"Out of Africa"

Monday, June 29, 2015

Up early to repack. I heard a hyena in the distance. Breakfast with the crew at 7:30. Lively conversation, as usual, full of farewells. Each of us received a "kanga," similar to a Hawaiian lava-lava, which some of the staff modeled for us. Our says in Seahili,"Anything valuable is achieved through hard work."  

Left Sayara Camp for the airstrip nearby. Along the way we saw a parade of about 15 elephants with males, females and babies. Arrived at Kogatende airport at 10:30. Wheels up at 11. Full plane with 12 plus pilot aboard another Grand Caravan.  Before the flight can take off, a trucks drives around the  grass runway to make sure there are no animals on the runway. Flight is one hour and five minutes.  We flew over the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, "mountain of God" in Maasai. It is the world's only cold volcano and last erupted in 2008/9. 

Landed outside Arusha at a small airport, stopped to do some shopping at the Cultural Heritage Center of Tanzania. We saw a group of school children entering as their teacher said, "Look with your eyes, not your hands!"  Does that sound familiar, Pete, Matt, Mike andSuzanne?  Even more interesting was driving through the bustling streets of the city on our way to Serena Lodge. We saw many bed frames for sale made of olea africaner wood, a very hard wood grown in Tanzania and lots of other brightly colored stuffed furniture all displayed out in the elements. In the residential outskirts, there were cows and goats along the road. Women carrying sticks on their heads, were removing them away from the path of the newly installed electric cables. We arrived at Serena Lodge a little after 1:30. 

We each got our own room to freshen up, shower and change clothes before heading for the Kiliminjaro Airport and our trek home. First to Kigali in Rowanda to load more passengers. Then on to Amsterdam and an hour plus wait for our KLM jet heading for Logan Airport in Boston. Home sweet home and Suzanne!