We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal

It's interesting to repeat the phrase emphasizing each word in sequence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal
....

At last we dragged our canoe from the basement down to its spot by the Annisquam River. It was high tide so we went around the island which can't be done from mid-tide on down because of sand and reeds since it is a tidal marsh. The tidal difference is 8 - 12 feet here - usually around 10 ft as it was today.

It was exceptionally windy. We first headed with the wind and then came around the backside of the island against the wind. The only way to make any progress was to head directly into the wind because otherwise the sidewards thrust on the canoe was too much. This meant going through some of the reeds which sometimes are too shallow to paddle through. At least the reeds offered a chance for occasional rest without losing ground.

We saw lots of birds. I'm not into identifying them so I can't remember many names. I do like looking at them though. In our vehicle, Mary was a serious birder with good binoculars, an East African Bird Book, and often consulted with Philip, our driver/guide who knew many and had several books with him. This gallery contains some of the ones we saw with identification, mostly by rsc who wasn't always sure.

This one is a ground hornbill.

Gallery is here

Yes, I can identify robins, blue jays, cardinals, and some other common New England birds. I often read the Audubon listing in the Boston Globe to see if they've made up some new birds which in my opinion they frequently do or if they don't I do such as the greater atlantic spotted blue crested grebe.

One of my favorite paintings from the Metropolitain Museum of Art (NY) is in the El Greco and other Spanish painter show at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston (closing July 27). I'm a big El Greco fan and there were quite a few others in the show.

It was 11 years ago today when my mother died at the age of 92. I wrote about her more extensively last year. This picture was taken ~1912 and sat on a table in the living room (in all such living rooms in the various apartments where we lived). It was always a favorite.

I still have a some of the artifacts of her life: pictures of her family, some jewelry and scarves, a few metal enameled candy boxes, all her old passports, some books. One of these days I will dig out some more of the pictures and scan them.

She used to visit us here in Gloucester for a weekend. She'd often remark about some of what she thought were clashing colors among adjacent flowers. Now when we plant stuff we can say that neither my mother or Robert's mother can complain.

Today, as it turns out we are going to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the El Greco to Velásquez exhibit which I'm sure she would have liked. We went to lots of museums in New York together.

This magnificent male must have been thinking about something important.



Actually he had just taken a drink and then shortly after his period of contemplation he lay down in standard lion pose.
( Before and After )
This one wasn't one of our drivers. And this one was just sitting there waiting for someone to pet her.

Since we were often out on game drives late in the afternoon we saw quite a few sunsets. Here are two from different areas with pretty different characteristic.s



( A later, redder sunset )

The people there do lots of controlled burning which serves several purposes. After burning the grass, new grass sprouts up within a few days which is very popular among the animals, many of which don't like the really dried out stuff. In addition it prevents wildfires from spreading which can be quite a hazard. This hillside had lots of burning and you could smell the smoke. You can see a bit of the fire in the foreground as well. It was somewhat near the lodge, but by the time we arrived there the fires were too far away to create any odor. We did encounter some of this burning in Yosemite when we visited there in April as it is a common technique for forest/plains management. I remember the controversy in 1988 when there were many our-of-controlwildfires in Yellowstone that they were not able to extinguish.

When I was a little kid I used to like to go to the Central Park (NYC) Zoo and visit the monkey house since they were always active and acting up and thus great entertainment. My mother took me there quite frequently although she didn't much like the smell. In 2006 I visited there again and saw some of them outside hopping about on these rocks; I don't recall if there still was a monkey house, but I'd imagine so.





But here are the real things. Many of them hung around in trees.



Then there was this fabulous blue-balled vervet monkey as well as lots of baboons who were frequently seen hanging around in trees dropping fruit onto the ground. Sadly I never did get a good picture of a baby baboon riding its mothers back.

Among the smaller animals we saw jackals, hyenas, warthogs at various places.

Hyenas were often patrolling the plain. We never encountered any of them laughing. In an earlier posting there were some jackals and hyenas checking out some of the flamingos.

Warthogs have significant teeth in addition to their tusks (used mostly for digging) and are apparently sometimes hunted for ivory but presumably not used to produce bacon.





At one rest stop we saw a few hyrax including this one among some wildebeests. And at another rest stop his cousin, this non-native migrant animal.

( Hyrax and other )

We saw quite a few ostriches at various places. Sometimes there was a solitary one and sometimes there were small flocks. They are capable of traveling very fast (30-40 mph) but we never saw any that weren't grazing or ambling along. If it were true that the ostrich hangs its head in the sand, some of this terrain would be quite good although some of the north african subspecies would do even better; and it is apparently those who get ridden.

