March 22 and 23, 2025

Namiri Plaines Camp, Bariadi, Tanzania

To

Seronera Airfield, Seronera, Tanzania

To

Airport Planet Lodge, Kingori, Tanzania

To

Kilimanjaro International Airport, Kilimanjaro Airport Road, Tanzania

To

Dar Es Salaam Airport, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

To

Schiphol (Amsterdam) Airport, Schiphol, Netherlands

Will this morning started out well with cappuccino and a good breakfast. 08:00 and it was time to get into the Land Cruiser for the two-hour ride to Seronera. During the ride we came upon a heard to 250,000 to 500,000 wildebeests and zebra. We literally drove through them over the course of 10 to 12 kilometers. Not the “great” migration, but clearly a migration to greener pastures for these creatures. The great migration numbers in the millions.

Along the way we also saw a cheetah drinking from a pool of water by the roadside. This is probably a great way to finish up this safari.

We got to the Seronera Airfield just as it had gone 10:00. Our flight is at 11:20. We went though check-in, got our bag tags, then went though security into the departures lounge.

The place was packed. Apparently, there are four of five flights that all leave around 11:00. Now mind you we aren’t taking about a lot of space in the first place, but when you fill a small space with 40 or 50 passengers it can get a bit crowded.

A couple planes arrived and they called various color boarding cards. Brown, then orange. It had just gone 11:00 when they called for yellow boarding cards. We were yellow. We watched as they baggage handler put the bags into a wheelbarrow like luggage carrier and wheeled it out to the plane. We followed him towards the airplane.  We walked out on to the field and boarded the plane.

There was one two-person bench seat available in the third row. We had to squeeze ourselves down the twenty-centimeter-wide isle to get to it. All twelve seats were now occupied. The pilot turned around and gave us the preflight talk. You know – buckle your seatbelt, no smoking, in case of emergency the exits are at the front and rear of the plane, oxygen masks will be made available should it be necessary. The flight was going from here to Kilimanjaro then on to Arusha.

The flight took just about an hour to Kilimanjaro. Nine of us the got off in Kilimanjaro. They unloaded the luggage next to the plane and then asked us to identify our bags before entering the terminal. They then put the bags on a cart and took it to the terminal. After identifying our bags we walked to the terminal and waited for our bags to arrive.

Having retrieved our bags, we had to put them through an x-ray machine before leaving the terminal. Someone from the Airport Planet Lodge met us just outside the terminal, took the cart with our bags, and then directed us to a van to take us to the hotel.

We have made this trip once before upon our arrive two weeks ago. We followed the same route and drove past the under-construction bridge on the way to the hotel. The hotel is only about ten minutes from the airport and just on the other side of the construction from the airport.

The Airport Planet Lodge is surrounded by a security fence. The gate opened and we entered a beautiful garden and nicely paved roadway. Past manicured lawn and flowering trees. Into the nicely appointed lobby. Turned over our passports and were asked to take a seat while they processed them. As we did so they offered us a cool towel to refresh ourselves.

Then it was off to the room. We walked through a park like setting to Room 7. The room was good sized. It had a hot water pot so I could make tea, a nice-looking shower and it even had air conditioning! We went to the hotel restaurant and order lunch. Not really hungry but we have to leave for the airport before dinner starts.

It was nothing fancy, just a hamburger and fries. Then we went back to the room for a nap. I tried to use the internet to upload yesterday but it kept glitching. Finally, four hours later I was able to get it uploaded.

We were scheduled to take the 19:00 shuttle to the airport. We are supposed to be there two hours before the departure. Mind you if we are three hours early we will arrive before KLM Flight 569 arrives from Amsterdam. It is the same flight we took to get here from Amsterdam.

We actually went up front about 18:30 to settle the bill and be on time for the 19:00 shuttle to the airport. We were all checked out and ready to go by 18:35. We were going to just sit the the lobby and wait, but they offered to go right then, so we took it.

The departures area didn’t look like much. Before even entering the airport they scanned our bags. Once inside you are standing in line for the checking. We have Sky Priority so we stood in that line. There was a man in front who took forever to process. We were to far away to see or hear what his problem was, but we did notice that the economy line would have been faster.

Once checked in and our bags taken, we then stood in line for immigration. This was also a slow arduous process as well. Again, there are just some people who can’t follow instructions. Fortunately, they were in the other line this time.  Hat off, glasses off, look into camera. Through …

Because we are in business class on the flight back to Amsterdam we were given access to the Twiga Lounge by Aspire. This is a new addition to the Kilimanjaro airport. It is o pen to all travellers, regardless of airline or class of travel, for a fee, or as in our case because it’s included in the price of the ticket.

The lounge is furnished with Tanzanian style, culture and taste. They have used Tanzanian fabrics and local materials. It however remarkable up to date with reclining chairs with integrated charging points. The lounge has a fantastic view of the loading area and runway though floor to ceiling windows.

