#Dullas Airport

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise and a North American B-25 Mitchell on display at Dulles Airport.

Date: 1986

Shared on Flickr by Dave: link, link, link, link, link, link

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 OVER DULLAS AIRPORT March 6 1990🔥

#habubrats

@Habubrats71 via x

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 123 – Back to Nairobi

We woke up early this morning as Concierge told us to try and start sorting out our flights at 8:30am, when the Kenya Airways guy would be in the Zanzibar office. S protested and said the guy would not be in by 9am. Sure enough, he wasn’t in until 9am. However, he turned out to be surprisingly helpful. He even exchanged Whatsapp details with J so we could have an open line of communication. He gave us an option to leave today at 5pm on a different airline to Nairobi, spend 22 hours in Nairobi and leave on our previously scheduled flight to Cape Town. This did not sound all that pleasant. Nairobi is having a surge in COVID, has shut down all domestic flights and this seemed to S to be a bit risky. Our only other option was the 4-stop flight on Ethiopian.

After weighing the options, we decided to roll the dice and spend 22 hours in Nairobi. We rebooked the flights, organised transit e-visas, organised our old friend, the Tamarind Tree hotel, where we previously stayed twice on this trip, and completed health declarations. We also identified a back-up plan in case the Nairobi to Cape Town flight doesn’t work.

We ordered in room service, which was fine, and packed. Dulla picked us up as planned and we headed to the airport. We joined the scrum in front of international departures and were ushered to the front of the queue and let in through a VIP line. We don’t know why. Most everyone else was Russian. We were flying Precision Air, which has no lounge, so we had to sit with all the Russians. The departures area was so packed, people were sitting next to one another and standing around. There was no social distancing, or even the possibility of social distancing and none of the Russians were wearing masks. Buying drinks at the only food counter was quite an experience as we had to fight through another scrum. Queuing is a word that does not appear to exist in the Russian language.

We almost missed our flight as there was a large group of Russians pre-queuing for a different Precision Air flight, which J mistook for our boarding queue. Thankfully, driven by a suspicion honed by millions of miles of travel, S went to the front of the queue and realised the flight was mostly boarded and these people were just standing around in front of a gate. S screamed for J to get to the gate, while they held the door.

We got on a shuttle bus that took us to our plane. The plane was a seemingly new ATR turbo prop. It was a short flight to Nairobi and pretty smooth. Surprisingly, there was even some cabin service, but no cold beer. Cashews seem to be plentiful here.

The Nairobi arrivals procedures were pretty smooth for us, but not for those people who did not complete their health forms and get their QR codes. By the time we got to baggage claim, S was again suspicious as J said the bags were coming out on carousel B, which was empty and not moving. S asked her to check carousel A, because he thought he saw one of our bags. Sure enough, there they were.

We were picked up by the hotel transport. That was much less smooth as the 20-minute trip took an hour due to heavy traffic. There was no AC and we couldn’t open the windows due to the amount of diesel fumes being produced by vehicles that wouldn’t pass US or UK emissions standards. The heavy traffic was due to the fact that everyone was trying to get home by 8pm to comply with curfew laws. Hotel check-in was smooth and they remembered us from our prior two stays on this trip. We stayed in a different room, which had the exact same layout as the prior two rooms. We were both exhausted so we tried to go to sleep. Emphasis on the word ‘try’ as J’s allergic reaction was bothering her again.

[571plumber]

95 is busy at the Dumfries 234 exit this chilly November morning as she rushes to say goodbye to her Daughter, at her mom's house. Her Daughter has seen her many times in her uniform. However today she is heading to Dullas Airport, and off for her annual reserve training in fort Bliss, Texas for a couple weeks. As she hugs her Daughter see thinks of all times she swore that she would never leave her, and She tells herself she can not cry. To her Daughter she is Mommy. To the people at the Bank where she works, she is a loan Officer. To her Reserve Air Defense unit that she is assigned, she is a Fire Direction Center Operator. SHE IS A VETERAN. www.571plumber.com (703) 878-7800 (571) PLUMBER #woodbridgeva #lakeridgeva #montclairva #dumfriesva #alexandriava #arlingtonva #dalecityva #manassasva #manassasparkva #occoquanva #herdonva #dumfriesva #fairfaxva #annandaleva #springfieldva #cilftonva #tysonscorner #tysonsva #greatfallsva #mcleanva #viennava #burkeva #oaktonva #centrevilleva #northernvirginia #fairfaxcountyva #princewilliamcountyva #plumber #plumbers #plumbing #571plumber https://www.instagram.com/p/CHcuZ-jDszp/?igshid=1j3lyuqsci9ba

[tearsforthefallen]

Happy Flynn Friday from Dullas airport:)

Im stuck for another 2 and a half hours, hope y’all are having a great day.

