My though about the trip

I thought the idea of going to Tanazania was amazing. I wanted to have that experience so I'm grateful that my parents took me and I hope to go back some day.

The thing I liked the most was seeing the cheetahs as they are my favorite and seeing the big 5. How lucky were we to see all these crazy and amazing animals? And to see the crossing.. Our guide, Hashim, said he hadn't seen it in 3 years. He said we had been very lucky to see all of what we saw.

The thing that I didn't like was having to go back home. I didn't like the small planes either. And I didn't like seeing poor people and learning about slavery. I wish I could make a difference and stand up to make things better. 

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you enjoyed it and will look to make a difference too.

The last days

This is my friend Niels. I met him during scuba diving and he was really nice. And then he asked me to play ping pong and we became friends. He is from Holland. We went exploring the beach at low tide and saw many cool creatures in the rock pools. Apparently someone else in the rock pools saw a snake that was black and yellow. My mom and Dad told us to go look elsewhere as they thought it was poisonous snake. We saw sea urchin, starfish, cool shells, hermit crabs and also a lobster. On another day I spotted a small Ray. It was really pretty.

These are spider starfish. I'm not really sure of the name but I think it's this.

This is where we slept. We had our own stairs to go down to the beach. In the house there was 3 beds for me and my sisters. I wish we could have stayed longer. My parents were right next door. As you can see my Dad is out on the balcony reading his book and enjoying the views.

We went to this turtle rescue place. In the lagoon,our guide told us that water came through the rock so the lagoon also experiences tides. This is me feeding a rescued turtle. There are 17 turtles and they release them once a year. The turtles end up there as some fishermen sometimes catch the turtles in their nets and they bring the turtles to the rescue place. There they are taken care of and fixed as some turtles are injured. I was feeding it seaweed.

That's me sitting with all the baby turtles. They were so cute! Our guide said that we were not allowed to touch them but some people working there were measuring the babies so he allowed us to touch one each. We washed our hands beforehand. It felt really cool to touch a baby turtle. They feel really soft and a bit rough. The shell isn't that hard. It was a green turtle. My sister Nim loves turtles so she was really happy to see and touch a turtle.

This is a crocodile at the same rescue place. They are not native to Zanzibar but somehow found their way there. They were really cool. I like crocodiles.

My first at scuba diving in the pool

I'm a bit scared but I think it's going to be fun. I'm scared because I have no idea why I am scared. I want to learn diving because my parents tell me the underwater world is amazing. I have one more year to go before I can get my lessons and go into the ocean.

This is where I will have my lesson.

My instructor is Opaz. He is from Israel. He explained what will happen and what I need to know. It's a lt of fun.

I'm under water. It's really noisy but so cool to be under the water.

That's me at the bottom of the pool.

I'm ready to do this again. Who was scared? As my mom tells me everything awesome is on the other side of fear.

Ras Nungwi

The beaches are aaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is our room.

This is our friend flat Ewan who is coming with us on this trip.

Karibu Zanzibar - Stonetown

I didn't like the flights. I didn't like them because it was a really small plane and there was no toilets. Sometimes the plane dropped and sometimes the plane went sideways. I sat at the back with Bella on the first flight to Arusha. My mom was the copilot and helped land the plane. And on the second flight I sat next to Luca on the way to Stonetown. I don't like roller coasters and heights. Nor does Luca.

These are the ancient doors in Stonetown and are still used today. Lots and lots of doors like this. This is the old part of town and it a maze. You get lost easily.

The hotel was amazing. There was this little water fountain on the ground floor. My sisters and I lved the swings next to the fountain. The room was quite cool because where Nim and I slept was had to go up a spiral staircase and then there were 2 beds on each side of the top room. It as awesome.

The hotel had a rooftop and that's where we had breakfast.

The views.

Today we leave to go to the beach. 

Last few days in Serengeti

Temperatures are warmer during the day. We were freezing in the Ngorogoro crater. It was 14C at night. Here in the Serengeti it is warmer. The day is hot around 28C and the night is 21C.

This picture is for my friend Samuel. This is how we had breakfast in the mornings. Omelettes on the BBQ. Our camp is surrounded by wilderbeast. We are right in the migration.

