#just showing off the ascending and descending flight animations

[gummi-ships]

[fuckterfs-deactivated20221212]

Why every single one of the seven are the most powerful demigod of all time:

Percy:

Frank is powerful not just because he's a child of Mars but much of his power is because Poseidon was his ancestor millennia, so basically like a hundred generations ago, and Percy is a DIRECT descendant of Poseidon. Sure he doesn't have the shapeshifting stuff, but he can erupt volcanoes, kill gods, basically manipulate anything fluid, HE COULD DRAIN THE BLOOD FROM PEOPLE and he just doesn't do it because he's a good person, no wonder the gods feared him. If he'd helped Kronos that would've been devastating and he'd probably became more powerful than most of the titans. Percy hadn't really had much training in sword fighting and he'd already wounded Ares, the only reason he couldn't train to be much better is because he trained with "normal" good fighters and can take on a whole cabin alone. He obliterates armies and shatters bridges, he becomes a tornado when fighting. He breathes underwater and talks to fish and horses, he bore the entire weight of the sky. SoN showed us that he didn't need the Achilles curse to be an unstoppable fighting machine, and that's pretty amazing considering he's basically "just a boy". He went through tartarus, survived, and became even stronger from it. He is a great leader and loyal as fuck to his friends, also he's gorgeous. He steals drinks with his powers by manipulating the fluid. He's had childhood trauma and exhibits the fight and the fawn response.

Jason:

He bit a stapler when he was a toddler. He's the son of Zeus and summons thunderbolts. He can fly. He can literally ride the storm, and take it with him to breathe underwater. He can knock people unconscious by creating a vacuum around their head. He can drain the lungs of people. He can yeet pretty much everything. He probably jumpstarts his own car if he accidentally let the lights on over night. He's an excellent fighter and was pressured into being a good leader, but is actually pretty good as a teamplayer, and he's handsome. He steals things with his powers by manipulating the air around it.

Leo:

He can light pretty much anything on fire, he can determine the chemical elements of anything he touches, he can repair pretty much any machine, he is excellent in thinking on his feet and distracting enemies from his plans. He's a great cook. He killed pretty much the most powerful godess to have ascended from chaos. He can't lead, but can cooperate with his friends fairly well, though he works best alone or with machines, also he's hot "in a scrawny way". When he tries to steal drinks he accidentally vaporizes them. He's had childhood trauma and exhibits the fawn response.

Piper:

She can manipulate people's opinions and actions, she can animate "lifeless" things (Festus was an automaton until she made him come alive, he can't be turned off) and negate some elemental magic (Khione didn't do shit to her). She can fight with a dagger, something that's pretty hard, and wouldn't be expected from the average Aphrodite-daughter, she's lesbian (or bi? I'm not sure), she can suddenly turn (even more) beautiful, she can speak french, her nickname isn't without reason "beauty queen". She steals drinks with her powers by convincing people to give them to her.

Annabeth:

She's smart as hell (pun intended), is a great fighter with her dagger, but is good with a sword too, bore the weight of the entire sky, pretty much outsmarts everyone. She faced her worst fears to find out that she's the most powerful child of Athena ever, and outsmarted Arachne on her own hometurf. She went through tartarus, survived and became stronger from it, she's gorgeous and dangerous. She steals drinks with her powers by tricking the former owners of the drink into either giving it to her or leaving it unattended for a while. Her traumatic response is flight into activities, for example the redesign of fucking Olympus.

Frank:

He can be anything he wants, both literally and figuratively. His ancestor are two of the most powerful gods and he's buff even in human form. He knows how to defeat the chinese fingertrap, he can shapeshift, he can fight perfectly with his power, exactly timing his attacks and the shifting, slashing with his sword, biting with bear's teeth, shooting with his bow, and scratching someone to death as a dragon. He has the blessing of Mars, and has the authority to command undead soldiers, he's handsome and buff. He is an excellent roman leader and praetor, and very loyal to his duty and friends. He would never try to steal drinks.

Hazel:

She's come back from the dead but isn't undead, she can manipulate metals, minerals, gems and the mist, so basically anything, she's a sorcerer riding on a wonderful horse. She defeated Gaea's first attempt at waking single-handedly and befriended the untamable horse Arion. She can navigate the labyrinth, and bend it to her will. She can curse people by giving them gems and precious metals, she's gorgeous, and even if she wasn't, she could change her appearance anyways. She would steal a drink by making the owner believe she was actually giving it to them.

Bonus: Nico:

Son of Hades, the first one to find out that there's two camps, necromancer, gay, gorgeous. He drains people's life force if there is justifiable reason for it. He'd steal a drink by threatening the owner pretty effectively with either his sword or a skeleton warrior. His traumatic response type is freeze and fight.

[outerloop]

Anatomy of a Falcon

We recently announced Falcon Age, a game about nurturing a falcon from a baby, bonding with them, and together resisting the forces that colonise your planet. Falcon Age will be out in 2019 for PS4 and PS VR.

We showed off the game at PAX last week, got a great response, especially on the falcon. Let’s do a deep dive of the design of the falcon, animation and rig setup, AI and navigation, feather tech, and raptor sounds.

Falcon Design

Chandana Ekanayake and Darran Hurlbut

Our falcon design combines multiple raptor types. She is big as a golden eagle, fights like a hawk, has some eagle-hawk resemblance, some owl-like tufts, and falcon tendancies. She’s one of the last of her kind left in our world and we wanted to make her unique visually for the story and also visually stand out during gameplay against the sky and desert like environments.

One of the early inspirations for Falcon Age came from videos of golden eagles hunting large mountain goats. That led to some research on falconry and the idea of having a falcon as a pet and designing mechanics and gameplay around that core idea. We made a rough prototype early on to test out the ideas. The first time we successfully whistled for the bird in VR and saw the scale change from it approaching from a distance to landing on our hand, we knew we were on to something that could serve as the core of a unique game.  

Animation and Rig

Aung Zaw Oo

FALCON FEET TRACKING

There are lots of animation options out there, but none of them would easily solve our specific falcon feet tracking needs. Inverse kinematic setups, root motion and other complex plugins could do the job if we had a bigger team and more time to dedicate to it. We wanted a more predictable outcome so we went with a multiple pose based solution made in 3dsmax.  

However, the biggest reason for not using IK, is that this is the best way I could come up within a couple of days. We were building the prototype so fast back at the beginning of the project that we didn’t have time to look at what other solutions are available. This is the most reliable and least ugly way I found and we’ve stuck with it since. If it's not broken, don’t fix it.

Here is how I imagined the bird claws blending IRL. The ball is the fist that is attached to the VR motion controls.There are limits to this method. The claws needs to be able to wrap around a fair chunk of the fist and the fist pose needs to be as spherical as possible.

Note that head and legs are siblings of the pelvis. This makes the bone masking and making separate blend trees easier. Ignore the word ‘eagle’ in the naming. That was just a temp asset name before we figured out the bird design.

Short version of how its done; the fist is a ball and the bird’s feet rotate around the ball using 30 blend poses and shuffle animation to get the feet back to center when the ball(motion hand) has rotated too far.

30 Blend Poses on a ball

A shuffle animation let feet recenter

And the the blends start again after that quick shuffle animation from the new rotation of the hand. According to our programmer Justin, he is doing some regular old quaternion and linear algebra math. And I’m using 3 float values that he’s giving me and feeding them into those anim blend states.

For baby bird, the 2nd knuckle on the index finger is treated like a ball. 

The one edge case where the ball concept doesn’t work is when the glove is pointed directly down. Pictured below.

We had several ways we could’ve dealt with that case. One solution was to have a collider on the forearm part of the glove and have the bird fly away if bird’s collision intersects with it. Ultimately we decided to let it be as is. It’s more player friendly that way since it lets you scratch your left hip while in VR without having the bird leave you. Also most people would never have their hands positioned that way in normal play. 

Unless they’re playing in a headstand for some reason. All kinds of animation features would look wrong or broken in a headstand.

FALCON HEAD TRACKING

Short version of how its done; the head (bone_Head) is a direct child of the highest object in the bird skeletal hierarchy ( bone_Root ).

Bone_Root’s position(not rotation) follows the position of the motion controller and bone_Head counters that motion. Basically a 2-object hierarchy where a positional blend is used to counter motion of the parent object to keep the child object in same global position. The rest of the bird body uses a blend of 27 poses to try its best to keep the bird looking natural.

With the size of the adult bird we have, a 12 cm translation in all axis(24x24x24 cube) seemed ideal for getting the stabilizer effect without stretching the neck too much. The head will also move at the edge of that range and when the motion hand stops moving, that new position is now the new center and another 24cm cube is formed there.  Math wise, headlock is mostly just a vector transform with a lot of extra 'fluff' for limiting speed, transitioning in and out, and moving the lock point when it gets too far from the body but the bird is still in the area.

Bird Navigation and AI

Justin LaLone

BIRD BOREDOM

For the most part, the falcon obeys Ara’s commands and follows her around.  If you stand around long enough in one area while the bird is just circling or if you launch her with no orders, she will start looking for something else in the area to do - usually hunting or landing on a point of interest.  She will also take some initiative when perched on Ara if anything else tries to grab her (she’s possessive like that), and likes to help lead Ara to the next hole in lightning golf.

SUN BLINDING PREY

Some of the prey, such as the rabbits, are very skittish and as soon as they notice a falcon diving towards them they will take off for the nearest bolthole.  They have a more difficult time seeing Ara’s bird if she approaches with the sun behind her, so paying attention to where the light is coming from and sending the bird from that direction can make catching prey easier and more reliable.  On the other hand, simply diving from higher up can be good too, as the bird can pick up more speed before being noticed, giving her prey less time to dodge out of the way.

Coming in fast and and from the sun, for a guaranteed hit.

FALCON 3D NAVIGATION

Getting a flying animal to reliably traverse a 3D space in a somewhat natural looking way isn’t something you typically find out of the box in a game engine.  We have roughly three levels of bird-navigation logic going on to get the bird from point A to point B without running into too many things or getting stuck in a corner.

For high-level navigation to find its way through the world, we build a 3D navigation graph and use A* to find a path.  What’s probably somewhat unique in our implementation is that we are using the fairly new Unity job system to do all our A* pathfinding, giving us fast searches that stay off the main thread, allowing more time for other AI, physics, and more stuff in general.  Most of the graph is generated automatically, with manually placed connections for flying through narrow gaps like windows that are small or require an approach from a good angle.

The purple line is a rough path for it to follow to get around the big rocks in between where the falcon started and where Ara is standing.  The bird doesn’t try to follow this line very closely; it would be trying to make some pretty strange and sharp turns if it tried, so as soon as it has a clear shot to the next part of the path it heads there instead.

Sometimes smaller objects or moving objects can get in the way.  The falcon looks ahead and goes over or around these objects.  This rock is actually just big enough that it would normally navigate around it with A*, but I forced it to “forget” about that for now.  Here, it’s turning left to go around the rock - the red lines show where it has been looking for the past few frames.  It usually won’t try to go under things in this way, but the A* navigation can direct it to go under arches or walkways.

The last level of bird flight logic is the actual maneuvering logic, or how the bird decides how fast it wants to go, how much to ascend or descend, how quickly to turn, and how it applies physics accelerations, limited by what it is allowed to do, to get there.  This feeds into the animation system telling it how hard the bird is working, what sort of pose it should be in, if it should be banking, etc.  The object avoidance is tied in somewhat strongly with this, but all the A* navigation is completely separate.  It is also a big pile of math and logic.

Feathers and Rendering

Ben Golus

The small body feathers, or contour feathers, on our birds flutter in the wind, and react to the player’s hands brushing against them to give a greater sense of tactile interactivity. The way this was done for the PAX demo is a bit of a hack which I hope to replace before we ship. (This of course means it’s the solution that will ship with the game.) The short description is each small feather on the bird is a treated like many grass or vegetation shaders. Several overlapping sine waves are used to calculate some simple noise used to flutter the feathers and give them some life. Their timing is offset by a random value per feather stored in the vertex color, and the flutter movement is scaled also using the vertex color. This means the base of the feathers don’t move, but the tips do. It also means longer feathers move more than shorter ones.

Unlike most grass shaders, we need the feathers to not move in random directions, so we can’t use world or local space directions. Plus this is on a skinned mesh which makes the direction even more dynamic. Instead I use a combination of the feather’s vertex normal and tangent so the feathers flutter in and out and side to side relative to their orientation. This isn’t strictly accurate, but for small movements like this it won’t be obviously wrong.

To handle hand interactions, the player’s hand has a script which tracks the bones and creates a list of capsules that follow the shape of each finger, and a sphere for the palm. If the hand is in range, the vertex shader iterates over the list of capsules to find closest distance to one and softly scales down the flutter if a capsule one is overlapping it. The feathers are also squished down towards the body. The capsules are oversized as the overlapping tests are soft, so this isn’t an instant on-off, but a gradual change. It’s roughly tuned so that once the visible finger is touching the feather it has stopped moving entirely and will push down.

Here’s an early test of this system in action. You can see how the feathers react to the sphere before it actually touches it, but the interaction is still convincing.

For the final release of the game I’d like to move to a geometry shader or compute shader approach which would solve some of the issues the effect currently has when only one vertex of a feather is being overlapped, and the fact the feathers light normals don’t change when being touched.

FALCON DAMAGE FEEDBACK

We needed some way to show when the bird is hurt, and we wanted to avoid using a health bar or similar mechanic as much as possible. Animation is used to make the bird look tired, and in pain, but we still didn’t find that it was clear enough to users that she had taken damage. We decided we wanted her to look physically damaged with blood and frayed feathers to really strongly communicate her state. The obvious answer was to do a material swap. However we also wanted to show a gradual increase in damage rather than a hard on / off, and did not want to have to have a lot of different maps. There was also the issue that most feathers shared the same UVs, which meant blood spots would be repeated all over the bird.

The solution we ended up with was done in two parts. First was feather damage and fraying. The alpha channel of each feather is setup in a special way so that both an undamaged and damaged version exist in the alpha at different opacities. The feathers are using alpha test cutout (actually alpha to coverage) at 50% opacity when at normal health, and 25% opacity when damaged to switch between the two states.

For blood splatter the bird has a second UV for the blood texture so we don’t have to reuse the original feather texture UVs, and then we blend in the blood on top of the base texture. The result is we only need one base texture set, and one blood splatter texture set for the bird and we can get variable damage effects on the bird.

Raptor Sounds

Rob Pearsall

The bird wasn’t designed to be different - futuristic or magical - from any bird in our world, just an amalgam of several flying raptors (except for wearing hats); so, it didn’t make any sense to create a voice for it that might sound ‘cinematically awesome’ - it just had to work and be believable.

That said, I did have the choice of “borrowing” the calls of any raptor I thought would communicate to the player the various moods, feelings, and responses of the bird.  So, I listened to the sounds that raptors make; and to my surprise, the biggest, most impressive bird - the eagle - was absolutely the worst sounding predator of them all.  First place for “don’t use this”.

The hawk is always a great choice.  Everybody loves the screech of a hawk.  I used to think that there was only one good recording of a hawk screech and every sound designer owned it and that’s why all hawks in all shows and movies sound the same.  Not true.  It turns out, all hawks sound the same.  Not much variation at all.  Now, don’t get me wrong, it sounds awesome, so yea… we’ve got that sound on our bird too.  But that’s not all.

The best thing I had going for me was that I didn’t have to limit our falcon voice to one specific kind of falcon; and there are many kinds.  Because of this, I could liberally choose any sound any falcon produces that makes sense as a kind of emotional statement from the bird.  

Conveniently, the emotions were limited; I name them as statements from the bird:

All is calm, all is well

I hear you call me

I’m attacking

I’m hurt, but I’m still flying

That hurts

Getting a recording of a raptor that’s annoyed is really easy; show up with a bunch of recording gear, get into it’s space, and it’s already annoyed.  So, there’s a lot of material of raptors sounding negative and mad.  This works for ‘pain’.  The hawk’s sounds work for flying responses and attack calls.  The “all is calm” sounds were the difficult ones.  There were several chirps that worked, but then I had to edit a lot of different kind of calls to get partial, short squawks that fit with the chirps, and it worked.

Keeping track of the bird sonically while in game… well, that’s another story for later.

Thank you!

Thanks for reading. For more info and latest updates follow @outerloopgames

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What if the animorphs kept the telepathy ability that was in the first book

[Since there are a couple abilities that kinda come up in the first book but not again—continuity is a tricky beast—I went with the ability that Elfangor demonstrates to send everything from emotions to images to huge downloads of information using thought-speak.  Hopefully this is what you were asking about, dear anon.]

• All five of them are still staring up at the sky, watching the yeerk ship come in to land, when the andalite suddenly whips his tail around.  Tobias flinches back, but Elfangor just gently presses the flat of his tail blade against Tobias’s forehead.  Visser Three’s Blade ship is descending, Jake is calling for them all to get out of there, Elfangor is bleeding out on the cracked concrete, but the two of them stay frozen there for a long several seconds anyway.  Finally Tobias rocks back, taking a huge gasp of air as if just waking up.  Rachel yanks him away from Elfangor, out of sight behind a broken wall, before he has time to ask any of the billion questions on the tip of his tongue.

This time, when Elfangor sends them all a warm burst of courage and hope, Tobias closes his eyes—and sends it back.