Flynn Friday!!

(one more week until my vacation starts, and a week and a half before getting to meet @kissedbydragonfire​ - my state may never recover)

[just-the-spare]

My mom has got me stressed the fuck out for our flights home tomorrow. We fly into Washington Dullas from Munich and then have an hour and 20 minutes to get to our next flight going back home to SC. And in that hour and 20 minutes we have to go through customs, get baggage, check baggage again, and run to gate. By myself I probably could do It, I have the customs app downloaded on my phone and ready for that and I can run from gate to gate. But my mom is slow moving and can’t walk faster than a walk so we’ll see. Idk. It’s also the last plan of the evening to SC so if we don’t make it I guess we’re sleeping in the airport till morning. She’s just stressing me out asking dumb af questions that I keep answering and she keeps asking and I’m going to scream.

[jetlagbrunette]

The First Impression!

Wednesday, August 16th 2017

It’s been three days since I’ve arrived in D.C. and I am still trying to find my way around here. The last few days have been partly rainy but always humid, not quite calling for a walk around the neighborhood.. Anyways, in the meantime I was able to adjust to the time difference and settle in. In addition I got to work on my Blog so now I can tell you about my very first day, including my first impression on Washington D.C.! 

After our plane had landed at Dullas Airport, we were all guided to immigration. There, everyone was asked a couple or more questions regarding their stay in the States. I personally felt like taking a test and was a little scared, that she was just waiting for one wrong answer that could kick me out, back to Austria. 

And I’m not even joking!  I got asked why I am here, where I’d be staying, for how long and why so long, where I’d be going during my stay, what I was doing in the States before, where I am working back home and who is taking my spot as long as I’m away, how long our summer break is in Austria, if I have a return ticket.. And. So. On. Felt like she really wanted to make sure that I will leave again!     Anyways, she let me pass eventually and also my luggage made it to the right airport this time. 

After I got picked up from the airport by Bettina and her son Hunter, we first drove to Alexandria- which is a beautiful City in Virginia, to visit some friends who’ve been having an Au Pair for over a year now. She’s from Germany and it was a really good idea to introduce me to her because it’s always nice to know someone who’s been in a similar situation before, plus she is going to show me around a little bit on Saturday which I am really looking forward to!

After that we were driving home but since they live a little outside of downtown Washington (about 20 minutes) we took a ride around the City first and stopped by a few places.

The first sight I got of the Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial..

..and the U.S. Capitol!

We also drove past the Reflecting Pool, the Botanic Garden and Union Station but I will get better pictures of all that and more once I got to explore the City by foot.

That evening we also took the dog out for a walk and Bettina showed me around the neighborhood. They’ve got a community pool, a dog park, a regular park and some little “western” stores not too far from their house. (Western because of the look: somewhat old and shabby but still kind of cool, making me feel like I’m in an old Hollywood movie)

So far, I’ve been loving the way the houses look like. It’s really got that old-town flair that I love so much and look wise it is just as how I always imagined typical american houses to be! Actually, D.C. is competing with California right now, to be honest. Only look wise, though! But from what I’ve seen so far, which is not that much, yet! -I am still really impressed and can’t wait to see what else I will discover soon.

xoxo

[casbear7]

@Regrann from @richy__m_99 - The last voyage of Discovery. I was fortunate enough to be sat on a 767, just leaving DC for London when Discovery arrived from Kennedy on her last flight to the Udvar Hazy Smithsonian Annex on the perimeter of Dullas Airport. Even more fortunate, I had the last window seat, acccess to my camera and a very obliging pilot, who requested ATC to wait for takeoff in a great location to witness the flypast. The name of that very obliging pilot, was John Glenn. Maybe a co-incidence but who knows? #discovery #spaceshuttle #discoverylastflight #NASA #udvarhazy #boeing747 - #regrann

[ibtimesuk]

Norway's former PM questioned at Washington airport after visiting Iran in 2014

Kjell Magne Bondevik unable to leave Dullas airport for after visiting country for human rights conference. http://dlvr.it/NH3jlj

[lonestarflight]

"British Airways Concorde deplaning next to Space Shuttle Enterprise. Taken while taxiing in a New York Air DC-9 flight from New York's Laguardia to Dulles to Orlando."

