Pemba Island 2013

Most people don't know where Pemba Island is when I talk about it, so first a quick geography lesson. Pemba is a  sister island of Zanzibar in Tanzania. Together they are known as the "Spice Islands." While Zanzibar is very touristy, Pemba is more undeveloped and secluded.

We saw some beautiful ocean views on our flight onto Pemba and then took a boat to our resort. We stayed at Fundu Lagoon for 4 nights, after 4 adventure filled days at the safari.


view from our plane

little airport



view of Pemba from the boat



little boat ride to Pemba

We had our first night's dinner set up on the pier. Then the next morning we all set out on a scuba dive on a nearby island. We saw lots of coral and brightly colored fish. We spent that afternoon and many others at the pool, eating lunch, ordering fun drinks and napping. The boys went on a fishing trip one morning while the girls got massages. There were 2 Balinese woman doing the massages and they were amazing! Jason even had 2 massages, since he never gets that in Lagos!
We enjoyed 3 more fabulous dinners, including the last night set up on the beach. The tide was outrageous and would go out 4 meters every day! it was neat to see the locals out on the sand collecting clams all morning long until the tide would start to come in. There were crabs all over the resort, but the locals did not want to eat those for some reason.

We also met the 3 owners as they frequently visit the resort. 2 of the owners are twin brothers. The other owner is the ex-wife of Jim Henson (the creator of the Muppets!), so that was very interesting to see where she invested her money! We loved the luxury cabanas that we stayed in and are looking forward to going back again one day.

the wahoo the boys caught, looking extra large in the wide angle lens :)

husbands bringing home dinner for the girls!

poolside dinner set-up



sunset on the pier

beautiful view by the pool



poolside cocktails, living the life!

amazing sunsets

beach dinner setup

view down the pier at sunset

sunset cruise

our own private plunge pool outside the tent

our private access to the beach from our hut

my napping loungers overlooking the ocean

small boat taking us to scuba

beautiful infinity pool

bed inside our beach hut

the large shower and bathroom

local women collecting clams every morning while the tide was out.

More Photos around town

Here is a little sample of pictures that I have taken while traveling the great street of Lagos.

the cute to-go box at a local restaurant

fashion show we went to at a store's opening

legit models, just blurry picture

 

Mari, me and Amanda at the opening of Poosh

roadside fruit stand

 

Dik-Dik owned by the MD of Exxon

I think its name is Daisy the Dik-dik

 

 

 

just the lovely signs by the road

the new Prince Ebeano Supermarket that I started going to

On Nigerian Independence Day (Oct 1) we grilled out brisket and ribs by the pool all day! lots of meat!

just a random Minnie Mouse on the side of the road....

a rainy day in Lagos

the streets flood like crazy!

everyone still just rolls up their pants and walks around town!

Safari 2013

Well, we definitely had a once in a lifetime trip in October. Our friends had planned many details and worked with a great travel agent, so invited us along back in February! There was many months of anticipation for this fantastic trip and we are so lucky to have friends that can do all the research to find the absolute best places to stay!! Not only were our resorts top-notch, but we were able to charter private planes for our group of 8 and that made the travel so nice. A girl can get used to this :)

We first took a morning flight from Lagos to Nairobi on Saturday the 12th. We spent one night in Nairobi, not far from the airport, at the Boma hotel. It was nice to relax with some great food and light beer (they don't make any light beers in Lagos, so we loved the Kenya brews!) We got up early the next day for a gourmet buffet breakfast and quick trip to Wilson airport. Here we met up with another couple and we took a small Kenya Airways plane to the Keekorock airstrip in the middle of the Serengeti. There we met up with one more couple that had arrived the previous night from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (where they live).


the group together at the little airstrip

our little plane taking off after dropping us off

What followed was 4 days of morning safari drives, 3 course lunches, relaxing by the pool, afternoon naps and delicious 3 course dinners! The Cottars 1920s Safari camp was full of antiques from the Cottars family as they have owed this land and been on safaris for hundreds of years. The pictures on the walls of the mess tent had amazing photographs of animal kills and ancient cars, so cool!
On a little side note, it was really fun to find out that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt stayed at our camp a few years ago with their kids.  Also, the Cottars Camp has played host to Keira Knightley and covered by Vogue!

what the living tents looked like

Mess tent

dinner by the pool after a bush walk and sundowners

the beautiful pool at the camp

that is me and Jason in the middle seats, so close to the lion!

our AMAZING guide, GG

J by our land cruiser

Something that it almost unheard of during out trip, is that we saw the Big 5 animals of the Mara in one day! That is the buffalo, elephant, leopard, rhino and lion. Thanks to our wonderful spotters, they were able to see some of the animals from as far as 2 miles away!!!! such a great experience seeing things like a lion eating organ by organ out of a wildebeest it had just killed, elephants playing in the mud and lots of baby animals that still walked very wobbly!! Our guides were amazing and gave us all kinds of information during our drives as well as riddles for us to think about in the evenings. Our 3rd day of the trip, we got up at 3am (I don't know how!) to drive an hour to the hot air balloon field. It was so cool to actually lay in a large basket and slowly be taken up in the air. Such amazing views from up there and seeing the sun come up and the animals start to play.


one of our breakfasts at the bush "Starbucks"

the girls

sunrise

at the waterfalls

giraffe

zebras playing

a lion cub eating breakfast

yawning lazy lion

baby elephant

cheetah on the prowl

air balloon ride at sunrise

breakfast after balloon ride

gourmet breakfast after balloon ride

mama lion hiding from the paparazzi

big leopard in the tree

preggo giraffe

lion cubs chasing each other

beautiful hilltop view

baby zebra

One very cool thing when we were leaving the Cottars Camp, was that our private charter came into a landing strip very close to camp. The guides liked to refer to it as "Cottars International Airport" or CIA, but it was really just a cleared area of land in the middle of the Serengeti. Pretty unreal! also the boys played paper-rock-scissors to see who would sit in the front seat and Jason won! So he was co-pilot on our trip to Nairobi airport. The pilot was really nice and explaining all the controls and buttons to Jason during the flight. He also pointed our to us when we were passing by Mt. Kilimanjaro, as you could see it peaking through the clouds.

leaving on a little jet plane

co-pilot J

such a fun plane ride!

J's passengers