JAMBO!

This is the word for the day:  JAMBO.  I guess it means hello, or maybe go home.  Not sure which.

Anyway, we are finally in Africa and our tour officially starts tomorrow (Monday) morning at 6:30am.  Our flights in from Dubai went as well as can be expected, but it was still very tiring and time consuming.  We left the Burj Al Arab at 11pm on Friday evening and headed to the airport for our 2:30am flight to Nairobi.  The flight was delayed a little bit in taking off, but that was fine because that meant less time we had to spend in the Nairobi airport.  The word dump comes to mind but I don’t want to be too harsh because all of the Middle Eastern men sleeping on cardboard in the middle of the floors didn’t seem to mind one bit.  Anyway, we took off from Nairobi and landed at the Killamanjaro International Airport (aka the Indian Lake Airport) at around Noon on Saturday.  The big bonus is that we flew a couple miles from Mt Killamanjaro and got to see the peak (at almost 19,000 feet).  We were picked up by “Eddie” and had a fascinating drive to our hotel through all the small towns in the area.

We checked into the hotel (The Serena Mountain Village Lodge in Arusha) and it is quite impressive.  There is no A/C in any of the buildings or rooms, but with all of the fans and shade I know I don’t miss it one bit.  I’m not much of a flora and fauna type of person but the wild plants and flowers and banana trees are a very nice touch.  There is also a lake at the base of the property; I’m due to head out on a canoe ride later.  The lovely Clara might join me if she is finished with her daily napping.  (You know how those old women are with their naps!!!)  Here's some random shots of the hotel and such:

Here is a picture of the first wild beast we encountered on our walk from breakfast this morning.  Beware!!!!

We have met our main tour guide, and wouldn’t you know it but he’s a Canuck!!!  What’s that aboot, eh?  He seems like the type that will have many good stories to tell about all the fools he has guided around Africa over the years.  He was telling us a few this morning because he knows Clara & I are by far the youngest people on this tour, and hopefully we won’t cause him too much grief.  There will be only 21 people on the tour so we should get a lot of attention.  Two people have already cancelled due to the fact they couldn’t even get out of the US due to all the snow, and another two are stuck in Amster, Amster, Dam, Dam, Dam.  (Remember that from when you were a kid???)  I see from Hero Cousin Bobby’s picture posting that they can’t even get out of London to get to the states.  Have I mentioned that its 82 degrees and there might be one or two clouds in the sky?  If not I will keep bringing it up EVERY FREAKING DAY!!!! 

I’ll end with a little preview of our itinerary for tomorrow.  We are up at 6:30am for breakfast and our “morning briefing”.  We hit the road around 8am for the Lake Manyara National Park.  We are due to arrive there around 11:30am for our first game drive, which is supposed to last about 90 minutes.  Normally we will do the game drives early in the morning (6am) and late in the afternoon (5pm) but tomorrow we are going in the afternoon because this park is known more for the birds as almost 80% of the 130 square miles is the lake itself.  And the birds hang by the water all day, so we should have some good photo opportunities.  Then we have some lunch at the lodge and head on to the Ngorongoro Crater.  Our lodge that night is on the rim of the lodge and looks to have spectacular views of all the wildlife on the crater below. 

Until next time.