Our team had made it down to Arusha on a public bus, all of our gear strapped under tarps on the roof at the Heron Hotel in Nairobi, picking up a few people at the local stop before making our way out of Nairobi and to the Tanzanian border.

At the boarder we debussed and followed the assembly line, Departures from Kenya, Vaccinations, Arrivals, and Visa. The Covid vaccination requirement had just been lifted a month before my arrival, but I still carried my vaccination card with the rest of my vaccination information. The Yellow Fever vaccination was the biggest one they were looking for.

Before I had left home I had stopped by my county’s Public Health travel advisor; a Nurse who specializes in what vaccines and health advisories you want caught up in for each region of the world. I HIGHLY recommend this, as I was able to get caught up on a couple other vaccines that I may have let slide… but going to a third world country would definitely want. I also got my malaria tablets and found that there are multiple versions of such a beast. Some people on our trip had daily ones, where as mine was once a week and you take it a couple weeks before, during, and a couple weeks after your trip. I became the envy of the campground as others were constantly reminding each other “Did you take your malaria tablet today?”

Once through the vaccination line, the subsequent lines became longer and longer. If there were ever the description ‘organized chaos’, this would be it. Some people missed a line so had to go back, a local woman with a child skipped lines and just waited at the front until someone let her cut. The visa can be paid for at the boarder with a credit card, even though they will definitely tell you they prefer cash.

A story from one of my travel companions was that a member of their previous group was paying cash and told more than what the visa was supposed to be, the official pocketed the difference and issued the visa. Unfortunately this isn’t all that uncommon. Additionally as an American, the fee was already twice that of other nationals, so I made sure that I had that set aside with my passport for when it was time to go through it was already budgeted. You are also able to apply online and take care of every thing digitally before getting there, I would just make sure you keep good documentation of it.

The assembly line of customs took some time, and I was extremely grateful to my GAdventures guide who helped navigate the flow and help make the border crossing easy-peasy.

A note to the photograph savvy: it is highly illegal in both Kenya and Tanzania to take photos of government buildings, officials or signs. Thankfully I knew this before going, but you will be reminded. We drove through a military area and we’re warned not to take pictures until the guide said so.

Once back out at the bus with our luggage that was unloaded and brought in for collecting, we hoisted them back up to the roof attendant who strapped them back down under the tarps. Waiting for the last of our crew and bus driver to finish customs we were surrounded by Masai women selling trinkets, which were met with a solid ‘No thank you’, but they would still try their tenacious marketing methods.

We reloaded onto the bus and continued our journey south. Some lulled, myself included, others gazed out the window at the passing villages and cattle farmer that were making use of the vast landscape. The occasional Baoboa tree amongst the Umbrella trees that speckled the landscape. At one point during the drive I saw a camel running down the side of the road. I didn’t get a chance to get a picture, but looked around the bus in an incredulous “did anybody else see that!?” only to see that there were only a few people left awake. I had asked Hamdam, our guide about it later, and he said that some of the people who moved down from North Africa would bring their camels with them.

We eventually rolled into our gated hotel, the Outpost Lodge in Arusha and had a chance to settle in a little before our evening meeting.

The lovely lofted area that had a living-room feel is where we gathered for the run down of what the safari portion of the trip was going to look like. We met up with another group of 6, brining our total to 14. They had just finished climbing Kilimanjaro the day before, and slugged up the stairs to the loft. Coming from a mountain region where I am on search and rescue, they were the magnificent 6. I usually need motivation for a hike and do more hiking to lakes and landmarks, summiting isn’t something I’ve done in years… and here were 3 Aussies in their 20’s and 3 Canadian retired business guys who went to summit the tallest peak on Africa at 19,000 feet. All except one summited because of falling ill at basecamp. Every. Single. One. earned some serious respect from me.

Hamdam gave a similar spiel to the one he gave in Nairobi… Look for eyes before leaving the tent…

Yellow eyes are probably a herbivore, no worries. (My mind still narrated, ‘hah! large animals… I’m good with not trying my luck if I see eyes.’)

Red eyes, please, for the love of god, don’t leave your tent. Those are Lion.

Next time…

We load up the Pop-Top, meet our drivers for the next few days, and start in the village of Wto Wa Mbu.