Doing circles in the seringetti

Basically I've spent the last week flying a kind of airbourne bus service around the Seringetti.....Drop 5 Americans here, pick two Brits up here that kind of thing.
My first night away from Dar es Salaam was in a city called Mwanza on the southern shores of Lake victoria. The city is nicknamed the rock city, it has lots of rocks. After having a sundowner at the water front Hotel(that my company had paid for). I had a early night so I could be fresh for the morning as I'm only begining to learn my way around the Seringeti.
The next moring my taxi was late, I have never been one to enjoy the African saying 'hurry up and wait'. Well he finally turned up, depositing me at the airport less than 30 mins before I was supposed to be airbourne. No worries though I managed to be airbounre at 0900 or there abouts.
After my second stop in the Seringeti called Ndutu I had a short flight to a another airstrip at Lake Manyara. But in between the two strips is a 9000 foot mountain range and the world famous Ngorogoro crater. Now having the freedom of decision that which is apart of African bush flying I decided against climbing over the crater wall. Beacuse on the Eastern side of the crater there is usually a morning build up of cloud meaning I would have to find a hole in the cloud to descend down through.....this not being a favourite practice of mine. I instead skirted around the South of the mountains low level via lake Eyasi. It only took an extra 5 minutes which is fine by me.

Lake Manyara airstrip is a airstrip to write home about at the eatern end of the strip is a 700 foot cliff. With a heavy load of tourists on board the aircraft was only about 20 feet off the ground as i went over the cliff and in a blink of the eye we're 720 feet above the ground. I must make a video next time I fly in there.

From Lake Manyara I flew to Arusha to refuel the aircraft and refuel myself with rice and beef. 1230 was airbourne for Seronera. Crossing the mountains North of Ngorogoro at 12500 feet weaving this and that to avoid the massive build ups of towering cumulus and also the 12000 foot mountain hiding in the cloud nearby. I passed through this obstacle with no worries, but half an hour later as I approached my destination the sky was very black. The thunderstorm must of been having a laugh it was bang smack on top of the airstrip I wanted to land at. I had three attempts fo find the airstrip around the storm before turbulance, heavy rain and lightning scared me off. Luckily as I had only one passenger onboard I had a little extra fuel for such a predicament. I ended up circling 5 miles from Seronera airstrip for 15 mins before the angry thunder cell moved on. I picked up my 5 American passengers from the now extremely water logged gravel airstrip and headed back to Rock city. There I spent another night behaving myself and having only two beers.
The next day back to the Seringeti to a place called Sasakwa where I was to spent the night in a Safari camp....perk of the job.
The day after that I was off again in the Caravan out of Sasakwa to Lake Manyara-Arusha refuel and then back home to Dar es Salaam for two days off. The morning started with 3 tsetse fly bites whilst pre flighting the plane. I seem to be allergic to their bites and get big itchy welts that last for days. Anyway when I landed in Lake Manyara I had a surprise to find I had a celebrity to pick up it was Seth Green he is alot shorter than I thought and I'm not tall. check the picture.
Anyway that was the highlight of my Saturday as I flew back down to the humid coast for my days off at home.

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