Serendipity

From the moment I arrived at the airport on Thursday I've had the most amazing good fortune. I changed my flights easily. No que when I arrived, so check in took ten minutes. I was more than ten kilos over weight (which should have cost 248 pounds extra), but when I told the lady at the ticket desk I was bringing donations for an orphanage she waived the charge.

Sitting having a glass of wine in an aiport bar I looked up and saw my friend Kym, from DC who I haven't seen in months. She had just flown in from India and was flying at the same time as I was to Uganda, so we had an hour to catch up while waiting to board.

My seat was 13A which I thought was a good sign. It wasn't until I boarded the plane I realised I've been given an upgrade so I had loads of leg room on my ten hour flight. The woman next to me was from Zanzibar, lives on the beach and has invited me to stay with her family if I go.

When I landed in Dar es Salaam customs was a breeze, my suitcase was intact and came out very fast. I was at the ticket desk to buy my connecting ticket to Mwanza in less than 1/2 an hour, which was extremely lucky because when I asked for a flight to Mwanza they said one was leaving in twenty minutes and held the plane for me.

The flight from Dar to Mwanza took about two hours and was very smooth. I got an amazing picture of the very top of Mount Kilimanjaro poking through the clouds, and saw the Ngogoro Crater from the air. Tanzania is so huge and so empty. Flying over it you just see huge areas of fields and wilderness.