• Jake practically has to drag Tobias to safety even as Rachel distracts the hork-bajir-controllers.  Tobias is silent, strangely blank-faced despite the tears that continue to run down his cheeks, eyes flickering to follow events that have no relation at all to the present world.

When he finally does come to, Tobias finds himself in Jake’s bed in the middle of the night.  Jake is camped out on the floor, sitting up in his sleeping bag in a way that suggests he hasn’t even tried to lie down and sleep yet.

Unable to stand the fear and concern in Jake’s eyes, Tobias leans down and presses a hand against his shoulder.  “It’s okay,” he whispers, and lets the threads of his own excitement and wonder and fascination flow through that touch, keeping his grief and terror locked away.  “I’ll explain in the morning, but I promise we’re going to be okay.”

Sleepy as a child, Jake looks up at him and nods trustingly.  Together they slip into strange, cosmic dreams.

• It takes Tobias several days to sort through the enormous set of memories that Elfangor forced into his mind.  When Cassie asks, he says it’s almost like a huge computer file that’s been compressed into a tiny amount of disk space, all there but time-consuming for his brain to read through.  Still, the more Tobias figures out the more he can teach the others: he makes Rachel laugh just by concentrating hard enough at the place where Marco’s hair is stuck to a hay bale behind him with static electricity, he shows Jake how to pull out of a dive during flight without ever saying a word, he coaches Cassie through spreading empathy to the rest of the team.

Marco remains the most reluctant to get involved, not even morphing after each of them have all tried it at least once.  No matter how many times the others reassure him that it’s cool, that being an animal is the wildest thing and sharing it with everyone else is even crazier, he keeps saying that they all need to stay the fuck out of his head if they know what’s good for them.  Because, he insists, he is not fighting this war.

“It’s okay,” Tobias says gently.  “In your situation I’d be that concerned about my dad as well.  In fact—”

Marco punches Tobias so hard that he actually knocks him over.  Tobias, dizzy and with a newly blackened eye, misses the next several seconds where Jake has to tackle Rachel to keep her from strangling Marco and Cassie ends up forcing everyone to calm down.

• After all that, it’s Marco who galvanizes them into the first battle.  Just one, he insists, one and done, but… He glances at Jake while Jake’s back is turned, and doesn’t finish that sentence.  But this battle can’t go unfought, Tobias supplies mentally.

• It’s Jake’s idea to gather them all into a huddle before that first battle.  Tobias is reluctant to demorph, but he does it anyway when he understands what Jake is doing.  The five of them link arms, forming a circle with their bodies as they all face each other across the dense space.  Marco mutters a comment about Satanic rituals that sets them all off giggling, but even he quiets down when Tobias becomes the first one to send them all emotion.

All of them take deep breaths, filled to the brim with Rachel’s fierce courage and thirst for vengeance.  With Jake’s casual, collected self-confidence.  Cassie’s sweet compassion and indomitable will.  Marco’s racing brilliance and bleak amusement.  Tobias’s determined, hopeful, iron-hard idealism.

Thus, armed to the teeth with one another’s strength and skill, they go into battle together.

• After, of course, everything changes.  And yet in some ways nothing does.

Jake knows what happened—or at least some part of it—the moment he sits up in bed before Tobias has even had time to land on his windowsill.  With a shaking hand he presses resilience and hope into Tobias’s feathers.

Rachel comes by often, and together the two of them construct elaborate daydreams which range from the inane (What if unicorns were real?) to the exquisitely sad (What would they do together, if they could go on a normal date?) as they sit side by side in Tobias’s meadow.

Cassie and Jake and even Marco come by to visit on a rotating schedule, Marco transmitting ridiculous little mental cartoons of their Algebra teacher and speculating about what that yeerk in Chapman’s brain does all day, while Jake and Cassie mostly just send love and support.

“What’s wrong?” Rachel says, and Tobias sends her the sensation of hot wet meat and bone sliding down her throat even as the dying scream of a field mouse echoes in her ears.  She swallows hard, looking faintly sick, but all she says out loud is, “At least it’s more nutritious than hamburgers, right?”

• When the dreams come, it takes Cassie and Tobias all of thirty seconds—and a fair amount of intense concentration—to convince the others that this is a real problem and that there’s an andalite who definitely needs their help.  Tobias only hears secondhand about when the others all discovered that whales can also use this strange form of nonverbal communication they all thought was unique to andalites.  However, he gets to meet Ax in person before long, so it’s largely a moot point.

«You have paid a high price for the gift of my brother Elfangor,» Ax says, in his strangely formal andalite way.

«Prince Elfangor was your brother?» Tobias demands.  «Wow.  Then I guess that’d make you my uncle.»

“Wait, WHAT?” three or four people say at the same time.

• It’s the sort of thing that Tobias found too raw, too personal, to share with anyone else.  Almost every other detail from the huge set of memories he received has been parceled out to his friends, picked over and analyzed to death… Except this one, which Tobias has kept close.

That is, until he met someone who had known Elfangor far better than he ever would.  He and Ax spend most of the next several days talking—and doing that strange andalite thing which goes beyond mere speech—about everything Ax remembers of his brother.  About Elfangor’s legacy, and their struggle to live up to the gifts he left.

Tobias gives Ax the secondhand memories he received, and the story they tell: of a disgraced prince and two eager young arisths, of a pair of human children stranded far from their own world, of how yeerks came to take their only andalite host and thousands of humans after.  Neither of them quite knows what to make of it, but together they start to put together the disparate pieces of a life that ended too soon.

• Before every battle they follow the same ritual, sharing—amplifying—their courage and determination while crushing their fear and exhaustion to death beneath the weight of their common affirmation that they’re all still here to fight another day.  Ax teaches them all on a level without words what it means to give oneself so fully to one’s team and one’s cause that one ascends a mere petty life to become part of a legend.  Jake thinks of the humbling realization of his friends’ love as Cassie and Marco charged to rescue his family on the shores of a night-dark lake.  Marco pulls up the fierce pride of causing his mother to laugh until she snorted unflatteringly, and marries it with the gorilla’s slow-burning anger at the yeerks who took her away.  Rachel gives them all the heady feeling of a perfectly executed cartwheel and the even headier rush of invincibility that comes every time they survive another battle.  Cassie thinks of the awe and beauty and near-terror she felt the first time a humpback whale gave her a tiny glimpse of the sheer scale of the ocean, and the awareness that this is what they are fighting for.  Tobias gives them the soaring freedom of coasting on silky wings through a perfect sky and the hork-bajir’s own fierce cry of defiant independence from yeerk tyranny.

After, they are quieter, more subdued.  The exhaustion that bleeds from every cell of their broken-repaired-mutilated-remade bodies cannot help but slide through their connection, but other things get through as well.  The knowledge that they’re all still here, if only for now.  The hope that maybe this time they made a difference.  Even just the warmth of the worry that Jake is going home to a controller-infested house and Marco is going home to an empty one, while Ax and Tobias aren’t quite going home at all, can be enough to keep them feeling safe for a time.

They don’t know it, but they are healthier than they would otherwise be.  More secure.  Better prepared for the horrors to come.

• And come they do.

• Tobias becomes a sieve rather than a vessel, letting every modicum of pain and fear flow through his body—and straight into Taylor.  She crumples to the ground, screaming, and he feels a vicious joy.  Two hours later when the Animorphs manage a rescue, Taylor is screaming “How are you doing that?” as Tobias watches her with calm defiance, barely a feather out of place.

• Rachel jolts her reduced team with heady insouciance like a million shots of caffeine when she leads the team while Jake’s out of town.  High on her courage and elation, trapped in a feedback loop of their own cockiness, no one realizes that eight civilians have already died until it’s too late.

• “There’s something I have to tell you,” Tobias says to Loren.  He presses a soft hand to her arm, concentrating carefully—and watches her entire expression transform in surprise.

• It’s Ax who finds Jake in the hork-bajir valley after they fail to evacuate his family.  Ax who presses the flat of his tail blade against Jake’s forehead.  Ax who sends a message with associations and images and emotions and everything that there are not words to describe.  Ax who gives Jake his entire life in some ways, and in others gives only one concept: I understand.  Ax who clumsily catches Jake when he collapses afterward, nearly sending them both to the ground, and holds him for the next hour as he cries.

• «Where’s Rachel?» Marco says during their final battle for the Pool ship, and Jake cannot contain the emotion that comes spilling out of him in response.

Tobias shouts at him.  Cassie sends a wave of silent recrimination that nearly knocks him off his feet.  Ax stares at him with an expression, nearly pitying, that is worse than Cassie’s anger.  It’s Marco who finally takes a shaky breath and says, «In that case, we’d better get to the bridge and help her out, don’t you think?»

