Sept 23 - Boats, Bush Planes and Buses

Today's the big travel day home.

Kungwe Beach Lodge by boat to Kigoma Air Strip.

After an aborted take-off and a 3-hour wait for a new bush plane that did not have a faulty heat gauge on the left engine, Kigoma Air Strip by bush plane to Kilimanjaro via Tabora Air Strip (to refuel).

After a hurried goodbye and a sprint ... a sprint to the gate, Kilimanjaro Airport by jet to Amsterdam via Dar Es Sallam.

Amsterdam to San Francisco by jet and bus to Ross.

If all goes as planned, it will be a 38 hour trip - door to door! It was worth every cramped, bumpy, hot, uncomfortable minute - what an AMAZING trip! We cannot wait to see the girls though! It sure will be good to be home!

Sept 22 - Highlights

Here are some highlights from Katavi.

Sept 20 - first chimp trek

Love the chimps!

Sept 21 - chimps!

We hiked with the chimps today. They were playful, demonstrative but just generally ignored us.

Sept19 - Katavi to Mahale

Today we flew from Katavi to the shore of Lake Kungwe in Mahale.

Sept 18 - Big Cats

Sept 17 - Game drives

Started the day w an early morning game drive. First stop: hippo wallowing hole. Stinky!!

Sept 16 -puddle jumper to Katuma national park via Tabora

After waiting for the spotlight to arrive, we took a puddle jumper to Katuma flying over scorched earth.

Hippos in the Katuma river.
Crocodiles
Leopard in a tree
Monkey family
Buffalo - dead and alive
Water bucks
Impalas

Sept 15 - Arrived at Kilimanjaro airport - safe and stiff

Sept 14 - Set a course for adventure

27 hours in transit begins now!

Chairs!!

August 21 - Come hell or high water ... we are moving in

Well, we pushed and pushed and pushed our GC and have gotten the go ahead for moving in tomorrow.  It won't be done, done but it will be done enough to move in.  How many times have I seen my friends moved in with blue painter's tape for drawer pulls and paper plates taped up as vent covers? So, now we join their ranks.  Once the kids are home from school, there will be some semblance of a home to come back to!  Hope springs eternal.

Will post pics tomorrow!  The house is really beautiful!  Aside from the basement (which is where we will keep the touch-up paint and dead bodies), the rest of the house has undergone such a transformation, it's probably unrecognizable!

So excited!

August 12 - Beginning of final week

It's not possible that the summer has slipped away and next week is back to school time! What happened? We didn't do anything fun! All we did was babysat our remodel. It's so sad. What will Jacqui write about when they ask for their summer memories? Phineus and Ferb marathons every day? Taking fun adventures to Home Depot? Sitting in the car at the new house while we met with the structural engineer/builder/electrician ... What a waste. We don't have very many good summers left - before you know it, they will choose staying home to wait tables over traveling to Europe with us! Well - maybe we have a few years before that happens!! 😉

So we have 2 rooms done at the house and the tile guy is coming tomorrow! Progress, slow & steady ...

August 7 - safe travels family!