They offered both food and beverages. They served a selection of African, Asian and International styled dishes. I tried the beef goulash and basmati rice. It wasn’t half bad.

Flight 569 arrived from Amsterdam at 20:27.We watched though the window as they unloaded the plane, which would have gone well except for the bunch of college age kids who insisted on waiting on the tarmac for their friends to deplane. Security wasn’t happy about it, but the “kids” just ignored them. Finally, everyone was off, and they could begin the cleaning and refueling process.

This is our outbound flight, same flight Number and all, it was supposed to depart at 21:50. Just about an hour and a half on the ground here in Kilimanjaro. Cleaning and refueling took a little longer than it was supposed to so boarding didn’t begin until after it has gone 21:15.

Flight 569 leaves Kilimanjaro and goes to Dar Es Salaam. We were loaded up and ready to take off by 22:00. The flight to Dar Es Salaam took all of forty-five minutes. The business class seats are great. Unfortunately, we have to wait until we take off from Dar Es Salaam to put the seat into bed mode and get to sleep.

The screens on Mary and my seats had some sort of technical issue. So, there was no movie. The Wi-Fi, and android based system, was having trouble interfacing with the iPhone and iPad, so that was a bust. However, by the time we figured all that out we had landed in Dar Es Salaam.

We were on the ground in Dar Es Salaam just a little bit more than an hour. Wheels up. Seat into the bed position. Sleep. It was really that quick. About four hours into the flight, I woke up. Still no wi-fi nor entertainment. They offered us breakfast, which we took. Fresh fruit, yogurt and granola. Then we both managed to fall back to sleep.

Fun fact about Tanzania – Dar Es Salaam was the official capital of Tanzania until 1974. The government held a nationwide party referendum after which it was announced that the capital would move to Dodoma. The idea as to create significant social and economic improvements for the central region of Tanzania and to centralize the capital within the country. It wasn’t until over twenty years later that the capital was finally moved (1996). Sounds a lot like our brothers in Brazil.  

We both woke up again as they were calling for the landing at Amsterdam (Schiphol) airport. Our scheduled landing time was 07:40 and we were going to be a few minutes early. Deplaned, through immigration in a flash, the EU passports are a God-send. A bathroom break while we wait for our bags. Finish the break and our bags are here.

March 23, 2025

Loaded on to the cart. Walk through customs and into the beautiful Amsterdam airport. We make a beeline directly for the Sheraton here at the airport. The front desk greeted us and before 09:00 we were in our room. Shortly later we were in bed asleep.

It had just gone noon when we pulled ourselves out of bed and decided to go to lunch. We checked out the two restaurants here at the hotel, but the food seemed too much or too fancy. We decided to head to the airport and just get a burger at Burger King.

We have lunch at Burger King in the airport and then walk around. We did try and check-in but for some reason we couldn’t. I had tried online earlier and couldn’t. We’ll figure it out later. We raided the Starbucks and prolonged they supply of honey packets – Thank you Starbucks.

We stopped at the supermarket which is in the terminal and picked up some toothpaste, a snickers bar and a Coke Zero before heading back to the hotel. We stopped in the club room. Mary chose a seat while I went back to the room and got the cards. We played a game of canasta – I won, and then went back to the room to relax.

The day had been a busy one. We are glad we choose to take a day of rest stop in Amsterdam. We had 14:00 hour tickets to the Van Gogh Museum, just in case we had the energy, but alas we’ll have to come back to see the Van Gogh Museum.  

We each did our own thing. Mary put on a set a nails. I worked on my blog. The we decided it was time to see why we couldn’t check in for tomorrow's flight. So, we walked back to the airport.

After a while we walked back to the airport and to the KLM check-in area to see why we weren’t able to check-in online for out flight tomorrow to Torino. They were very nice and extremely helpful. They couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t check-in. She thought maybe it was because we were on the flight from Tanzania and that hadn’t cleared they system as being finished yet. The bottom line is we got our boarding passes and are now checked-in.

Afterwards we walked back towards the hotel thinking about dinner. We looked at a couple places in the airport, but it wasn’t another Burger King type night. We though we might go to the restaurant in the hotel. However, we looked at those menus before and nothing really struck our fancy.

We walked onto the Hilton, which is also attached to the airport but a longer walk from the terminal. We remembered checking it out once before on another trip but for some reason the restaurant was closed. Tonight it was open. There was a nice looking steak on the menu for two, so we went with that. It was accompanied by French fries.

The steak was excellent. The fries were amount the best I have ever had. They tasted like they had been fried in beef tallow – like the old days. No pictures, no names, apparently they are revamping the restaurant and menu at the end of the month. Too bad.

We then walked back to the hotel and packed our things up. Our flight is at 09:30 tomorrow morning. Breakfast here at the hotel at 06:00. We have heard horror stories about the baggage checking process, immigration and security. Apparently, many people have missed flight or been detained by long lines. So, were going to go three hours early.

Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria