Tanzamania Trip


  
 I hate to start a blog about travel with flying, but when you begin with a 10 hour flight to Amsterdam, followed by a 7-8 hour flight to Nairobi, followed by what was supposed to be an hour flight to your final destination, which didn’t happen, it’s worth mentioning. And it’s why so many dislike traveling.
 Everything was on time until we got on our flight to Nairobi and were delayed on the runway due to so many other planes trying to get out too. We knew we had a short time between flights, so when we had waited about 30 min, then the captain came on to say it would be another 15, I knew we were doomed. Sure enough, the purser came over to tell us we’d have to stay in Nairobi overnight and fly out the next morning.
 We stood in line to get new boarding passes for a long time, then were told we’d have to give those to immigration where they’d waive our visa for Kenya, so I asked for a second set. Not sure what we were supposed to do without boarding passes. We got through immigration with much fuss, headed out to find the hotel booth where they’d arrange transport. They told us to get in the white van outside that was from the Crowne Plaza and we’d be given dinner and a room. Never before had I packed a full set of clothes just in case, so boy, was I happy about that! 
 We went through customs, found the van outside, and he asked for our voucher. Of course, no one at the desk said anything about a voucher, but by now we were over-exhausted and couldn’t even get back inside, so we insisted and he called someone who confirmed we were to be taken to the hotel. And of course, we had no voucher for there either. She didn’t really ask about vouchers then, but took our boarding passes. The next day at 6 am, she wouldn’t give them to us because we had no vouchers, so we had to wait for her to call someone and confirm KLM would be paying for everything. Not exactly a smooth introduction to Africa. 
 I did manage to get ahold of Nandi, our wonderful US connection to the safari company, so she could get in touch with Zubeda and Adam, who were meeting the plane we weren’t on. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to her in time, so they had already shown up and found we weren’t on the flight. 
 Oh, and Nairobi airport was interesting. We flew business class and had priority boarding all the way there, but in Kenya, everyone waits in long lines to go through security, then goes upstairs where the gates are, but before getting to the gate, you go through another long line for yet another security—this time a full-body scan. My sweet little bird scissors I’ve had forever were confiscated—too sharp. Yeah, they had about an inch or less of cutters. Anyway, it was quite a fiasco, but we finally got to Arusha and were happily greeted by Zubeda with a lovely, if somewhat wilted from an overnight wait, bouquet of roses. She helped us through immigration and getting our visas, then customs where the guy wanted to hassle me about bringing in 20 pairs of (plastic encased) small scissors, 3 sets of art least 72 colors of thread, many school supplies, and about 10,000 seed beads. Zubeda explained I was bringing them as gifts and donations, and he said next time I should go through proper channels and declare them, etc. Humph. No good deed goes….
  I was very happy to give her all the sewing supplies. She has started teaching village girls to sew so they can make their own living. They get machines after they learn and some set up in shops or markets. Teaching kids skills allows them to have better lives, and both she and Adam do that. 
 Our first Tanzanian lodge is called Lake Diluti Lodge, and it’s beautiful. The grounds are lush and well-tended, the chalets are each a separate building, so they’re quiet and private, with huge bathrooms and outside sitting areas. We actually started with breakfast since we’d missed it that morning. We were asked what we wanted and neither had any ideas, so Sahib said, should I just bring you everything? and he did. Their coffee is out of this world, and the meal was great. The best part was the outside view of the property. 
 We hadn’t slept much in 2 days, but decided naps might throw our systems off even more, so we opted to rest a bit in our beautiful room. As we relaxed in our room, Matthew saw a movement in a tree outside, which turned out to be a monkey. We ran out with our cameras…our first wild animal and we didn’t think we’d see anything until the next day!
 Then a walk around the grounds to keep us awake. We found the pool, massage room, many labeled trees and coffee bean plants, then decided to see if we could find the lake. A young man intercepted us on our walk asking where we wanted to go. He took us to the lake and called for someone to unlock the gate so we could go all the way down to it. The property is well protected with gates and fences, which we didn’t realize. Victor then walked us back and we got into a discussion about monkeys. Oh, and Victor is a guide who works for the lodge, which we found out at the lake. We’re very trusting…we just followed him through the vegetation along the path without even asking if he worked there. 
 He asked if we wanted to see the verdant monkeys, which are different from the one we’d seen, which was a blue. We were fully entertained watching these little creatures jump from branches in the trees. There were seriously adorable.
 We ordered soup and salad for lunch and skipped the main course since we’d so much breakfast not that long before, met with Zubeda and Adam about our itinerary for the following 10 days later in the afternoon, and returned to the main building for yet another meal…a very good 4-course dinner. Sahib is the waiter for all the meals. He and every other member of the staff are wonderful.
 Adam was picking us up at 6:30 to head to the small airport, so we had to get up at 5:30 to have breakfast at 6. Not my usual day, but ‘when in Rome’…

Day 1 of our Safari with Adam:
 I can’t possibly cover everything we see each day…and will try to do so in pictures mostly anyhow. Getting here on the smallest plane—12 seater prop—was incredible. We sometimes flew low enough I saw a herd of zebras! This flight ended up making 3 stops before we got to ours. Sometimes they have no one else to pick up or drop off and it’s nonstop in the Serengeti Park, but it made it interesting to go up and down so much.
 We took off and started our game drive right away. It’s quite bumpy and I doubt passengers get used to all that action, but once you stop and see a herd of something you’ve only read about, seen on TV or in the zoo, you forget about the discomfort. We’re very fortunate because they had more rain this year than in the past 8-9 years, which means lots of food for the animals, so they’re procreating like crazy and their numbers are huge..
 We hit the migration for the wildebeest, and every time we passed their “meeting place" the herd had grown by hundreds. They're the weirdest looking animals--part of the antelope family.

I loved the zebras because their stripes are unique to them and no two are alike. Anyone who knows me understands how I relate to that. We drove and stopped, drove and stopped all day. Of course, we were in the land rover almost the whole time (unless someone had to "check his tire pressure" at the back of the car). No, I didn't. Teaching school all those years prepared me for strong bladder control.
 We stopped in an beautiful pooled area that was part of the river where a huge family of hippos were basking. We stayed quite awhile watching as they each woke and yawned, then strolled into the water. We even were able to stand outside for a short while watching them...and the nearby crocodiles too.
As we watch the different animals, Adam explains their nature, habits, habitats, and family structure. 

We stayed out driving from when we arrived by air around 10 until about 5 pm. We had boxed lunches in the car and then dinner at the first tented camp that night. Adam arranged for our armed guard to escort us to the dining room because it's not safe for anyone to walk around at night unprotected. The rooms are nice and spacious and somewhat rustic. Power goes off at 10:30, but some lights work. 
We are currently on day 3 of our safari and I have many more pictures and details, but we are in the second tented camp, which is lovely and wifi is provided but slow. If I add more pictures, it might not load, so I am going to opt out for now and hope this comes through.


Comments

  1. Sounds like you're having a great time! Can't wait to see your photos. xo

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