Sneaking out of school

This was written a couple of days ago ...  internet access now difficult because laptop has been tinkered with, bummer!  May not be able to get it fixed until Rome.

At the moment I’m in another world.  We’re at Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge and the sun is rapidly setting over the crater spread below.

I snuck out of school, a week and a bit before term finished and the kids were going to be on holidays.  It was strange to leave and saying goodbye to a lot of people and ‘see you soon’ to a few new friends wasn’t as easy as I’d expected.  Alex arrived on Wednesday morning, and Gemma had offered to drive out in her vehicle to collect him.  We chatted the whole way out, and arrived not long after his flight was due to have arrived.  Kilimanjaro “international” airport looks like Cairns airport used to look like in the early 1980’s.  There’s a runway, and a small building.  Oh, and a car park with no signage, but spread out under all the trees.  We entered the building to check to see if his flight had arrived or whatever, and it wasn’t listed.  After confirming we had the right day, we both just assumed it was an ‘African’ thing and there was nothing to do but wait.  Sure enough, he sauntered out with his backpack soon enough and so we headed back to school.  Gemma gave him a tour of the Usa campus and also the Moivaro boarding campus on the way back, along with a running commentary to answer his questions on whatever he saw, as well as the story of starting and building the school and the impending changes.  It’s Alex’s first time in Africa and to have this sort of introduction was priceless. 

Wednesday passed in a blur.  At school there was barely enough time to meet a few people and see part of the school before we headed out for lunch with Gemma to the nice restaurant next to the Kijenge supermarket, up near Impala roundabout.  We then confirmed all the details for our safari, and it was time to get a dalla dalla into town and then walk down to Michel’s as we were meeting Natalie for dinner.  It was nearly midnight when we got back to school – so much for plenty of time to show him the Moshono campus properly …  it will have to be on the ‘next time’ list.

We met Peter, our Maasai driver/guide early yesterday morning after a final few goodbyes and then we headed off.  On safari.  No more cute kids, bells at the end of lessons, recess breaks playing ball, schedules of jobs to do, or time in the office.  Suddenly I was exhausted!

We had an extended stop in Mto wa Mbu.  It didn’t take long to drive there – 7 years ago there was a new road built and Peter said it now takes about 45 minutes drive instead of a few hours.  Progress again.  Mto wa Mbu had also grown up and is now a major town in its own right.  They’d had big rains the previous night and there was some clearing up going on in parts of it.  We had time to have a walk around for quite a while and it was nice to not have any set schedules to follow, and to have plenty of time to just “be there”. 

Just down the road from Mto wa Mbu is Manyara National Park.  We stopped to allow Peter to get all the paperwork now required for entries to National Parks, and also to lift the roof in places so we can stand up if we wanted to.  The weather was good and we set off.  We saw several large colonies of baboons, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, lots of bird varieties, bushbuck.  All before a picnic lunch.

After lunch though, we came across a few elephants.  Too close for my zoom lens so I had to change lenses.  We then moved along the road a bit, following the noise, and came across a sight to behold – a large herd of elephants, some really young.  There was a large waterhole and when we arrived there were about a dozen elephants wallowing and having a ball in it.  Lots of splashing, trumpeting, pushing and rolling over and over.  One group would finally clamber out and wander off and the next group would make their way over and gradually all get in.  There were two young bull elephants hanging back, ‘playing’ and learning how to challenge each other.  I was in heaven – so many elephants it was hard to know where to point the camera next, and most of the time it was just wonderful to stand and watch.  Peter was amazed – a sight like this is relatively rare.  Alex of course, just assumed it was par for the course and almost seemed to have the attitude “now we can cross elephants off the list”.  Doh!!!

We left the park not long after, and spent the night in luxury in the Lake Manyara Serena lodge.  I’m still more used to camping than lodges, but as much as I still like camping, I have found a new skill in being able to adapt to lodges quite quickly.  I won’t go on and on and on and on about the food.  Suffice it to say that there is no chance this time that spending an extended period of time in Africa is going to result in having to buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes.  Not like being in Zimbabwe last time.

This morning we had another couple of hours in the same park – but didn’t see a repeat performance with the elephants.  It was a relatively short drive from there to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where we are now.  We arrived at this lodge in tiiime for a late lunch.  And what a lunch …..  And an afternoon relaxing, like I suppose people do when they’re on holidays.  I’m thinking I could get used to this.