Day 63: November 6: Lake Minyara

Day three of the safari. We again awoke early, but this time we had to pack up before we set out and that took longer. Breakfast was good, with eggs, toast, fruit and all sorts of beverage selections. After stopping at Twiga camp on the way to the lake to drop the gear and our cook, we arrived at the gate of Lake Minyara National Park and waited quite a while for Emanuel to get his credit card to work. By the time we got inside the park it was 9:30. Luckily we saw some elephants really up close right away. Soon after that, Emanuel saw simba tracks in the sand and by some grand stroke of luck, we saw a few lionesses with their cubs (so adorable!!!!) in the bush.

We continued to see hippos, baboons, flamingos, twigas, and zebras in great abundance but still no leopards. Graham was especially disappointed but we all knew it would have taken a miracle.

When it was time to go, we headed back to Twiga Camp to pick up Mike the cook and to drive back to Arusha. When we arrived at the office, there were two other people who had just hiked Mt. Meru. The guy, whose name was Guy, was trying to settle his flights. We felt bad that his flight was canceled until we realized that it was our flight as well!!! We were angry that the airline hadn't called when it happened so that we could have booked with another company. Now that everything was closed as it was after 5pm, we had to call around. The only other flight going to Dar in the morning was full! We thought about the options, but in the end driving seemed the only solution until the travel agent called the other company and asked if we had been bumped automatically onto the full flight. And we had been! Hooray! Those insane frantic 45 stressful minutes were for nothing. Except that we still had to get there real early to make sure we had first priority, whatever that was supposed to mean. Getting up at 3:30 seemed daunting but we were relieved to be able to catch our flight out of Dar at 2:30 pm the next day. We always have problems leaving a country!

Back at the ranch, we busied ourselves getting ready for dinner and packing for the next morning. We were surprised but not surprised that Suzanne and Jan had organized a dinner party. It was lovely as usual although we didn't get to try out the dance mix that they had prepared for after dinner. It was late and we had a lot to do.

Goodbyes were sad, but we are kind of getting used to them. We know that we can always get in touch if we want to. Saying goodbye to Graham was much harder for Karla as she probably won't see him for another eight months to a year. He's off to Taiwan to teach English. Very exciting!
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