Safari So Good

We are 45 minutes from landing at the Kilimanjaro Airport.  It feels like we have been flying for days (oh, wait, we kind of have been).  We watched the sun rise and then set again while en route.  We will be landing at about 8:30 pm, then head to our lodge in Arusha, very tired and ready for a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed.  More tomorrow…

You may have noticed that four days worth of posts went up all at once. Turns out that wifi service is less than perfect in Tanzania. Who knew that a third world country would not have the level of infrastructure we are so spoiled by?

We had dinner with a cop from Australia tonight who wondered what the traffic officers in the white uniforms did. Tanzania has a complete vehicle code, including helmet and seatbelt laws, but they don’t appear to be enforced. We passed a small (150cc) motorbike, and none of the three passengers was wearing a helmet. Lanes are rarely marked, and when they are, it doesn’t matter anyway. Right of way is determined by who wins the game of chicken. Add to that a lot of jaywalkers and hand-pulled carts laden with anything from a couple yards of hay to a large curio cabinet. If, when we say “cart” you think “shopping,” think again. The carts are about the size of the bed of a mid-sized pickup.
To add to the entertainment, they use 3 wheeled vehicles in town similar to a smartcar, only smaller. We passed one that had at least seven children in it. Clearly this is Africa’s version of a clown car.

We woke to a beautiful morning.  As we headed to the restaurant, we spotted a monkey on the roof of the building — we were so excited!  After trying to get some pictures, we went around the corner only to find several monkeys, playing on the roof of the restaurant and in the trees overhead.  There were grown ones and baby ones.  We found empty banana peels on the ground near the monkeys, realizing the lodge must feed the monkeys in order to get them to come entertain the guests and entertain us they did.  Once the bananas were gone, the monkeys moved to the lawn and wrestled for a while.  They got into the garbage and climbed all over the cars in the lot.  They were so cute!

Michael and me in front of the restaurant.

Mommy monkey watching me very carefully as I get a picture of her baby.

Me and my sister at lunch at the Arusha Coffee Lodge.

After a gazillion hours of flying, we finally arrived in Kilimanjaro.  We purchased travel visas (for $100 each) and waited for our transfer driver, Macdonald, to get all our paperwork squared away.  Once done, we climbed into his not-so-new land cruiser and rode for another hour to get to the Arusha Coffee Lodge.  By now it`s 10 at night and we are tired but excited to finally be in Tanzania.  The rooms are wonderful, staff friendly and accommodating, and the grounds of the lodge are beautiful (although it is very dark out).  Michael and I are in cabin 1  (replete with geckos inside and out) while Karlene is in the adjoining cabin 3.  Can’t wait for morning when we can take pictures!!

Gecko in the bathroom.

Michael in front of the screened bed.

Big bathroom with a rain shower!

Well, we are on a small Q400 prop plane headed to our first stop in Portland.  We have been flying for about 70 minutes (30 more to go) and I feel like I’ve been on this plane forever!  Not a good sign, given that we have two  more flights (10 and 8 hours respectively). Here’s the plan:  lunch in Portland, sleep most of the flight between Portland and Amsterdam (next stop), then wake up and stay awake from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro, at which time it will be approximately 8 pm Tuesday.  At the Kilimanjaro Airport, we are met by the African Adventure rep, and take some kind of land vehicle to get to our first destination – Arusha and a real bed to sleep in!  So, so excited…

What do barking dogs, house sitters, and a new security system have in common?  They will all be in place at our house while we are soaring over the Serengeti in a hot air balloon!  Michael has wanted to have a security system installed for some time now, but I have had a couple of bad experiences with alarms, so I was reluctant.  A few recent burglaries in the neighborhood encouraged me to reconsider.  So fair warning burglars and squatters — a visit to our house will result in Sakurity being called by Bon Qui Qui.  If you aren’t familiar with the reference, check out “Bon Qui Qui at King Burger” on YouTube.

Packing for a trip has challenges beyond clothes and toiletries to fit in a 33 pound weight limitation. We also need to pack entertainment, communications, and a way to keep mementos. On earlier trips, that meant a couple of books each, ipods, journals, and a laptop with enough DVDs to back up all our pictures. But that won’t fit within either the weight or size limits. Our solution is to go all electronic. We already have ipods, and Michael got a Kindle a couple Christmases ago from his wonderful wife. To round things out, we bought an Android tablet (ASUS Transformer TF300 if you care), a keyboard for the tablet, two 32GB memory cards to back up pictures, and two pair of noise canceling headphones. The plan is to download a few movies to the tablet to watch on the plane, put books that Michael wants to read on his Kindle, books that Karen wants to read on the tablet, and an audio Swahili course on the ipods. We’ll journal either on this blog or on a separate document with the word processing program on the tablet. The keyboard has a USB port and a card reader, so we can back up pictures every night from the cameras (using a card reader on the USB port) to the backup cards (using the card reader slot).
At any rate, that’s the plan. We know that things will go wrong, but we’ll adapt and learn. We’ll let you know what works, what doesn’t, and how we adjusted. The main challenge will be keeping all the electronics charged with only two power adapters that fit Tanzanian plugs. (The real main challenge will probably be something we haven’t even thought about. It usually is.)
For those who’ve made it this far: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invented the integrated circuit. This led to microprocessors, high-density memory, and digital cameras.

Our Africa trip presents some interesting logistics problems. We’ve already mentioned the weight restrictions, but there are more issues. After spending nearly 24 hours on planes, we don’t settle down of a two-week stay. We don’t stay in any one place more that two or three days, so packing and unpacking need to be simple. Fortunately, all you need for trip are books, music, and entertainment on the plane, cameras and journals during the safari, and a way to back up the digital pictures because you’re not likely to make this trip again.
We’ve decided to address this with technology. (Not an original solution, to be sure.) The centerpiece is an Android tablet. We have software for downloading and playing movies on the plane, reading our Kindle books, and, or course, updating this blog. We also have a USB connector for the card reader for storing our pictures, and wifi to upload them to the web. Hopefully, everything will work correctly.

Reading through the brochures led us to believe that we would need two prophylaxis for our upcoming trip — a yellow fever shot and malaria pills — no sweat.  Turns out not to be the case!  Previous allergic reactions convinced me to visit the U.C. Davis Travel Clinic earlier rather than later. When the intern started rattling off the list of shots and pills we would need to take, I was not a happy camper! We would need shots for yellow fever, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Polio booster; and we would have to take pills for Typhoid and Malaria, with anti-diarrhea pills (just in case). I also requested sleeping pills for the two 10-hour flights it takes to get to Africa. And, the two Hepatitis shots come in a series of three!