We arrived in Nairobi last night and now knowing there are two immigration halls we didn't follow the crowds turning right, we turned left and were second in the queue and out in a jiff - beats the almost 90mins last time! But there are swings and roundabouts - the luggage took an age - after arriving at 2130 we were finally united with our 4 bags and in the taxi heading to the Hilton at 2230ish.
I checked in while John left two of the bags at the concierge desk -they will be collected on Monday and head North to Laikipia and the schools we support.
Although tired we woke early and were down in breakfast by 0630 -we had a arranged for Jarrard, last nights taxi driver, to collect us at 0730 - he arrived 10 minutes early and we were off back to the airport for our 1045 flight to Kilimanjaro. As it was Sunday everywhere was quiet so all went very smoothly.
Once the plane took off our flight path took us to the right of Mt Kilimanjaro (today's photo) - noticeable by its snow, today it was also surrounded by cloud, and its smaller neighbour Mt Meru......we have usually flown between the two mountains so I don't know if this a permanent routing change!
We weren't met at Kilimanjaro airport as expected but the man as we entered departures found Equity Aviation and sent them to us. They said they would be back to collect us for our 1430 flight. So we sat and had a spot of lunch and waited.
John became anxious when it was 1420, then 1425 and they still hadn't appeared but at 1430 ish one did appear. John was relieved; he took us through security then went to load our bags-little should we have worried there was only us and 4 pilots on the plane with 4 more passengers collected at Arusha before the 40 minute flight to Ndutu via Ngorogoro crater. On arrival we were collected by our guide Mdebe, ( and Masai spotter,Lenkyio) who then had to pay fees at the rangers office before heading the two and a half hours south to our camp.
The journey to the camp had some firsts - we started with a family of 5 cheetahs lying on the ground snoozing - you really got to see how long in the body they are, golden jackal, about 30 large 'teenage' ostrich chicks with their mother,lots of Kori Bustards - previously we have only seen the odd one and an African hare. We also saw the mandatory wildebeest in their thousands all over the plains, giraffe, zebra and white stork.
When we got to camp we had a briefing by Billie, Alex's partner (- followed by a swift shower before joining others around the camp fire prior to dinner being served.) We met Alex, the owner and brains behind the Serian experience, John, a tall imposing Kenyan who was both a hunter and safari guide- and as we soon found out - one of a kind- warm but with a touch of 'grumpy old man' ( being married to a man of a similar disposition I feel I have expert status on this issue - I can spot one a mile off!) and Dania a young Canadian working in the travel industry and taking 5 months out to learn more about Africa and the travel industry.
This was one of the warmest and friendliest beginnings to a safari we have had. We meant to aim for an early night but lights didn't go out until 2230 as dinner extended due to the reinvigorated art of conversation.