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Schedules
Late October 2008 and Early
January 2009
West Kilimanjaro, Rift Valley,
Loliondo and Ngorongoro Crater
Kilimanjaro To Crater
Workshop - 10 nights / 11 days
Throughout this safari all meals are included. Under
canvas in the mess tent your evening meal is lit by
hurricane lamps creating a Hemingway ambient, whilst you
dine beneath the stars and share the days experiences.
Close to the equator the day is short, twelve hours from
sunup to sundown. We try to be out by first light each
day to catch the world being born anew each morning as
the sun casts her light across the primeval African
scenery, and capture the extraordinary shape and feel of
the landscape.
Day 1 Saturday: Kilimanjaro
Workshop members will be met at Kilimanjaro International
airport and transferred to the tented lodge where a warm
welcome and a light supper await you. After a brief camp
experience introduction you will be shown your luxurious
tented rooms which stand on wooden platforms in the
foothills west of Kilimanjaro.
Day 2 Sunday: West Kilimanjaro
After breakfast in the banda we will go on a familiarization
tour and hope to encounter the elephants and other wildlife.
The camp is an ecologically sensitive enterprise and $20 of
your nightly fee is a donation to Kilimanjaro Conservancy.
After lunch the first workshop will be on the dining
veranda. Gaelle will begin with a demonstration and give
personal attention to everyone as the group paints and
sketches, getting to know each other and the medium with
which to work.
Day 3 Monday: West Kilimanjaro to N'garuka
Dawn heralds with tea delivered to your tent veranda. We
will depart for a location on the foothills where we capture
the first beams of sunshine slanting across the plains.
Gaelle will show you watercolour washes that capture the
fast changing light. Breakfast will be served by our driver
on location. On returning to camp lunch will be served.
After packing our bags we say goodbye to the Ndarakwai staff
and head for the airport to fly to Manyara. Where we are met
by the drivers and vehicles that will be with us for the
rest of our trip. We depart for the Rift Valley. On the way
stopping for a while in Mto Wa Mbo. A bustling town where
all the tribes are represented and all nations meet. Market
stalls laden with fruit and spices, tinkers, tailors and
curio shops. An opportunity to sketch the colourful scene. A
drive along the foot of the escarpment will bring us to camp
by tea-time. After settling in, a game drive at dusk will
end the day.
Day 4 Tuesday: N'garuka
We will rise at dawn to catch the morning light etching the
escarpment. Breakfast will be served on location. After
lunch in camp, Gaelle will give an 'Introduction to
Acrylics' workshop in the mess-tent. Tea will be served
before setting out for our painting session before sunset.
Day 5 Wednesday: N'garuka
Tea at dawn will give us an early start. Today we will be
welcomed at the nearby Manyatta by the age-set chief and his
very extensive family for a day of 'Life and Location'
painting. The Maasai, their domestic animals and their homes
are a fascinating colour-rich subject. These people will
charm and delight you with their welcome, humour, elegance
and grace.
Day 6 Thursday: Lake Natron
After breakfast in camp we will visit the isolated village
of N'garuka. Travel through magnificent volcanic country for
a few hours will bring us to our overnight camp at Ngare
Sero river. Lake Natron is a forbidding and surreal
environment, a soda lake of ever changing shades of pink and
red, sharply contrasting white soda crusted edges, alkaline
mud flats, fresh-water inlets and a feeling of eternal
space, at the lowest point of the Rift Valley. Truly peace
in the wilderness.
Day 7 Friday: Loliondo, Serengeti
On leaving Lake Natron we climb the walls of the escarpment
to enjoy the fabulous views over the length of the wildest
part of the Great Rift Valley which rent the continent of
Africa asunder millions of years ago. We will stop to
practice a watercolour wash and enjoy a picnic lunch before
heading for our camp under canvas in the Loliondo Hills.
Here a hot shower and a sundowner await us among the shady
acacias.
Day 8 Saturday: Loliondo, Serengeti Loliondo is the
gateway to Serengeti. Wake to 'early morning tea' before
setting off for a days' painting on the savanna, where
breakfast will be served. After returning to camp for lunch,
the afternoon can be spent in camp with Gaelle will help to
develop sketches into paintings. We will choose a sunset
location to practice very quick watercolour washes.
Day 9 Sunday: Loliondo, Serengeti
An early start will bring us to a location where morning
light slants across the rocky outcrops through the fever
trees. Gaelle will spend time with each member and encourage
them to develop different watercolour techniques.
Day 10 Monday: Ol Duvai Gorge to Ngorongoro
This morning we depart for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
We take a step back in time and visit the Olduvai Gorge
where Luis and Mary Leakey discovered early remnants of
mankind. The near-human Hominids - over 2 million years old.
A mere crack in the surface of the Serengeti, the gorge is
the result of geographical, geological and evolutionary
events that have rendered history available to our eyes. We
climb to the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater and reach our
lodge in time for sunset.
Day 11 Tuesday: Ngorongoro to KIA
The African sunrise should not be missed on your last day in
the crater. Clouds shift and part, the lake below gleams
iridescent. Breathtaking . . . or not, the crater can be
covered completely in an early misty haze. This is a special
end to your trip, a photo safari in the fabled Ngorongoro Crater,
eighth wonder of the world. The exciting drive down what was
once only a path for Maasai herdsmen, who still travel the
same route to graze their herds on the grassland below,
brings us a day spent with all the big game, except giraffe
which cannot negotiate the towering lava walls. The animals of the
crater are so disdainful of humans that one can take startlingly
close photographs, a source of your own to continue the
wilderness painting experience at home. Lunch will be a picnic
in the crater. At the end of this eventful day you will depart
by plane from Manyara to catch your onward flight in the
evening.
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