Day 2

Day 2:

We arrived at Nairobi around 06:30. The airport was packed.

We all headed over to Gate 6 for our connection to Kilimanjaro. It was hot, stuffy and overcrowded, but we hadn't had to clear through immigration, or collect our luggage.

Once we had boarded the little twin prop plane from Precision Air, those of us at the front of the plane could clearly see our luggage on a container being loaded into the cargo hold, followed by a bit of a wait, followed by luggage being unloaded and driven off.

Being tired, not quite with it, and used to the ways of the Western World, we all assumed it had been driven around the plane to another luggage hold and loaded on.

But sadly, on arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport, we were greeted with a measly 6 bags sadly circulating the baggage belt.

I asked a staff member when the other bags would come out, but he told me that was everything. It appears as though they changed aircraft last minute, and only laid on a tiny plane which was big enough for 60 people. And 6 bags.

It's really quite distressing, knowing that your whole life is in a bag containerised somewhere within Nairobi Airport, but at least apart from the lucky 6, we were all in the same boat.

The fear that the climb might never happen was ever present, but we were assured that all the bags would 'probably' be out on the next flight. The fact that there was only 2 more flights that day was not much of a comfort.

It's at this point, that I ought to draw your attention to a peculiar African trait. If you ask anybody how long something will take, the answer will always come back as 20 minutes. This happens without exception, whether it's a car journey, a wait in a queue or the gestation period of an elephant.

And so after 20 minutes, we boarded our 2 minibuses, devoid of luggage, empty tarpaulins flapping in the breeze, for our 20 minute ride to the hotel, that took an hour.

Slightly jaded, and all exhausted from our overnight travels, we arrived at the Impala Hotel in Arusha. After the check-in formalities that took about 20 minutes, we got given our keys and went straight to our rooms for a much needed nap. I must have slept for at least 20 minutes, before getting up in time for lunch and our team briefing.

Lunch was a buffet, people mostly being careful what they ate, and then downstairs for a long briefing given by Geordie, our trek leader, followed by what can only be described as the most frightening and distressing talk by our trek doctor Jenny, who explained in great detail just how many ways we all might die on the mountain.

For a bunch of soft Brits, this was a bit of a shocker. 

But where there was once anxiety and distress, there was now joy, as Geordie announced the arrival of all of our bags.

I remember the massive relief at seeing my bag sitting in the foyer, and promptly tweeted a photo of it.

Dinner was another buffet, with some of the gang having what looked to be the most amazingly tasty curry. I wasn't brave enough to join in, with a 6am start the next day and a 20 minute/5 hour minibus ride the next day. But I dreamed about that curry for the next 8 days…..