Unfortunately, we were supposed to depart at our tour at 7:30, but due to needing to pick up paperwork at our tour company's office (which didn't open until 9), we didn't get on the road until almost 11. HAKUNA MATATA! After filling out our paperwork, we were finally able to start our adventure!
There are 11 people on the tour with us, in addition to our 2 guides/drivers, Calisto and Mark. Besides myself and Jon, there's....
Julie and Marcus - a couple from the UK who own their own retail business (they are continuing the journey all the way down to Cape Town, South Africa)
Roger - an Australian expat who lives in Pittsburgh and is a retired DEA officer (also continuing down to Cape Town)
Jodi - an Australian lawyer who has already traveled to Africa several times (and is ending her journey in Lusaka)
Grizelle and Jessica - best friends who are nurses from Canada (ending their tour in Dar es Salaam)
Mike and Jackie - travel companions from Newberry, England (originally from Liverpool so Jon was quite excited to talk soccer with them! They'll be ending their journey with us in Vic Falls), and
Marilyn - a South African accountant (who will be heading all the way to Cape Town).
Our multi-hour delay this morning gave us several hours to connect and begin to get to know one another, which was rather nice. While we haven't gotten the chance to connect with everyone yet, they all seem like really great companions who we will (hopefully) be very happy to spend our time with!) Additionally, pretty much everyone in the bunch is VERY well traveled, either taking off months at a time to go and tour around or living in several countries/on different continents. It has already been fascinating hearing everyone's travel stories and I look forward to hearing more. I'm hoping Jon gets even MORE inspired to do what we're doing right now in the future!!
Once we set off, we stopped at a gas station for some snacks and the restroom, and then stopped once more after that for a picnic lunch. Everyone worked together washing, slicing, and dicing, to make our lunch - mystery meat sandwiches on the side of the road :-p with meat, fresh vegetables, and a bunch of spreads.
Our next stop was border patrol, first in Kenya, then in Tanzania. While relatively uneventful, it did take us about an hour at the crossing for all 13 of us to go through customs on both sides of the border. But after the crossing we both now have 2 additional stamps and 1 very pretty Tanzanian visa in our passports :-D.
After that it was back on the road for more driving before arriving at our stop for the night, the Ndoga Lodge in Arusha!
It took us a LOOOONNNGGG time to get to Arusha. Super long. We didn't arrive until most of us were passed out in the truck around 8:00 pm. We had a short introduction to what the next few days would be like, and then were given an hour to shower and pack up our bags for our journey to the Serengeti tomorrow!
While I started packing our smaller bags for our 3 day journey to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, Jon showered and told me it was the best shower he'd had since being in Africa - hot and good water pressure. However, the shower (which is not quite a shower but rather a shower head in the middle of the bathroom) began to flood into our room a bit... luckily Jon takes shorter showers so only a little got in our room and it wasn't that much of a problem. Regardless, I was pumped for a nice hot shower! We then ate dinner and had a longer chat with our tour guide, Calisto, about what to expect over the next 3 weeks.
After dinner, Jon decided to hang out at the bar for a bit with some of our travel mates while I headed off to shower. However, because we only had one key to the room, he basically had to luck me in so that he could go to the bar and I could shower without anyone being able to come into our room. So I was good and stuck for a bit, which was fine since he said he would come back after 1 or 2 drinks.
I was so excited because Jon had said how great the shower was. I turned on the faucet to warm up the water...annnnnnddd it never started warming up. So I shut it off and tried the cold water handle (maybe they were opposite?) That didn't work either. I tried both at the same time. Still no luck. Awesome. FREEZING COLD SHOWER IT IS!! I wet my hair and lathered up my hair with shampoo...before realizing that the water had been on for quite a while as I was waiting for it to warm up. I sprinted out of the bathroom to find our bedroom floor covered in water!! I quickly picked up all our belongings and any Tanzanian power cords I saw on the ground before running back into the bathroom to finish showering.
After showering, I got dressed for bed and realized that I had no way of telling anyone that our room was flooded - I was locked in the room! Fortunately, we were in basically a small hut on the ground floor and I was able to climb out the window to get help!***
Needless to say, Jon was a tad bit surprised when I showed up at the bar! I explained what happened, we found some hotel staff to help clean up the mess and then we were quite ready to go to bed!
It was pretty ridiculous but also pretty hilarious. It was definitely one of those examples of "when life hands you a super clogged shower drain, you laugh, rinse off, and be thankful that you can have a positive attitude" :).
***Sam F-H - this reminded me of when we climbed through the window at our hostel in Guatemala after we got locked out!
Jess' and Jon's highlight of the day: meeting all of our wonderful travel companions!
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