Travel Day

Travel can be hard, too.

After the great viewing of the Mara River crossing, I was scheduled to see the herds from above by balloon on Aug 1st, but minutes before leaving at 04:30am, I was violently ill and scrubbed the whole day to recover in my tent. Manyama and I thought we could schedule on the 2nd (departure day), but for some reason, the office booked my flight from the Serengeti airstrip at 0830 despite my connecting flight was not until 7 in the evening.

So on the 2nd, tummy is still bad and now with a head cold, planned to depart at 0630, but the gearbox on the truck was broken. I was very lucky one of the guides had not yet left on his game drive and was able to convince his guests to delay their day by over an hour, so Manyama arranged for him to drive me to the airport, but timing was now tight, so it was a wild and bumpy dash, but I made it on time. Short flight on the Cessna to Arusha, then the driver who was to pick me up wasn't there. Texted and called the office, and they got it sorted. It was still only 11 and if we went to Kilimanjaro airport right away, it would still be a six hour wait for my next flight (again, why did the tour company book the first leg so early??).

So I asked we stop at the Cultural Heritage Centre to see a large collection (really a store) of arts and crafts. African arts and crafts is quite attractive. Even though I had no interest in buying anything, it would have been interesting to browse around this place as it is huge. However, I was feeling so sick I could not really spend time, and I just went on to JRO, where I had to sit for 2 hours before the check-in counter opened. Flight was then over an hour late, then my checked bag took an hour to arrive, and I could see it had been opened and rummaged through, although I had nothing of value in it, so nothing to lose there anyway.

Finally, in my hotel in Addis at 11:30. I'm still sick as a dog.Read more