We had an early morning wake up call since Tillya was coming to pick us up at 7:15am. We made our way to the Arusha airport. If you think rush hour in your city is bad, try Arusha. The amount of cars is the same, but it's the chaos that sets Arusha apart. At times there were 5 lanes of traffic where 2 usually are and we only saw two traffic signals in 30 minutes. It was quite the sight to see!
At the Arusha airport, Tillya checked us in and we got our handwritten boarding passes. A little different than our typical airports in the States! We did have to go to security, but then walked to our single prop plane. The plane sat 12 people, so it was pretty small. Matt was pretty psyched to be able to set in the co-pilot's seat. The pilot was from Kentucky so we were able to ask him questions throughout the flight.
We flew from Arusha to Lake Manyara, where we picked up two people. The Lake Manyara airport had a gravel runway and was located near the edge of a cliff. Quite an exciting takeoff when you know a cliff edge isn't too far away! :) The Ndutu airport really isn't an airport. It's a gravel landing strip in the middle of the African plains. We didn't have zebras on the runway, but it's been known to happen.
Malisa had driven to Ndutu the night before so was there to pick us up. We did a short game drive before lunch and saw bat eared fox, some cheetahs, a lone wildebeest, some zebras, lots of birds, and dik diks. We checked into our hotel, the Ndutu Safari Lodge, and had lunch there. While sitting at lunch, a genet was running around up in the rafters. It was awesome - the lodge didn't have any fences so you could encounter an animal at any time. Jeff heard a lion roar at 5am and woke up to zebras not too far from his room.
Our cottage at the Lodge
During the afternoon game drive we saw lions (even saw a male and female trying to reproduce - it's not awkward, it's nature), giraffes (we learned a group of giraffes is called a "tower"), more zebras, and drove by a wildebeest graveyard. We quickly learned that Malisa has way better eyesight than any of us - he can spot an animal with his bare eyes when the rest of us require binoculars!
The evening at the Safari Lodge was great. They have an outdoor area with a firepit and a covered area with big couches where we just sat back and enjoyed a beer. We just had to remember to bring our flashlight for our walk back to our cottage since it was dark when we walked back!
The next morning we did a 4 hour game drive around Ndutu. Some highlights were a tower of giraffes (including a younger one) crossing the road about 50 yards in front of our Land Cruiser. None of us were quick enough to get a picture or video, but it was definitely a memorable experience! All of us wanted to see part of the migration we had heard so much about, but were afraid it had left the Ndutu area. Fortunately, Malisa knew where to look so we sat in our vehicle, which was surrounded by wildebeest and zebras, and had our boxed lunch among the migration.
After lunch we started to head toward the Ngorogoro Crater. It was about a 2.5 hour drive on a rough road - so we received a 2.5 hour free Africa massage!!
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