Tanzania..week one

The quandary of 'who made that?' circles daily. In the Tarangerie National park, where large mammals reside, disrupted only by the need to follow a source of water in these dry times, I'm stuck looking at the poop. In the books they call any leavings from animals stoop and I childishly laugh at the 'stooppoop'. The dusty floor is covered with all matter of dung. Think of zoos, think of cow farms, think of trying to track an animal in all of this. And look closely and ask in wonderment who made that? Here are some choices: to help you along:

Elephant,

giraffe,

baboon,

mongoose,

waterbuck,

water buffalo,

antelope,

wildebeest,

giraffe,

zebra ,

warthog, or lion.....

.

Both the caves and the park have earth-trodden, dusty, dry floors. My direct contact with Tanzanian animal poop, aside from photographing it from a safe distance, is what I call a small sacrifice for love. Endeavoring to photograph every painted rock in the Kondoa region has led us to a few enormous sites. These big boulders were once (no one can say for sure when) slabs for ancient artists/healers. So above, under, and around these rocks we climb. My new task (well not totally new) is the oh so important and dignified job (remember I am on sabbatical) of being
the sign holder and scale placer.

Hidden underfoot I sit, squat and scramble in bonefide, African, rock hyrex shit (sorry no pictures). You can see my earnest effort to be still and await Jon's orders. The best moments of the tour are when somebody else takes over when I fain faint, or limp with a stubbed toe. In the rock shelters the red images of all these animals, and elongated people with mushroom heads, baffle us daily. 'Who made that ? ' is predominate in our minds at the dinner table during our specialized camping safari.

Tanzania week 3..Zanzibar Island of spices

Today was the first day without a guide, driver or armed guard. Most everything we have done in Arusha town, the World heritage site in Kolo, Tarengerie National Park and Arusha National Park has been with high fees, and mandatory guides. You begin to feel unsafe ( but all is really calm around us) when you need to pay a Maasi guard with a machete to walk you 20 minutes to the river to see monkeys. The idea is to employ people, yet here it is difficult to access the beauty around us with our being safarified...But now here we are in Zanzibar. Set yourself free in Zanzibar. We have found our way to a fine powdered beach teaming with bronzing Europeans and white sand. For ten bucks we rented a double kayak and paddled to the north tip of the Island to see the surf break on the reef. The coast is jam packed with orderly, idyllic resorts juxtaposed with thatched roofs and billowing curtains. We paddled for three hours past unattended canoes, outriggers, sail dhows (all wooden) and a few snorkelers. I saw a flying fish and a handful of dolphins not far off shore. This is the first thing we have done, in our 2 weeks in Tanzania, which I could actually recommend to some one and guess what, it didn't require a guard! This freedom will be short lived since tomorrow we are aiming for the fabled spice tour in Stone Town. Oh, I just realized I had better save Jon from the swath of unaccompanied Italian women lingering near his hammock. No guards required here.