Jim Shafer, his wife Sandra along with her daughter Miriam, grandchild Barrett, son Graham and son-in-law Ravi jeeped across the vast savannas of NE Tanzania during the Great Migration of 2 million hoofed grazers through the Rift Valley from Lake Manyara to the northern reaches of the Serengeti to the Olduvai Gorge (where the Leakeys discovered the oldest human remains) and south through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the vast Ngorongoro Crater. These verdant tall grass and short grass areas are home to all varieties of wildlife, including 30 different species of mammals. They took a hot air balloon ride to get a bird’s-eye view of this surging sea of animals with their 3-month-old young: zebras, wildebeest, water buffalo, gazelles and elands and their predators, lions, leopards, cheetahs, spotted hyenas and wild dogs as well as families of giraffes, elephants and hippos.
The many spectacular sunrises framed by umbrella acacia trees and golden sunsets as they receded to the mountains of Mera and snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa’s tallest mountain) and then winked out left us longing for more. Africa still has an active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai since the tectonic plates continue to drift apart. The Schafer’s spent one day in the Ngorongoro Crater, where they cleared the rim of the crater at 8,000 feet, the largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera that has a self-contained ecosystem hosting over 25,000 large mammals, safe from hunting, thriving with unlimited food and water. Driving over the rim down a bumpy, winding road 2,000 feet down to the crater floor, they experienced the “African Massage” as they threaded their way through potholes and washes. They saw ostriches, pelicans in flight, monkeys and even a rare glimpse of not just one, but five rare black rhinos and their young, water buffalo, crocodiles sunning themselves with sun sensitive hippos lounging in their stinky pools wafting their stench called “Africa perfume” and warthogs. The group spent their final safari night in huts on an animal preserve where they fed recovering animals, saw a two-day-old baby giraffe and had breakfast with the animals in their natural habitat.They also spent a week at The School of St. Jude in Arusha, Tanzania, to see how the non-profit educates 1,800 of the poorest of the poor children for free, thanks to international sponsors like Rotary. Most of our team of 26 sponsor students from Grade 1 through Form 6 = Grade 12 as well as college and business startup mentoring.
