This trip is a little bitter-sweet. We were to have travelled with Mom and Dad on this, my Dad's self-proclaimed, final overseas trip to fulfill a bucket list item - African Safari. I'm very thankful that my Mom decided to still come with Jay and I on this epic, once in a lifetime, trip.
Our flight to Kilimanjaro is via Amsterdam on KLM - Amsterdam is having some weather apparently. So I've been tracking the inbound flight which ended up leaving 3 hours late - even though our flight hadn't been updated yet I didn't figure it would be leaving on time (at 5:50pm). I was freaking out because we have a 3 hour layover before our flight from Amsterdam, which should be lots of time - but all of the sudden that kept shrinking and shrinking. Ultimately it got updated and our departure time was delayed by 2 hours which meant we would have 56 mins in Amsterdam to transfer to our flight to Kilimanjaro - tight but doable so says Google.
Toronto to Amsterdam was uneventful, and we made up another 25 minutes in the air (amazing), we disembarked at Gate E18 and we had to walk down to E24 to get on our next flight - no passport control or anything, we literally had a 2 minute walk from Gate to Gate. Perfection. I slept for only 2 hours on the 7 hr flight, somewhat intentionally in order to hopefully get on Tanzania time when we arrive since it will be bedtime (8pm) when we arrive which is only noon home time.
This is where the weather hit impacts us again - we get on the flight at just at 9:20am Amsterdam time, flight is to depart at 10:05am and it's about 8 hours. We sit and sit and sit and then the Captain comes on and says that we have to wait for both runway clearing and de-icing, could be 2 hours or more. So, I decide to have a nap after about an hour. I slept for 2 hours and we hadn't even moved yet. I've never been so thankful for lay flat seats when we were on the tarmac for 4 hours before we departed. Instead of arriving to Kilimanjaro at 8pm we're now arriving at midnight, we have to do Visa application on arrival and then meet Kish, a friend of Jay's who helped us to organize this whole tour - Kish lives in Tanzania part of the year and grew up here before moving to Canada, his Aunt owns the travel company we used to book and he said he was meeting us at the airport so we were keeping him up to date on our arrival time.
Upon arrival we deboarded quickly and had only one group in front of us for the Visa application - it took a little while but overall was fairly painless. One line for applying for the passport - move to the second line to pay for the Visa - move to the third line to have the Visa checked and Stamped along with your passport. While we were in line for Step 1 I noticed that a far line (there were only 4) had a group of 9 people all doing the application process and commented how I would hate to be in line behind them because the attendant takes your passports and I gave him our itinerary because we are travelling around so I didn't know if they would want the name of the tour company or the name of the first hotel we're at, etc. and it takes quite a while to process. When we moved to go to Step 2 (pay), the Dad was in line to pay with 2 of the boys so we got in line behind them - as the boys finished paying and signing the receipt a daughter rolls over and hands her Dad her passport and everything and so I said "excuse me we're in line" and the Dad said "she's my daughter" and I said "yes, but you're just going to wait there for your party of 9 to finish up? We're only 2". He said "you can go in front of us now that she's done if you want" I was tired, and I mean seriously, so I said "I'm not going in front of you, I'm in the line - you have 5 people not even here yet" So anyway, we went next and zoomed through Step 3, met Jay who had moved on through before Mom and I (because I wanted to see what the process was) and put our bags through the last scanner and went outside and met Kish and Abraham (our driver for the week).
It's about a 90 min drive to our hotel for the night in Arusha so Mom and I go and use the bathroom quick, come out and the guys are gone, luggage is gone and we're like "where the F* did they go?" until I see Kish waving us down from the truck.
Kish lives in Arusha, just a 10 min drive from the hotel, so he came to greet us at the airport and drive us to the hotel, the Gran Melia Arusha. As soon as we get out of the truck at the hotel I went to go into my carryon bag, which a porter had taken, and he said he will take it - I said "I just want to get my passport out, I probably need it for check in"...it's at this point that we realize sometime between passport stamping and here my Mom has misplaced her entire passport wallet with her passport, nexus and credit cards inside. We check the car (twice), we check her backpack and purse (more than twice) and it's now after 2am here - we agree nothing can be done tonight but that we'll call the airport in the morning to see if someone has found it and if not then we'll start the process of getting emergency travel documents for my Mom. I have a picture of her passport on my phone so at least we have all the information. After Mom is in her room I google "Canadian lost passport Tanzania" and it says the closest Consulate is likely Nairobi (FML) but we can't call them until tomorrow anyway (and tomorrow is Sunday) so this might be a pain but it is what it is and we'll get it figured out. There are only 2 scenarios for what might have happened - either it fell out of her purse during that final baggage scan (because it was one of those ones in Caribbean airports where you just put your bags in and it scans for like 5 ft and comes out the other end and you grab it, not one where you have to put all your stuff in buckets) or when we went to the bathroom she put it loose on top of her luggage (both are red) and when the guys went to take the luggage to the car they didn't notice the loose passport folder and it fell off somewhere.
I couldn't get to sleep - it was definitely after 3am when I fell asleep and woke up to Jay's alarm going off at 7:30am. I tried to call the phone number for the Airport from my phone but for some reason it wasn't working and then I googled "Canadian phone won't work in Tanzania" and it says all the normal stuff, put the + in front of the number, turn your phone off and back on...tried all and not working. Finally I said to Jay a little after 8am "Can you text Kish and ask him why my phone might not be working here?" and GOOD NEWS - the airport found the passport wallet, they looked up the passport number, they corresponded the passport number with our Tour Operator (Step 1 in the Visa application) and called them and let them know that it was there. So Safarini, the Tour Operator, dispatched a Taxi to pick up the passport holder and bring it to the hotel in Arusha for 10am when we planned to leave to head further into Tanzania. Holy Crap. I went and told Mom right away, waking her up, I didn't have any other details yet but it turns out that her credit cards and everything were all there - we don't know where it was found just that it was!! Huge relief this morning. Crisis Averted.
