NGORONGORO CRATER NATIONAL PARK, TANZANIA, Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Young male lions, Ngorongoro Crater National Park, Tanzania.

My friend Karen Minkowski has visited Africa many times and has contributed often to The Intrepid Tourist, sharing her beautiful photographs and insights about animals. She recently went to northern Tanzania, visiting four national parks: Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire. This is the third of her four reports of that trip. 

As we descended into Ngorongoro Crater, four or five young muddy male lions were emerging from a cloud of dust whipped up by Land Cruisers on the Crater floor below us. We assumed they were part of a “coalition”, a group of related and sometimes unrelated males who have been forced out of their natal pride(s) or have chosen to leave. They will probably form their own prides, giving them a greater chance at reproductive success.

They chased each other and tussled, full of energy in the cool morning. I love how their tails are flying.

Some of the males had short manes, others had not yet begun to grow them.

After the lions moved on, we spotted two Serval cats, well-camouflaged in the tall, dry grass. Here’s one of the pair. Among the wild cats, Servals have the highest rate of hunting success, feeding on rodents and other small mammals.

Serval.

This Golden Jackal, now called the Golden Wolf, first got our attention with its high-pitched howl.

Golden wolf (golden jackal).

Very recent DNA studies show a closer relationship to grey wolves and coyotes than to the Golden Jackal of Europe and Asia.

Golden wolf (golden jackal).

The Secretary Bird, a relative of eagles, hawks and other raptors, eats just about anything on the ground it can catch but prefers snakes, including venomous ones. The bird stomps its prey to death with its strong legs and feet.

Secretary bird.

On a relatively cool morning, it’s not rare to see hippos grazing until the sun sends them back to the safety of the water.

Hippos.

 Grant’s Gazelle lowering itself to a sitting posture.

Grant's gazelle.

A herd of buffalo at rest. These are females; the males were off to one side. You can see the difference in horn structure between females and males (below). The males have a thick, boney base on top of their head where the horns have fused. This “boss” protects the head when they fight other males for dominance.

Female buffalo.

These old male buffalos may be a threesome or a part of a larger bachelor group. They’ve separated from the mixed herd of adult females, their young, and the stronger, dominant males, who may have kicked them out. Though these three are well past their prime, I saw, years ago, a small group of these old guys fend off a lioness. Their massive horns are intimidating and can inflict serious injury or death.

Male buffalo.

The Northern Anteater Chat. 

Rosy-throated Longclaw, probably a female, well-camouflaged in the dry grasses.

Hippo aggression? In the first photo below, a wet (dark) hippo walks toward the resting hippo on the left. In the next picture the hippo has stood up and looks threateningly at the one on the right. About fifteen seconds later (third photo), the aggressor moves closer to the wet hippo, its face thrust out; the wet one seems to be cowering a bit, but a fight did not ensue.

I may be interpreting this hippo interaction completely incorrectly!

Lesser flamingos in Lake Magadi, on the Crater floor.

African Wild Cat on the outer slopes of the Crater.

Note: Karen's final post about her Africa trip--Tarangiri National Park--will appear next week.

 

THE SERENGETI, A MAGICAL PLACE TO SEE WILFLIFE, Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Female leopard with her cub, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

My friend Karen Minkowski has visited Africa many times and has contributed often to The Intrepid Tourist, sharing her beautiful photographs and insights about animals. She recently went to northern Tanzania, visiting four national parks: Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire. This is the second of her four reports of that trip. 

The Serengeti is magical, a magnet, one of the best places on earth. It seems at times, as the Maasai thought when they named it Siringet, that it really does go on forever and ever – infinity on earth. Here is some of what we saw.

Cheetahs.

These cheetahs may be brothers; we wondered if there were hiding from lions, as they remained reclining, partially obscured by grass, for a long time.

Later that afternoon, a clump of nine or ten Land Cruisers ahead alerted us to something interesting. A group of stopped vehicles is a common way of finding predators, especially, when driving through a wildlife area.

Two leopard cubs wrestled and snuggled and finally looked in the direction of their mother, who was not in our line of sight. When the cubs disappeared amidst the rocks and vegetation, our guide moved the vehicle to where we could see her perched high upon a rock. 

Leopard cubs.

Leopard cubs.

Female leopard.

It’s not common to see a leopard with her cubs, so we were lucky when they briefly joined their mother. We watched as one cub or the other, sometimes both, spent a few seconds in her presence, as though just checking in with her.

We’d seen five species of cats in just a few days: lion, serval, wild cat, cheetah and leopard. Our version of the Big Five! (Traditionally the Big Five are lion, leopard, elephant, black rhino and Cape buffalo. We did see all but the black rhino.)

A lovely giraffe in a woodland.

Zebras at the river.

Impalas.

Male impalas nuzzling. They eventually put their foreheads together and gently practiced fighting, skills they might one day need.

Practice fighting.

A couple of new birds for me: von der Decken’s Hornbill and the Coqui Francolin. (I was last in the Serengeti in 1971, so I may have seen these birds before and forgotten them.) Both are males.

Decken's Hornbill.

Coqui Francolin.

Kirk's Dik-Dik, a tiny antelope about 16 to 18 inches in height.

Hippos are common where there is water deep enough to cover their enormous bodies. Such sweet faces!

Hippos.

Lion drinking.

Lions Mating.

Wildebeeste migration.

We saw a little of the wildebeest migration heading north towards the Maasai-Mara in Kenya.  

Note: Next week will be Karen's report on her visit to Ngorogoro Crater National Park.

BEAUTIFUL BIRDS AT LAKE MANYARA, TANZANIA, Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Yellow-billed Stork, Lake Manyara, Tanzania.

