The first night in Africa (by Darina)

Saturday 18^th September 2010

Saturday is mainly spent by travelling, leaving Amsterdam around 11 am. We fly with KLM which is a delightful change for me as I’ve been using the so called low-cost companies for my flights to Czech during the last few years. It is very pleasant to be able to get food and drinks on board for free!

We are seated on the left side of the plane. This was carefully managed by Paul during online check-in because we were advised that if we wanted to see Kilimanjaro from the plane we should sit on the left side. A very wise advice. Unfortunately at that time we didn’t realise that the landing time was scheduled just after 8pm and therefore it would be dark. And therefore we wouldn’t see Kilimanjaro anyway… Never mind. It was there. Somewhere.

We are indeed landing (at the Kilimanjaro International Airport) around quarter past eight in the evening and yes, it is dark outside. The air is pleasantly warm though as we proceed to the Immigration check building. It’s not a big building and it’s quickly filled by the passengers of our flight. We have visa and we filled our landing cards on the plane so can join the passport check queue straight away. After around half an hour we’re ready to go and meet…. Alex! Our driver who will take us to the Moivaro Lodge near Arusha.

Alex is very friendly and is trying to teach us some of the Swahili words. Paul chats with him, I am just looking into the dark behind the car window, thinking what’s awaiting us here. The road from the airport is a good one and in around an hour we should be in the hotel. There isn’t much to see, only occasionally we pass lights coming from villages (I assume). What puzzles me though are all the people that walk along the roads. Where are they going? In the dark, without any torches, where there aren’t any visible signs of life anywhere? As we get closer to Arusha, we come across little villages (I assume that’s what they are) with shops and bars and many people hanging around.

Alex suddenly turns the car sharply to the left and we leave the main road. Now we are driving on a very uneven, stony track. If I was feeling asleep before, now I am fully awake holding to anything there is to hold on in the car. There are banana plants around us and a few simple huts and houses occasionally peek through them. I wonder where exactly Alex is taking us. Fortunately, at the end of this funny road there is our hotel.

(http://www.moivaro.com/pages/moivaro_lodge/lodge.htm)

We are welcomed with a warm and wet towel to refresh our face & hands and a glass of juice. This ritual is repeated in any of the hotels and lodges we visit during our trip (apart from the Dhow Palace in Stone Town, I think…). After the formalities our luggage is taken and we follow two of the hotel’s employees into our hut. The path is only lit by small round lamps which create a mysterious and romantic feel around us. Our hut is very nice, simple but friendly. The toilet is moving a bit while seated but fortunately stays in one place. There are mosquito nets covering our beds, a good reminder to splash some repellent on our arms and face before we go back to the main building for dinner.

For the dinner we sit outside on the restaurant’s terrace as it’s a warm and nice evening. The waiter asks if we wish anything to drink but there is no drinks menu on the table so we have no idea what’s available. “What can we have, what drinks do you have?” I ask and the answers: “Beer,” which is followed by a substantial pause as if he couldn’t remember what else they have. “We’ll have beer,” Paul “interrupts” the waiter who happily skips away inside the building. Soon we have two bottles of Kilimanjaro premium lager. Cheers!

The dinner menu is printed on a crumpled piece of paper but offers two choices of each of the starter, main dish and dessert. I am a bit wary of eating meat so am ordering some vegetarian stew, Paul is having lamb curry (apparently the lamb didn’t really taste like one. I refuse to discuss more.) The food is tasting very good though and our first evening in Africa is very relaxed and pleasant. After another beer it’s time to go to get some rest before the real fun starts on Kilimanjaro. Lala Salama.

Amsterdaaaam! (by Darina)

Friday 17^th September 2010

Everything starts in Amsterdam. Actually, it starts at Birmingham airport where we meet around 4am but however hard I try I can’t write anything exciting or interesting about the airport, sorry. Oh, maybe just that I was faithful to my tradition of having a muffin and hot chocolate for breakfast there and also that we started are new Malarone regime (once a day with or after meal!)

So let’s go back to Amsterdam. We arrive early in the morning (around eight). After a little bit of waiting for Paul’s luggage we briefly stop in our hotel, Sheraton, which is situated straight at the airport - just to leave our (very heavy) bags there. And then we set forward to explore Amsterdam, starting at the Centraal Station. We don’t have an exact plan; we just walk the streets and little alleys, cross the bridges and breathe the atmosphere of early morning city life. The streets are very colourful, full of interesting and sometimes weird shops, massage parlours, bars and cafes.

Although our wandering seems aimless, we visit several interesting places. First, it’s the famous Dam Square in the heart of Amsterdam, with beautiful old buildings. Unfortunately the Koninklijk Paleis is covered with scaffolding which leaves us the National Monument, hotel Krasnapolsky and Nieuwe Kerk to admire. We continue through narrow streets and after some searching find a little shop called Wijnand Fockink. It’s currently closed but we later come back and find out it’s some kind of home-made liqueur bar. As all the menus are in Dutch I don’t dare to order anything.

One of the things I wanted to see was a Flower market (Bloemenmarkt) which was supposed to be floating too (wasn’t sure what to imagine as “floating”). In my head I saw a big hall full of flowers of all kinds – tulips, roses, carnations, lilies, you name it. Maybe that’s why we (or let’s say I) couldn’t find it and when we finally did it was a huge disappointment. The market was basically a raw of small stall which predominantly sold bulbs and seeds. Never mind. Afterwards I gave up giving directions!