What happens in the interim—the cold calculation between Marco and Ax as Jake watches the yeerk pool flushed into space, the disgust as Cassie tells Erek he’s a robot who doesn’t even feel and wouldn’t understand, the desperation bleeding out of Tobias like a toxic cloud—doesn’t matter.  What matters is this: when they get to the bridge, Rachel’s fight hasn’t begun yet.  What matters as well: the Blade ship and the Pool ship are parked end-to-end, so close that it is possible to shout thought-speak, to send emotions, across the divide.

«Surrender.  Now,» Jake tells Visser One.  Espin senses the cold confidence in that voice to the depths of his being, and doesn’t bother to argue.

• The ensuing fight on the bridge of the Blade ship is the stuff of legends.  One grizzly bear goes up against an entire menagerie, over twenty different predators and killers from this planet and half a dozen others.  One grizzly bear, and yet not fighting alone.  Every single one of the Animorphs is right there with her in spirit and in sense, looking through her eyes and feeling through her claws as the six of them together battle for her life.

Rachel has only weak near-sighted bear vision, and yet she swings around to monitor her flanks with an andalite warrior’s grace and ease, incorporating both her own view and that from the screen as if she has four eyes instead of two.  With discernment keener than her own she registers the second that the cape buffalo in front of her drops its shoulder to charge, ignoring the lioness to her left even as it turns from battle to run.  Two of the hyenas converge on her, and—picturing the ship’s layout as if from above—she ducks behind a control module just in time to send one crashing into the other with bone-breaking force.

Exhaustion has her swaying on her feet, but she digs deep inside herself finds the willpower to shove pain and fatigue aside even as her body fights on, more under her friends’ control than her own.  With cold calculation she slams a rhinoceros into the far windscreen hard enough to shatter a hole clear through the window of the Blade ship, watching as if from a distance as the entire craft tilts out of orbit and half a dozen controllers are sucked into the unforgiving vacuum of space.  It is with far more compassion that she steps over injured bodies without finishing them off, goes for disabling blows rather than killing ones—including with the king cobra she leaves coiled unconscious on the floor.

At the end of it she stands over the carnage, the only one left reasonably intact despite the bleeding cuts that coat her fur and the gory absence of her right eye.  Staggering, she presses her unbroken front paw against the computer’s control-system panel, blindly obeying the mental commands that Ax sends to her in order to bring the ship down.

It is only when Rachel is confirmed as safe that the other five Animorphs realize that this entire time their bodies have been lying almost unattended on the deck of the Pool ship, and that Alloran has been fighting with the strength and skill of twenty warriors to keep them all safe from the remaining controllers in their mental absence.

• «We are not so different from you,» Jake tells the andalite high command.  Through their long-distance comm he sends his weariness of war and his hope for the future.  The sick sadness of his grief and the flickering flame of his defiance.  The love he holds for his planet in general and his friends—his family—in particular.  He sends all this, and he can see immediately that the andalite prince understands.

• Meanwhile, a Blade ship is landing on the Washington Mall.  When the ramp descends Rachel staggers off it into the jarringly manicured lawn, dragging the unconscious body of her cousin, and only pauses long enough to flip off the shouting circle of reporters that surrounds her before she goes to find her friends.

[safariporini-blog]

6 Days Safari Arusha Mwanza

ITINERARY HIGHLIGHTS Duration:  6 Days Category:  Safari, Northern circuit Destinations: Mwanza, Tarangire , Manyara Ngorongoro Attraction: Tarangire river, Big Five Budget Level:  Standard Tour Guides Language: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Start in: Arusha End in: Arusha Packing list: Camera with enough zoom and memory space and extra batteries, binoculars, light clothes, safari boot, mosquito repellents, sunhat, sunglasses with ultraviolet radiation filtering etc. Extra info:  Rangers will escort all walking along the wildlife areas.

Tour Summary

This is the safari program which is ideal for those who wish to visit both the famous northern parks from Arusha and finish in Mwanza on the lake Victoria show, though you will discover the endless plains of Serengeti and the western corridor to Grumeti river.

Tour Detail

Day 1.ARUSHA-TARANGIRE Arrive at Arusha airport with a morning flight from Dar es Salaam picked up and proceed with a drive to Tarangire national park for afternoon and evening game drive Lunch stop in the park gate, game drive in the park till very late in the evening drive back to the camp for dinner and overnight at Jambo Campsite. Day 2.TARANGIRE-LAKE MANYARA After breakfast at the camp depart the camp with our camping gears in the safari jeep start a very short drive to a park gate after national park formalities start the full day game drive within the lake Manyara national park, lunch stop in the park while in the expect to see a lot of wildlife as Elephants, Zebras, Hippos, Wildebeest, Antelopes, Baboons, Monkeys and if one is lucky may Leopard and the elusive tree-climbing lions of which recently they have been hardly sported game drive till very late in the evening drive back to Jambo Campsite for dinner and overnight. Day 3.NGORONGORO CRATER-SERENGETI After breakfast at the camp with lunch boxes depart the camp for Ngorongoro crater via Manyara rift valley escarpment to Ngorongoro gate after park formalities  proceed driving over the rim to simba campsite leave the cook and camping gears then take a short drive to the road descend down the crater floor, game drive in the crater for full day looking for lions, zebras, wildebeest and you will be amazed that you will be seeing animals very close from the safari vehicle lunch stop down the crater then proceeding with game drive looking for the remained black Rhinos one of the Big five animal touring the crater till late afternoon ascend the crater walls game en route drive to Serengeti National park cross the Serengeti gate game en route towards the campsite for dinner and overnight at Pimbi Campsite. Day 4.SERENGETI FULL DAY Today you will start very early in the morning 6:00 is preferred go for sunrise and morning game drive in search for big cat’s perhaps on hunting of preys then late back to camp for breakfast, after breakfast depart the camp with lunch boxes for full day tour looking for more lions, cheetahs, leopards and many more interesting animals on the endless plains/savanna's of Serengeti game drive till very late evening just after the sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi Campsite. Day 5.SERENGETI FULL DAY After breakfast with lunch boxes leave the camp for Serengeti full day tour looking for annual Serengeti migrations and if ones luck can see them roaming around the southern and central part of the park then keeping looking for more big cat’s lions leopards and cheetah’s proceed with game drive till late evening just after sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi campsite. (Serengeti Hot Air Balloon is (optional) Day 6.SERENGETI-MWANZA Today we will depart the campsite after breakfast around 8:00 am start the game en route to Mwanza through western Serengeti and Grumeti River, lunch stop on the way then proceed with game en route to the river circuits hoping to see the hippos, Crocodile’s sunning themselves on the river banks proceed with the drive to towards the western ndabaka gate before the permit expires after check out start the 2 hrs drive to Mwanza. Arrive in the late evening where you will be dropped off at your booked hotel for dinner and overnight and here is where our services will end and time to shake hands and say good bye to your safari cook/chef and guide driver.   TOUR PRICE INCLUDED Transport 4WD with pop up roof Accommodations full board in Tents Tent, Chairs, Table, Sleeping Bags, Mattresses Meals 3 Times a day breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Entry/Park fees/Conservation fee Camping fees Ngorongoro Crater fees Mineral water all days in Safari. TOUR PRICE EXCLUDE Accommodations before/ after safari All things of personal nature Tips and gratitude’s to Driver Guide & Safari cook (RECOMMENDED) Visas and airport Taxes International air flight ticket Chattered Flights Laundry Services Personal Travel Insurance Read the full article

[hidden-found-known-blog]

The Untitled Story of dragons, ice, dark gods and much more. Chapter I

An explosion travelled the underground fast as an arrow while the girl sprinted through the trembling floor.

-How do people fight boredom? –Alia asked out loud as she moved her legs as fast as she could. The ascending noise at the cave was starting to bother her. She wanted to get out of there. Still, she was smiling.

She suddenly fell on her ass as a piece of stone dropped right in front of her, just stitches away from her feet. She got up immediately and restart the race –Do they tear buildings down for fun? Or make holes as big as a house? Because if they don’t, I don’t think they could have more fun than we do.

The ground trembled behind her, more than it already was, making a new rain of dust drop from the ceiling of the cave. Alia could hear the heavy steps getting close to her. She turned her back stopping for a moment, and tried to see the creature that was following her in the faint light. She couldn’t find her, but she kept her smile.

She was about to start running again when the wall at her left exploded. She was suddenly thrown through the air for a dozen meters. She watched with slight conscience of fear as her body approached the stone wall. The girl protected her head when she hit the ground. When she felt she wasn’t moving, she lifted her head, and found the other wall of the cave standing harshly a meter away from her. Far away enough, she thought.

-See? –she yelled again as she stood up –How could they possibly find such adrenaline? It’s just…

Shut up and RUN! –suddenly sounded all over her mind. She looked back and finally saw Nagline running towards her with her powerful limbs. She admired the view and turned back moving again. The cavern was becoming wider, so she supposed they were close to the entrance. She laughed wildly, knowing she was going to make it once again.

