Homeward Bound

 Wednesday April 29 to Thursday 30 April

Had a sleep in until 6.30 on my step tracker, unfortunately I had not synced it with my phone and it was actually 5.30!

Breakfast was good, and our check out and pick up for our last tour went smoothly. Nomonde our driver was great, very informative and funny. She took us to the apartheid museum which was very confronting and then to Mandella’s house and Soweto. Soweto was a place of contrasts, there were some beautiful houses there worthy of some of Melbourne’s better suburbs. Then there was the other side, where the slums were mostly corrugated iron structures. Our drive was careful not to take us to the dangerous parts, though some areas look very shady.

We check in around 2.30 and got our lounge passes but unfortunately we’re not able to get Ross and Karen in.

Flight leaves almost on time and it is nice being in business class, Ann has a window seat and I am behind her with a window seat. There is more room for storage with a window seat. Relatively smooth flight and was able to get about 5 hours of sleep. Land in Sydney with enough time to meet Melb flight which was delayed anyway. Our pickup is waiting and we are home by 8.45. Total time from when we woke up at 5.30 till when we got home was 29 hours.

This could be our last major overseas trip, we are sick of airports and airport security procedures, and if this is our last it is a good one to finish on. 

Joburg

 Tuesday 29 April

Heading home

Up at 4 am this morning as we have to catch a 6.50 flight to Zanzibar then to Dar es Salaam. Last night we were not going to have dinner, but as we were the only ones at the hotel we felt obliged to dine in the restaurant. Similarly, the night before there was 8 of us and one other family of four! Tourism has been significantly affected by Donald Trumps four week war! 

One of our drivers in Tanzania told us he does not have another booking until July and the other June!

The flights leave on time, the plane is less than half full, but we are still split up. I am sitting with Karen, Ann and Kaye are sitting together and John and Ross are sitting together. We have 20 minutes on the ground at Zanzibar, while 6 people get off but the plane fills up with new passengers. We arrive on time, have a 15 minute walk to the international terminal. It is 9 am and we find the gate for our 10.45 flight to Joburg, only to be told it has been delayed until 2.30 pm.  Lucky we were not continuing on to Sydney because we would have missed our flight!

Now have to wait around in the airport before the gates open at 11. To make matters worse the internet in this area is shit! Plus we have been screened  5 times so far and three times I have had to remove belt, watches and shoes.

We are so over airports!

We line up at 11 but nothing is happening. A young guy comes over and tells us it has been delayed further, now not departing until 4.30 pm. He takes pity on us and says he will try to get us through to the departure area where it will be more comfortable. He is able to check us in, load our luggage and give us our seat allocation. Now we have another security screening with belt and shoes off!

We find somewhere to sit and think about lunch. Find a KFC outlet, feeling a bit better after lunch. We keep checking the board and it still says 4.30, so that is a good sign. With an hour to go the guy that helped us sees us and tells us the gate has been changed so he takes us to the new gate. Boarding starts at 4.10 and we pull away at 4.45. The flight was very good the seating was 2 by 3. It lands on time 8.05 pm  but we gain an hour so it is 7.05 in Joburg.

Now passport check and luggage. By the time we get to the hotel it is 8.30. Now there is a queue of 30 people waiting to get rooms! We skip drinks and food and head to bed - it has been a long and stressful day. 

Apparently Air Tanzania has a record 58 cancellations/delays this month and the queues at the hotel were for people seeking a bed because of mixed connections!

On a brighter note we were successful in bidding for business class.

Mt Kilimanjaro Airport

 Monday 27 April.

Left our lodge at 8.30 and had a leisurely drive to Arusha where we had lunch arriving after 12.30. Had a couple of stops along the way for shopping. Arusha was a nightmare we had to drive through the market area and it was chaotic, cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, people, tuk tuks and trolleys. Vans doubled parked, road down to one lane in places but motorbikes dodging in and out, but we made it through safely.

Had a farewell lunch with Jason and Melissa, dropped them off at their accommodation and we reached ours around 3.30. It is nearly all over, fly to Joburg tomorrow.

Photos of lion Kill

 

Photos 20 April

 Our accom at Amboseli 

Maasai starting a fire

Maasai Welcome

Leaving the Serengeti

 Sunday 26 April

Our last night in the Serengeti and now we are heading home, but first we have a game drive in the Ngoronoro caldera before we reach our accommodation at the Ngorongoro Coffee Lodge.

We leave early at 7 am and shortly after we reached the main road we saw giraffe, zebra, elephants, impala etc. After a couple of hours of African massage we start to see the beginnings of the mass migration. It is hard to explain the number of wildebeests in particular. They cross the road in front of us and on both sides of the road the numbers stretch almost to the horizon. There are masses of zebra also but the wildebeest dominate. We force our way through the mob and continue on. Then there is a lion laying down just off the road. 

There are another two massive groupings of wildebeest as well as others further out on the plains. We see another lion and then some ostriches. We eventually pass through the Nabi gate and move into another part of the Serengeti where the landscape changes from tall grass to low grass and almost no trees or shrubs. This is because the covering of soil is shallow and beneath the soil is rock.

We then enter Ngorongoro conservation area which is the outlying area of Mt Ngorongoro and here the Maasai live with their cattle and sheep and goats. Now we are starting to climb up the slopes. We reach the caldera gate about 10.30 and start our descent into the caldera. It is an amazing sight. We are half way down and we see a lion in a tree surveying the area. Once we get to the bottom the wildlife are everywhere! Cape buffalo, warthogs, gazelles, impala, elephants, hippos, rhinos and lions, as well as many colourful birds. While there is open grassland at the bottom, in some areas near the bottom of the slopes is a rain forest environment and here we find baboons. What a way to finish our tour of Tanzania.

After a very close experience with a lion resting on the side of the road we have a picnic lunch and then drive up and out of the caldera. We leave the unmade roads behind us and arrive at our accommodation around 4 pm. It is a beautiful place with lush gardens and a beautiful view out over the forests.

Tomorrow we head to Kilimanjaro airport where we will stay overnight before starting our flight to Johburg.

Serengetti

Saturday 25April

 Last night during dinner an elephant walked across in front of where we were dining, barely 50 metres from us.

Off on another game drive at 7.30. Not expecting a lot but the drivers heard lions roar last night so they think we might be lucky. We are headed to a different part of Serengeti and the landscape is markedly different. There are rolling hills, rocky outcrops and more trees and shrubs around the area. Apart from the usual animals there are a few new ones: mongoose, rock Hyrax, Hertibeest and rock antelopes and some ostriches. We find one lion high on a rock.

We continue on and the landscape changes again to the wide open plains. Our driver tells us this is the path the migration takes to reach the Maasai Mara. The usual animals are around, elephants, giraffes, topi, gazelles, impala, wart hogs and Cape buffalo, but nothing exciting happens. We get back to the camp just after 12. The weather is starting to look threatening for this afternoon. It is cool to cold in the morning but quickly warms up by 11 am.

After lunch we get a heavy shower of rain, this will make the tracks muddy and slippery for our afternoon game drive. The rains clear and we head off at 4 pm. The track is very muddy and the back is sliding around. On our drive out near our camp we see zebra, topi and impala. We reach the main road and drive slowly for 40 to 50 minutes and see giraffe and elephant and a couple of impala challenging each other. We take a turn off which leads to a hippo pool. On the way in there are impala and a pair of dik diks. We continue on and there are diks everywhere, sorry dik diks.

We get to the pool which is formed by a bend in the river and there are over 50 hippos grunting and splashing. We stay for about 20 minutes and then start back. There are more impala and dik diks. We round a bend and there are two cheetahs sitting in a muddy part of the track. We get some great photos. This is a great way to end our Serengeti game drives.

Tomorrow we start to head home via the Ngorongoro crater in which we have a game drive then head to our accommodation. It is going to be a long day.