Even scheduled flights are erratic in the bush, and it was recommended that we arrive at the airstrip an hour in advance. it is not unknown for a plane to arrive 30 minutes early, see that there is nobody at the strip, and leave immediately. At Ndutu we would leave Julius (the best driver in the world!) who would be home with his family near Arusha by nightfall. Here he poses for one last picture with David and Catherine.
It was about this time that I realized that I had forgotten to put the tip in the Staff box at the lodge, so we made a quick run back to do that, hoping that the plane would not arrive and leave before we got back. Fortunately the airstrip is only five minutes from the lodge, so we made it back in plenty of time to drop our luggage off at baggage check (left).
The drone of an aircraft engine was soon heard, and we watched as the Cessna Caravan made a low pass down the airstrip to check for wildlife. Apparently, giraffes are the bane of pilots in Africa because of their height and erratic behavior. A quick landing on the gravel strip and it was time to pile our things into the cabin, say our final goodbyes to Julius, and fly north.
I was fortunate enough to parlay my pilots license into permission to sit right seat on the way north. This gave me the opportunity to talk to the pilot, who was from Ohio and looked about 26. He had visited Africa a few years earlier and just never went home. Bush flying in this part of the world is an odd mix of high-tech and stick-and-rudder. The plane had a flight director and GPS, but there are no navigational aids like VORs or NDBs. There aren't even VASIs on the runways - you are lucky if there is a windsock. The good news is, though, that the Serengeti is so flat that finding a place to land in an emergency would be no problem.
The landscape of the Serengeti went through an almost magical change during our flight north, from dry and brown in the south...
To luxurient and green near the Mara River. It seems it had been raining regularly for a couple of weeks. This would be both good and bad - we would see the Endless Plains (what Serengeti means in Maasai) at their best, but it might adversely affect game viewing. We would have to wait and see.
We were soon on the ground at the Kogatende airstrip and retrieving our luggage from baggage claim...
A pleasant surprise on arrival was the spread of tea and cookies laid out by our new driver, Malaki. This was a pleasant perk of staying at Sayari, a high-end camp in the northern Serengeti. There is also something of tradition about it, but more about that later. The main purpose behind this was to 1) welcome us and 2) give the driver time to process our arrival paperwork. There is a lot of paperwork that goes with a safari.
Paperwork done, our driver asked if we would like to game drive along the Mara River on the way to Sayari camp. It was still early in the day, so of course we answered yes. I wasn't really prepared for what came next...
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