Then she heard a roar behind her, and she felt Nagline’s claw tight around her, as she opened her wings, and started to move faster in the air, avoiding the falling stones. Alia covered her eyes to protect them from the dust, but she still felt the sun hit her when they finally ascended through the cave’s opening into the cold world above.

She looked down then, and saw the entrance they had just passed, getting more far away every second. Dust came out through the hole and fell on the snow. She found it beautiful, how such a white thing could get dirty so easily and still be gorgeous. She screamed with joy as they headed down the ice beach. Nagline slowed down when she was near the water, but instead of stopping on the ice, she flew ten meters into the water, and opened her claw.

Alia fell heavily into the frozen water, and immediately swam up and gasped for air. She put the water off her eyes, to see Nagline land on the beach. She beat her wings a couple of times, throwing little water drops into the air.

-You dropped me on purpose –she yelled at her as she reached for the beach. She watched the dragon lick her claws, swallowing the remnants of water.

Did I? –she answered with a grin. Not that a dragon could make grins successfully, but she knew that's what she wanted to do.

-Yes –she came out of the water, draining her wet hair –Now I’ll have to walk naked for a day.

Or you could just make another t-shirt.

-Bah –she murmured as she walked through the ice. –Who needs two t-shirts? Not that anyone is going to see me, anyway.

I see you –said Nagline while she followed the girl towards the ruined cave –If you were like me, I would understand you would want to show your body, but with that you have? –she added, kicking her with her snout. Alia smiled and kicked her back with all her body, though she knew she couldn’t move her if she didn’t want to.

The girl covered her nose with her hand as they got closer to the upbringing dust. She couldn’t really see where she was going for a couple of seconds until Nagline unfolded her wings again, and with some strong beats scattered the dirty fog away. Alia thanked the skies that the dragon wasn’t yet small as a puppy.

She kneeled in front of the opening and took a careful look. A few hours before she had looked inside that exact same place, and have seen an outstanding huge cavern with granite ceilings and amazingly polished walls. Now the black stone had dropped from the natural roofs and covered the ground creating an irregular pile of debris.

Nagline introduced her snout into the cave and Alia leaned on the dragon to look up inside the stone formation with her friend.

All the way up to the air room she thought frowning a bit. The cave had entirely collapsed from 30 of the 40 meters up of floors it had. She didn’t even know how they could have ran fast enough to get to the descending corridors and reach the exit on time before it was almost blocked like it was at the moment.

-We made quite a mess this time –she said standing up again.

You did –the ground creaked as the dragon moved.

-Hey it wasn’t entirely my fault! –Alia said paying more attention to her ragged wet clothes than to the conversation she was having.

I didn’t touch that oxygen bubble –Nagline answered without losing that insufferable calm that she had when she was acting like a mom.

-You didn’t alert me either.

Well I thought after fifteen years I had put some common sense inside that mind of yours.

-You must try harder with that –the girl murmured as she finally decided not to take off his pants. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t get ill for wearing soaking clothes, because she didn’t understand the concept of “cold” (she thought people did though), but because she was planning to still have an active end of day and maybe the water against her skin would make her feel better.

She looked around frowning due to the sun’s force and thought: Furthermore, in this place it’s difficult not to get wet somehow. She climbed through a tiny snow hill to make sure the disaster of the day had not caused any unexpected catastrophe. But her surroundings were all the same as always: snow, ice and water, all in different shapes, until you could just see the ocean reaching far away.

The unending whiteness all around her made her dizzy sometimes. She wished something would grow or live in the “cold” surface besides of her and Nagline. But again, wishing wasn’t going to make anything  happen.

Nagline breathed against the pile of snow she was standing on top of, making it start to melt. Alia got down with a step of her bare feet and asked the dragon:

-Still feeling like a trip to the black stone?

The green bluish dragon sort of grinned again at her.

More like a race to the black stone.

-Ah, not again… –complained Alia.

I’ve won one hundred and eighty seven times, and you’ve won 3, all of them when I was a hatchling, but I don’t know why I never get bored. I’m always hoping you’ll win sometime –Alia rolled her eyes with the teasing of her friend.

-Don’t take merit off my three times, I was such a hatchling as you.

Which is a statement that you’ve grown worse…

-Shut it! –she responded, as she threw a little ball of snow to her friend’s head. Then she grabbed her sword from her back, and with the help of a heavy kick, broke the ice next to where the dragon was standing. She jumped back as the ground creaked like an old tree complaining of the wind, and Nagline’s tail sank into the water.

Alia started to run towards the black stone, which she could barely see from the distance. She knew she had just gained a few second over Nagline, but that didn’t make her feel worse. Anyway, the dragon needed to get wet that day too.

She heard the beast roar behind her, and new she must have destroyed a good amount of ice-snow floor on her way back to the ground. That didn’t bother her though, she knew it would all be refrozen by the morning.

The air surrounding her started to throb, and she counted the seconds till the dragon appeared above her. Then with the help of her sword again, she boosted herself up, and extending her arms, grabbed Nagline’s left hind limb. Her body swinged dangerously in the air, but she hold on tight and lifted herself up through her leg. She had some practice doing this.

Alia reached the back of the winged lizard, and crawled through her spine. Her body was tough with the scales, but it still casted some hot.

Nagline suddenly flew downwards, contorting* to start a loop. Alia knew better than to scream a complaint, for she knew that the dragon didn’t mind if she ended up in the air for a while. Instead, she boosted herself forwards and tightened her arms and legs around Nagline’s neck, using the piece of made up rope she always carried with her as a handle between her hands under the animal’s strong body.

While the dragon showed off her flying abilities, she stood there internally cursing her friend, but enjoying the view from that different perspective. She loved flying more than anything. If she could steal Nagline’s wings for herself, she would have done it a long time ago.

When the flight went back to normal, Alia screamed:

-Are you done? –the only answer she got was a piece of smoke coming out of Nagline’s nostrils.

They slowly descending in circles when they reached the North side of the island. There no mountains existed, just a plain snow extension, and in its middle, a fountain. Alia jumped out of Nagline and walked without hesitation towards it. She had stopped trying to understand the strange things of the island a long time ago. She only knew which ones were useful, and which ones were just to stare at. Well, she knew about most of them. Some like the west granite cave had unexpectedly turned out to pertain to the “just to stare at” group, but she had learned the hard way.

She reached the black fountain and kneeled in front of it. The dark column grew from the ground like a tree, with its branches barely visible under the snow. It headed up creating a spiral for a few meters, but Alia wasn’t interested on its height. She wanted the dense material that flowed out of a tiny hole in the polished black structure. The liquid, though it was so dense she could barely call it that, dropped to the floor and mixed with the fountain branches again, creating a never ending loop.

Alia took her knife out of its case, which had the same look as the fountain, and introduced the opening through the liquid flow. The case wasn’t enormous, but she would do just fine with what she could carry there.

She stood up when she finished. The sky was already making itself orange. At that time of the year, they had at most half an hour of light left. Alia walked with Nagline at a slow pace towards the center of the island, where the high peaks were, to retrieve the sword the girl had left nailed to the ground when she had jumped towards the dragon.

Then she climbed to her back again, and let Nagline carry both of them to the highest mountain top. She called it the view maker, not difficult to understand why.

The snow covered area on the top of the mountain, fitted Nagline less every year that passed by, for she kept growing and growing. Still, Alia huddled against her warm side, and enjoyed the landscape beneath her.

She watched the endless ocean extending in all directions, and wondered once again how far away would the closest island be. She sighed and told herself again that one day she would find out.

She looked at the sky as the sun disappeared, and with the last light of the day, opened her mouth and sent a bit of air into the world, which immediately condensed due to the temperature difference and ascended towards the starred sky. Alia knew exactly how many lights there were in the sky: five thousand three hundred and fifty one. And it wouldn’t be long till the fifty second was up there.

All light extinguished in a few seconds, only the glowing stars creating a strange aura. They stayed up there for a few more moments in silence. Until Nagline straightened herself and said:

I won the race, so I choose dinner.

Alia chocked but didn’t argue. She loved every piece of food anyway.

Both figures headed down the peak, saying goodbye to the day, and going into the underground.

[benegap]

How to Move through Life with an Edge

Every former competitive athlete’s worst nightmare is that moment when you lose to a younger person doing the sport you love. When the cocoon of invincibility and superiority you’ve erected around yourself comes crashing down and a piece of your self-identity shatters. It can truly feel like the end.

I know the feeling. Several years ago on a family ski trip, my son challenged me to a downhill snowboard race. We’d been doing these races—and I’d been winning them—ever since he was old enough to board. It was tradition that we race, and that I win. It’s just how it played out.

This time was different. I was a newly minted member of the 6-decades club. He was a young man, fully grown, years of sports under his belt. He smoked me. It wasn’t even close. And suddenly I realized that despite being in the best shape of my life relative to my age, that upper limit was trending down.

