We stopped at the Masai market on the way back to the hotel. It is a swap meet set up in the parking lot of the National court on Saturdays. We were immediately surrounded by people wanting to help us get good prices. Robin counted 10 of them. We waited for Sara, Bella's friend, and Fred. Fred left us and we went in. The "friendly" guys followed us. It was not a pleasant experience. That was too bad because there were very nice items to look

To Nairobi - Fri March 13

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:08:00 +0000

We packed and checked out. Sat around the pool until lunch. Then drove to the airport. Mom and Dad got cards for the grandsons.

We got to the airport a little early and tried to check in. They were not taking bags for 15 minutes. We came back to find out the plane would be one hour late. Dad overheard someone say there was a free wifi site at a bar. I walked down there and emailed Fred. After we went
through security they paged us. It was hot and the plane was too heavy. They asked to send our bags on the next plane.

We got to Kenya and went through immigration. Then we register to have our bags held. Fred was waiting for us. Since we didn't have any bags we went to dinner at his Tamarid restaurant. Then we went to the hotel because their new house is not complete. I went with Fred to the airport to fetch our bags. We got back about 11 PM.

Soit Orgus - Mon March 9

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:51:00 +0000

When I got up I saw Pallanygo walking on the boulder by his tent with a rifle.

After breakfast Robin, Cliff, and I walked with some Maasi to a small river bed. There was a pool of water left with several hippos staying cool. Mom came along in the rover. We also saw a cave that the men use while they are eating and learning. We all rode back in time for lunch. We saw several giraffe on the road on the return trip. We got to see them running up close when the fled from the vehicle.

There were lots of flys.

Robin and I walked to a cave with some old (90 year not thousands) paintings. Mom and Dad came in the rover.

To Soit Orgus - Sun March 8

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Drove around rim of crater when we left. Stopped at the park headquarters to buy diesel for the rover. I saw a weather station so the trip was complete.

Down the north side of the crater into the open plain.

Stopped at the Oldavi gorge museum for lunch. They have a nice exhibit. It was quite windy.

Drove across the gorge to get where we were going. Saw a large sand dune in the middle of the plain. We drove for hours through a short grass plain. There was nothing to see for miles. When we finally got to some trees there were several giraffes on the edge.

We stopped and talked to a small group of Maasi who where walking. Pallanygo thought they were relocating. He gave them some water.

We came upon some Maasi cattle guarded by a small boy. He was scared by us. Pallanygo drove toward him and he really ran then. His mother came over and they talked. We gave them water and a bottle to hold it in.

We came to where our camp site was. There were large boulders everywhere. It was very lovely. Wonderful. Lomo and LeMaria had the camp all set up.

Ngorongoro Crater - Say March 7

noreply@blogger.com (Joel) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Our big day going into Ngorongoro crater.

We had eggs and pancakes for breakfast. We tried to get going early.

We saw two male lions right off the bat. The crater is full of zebra, buffalo, and wildebeast. We have seen enough after this trip. You get to the point where you ignore then. We saw two hippos in a small pond. White birds around a water hole. We even saw a mother and calf rhino. They were quite a ways away though. There were more flamingos in the lake, but they were farther away then when we saw them the first day.

We stopped at a restroom near the edge and Robin bought some bracelets from some Maasi kids.

Everyone in the crater eats lunch at the same spot. It is very nice because it is by a small lake. That kept it cool and there was green grass. You had to eat inside the vehicle because there were big birds that liked to eat your lunch.

When we returned to camp we were going to be the only group that night.