Kenya and Tanzania - Day 5

We have a back story to our safari story. Hurricane Milton has our attention.   As Florida condo owners, we always pay attention to tropical storms.  We have been fortunate for several years with most hurricanes hitting the gulf coast.  Milton appears to be headed our way after hitting the gulf coast.  Stuart is south of the projected track but it can still change course.  Of course we hope it heads further north before making landfall. We just had our new air conditioner installed last week.  Now I wish I had held off a little longer.  Our condo complex had all new roofs installed this past year.  They meet the most stringent hurricane codes.  There is a couple from Marco Island on our tour. They claim to own a home with the second highest elevation on Marco Island.  They have six friends that have already moved out of their homes into theirs.  They also have a backup generator.  Nice to have good friends.  Marco Island is on the gulf side where the hurricane will first make landfall.  Marco Island is south of Naples which is south of Fort Meyers.  They should be fine.  

The hurricane is forecast to pass north of Stuart but very close to Sebastian where my brother Bill has a condo.

We are on our blue bus heading to the airport at Lake Manyara.   Our bus was once owned by the current president of Tanzania Samia Suhulu Hassan.  She bought this bus to make a tour of all the Tanzanian national parks to promote tourism after Covid.  

President Hassan’s former bus still has her tour logo on the side.

We will fly on a small plane to the Serengeti.  Our drivers will be there to meet us and begin our Serengeti Safari.

There are two acronyms I learned.  ALT which means - animal like thing.  When someone in the Jeep yells out there is an animal over there and everyone looks but no one sees an animal.  It is referred to as an ALT where they thought a tree limb or a rock looked like an animal.  

The other acronym is TIA.  This Is Africa. This phrase is used to describe anything out of the ordinary.   A schedule change, a vehicle breakdown, a change in transport or lodging.  TIA.  

It always seems a little strange to see a Maasai farmer tending his flock while talking on his cellphone.

We arrived at the Lake Manyara airport after a two hour bus ride and within a few minutes we were onboard our De Havilland Dash 8 aircraft.  This is a turbo prop plane.  Our entire group fits on this plane.  Often the Tauck groups gets split up onto two smaller planes.  It was a 30 minute flight at 17,000 feet.  

The Lake Manyara airport has a dirt runway.

Swahili lesson - when everyone in the Jeep has finished taking photos they say - Sawa Sawa - ok let’s go.  
Mzungo means white guy. It can be used in an affectionate or insulting way.  They will always say it with a smile.  

We arrived at Soronera airport in Serengeti. Our drivers were waiting. We loaded up the Jeeps and drove less than a mile before seeing our first animals.  The drive from the airport to the hotel was filled with animal sitings including several we had not yet seen.  This included impala, topi, cheetah, dik dik, black-mane lion, gazelle, giraffes, baby elephants wallowing in mud, hippos and that was just on the way to the hotel.  We have a game drive to at 4:30 pm. On the way we had a  torrential rain storm including hail. The Tanzanians say the rain is good luck and hail is a blessing.

Welcome to Soronera airpstrip which also has a dirt runway.

Priscilla demonstrates the proper technique for game watching. Take off your shoes before climbing on the seats.

Our first new animal of the day an impala.

Our second new animal of the day the chetah. .

Our third new animal of the day the topi.

The black-mane Lion and his lioness.

We checked into the Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti and had a nice lunch while waiting for our room to be ready.  The hotel has many amenities including an animal watering hole with a camera that can be viewed from your room TV. While walking to our room we saw water buffalo and a massive herd of zebras.  When going to and from our room at night we must call reception and have a staff member accompany us to protect us from wild beasts.   We will stay at the Four Seasons for three nights.  

The highlight of our evening game drive was finding a pride of lions. Since it had rained heavily the roads were not dusty and the lions were sitting on the large rocks. They don’t like the wet ground. Eventually they came down and were able to get close to them.

Tomorrow we will go on our next game drive at 7:30 am.