Visiting the Serengeti was the last part of our adventure. By the time we left the Ngorongoro Crater, Bill and I were worn down and sick. On day two in the Serengeti, the lodge called for a doctor to see us. This took about 36 hours.
To our surprise, the Serengeti is a ragweed minefield! Bill is extremely allergic to ragweed. I was diagnosed with bronchitis/walking pneumonia. The doctor offered us some herbal medicine and when we asked his visit/medicine fee... he said no charge. We pressed a bit and he finally let us pay him.
Bill quickly got better but we had to leave a day early. Avoiding a hot and bumpy day journey we asked Gregory to coordinate a flight to the Arusha Lodge. I was treated for pneumonia shortly after returning home.
Now to get to our amazing experience!
Part I: Getting to Africa via Istanbul
Part II: Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
Part III: Exploring the Ngorongoro Crater
Click here to view our travel log (travel with us virtually)
Part IV: The Serengeti
I was sad to leave the Crater. I could have spent a month in this area.
A little more official than the old fence greeting us at Kili.
A 2-3 hour drive turned into seven (road conditions, animal crossings, etc...)
We had a day of travel ahead of us, stopping for lunch at the Olduvai Gorge. I'm not sure what is more intriguing, learning about the archeological dig or being somewhere where Louis Leaky stood.
To our surprise we bumped into Michael and Camie from Maryland, a couple we met while climbing Kilimanjaro. We often commiserated about the annoying trekker (farting, and talking about bowel movements for hours on the trail) whom we tried keep distance.
This is my last post from our Africa Adventure. A lifelong dream of mine, to touch Africa. Made a bit more exciting when I finished an Ultramarathon and asked my friend Eleanor "what's next"... she said she wanted to climb Kili. Her battle with cancer was long and tough, I will miss her forever. I wish I would have asked her for a list of five adventures.
Enjoy the gallery below - Adventure awaits!
 |
| This sums it up - it's dry season... flat, brown, dust blowing |
 |
| Everywhere you look you see giraffe's |
 |
| Bill slept while I snapped this photo: Cheetah... looking for lunch? |
 |
| Serengeti life... everyone's here to 'game drive'. Gregory told us some people will sit for four hours hoping to see an animal. We were quite lucky to see cheetahs and Leopards. |
 |
| You can't escape the dust, can you see the dust that got inside my camera.. ugh. I will remove these spots before printing. Still... another amazing sunset in the Serengeti |
 |
| Netting is a must but in the dry season the bugs are not bad |
 |
| This IS the Serengeti airport - Bill is a pilot and could have flown us out to there (that's how small the planes were). |
 |
| We flew from the Serengeti, back to Kilimanjaro, waiting to gas up and head back to Arusha for one more day |