Tanzania Trip Day 1-2

It’s not easy to get to Tanzania. Our journey started by getting up for school Monday having finished our packing the night before losing some sleep also to nervous energy, getting through a school day preparing to miss the next five, and piling in the Cape Destinations bus after a nice sendoff from the assembled parents, wheels rolling at 1430. The bus ride to Logan was quick, going against traffic, and check in at Delta went smoothly. After grabbing some dinner in the terminal, we boarded the A330 and settled in for the 1930 flight to Amsterdam.

The plan was to try to sleep through this flight to set our body clocks closer to our new time - this was partly successful. This was a nice flight with a dinner after takeoff and a breakfast before landing. We landed 0815 local time (jumping forward 6 hours), and after a long want through Schiphol Airport, got to our gate, got another snack, and got on our 777 for our 1015 KLM flight to TZ.

 In theory we would stay awake for this flight so as to be ready to sleep when we got to the hotel. But of course, most of us slept for most of the almost 9 hour flight, given our exhaustion. We didn’t get quite as much food on this flight - a nice dinner after takeoff but only a small snack before later. We landed in Arusha at 2045 (2 hours further ahead) where most of the flight deplaned - those going to Kilimanjaro and the other main tourist spots like the Serengeti.

We got up and stretched for 30 minutes, then the plane loaded up with those on their way home from Arusha, and we took the 45 minute flight to Dar Es Salaam, arriving at 2230. There were only about 40 people who got off in Dar, so customs wasn’t too bad, though it’s never quick. We then met Taylor Klinefelter, our TFT Trip Manager, and loaded in our bus for the drive to the Triniti Guest House.

It was midnight by the time we arrived, and after getting our room assignments, checking in with our families on our first wifi in a long while, we settled in for a fitful sleep at about 0100. These are some intrepid travellers - looking forward to seeing Africa in the daylight!