Where IS the hill?? (by Darina)

Sunday 19th September 2010

Although I have problems to sleep if I am not in my bed, last night I slept like a log. The morning is a bit cloudy and cool. When we walk to the restaurant to get the breakfast I notice that the immediate surroundings of the hut looked better in the dark. The garden around the main building is very pretty and colourful though. As for the plan for today, we don't really have any. Visiting Arusha could be an option but do we have enough time? Our itinerary is saying we should be picked up at 3:30pm. We go to the reception to confirm this but the receptionist is responding with a laid-back: Yeah, it could be one o'clock or two o'clock. Well, this isn't very helpful...

Stuck in the hotel we decide to go for a walk around it and the coffee plantation, in the middle of which the lodge is situated. I realise I actually didn't notice any coffee plants, which of course could be because I have no idea what coffee plants look like :-). The walk is pleasant - it leads through the forest around the lodge and occasionally we see some colourful birds - but not very long so we end up back in the hotel. At least we make some use of the sunbeds at the pool and enjoy a nap breathing the fresh air around us.

As there is nowhere to go, we have a lunch at the hotel too. The lunch menu is on a laminated sheet of paper but doesn't offer much, the dominant item is without doubt a selection of three burgers. I am thinking about last night's very tasty dinner and am decided to go with the meat today and order the cheeseburger. As it turns out in a few minutes, it was an excellent choice! After lunch another nap outside and then our driver is here to take us to Marangu, Kilimanjaro Mountain Resort, where we spend our last night before going on Kili.

On the mini bus from Moivaro we meet Gary from Michigan. He arrived to Moivaro last night too and he's one of the members of our climbing group. Apparently his travelling from America was very adventurous after his first flight was delayed so he then missed all the connecting flights. Fortunately he made it ok and on time to Arusha so now we are heading in the direction of Marangu. First though, we stop in the lodge near the Kilimanjaro Airport to pick up another two members of our group - Nilam and Salma, both girls are from London.

And from there it's a pretty straightforward and simple route. The whole trip from Arusha towards Marangu is basically one straight road with one roundabout near town Moshi. We pass villages consisting of simple houses and huts but plenty of bars (with plastic chairs for seating outside). People don't seem to be doing much. They are hanging around the bars or shops, occasionally we see women selling bananas and other fruits on the edge of the road. We see kids herding goats or donkeys. There is the one and the same Coca-cola poster everywhere. Advertising signs of Zantel and Vodacom are glued on every other building. My favourite ad is Kilimanjaro lager though. It says: It's Kili time! Make the most of it! And that's certainly what I am planning to do. Just one little detail - where IS it???

This is our second day in Tanzania and we still haven't seen a glimpse of Kilimanjaro. Gary asked the driver and the driver points in a general direction of ahead of us. Hmm, thank you. We still can't see it, it seems to be fairly cloudy in the distance too so maybe we won't see it until tomorrow?

We arrive to Marangu and the Kilimanjaro Mountain Resort just before six pm. The hotel looks very pleasant and apparently from our room we can see Kibo!!! If only the clouds would go away... After a very fast check-in all the members of our group are meeting with a representative from the African Walking Company. His name is Nyattal - or something similar, we call him Niagara guy. He's quite funny but very very confused. From the beginning he insists there is twelve of us when apparently there is only eleven people sitting in the meeting room. He's got a genius idea. He will just read our names from his list and check if all of us are here... Brilliant. Only he omits to read at least one of us present in the room. Never mind. Then he manages to re-name Sonja to Norma (seriously, how?!?!) which obviously is her nickname for the trip duration :-) now. Another confusion arises while checking the equipment that we have hired in advance. Paul and me hired two sets of walking poles and mattresses for the tent but Niagara guy only reads one set under Paul's name. A few minutes later when he's distributing the equipment, he calls mine name and eureka - my walking poles are actually here... We are a bit worried and we hope that Niagara isn't one of our guides on Kilimanjaro. He later confirms that he isn't and we all sigh deeply with a relief...

All the confusion and paper shuffling apart, Niagara is giving us some important information about the organisation of tomorrow and briefly tells us about what is ahead of us in the next few days. Suddenly the fact that we're starting our trek tomorrow is very, very real. It's the third day of our holidays but only now I fully realise that we are actually going to be on Kilimanjaro tomorrow... And there is no way back!

After the briefing we all go for a dinner. We all sit at the same table which is set for 11 people, yay! Somebody got it right! The conversation flows, the food is nice, Kilimanjaro lager even nicer. I guess each of us is thinking about what expects us and how we're going to cope. Although the general mood is very humorous (Question: Why Kili? Answer: I was looking for some trip on lastminute.com and it there was either this or Mallorca available), a little tension hangs in the air. It's not too remarkable but it's there. Btw. our group consists of the following people: Jason and Ryan, Norma - sorry Sonja, Nadia and Denise, Katherine, Nilam and Salma, Gary, Paul and me. Gary is from US, Katherine lives in the Notthingham area, Paul is West Bromwich based, the others are from London. So here we are, the family for the next six days!

Just before ten I leave the group and return to the hotel room to re-pack the luggage. We are only allowed 15kgs for the main luggage (the one porters will carry) but fortunately we can leave the stuff we won't need on Kili in the hotel and pick it up on Saturday, on the way back. It's difficult to decide what we will need and what we can live without and I end up carrying quite a lot of stuff in my Camelbak. I am worried about how I am going to cope with the weight but at the minute there is nothing else I can do. At night I can't sleep. Although the bed is comfortable, I just can't fall asleep and my mind is creating all sorts of horrible scenarios that could happen on our trip. I am trying to shush myself and I start counting sheep but around 367 I give up. I manage to get a couple of hours of sleep but am up around five thirty in the morning, two hours before the alarm is scheduled to go off... I can't stop thinking - what's expecting us in there? What's it going to be like? Will I be able to breathe? Will I get sick? Am I fit enough for this?

Just a few more hours and I will find out...