The Ostrich (Struthio camelus - which derived from the Greek words for camel sparrow) has always fascinated me; my first encounter was in the Museum of Natural History in NYC when I was a little kid.



( Some more ostriches - closer up )


As seen in the Museum of Natural History on a safari to New York earlier this year.

( At the museum )

We made several visit to Hippo pools. The first one at Lake Manyara was somewhat sedate. When we first got there all we saw in addition to a few birds were a few blobs that looked like small islands.



Then a couple of minutes later one of the Hippos emerged.



A few days and several hippo pools later we got to this one which was chock full of hippos wallowing in a very muddy, smelly pool - a bit like a massive cesspool.
This is a ~30 second movie.

These vultures were awaiting their turn, clearly not wanting to get in the way of these hungry lions.

I've been reading how game wardens who were looking for poachers often used the presence and actions of vultures as a clue as to where poachers have just been since they kill, strip the valuables, and leave the carcass - but were often not far away.





( A rather feathery creature )

( Another set of vultures )

We visited a Maasai Village one afternoon while we were in Tanzania. It was optional and they charged $20 a person, but we were free and encouraged to take pictures and interact with the residents. This village had about 30 houses surrounded by a fence to keep predators out. At one side there was a cattle pen where the cattle and goats resided at night. During the day they were out grazing usually under the care of quite young kids although one or more of the men were nearby with spears in case of lions.

( Maasai Village  )

One of the houses:



These men and women were there to greet us. Some of the men did a traditional dance which includes lots of jumping up and down. Inside the village they were selling their handcrafted jewelry.

( Village greeters )

And some of the mothers with babies. Sadly the babies were often covered with flies. Philip, our guide, said that some were Tse-tse flies.

( Mother and child )

We broke up into little groups and visited a house. Barrie and I were hosted by this fellow (whose name I forgot). The house is quite small (about 12 feet in diameter and about 5 feet high) and very dark. In the center of the roof there is a hole for smoke to exit and there are a couple of miniscule windows. There was a small alcove for babies to sleep, one for the parents, and one for young calves who needed to be fed. The houses have a timber structure and are covered with a mixture of grass, mud, and cow manure.

The village had a huge pile of cow manure in the center which is used for fuel (seen in the foreground of the photo of the house); there was essentially no smell since it was all dried out.

Our host told us that he had only one wife and one child. This is a rarity in the Maasai culture; he seemed proud of the fact that he had only one wife and said it was certainly easier to live that way. His English was pretty good and he probably had some High School education. We asked about medical care. He said that there are people in the village with medical care skills such as midwifery and use of herbs, but they do get to go to to doctors.



On the edge of the village - outside the wall - there was a one-room school house that was used for a kindergarden. Older kids go to school outside the village. These kids were reciting the alphabet and counting. I suspect that this was a show for us, but it is a real school.

( School kids )

Buffalo were seen occasionally. There were a few in the Ngorongoro crater - these two were wandering in the grass and I believe the grey blobs in the background were more buffalos. A few minutes earlier we saw one sitting in the water.

( Buffalos on the range )



Several not so lucky buffalo were seen at this rest stop.

( Don't Feed the animals )

A strange form of Unit Pricing seen in the local Shaws yesterday as well as several times before.

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Andrew Goodman. He was one of the three civil rights activists who were murdered in Philadelphia Mississippi during Freedom Summer. The story was made into the movie: Mississippi Burning. 41 years after his death there was a manslaughter conviction of one of the perpetrators. A wikipedia article.

In 1958 I was a councillor at Camp Tacoma Pines (now defunct) in Litchfield, Me. The junior councillor assigned to my cabin was Andy Goodman.

I'm third from the left in the bottom row and Andy is fourth from the left. I wonder where all those kids are now; I can remember most of their names. It was a nice bunch of kids and Andy was a really good guy.

Most of the lions we saw were female, but we did get a lot of time with this male. He was apparently quite used to these vehicles and wasn't phased by their presence. Of course, no-one went out to "check the tires" in this place. In fact he did go check them himself by pissing on the tire of one of the vehicles when he passed by. It was pretty hot out there and when lying down he was panting at a pretty good rate. We didn't offer him any water.



( Lyon coming and going )

You can see why you wouldn't want to be in his mouth. Although he could use some whitening, I doubt if there are many dentists for lions.

We saw these fellows enjoying lunch together.



Then there was this one who had been a snack for someone with a bird surveying the scene.



Although we did see a trucks on the road, and often people carrying stuff on foot, here is another method of conveyance.

( Boy on a bike )
And then there was this lion in a tree.

( Lion in a tree )

The Wildebeest (or Gnu) was pretty common. There are supposedly more than a million of them in the Serengeti. They often hung around with zebras and we ran into a migrating set of them at one point - hundreds of them crossing the road. They like to eat short grass and the arid conditions produces lots of that. They need lots of water which is the cause of their migration.

Since these Gnus are not from the Free Software Foundation, they are not subject to CopyLeft and I don't have to provide their source code.




( two more pics - the terrain was different and the younger ones are browner )

This one was wading through a swampy area in Amboseli Park in Kenya.

Water is pretty scarce in the Sergengti, but still there were facilities for washing hands.



Some monkeys checking out the supply at one of the rest stops, and an interesting sign - especially Rule 3.

Lake Magadi is at the bottom of the Ngorongoro Crater. As was true for several other lakes there were lots of flamingos. Some are pink and some are white. I believe that the pink ones derive most of their color from what they eat - just as people can turn yellowish orange if they heat huge amounts of carrots. Here we see a bunch of them on the near side of the lake. Also you can see a jackal and a hyena considering the possibilities of lunch. And across the lake is another bunch of flamingos.



Our room in the lodge overlooked the crater. Two mornings later while I was showering rsc said come quick and look - and dripping wet I did. The crater was quite fogged over but the rising sun peeked through and there was another source of pink.

Somewhere in the Serengeti, some Cheetahs were found by another vehicle. We drove there and watched for a while to see them lying in the grass. Eventually they stirred, and then ambled away. We never saw any of them moving at their blazing speed.

( Cheetahs at Rest )


Several days later in the Ngorongoro Crater we found another one. Note who is in the background and have been seen by this Cheetah.

( Prey espied )

There were 22 of us on this trip. We rode in four LandCruisers (Toyota's version of the LandRover) with pop-tops so that everyone could get a good view and take pictures / use binoculars in all directions. You can see a small herd of these vehicles below. Our Driver/Guide, Philip, was excellent. He was extremely knowledgeable about the animals, trees, plants, birds, insects, geography, Tanzania history, and local culture. He had a library of reference books that we could use and he frequently used them to check on something. He was very personable as well as having a good sense of humor. Considering the large amount of time we spent driving around, he made the trip much more enjoyable. I don't know much about the other guides but I suspect they were all good.

The euphemism for bathroom stops was "does anyone want to check the tires". Of course you couldn't do that everywhere considering what might be lurking a few feet away. Once Philip actually went to check a tire which turned out to be losing air; these vehicles all carried two spares.

Polygamy is common in Tanzania. Philip told us that his father had 5 wives and he has 31 brothers and sisters. He had one wife and two children and that was all that he planned to have. Apparently his mother is very disappointed that he didn't have more wives and children. Polygamy in East Africa has various origins one of which was that the tribes and villages were at war with each other and many of the young men got killed such that there were many more women than men. Now that things are quite peaceful and access to education is more prevalent things will probably change more rapidly - probably a good thing since the population is increasing more rapidly than food production which is being hampered by water shortage.

Here we see Philip going to pick up a gall from a plant and soon show us the large colony of ants who live inside the galls. As a complex symbiotic arrangement, the galls on Acacia trees are a defense mechanism to prevent giraffes from eating the foliage since giraffes don't like ants.

We saw elephants in many places. In Amboseli Park (in Kenya at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro) there is a herd of elephants that has been extensively studied. This trio was walking along not too far away with two passengers on the mother.



One night when we came back from contra dancing we were alerted to the presence of an elephant right near the rooms. At this lodge (Ngorongoro Serena Lodge) there is a corridor in back of the rooms which overlook the crater. A pit and wall separates the corridor from the grounds and there was an elephant right next to the wall - perhaps 12 feet from us. It was dark but someone had a flashlight so we could see him and he was huge with very large tusks. Soon he left. He'd cruised along the wall - behind our room there was a tree that he'd knocked down. They do warn you at these lodges to not walk around at night alone and there are security people available.

Four more elephant pictures follow here including a head closeup (note the eyelashes) and a pile.

( More pics )

Giraffes were often seen in the distance. Sometimes they were standing there doing nothing, others were bent down grazing or reaching up into trees as they are designed to do.





Head and body with beautiful pattern (not the same giraffe):

( Head and body )

And then there was this pair found in a shop at the Cultural Center. Many shops also had carved ones some of which were almost life size - not too convenient for carry-on luggage in the plane back.

( Seen in a shop )