January 15, 2015 Journey to the Serengeti. First stop - Dunia Camp, Seronora

As we get ready to leave Ndali Lodge (pronounced En- dali) for the flight to the Serengeti, one of the part-time employees, Corneilia (who is completing her PhD. in Psychology in England and a friend of the owner, Aubrey Price) gives us a little history of the place.  Aubrey's grandfather originally bought the mountain property and several surrounding hectares to pioneer tea growing in the region when it was still part of the British Empire in the 1920's.  It was eventually passed on to his son (Major Price) and his daughter on his death. The Price family lost the property during the Idi Amin regime of the early 70's but when the current President came into power, he invited former landowners back to reclaim their land if they could prove their previous ownership.  The Price Family reclaimed it and the Major and his sister decided to building the lodge in 1994.  They attracted several investors through friends and family back in England to invest in the lodge,  many not thinking that they would ever see their money again and found this perfect spot to build the lodge on top of the mountain, overlooking a crater lake called Nyinambuga.  Unfortunately the Major died in 1996 so did notget to fully realize his dream and his son Aubrey and the rest of the family inherited it in trust.  Aubrey has since moved there permanently, married a local indigenous girl, and the business has prospered.  They employ between 40 and a 100 local people given the vagaries of the tea and tourism economy but have managed to pay off all of the original investors.  There are only a handful of bandas (cottages) connected to the Lodge and the privacy and inspirational setting allows them to charge a hefty sum. ( A little tidbit.....their Internet service was suspended just before we left since they had used up their monthly allowance primarily from me sending so many photos back to you folks).

So we are finally on our way to Serengeti via regional flights flew Kessase-Entebbe-Tarime-Seronera.   Entebbe poses a bit of a challenge since the lodge has made us box lunches for our flights.  Security will not allow you to take food or drink on a flight but a Coastal airlines employees claims the lunch as his walks us through security and $2 later, the lunches are loaded in our cabin.  Our pilot, who I referred to as Captain "Junior" Johnson has barely any peach fuzz on his face and is flying solo.  His idea of keeping the cabin cool while taxing down the runway is holding his door open with his left arm while in motion.  Okay.....I guess we are in for a good time!  Nonetheless, flying at 7,000 to 8,000 feet above the African savannah is a real treat because it is clear and you can see for miles spotting game roaming in herds.  For a couple of legs, I actually sit in the co-pilot seat so I created a couple of videos including "pilot speak" for your viewing enjoyment. We do a brief pit stop in Tarime to clear customs where there is 2 coastal airline employees and an immigration officer waiting for us purely to clear customs.  The immigration building is a circular structure maybe 10 feet in diameter and is one of only two buildings still with a roof.  The customs officers asks us to bring our passports and a "pen".  Unquestionably a top drawer operation. Customs takes all of 15 minutes and we are back up in the air after waking the the pilot for our last 1/2 hour of flying and we now starting getting a sense for how vast the Serengeti really is.  We land at our final destination the airport in Seronera and are greeted by the manager of the Dunia Camp, Angel (yes a woman) and our lead guide Pascoe.  The land cruiser is absolutely beautiful with an elevated roof in the centre so we can stand up during safaris.  I speak briefly to Pascoe about my keen interest in seeing the migration and he starts the "tap dance" about the dry season, etc. and maybe not seeing the herds of wildlife we would be hoping to.  He was wrong.  Not a 1/4 of a mile out of the airport do we come upon two African lions sleeping under a dead tree.  And one of the fellows was good enough to raise his sleepy head so I could take a fantastic picture of him that I have sent to some of you.  (Anyone wanting the picture please email us at dianeb586@gmail.com). This was quickly followed by a group of Zebras, ostriches, close up and personal with a gigantic giraffe, vervet monkeys, more lions, elephants, exotic birds, vultures and several herds/harems of Impalas with male leaders. They sure have their priorities right in the Serengeti!

We finally arrive at the Dunia Camp delayed only an extra hour of travel time from all the photo shooting, and we come upon this tented community that literally blows you away.  A huge dining room tent, a separate  bar tent, a sitting area tent and then gigantic tents for each of the occupants (I'm talking at least15 feet wide by 35 feet long).  Our showers are bucket showers and the washroom itself has got to be 10 feet by 15 feet.  All the tents are permanent structures and rival western hotel rooms.

We start the evening off with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres around a bush camp fire with all the other guests before sitting down to a 4 course meal.  This is what I call roughing it. We do find out that wildlife comes into the camp freely (Impalas were behind our tent when we were showering) so when dark falls you use a walkie-talkie to have one of the employees lead you to and fro your accommodations to other parts of the camp.

We stay up to about 10:00 a.m. before calling it a night and leave the front flap open on our tent but with a zipperedscreen to watch the sunrise and listen to the wildlife throughout the night.