Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Continuing the saga of my mind-blowing trip to Africa. Given the hundreds of photos I took in Tarangire, and how amazing the animals there were, this might get long, even though we only spent about 30 hours in the park. At this point I'm totally fishing for sympathy for having to choose a couple dozen photos out of maybe 400 (after editing) from the park! We left Arusha first thing in the morning, piling happily into the Toyota Landcruiser (special safari version, and the successor to the traditional Land Rover) with all our luggage. Naturally, on the drive to the park (3 hours?) we got very excited about pretty much everything we saw. Our driver, Said, pointed out some herds of wildebeest and zebra, noting that at their foaling season they tend to migrate out of the park onto the Masai lands, where the Masai herders keep the predators away. He was correct when he told us we wouldn't see any in Tarangire NP (but we saw plenty more later on the Serengeti). Petey Possom, and our

Since I'm still struggling to even get a good start on my photo edits from the recent Africa trip (hey, I took over 5000 shots. That's a lot of editing, even when I delete all the photos of the spot where an animal was a moment before, accidental videos of my feet, and blurry images shot in too-great excitement). The majority of this trip was organized through Popote Africa Adventures , who did an excellent job at a very reasonable price, and are completely locally owned (based in Moshi, the standard jumping-off point for climbs of Kilimanjaro). To get us started, here are a few shots from our arrival and brief tour of Arusha, our jumping-off point for our Tanzanian Safari and, later, climb of Mt. Meru. My companions on this trip were my brother-in-law, our nephew and his partner, and in this first part of the trip, a backpacking friend of mine. Packed and ready. Carry-on daypack includes such essentials as my camera and hiking boots. Strapped outside my checked bag is a waterp

Followers of this space may have figured out that I've been in Africa for the last month. After a very full schedule of hiking, safaris, and a visit to Victoria Falls, I came back to the US in time for my son's wedding (a schedule that was undeniably a little fraught). Naturally I don't have the photos edited and I'm not quite ready to do a proper trip report, even of the first bit, but I thought I'd throw out a teaser with a few highlights. The trip had basically five parts. 1. Tanzanian Safari.  Petey Possum is ready for adventure!   Some things have to be seen to be believed. 2. Mt. Meru Climb (Tanzania) Are we really going up there? Yes, we did! 3. Mt. Kenya circumambulation (Kenya) Going around that. Weather. 4. Kenya Safari Animals large... ... and small 5. Victoria Falls Hope that this has caught your interest enough to keep you coming back! I'll be posting full trip reports (lots of photos!) as I get the photos edited. Watch the weekend posts over the ne