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Day 1 - Saturday 10 August 2002
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Depart Birmingham on flight UK2040 at 06.10 to Amsterdam, arriving at 08.25(+1). Leave Amsterdam at 10.40 on KL571 to Kilimanjaro arriving at 20.30 (+2). We will then be transferred to Arusha. Hotel.
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With an early flight and a 3 hour book-in time, rather than wait around at home wondering if the taxi would turn up, we decided to get over to the airport early and doss down in the departure lounge.
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Took a taxi to Northampton station and caught the 23.17 train to Birmingham changing at Rugby. An uneventful journey got us in on time and we met up with a few others of the group who had travelled over by car. After a while we settled down to grab what sleep we could only to be woken by the sound of the cleaners machinery at around 2.30.
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At 3.10 we moved over to the check in desk, but as it happened the book-in time wasn't 3 hours but 2 hours so 1 hour was spent standing around by the desk waiting for it to open, but we were at the front of the queue.
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Soon we were on the move and started to proceed through the formalities. The flight got away on time and soon we were nodding off only to be awoken with a roll for breakfast and before we knew it our time was up and we were landing at Amsterdam.
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After a walk though Schiphols extensive terminus we again returned to our normal travelling mode of waiting; but only for 90 minutes, before we were loading again for our final leg to Kilimanjaro. As we flew south the signs were not auspicious, the purser announced that due to an oversight the tape of the first TV programme - the BBC News - had not been loaded on board, it's to be hoped that they haven't forgotten anything else.
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Whiled away the time reading and dozing with occasional glances at the Spiderman film with Dutch subtitles.
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We flew on down through Egypt following the River Nile for a while, into Sudan and on by the Ethiopian Highlands. The clear skies that we had been enjoying over Africa darkened, the seat belt signs went on and soon we were flying between two cloud layers both black. Shortly after the cabin crew were also ordered to their seats and so we anticipated a bumpy ride, it was an anticlimax when it turned out to be no worse than normal turbulence and the crew were soon on their feet again preparing our tea.
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Sunset came early, by our high latitude standard, at 19.30 and soon we were passing over the equator with more bumps of the plane!
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Arrive at Kilimanjaro Airport, a relatively modern building, on time and passed through the usual formalities and change $50 each into Tanzanian Shillings. Our luggage was piled onto the roof of a large mini-bus and off we set for our first nights hotel at Arusha.
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Being dark we were not able to gain a proper first impression of the area as we drove along a tarmac road lined with trees and occasional villages of single story dwellings lit by electric light. Now and again small billboards would advertise the likes of Pepsi or Coca Cola.
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At Arusha we turned north up a dirt road for a couple of miles to reach our destination, the Ilboru Safari Lodge.
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Found our rooms and 15 minutes later it was down to the bar for a briefing and then at 23.45 back to the room to sort out our packing for the safari leg of our travels, placing the rest of our bags in store for later.
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Day 2 - Sunday 11 August 2002
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Leaving Arusha in Landrovers, we drive to Mto-wa-Mbu before climbing the Rift Valley wall, with spectacular vistas, and continue through lush farmland to reach Ngorongoro Crater rim (a distance of about 200 km.). The afternoon game drive is a wonderful opportunity to see animals in close proximity; the Crater floor is home to vast herds of game, including the rare black rhino, and we will be unlucky not to see all the large plains animals. We overnight in a lodge perched on the Crater rim with uninterrupted views of the magnificent natural bowl. Lodge.
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Morning came too soon. We had set our alarm for 6.45 but it was not needed as we received a knock at 6.40 so grabbed a 5 minute lie in.
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The night had been cool bordering on cold, it had sounded as if we had had rain in the night, but it was just the wind in the trees. The morning was grey with cloud.
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After breakfast we loaded ourselves into four 4x4's for our trip to the Serengeti. We were fortunate to have a vehicle to ourselves with just the tour leader.
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Returned to the main road at Arusha and headed west along the raised main road with frequent speed humps. Mount Meru (4566m) lay behind us, small cone shaped hills rose from the plain; maze, coffee and banana were growing in fields besides the road. Further on the fields give way to sparse yellowing grasslands, bush and acacia trees. Every now and then a Maasai herdsman, with a stick over his right shoulder, was driving his herd of between 10 & 20 cattle along the side of the road, and just occasionally their round huts standing back off the road were seen. This pastoral landscape was cut by the road and punctured by electricity pylons and an occasional aerial mast.
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Rift Valley Wall
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After 90 minutes and a steady climb we reach Makuyuni (1080m) and stop to pick up water and stretch our legs before turning off right towards the Serengeti on a stretch of newly tarmaced road, that in time will run to Mto wa Mbu , but soon it ended and instead of following the vehicle in front we were following a cloud of dust along a dirt road.
