Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

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I called you from this same spot on the last trip; this may become a sort of a regular dispatch spot on these upcoming trips. Same scene I described last time: I'm up here in the wind; the early morning fog; I'm wearing a pretty good-sized jacket and enjoying the quite cool mountain air this morning.

Yesterday, we had an amazing game drive with our three Land Rovers down in Ngorongoro Crater. The Land Rovers were split up and driving through different parts of the Crater, but when we got back together in the afternoon—ate at the Sopas Lodge on the Rim—we compared notes and everyone had their expectations surpassed, in terms of the amount of wildlife they saw and what a great trip they had down there. We did see lions again yesterday—always wildebeest, and zebras, Grant's gazelles, Thompson's gazelles. Yesterday, everyone, I believe, saw jackal and hyena. We saw a leopard and, in fact, a spot where a leopard had drug a wildebeest kill up into a tree and was spending awhile reaping the benefits of that kill...[Unintelligible]...As usual—I'm not even going to say as usual—as is the case at Ngorongoro, we're lucky enough to see the rhinos. Saw four, again this time, and a real impressive sight seeing those massive creatures move around the floor of the crater down there.

In a little bit here, we will begin our drive to the east and go down into the Rift Valley; go to Lake Manyara...[Unintelligible]...the western side of the great Rift Valley, have lunch, and then proceed to my favorite game park: Tarangire. And you may remember, that's the home of the world's greatest sunsets. I'll let you know if I'm correct once again. The most beautiful sunsets in the world are consistently, day-after-day, evening-after-evening, at Tarangire National Park.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent