2013.7.4~6Feeling nowhere to go, we spent two nights in Carmel during the Independence Day weekend. It’s certainly not as exotic as our other trips, but it’s also much easier and cozier. I only wish they could have more better restaurants. We stayed in Carriage House Inn. We love their afternoon wine and cheese tasting very much.
2012.12.25~26We checked out from our lodge in the morning at 8:00am. After exchanged some cash at Arusha’s city center, we headed west to Tarangire National Park.
Half an hour later, we already left the majestic Mt. Meru behind, now we were surrounded by the open plain dotted with Maasai villages. The village normally consists of several thatched huts with low roof and a cattle or sheep pen. As Justin and us got more familiar, our topics of discussion started touching things of his life, such as his family and what he did for living. He became very angry when he told us about the government corruption and unfairness in the society. He is quite a passionate person.
It has been very cloudy since we left Arusha. Rain started about 1 hour after we were on our way and soon became a downpour. There are two rainy seasons in Eastern Africa. November and December is supposed to be a minor one. However, according to Justin, there was a drought in November this year and it only started raining in late December, so we saw higher than normal precipitation at this time of the year. The rain was so heavy so that many ponds and creeks came to live along the road. The good thing is that this kind of rain normally doesn’t last long, and most part of the road were well paved, we didn’t have any trouble to get to the park at 10:30am.
The area is scorching hot in the dry season. Animals migrate into the park along the Tarangire River, which is the only permanent source of water year around. It’s the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem. During the rainy season, most animals scatter over the region but elephants stay. Elephants and Baobab Trees are two huge creatures that can be commonly seen in the park.
We were surprised to see ostriches in the park. In fact, ostriches are native to Africa and only farmed in Australia. Here, they are doing “pair dancing”.
Our plan was to have a short game drive, and then have our lunch before checking into the campsite. The landscape was getting more beautiful as we approached the Tarangire River. Wide panoramas of open Acacia woodland, rolling savanna studded with Baobab Trees, our jeep drove right into it. I was so excited and almost wanted to shout it out. This is exactly what I imagine Eastern Africa to look like!
The picnic area sits on top of a hill overlooking the Tarangire River. We had the same lunch box as the earlier day. We saw people from different countries, China, India and Arabic regions. Some of them were on the day-tour from Arusha. Human’s activities also attracted a group of black-faced vervet monkeys. They were just as aggressive as those in Mount Emei.
Tarangire Safari Lodge is one of tens of “luxury camps” established in Eastern Africa national parks. These camps run just like hotels, except the visitors live in tents instead of rooms. The tent is spacious and it has private bath and toilet attached to it. The quality of these luxury camps varies widely. Tarangire Safari Lodge is by far the best one we lived in.
The lodge is situated on a panoramic bluff. We were impressed once we step into the the lounge, which is also served as the lodge’s lobby. The open design offers 180 degree unobstructed view of the Tarangire River valley. All tents are build along the cliff so you can just sit in front of your tent and watch elephants, giraffes and impalas coming to the river or playing over the wide plain.
It’s hot and the sun is harsh at noon. We rested in the tent and went out again for game drive at 4pm. As we crossed the same bridge over the Tarangire River again, we found that the flooded river a couple of hours earlier now almost dried out.
Whenever you see several jeeps stopping by the road, it never hurts to stop and check too. This time was different – there were more than 20 vehicles lining together but we couldn’t see a thing. After asking other drivers, Justin told us that there were two African hunting dogs lying under the tree at distance. This is an endangered specie. There are only two groups of them in activity in northern parks of Tanzania. We were very lucky.
Another interesting scene we encountered later was a group of elephants drinking water and having fun around a pond. Sometimes they enjoyed the water maybe too much, they, especially the young ones, need some extra help to get out of the pond.
Because of the vast open space and the dramatic change of temperature in a day, the weather varies from time to time and from place to place in the park. While driving in the park, we often saw dark cloud gathered at somewhere far and the rain blurred the line between the cloud and the ground. After the thunderstorm, there was a rainbow. I asked Justin to stop the car and took these pictures. We were in awe of nature’s beauty!
None of the campsites has wall or fence. It can be visited by wild animals. After dark, the camp has its personnel to escort visitors between the dining area and their tents. Living in the tent is comfortable. Secure the zippers of the tent and apply the repellents, we were not bothered by mosquitoes at all.
We planned to leave early the second day for game drive, but the sunrise was just too spectacular to miss. The thick and dark cloud covered the whole sky, except a narrow gap at the eastern horizon. The sky was burning red as the sun rose. It’s violent yet brilliant.
We left the campsite at 6:30am. Only 200 yard out, we saw 9 lions in the bush. They seemed alert and gazing out over the open field outside the bush. One after another, quietly and in an organized manner, they walk out of the bush. Justin jumped on to the jeep, trying to see what their target is, he said their move normally meant they were ready to attack, but he couldn’t see anything. A couple of minutes later, these lions seemed to lose their interest. They sit down and eventually all lied down on the ground. What a group of lazy cats!
We drove to the picnic area again. It’s early, there were nobody but us, and some groups of impalas and Thomson’s gazelles running around, enjoyed the morning. As we were about to leave, Justin spotted something unusual far across the river – there was a lion on the tree. Trees are normally leopard‘s territory in Eastern Africa, not lions’, but this lion looked quite conformable on the tree.
What dominates the park is still elephants. They can get very close to the vehicle, within 20 feet. Although most of time peaceful, they can become aggressive if irritated, especially when they are with their calves. If you are faced with adult elephants, you’d better give them the right of the way, even you are in a car.
We returned to our lodge after 3 hours game drive and checked out at 10am. We were heading to our next destination, Lake Manyara National Park.
2012.12.24Justin picked us up at the lodge at 8:30am in the second morning. Our safari tour officially started from Arusha National Park.
The perimeter of Arusha National Park is only several miles to Arusha, but its main gate is about 40 miles away from the city. Although the size is small, the park has diversified geographical features, including Mt. Meru, Merella lake, forest and grassland over the Ngurdoto Crater. About an hour later, we parked our car at the entrance. While Justin was checking in at the office, we saw several giraffes walking in a bush about 200 feet from us. It’s our first wildlife encounter in Africa, understandably we were quite excited.
The entrance gate leads into shadowy forest. We started seeing more animals, including groups of zebras and buffaloes.
We stopped at a ranger station near Tululusia Hill. One good thing about Arusha National Park is that, while visitors are not allow to leave their cars in other national parks, they can hike in Arusha National Park, accompanied by rangers with shotguns. Justin introduced us to one ranger, bigger group will have more rangers to walk with them. The rangers are guides at the same time. They are quite knowledgeable about plants and animals in the park.
We walked along a dried creek into the Buffalo Glade, an open area surrounded by forest. A group of buffaloes were at the edge of the woods. As we walk towards them, the ranger kept reminding us not to get too close, not to stare at them for too long. He said there were two times in the past that he had to warn then fire at buffalo when the visitors entered the flight zone and the buffalo started charging.
Leaving buffaloes behind, we kept walking across the glade. At the other end of the grass, we met three persons just climbing down from the mountain. One visitor had only a pro-camera in his hand and the other two locals carried other equipment and camping stuff for him. This is a typical format of hiking tours in Tanzania and Kenya. In some programs, such as climbing Kilimanjaro, the tourists are accompanied by even more locals.
We entered the shade area of Tululusia Hill. A walk on the rocky trail rewarded us with something quite unexpected, a 28-meter water fall.
We turned back and walked along the foot of the hill. In the middle of the woods, we saw a giraffe under the Acacia Tree eating leaves, calm and elegant. My wife happily had some pictures with the giraffe.
We walked for about 2 hours and returned to the ranger station at 1:30pm. Justin and us sit down in an open hut to have our lunch. What’s in the lunch box are almost same every day and same for all different tour groups. It normally contains a fried chicken leg, a piece of bread, an apple, a bottled drink and some bagged peanuts. Every morning, the camping sites prepare the lunch box and give them to the guide. They are not very fresh, but the chicken was always tasty.
It started raining as we were having the lunch. Lucky that we didn’t try to climb the hill, which is normally part of the program. We resumed our game drive to the east in the rain after lunch. Some animals were using bushes to shelter from the rain.
The rain stopped as we were approaching Momella Lakes. This is a group of lakes that are fed by underground water. Different mineral not only give lakes different colors but also support many types of waterfowls. The most attractive ones among them are certainly flamingos. They gathered along the lake as if to embroider the lake with the pink border.
We circled around the Big Momella Lakes. At its north side, hundreds of lesser flamingo standing in the still water. I reduced the exposure time to darken the water in the hope of creating an abstract theme. To me, the image of Africa safari has always been endless savanna, vast, wild and sometimes brutal. These tranquil lakes with flamingos revealed a peaceful and soft side that we didn’t expect.
Arusha National Park is located in between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro. On our way back, we first stopped at a vista point that can view both of these two mountains. Only 40 miles from Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft), Mt. Meru (4,977 ft) is the second highest mountain in Tanzania, and a dormant volcano dominating the park and the city. In the eruption about 8000 years ago, Mt. Meru lost much of its bulk on the east side and created the dramatic terrain of Arusha National Park. The hollow center couldn’t support the huge body, several collapse ensued. In a clear day, one can see Mt. Kilimanjaro from Mt. Meru. Unlucky to us, the Kibo Summit of Kilimanjaro was blocked by the cloud.
We made a brief stop at an one-room museum near the park’s gate. Moving further, we encountered a troop of baboon walking directly towards us. They are large size old world monkeys that can be commonly found in Africa. At one point, we also saw a colobus monkey on the tree, but I didn’t have a good shot of it.
We left the park at about 3:30pm. We saw several coffee plantations on our way back to the city. Coffee is Tanzania’s largest export crop. These plantations still employ the traditional shade-grown cultivation, in contrast to sun cultivation, which yield more coffee. Shade-grown coffee is considered superior in quality and causes less environmental issues, thus, more “organic”.
2012.12.23~24The decision to visit Tanzania at the year end was really made during Thanksgiving holidays. It’s possible to get ready in such a short time is because I already did my research and had contacted several travel agencies, especially the one we finally chose, Base Camp Tanzania, when we struggled between the trip to Antarctica and Eastern Africa a year early. The trip was confirmed only a couple of days after Thanksgiving and we were on our way three weeks later.
Our trip started at Arusha, which is served by Kilimanjaro International Airport for international travelers. KLM is the only major airline offers direct flight to the airport. It was our longest connecting flights so far. We had totally 21 hours in the air. Layover time was shorter than our other trips, but we were lucky that there was no major delay and we arrived at JRO at 9pm local time on Dec. 23rd.
We met our guide, Justin, at the airport. He has a tall and strong figure and looks very humble. He will be our only guide and driver for the next 9 days. From the Airport to Arusha, the road was mildly uphill most of time, Our car was particularly slow. This 35-mile took us almost one and half hours. After we entered the town, the car turned off the main street to a very rough dirt road. We were tossed up and down for another 10 minutes. As we started wondering what this seemingly endless bumpy road would lead us to, we arrived at our destination, Ilboru Safari Lodge.
We had a room in round shape, probably modeled after the Maasai huts. It soon started raining. There were some small issues with the room, such as the shower and power outlet, but the room was spacious and comfortable. Although it’s already dark when we checked in, I could feel that we were surrounded by lush plants. The next morning, I had a chance to walk around the garden.
Arush is the capital city of the Arusha Region of Tanzania. We didn’t have opportunity to spend time in the city, but merely passing through the city center several times on our car. Although the city is a political hub for Eastern African international issues, Arusha remains a small and rural town. However, it doesn’t mean it’s not vital – a lot of people on the streets and the roads are jammed by cars during rush hours, especially the only one road coming in and out of the town. Compared to the busy town outside, the lodge is like an oasis.
After coming back from Arush National Park on our first day, the owner of our tour company, Achmed, came to visit us. He helped us setup the tour in very short time and was very responsive to all our questions. He is a British man who is also half German and have lived in Tanzania for more than 20 years. We had a beer in the lodge’s German Beer Garden. Achmed went over our itinerary and noted special features of each park. He also stressed that if we wanted to go to the toilet while in safari, just go to the back of the jeep, instead of hiding behind the bush. Still recovering from the time difference, we could barely keep our eyes open lately. There is one thing I still remember – the reason he prefers living in Tanzania, given the government corruptions and lower living conditions, is because “there is no puppet law in this country”.
At the dinner, the waitress obviously forgot that we didn’t have the dinner the previous night because we came too late, but we managed to get their local Swahili cuisine that only offers to the guests on their first night. The dinner came in as small dishes, including Machalari, Ugali (maize flour paste), Sukuma Wiki, beef stew and barbecue plates. The food were quite salty, some of them had tastes of Indian dishes.
2012.8.31~9.1We resupplied at Fred Meyer supermarket and left Fairbanks to Denali National Park in the morning. We drove west on AK-4. It soon became George Parks Highway (AK-3) once we were out of the city. Connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks and providing the major access to Denali National Park, George Parks Highway is one of the most important roads in state Alaska. However, the mountain range around the area is mild and the road side view is less dramatic compared to the Richardson Highway.
We reached Nenana at the noon time. This is a small town 55 miles south of Fairbanks, at the juncture of the Nenana River and the Tanana River. The discovery of gold in Fairbanks brought prosperity and train access to the town, but it had no road access to Fairbanks until the bridge was constructed in 1968. The completion of George Parks Highway in 1971 gave the town a direct route to Anchorage. We made a brief stop at the railway station and a gift shop in the town.
it’s been cloudy all the way since we left Fairbanks. At about 1:30pm, we entered Denali National Park and Preserve area. Only 1 mile north to the park’s entrance, overlooking the Nenana River, there is a large area full of lodging and restaurant options. It has maybe the only traffic light in the whole stretch of the George Parks Highway. We took a quick stop and decided to see the park first before going to our lodge.
We picked up our tour ticket for the next day at the Wilderness Access Center and stopped by the Denali Visitor Center. They are located at the beginning of the Park Road. The first 15 miles of the Park Road is open to private vehicles. We came to Alaska in late tourism season in September, which sees more rains, but also offers unbeatable view of fall colors and tundra field. A couple of miles into the park, we found ourselves surrounded by the seemingly endless red and purple sea of tundra. Tundra is dwarfed shrubs adapted to the short growing season. They blossom in August and turned to brilliant colors in the fall.
It’s a good decision to see the park first. It started raining at the time we turned back at about the 12 mile mark. Our lodge, McKinley Village Lodge, is 7 miles south of the park entrance. It’s a large facility with multiple buildings. The lobby was warm and cozy. The lodge was built along the Nenana river bank. One of our rooms got the river view.
Our Denali National Park bus tour started at 7:30am the next day. We waited at the Wilderness Access Center half an hour before the shuttle bus came to pick us up. We chose the tour that reaches Eielson Visitor Center that is located at Mile 66 of the park road. The round-trip time is about 8 hours. It’s a good duration considering that we had to keep some strength to drive back to Anchorage at the night. The furthest point that the shuttle bus can take you is Kantishna at Mile 92, but most visitors who are willing to go that far probably camp at Wonder Lake at Mile 85.
The sighting is generally better if you sit on the left side of the bus, which offers more open views of the river and the valley on the way going into the park. It’s also more “scarier” when the bus runs on the cliff at some section of the road. On the way back, you would most likely fall asleep anyway. Our guide was funny. He almost keep talking all the way without stop. The tour is somewhat disappointing mainly because of the weather. We had a grey day and animals were rare. We didn’t see Mt. McKinley at the Eielson Visitor Center because of the cloud. (The rangers also kept us inside because some bears were around.)
We returned to the Wilderness Access Center a little before 4:00pm. We left the park immediately – we had 240 miles to drive to get to Anchorage. The rain stopped and started. It’s raining very hard near Wasilla. Somehow we managed to beat the time to step into the VIP Korean restaurant that we liked so much before its close. (We ordered the food while driving as we were approaching Anchorage).
We had some time to stop by the University of Alaska Anchorage in the next day morning, before we took the flight heading home at noon.
2012.8.30Fairbanks is located in the Alaska Interior, half way between the Gulf of Alaska and Arctic Ocean. It’s second largest city of the state. At latitude of 64 degree north, Fairbanks’ summer sees long hours of sun light, but as it enters September, the daytime is shortened by an hour every week. The winter is long and cold. The temperature can often reach −30 °F. However, locals don’t see it as an inconvenience. They wear heavy coats with only T-shirts inside, so they can quickly adjust to the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures.
We came to Fairbanks with very little expectation to see Aurora – the northern lights. The auroral activity was only 1 or 2 for the two nights that we were there. Because Fairbanks is in the central of Tanana Valley, the sky is often cloudy in the night. It’s said that the chance is better if you drive north away from the city and up to the mountains. Some lodges there also offer the Aurora Viewing programs with hefty price. As I knew the chance was very low in September, other than opening the window to watch the sky from time to time, we didn’t do anything.
In the morning, we first went to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline visitor center, which is located only 10 miles north of Fairbanks. The pipeline is one of the largest projects of its kind. Although controversial, it’s truly a man-made wonder and solved many difficulties to deal with permafrost and earthquake faults to being financially and environmentally feasible.
We then went to see the Georgeson Botanical Garden. It’s a lovely garden with many species, which is specially challenging consider Fairbanks’ northern environment. The garden is within University of Alaska Fairbanks’ campus and serves as the field ground to study subarctic horticulture.
We drove back to the main campus of University of Alaska Fairbanks and walked around the Museum of North.
There are not many choices for restaurants in Fairbanks, but a Japanese Restaurant with a very plain appearance named Ajimi is one of the best.
Our first stop in the afternoon is Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center located in the downtown. There were some informative displays and video here. It’s a good free “museum” to spend a hour or so. After that, we went to the Pioneer Park. It’s a park that was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Later, some old cabins were moved to the place and it has became a historic park that mimics a gold-rush town and demonstrates living environments of the early settlers.
2012.8.28~29From Anchorage to Fairbanks, we would take Glenn Highway (AK-1) and then Richardson Highway (AK-4 and AK-2). We’d go to Denali National Park later in our trip, At that time, we would go back to Anchorage by the shorter route, AK-3, to complete a loop.
The first 40 miles of the Glenn Highway is the only road access to Anchorage from the north. After this section of the busy road, as we turned east after passing Palmer, the vehicles were getting fewer and fewer. The highway runs along the south side of the Alaska Range and, for the most part, along the Matanuska River. The road is winding and climbs over Eureka Summit at 3,332 ft. There are many pullout places for you to view the beautify valley created by the receding Matanuska Glacier.
The 180-mile Glenn Highway took us almost 5 hours. We stayed over night at Caribou Hotel in Glennallen. Some travelers gave low rating to the hotel, but we found it to be nice and most importantly clean, and the front desk was very helpful too. It’s not cheap, but this is in the middle of nowhere, I don’t think you should expect full facilities.
The next morning, I went back 10 miles along the highway and found the beautify lake we passed by the early night. The view was wonderful in the sunrise.
After having some instant noodles as our breakfast, we were on our way at 9:30am. After 2 miles, we turned left onto the Richardson Highway (AK-4). The highway cut through the Alaska Range at its east end, the view continued to be breathtaking.
AK-4 meets AK-2 at Delta Junction. There are several military bases around the area. Driving through the town, we surprisingly saw a sign as “Chinese Food”. We decided to give it a try. Luckily, it’s eatable. It’s about 3pm, we were 100 miles away from Fairbanks. As we had passed Alaska Range, the view along the road is less impressive.
15 miles south-east to Fairbanks, lies a small city, North Pole, Alaska. After driving the whole day, it felt good to see a meaningful city. Thanks for city’s name, a gift shop named Santa Claus House becomes a popular attraction. We made a stop at the store. It’s a nice place. There was a Santa taking pictures with visitors all the time.
We reached Fairbanks at around 6pm. We would stay two nights in the city.
2012.8.27~28The second day morning, we did some souvenir shopping and had a walk in the Waterfront Park before setting off to the Exit Glacier.
Exit Glacier is the only part of Kenai Fjords National Park that can be accessed by road. It is one of tens of glaciers descending from the Harding Icefield, which covers most of the Kenai Peninsula. From the parking lot, the 3-mile round trip trail can take visitors to the edge of the glacier and the vista point that offers panoramic view of the glacier by the outwash plain. The trail is well maintained and easy to walk. My parents had no problem walking to the wall of ice.
We left Exit Glacier at 2pm and on our way to Anchorage. We made several stops, such as Bear Creek, on AK-9 and tried to watch Alaska Salmon migration, but eventually we had to go west onto the Sterling Highway until Russian River. There is a large campground by the river. . We walked down to the river level. The water is clear and the condition is excellent for sport fishing. Thousands of salmons swam up the stream to the Russian Lakes where they spawn. The part we went to might be towards the end of the salmon runs. The fish had transformed into deep red color and a lot of them were already dead.
Returning to the Seward Highway, we had no plan for the rest of the day. We drove leisurely and enjoyed the sunset on this beautiful scenic drive.
The next day morning, I got up early to try my luck of viewing Mt. McKinley from Anchorage. I drove west along the Northern Light Blvd. After passing the Earthquake Park, there was a parking lot by the Cook Inlet. It is 150 miles south to Mt. McKinley. They day was clear with a little haze. I could easily see Mt. Foraker on the left and Mt. McKinley on the right. At the height of 20,320 ft., it’s the highest peak of Northern America.
Anchorage is a not a big town. The downtown district is taken by souvenir stores, restaurants and a shopping mall. You can pretty much cover them in a half day on foot.
We had a lunch at VIP Korean restaurant. The food was excellent, especially to my parents who do not enjoy western dishes. After lunch, we resupplied at Walmart and leave for the second biggest city of Alaska, Fairbanks.
2012.8.25~26We went to Alaska with my parents last September. Until I started booked the flights, I realized that, although at the same side of the country, Alaska is quite far from California. Direct flights were very few. We landed at Anchorage airport at 4:40pm. After 40 minutes, we finally got our car and on our way to Seward.
The Seward Highway (AK-1) is the only road leaving Anchorage to the south. Passed Chugach State Park, the first leg of the Seward Highway run along Turnagain Arm.
After making a big U turn at the tip of Turnagain Arm, the highway wound into the mountains. This was the most scenic part of the Seward Highway. Lakes by the road were absolutely tranquil. The last ray of sunshine diminished gradually from the top of the mountain as we drove into the Sterling Highway split.
After the split, which is commonly called as the “Y”, the Seward highway became AK-9. Because we spent a lot of time getting off the car and taking pictures, it’s getting darker as we drove on the last leg of the highway. Finally, at about 9pm, we climbed out of the mountains and were back to the sea level. We had a dinner at Chinook’s near the harbor and we would stay at the Best Western for two nights.
We planned to take Kenai Fjords National Park cruise tour through Major Marine Tours the next day. Tours offered by different companies share the similar routes. They also share information when they saw whales or other marine animals. We booked the 6-hour tour, which took us around Aialik Cape into Aialik Bay. Along the way, we saw Killer Whales, Sea Lions, Sea Otters, Mountain Goats and Alaska Puffins.
A park ranger on board explained the nature history and ecology along our cruise route. We met several young people from China who were travelling America by themselves. They certainly did their research and had better information than us regarding programs, coupons and even where to see bears and salmons. My parents had great time talking with them.