Homeward Bound

Day 59 & 60       15^th & 16^th November

We flew north to Mzuzu, with stunning views over Lake Malawi and much better visibility than when we flew in nearly 2 months ago. 

We refuelled and cleared customs, then on to Dodoma, Tanzania, with lovely views of tea estates and forest plantations below as we flew over the highlands.  

We had stonking headwinds all the way, making the flights even longer, and we finally arrived at Dodoma late afternoon to find that all the hotels were full due to a conference!  Thanks to a kind taxi driver, we ended up in a $20 per night guesthouse in town that was decidedly ‘local’ but at least it was clean and no bed bugs!  Never did a nice cold beer taste so good!  Wish we could say the same about the chicken & chips...

We were airborne by 7.30 am the following morning, thankfully with better winds, and after a brief stop in Mwanza to refuel, and a further stop at Entebbe to do the customs & immigration bit, we landed at Kajjansi at 1.45.

What an adventure it has been!

60 days

6 countries (7 if you include Uganda)

37 separate flights

60 hours of flying

5944 nautical miles

10,700 kilometers

Our little aeroplane has done us proud – apart from needing to pump up the tyres a couple of times, she has gone like a dream.  All the lodges we have stayed at have been fantastic on the whole, with friendly staff and vehicles that have collected us from airstrips on time every time – and no jackals ate our tyres!

Now it is down to sorting and editing around 300 GB of photos and videos – we not only took clips of interesting animals and their behaviour, but also had a GoPro on the plane, recording some of the scenery we flew over!!  We will continue to add the best of these to this blog site in due course for those not on facebook, and you can also follow my wildlife photography on https://www.facebook.com/Sherry-McKelvie-Wildlife-Photography-863968497007463/ if you enjoy it.

The plane will be up for sale early next year, as it is just too expensive to run privately, so if you know anyone that wants to buy a brilliant little Cessna 206, please tell them to get in touch (serious enquiries only!)

Thank you to all of you who have been following us, and especially to the team who were monitoring each flight on the Skytrack system.  We can see from the blog site that around 80 or so of you have been regular readers, but we don’t know who you are (apart from family & close friends of course), so if you can spare a moment to share who you are and from which country, please can you add a quick comment below?

Thanks so much.

Sherry & Jeremy