Lake Manyara appeared over to the left with the rift valley wall behind it. Suddenly the area became more populated, the round Maasi huts gave way to rectangular huts of mud brick and occasional breeze block and even red brick. Mto wa Mbu is extremely fertile being fed by 3 rivers from the highlands above the rift valley, producing 10 varieties of banana along with exotic fruits..
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White storks were roosting in the trees as we entered the Rift Valley Park and started to wind our way up the rift valley wall to 1240m, stopping at a view point for photos before climbing more gently to over 1500m though rolling hills with small farms. The roadside vegetation had turned red with dust, awaiting the November rains to wash them clean again. Amazingly as we entered Karatu, at 1550m, a combined harvester stood beside the road.
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Called in at the Ngorongoro Park gate to pay the toll of $25 per person per day and also to look at the brief exhibits. Travelling on a compacted earth track that was as hard as tarmac, but also with pot holes, we continued to climb up the crater rim the vegetation getting more lush as we went. Trees grew tall out of the valleys.
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Stopped at a view point on the rim at 2220m to look down into the Ngorongoro crater. Continued on to a camping ground where we had our picnic lunch, it's not the sheep you have to worry about steeling your food here but the black kites which may also take your fingers with it.
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In the afternoon we drove down into the crater at 1750m to view the abundant wild life. Virtually everything you would expect to find were there, lion, cheetah, hipo, rhino, elephant, wildebeest, water buffalo, jackal, hyena, gazelle, zebra, warthogs, to name just a few! In addition the bird life was also prolific with ostrich, flamingo, superb starling, capped wheatear - an attractive small bird with a beautiful song - like a lark, ibis, kite hawks, crane and many more. A highlight of the day was coming across a pair of lions shortly after they had killed and stuffed themselves on wildebeest, they lay in the road contented and fast asleep; a hyena was skulking about nearby hoping to share in the feast.
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Zebra
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The park gate is supposed to close at 6pm, as we left at 6.10 our driver received a reprimand from the park wardens. Quickly arrived at Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, overlooking the crater, for our one night stay.
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Day 3 - Monday 12 August 2002
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We head for Seronera in the Serengeti National Park (a distance of about 150 km.), and en-route there is an opportunity to visit the small museum that houses some of the fascinating discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge. Much of the day is spent game viewing in the vast plains that are broken only by stands of acacia trees and the occasional kopje. There can be large herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle, as well as giraffe, buffalo, and elephant, especially if the migration is on the Serengeti Plains. Serengeti also contains many large predators such as lion, cheetah, and leopard. We stay at the spectacular Seronera Lodge, which is built on and around a kopje, and share our sunset drinks with the resident hyrax, mongoose, and baboon! Lodge.
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Woke after a longer and better nights sleep, with the hillside surrounded by misty rain so no early morning views. Being at a height of 2500m it was quite cool and we all had our fleeces on as well as long trousers.
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Left the lodge and drove slowly through the mist around the rim road before dropping down towards the Serengeti Plains and out into the sunlight.
As we approached the plain we called in on a Maasi village whose main income seemed to be tourists rather than traditional cattle herding but the $10 entrance fee did give us a chance to get our photos, we had to be careful though to avoid getting the chiefs bulldozer, which he drives on his day job, in the picture. A pleasant wind blew, but unfortunately it was whipping up the dust.
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Driving out over the plain we saw giraffe, dik-dik, grant and thompson gazelle and again numerous birds, kori bustard, common fiscal shrike, bateluer eagle.
At mid day we stopped and were informed that we were now about to enter the Serengeti - Maasi for endless plain - we had though we had been on it for the last three hours.
Just before reaching the Naabi Gate, the main entrance to the Serengeti, a male and two female lions were spotted under a rock and so we drove over and spent a while watching and photographing them before moving on to the gate and our lunch stop.
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Lions on rock
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Cheetah
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After lunch we moved on through the Serengeti plain, there were now few acacia trees in the almost flat landscape, at a height of 1525m, with occasional islands of small hills and rock outcrops call kopjes. There were still many new species to see - hartebeest, olive baboon, impala, topi, vervet monkey, a very difficult to see leopard, but the highlight of the afternoon was the cheetah, just visible above the tall grass. It kept laying down and standing up again and after a while moved off to another spot. At this point nubian vultures started to circle around so the cheetah must have been feeding on a kill. After a while the vulture landed across the road from the kill and sat around waiting for the cheetah to more further away. In the end the vultures got fed up and one brave bird went over to the kill and the others soon followed. The cheetah wasn't bothered and finally moved away, sauntering past our 4x4 in full view.
