Travel Talk

Really Loving Africa

Greetings,

Update: Connection is ~barely legal, can’t upload photos.

Hello from Njiro, Tanzania.

I write this at a friends house while a doberman and a Masai dog stare at me from the garden. I’m in Njiro which is a town outside of Arusha, Tanzania. First impressions are that the roads are worse than the worst cottage road in Canada, the people seem incredibly friendly, you can live exceptionally comfortable here and flying is a lot of fun.

First few days were relaxing, eating great food, visiting people and some local hang outs in and around Arusha. This morning woke up and my friend suggested I come with on a trip into the Serengheti. At 10 am we took off and flew over the Ngorongoro crater and landed on this random dirt air strip where a truck dropped off some people to be flown to another camp.

On the way in saw some wilder beasts, zebras and giraffes. Giraffes are seriously cool creatures and forgot they even existed until my friend was like “hey, check out that giraffe”. It was like 300 feet from us when we were outside on the landing strip.  Also flew the plane for a bit, never done that so over the Serengheti seems most appropriate.  It was a really cool experience, lucky to have been able to partake.

Interesting place here this Arusha and it brings a real mosaic of expats. A lot of pilots here as it’s a good place to get the hours needed to start moving into bigger planes for larger pay checks. Also a lot of NGO from insert acronym here.

Did I mention it’s also the gateway to the Serengheti, as a result many tourists do come through here. Have yet to see many. There are “overlanders” which are these massive trucks that have bunks or beds or chairs that are beds and lock boxes for the guests. May just jump on one of them one day, who knows? Seems alright?

Oh yeah, Mt Kilimanjaro is here. Did you know there is a direct flight from Amsterdam? Now you do, interesting entry or exit plan from Africa, yes? If you are coming here, skip Dar Es Salaam and go straight to Kili, many surrounding countries offer flights(should have done that). Getting a visa here is easy if you have $50US. Also found out that my passport is filled. Need to get additional pages added.

Finally, there is a lot of poverty here which is extremely obvious. Sort of reminds me of Asia in regards to how busy the streets are only there are less businesses or food stands. More people just sitting around. Also, have not seen a street light, anywhere.

I’ll be here for a while, so far loving Africa.

If you want to do one of these trips, have the means and the guts, DO IT. Changes your whole perspective on everything and realize that how any one thought pool can be very knowledgeable but also incredibly ignorant at the same time.

Tips hat,

Leave a Reply