My friend Karen Minkowski has visited Africa many times and has contributed often to The Intrepid Tourist, sharing her beautiful photographs and insights about animals. She recently went to northern Tanzania, visiting four national parks: Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire. This is the first of her reports of that trip. 

I recently completed a wonderful safari in Tanzania’s northern circuit with three German friends. We ranged in age from 22 to 81 and travelled together very well; everyone was enthusiastic about everything we saw, and we had lots of great observations. We visited four sites over eight amazing, intense days that exhausted even the youngest of us! Our guide was excellent. He had a great sense of humor and worked hard to meet our requests.

Our first destination was Lake Manyara National Park. Human settlement has reached one side of the lake, and erosion of agricultural fields nearby may be the cause of the brown appearance of the water on some days. 

Heavy rains in the last years have resulted in a rise in the water levels, partially submerging many trees.

But birds were abundant. Below: Red and Yellow Barbet; Grey-headed Kingfisher; Little Bee-eater. The Barbet nests in termite mounds and feeds on termites (and other insects). The Kingfisher, despite its name, feeds primarily on insects on the ground and only occasionally fishes. The Bee-eater catches insects on the wing.

Red and Yellow Barbet.

Grey-headed Kingfisher.

Little Bee-eater.

Blue monkeys were common in the forested area.

Blue Monkey.

The next three pictures  show two female elephants greeting one another. The sequence lasted just a few seconds, and I know nothing of the context. It seemed like a very intimate interaction, perhaps an elephant version of a warm hug.

 

Looking from the Lake to the forested area.

Ground Hornbill.

Note: Karen's post about her visit to Serengeti National Park will appear next week.

A TUESDAY IN PORTLAND, OREGON - THE OHSU FARMERS MARKET AND ELK ROCK GARDEN Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Elk Rock Garden, Portland, Oregon.

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took the photos in this post in August 2025.

Portland, Oregon

Or how the end of one trip provided the opportunity for another......

In the summer of 2025, in an airport baggage claim area, my husband and I found our suitcase, but its telescopic handle was stuck in the retracted position. The back of the suitcase had a shallow dent, as if a baby elephant had sat on it. So after we got home, we took the injured suitcase to a luggage doctor in Portland, namely Fink’s Luggage & Repair shop. We chose to pay $85 to replace the whole mechanism assembly thingy, rather than $300 to $1,000 to replace our aging suitcase, even though it will still have one missing zipper pull and wheels that make a racket because their rubber tires wore off last century. No sentimental attachment here, only personal values that favor fixing things over throwing them away. 

OHSU Farmer's Market

Market performers' tent.

After taking care of business, we drove to the nearest farmers market for lunch: the OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) Farmers Market, open on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. from June through September. We drove past the market vendor trucks and parked in the hospital “Patient and Patient Visitor” structure, for free!

Chinese food.

Coffee.

We walked back to the market tents outside of the Medical School Mackenzie Hall. From the menus at the tents offering bagels, boba drinks, Chinese food, cookies, food from Ethiopia, Myanmar, Mexico, tamales, Vietnamese coffee, and wings, we sampled Chinese chowmein from LoLo S. San Xiang, plus one sausage (soft, boldly seasoned with a herbal hint and a spicy kick) and one chicken wing from Juicy JV’s Wings, and a coffee, drip-brewed over ice and sweetened condensed milk, from Vietnamese Coffee. The longest line was a strong recommendation for Tamales Poblanos, but we didn’t want to spend that much time on lunch. We appreciated the sustainable metal forks and ceramic plates, to be returned at a clearly labeled spot for washing and re-use. We sat on the shaded, clean grass, to eat in view of the trickling fountain and guitar player.

After this fun and yummy lunch, we used the impeccable restrooms in the Auditorium building adjacent to the market. We didn’t buy any produce, flowers, meat, candles, extra large scrunchies (hair ties) or anything else. Many lunch patrons were medical staff members and students in scrubs, wearing identification cards on lanyards, a reassuring sight in case of indigestion, as was the emergency room we had passed in the car.

Elk Rock Garden.

For a post-lunch adventure, we visited Elk Rock Garden. This estate is the former home of Peter Kerr, a Scottish immigrant and entrepreneur. After he purchased the land in the late 1800s, he spent a lifetime developing the garden as a manicured “wild” landscape full of Scottish and Pacific Northwest plants.

Today, the non-profit Elk Rock Garden Foundation owns and maintains the property. The house is not open to the public, but the Foundation uses it. Visiting the garden is free, with an opportunity to drop a donation in a box.

What a pleasant place for an hour-long stroll in cool shade on a warm afternoon! In the Visitor Center (a tight spot under a rooflet with no walls on three sides), we signed the guest book, noticed the binder of info about the garden plants, and took a photo of the garden map. Then we set out on the path that essentially loops around the perimeter. We skipped the other paths, across the middle. 

On the way to the uphill side of perimeter path, I took photos of the fairy tale woods (above and at the top of this post). Soon something bluish-gray appeared on the left, through the trees down the steep slope. What could it be? Water? It was so big! It was water—the Willamette River.

Fish pond.

After reaching the farthest point, we headed back along the downhill side of the perimeter path, past the fish pond.

Lawn.

From the lawn, we saw the house, on the other side of which we had parked initially.

Mount Hood.

Beyond the river, we saw Mount Hood, the highest peak in Oregon, more than once. For visitors in a contemplative mood, the place is quiet, in part because no dogs, picnics, or lawn games are allowed. If I’m lucky enough to go back some day, I’ll spend time at the Visitor Center to look inside the binder of info about the plants.