The day of the Cessna Carravan

The day after we saw the chimps, it was time to leave Uganda for Tanzania. We got up early, as usual, for our flight from Kasese aerodrome to Entebbe. The air service to these far flung airstrips we’ve been going to is sort of like a shared air taxi service. There’s not really a schedule or a route until the day before when they work out what bookings they have, so it’s all a bit haphazard, though it does sound like its actually reliable. They exclusively use Cessna Carravans in an 11 passenger + 2 pilot configuration. Today we found out that they would take us from Kasese to Kihihi (basically the opposite direction of Entebbe) where they’d drop us off for about an hour while they went to Kisoro and came back to get us. Then we flew from Kihihi to Entebbe.Once there we took a whirlwind tour of the airport guided along by an employee of our next airline, which was sort of a private charter airline using a similar ad-hoc route system. Out and back in again, through security and immigration and customs and such. Then we walked out across the tarmac to our next Cessna Carravan.This time we flew from Entebbe to Kibale, Rwanda. From there, we went to Mwanza, Tanzania for immigration and customs into Tanzania. This was a shocking amount of paperwork for Ebola checking and some additional paperwork for something even though we already had our visas filled out and paid for ahead of time. Though everyone was actually very friendly and chatty.After we were all cleared for immigration (there were just four of us on the plane) we went on the drop off the other two at Kogatende airstrip in the north part of Serengeti park, just this side of Kenya. Finally we were on our way to our airstrip, arriving about 5 pm. We were met by our ranger and taken to our rather amazing “tent” at “camp.” The safari vehicle even came equipped with beers. On our way we saw a small family of jackal cubs right by the road, and a lion!After a week without reliable power and internet, this place was a revelation.