This is a cool red and purple lizard. I forget the name. They are everywhere and not poisonous.

This is the view from the dining tent. How beautiful is this?

Today we leave on a small plane and fly to Zanzibar. I'm sad to leave Bella and our awesome driver Hashim. I'm also sad to leave the savanna.

Northern Serengeti - The great migration

This is the airport we will go to when we leave the safari.

This is not our plane. We were doing cartwheels there on the mat in front of the plane. We also played frisbee. No animals here.

There are lots of bones in the park. The one on the right is a hippo.

This is the Mara river. The wilderbeast cross this river during the big migration. There are marabou storks because there are some bodies there. They open the rib cage. Many wilderbeast hurt themselves when they come down the bank to cross the river. Its sad.

Wilderbeast are everywhere. Everywhere. Lots of babies also.

This is the Mara at sunset. 

The wilderbeast are still crossing.

We saw them cross the river. They are crazy as they fall off the bank and run like crazy across the river. The wilderbeast then also climb the other bank but it gets messy. They stumble and fall on top of each other. Some get hurt. Some die. You can even see some come back to cross again.  I think that is really crazy.

This Hashim our awesome driver. He is like a walking encyclopedia. He has 2 daughters also. He has shown us so many animals. He is an awesome guide.

The circle of life (wilderbeast).

Serengeti

It's warmer here. We have been very lucky because we have seen the big 5. The big 5 is a lion, leopard, Buffalo, rhino and elephant. We have even seen our top 15 animals which are family invented.  Serengeti in Swahili means endless plains. The park is big and lots of animals to see. We saw hippos, giraffes, crocodiles and leopards. This is a mother cheetah and her two cubs but they have already grown up. We saw a hyena coming very close to a cub but the mother cheetah scared it away. I'm so lucky to see them. The cheetah is my favorite animal. Also my friend Ewan's.

This is me ready to take pictures. I love the camera my nanas and Papi gave me for my birthday.

This is the mother lion that we saw. She was stalking a gazelle that was alone. We didn't know but she had 3 Cubs up on a rock.

These are the babies in the rocks waiting for their mother to get food. They are so cute. I love baby animals.

This is me reading my book to my sister. Mariella mystery investigates the curse of the pampered poodle. It's a great book. We are staying at this camp up on the hill. We see the view of the plains in the front of the tent. It's a little freaky. There are lots of sounds at night. We heard a lion and a hyena. Right now my mom tells me we are hearing a leopard. It sounds like a saw. It's freaky but cool at the same time. I like Africa.

Ngorogoro Crater

This place is beautiful. We saw lots of animals. We can only go into the crater during the day as they close the park at night. This place was a long time ago a big volcanoe which collapsed onto itself and created this crater. There are lots of special animals here. We saw lots of lions and babies, warthogs, hyenas, Buffaloes, lots of gazelles, a black rhino and some very big elephants. We also saw some hippos. They even rolled onto their back for us. We even saw hyenas hunt a warthog but I don't know if it died. And today we saw a lioness stalking warthogs by the water. The warthogs got away.

Lion sleeping

Lions hanging out

A group of hippos

A baby lion. This was great. They played and cuddled up together. 

It's been cold. I'm happy I brought leggings and my big sweater.

A mommy hyena with her baby.

Masai Village

We stayed at a great eco friendly camp called Isoitok. Masai word for many rocks. There were lots of rocks. We went to visit a Masai village and went on a medicine walk with with Ruben. The Masai village is called a boma. The head lives there with his many wives. The houses are made of cow poo and termite mount. Everything is in a circle as bad spirits can stay in corners. At night they close the boma with thorned branches to keep the wild animals away from the people and the cattle. I was very sad when I saw the house and the clothes of the children. They were also covered in flies. Ruben explained the Masai traditions. Very different to ours.

This is us during the medicine walk with Ruben. This was great. He showed us lots of trees and told us which tree helped for stomach ache, which tree helped against malaria. There was also a tree for making you lose weight. Ruben also made us a toothbrush.

This is inside the boma. The family village. The wives have each a hut. The animals are in the middle in an enclosure. The boma is also surrounded by a fence of branches and thorns. They close this at night to protect everyone from the predators.

This is one of the wives and her baby. She is beautiful.