Date: 1986

Shared on Flickr by Dave: link

[usafphantom2]

The SR-71 Was Close to Perfect

A member of the Blackbirds’ ground crew looks back on the airplane’s flight-test beginnings to the end of the Blackbirds

This first photograph was taken of the SR-71 #972 when it was in a hangar near Dullas airport, waiting for the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to be open. Photo Eric long. The other two photographs were taken at Palmdale California December 21, 1989.

After a 480-mile flight from Beale Air Force Base in California, the midnight-black airplane swooped down to about 300 feet above Burbank Tower, less than 30 seconds after its scheduled arrival time of 12 noon. It made an easy half-roll, then completed two more passes. The parking garage roof where I stood reverberated with cheers, but as the Blackbird came in for its final pass, a hundred feet off the runway, and then pulled up just beyond the tower, the crowd fell silent. was December 1989, and this flyby, a gift to Lockheed employees from Ben Rich, head of Advanced Development Projects (the Skunk Works), marked the beginning of the end of the SR-71. After much debate in Congress, the Blackbirds were about to be retired. The YF-12A, the earlier, single-seat version of the SR-71, first flew in August 1963 and the Blackbird in December 1964. It was still unsurpassed when it was retired in 1990, 24 years after it officially entered service.

As I watched the SR-71 that December day, I thought back to the airplane’s flight-test beginnings in the early 1960s. I thought of Ben Rich, Ray Passon, Keith Beswick, and so many others whose lives were forever touched by this aircraft. I too was part of the Blackbird team, setting up housing, transportation, and communications—special measures due to the secrecy necessary. And above all of us was designer Kelly Johnson, who had a gift for sharing his ability to innovate and his drive to succeed. The unity of commitment we felt under leadership from Larry Bohanan in engineering and Dorsey Kammerer in production reached new intensity whenever Kelly arrived in the field. Sometimes he would good-naturedly arm-wrestle with people working there. His team members were hand-picked and fiercely loyal to him. He once offered $50 to anybody who could find an easy job to do. He got no takers. When it came to their specialties, the people working on the Blackbird were the best in the company, perhaps in the country or even the world. The last word in reconnaissance airplanes, the SR-71 was capable of flying faster than Mach 3 and above 85,000 feet. In fact, the SR-71 flew so fast that even in the cold of those rarefied heights, the friction of the air heated its titanium skin to 550 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the day the Blackbird took to the air for the first time, many of the ground crews showed up. I had worked all night, but sleep in those days seemed like nothing but a waste of time so I stayed to watch. The weather was perfect for a December day: clear and cold, with snow on the surrounding mountains. Somewhere around 8 a.m. the desert silence was shattered by the sound of the twin Buick V-8 engines used for the starters. Later, when the Blackbirds operated at their base at Beale, they had permanent start facilities in their hangars, but in the early days two highly modified 425-cubic-inch Buick Wildcats, an estimated 500 horsepower each, were used to turn a massive starter shaft that was inverted into the first one, then the other of the SR-71’s J-58 engines. One sound I shall never forgot is that of those unmuffled Buicks holding steady at better than 6,000 rpm in excess of 15 seconds at a time, all hours of the day and night. Starting the engines was no easy job.

Kelly Johnson stood by in his familiar dark blue suit and tie, smiling as he had a final word for the pilots.

Veteran crew chief standing next to me could only murmur, “Her enemies will never be natural.”( that was true. It was jealous people that were her enemy.)

Written by Jim Norris

@Habubrats71 via X

[usafphantom2]

Secretary of State Allen Dulles selected the wrong flight plan for the May 1, 1960, overflight of Russia in a U-2. Ironically, the last flight of the SR 71 landed at Dulles Airport on March 6, 1990!

