Sometimes we have a LOT of fun!
A little time off for a safari, in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
We went on a safari this month, as you may remember from a Previous Post, but here is the background on it, as well as Patrick’s great video!
Mikumi Village and Mikumi National Park
One reason for our trip inland to Mikumi, was to meet and talk with Ludovic Saronga’s students at the VETA school in Mikumi village, 6 hours inland. This is a community college/trade school. We lost most of the pictures we took here, but it was interesting to see the tools and educations that students in Tanzania are able to obtain to further their educations. Anything from Tourism/Hospitality, to Computers, to Tailoring, to Metallurgy to Carpentry and Electricity is taught here.
I met one young man at the computer workshop that was really struggling. He didn’t understand the assignment, and begged me to help him with it, since I had introduced myself to the class as being one of the first 100 women in the United States to obtain my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certificate. I was a bit helpless in solving this Excel Spreadsheet assignment though, but hopefully he didn’t notice since he was even more lost than I was.
Ludovic is not only the head teacher at the Community College’s Tourism and Hospitality School, but he also runs the Mikumi Tourism Board at the school. He has always worked in Tourism, and was a guide for many years. He is near retirement but is still active and plans on building a camp right outside of Mikumi National Park in his retirement.
Ludovic found a place for us to stay inside of the park that is NOWHERE on the Internet, and is considerably cheaper than other things in the park. You could easily stay outside of the park for cheaper…but being inside the park, as the night animals start to come out to compliment the beautiful African sunset…is extremely beautiful, so I strongly recommend staying inside the park at least for one night. It’s also ideal for an early start the next morning so you can see the lions ending their hunts for the night!
It was something like $125 per night for 2 with meals which were pretty good. The accommodations were comfortable and clean, and we could see the animals while we had our sundowners. Ludovic also found us a driver with 2 great kinds of vehicles to take us around who knew a lot about the animals and where to find them. Masu was a great guy, who went out of his way to get us up close to the animals. The video is below…
“Ludovic Saronga” is on Facebook/Messenger and his cellphone is 0755067122. Just tell him you are a cruiser like Rebecca and Patrick and he will understand what you are after 😉 He has offered to help other cruisers that come though Tanzania, and will probably want you to meet his students too, since international visitors, traveling on sailboats, tourists of another breed, are very good for his students to meet.
Here are some photos, as well as Patrick’s video of going to Mikumi, and our safari, as well as some of his other videos too. We hope you will subscribe!
Above: Patrick’s awesome video despite overwriting his SD card!
We will definitely do some more safaris in Africa…it’s just a matter of time! Let us know if you want to see other posts like this one!
What Camera did Patrick lose, and have to buy again? Click on the link below for details of WHICH Go pro camera he bought, even with newer ones out, because he considers it the best one…
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Larry Pardey on SERAFFYN has become Ill. Wife and community honors him in a unique way.
I don’t know about the rest of you…but Lin and Larry Pardey had a profound influence on me as I was preparing to go cruising. While I never felt I could cruise quite as simply as they did, the books they wrote entertained me, and were a part of my sailing education. Larry has fallen ill, and is in the final stages of dementia, etc. It is hard to see one of our icons leaving us…I find it rather nice that she is not waiting til after he has left us to make this tribute. If there is an ounce of understanding left, he will so appreciate this final parting gift.
This is from Facebook from Lin ————>
“My publishing partner is helping me raise funds to maintain and expand the Larry Pardey Observatory by doing a special pre-publication offer for the just-now-being-printed Tribute edition of Cruising in Seraffyn. I have pledged all profits from this book towards the Observatory. Though it looks impossible to get this book as a stocking stuffer in time for Xmas, Paradise Cay is offering anyone who orders one now, to buy any of my five other narratives for just $10. I’ll put any profits from the sale of those books towards this fund raiser too.
Here is the link – he just added a place for anyone who would like to help with my fund raiser.
Special Offer
Here is the Press Release Paradise Cay Publications has just sent out announcing this new edition
For immediate release, December 12, 2018
Larry Pardey Observatory to receive profits from Tribute Edition of Cruising in Seraffyn
“This book launched my cruising dream,” stated the editor of Sail Magazine. “And it probably launched 50,000 others as well.” Cruising in Seraffyn became an instant best seller when it was first published and is now considered a cruising classic, one that continues to inspire cash strapped dreamers as well as those who already have their “perfect” boat but are concerned about crossing their first ocean. After its authors, Lin and Larry had been voyaging for more than 47 years and 210,000 miles including both east about and west about circumnavigations, Larry’s health began to fail. Parkinson’s and encroaching dementia brought them back to settle at their home base in a small cove on Kawau Island in New Zealand. One of Larry’s great joy over the six years, before he required full time professional care, was watching the youngsters from Camp Bentzon, which shares their cove, as they learned to sail, kayak, and discovered the joys (and pitfalls) of life and water sports. (Camp Bentzon is a not-for-profit youth adventure center owned by the children of New Zealand)
It was shortly before Larry moved to a care facility that Kenny Thorall came to visit. Fifty years previously and a year before Lin came on the scene, Larry and Ken had formed a team, delivering boats together, repairing them. Now Ken, who had gone on to become a professional Alaskan bush pilot, wanted to do something to memorialize the man who was, in his words, “the best friend any one could have and an amazing sailor.” He donated the funds to create an Observatory at Camp Bentzon after learning that it would give almost 5000 youngsters a year a chance to see the stars that lead him and Larry across oceans together. A year ago, the Larry Pardey Observatory was completed and outfitted with four telescopes plus 15 sets of special high-powered stargazing binoculars. Since then more than 100 children each week have had their first chance to explore the night sky far from the light pollution of the big city.
As Lin once again picked up her offshore sailing life, she felt it was time to pay tribute to the man who introduced her to a life-long passion, voyaging under sail. It has been Larry who encouraged her to write the first of what became 14 books on voyaging and seamanship. Her goal, as well as Larry’s has always been to encourage others to take risks and expand their horizons. Thus her passion for Camp Bentzon and desire to support and expand the Larry Pardey Memorial Observatory by donating the profits from this book. This Tribute edition of Cruising in Seraffyn has been updated to include a new introduction, updated guidelines to breaking away on your own adventure and sixteen pages of color photos. The appendixes have been updated to include information on what cruising costs today, details of what worked best on Seraffyn, what could have been better, plus the history of this famous little ship once her eleven year, engine-free circumnavigation brought Lin and Larry back to California to build her big sister Taleisin.”
I hope you will support the efforts…I know I will!
For more information on the Larry Pardey Observatory and Camp Bentzon use the following links:
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