One new post in 5 years... Not too bad? One would have thought that I would have been travel blogging during the pandemic, but I guess it was just too depressing. I've been asked by several folks to write about the Kilimanjaro Trek, so I decided to put it in a place where everyone could see it. So, this first post will be pretty straight-forward. We will see if I get around to posting the full adventure... BUT, if you want to hear the full story, be sure to let me know you're reading and enjoying the posts (and that will make me more likely to do it)!
So, off to Africa! I'm not really much of a journal-er, but I did keep a tiny pad to write some thoughts on during the trip, since this one was unique, even for me. So, here we go. Where does this trip begin?
July, 2021, Boston, in a random laundromat.
In the midst of the first year back to work after Covid, travel was just starting to normalize. I had a group doing Cape Cod, and was between tours, so I was doing laundry, sitting there messing with my phone, and trying to decide what epic adventure I wanted to do for my birthday this year. I wanted something significant that would challenge me, but also something unique. I started reading about the different routes to climb Kilimanjaro, and got hooked. I won't bore you with all of the research, but since I was working two years out, I had time to figure out the best route, who to invite, and how to make all of the arrangements. I started out with a group of 6 (including myself) that I wanted to go with. I started throwing out the idea to everyone, and I got everything from "Oh, that sounds amazing" to "No way!" Of course, I spent months working on it to get just the right group, and when it was all said and done, it turned out it was just me and my favorite cousin, who's almost as crazy as I am. So, after all of the planning, booking and rebooking flights, calling multiple trekking companies to get quotes and info, we had settled on a trekking company, dates, and we were ready to go! Keep in mind, this one step took months! Once we made the decision to go, we spent months shopping every single sale out every sports and outdoors store for two years to collect all of the gear!
June, 2023, Florida.
The time finally came to do those last preparations and hit the road! I picked up my cousin, packed, repacked, and repacked, went through every single published gear list, narrowed it down, weighed everything, and got it all ready to go.
23 June, Florida.
And so it begins! We left for the airport this morning, got checked in (found out our first flight was delayed, which was going to crunch our layover in Atlanta), and then got in the hour line to go have breakfast (which became lunch) in the Sky Club. After trying to speak to every live Delta employee in the airport to standby on an earlier flight, I then spent over an hour on hold before I just gave up. On the positive side, they delayed our flight from ATL to Amsterdam, so we got our connection time back. Turns out, our aircraft from Orlando was continuing on to Amsterdam (this detail is important later). On this short little flight, we were happy to accidentally walk past our seats, not knowing we had been placed in Premium Select (nice for the all of 30 minutes we got to sit there).
24 June, Amsterdam.
And so, we're off to Africa! The connection in Atlanta was literally get off the plane, wait, get right back on the exact same plane (but not in Premium Select...) for the overseas flight. At this point, my push notification of may bag being loaded onto the plane from the Delta app did not come through, so... we were not sure my bag had been loaded. We landed in Amsterdam (JT's first foreign country) and were moderately awake, but took advantage of the KLM lounge to load up on coffee. At this point, we could see the airtag in my bag had pinged in Atlanta after our flight departed, so... knowing that there was not another flight to Amsterdam before we departed for Kilimanjaro, we realized my bag was not coming to Africa today. Keeping in mind, Delta offloaded it from the aircraft in Atlanta, when it was already on board the correct plane (so much for Platinum status). Oh well, more on that later. And so we continued on our KLM flight to JRO (Kilimanjaro). This flight was actually longer than the flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam. This really helps you appreciate how big Africa is. I usually avoid KLM metal when flying overseas because the seats are very, uh, utilitarian, but, maybe it was just how tired we were, but we both slept almost the entire flight. Finally around 9 p.m., we landed in JRO. Got our visas, fought with the luggage help desk (who, because my bag was in Atlanta, said they didn't have a tracking number on the KLM flight to even show that it had not made the flight), and met our transfer driver to Arusha.
The drive was interesting. For such a short drive, it really took a long time, as there are no street lights, people walking in the dark, speed bumps, and small villages to go through. We were very thankful to have a real bed to sleep in (albeit, the texture of plywood). The hotel was the Gran Melía, which is a Spanish chain (I've stayed in them in Spain and Cuba of all places), and I'd probably say it is one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in - again, another pleasant surprise for the first day in Africa.
25 June, Arusha.
This day was our designated chill day. We had spent nearly 32 hours traveling, so it was really necessary to get fully on the time zone before the adventure began. The pool was really cold, but we went in for a bit, played some chess, and enjoyed the really nice hotel (when will I ever stay a place like this again for fun!?). We also walked into town, visited an ATM to become a millionaire (10,000 shillings = roughly $5). We also explored a craft market, which is a philanthropic effort to give disabled people work. We really enjoyed watching them work, and were even given a free gift. Best part of the hotel was that you could enjoy the views of Mount Meru (Kilimanjaro's kid sister) from the rooftop restaurant. All in all, this probably SHOULD have been our last day experience, not our first, but the relaxation was welcome after all the drama. Day 2 with no luggage.
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