At 8:30am we went down for breakfast, a huge buffet - I had a little croissant with fresh pineapple jam and some fresh fruit - I'm not usually a breakfast person at home so just something small is perfect. It had been dark last night when we arrived so we're just getting our first glimpse of the hotel and it's gorgeous.
Did you expect for Africa to be lush and mountainous? I did not. Truthfully, since we went through a tour company and did a tour that Kish had hosted people from Jay's work on the year before, I didn't feel the need to google anything so I have no idea where we are other than by name. When we were flying last night and I was watching the map on the airplane I had no idea that Tanzania was so far south on the Continent.
Just after 9am Kish called and he was at the hotel, the passport arrived and we headed off on our drive to the Ngorongoro Crater.
On our drive yesterday and today we asked Abraham a bunch of questions - Education is free until the end of primary school but you have to pay for books and uniforms, after that highschool there is a small fee for it and University you either pay for yourself or get a government loan, the Military used to be a 1 year compulsory conscription but it costs too much to feed everyone for free for 1 year so now it's only 3 months mandatory and you have to be invited, there are boys along our route who are between 10 and 16 years old who are wearing the traditional garb but all in black and their faces and bodies are painted either all in black or with a white half mask - Abraham explains that these boys have recently been circumcised and they have to go 'out' for 2 months until they are healed and then they will be considered men/warriors. I didn't take a photo but this is what the initiation shuka and paint look like.
There are a lot of people herding sheep and cows wearing the traditional clothing in usually red and black checks, Abraham said red and black is favoured by men but didn't say why, I asked if the livestock was for meat and he said it was for status, the more animals you have the more wealthy you are so people collect them as a symbol..and sometimes they eat them. Kish is driving with us as far as our first stop today - lunch, he mentioned that 50% of Tanzania's 70Million population is under 18 years old, that finding jobs can be difficult once you're finished schooling, there are what I thought were motorcycle groups (7-10 young men sitting at the side of the road on motorcycles) but they're taxi's - hoping someone needs a ride because they don't have jobs. There is a lot of litter on the road - we were advised by the pilot when landing in Kilimanjaro that it's illegal for tourists to bring plastic bags into Tanzania...there are literally tens of thousands of water bottles discarded on the side of the road, I think plastic bags are the least of their worries. While we were driving we saw this vehicle in front of us, lol.
Closer to lunch we went through a town and Kish asked Abraham the name of it - he said "we call it Mosquito Town" because it's low in the basin and has a lot of standing water. It makes it very fertile and they grow rice, bananas, mangos and papayas there.
Abraham stopped at the side of the road so we could take a photo of some baboons - I'm assuming they gather in the area because of all the fresh fruit (and people who are selling the fruit along the road).
Gibb's Farm used to be a coffee plantation growing Arabica beans, but they've pivoted to a Lodge and Restaurant where guests can get a tour of the Farm, have lunch and then stay. We're just here for the tour and lunch but when we arrive the rain has just stopped (it rained for about 45 mins of our drive) and so it's not a good time to go through the fields so we just have lunch and then take a walk around the grounds. This first picture is the view from the bathroom, lol.
Lunch was traditional foods and everything cooked came from the farm. I had a little bit of rice with curried chicken on it, some fried sweet potato with chutney, a salad with root vegetables on it and we all had soup. It was a buffet so good because Mom and I didn't have a lot of anything and the guys had full plates, including dessert (and second dessert for Jay).
After lunch we drove into the next town and dropped Kish off to his cab driver and made our way, about another hour, to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which is 8,000 square kilometres, the Crater making up less than 3% of the area. We had to stop for Abraham to pay the park fees and so I made Jay get out and take a picture of the sign since we parked in front of it.
This is our Truck.
Tonnes of baboons by the entrance.Once we get inside we're travelling up up up to the Crater ridge where our hotel is, the Melia Crater Lodge. As we are driving in there are so many Land Rovers that are leaving the park (day trippers), about 700 vehicles are allowed into the Park a day during peak season.
On the way to the Lodge we stopped at an overlook of the Crater - with binoculars you could see Rhinos, but not to the naked eye. I said as we left the overlook - imagine if those Rhinos are animatronic and it's just so that they can say "Look! See the Rhinos..very rare".
This hotel is as spectacular as the first - we first went out onto the veranda overlooking the Crater, Abraham asked us if we could see the herd of buffalo below - Jay got out the binoculars and said "those are Elephants", there are like 25 of them between 2 different close together areas.
I got a new iPhone 17 before I came for the zoom - the elephants are down in that second section of grass after the treed area.
We came back to the room after checking in, it's about 5pm. The room has a lovely view!
I'm writing up the blog while Jay is sleeping (surprise surprise), it took me a while to remember how to log in and get it started this morning, it's been a while.
We met Mom at the bar at 6:30pm (dinner service doesn't even start until 7pm!) Here are some pictures at dinner - both Jay and I went with "Local cocktails" - I'm sure you can guess (by the tequila) which was mine and someone else had nuts at their table so I asked for some nuts and we got cashews, peanuts and banana chips!
Back in the room now it's 8:39pm. We get up to leave with Abraham tomorrow morning at 6am. We've ordered breakfast boxes and lunch picnic baskets so that we can spend the day in the Crater searching for animals!
A few pics of the restaurant and I'm going to bed (because I had 2 of those drinks that have rum, triple sec AND tequila in them, who knew those went together!) and because it's 8:49pm and I have to be up at 5:30am. More tomorrow!
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