After our week in Iringa doing church related things, we headed for the Iringa airstrip to catch our chartered flight to the northern game reserves/national parks/wildlife preserves.
This is the Caravan (doesn't look like a Dodge) that all eleven of us flew in to the capitol, Dodoma. Then John and Mark got into a smaller plane and we headed separately up to the landing strip at Ndutu. The Ndutu strip is very short so there are weight limits when it comes to landing.
The Tanzanian Flag
The security screening process was very strict in that the airport lady sort of looked through our bags. This was the flight where each person could only have about 55 pounds of baggage total including bags, carry ons, cheesy souvenirs, etc. The sisters in our group went hog wild shopping in Iringa so they were constantly asking others if they had poundage to spare. I actually jettisoned two books just to reduce my weight and to take up less space in this world and so the sisters could bring their wooden giraffes. The pilot didn't seem to tally up the weights of the bags but he did weigh each one and then distribute them under the plane evenly.
The Losbys live a few blocks from us here in South St. Paul. They are the only ones whose ages never came up in casual conversation. I think they're in their mid fifties but I may be over-shooting.
I loved the GPS device with the airplane as the icon instead of a little blue car or a monster truck like we have on the Garmin.
Before the flight our pilot, Martin Zimmerman from Switzerland prayed. He then warned us that he'd be using oxygen when we got up to 12,000 feet "to stay awake". Nervous Carla almost had a bird when he pulled out his nasal oxymizer and cranked it up to 2 liters but she was glad he warned us in advance. 12,000 feet seemed pretty high for this medium small airplane. Nervous Carla sat right behind the pilot where I had her take a photo of the empty seat next to the pilot. I intended to use the line "God was our copilot" but decided it wasn't funny enough for inclusion in this always humorous blog.
He also warned us that we'd first circle the runway once before landing "to make sure it was clear of debris and/or animals." Sure enough, there were some zebras (stripped donkeys) walking across the runway as we buzzed by it. This photo was taken on our way from the airstrip to Ndutu Lodge (about a five minute drive).
The Ndutu Lodge, like many of the older establishments was originally a large game hunting lodge and when you hear of people talking about "the big five" animals in Africa, they're referring to the days when hunters hunted on foot 1)elephant, 2)rhinoceros, 3)leopard, 4)lion, and 5)giraffe. Several of us after seeing the majesty of these animals up close and personal could not even imagine someone shooting at them with a gun.
There are about thirty duplex cabins with porches overlooking this wooded buffer zone to the Serengeti. In the morning we saw zebra walking by and some gazelles.
Our room had three twin beds complete with mosquito nets. We really didn't see any actual mosquitoes anywhere on our trip. There were some annoying bugs that would get up in your face but I never noticed an actual malaria-carrying mosquito. We took our daily anti-malarial medicine (Malarone) and in fact will be taking it for another five days.
That afternoon we went out on a game drive in our two safari Land Rovers. Almost immediately we saw the pride of lions basking in the late afternoon sun. Actually around every turn we'd encounter new and exciting animals and birds. Remind me to post the photo of a dung beetle doing what it does best.
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