Our nonstop flight from San Francisco to Dubai was over 15
hours, on a giant Airbus 380. After waiting for a bit at
baggage claim, the info desk confirmed that our bags
were checked through to Dar es Salaam. We took a taxi to the
Carlton Downtown Hotel, and checked into our rooms with a view
of the Burj Khalifa.
Another taxi dropped us off near the Dubai Mall and Burj
Khalifa fountains, but it took us a while to figure out how to
get close enough to see them. We had kebabs for dinner in the
massive food court in the Dubai Mall.
We waited at baggage claim for a while before confirming that
our bags were checked through to Dar.
We watched the fountains in front of Burj Khalifa from a nearby
hotel.
We had kebabs for dinner in the massive Dubai Mall.
The mall has an ice rink, dinosaur skeleton, and more than 500
stores.
The next morning, we went back to the airport for our five and half hour flight
to Dar es Salaam. A driver from Authentic Tanzania met us at
the airport, and dropped us off at the Coral Beach Hotel. He
said a different driver would be back to pick us up at 5am for
our domestic flight to Iringa.
We walked along the Indian Ocean at low tide, and had dinner
overlooking the ocean as the sun went down.
view from our room at the Carlton Downtown Hotel
Our plane from Dubai to Dar es Salaam was parked a 12 minute bus
ride from the gate.
We stayed at the Coral Beach Hotel, overlooking the Indian Ocean
on the Msasani Peninsula.
We walked along the Indian Ocean at low tide.
We had Kiliminjaros at the ocean view bar.
We had dinner at a table on the sand as the sun set over the
water.
We boarded our 14-seat Auric Air flight as the sun rose, and
flew an hour and a half west from Dar es Salaam to Iringa.
Our driver and guide Rashid met us outside the airport and
loaded everything into our safari vehicle. The truck had a
pop-up roof, six raised seats, a cooler with water bottles,
and a power bank for charging.
On the way from the airport to Iringa, we stopped for a short
walk up a hill to see the Igeleke cave paintings. The Iron Age
paintings are protected from the elements by an overhanging
rock, and include impala, elephant, and giraffe.
In Iringa, we picked up produce and other supplies for
the camp and visited an ATM for Tanzanian shillings. We bought a
packed lunch from Neema Crafts, a shop that employs people
with disabilities. The paved road ended just outside the town,
and we continued on a dirt road for about two and a half hours
to the entrance of Ruaha National Park.
We went to domestic terminal of the Dar es Salaam airport for
our early flight to Iringa.
Evan sat in the co-pilot seat; the pilot told him not to touch
any of the controls.
flying west from Dar to Iringa
Baggage claim at Iringa Airport
shark rock on the way to Igeleke cave paintings
view below shark rock
Our guide described what's known about the Iron Age rock
paintings.
An impala and hunter, elephant, buffalo, and giraffe, painted
thousands of years ago
Black dots mark a disaster; white dots mark thanksgiving.
walking back down from the Igeleke paintings
We stopped at the produce market to pick up supplies for the
camp, and bought some tiny bananas for snacking.
The paved road ended just outside Iringa.
We stopped at a cafe in a village for lunch. We bought cokes to
go with our packed lunches from town.
Our first animal sighting was a giraffe along the road, just before we
entered Ruaha.