So then we continue walking along Rokin and the streets around it, briefly visit Café Hoppe which apparently has been in the business for 300 years now!, and then return to the Dam Square to the restaurant called Majestic for some lunch and beer. The plan afterwards is to visit some of the places recommended by our guidebook – De Bierkoning, XtraCold, Puccini Bomboni, Tibet. Tibet is apparently a very good place to go for food; it’s located in the Red Light District though so we will leave that for the evening. De Bierkoning is a shop – not a pub as we hoped – where you can buy any beer from around the whole world (we should have checked if they had Kilimanjaro!!!). XtraCold was supposed to be a bar made of ice, it turns out that yes, one part of the bar is made of ice and for not exactly small amount of Euros you can spend half an hour in there and get two drinks. Pass! Not far from there though we come across a Czech-Slovak pub called “U Josefa” so we stop there instead and rest with some very good beer. And finally, Puccini Bomboni is a little shop selling heavenly chocolate bonbons of different flavours like white rum, Drambuie, cinnamon, nutmeg… We treat ourselves to five pieces each, ending up with a bill of twenty Euros. Delicious chocolate definitely is not cheap!

We then go back to the hotel to finish the check-in, have a nap and prepare for our evening adventure. Paul wants to go to the Red Light District but first we stop at the Czech-Slovak pub to have a beer. One beer then leads to another one, purely because it started to rain outside and it’s very cosy in the pub. The pub is owned by a Czech guy called – surprisingly – Josef; we chat a bit (I find it difficult to chat in Czech language), he’s been living in Amsterdam for quite some time now. He’s very friendly and at the end wishes us a good fun in Africa. By now it’s dark outside so we go looking for a place where we could have dinner. There were many places along the Rokin and other streets we walked but funnily enough we ended up in a small “kind of” Italian place – I call it Pizza and pasta place – just at the fringe of the Red Light District. (We never made it inside Tibet, it didn’t look very appealing). Having a pasta carbonara with a view of a sex shop and a lesbian cinema poster was a whole new experience! As was the district itself – all the women of different ages, shapes and sizes, romantically set along a canal inhabited by a flock of swans… Our visit of this part of Amsterdam was concluded by stopping in a small pub which name I cannot remember, unfortunately. Very cute place serving local and not so common beers. There we have realised it was well after eleven and we should be thinking about getting back to the hotel and having our last night in the Europe for next few weeks.

We did it!!!

We did it and it will take more than just say "we did it". We are freshly back and full of emotions and feelings which are currently difficult to describe but the least I/we can do is a big sigh of relief... and a picture of the certificate!!!

This one is mine, I am sure Paul will post his later:

Oh yes, the good African people thought I looked younger than my age and recorded my age as five years less than I actually am. The mountain has miraculous effects, apparently :-)

Plenty of blog posts will follow in the next few days, at the minute I am just getting used to be back to the civilisation, cleaning and de-dusting all my clothing and keep thinking about one very special hill in Tanzania...

1 sleep ahead...

So what do you do one night before your big departure? :-)

Trying to get some sleep but it's very difficult as there are so many things going on through your head. Do I have everything? Is it going to be enough? Is the rucksack too heavy? Will I wake up on time? Do I have enough Imodium tablets? Will I need them? Is it going to rain? Did I finish what I needed at work? And so on, and so on.

This last few days flew by so fast. And today! While still managed to do plenty of work, I also talked to my Mum, emailed Dad & my dear cousin Iva, printed out our boarding passes (yay!!!), I mixed and packed dried fruits & nuts for our energy needs, finished packing the Camelbak, coloured my hair (purely because if I didn't, I would come back grey from Africa!!!), charged all my mobile phones (I am taking four of them so I don't need to worry about charging battery and taking adapter), talked to my Czech friend living in Coventry, got many best wishes from various people, got very excited talking about Africa, got really scared talking about Africa, got a postcard from friend Will from Wales (very cute, thank you, Will!!!), got a call from my chiropractor checking on my hip and wishing all the best, felt stupidly silly about leaving my small but cosy room and about missing my bed... The mixture of feelings currently happening in my body is beyond describing.

Somebody asked me today what I was going to do when I get to the top of Kili. I wasn't sure. It occurred to me that maybe sit down and cry of joy would be a good idea but then crying in such a cold temperature is probably not the best idea :-) and the guide probably won't let me sit down either. So let's see what happens!

So now, just a few hours before getting up again (at 3 am), I am sitting here and sipping my last glass of wine and thinking about all the people who've been there and made it and thinking about the people who've been there and couldn't make it and thinking about the people whom we hopefully help by raising money for our charity. We've currently raised £1719 and I would like to thank everybody who contributed for their very generous help!

Ok, time to go to bed. Big adventure ahead but before then there is Dutch cheese and beer awaiting us tomorrow too :-) Bring on Amsterdam!!!

2 days to go :)

Another day gone, another day closer to the departure!

I've piled on some calories (as recommended by a friend from work) in the shape of cakes I shared with work colleagues today. I unpacked my rucksack and my Camelbak, then re-packed while ticking off every item on my list to make sure nothing was omitted. I am sure I've sweated out some of my cold through this procedure, what an exhausting (but exciting) task to do! But it's all in, hopefully within the weight limits. Two more nights!

One of my colleagues at work showed me a picture of his friend who made it to the top of Kili last week! The picture was great, it was sunny out there, the sky was blue and clear and the guy was smiling and looked very happy! I promised in a week and a bit I would have on of those pictures too! :-) (It's amazing what people will endure to go to a top of a hill to take a picture with a wooden sign...)

There are a few things left to do tomorrow but for now I am in bed, enjoying a glass of red wine and letting my body to fight off the cold and relax before the action packed holidays! :-)