Allies During World War II: The Russians were on the same side as the United States, so we shared information. We gave them lend-lease early warning radar, but what we didn’t count on was the Russians improving upon it. It was frustrating to see that the Soviets could track our U-2s in the 50s and the 60s. Project Rainbow: It was a high-priority project to help lower the radar signature. One idea was painting the U-2s with iron-loaded paint to help with radar detection deflection. (After they were painted, they were called “dirty birds”. )Another idea was a piano wire along the fuselage to scatter radar tracking.

Kelly Johnson (the head skunk at the Skunk Works) had determined that the Soviets could shoot a U-2 down. They were working on borrowed time, as his prediction did come true on May 1, 1960. This was supposed to be the last planned flight over the Soviet Union by the U-2

Around 1959, Kelly started working on its replacement, which was the A-12. The replacement for the A-12 after the “nice girl” competition between the SR 71 and the A-12 was the SR 71.

Grand Slam was the name of one of the flight plans that Chief of Staff General Nathan Twining reviewed before the May 1 flight. He called the Secretary of State Allen Dulles to warn him the Soviets would know this plan.. as Marty Knutson flew it less than a month ago. Dullas went on to pick the Grand Slam flight plan with no changes. General Twinning was right; The Soviets were ready to shoot down the U-2 with this flight plan.

Francis Gary Powers was picked for this flight by the CIA because he was the pilot with the best navigation skills. The thought was that their defenses would be down on May 1; it is the Russians Mayday. Their May Day is somewhat like our Fourth of July. The Soviets were ready for Powers they launched 14 SA-2 missiles.

The U-2’s tail was blown off. Kelly Johnson often wondered if it was the new black box that he put on the U-2 tail with electrical countermeasures that possibly had the opposite effect Instead of jamming the airplane it brought attention to the airplane. Francis Gary Powers was hand-picked for the flight because he was a good pilot but because he was alive after the crash., Some people who worked for the Agency the CIA were very angry that he did not kill himself. That was an option, but it was not mandatory. Kelly Johnson heard Gary Powers's story about the shootdown of his U-2 and he believed him. So when he came back to the United States, he hired him to be a U-2 test pilot.

Written by Linda Sheffield Miller c@

Source the Skunkworks by Ben Rich’s

@Habubrats71 via X

[usafphantom2]

SCOPEBARN the last flight of the A-12 article 131

There was fierce competition between the CIA and the Air Force. Both groups felt that their Blackbird was the one that the Air Force should keep flying. The budget determined that two fleets of supersonic Mach 3 reconnaissance airplanes were one too many. After participating in a contest called “Nice Girl,” the conclusion was that the SR 71 was superior because it was better equipped. But the victory over the A-12 was marginal as they both had their pros and cons. We must always remember there would never be an SR 71 without the A-12.

The SR-71 had three different cameras: 1. area search, 2. spotting, and 3; mapping. Also, a superior sensor suite IR and radar imaging that could collect electronic signals. Best of all, there was another officer RSO reconnaissance systems officer in the airplane to help manage the DEF pronounced “deaf.” this was the all-important electronic defense that was used to spoof the enemy into believing that the airframe was in a different location. Thus, it was impossible to hit their target as they didn’t know where the SR 71 was. The RSO and the Pilot became a team that worked together to achieve their mission in the SR 71. The A-12 did not have an RSO.

The CIA’s A-12s were going to be permanently retired. I am sure the A-12 drivers and their families felt the same remorse as I did when the SR 71 was prematurely canceled in 1989.

Frank Murray was selected to fly the very last flight and the families were allowed to watch. This was the first and only time they were allowed to watch an A-12 in in-flight, as the families were gathered near Palmdale. Frank Murray performed two flyby one while climbing in after burner and one following was a low approach. Very similar to what I saw March 6, 1990 with the last flight of the SR 71 for the Air Force at Dullas ,VA airport. A-12 pilots could share their achievements with no one, they are unsung heroes. They risk their life to help defend our freedom. Article 131 was the A-12 that Frank Murray flew in to Palmdale. You can see it in the foreground of this picture of A-12 tightly packed into a building at site two in Palmdale California. The other picture is of Frank Murray, and a map of the last flight and a picture of an A-12 helmet.

