Africa Trip 2024 - Day 3, Flight to North Serengeti NP

 [This is post #5 of what will be multiple posts about our 2024 trip to Africa. To go to the first post in the series CLICK HERE.]   

We were up bright and early on Thursday, September 12, for our flight to Serengeti National Park.  We  checked out and hung around at the front desk, which is outside!

The "front desk" is under the overhang to the left.  I guess the fact that it is outside speaks volumes about their mild climate.

It was only a few minutes before Joseph arrived.  We loaded up and were off on the five minute ride to Arusha Airport.

Joseph with the Africa Dream Safari van.  It is a Toyota Previa!  That brought back memories.

Once we arrived at the airport, Joseph disappeared with our checked bags and our passports while we waited out front in the waiting area.
 

Waiting area outside of the airport

 He returned almost immediately with our boarding passes.  

Joseph with our boarding passes

We then proceeded "inside" to a different waiting area.

I put "inside" in quotes, because the front of the room is open to the runway. 

View from our seats in the waiting area.  On the left there is the nose of a plane on the tarmac getting ready to take on fuel from the fuel truck.

It wasn't long before a ground crew member came up to us and quietly said it is time to board.  He led us out to the airplane, with a brief stop at a baggage dolly to verify he did in fact have our checked bags.  There were only two other people on the plane.  The man in front in the picture below and one other.

Making our way to the plane.  Ours is the one with the orange tail, a Cessna208B Grand Caravan. 

We were quickly on board.  The checked bags went somewhere under the plane.  There were no overhead bins or space under the seats. Our carry-ons (our backpacks) went in an area in the back just inside and to the left of the door.  

There were 12 seats in four rows of a 1-2 configuration.  However the airline, Exel Air, lists its capacity as 13, so I guess the co-pilot seat can be used as a passenger seat as well.

We had three stops before our final destination at Kogatende Airstrip in northern Serengeti NP, with people getting on and off at each stop.

GPS tracks for days 3-11.  There is no track for day 12 which would close the loop from the blue line (bottom center) back to Arusha.  Red is the flight on the prop plane from Arusha Airport (lower right) to Kogatende Airstrip in northern Serengeti N.P. on the Mara River (upper left).  Darker green background is Serengeti N.P.  The somewhat lighter green to the east and south of Serengeti is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.  Crow miles from Arusha Airport to Kogatende Airstrip is 173 miles.

At one stop I watched as a large number of people get off the plane next to us.  It was easy to see with the very small access hatch why they insist on small soft-sided baggage.

This plane is the same carrier and I believe the same kind of plane as ours. All the baggage which had been stored in the cargo hold is now on the cart next to the pilot.

 As we got further north, we could start to see animals.  We first saw them beside the airstrip.

A line of animals, probably wildebeest, walking parallel to the runway in the distance

It was not much further that we could even see them from the air.

A herd of animals in the lower right, with a line of animals streaming up and to the left across the stream.

There was so much to see that the time passed quickly.  We took off from Arusha at 8:45 am and landed at Kogatende Airstrip at about 10:45 am.  

 

Preparing to touch down at Kogatende Airstrip--just dirt and no noticeable lights.  At least there were no animals in the way, apparently not an uncommon occurrence.

There was probably a terminal building somewhere, but all we could see were the many safari vehicles waiting for their clients to arrive.  There are at least six or seven airlines that have scheduled flights to this and the other airstrips in the area.

Some of the many waiting safari vehicles.

We quickly met up with Fazal, our wonderful guide, who came out to meet us.  We got everything stowed in the vehicle, made a quick pit stop, and were off.

That's our vehicle, the khaki green vehicle to the left.

Our safari vehicle, like almost all of the ones we saw, was a modified Toyota 4x4 Land Cruiser.  There were two seats in the front which was essentially the cab.  For us in the back there were three rows of two seats.  There was an electric cooler between the last two seats filled with water and soft drinks.  There was a hard top that could be raised, making the van a great photography blind.  The sides of the vehicle were enclosed.  We did see a few open vehicles, but those were mostly used by a few of the camps that provided their own game drives.  The open vehicles cannot be driven between parks nor are they permitted in Ngorongoro Crater or other areas with lots of animals that might jump onto the vehicle, such as cheetahs and baboons.

Later in the trip overlooking the Mara River.  The top is not curved.  That is distortion from the wide angle lens of my GoPro.

I was a little too short to use the railing for taking pictures while standing on the floor.  However, when I took my shoes off and stood on the seats it worked great.

Of course, I could also shoot through the side windows. 

We were barely out of the entrance to the airstrip when we began to see animals, lots and lots of animals.  There seemed to be wildebeest everywhere.

Lots of wildebeest next to the road

As we quickly learned, where there were wildebeest there were almost always zebra.

Some of the many zebra

There were also a variety of  "camp followers", such as vultures, to take advantage of the animals that did not make it.

Lappet-faced vulture

However, we were getting these pictures almost on the fly, because our guide was making a beeline to the nearby Mara River with hopes of seeing the wildebeest make a river crossing.  

Yes, we made it to the river.  Yes, we saw a river crossing.  Yes, we saw a whole lot more and even squeezed in a "Hemingway style" lunch.  But all of that is the subject of the next post.