Its 2am and I have slept through the alarm! Rachel said she heard it and thought I had turned it off to have a few more minutes in bed, she wakes me at 1.58 and informs me of the time, then I receive a text, Russ and the taxi are waiting outside! Bugger no time to check if I have everything what a nightmare I really wanted to have one last check before I left! I wish Rachel had woken me when she heard the alarm! I know I don't have my balaclava as that has done a disappearing act and Rachel and the boys deny all knowledge of its whereabouts, although I do know that Ethan had tried it on. It is bound to turn up at home as soon as I am on the plane. Oh well hopefully won't need it. fingers crossed. I also wake Ethan in the commotion to get ready, and both Ethan and Rachel wave us goodbye and wish us good luck. We pick up Simon and head to manchester, slept most of the way as was knackered.
Flight across was quick and painless. It's strange having a chicken sandwich for breakfast! 2.5 hours to wait for connecting flight. There is not a lot to do here and Russ is bored after 5 mins! This is going to be a long and tedious wait. Russ just wants to get there and get started as do we all.
The flight took 8hrs roughly and was relatively smooth and the food was good, however the width of the seats could have been better. Poor Russ drew the short straw and gets to sit next to a rather large German lady which we find highly amusing!! I'm sandwiched between him and Simon. Not a huge choice of films but watched Iron Man 2 albeit with dutch and chinese subtitles, so not much of the screen left, a short break and onto Avatar, a good way to kill 3 hours I did doze for about an hour of this film. Courtesy of KLM and kindly donated in support of our efforts Russ and I decided to borrow our in flight pillows they will be perfect for the tent and we will return them on the homeward flight. The service was excellent, although I do suspect the steward fancied Simon.
Its hot when we land at 8pm and 21 degrees. I'm first through and I get all the bags so first worry over. We then sail through only to find the transfer we arranged has not shown up which is typical. After a long flight that's the last thing we need. Next problem is that Simon and I have no phone signal and still don't as I type this in the car. I hope that getting a signal is not always going to be this hard, as staying in touch with Rachel and the boys is going to be hard. A few questions later and a further 45 mins and we're in a car hopefully on the way to the hotel. There is less legroom in this cab than the plane, the roads are bumpy and I have no seat belt as there is no clasp to click into place. I really hope that this is not the start of things to come.
I sit in silence looking out of the window into the dark moonless sky, wondering what the landscape looks like, how friendly will the locals be and wishing we could see our first glimpse of her, Kilimanjaro.
Excitement begins to bubble up inside of me. This is it. Our second adventure begins.... bring it on.
wish you well for this trek, i hope she lets you trek up her
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