Luckily, the existential crisis was short-lived if it ever really happened. A few moments were all I needed to realize this wasn’t a tragedy. It was the opposite: the graduation of my son into manhood, the passing of the torch.

Our snowboard race also highlighted a simple fact of human biology and aging that we all have to face. Performance inevitably declines. Michael Jordan in his 40s can’t beat Kevin Durant one-on-one. Usain Bolt won’t beat his WR 100M run from 2009. Arnold will never regain his Mr. Olympia title. It transcends physical output as well—the Rolling Stones won’t ever match “Sticky Fingers” or “Exile on Main Street,” the concluding books of “A Song of Ice and Fire” (if they ever come) will probably be worse than the first two.

And that’s okay. I’m fine with it. You should, too. Denying reality never goes well. It’ll ruin you. You can’t win.

But we still fight it.

A reader passed along a link to a paper entitled “Early and extraordinary peaks in physical performance come with a longevity cost.” The researchers tracked top Olympians from the early 20th century, recorded during which phase of life they attained “peak performance,” and recorded when they died. Those who peaked early tended to die younger than those who peaked later. The relationship was stronger the bigger and earlier the achievement.

They propose a few potential mechanisms, including excessive early mTOR activation or lopsided growth hormone/IGF signaling on the part of the early achievers.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that were part of the story. But I have another idea. This was the early 1900s. There weren’t million dollar endorsement deals with Nike or Gatorade waiting for them. They weren’t famous after weeks of ceaseless media coverage. Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest Olympians of the early 20th century, died penniless. Olympians were true amateurs who, after the glory faded and the medals rusted over, had to figure out what to do with their lives. They often failed.

I’ve talked about peak performance before, about wringing out every last drop of performance and realizing your full potential. Well, peaks come and go. Once you hit it, you either have to keep pushing onward and working harder and harder, which isn’t sustainable for long, or you trend downward. You can’t stay there forever.

Some of the best athletes I’ve known haven’t figured it out. Either they try in vain to hold on to their past glories, maintain their output, and fail miserably or burn out, or they flounder aimlessly. Maybe that’s what happened to those Olympians in the study. 

There are people who figure that out.

My good friend (and dad to my great friend and Primal Blueprint colleague Brad Kearns) Dr. Walter Kearns is probably the world’s top 90+ golfer, who at 94 is on his third round (pun intended) of golfing buddies. He’s always complaining about not being able to see the ball and track its flight. Well, it’s because he hits the ball so damn far. He knows he’s not going to beat top guys fifty years his junior. He’s okay with that, but he’s also not hanging up his clubs anytime soon. That’s edge living, and it carries over into all areas.

When he was in the hospital recovering from emergency bowel obstruction surgery, Walter refused pain meds to avoid being drugged up and immobile. This allowed him to walk right out several days ahead of schedule. A nurse later pulled Brad aside and said most people his father’s age never recover from a surgery like that. Many never even leave the bed. She was convinced refusing the meds made the difference.

My chief marketing officer, Aaron Fox, a man who’s been with the company from the very beginning, has a great-grandmother who turns 100 this year. She’s avoided doctors and meds all her life and still lives in the same house she shared with his great-grandfather. After a check-up this year, her blood panel came back pristine, but she had high blood pressure. The doc recommended blood pressure meds—”With your excellent health, it could extend life another five years”—and she’s considering taking them. Even if she goes for it, it’ll be on her terms and only because she decided to. It’s really an attitude or spirit that seems to have kept her in good stead: It’s her life, her home, her body, and she’ll be damned to hand over control of any of it. 

I’ve often said that retirement kills only because people waste their free time. A buddy of mine has a father-in-law who retired several years ago. Rather than sit around watching bad daytime T.V. and getting angry on Facebook, he started a fledgling eBay business. A former mechanic and all-around automotive expert who had to give up his shop when he had a series of bad heart attacks and couldn’t maintain the rigorous pace of running a business, he now goes to L.A.-area swap meets and hunts for old car brochures, rare automotive tools, engine parts, and other collector’s items, then sells them for big profits to people across the world. He’s arguably more engaged and in better health than he was before retiring, and he’s doing it by repurposing his talents.

What’s this have to do with health and wellness?

Everything.

Living life on your own terms isn’t just a quaint turn of phrase. It has huge effects on your health.

A large body of research shows that the less control you think you have over your life, the higher your mortality risk. That persists even when you control for other health variables and biomarkers. It’s even true for animals. Self-agency—or even the illusion of it—appears to be a requirement for healthy, happy aging.

And unlike some of the characteristics shared by centenarians, like good genes, control is malleable. You can’t change the structure of your DNA. You can, however, wrest control over your own life.

How?

Pay attention to that voice inside urging you onward. If something speaks to your soul, answer the call. Check it out. See where it leads. It’s usually guiding you to a good place.

When something feels right, stay with the moment, even if you can’t articulate what’s happening. Suss it out. What are you doing? Who are you with? What were you thinking about? That feeling of “this is right, this is good” is a physiological hint that you should pay attention to what you’re doing—and maybe keep doing it.

Ignoring the call, however, is an abdication of control. 

How do you move on and keep going through life while maintaining and indulging that edge? How do you ride the edge?

In reading this blog, eating this way, questioning conventional wisdom, heeding the science, and listening to your body, you’re already doing it. You’ve made—or are in the process of making—some major changes to your lifestyle, changes that will pay dividends.

Moving through life along the edge isn’t necessarily about fitness training. It’s about having a good reason to get up in the morning. A business, a hobby, a project, a job, a family, a physical pursuit, or yes, a workout—anything that calls to you and provides meaning. And whatever that thing is, you go after it. 

Keep the fire going, but don’t get into battles you can’t win. Acknowledge and accept your weaknesses. Repurpose your skills and passions. Ride the decline into something new—and maybe better.

Challenge yourself. Maybe not every day, but often enough that you’re always excited about and engaged with something.

Think about ascending a mountain peak. You’re there. The view’s great. It’s frankly exhilarating being on top of the visible world. But you can’t go higher. There’s nowhere to go from there but down. How do you do it? Do you just head straight off, tumbling down over loose gravel to arrive at the bottom, bruised and disheveled? Do you plunge headfirst over a cliff, totally giving up? Or do you ride the edge, walk the range toward the horizon, gradually descending while remaining on a pinnacle? 

I know what I’ve chosen. How about you?

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and be sure to let me know if and how this post resonates with you.

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[safariporini-blog]

6 Days Safari Arusha Mwanza

ITINERARY HIGHLIGHTS Duration:  6 Days Category:  Safari, Northern circuit Destinations: Mwanza, Tarangire , Manyara Ngorongoro Attraction: Tarangire river, Big Five Budget Level:  Standard Tour Guides Language: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Start in: Arusha End in: Arusha Packing list: Camera with enough zoom and memory space and extra batteries, binoculars, light clothes, safari boot, mosquito repellents, sunhat, sunglasses with ultraviolet radiation filtering etc. Extra info:  Rangers will escort all walking along the wildlife areas.

Tour Summary

This is the safari program which is ideal for those who wish to visit both the famous northern parks from Arusha and finish in Mwanza on the lake Victoria show, though you will discover the endless plains of Serengeti and the western corridor to Grumeti river.

Tour Detail

Day 1.ARUSHA-TARANGIRE Arrive at Arusha airport with a morning flight from Dar es Salaam picked up and proceed with a drive to Tarangire national park for afternoon and evening game drive Lunch stop in the park gate, game drive in the park till very late in the evening drive back to the camp for dinner and overnight at Jambo Campsite. Day 2.TARANGIRE-LAKE MANYARA After breakfast at the camp depart the camp with our camping gears in the safari jeep start a very short drive to a park gate after national park formalities start the full day game drive within the lake Manyara national park, lunch stop in the park while in the expect to see a lot of wildlife as Elephants, Zebras, Hippos, Wildebeest, Antelopes, Baboons, Monkeys and if one is lucky may Leopard and the elusive tree-climbing lions of which recently they have been hardly sported game drive till very late in the evening drive back to Jambo Campsite for dinner and overnight. Day 3.NGORONGORO CRATER-SERENGETI After breakfast at the camp with lunch boxes depart the camp for Ngorongoro crater via Manyara rift valley escarpment to Ngorongoro gate after park formalities  proceed driving over the rim to simba campsite leave the cook and camping gears then take a short drive to the road descend down the crater floor, game drive in the crater for full day looking for lions, zebras, wildebeest and you will be amazed that you will be seeing animals very close from the safari vehicle lunch stop down the crater then proceeding with game drive looking for the remained black Rhinos one of the Big five animal touring the crater till late afternoon ascend the crater walls game en route drive to Serengeti National park cross the Serengeti gate game en route towards the campsite for dinner and overnight at Pimbi Campsite. Day 4.SERENGETI FULL DAY Today you will start very early in the morning 6:00 is preferred go for sunrise and morning game drive in search for big cat’s perhaps on hunting of preys then late back to camp for breakfast, after breakfast depart the camp with lunch boxes for full day tour looking for more lions, cheetahs, leopards and many more interesting animals on the endless plains/savanna's of Serengeti game drive till very late evening just after the sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi Campsite. Day 5.SERENGETI FULL DAY After breakfast with lunch boxes leave the camp for Serengeti full day tour looking for annual Serengeti migrations and if ones luck can see them roaming around the southern and central part of the park then keeping looking for more big cat’s lions leopards and cheetah’s proceed with game drive till late evening just after sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi campsite. (Serengeti Hot Air Balloon is (optional) Day 6.SERENGETI-MWANZA Today we will depart the campsite after breakfast around 8:00 am start the game en route to Mwanza through western Serengeti and Grumeti River, lunch stop on the way then proceed with game en route to the river circuits hoping to see the hippos, Crocodile’s sunning themselves on the river banks proceed with the drive to towards the western ndabaka gate before the permit expires after check out start the 2 hrs drive to Mwanza. Arrive in the late evening where you will be dropped off at your booked hotel for dinner and overnight and here is where our services will end and time to shake hands and say good bye to your safari cook/chef and guide driver.   TOUR PRICE INCLUDED Transport 4WD with pop up roof Accommodations full board in Tents Tent, Chairs, Table, Sleeping Bags, Mattresses Meals 3 Times a day breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Entry/Park fees/Conservation fee Camping fees Ngorongoro Crater fees Mineral water all days in Safari. TOUR PRICE EXCLUDE Accommodations before/ after safari All things of personal nature Tips and gratitude’s to Driver Guide & Safari cook (RECOMMENDED) Visas and airport Taxes International air flight ticket Chattered Flights Laundry Services Personal Travel Insurance Read the full article

[safariporini-blog]

6 Days Safari Arusha Mwanza

ITINERARY HIGHLIGHTS Duration:  6 Days Category:  Safari, Northern circuit Destinations: Mwanza, Tarangire , Manyara Ngorongoro Attraction: Tarangire river, Big Five Budget Level:  Standard Tour Guides Language: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Start in: Arusha End in: Arusha Packing list: Camera with enough zoom and memory space and extra batteries, binoculars, light clothes, safari boot, mosquito repellents, sunhat, sunglasses with ultraviolet radiation filtering etc. Extra info:  Rangers will escort all walking along the wildlife areas.

Tour Summary

This is the safari program which is ideal for those who wish to visit both the famous northern parks from Arusha and finish in Mwanza on the lake Victoria show, though you will discover the endless plains of Serengeti and the western corridor to Grumeti river.

Tour Detail

Day 1.ARUSHA-TARANGIRE Arrive at Arusha airport with a morning flight from Dar es Salaam picked up and proceed with a drive to Tarangire national park for afternoon and evening game drive Lunch stop in the park gate, game drive in the park till very late in the evening drive back to the camp for dinner and overnight at Jambo Campsite. Day 2.TARANGIRE-LAKE MANYARA After breakfast at the camp depart the camp with our camping gears in the safari jeep start a very short drive to a park gate after national park formalities start the full day game drive within the lake Manyara national park, lunch stop in the park while in the expect to see a lot of wildlife as Elephants, Zebras, Hippos, Wildebeest, Antelopes, Baboons, Monkeys and if one is lucky may Leopard and the elusive tree-climbing lions of which recently they have been hardly sported game drive till very late in the evening drive back to Jambo Campsite for dinner and overnight. Day 3.NGORONGORO CRATER-SERENGETI After breakfast at the camp with lunch boxes depart the camp for Ngorongoro crater via Manyara rift valley escarpment to Ngorongoro gate after park formalities  proceed driving over the rim to simba campsite leave the cook and camping gears then take a short drive to the road descend down the crater floor, game drive in the crater for full day looking for lions, zebras, wildebeest and you will be amazed that you will be seeing animals very close from the safari vehicle lunch stop down the crater then proceeding with game drive looking for the remained black Rhinos one of the Big five animal touring the crater till late afternoon ascend the crater walls game en route drive to Serengeti National park cross the Serengeti gate game en route towards the campsite for dinner and overnight at Pimbi Campsite. Day 4.SERENGETI FULL DAY Today you will start very early in the morning 6:00 is preferred go for sunrise and morning game drive in search for big cat’s perhaps on hunting of preys then late back to camp for breakfast, after breakfast depart the camp with lunch boxes for full day tour looking for more lions, cheetahs, leopards and many more interesting animals on the endless plains/savanna's of Serengeti game drive till very late evening just after the sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi Campsite. Day 5.SERENGETI FULL DAY After breakfast with lunch boxes leave the camp for Serengeti full day tour looking for annual Serengeti migrations and if ones luck can see them roaming around the southern and central part of the park then keeping looking for more big cat’s lions leopards and cheetah’s proceed with game drive till late evening just after sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi campsite. (Serengeti Hot Air Balloon is (optional) Day 6.SERENGETI-MWANZA Today we will depart the campsite after breakfast around 8:00 am start the game en route to Mwanza through western Serengeti and Grumeti River, lunch stop on the way then proceed with game en route to the river circuits hoping to see the hippos, Crocodile’s sunning themselves on the river banks proceed with the drive to towards the western ndabaka gate before the permit expires after check out start the 2 hrs drive to Mwanza. Arrive in the late evening where you will be dropped off at your booked hotel for dinner and overnight and here is where our services will end and time to shake hands and say good bye to your safari cook/chef and guide driver.   TOUR PRICE INCLUDED Transport 4WD with pop up roof Accommodations full board in Tents Tent, Chairs, Table, Sleeping Bags, Mattresses Meals 3 Times a day breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Entry/Park fees/Conservation fee Camping fees Ngorongoro Crater fees Mineral water all days in Safari. TOUR PRICE EXCLUDE Accommodations before/ after safari All things of personal nature Tips and gratitude’s to Driver Guide & Safari cook (RECOMMENDED) Visas and airport Taxes International air flight ticket Chattered Flights Laundry Services Personal Travel Insurance Read the full article

[safariporini-blog]

6 Days Safari Arusha Mwanza

Arusha Mwanza Summary

6 days safari Arusha-Mwanza is ideal for those who wish to visit both the famous northern parks from Arusha and finish in Mwanza on the lake Victoria show, though you will discover the endless plains of Serengeti and the western corridor to Grumeti river.

Tour Detailed Itinerary

Day 1.ARUSHA-TARANGIRE Arrive at Arusha airport with a morning flight from Dar es Salaam picked up and proceed with a drive to Tarangire national park for afternoon and evening game drive Lunch stop in the park gate, game drive in the park till very late in the evening drive back to the camp for dinner and overnight at Jambo Campsite. Day 2.TARANGIRE-LAKE MANYARA After breakfast at the camp depart the camp with our camping gears in the safari jeep start a very short drive to a park gate after national park formalities start the full day game drive within the lake Manyara national park, lunch stop in the park while in the expect to see a lot of wildlife as Elephants, Zebras, Hippos, Wildebeest, Antelopes, Baboons, Monkeys and if one is lucky may Leopard and the elusive tree-climbing lions of which recently they have been hardly sported game drive till very late in the evening drive back to Jambo Campsite for dinner and overnight. Day 3.NGORONGORO CRATER-SERENGETI After breakfast at the camp with lunch boxes depart the camp for Ngorongoro crater via Manyara rift valley escarpment to Ngorongoro gate after park formalities  proceed driving over the rim to simba campsite leave the cook and camping gears then take a short drive to the road descend down the crater floor, game drive in the crater for full day looking for lions, zebras, wildebeest and you will be amazed that you will be seeing animals very close from the safari vehicle lunch stop down the crater then proceeding with game drive looking for the remained black Rhinos one of the Big five animal touring the crater till late afternoon ascend the crater walls game en route drive to Serengeti National park cross the Serengeti gate game en route towards the campsite for dinner and overnight at Pimbi Campsite. Day 4.SERENGETI FULL DAY Today you will start very early in the morning 6:00 is preferred go for sunrise and morning game drive in search for big cat’s perhaps on hunting of preys then late back to camp for breakfast, after breakfast depart the camp with lunch boxes for full day tour looking for more lions, cheetahs, leopards and many more interesting animals on the endless plains/savanna's of Serengeti game drive till very late evening just after the sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi Campsite. Day 5.SERENGETI FULL DAY After breakfast with lunch boxes leave the camp for Serengeti full day tour looking for annual Serengeti migrations and if ones luck can see them roaming around the southern and central part of the park then keeping looking for more big cat’s lions leopards and cheetah’s proceed with game drive till late evening just after sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi campsite. (Serengeti Hot Air Balloon is (optional) Day 6.SERENGETI-MWANZA Today we will depart the campsite after breakfast around 8:00 am start the game en route to Mwanza through western Serengeti and Grumeti River, lunch stop on the way then proceed with game en route to the river circuits hoping to see the hippos, Crocodile’s sunning themselves on the river banks proceed with the drive to towards the western ndabaka gate before the permit expires after check out start the 2 hrs drive to Mwanza. Arrive in the late evening where you will be dropped off at your booked hotel for dinner and overnight and here is where our services will end and time to shake hands and say good bye to your safari cook/chef and guide driver.   TOUR PRICE INCLUDED Transport 4WD with pop up roof Accommodations full board in Tents Tent, Chairs, Table, Sleeping Bags, Mattresses Meals 3 Times a day breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Entry/Park fees/Conservation fee Camping fees Ngorongoro Crater fees Mineral water all days in Safari. TOUR PRICE EXCLUDE Accommodations before/ after safari All things of personal nature Tips and gratitude’s to Driver Guide & Safari cook (RECOMMENDED) Visas and airport Taxes International air flight ticket Chattered Flights Laundry Services Personal Travel Insurance Read the full article

