In the last few days in Kampala I slowly pack my things and say goodbye to some really great people. I leave with a list of phone numbers and a phone full of well wishes. I board the plane which I have a 1 in 10 chance of surviving on (according to statistics of planes in Africa). The flight is short and smooth and I write in my journal: From the plane window I can see the cooking fires so far away in the darkness. True to Africa, they have let me buy the ticket an hour before departure, waived the excess baggage fee, and departed 3 hours late. I arrive in Nairobi at night and spring the money for a taxi and nice hotel. In the morning I take a shuttle 6 hours south to Arusha, Tanzania. Visa fee- $100. Arusha is where I will be leaving for safari.
I spend the afternoon walking around, bargaining down safari prices, comparing companies, and making some friends. The next day I take the bus to Moshi to see Kilamajaro and it is immense, rising out of the flatness, and dissapearing into a cloud. Apparently, only 1 in 10 actually summit according to a guide I am talking to. Who knows- maybe I am misunderstanding.
Safari departs in the afternoon and in the morning I am driving through the Ngorongoro Crater Reserve. I drive for 3 days standing on the back seat of a landrover and watching the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater sprawl out in front of me. I listen to my IPOD as we drive. I keep my shirt over my head to spare me from the African sun. I spend my evenings with the guides, drinking warm beer, and talking about absolutely nothing. The animals are incredible. I drink my coffee amoungst elephants and gazelles. I see zebras and wildabeast like schools of fish. It's a fitting analogy because the Serengeti feels like the ocean: vast, flat, rippeling in the breeze. I see a leopard and cub sleeping in a tree, the illusive black rhino, and sit in a pride of lions. Elephants, girraffes, antalopes, .... only 10 feet away. It's beautiful.
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