travelswithalice

July 31, 2019

Madrid, week 1.

They say you can never go back, but go back we did.

The lovely small hotel that we loved, the ADLER has closed down. So has niMÚ the chic, quiet restaurant downstairs that made our favourite after dinner indulgence, fried chocolate.

MEERMIN didn’t have shoes worth buying.

PLATEA looked sad and neglected; and the girl at the Vermut bar was not at all nice.

However, other places we used to like are still here and they’re just as wonderful as they used to be.

We just have to get a fresh supply of T-shirts from TYPOGRAPHIA, which at the moment is partly defaced by roadworks.

Then it’s drinks and bocadillos at nearby FATIGAS DEL QUERER.

Everytime we go there we ask the friendly staff for a translation of the poetic name that features prominently above the modernist arches of this beautiful atmospheric taberna. We always get a different answer. From “labours of love” to the latest offering: “mistakes of love”. Hmmm, no, that doesn’t seem right.

Now that I have my own Fatigas shirt, I’m sticking to my translation: “tired of caring”.

At CAPAS SESEÑA.

This is the venerable 4th generation atelier that made my sensational capelet. It’s the same Capas Seseña that made the cape Pablo Picasso loved so much he instructed in his will to be buried wearing it.

The shop now has a younger, more avant-garde vibe, as new frontman Daniel Carillo himself illustrates. He poses in front of a portrait of revolutionary poet Garcia Lorca.

We’ve just about had our fill of tapas for now so it’s a refreshing change having fish tempura at BAZAAR in Chueca.

For dessert and coffee, we move to ALITER DULCIA, a pretty café that caught my eye earlier.

Sunday morning, we take the Metro to EL RASTRO. Only purchases made are a sandwich, a salad, and churros.

In the evening, we walk around the backstreets of MALASAÑA for somewhere interesting to have dinner. We settle on the month-long street food fair at MERCADO SAN ILDEFONSO.

For dessert, it’s heavenly ice lollies on the way home at LOCO POLO.

Labels: Bazaar, Capas Seseña, Chueca, El Rastro, Fatgas del Querer, Madrid, San Ildefonso, Typographia

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # July 31, 2019

July 14, 2019

The Serengeti

Sunday morning, we’re up early for Auric flight 612 to Seronera.

“Don’t sink! Don’t sink! Traffic! Traffic!”

The disembodied voice of the plane’s collision avoidance system has made me a little jumpy. It was a perfect landing though.

We’re stopping in Manyara to pick up 4 pax for the 40-minute hop to the Serengeti.

Later, at the Seronera airstrip.

Vincent has prepared morning tea alongside the Lemala camp’s jeep.

We’re back on safari!

It’s our fifth, including an uneventful first in Sri Lanka. Uneventful because at the time, we didn’t know that getting up at 10 is not the done thing on safari; especially not in these parts where the animals seek shelter from the searing heat and snooze for most of the day.

A Sri Lankan Safari

So we didn’t see much. Never mind; we were hooked.

We then went to South Africa. Mala Mala in the Kruger in 2005 was our first real taste of safari.

An African Safari

Am I safaried out?

It took us 13 years before we could go again. Intermittent plans were oftentimes sabotaged by various reports of political unrest, rampant diseases, mauling by lions, etc.

Last year, at Rattray’s, again in the Kruger, we got our safari mojo back.

The Vanishing Wild World of Africa

Next, we went to Meno a Kwena in Botswana. This was our first tent camp.

Meno a Kwena

Makgadikgadi

Each venue had its own brand of adventure, its own lessons learned. Sri Lanka got us hooked on the safari experience. Mala Mala introduced us to the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo. Rattray’s reinforced lessons in conservation and endangered species. Meno a Kwena got us on the migration trail and gave us a taste for tent camps.

And so, to the Serengeti, where we get up close and personal with the wildlife of Tanzania.

These lions don’t care much for our presence. Time for a selfie!

We cut right into the path of an elephant herd on the river.

Will they gently nudge us aside or swat us out of the way?

Things are getting hot and heavy at the hippo pool.

https://youtu.be/-IPAtRLiAio

A popular stop on the game drive is Black Rock. A leopard and her cub are often spotted there.

Much as we appreciate seeing these beautiful cats, we don’t like having to jostle with the ever present gaggle of vehicles to watch the leopards from afar.

On our last day in the Serengeti, we decide to skip the crowds and go on a real safari of our own. With our driver of course.

Serengeti is the Maasai word for “endless plain”. We do get a dose of this endlessness as we plough through vast stretches of grass, mud, scrub, and savannah. We’re tracking down cheetah.

Then finally, cheetah!

It’s such a thrill to finally see the cheetahs, one of the last two on my big cat list. This leaves just one other: the tiger. I have to go back to India or Sri Lanka for that.