My source is the book “Dreamland : The Secret History of Area, 51” Written by Peter Merlin

Written by Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[usafphantom2]

The SR-71 Was Close to Perfect

A member of the Blackbirds’ ground crew looks back on the airplane’s flight-test beginnings to the end of the Blackbirds

This first photograph was taken of the SR-71 #972 when it was in a hangar near Dullas airport, waiting for the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to be open. Photo Eric long. The other two photographs were taken at Palmdale California December 21, 1989.

After a 480-mile flight from Beale Air Force Base in California, the midnight-black airplane swooped down to about 300 feet above Burbank Tower, less than 30 seconds after its scheduled arrival time of 12 noon. It made an easy half-roll, then completed two more passes. The parking garage roof where I stood reverberated with cheers, but as the Blackbird came in for its final pass, a hundred feet off the runway, and then pulled up just beyond the tower, the crowd fell silent. was December 1989, and this flyby, a gift to Lockheed employees from Ben Rich, head of Advanced Development Projects (the Skunk Works), marked the beginning of the end of the SR-71. After much debate in Congress, the Blackbirds were about to be retired. The YF-12A, the earlier, single-seat version of the SR-71, first flew in August 1963 and the Blackbird in December 1964. It was still unsurpassed when it was retired in 1990, 24 years after it officially entered service.

As I watched the SR-71 that December day, I thought back to the airplane’s flight-test beginnings in the early 1960s. I thought of Ben Rich, Ray Passon, Keith Beswick, and so many others whose lives were forever touched by this aircraft. I too was part of the Blackbird team, setting up housing, transportation, and communications—special measures due to the secrecy necessary. And above all of us was designer Kelly Johnson, who had a gift for sharing his ability to innovate and his drive to succeed. The unity of commitment we felt under leadership from Larry Bohanan in engineering and Dorsey Kammerer in production reached new intensity whenever Kelly arrived in the field. Sometimes he would good-naturedly arm-wrestle with people working there. His team members were hand-picked and fiercely loyal to him. He once offered $50 to anybody who could find an easy job to do. He got no takers. When it came to their specialties, the people working on the Blackbird were the best in the company, perhaps in the country or even the world. The last word in reconnaissance airplanes, the SR-71 was capable of flying faster than Mach 3 and above 85,000 feet. In fact, the SR-71 flew so fast that even in the cold of those rarefied heights, the friction of the air heated its titanium skin to 550 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the day the Blackbird took to the air for the first time, many of the ground crews showed up. I had worked all night, but sleep in those days seemed like nothing but a waste of time so I stayed to watch. The weather was perfect for a December day: clear and cold, with snow on the surrounding mountains. Somewhere around 8 a.m. the desert silence was shattered by the sound of the twin Buick V-8 engines used for the starters. Later, when the Blackbirds operated at their base at Beale, they had permanent start facilities in their hangars, but in the early days two highly modified 425-cubic-inch Buick Wildcats, an estimated 500 horsepower each, were used to turn a massive starter shaft that was inverted into the first one, then the other of the SR-71’s J-58 engines. One sound I shall never forgot is that of those unmuffled Buicks holding steady at better than 6,000 rpm in excess of 15 seconds at a time, all hours of the day and night. Starting the engines was no easy job.

Kelly Johnson stood by in his familiar dark blue suit and tie, smiling as he had a final word for the pilots.

Veteran crew chief standing next to me could only murmur, “Her enemies will never be natural.”( that was true. It was jealous people that were her enemy.)

Written by Jim Norris

@Habubrats71 via Twitter

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 115 – back to Zanzibar

We had breakfast this morning sitting outside and overlooking Lake Manyara. Breakfast included our favourite beef sausage and was excellent. The chef at this resort is extremely good.

Godson took us to the airport. After we boarded the plane half an hour early, we learned that what was supposed to be a short, 20-minute flight from Lake Manyara to Arusha had now become a one-hour flight stopping in Kilimanjaro. We were on the same small airplane that brought us to Tanzania, and both flights were extremely bumpy. Once again we had to disembark the plane at Arusha and come back through security to get back on the same plane. The plane then took us back to Zanzibar, which was another 1 hour and 40 minutes flight. This flight was much smoother than the prior two flights. Dulla was waiting for us and took us back to the Zuri, where Veronika was waiting for us. We have the same room again and our luggage has already been delivered. This is a very efficient service. Our welcome drink was a frozen passionfruit drink, to which we added rum from the bar. After all, we are all inclusive again.

