Saturday, January 20, 2024
Today is our last day in Africa and we enjoyed a late start. We repacked for the trip home with some rather odd packing methods such as jewelry in empty water bottles. We fit most of it in our bags but Gayle gave her Maasai blanket to a staff member.
We went on a short game drive on the way to the airport and flew in a prop plane over the wilderness and volcanic mountains back to Arusha. The pilot had to rev the engine to keep zebras and wildebeest off the runway when we took off. It was a nice, short flight, got in a Regal-Africa van for a short drive to a complex of stores and restaurants at the Cultural Heritage Center.
We had a wonderful buffet lunch, toured the African Art Gallery, and were then taken to the Under the Shade Safari Lodge where our trip had began. We were given a day room to use for a few hours. We got the same room we had on the first night of our trip.
We were taken by van to JRO airport and had no difficulties there. Gayle treated herself to a hamburger and gave her fries away to Molly. The flights home were uneventful and we had a little time in Amsterdam to say goodbye to the rest of our group and to look around at an art gallery there. We also had a snack with Kendra before we had to split up to our gates.
We had a longer layover in Atlanta so went to a restaurant for lunch. We arrived at BWI, got our luggage, caught a shuttle to the car and cleaned snow and ice off the car. We were home about midnight, Sunday night, which is 8am on Monday Tanzania time.
We took it easy for several days. We were tired but excited about our trip.
