We were awakened at 3 am by heavy rains that ended at 5 am, so when the porters brought hot water at 6:15, we were still rather tired and damp. Some french toast, bacon, fruit, tea, coffee and juice fixed us right up, though. We loaded our luggage into the Land Cruisers and set off to gather the rest of our group from Seronera Lodge. Along the way we saw the rock where the lioness had rested the day before, but she had been replaced by a male with a luxuriant mane.
We encountered a number of obstacles along the way to Seronera Lodge, including a jeep that got stuck in a partly washed out low-water bridge (Exaud towed him out with his cable) and a spot where the road was too flooded to cross; we waited a while for the waters to crest and recede, but when we heard a hippo nearby we decided it was too deep and we'd be better finding an alternate route. The back way was much longer and not without its own challenges, including a tree down across the road, a number of muddy spots and large (but shallow) puddles, but Shange and Exaud triumphed and we made it to the Lodge, albeit two hours late.
After a quick pit stop, we loaded the rest of the group and their luggage into Exaud's Land Cruiser and we headed for Arusha, a 6-8 hour drive (depending on stops and road conditions). While we did not stop to look at any animals, we still managed to see quite a few along the way. Before leaving Serengeti National Park, we saw impalas, two herds elephants, a cheetah, a number of ostriches, Thomson's and Grant's gazelles (including a Grant's that was shimmying around, rather than getting out of the road - Shange thought it was probably beset by tsetse flies) and zebras (the advance guard of the Migration). We passed through the Migration just outside the Park, where wildebeest outnumbered the zebras and gazelles. In the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, we also saw a number of hyenas (all but one of which were sitting in or near watering holes), a herd of giraffes and several troops of baboons, all crossing the road.
We arrived in Arusha at 4:30 pm, after stopping for a picnic lunch after leaving Ngorongoro. We drove straight to the Arusha Hotel, which has been remodeled and renamed (from the New Arusha Hotel) since Jer lived here 14 years ago. We were very pleased to take hot showers and have some laundry done.
We then headed out for a short walk around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, all of the shops were closed, and we were pursued for two blocks by an annoyingly persistent batik-seller who wouldn't accept Jer's firm "no, thanks" (in English and Swahili), no matter how often it was repeated. On the up side, we did pass a mother carrying her daughter in a sling on her back, and the baby stared and smiled at us. The mother said "jambo" and returned our smiles after seeing us admire her child.
We headed back to the hotel and had a drink in the bar with Jer's dad before our group assembled for dinner. The meal was buffet-style with a Tanzanian version of international cuisine (among other options, coq au vin and biryani rice). Pretty much everyone in our group had fruit for dessert, knowing that shortly we would be returning to the land of hothouse produce. While tasty, dinner wasn't as delicious as the food our camp staff prepared over charcoal in the bush. We marveled at how culinarily spoiled we had all become before heading to our room, exhausted from the very long day.