We dealt with admin and other stuff in our room. Dinner was Mediterranean night. It was similar to the last Mediterranean night, nothing special. S did observe a funny encounter. An elderly English woman was trying to order pasta ‘al dente’. The buffet server had no idea what this meant and overheated her pasta at least once. She finally found a member of staff whose English was better, and he managed to sort it out (we think). In the commotion, the buffet server accidentally reheated S’ pasta with the English lady’s pasta. It turns out that he does know some English, as he exclaimed “oh shit!” and had to remake S’ pasta.

We had a nightcap at the bar and returned to the room. It was nice to be reacquainted with our long lost friend, the Evening Breeze bed air conditioning unit.

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 110 – Bye bye killer plankton… hello tsetse flies

We woke up very early this morning to go to the airport. Zuri organised everything like clockwork, including breakfast boxes complete with hardboiled eggs, bread, sandwiches, fruit and drinks. Dulla picked us up and took us to the airport. He has now become our driver during our stay in Zanzibar, and we organised for him to pick us up on Monday from the airport.

When we arrived at the airport, we were concerned to see a huge throng of people standing around with their bags. Fortunately, Dulla informed us these were the Russians waiting for their flight back to Moscow. S lowered his head and started forging a path through the scrum. It wasn’t easy, but we made it. We are happy to report that no little children were stepped on in the process.

Domestic departures at Zanzibar is a rather casual affair. Before entering the departure zone, we had to stop by the ‘security desk’, which is just a guy sitting under an umbrella who checked our printed airline ticket confirmation and passports. We put our bags through the scanners and went through the metal detector, which went off. Apparently that’s not a problem here and we just kept going. We found the one-person check-in desk for Coastal Air. A guy came up to grab our luggage and take it to a physical scale across the room to make sure we didn’t exceed the 15kg per person limit. He then affixed some handwritten baggage tags to our bags.

We joined the other safari aspirants in a holding pen and got some coke and beer from the coffee shop. Amusingly, J saw that the gift shop has Korean writing on its sign. We have no idea why. There was no flight board and boarding announcements were also a bit casual. They consisted of the check-in desk guys coming by and shouting out the airline name and destination. We tried to board the wrong flight a few times. Finally our check-in guy told us to stand by and he would come find us for our flight. We were finally walked to the plane, where we joined three other passengers, who were already on the plane. Before we boarded, we were shown our luggage in the hold of the plane. Otherwise, the handwritten bag tags might have made us slightly nervous given our experience with InterCaribbean Airways.

Our flight to Arusha was about 1 hour 40 minutes, which doesn’t seem long unless you are on a very small aircraft and need to use the loo. When we arrived in Arusha, our Coastal Air minder mercifully took us by the loo before taking us out of the terminal and back into the terminal through security. This time when the metal detector went off, S was asked to remove his belt, watch and wallet. The metal detector went off again, but this time they decided to let him pass without further inspection. We were then put in a holding pen. J took the opportunity to buy some popcorn. We waited in the pen until a guy came and called us by name to board the flight. We followed him back on to the same plane that we had just come off of. Once again, we were shown our luggage in the hold.

The flight from Arusha to Seronera was only around an hour, but was extremely bumpy due to high winds. We both had to control our air sickness. S helpfully pointed out that there were air sickness bags in each seat, just in case. We skidded to a landing and exited the plane. S contemplated kissing the earth, but thought better of it as it was a dirt runway (hence the skidding). We were met by our Serena guide, Godson. He loaded us into the standard Toyota Landcruiser. Like Dona’s car, this one has a pop-up roof and windows that only slide partially open.

