Our flight from London to Tanzania was on Kenya Airways and stopped in Nairoba, Kenya. It's 4250 miles and 8 hours of flying from London to Nairobi. We flew over what looked like volcanoes and rifts with molten lava. But they were probably just fires from people illegally clearing tropical forest. Kenya Air had Delta beat hands down. Better food, better service. I wish it had been light on the way down so we could have seen something.
In Nairobi Dona and I hauled our carry-ons to the gate where we would be re-boarding, then plopped down on the floor for a few games of Bananagrams. We had a bit of an audience after a while, with some helpers. The plane was an hour late. When we got through security and inside the gate, Dona realized she didn't have her hat. She went back out and checked, but it was gone. Ugh. It was brand new, bought just for this trip. She had made a nice hat-band for it with a nice wooden closure for the chinstrap.
We touched down outside of Arusha, Tanzania, at Kilimanjaro International Airport. As we walked across the tarmac from the plane to immigrations, we saw several dust devils kicking up on the plains around us. I stopped to try and take a picture, but was shooed on by the security people. Immigrations cost us $100 each as American citizens; the French folks ahead of us only paid $50, as did all the other foreigners. I don't mind paying more as a foreigner, but I do mind paying more just because I'm an American. I'm pretty certain many of the non-American visitors in line with us were much better off than we are.
We were pretty groggy, having been traveling for 35 hours or so. We had deliberately arranged our tickets so we arrived in the morning, with the idea that we could relax and nap and get a good night's sleep before heading out on our real adventure.
We had arranged for a proper two week adventure with Dorobo Safaris, and our guide, Douglas Duncan met us at the airport. We piled our bags, which didn't have much in them, and our camera bags, which had a lot in them, into the back of the Land Rover and headed for our accomodations for the next two days, a small guest-house called Kiota ("Kiota" means "Nest" in Swahili). We could tell pretty quickly this was going to be a good trip and we were going to get along well. The land around the airport is flat as a pancake and severely over-grazed, and there were people herding their donkeys along beside the road. Douglas pointed them out as "immature zebras; they get their stripes when they mature."
Dona and I had been trying to learn a little Swahili before we left; she was doing better than I by far. But we didn't need it while Douglas was around, as his English is excellent; more about that later when we got to Ndutu.
At Kiota Guest House we met our hostess, Flora. Flora's English was also way better than our Swahili, but she was patient and helped us learn a bit more. However, I think I flunked. Douglas left us to relax and rest up; we agreed to meet early the next morning for our first real day of exploring. We would be going to Arusha National Park.
Kiota Guest House is fundamentally a house which now serves as a delightful guest house. We were the only guests at the time so we had it to ourselves. Flora asked when we would like dinner, showed us the kitchen arrangements and drinks, and then left us to relax.
Our room was delightful, with a big mosquito net hanging around the bed like curtains, rather than the usual tent/tepee-like arrangement; it pulled back when not in use.
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| Our room |
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| Aquarium Coming Soon...
Douglas tried to convince us the fish had burrowed into the sand and were waiting for the rains to come... |
Great Room | Elephant Watching Over You |
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| Masi Shields | Nice Lamps | Leather Bowls with Seed Pods |
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| Xxx | Xxx | Peru / Ecuador Transplant |
Dona crashed immediately, but I grabbed my binoculars and camera and headed outside to wander around and see what I could find. We were in a rural setting, surrounded by fields and shrubby areas. Wow! Right off the bat I found an African Paradise Flycatcher. There were sunbirds flying around, a kingfisher, and raptors overhead.
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| Photo by Dona | ||
| African Paradise Flycatcher | ||
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| Photo by Dona | |
| Collared Sunbird | |
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| Grey Headed Kingfisher | Common Bulbul |
After a short rest we were ready to explore a little.
We started our short walk in sandals, and stopped to take pictures of a bird while standing on a path full of "siafu" (biting ants). At least the bites didn't itch. They make quite an impression with their jaws for such a small critter. We didn't see a lot of birds, but it was mid-day. In spite of that, the ones we did see were cool.
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| Red Billed Fire Finch | Red Headed Weaver | African Harrier Hawk |
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| Xxx Fruit | Xxx Blue |
After a delicious lunch with soup, bean and onion salad, cabbage with peanuts and cashews, tortillas, and a fruit medly of banana, pineapple, mango and watermelon, we were ready for another nap. But I can never sleep much when there is exploring to do, and after a brief rest I headed back out. I could hear the rumblings of rain coming, and when I looked up I could see it working its way towards me. It appeared to be coming down pretty hard, but I was dry, so I just stood there and watched. I found a medium-sized tree nearby that was leaning slightly, so I moved under it and kept watching. As I watched the rain began pounding the place next door, and then slowly moved over to where I was. I managed to stay dry, thanks to the tree and my Tilley hat.
I was awakened at 05:45 to chanting from the local mosque. It might be an ok way to wake up, if it weren't being broadcast on a loudspeaker. And if it didn't drone on and on. The birds are so much more considerate. Douglas met us for breakfast, and then we were off to Arusha National Park (Next).
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| Breakfast... Yum! | Food Cover |
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| Dona, Flora, Gary, Douglas | Dona, Flora, Chenga, Gary |
This page last updated on 2014-04-10.