There’s the cougar and the jaguar too of course... I’ll settle for the cars.😊

We haven’t shaken off the crowds yet. The Cheetah Project jeep arrives and drives off the road, up close to where the cheetahs are. We’re not allowed to do that.

Soon other jeeps begin to converge on the roadside. We beat a hasty exit and go off hopefully to parts unknown.

Vincent hears there’d been two lion kills on a riverside in the south, past the Moru Kopjes.

We zigzag the area all around the suspected crime scene to no avail. The lions must be sleeping off a heavy meal. I’m getting dizzy, we’re going around in circles.

In the distance an elephant herd is heading in our direction.

“Good!” Vincent says. “Theyll soon wake up the lions and drive them away.”

Although the lion is generally considered king of the jungle, even he respects the mighty elephant. Everyone in the jungle does. There is no known predator of the elephant, save one: humans.

And true enough, as the elephants get into the river, the lions are roused from their siesta.

They scramble frantically up the river’s edge, a mother and three or four cubs, too quick to tell for sure.

In their haste, they abandon their kill.

This has been the most exciting drive ever! And we’re here on our own, no other jeeps in sight. Just us and wild Africa. Perfect.

Tired and exhilarated by the day’s outing, I opt out of the afternoon game drive. I’ll stay in camp and just chill.

The Maasai guard is a reassuring presence.

Unexpected guests drop by. Giraffes come over to keep me company. They’re right in front of my tent!

Later, Stuart and Vincent come back to get me so we can watch the sunset on the hill.

It’s meant to be a dramatic finish to our safari but Jumaa’s hilltop sundowner bar gets rained on. And the sunset is a no-show.

Undeterred, we carry on. Stuart gamely dons a blanket...

...while I take shelter in the jeep.

Cheers!

Back in camp, it’s time to call it a day.

To Jumaa, Vincent, and Swaleh, we say Asante! And to Lelohe, a Masaai thank you: Ashe!

Labels: Africa, Lemala, safari, Tanzania

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # July 14, 2019

July 11, 2019

Arusha

We leave behind mysterious Zanzibar and set off for the wilds of mainland Tanzania.

*****

Outside Arusha National Park, Michael, our driver/guide bids us wait in the car while he goes off to buy entry tickets.

I’m getting hungry so I dip into my packed lunch and quickly down a samoza.

“Good idea,” Stuart says as he proceeds to dig into a bowl of pasta from his lunch pack.

Michael, back with the tickets, smiles indulgently as he informs his hungry wards that there’s a picnic spot nearby. I start to put the lid back on my pasta bowl.

“But it’s okay,” he says, “Carry on!”

Bad idea.

The car rocks as something heavy swoops down onto our open roof and into the car. A blue monkey, huge, big as a man, is gate-crashing our hotel packed picnic lunch!

Plastic forks, foil wrappers, food boxes, penne pasta, and lovely grilled red and yellow peppers are sent flying up in the air, splattering all over the car, on the seats, on the floor, sticking onto the windows, and getting plastered all over Stuart’s hair and clothes.

Michael tries frantically to frighten the creature away but only succeeds in frightening me even more. A man gets off a jeep next to us and joins in the fray.

With all three men bellowing and beating King Kong into finally retreating, I’m bent over the front seat bleating, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!”

Panic stations over, not much harm done apart from the ill-fated lunch boxes, we’re laughing as we drive on. The guy who came to our aid is visibly annoyed, pointedly ignoring my repeated attempts at thanking him.

It’s a manifest breach of wildlife etiquette on our part of course, not the monkey’s.

Atop a hill overlooking Small Momella Lake is a lookout point officially designated as a picnic place. Here, amid lush greenery and birdsong, we finish off what’s left of our lunch.

Fed by underground volcanic streams, Small Momella Lake maintains high levels of sodium making its water extremely alkaline and allowing for the profusion of algae blooms. All this makes for the ideal habitat for the pretty pink flamingos that we’ve come here to see.

Flamingos are equipped with thick-scaled legs that enable them to withstand the lake water’s corrosive elements as well as its nighttime freezing temperatures. Also uniquely equipped with the ability to desalinate water and to drink from boiling geysers, these seemingly puny yet strangely hardy creatures thrive in this harsh, highly toxic environment with little competition for food or water from less fortified animals.

Thus is the balance of nature maintained.

Although its diverse habitats host a variety of wildlife, Arusha is not terribly big on big game. There are no lions or rhinos here; and elephants and leopards are hard to find.

Dotted with lakes and bays, this lush green valley features forests, grassland, and moorland. There are views of the extinct volcano Mount Meru and, on clear days, but unfortunately not on this particular day, also of snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro.

It’s a peaceful bucolic setting that launches us gently into our weeklong safari.

Labels: flamingos, Momella, Tanzania

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # July 11, 2019