We traveled to Tanzania over the September Eid holiday to visit the Serengeti and Tarangire National Parks. M.E. was off from work this week. We wanted to go on one last trip.There would be no time to travel once the plant started up in late November. And in the Serengeti, it just so happens to be the season when the wildebeest migrate from the north to the south of the park. Putting it on the map.

From Bahrain we flew to Doha the capital of Qatar to pick up a direct flight to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We then took an hour car drive to Arusha, a mid size city where we stayed overnight in a B&B. The next morning we took an early flight to Serengeti National Park. (Pictures of Arusha in another post)

We arrived at the Arusha airport which had been pieced together over the years. As the tourist industry developed so did the airport. All the airplanes where prop planes with the largest having a seating capacity of 16 people. There was easily 18 planes waiting to shuttle people off to the many national game parks throughout Tanzania. On our flight we were getting off at the fourth stop. We were the only two for the first leg, picking up people as we went. The plane makes a loop dropping off, picking up and dropping off again the folks traveling between the different game parks. The runways at these airstrips are mostly gravel. I have to admit I was a little nerves on the first landing on gravel but no worries, this has been going on for years. Putting it on the map, Serengeti National Park.

We were picked up at our stop by our guide, Edgar in an open Land Rover. It was an hour drive to the camp but it ended up taking over two hours. We went on a mini “drive” stopping to look at animals along the way and getting a background on their habitat.  Within those first two hours we were blown away at the animals we saw. I will have several posts featuring the many animals we saw and learned about.

The camp named Kimando, meaning shooting star, sat on the edge of one of those expansive plains, a savannah. It went on forever. Here is a link of pictures to Kimando Camp. Kimando is a mobile camp, it moves with the migration of the animals spending 5 months in the north of the Serengeti and 5 months in the south. The camp is eco friendly powered by solar energy cells. There are eight guest tents with a dining and lounge tent in the center. Breakfast was always packed, to eat out in the bush mid morning. Lunch was set up just outside the dining tent at camp with wonderful views of the plain, and dinner was in the dining tent at 8 o’clock sharp. We went on two “drives” each day. Every morning we met at 6am just at the first light of day to start the first drive. This is when the animals are most active. We would drive roughly 22 miles on each drive stopping mid morning for breakfast and returning to camp by 12:30-1 o’clock. Ate lunch, took a short nap and met again at 4 to go on the second “drive” until dusk around 6:30.

We returned each evening to a camp fire set up in the center of the camp over looking the plain. The manager called it bush TV, we all sat around with drinks, meeting new guests and exchanging stories of what we saw that day.  Dinner which was good, nothing exotic, started at 8 pm.

The pictures below are from the flights to the park, and of the camp. I have a lot more pictures of the animals and the parks. Stay tuned!

Arusha Airport

departure lounge

Arusha Airport

planes lined up

interior of plane

traveling 3000 feet above ground, typical scene, several thatched buildings, surrounded by a fence, animal choral in center

wildebeest on the savanna

landing at one of the gravel airstrips

our stop

we were greeted every time we arrived in camp by the staff, besides a friendly welcome, we were given damp towels

Edgar our guide for the 5 days we spent in the Serengeti

our tent, each tent had a walkie talkie, between 6:30pm and 6:30am you needed to radio in, to ask for an escort to take you from your tent to the dinning tent, at night many animals would walk around and sometimes through the camp

the tent was divided into 3 sections, a sitting room, bedroom and bathroom

sitting room

bathroom, the water was supplied by the pot next to the sink

the loo and shower

the back of our tent, the big black barrel was the water for the loo, to take a shower, each evening you radioed in for hot water to be put in the bucket above the tent, it took 3 or 4 minutes for the water to be delivered

view from our tent

four tents of either side of the dinning and lounge tents

the dinning and lounge

dinning tent set for dinner

the lounge tent

having lunch with out host Charles

enjoying lunch

a room with a view

bush TV, most couples had there own truck and driver, we exchanged stories of what we saw that day

bush TV, before dinner

loo with a view, there was a small bathroom tent set up next to the dinning tent, this is the view

mixed grill for dinner, Julius our cook

local tribesman guarded the camp from dust to dawn, with bows and arrows, they would also escort us to and from the tents

stopping for mid morning packed breakfast

Edgar and M.E., Edgar was a very good guide, know his animals and birds, he had this instinct to be at the right place at the right time, he also know where to find the animals

looking for lions, Edgar is 30, has been a guide for 5 years, he is from Dar es Salaam on the coast of Tanzania

a group we went out with one day,on the left is a couple from Dubai, he grow up in Elizabethtown, PA, in the center newlyweds from London