Getting Ready

Today is September 15th, a month and a half before we leave Belwood Lake and head to Northern Tanzania. The weather here is similar to what we expect to have in Africa. Warm weather and a little rain.

Mon 23°/12° Tue 23°/11° Wed 24°/12°. Thurs 26°/16°. Fri 21°/9°. Sat 18°/12°. Sun 27°/18°

Over the summer, plans were made. At first we wanted to rent our own truck as we did in in Namibia, but after reading about misfortunes that people had, getting lost, and problems with the vehicles, etc., we decided to go with a local Arusha tour operator who would help us come up with an itinerary that would suit the four of us. Our guide would drive, cook, organize good places to stay, get park entry fees, arrange for a flight to Zanzibar and in general, take good care of us.

There are hundreds of tour companies and a lot of research had to be done to find out who to go with. A lot of the tours are luxury and very expensive and that’s not what we wanted. We finally decided on a company called Colours of Africa Tours and Safaris. After working on 13 itineraries with Pius, we came up with one that ticked off all of our boxes. Lucky number 14.

Our itinerary includes Arusha, Lake Duluti, Arusha National Park, Tarangire National Park, Masai Culture, Lake Manyara National Park,Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro crater, Lake Eyasi, Lake Natron, Materuni Waterfalls, Chemka Hotsprings and Zanzibar Island. We will begin on Sunday November 2 and end on Sunday November 30, just in time to prepare for Christmas.

Flights were booked through Turkish Airlines. We have a two night layover in Istanbul and Turkish Airlines will put us up (complimentary) in the Movenpick Marmara Sea Hotel for those two nights. We will meet Pat and Gail there before heading to the Kilimanjaro airport.

Today, we are headed to the Travel and Immunization clinic in Guelph to get prescriptions for Malaria and anything else that we may need.

We have tried to get our $50 Visas for Tanzania but are having trouble with their program so we will get it on arrival as well as the mandatory health insurance.Read more