T-minus 51 weeks.
Much has happened since the last post. Most importantly, we've actually committed to going; with money. We chose an itinerary in late February of next year. Angela wanted to see calving and baby animals, and the busiest calving season is February, so that settled that. After that, we worked with Thomson to build our pre- and post-safari trip to include a day in Arusha hiking around Mount Meru before setting off the next morning; and 4 nights on Zanzibar after we get back from the bush. We found a place called "Matemwe Bandas" in the village of Matemwe. Thomson was great working with us to include this "extension" as they call it. We'll head to Zanzibar directly from the Serengeti when everyone else is going back to Arusha to wait on their flights home.
There's a fair bit to do on Zanzibar. Not far off shore from our beach hotel is the Mnemba Atoll and its epic snorkelling and diving. There's the Jozani Forest, with its population of Red Colobus Monkeys (the only ones on the planet). There's Stone Town, with it's Omani history. The beaches look amazing; the water looks amazing; the bandas look amazing. It should be a fantastic way to unwind after our time in the bush.
The last part of our plans have just started to take shape in the last couple weeks or so. I was doing some budget planning for airfares and trying to find a better way to get to Tanzania other than going through Amsterdam and decided to check out Emirates going through Dubai. Well, what do you know but Emirates from JFK to Dubai and on to Dar es Salaam is significantly cheaper than any itinerary from Atlanta to Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro. Of course, we have to get from Dar to Arusha, but there is a new low-cost carrier in Tanzania called FastJet that we can use that flies twice daily to Kilimanjaro International Airport from Dar es Salaam and it's probably going to cost us less than $100 for both of us to fly that leg. We're already heading home from Dar anyway, so it works out perfectly. Now, all I have to do is get us from Atlanta to JFK. Easy peasy. So now our trip will consist of 2 nights in Dubai, 2 nights in Arusha, 8 nights in the bush, and 4 nights on Zanzibar. Not too shabby. Not too cheap, either.