We headed off down the dirt road to our first lodge, Serena Serengeti. Almost immediately, we spotted two lions that were courting one another under a tree. We only saw them briefly as they ducked down and hid in the tall grass. Thankfully Godson also has binoculars, which he loaned to S. On the way to the lodge, we saw a variety of animals, including a warthog, impalas and baboons. While we were viewing the impalas, we met another resident of Tanzania, the tsetse fly. Tsetse flies are bloodsucking parasites, that resemble western horse flies. Apparently their bite is quite painful and stays itchier longer than a mosquito bite. Fortunately we were only annoyed and not bitten. At that point, Godson said he needed to drive quickly as we were driving through an area with a tsetse fly infestation and he did not want to let them get into the car. He lent J an animal hair fly swatter, which she used liberally, including smacking Godson in the head to protect him from flies, and S in the eye as he was collateral damage. These are no ordinary flies – these suckers are mean and aggressive.

We then arrived at the lodge and were ushered straight to lunch as lunch was ending. J spent most of the time googling tsetse flies, bite prevention and how to repel them. The answer is – good luck. Even DEET is not 100% effective and they can bite through your clothing.

Lunch was three courses in a beautifully decorated lodge, with wood carvings and overstuffed leather chairs. We only saw one other group dining and they oddly seemed to be on business as they were wearing business casual reminiscent of S’ gorilla trekking attire. We had a zucchini soup and a fruit cup and J also had a main (stir fry chicken). J seemed to get the benefit of this lunch as by the time S had given J all his watermelon, there was almost no fruit left for him in his fruit cup. J’s cup, on the other hand, runneth over with watermelon.

We were then taken to our room. The standard rooms are in a thatched roof cottage. There is one room on the ground floor and one room up a ramp. We have a gorgeous view looking out over the Serengeti and one of the windows looks out on a tree filled with different, colourful birds. The room oddly has lodge décor but resembles a hotel room. There is even a hotel phone to call reception, something we haven’t seen in any lodge to date. The staff had made an elephant towel creature for us and left us an impressive bowl of fruit. The room and bathroom are smaller than our previous lodge rooms, but are practical and clean. We already know that we have electricity, WiFi and a fan, so that’s a step in the right direction. This place is run very professionally and has a bit of a corporate feel. After our experience in Uganda, this is not necessarily a bad thing. S is particularly happy as while there are some stairs, all are clearly marked so he can see them.

We were told that we are strictly forbidden from walking alone at night as there are dangerous wild animals walking around the property. Instead of the usual Masai guards, J saw a guy in camouflage gear holding an AK47. We assume that he will be our escort tonight.

As we didn’t have a game drive this afternoon, we decided to try out the pool, which is a few feet from our room. It is kidney-shaped, shallow at both ends and more than 2 metres / 7 feet deep in the middle. There is even a full-time pool guy who clearly doesn’t have much to do as no one was using the pool today. He thanked us for stopping by. He saw us check it out earlier today and was worried we weren’t coming back. He set us up with two padded sunloungers in the shade and got us some cocktails and towels. His name is Musa and he’s from the Lake Victoria area. He spent a lot of time chatting with us – he’s clearly bored and keen to be helping out guests. The pool was nice, albeit a bit cool with a few flies (thankfully not the blood-sucking ones). Musa told us during the very dry season, animals stop by to drink from the pool as it’s only lightly chlorinated. He said they’ve seen lions, leopards, giraffes, buffalos and zebras.

Dinner was another 3-course affair. We skipped the starters and just had mains and dessert. S had the veggie fusilli and fruit cup and J had the black pepper beef tenderloin with a cheese plate. Fortunately for S, there was only a limited amount of watermelon on his fruit plate, so he got to eat most of it.

After eating, we decided to sit in the bar and finish our wine in the bar’s outdoor seating area overlooking the grounds. This turned out to be a perfect viewing spot for dik-diks. The dik-diks basically stayed there the entire time and did not run off. J got to watch them eat and lounge around, while they watched out for leopards. We also heard some not too distant hyenas making their usual whooping noise.

Our escort this evening is very knowledgeable and friendly. He likes to point out animals with his torch as he guides you around. J asked him to get close to the dik-diks, which he did. He said the dik-diks live on the grounds and are not afraid of humans. It is safer here as the cats don’t come around as frequently, but the dik-diks still get killed by leopards from time to time. In a tree right next to our room, he pointed out bush babies, which J had not yet seen. Bush babies are nocturnal and only come out at night, so they are hard to spot. All in all, we had a nice evening.