Bushfire

Every year, House on Fire throws a huge weekend music festival called Bushfire. Thousands of people drive from all over southern Africa to hear dozens of bands. In a fantastic coincidence, my friend Amy was on a pre-World Cup tour of South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique, and she came to spend the afternoon with us.

There was an open mic tent:
And traditional dancers...
Apparently, even traditional dancers have to wear their wristbands at all times.
I took the opportunity to try some Swazi-style tripe, which tasted way better than it looks:

Later that night, the bigger acts performed, including some (Freshly Ground, Blk Jks) that would later perform at the World Cup opening concert. There is a fire thrower guy who apparently often shows up at these events in Swaziland:

It was fantastically well organized - plenty of bathrooms, workers cleaning up trash, lots of places to sit (at least in the VIP area!) - and we had a great time.

Tanzania, Part 2: Lake Manyara

When we left Ngorongoro Crater, the rain had started up again, but it didn't stop these cyclists:

Or this guy bumming a ride on the back of a kombi:
But when we arrived two hours later, the sky had cleared up.

Our incredible guide John - without binoculars! - was able to spot giraffes from our vista point, but the rest of us needed extra help to see them.


Here I am with John, and our two friends, Noma and Clint:
The next morning at our hotel, we decided we'd had enough safari. So instead of rushing off to yet more hours in the car, we took it easy and enjoyed the fantastic full breakfast spread. Yum!

Tanzania, Part 1: Ngorongoro Crater

In May, we took a short trip to Arusha, Tanzania. Peter had a conference, and I tagged along so that we could go on safari afterwards. From Arusha, we hired a guide and rented a car. After a short (2.5 hours) drive, we were at the edge of the Ngoronogoro crater (photo above and video and photo below.) We took the opportunity to show off our dancing skills:

Before we arrived at our hotel, we saw a troupe of baboons, including this mother and her new baby. The mama baboon was being groomed by someone - maybe her sister?. (This post is a an unsubtle hint to my own family about what I'll be expecting from them once we have our own little baby baboon...)





Friday night, we stayed at the Serena Lodge. Before dinner, some Masai people performed a traditional dance (in a very untraditional location for such a dance - the hotel lounge.)

The next morning, the view from the Lodge was spectacular:
But as we drove (or, rather, our guide drove) down the winding dirt road into the crater, things started looking a bit ominous:

Fortunately, the animals didn't mind the cloudy weather. Along with our guide and two friends, we rented a very cool safari-ready Land Rover with a top that opened up to allow passengers to stand up.
A few highlights of what we saw:
African buffalo are quite docile, but can seem aggressive at first because of their intense stares.
Zebras are apparently very playful creatures. In one small herd, several zebras nipped at each other and chased each other around.
Warthogs sometimes kneel in order to put their faces closer to their food:

This lioness is looking at a herd of wildebeest in the distance, thinking, Mmmm...dinner...

These two lions were most likely brothers.
After some big yawns and some leisurely grooming, they needed a big nap:
And lest you think that we were out in the wilderness far from other people, here's the photo we took watching all the people watching the lions.

Many thinks to our friend Clint for most of the wildlife photos.