Tanzania Part I: Stow-away on a flight to safari

I'm going to parcel my Tanzania trip posts out into two separate parts since there is so much to tell. The first one describes the first 3 days of Melody and my trip to Tazania, which was primarily safari. Part II will talk about the next four days, which we spent in a beach town.

My first time as a stow-away on a flight

Meeting Melody in Zanzibar

My flight out of Kigali was seamless and everyone was friendly as usual. I was supposed to  fly from Kigali to Kilimanjaro, have an hour and a half layover, then fly from Kili to Dar Es Salaam to meet Melody. When we landed at Kilimanjaro Airport, the announcement called for all passengers who are staying aboard for Dar Es Salaam to remain on-board. I thought it'd be strange if we sat on the tarmac for over an hour, but I decided not to question it and just stayed on the plane. I was going to Dar, after all. About 25 minutes later, the plane door closed, everyone buckled their seat belts, and I realized that I was a stow-away. I guess I was supposed to get off at Kili and board another flight, but thanks to open seating, the difference must be a little less noticeable (unless of course there was a typo on my boarding pass after all). Nevertheless, I was happy for this once I got to Dar because the Visa line was insane and I surely would've missed my flight with Melody to Zanzibar if I hadn't gotten there early like I did.

Zanzibar Airport departures and arrivals for
the day on a dry erase board

Since we arrived so late in the evening, Melody and I stayed one night in Stone Town, which is the historic capital of Zanzibar (Zanzibar used to be a separate nation from Tanzania) and planned to catch an early flight to Saadani, where we were going to safari. The next morning, we got to the Zanzibar airport and went to the gate for "Precision Air," which is a pretty ironic name for this airline as I'll describe later. The departure and arrival time information board was hand written on a dry erase board and everyone just kept telling us to "wait." While we waited, we met a British couple who were also going to Saadani. There's only one place to stay there, so we knew we were on the same plane. About 10 minutes before that plane was supposed to take-off, we were finally led out to the tarmac to start boarding. We see a large jet with "Precision Air" on the side and all four of us start moving that way. But wait, that's not our plane. One of the attendants starts eagerly waving over to another plane...one so small that I hadn't even noticed it. :) So, we squeezed into a six-seater (including the pilots), but thankfully everyone's anxiety is reduced when we look down and see the beautiful views we're flying over.

Zanzibar from the plane

On the six-seater to Saadani

Our plane landing / taking off from a field

However, the best part comes when we are descending to land. All four of us are looking out the window wondering the same thing "where's the airport?" Sure enough, we land right in the middle of a field! It's actually pretty neat.










The lodge at Saadani and how Costas fell in love with a tree

The lodge at Saadani

The lodge in Saadani National Park was above and beyond anything I could've expected.  The owner, Costas, has a passion for nature and said that he "fell in love with a tree" and decided to move to Saadani and build an eco-lodge when his home country, Burundi, was suffering a tragic civil war. Every detail of the lodge captures Costas' passion for nature. The shampoo is made of seaweed and of course there are no plastic bottles to be found, the towel racks are made of drift wood, and the whole place is powered by a few solar panels. There are about 15 small bungalows that make up Costas' lodge, all on the beach. I thought it was one of the most unique places I've ever stayed.

Saadani Village market

As you saw in the last post, Saadani National Park also contains a small village that has been there since the 1300's. Approximately 1,200 people live in Saadani Village and Costas has worked hard to make them the beneficiary of the tourism he's created in the park. Saadani people grow many of the fresh fruits and vegetables used at the lodge, and Costas's newly-formed NGO donated an entire school building. We enjoyed checking-out the village and it was fun to hang out at the school, passing out candy. Since the village is primarily agriculture-centered, children only go to school for six years (up to approximately the age of 11 or 12).The market in this picture is where a lot of the agriculture is traded and/or bought/sold.

Safari
The main attraction in Saadani are the animals, which can be seen by "game drives" (where a guide drives you out into the bush) and one "river safari" (a boat down the river). It's incredible to see some of these animals in the wild: giraffes, hippos (my favorite), wilde beasts, wart hogs (every single one of us shouted "Pumba!"), crocodiles, and the highlight of our game drive...lions! We all heard that it was extremely rare to see lions, but on that same field where our plane had landed landed the day before, we saw about five of them hanging out. Unfortunately it was too dark at that point to get a photo. They didn't really run away from us as we approached, but then I guess they weren't so worried - they're lions.

Baboons and monkeys everywhere

Melody driving the jeep

Pretending that I'm driving the jeep :) Posed...yes.

A huge crocodile!! You're not allowed to swim in the
river because it was full of these guys

Ok, more to come about Tanzania later! Have a wonderful week everyone! I love and miss you all!

Love,
Meredith