Paradise in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

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Night train selfie

We were on an overnight train from Brasov, Romania to Zagrab, Croatia. As we rode away from the Transylvania mountains into rolling fields of farms, the sky lit up in a fire of color and the moon danced above the horizon. The beautiful evening ride turned into another hot night of trying to sleep. We were again assigned the top beds in the six person couchette sleeping room and although the the AC worked, the air blowing from behind the window curtain never circulated up to us. We arrived in Zagreb tired and ripe. Next, we needed to grab a bus to continue to our final destination which was still about two hours away. We decided to track down a post office to again try to lighten our packs full of souvenirs. Although there was some confusion about boxes, the cost to send things home was much more reasonable than what we found in Romania.

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Arriving in Plitvicka Jezera – guesthouse is almost 3 km that way

The bus ride to Plitvicka Jezera was unremarkable but really made me miss traveling on trains. We read online that the regional busses stop at the two main entrances to Plitvice Lakes National Park so we ere surprised when the stops were a small hut on the side of a busy two lane road (which would be considered a highway by many countries in the world), surrounded by woods. We exited at the second entrance and started walking the three kilometers down the highway to our guesthouse. The walk was making me nervous because there wasn’t a shoulder and it’s hard to watch traffic when my pack cuts down visibility. We decided it would be best to hitchhike if possible. A few minutes later, Continue reading

Learning about the Masai Tribe in Tanzania

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Day 24


We had another early morning wake up for a long day of driving. We were still on the Tanzania coast near Zanzibar and needed to travel almost 1000 kilometers to the Serengeti. Nash ensured we were well fed with fried eggs for breakfast. We all made sandwiches for lunch because the long drive would not permit time for a lunch stop. We hit the road before sunrise.

View of Mt Kilimanjaro

The roads were a little smother and we were enjoying the views of sunrise while cool air circled through the bus. Jojo informed us that we would have a view of Mt Kilimanjaro along the drive and that he expected it would be visible after lunch – we all joked that we’d eat our sandwiches early in hopes of seeing it sooner. As promised, we didn’t see it until early afternoon. Unfortunately, the clouds were low and thick over the giant so we were only able to see the base of the mountain. The countryside view made up for it as rows of sunflower farms passed between us and the mountain.

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Riding on Bumpy Roads in Tanzania

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Day 17

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Sign warning about AIDS at Tanzania border

After a poor night of sleep in our tent, I knew I hadn’t escaped getting sick after seeing all the happy children. I assumed it was travelers diarrhea because I was drinking the same water our guides were drinking rather than bottled water. My sickness made for a very uncomfortable travel day. After an hour, we crossed into Tanzania where I pretended to be healthy to avoid any questions about Yellow Fever or Ebola. I tried to sleep most of the drive but all the bouncing on detesting roads made it very difficult. We didn’t arrive at our campsite until after dark. After Sara and I quickly set up the tent, I crawled inside and went to sleep while she got dinner with the group. They had a meal traditional to the local Kihehe tribe which was prepared by the lodge, Kisolanza Farm; beef stew over ugali with spinach greens (basically the same traditional dish, pop, that Nash has previously prepared for us but with slight variations).

The next morning, we were woken by commotion in one of the neighboring tents. Poking our heads out we learned that two of the tents were covered in Continue reading

Stalking Cats in South Luangwa, Zambia

Day 12

FullSizeRender41There was another early morning wake up in preparation for a full day searching for animals. Luckily, Nash was also up early so we had tea and coffee available before our morning game walk. There was an option to do a game drive, but after being cooped up in the truck, many decided it would be nice to walk around. We split into two groups, each with a guide and an armed security ranger. The guide explained to us that if we encounter any animals up close, the most important rule is to not run and let the ranger handle the situation.

Barely 100 meters from the start, we ran across Continue reading