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Continuing on we came to the Seronera river area, now mostly dry but with water holes, one occupied by hippos with a crocodile lazing on the bank.
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At last we reached our destination of the Seronera Wildlife Lodge but our sighting had not finished even then, as we waited in reception banded mongoose ran outside and from the window of our room we saw a rock hyrax in a tree.
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Day 4 - Tuesday 13 August 2002
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An optional early morning game drive close to the Seronera River, with a chance to visit the hippo pools, to see more bird life, and maybe catch a glimpse of other shy species such as impala and dik dik. We leave Seronera for the Rift Valley wall (a distance of about 200 km.) and en route there is an opportunity to visit a Maasai Village built in traditional style. The road passes along Ngorongoro Crater rim and through villages with rich agricultural land to reach Mto-wa-Mbu. Our accommodation is a magnificently positioned lodge on the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley wall, with splendid views over Lake Manyara 600 m. below. There will probably by time for a quick dip in the swimming pool, from where you can still enjoy the wonderful views. Lodge.
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Got up at 5.45, whilst it was still dark for an early morning game drive. As the sun was just rising we drove out along the tracks that we came in by the day before but now seeing the views in a gentler light. Many of the animals we had seen previously we saw again but with some better sightings. Took good shots of topi, warthog and thompson gazelle but the best was the leopard which the previous day had been very difficult to see was now in full view laying on a rock. Returned at 8.20 for breakfast and prepare for leaving.
Left at 9.30 for our drive back along the road we had come out on, as it was a longish journey we didn't go out of our way to look for wildlife but stopped whenever we saw anything of interest. We were able to get a couple of better shots of animals we had seen previously but saw nothing new.
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Thomson Gazelle
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For lunch we stopped at the Oldupai Gorge, the site of many fossil finds of our early humanoid ancestors. Received a brief outline about the site from one of the curators and looked around the small, but interesting, museum. The small birds that inhabit the site were very colourful and friendly - golden pipit, black faced waxbill, yellow vented bulbul, laughing dove.
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Continued on after lunch back up to the Ngorongoro Crater rim and through the fertile farmlands of the highlands that at times almost looked like Britain with its fields of wheat. Called in at a souvenir supermarket before arriving at our hotel for the night.
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Day 5 Wednesday 14 August 2002
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We travel back to Arusha across expansive plains, and then continue by private bus, passing beneath the glacial dome of Kilimanjaro before arriving at Marangu, nestled on the south-east flank of the mountain. There is a highly recommended but optional walk that explores this village in the afternoon. This village is a fascinating mixture of small but fertile farms, friendly Chagga people, and some beautiful- scenery with waterfalls and magnificent views. Part of the revenue from these walks goes directly to a locally managed project, that aims to improve the poor facilities in local schools. The evening is free to prepare for the trek and relax in our comfortable mountain hotel. Hotel.
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After a short delay to force an entry into a room on which the yale lock had broken we got away at 8.20. A light drizzle had thankfully laid some of the dust.
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However, the low clouds and light rain continued as we drove back to Arusha, occasional Maasi warriors had their umbrellas up! Passengers on the backs of pickup trucks looked very miserable. It also meant that we were missing the views of Mount Meru and would later also miss views of Kilimanjaro.
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At Arusha, after a brief stop to pick up some food for lunch (we had also hoped to send an email but the connection was down) we transferred our luggage to a bus and picked up the luggage that we had left behind when we went on safari. Crowded into a small bus with it still raining we drove to Morangu with the windows steamed up.
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As part of our lunch, we bought a packet of crisps in a plain bag. When we started to eat them we noticed that they were an unusual long oval shape with what appeared to be seeds in the middle, they were banana crisps - prepared in a similar way to potato crisps but using cooking bananas - and quit tasty.
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It's amazing the loads that are carried on foot, bicycle, truck or bus. Young girls of no more than eight were carrying large baskets balanced on their head; a 50kg sack on the back of a bike was quite normal. But the best was a boy with his girl friend holding two 15lt plastic tubs in her lap sitting sidesaddle on the back. Pick up trucks with as many people as you could stand in the back or with sacks stacked to overhang all sides; buses so loaded on top that they leaned over and seemed in danger of toppling.
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With the rain still falling we arrived at the Nakera Hotal at Marangu. With the road up to the hotel being steep and made of clay and the rain running like a river down it, the bus couldn't get any traction and so we had to walk the final 100m in the wet.
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Soon got ourselves sorted out and dried and we were able to relax and catch up with reading etc. At 5.00 we received our briefing on the Kili climb, sorted out any problems and collected our duvet jackets. Then more relaxation, dinner and bed.
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