[safariporini-blog]

6 Days Safari Arusha Mwanza

Arusha Mwanza Summary

6 days safari Arusha-Mwanza is ideal for those who wish to visit both the famous northern parks from Arusha and finish in Mwanza on the lake Victoria show, though you will discover the endless plains of Serengeti and the western corridor to Grumeti river.

Tour Detailed Itinerary

Day 1.ARUSHA-TARANGIRE Arrive at Arusha airport with a morning flight from Dar es Salaam picked up and proceed with a drive to Tarangire national park for afternoon and evening game drive Lunch stop in the park gate, game drive in the park till very late in the evening drive back to the camp for dinner and overnight at Jambo Campsite. Day 2.TARANGIRE-LAKE MANYARA After breakfast at the camp depart the camp with our camping gears in the safari jeep start a very short drive to a park gate after national park formalities start the full day game drive within the lake Manyara national park, lunch stop in the park while in the expect to see a lot of wildlife as Elephants, Zebras, Hippos, Wildebeest, Antelopes, Baboons, Monkeys and if one is lucky may Leopard and the elusive tree-climbing lions of which recently they have been hardly sported game drive till very late in the evening drive back to Jambo Campsite for dinner and overnight. Day 3.NGORONGORO CRATER-SERENGETI After breakfast at the camp with lunch boxes depart the camp for Ngorongoro crater via Manyara rift valley escarpment to Ngorongoro gate after park formalities  proceed driving over the rim to simba campsite leave the cook and camping gears then take a short drive to the road descend down the crater floor, game drive in the crater for full day looking for lions, zebras, wildebeest and you will be amazed that you will be seeing animals very close from the safari vehicle lunch stop down the crater then proceeding with game drive looking for the remained black Rhinos one of the Big five animal touring the crater till late afternoon ascend the crater walls game en route drive to Serengeti National park cross the Serengeti gate game en route towards the campsite for dinner and overnight at Pimbi Campsite. Day 4.SERENGETI FULL DAY Today you will start very early in the morning 6:00 is preferred go for sunrise and morning game drive in search for big cat’s perhaps on hunting of preys then late back to camp for breakfast, after breakfast depart the camp with lunch boxes for full day tour looking for more lions, cheetahs, leopards and many more interesting animals on the endless plains/savanna's of Serengeti game drive till very late evening just after the sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi Campsite. Day 5.SERENGETI FULL DAY After breakfast with lunch boxes leave the camp for Serengeti full day tour looking for annual Serengeti migrations and if ones luck can see them roaming around the southern and central part of the park then keeping looking for more big cat’s lions leopards and cheetah’s proceed with game drive till late evening just after sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi campsite. (Serengeti Hot Air Balloon is (optional) Day 6.SERENGETI-MWANZA Today we will depart the campsite after breakfast around 8:00 am start the game en route to Mwanza through western Serengeti and Grumeti River, lunch stop on the way then proceed with game en route to the river circuits hoping to see the hippos, Crocodile’s sunning themselves on the river banks proceed with the drive to towards the western ndabaka gate before the permit expires after check out start the 2 hrs drive to Mwanza. Arrive in the late evening where you will be dropped off at your booked hotel for dinner and overnight and here is where our services will end and time to shake hands and say good bye to your safari cook/chef and guide driver.   TOUR PRICE INCLUDED Transport 4WD with pop up roof Accommodations full board in Tents Tent, Chairs, Table, Sleeping Bags, Mattresses Meals 3 Times a day breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Entry/Park fees/Conservation fee Camping fees Ngorongoro Crater fees Mineral water all days in Safari. TOUR PRICE EXCLUDE Accommodations before/ after safari All things of personal nature Tips and gratitude’s to Driver Guide & Safari cook (RECOMMENDED) Visas and airport Taxes International air flight ticket Chattered Flights Laundry Services Personal Travel Insurance Read the full article

[safariporini-blog]

6 Days Safari Arusha Mwanza

Arusha Mwanza Summary

6 days safari Arusha mwanza is ideal for those who wish to visit both the famous northern parks from Arusha and finish in Mwanza on the lake Victoria show,though you will discover the endless plains of serengeti and the western corridor to grumeti river.

Tour Detailed Itinerary

Day 1.ARUSHA-TARANGIRE Arrive at Arusha airport with a morning flight from Dar es Salaam picked up and proceed with drive to Tarangire national park for afternoon and evening game drive Lunch stop in the park gate, game drive in the park till very late in the evening drive back to the camp for dinner and overnight at Jambo Campsite. Day 2.TARANGIRE-LAKE MANYARA Afterbreakfast at the camp depart the camp with our camping gears in the safari jeep start a very short drive to a park gate after national park formalities start the full day game drive within the lake manyara national park ,lunch stop in the park while in the expect to see a lot of wildlife as Elephants, Zebras, Hippos, Wildebeest, Antelopes, Baboons, Monkeys and if one is lucky may Leopard and the elusive tree climbing lions of which recently they have been hardly sported game drive till very late in the evening drive back to Jambo Campsite for dinner and overnight. Day 3.NGORONGORO CRATER-SERENGETi After breakfast at the camp with lunch boxes depart the camp for Ngorongoro crater via Manyara rift valley escarpment to Ngorongoro loduare gate after park formalities  proceed driving over the rim to simba campsite leave the cook and camping gears then take a short drive to the road descend down the crater floor, game drive in the crater for full day looking for lions, zebras, wildebeest and you will be amazed that you will be seeing animals very close from the safari vehicle lunch stop down the crater then proceeding with game drive looking for the remained black Rhinos one of the Big five animal touring the crater till late afternoon ascend the crater walls game en route drive to Serengeti National park cross the Serengeti gate game en route towards the campsite for dinner and overnight at Pimbi Campsite. Day 4.SERENGETI FULL DAY Today you will start very early in the morning 6:00 is preferred go for sunrise and morning game drive in search for big cat’s perhaps on hunting of preys then late back to camp for breakfast, after breakfast depart the camp with lunch boxes for full day tour looking for more lions, cheetahs, leopards and many more interesting animals on the endless plains/savanna's of Serengeti game drive till very late evening just after the sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi Campsite. Day 5.SERENGETI FULL DAY After breakfast with lunch boxes leave the camp for Serengeti full day tour looking for annual Serengeti migrations and if ones luck can see them roaming around the southern and central part of the park then keeping looking for more big cat’s lions leopards and cheetah’s proceed with game drive till late evening just after sunset then drive back the camp for dinner and overnight stay at Pimbi campsite. (Serengeti Hot Air Balloon is an optional) Day 6.SERENGETI-MWANZA Today we will depart the campsite after breakfast around 8:00 am start the game en route to Mwanza through western Serengeti and grumeti River, lunch stop on the way then proceed with game en route to the river circuits hoping to see the hippos, Crocodile’s sunning themselves on the river banks proceed with the drive to towards the western ndabaka gate before the permit expires after check out start the 2 hrs drive to mwanza, arrive mwanza in the late evening where you will be dropped off at your booked hotel for dinner and overnight and here is where our services will end and time to shake hands and say good bye to your safari cook/chef and guide driver.   TOUR PRICE INCLUDED Transport 4WD with pop up roof Accommodations full board in Tents Tent, Chairs, Table, Sleeping Bags, Mattresses Meals 3 Times a day breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Entry/Park fees/Conservation fee Camping fees Ngorongoro Crater fees Mineral water all days in Safari. TOUR PRICE EXCLUDE Accommodations before/ after safari All things of personal nature Tips and gratitude’s to Driver Guide & Safari cook (RECOMMENDED) Visas and airport Taxes International air flight ticket Chattered Flights Laundry Services Personal Travel Insurance Read the full article