Today is the day!

7/8 I was up too long in the middle of the night, wanted to get up at 6 AM, slept until 7:45! Crap! Packed up everything since I had to leave my suitcases, cash, etc. at the hotel. 3 S's, headed down for breakfast - only 2 cups of coffee for me. :( Went upstairs and brought everything down, duffle, pack & luggage to store at the desk. Check out, pay my beer tab, etc. TrekkingHero picked us up at 10:30. Gabriel drove us and all the porters (8). Three and a half hours on the road with one stop for lunch; saw bananas on the tree for the first time.

Bananas by the bunch

Little 'beer garden' where
G & I had our box lunch

Unloading all the gear

Neighborhood raven at the trailhead

Stopped at the gate to pay the fee then it's a long drive up to the trailhead to unload & distribute the gear. Porters are only allowed to carry 20 kilos on their head but whatever else on their back. I could not have done what they did for 7 days. Met a young couple (Angel & Benjamin) from Switzerland. They had been speaking French so I had to ask - Geneva area, he grew up in Neuchatel. They are moving to north New Jersey now that the pandemic is loosening up the world. She works for a pharma company & knew of McKesson. He is a mechanical engineer and had worked in a number of places but was very familiar with Charmilles EDM machines (company I used to work for.) We headed out ahead of them but they soon caught up and passed us.

Cloudy, foggy, damp, and drippy - I was sweating like a pig. Made it to camp in good time. Had tea then supper around 7 PM. Now it's dark, time for rest, and pack lighter tomorrow! 52°F/85% RH.

First night camp

Back along the trail

Yep, foggy/cloudy

Our mess hall

Trekking Eve

If you can't climb Kilimanjaro you
 can always drink Kilimanjaro

7/7 Completely overcast again; no sunrise. I remembered to order eggs with sausage. Should be meeting with Jackson and Oswald for some reason that is not clear to me (Jackson never showed.)

Slow day but got my steps in by walking around the neighborhood & took a few pictures. Oswald stopped by to chat with Gordon (my trekking partner) and me; chatted about general stuff. We leave tomorrow at 10:30 AM. Apparently Oswald thought I walked too fast yesterday so I 'failed' my first test. I wasn't winded at all even though Moshi is 2,700' +/- 500'. At sea level I had been doing 16.5 minute miles at 38°C and higher temps. Of course that is at about 0 feet elevation.

Good chat with Gordon (he asked for separate tents b/c he gets up a lot at night apparently and didn't want to disturb me). He is some sort of clinical neurological psychologist (PhD not MD), had some POV on Alzheimer's and current research. Note - he started out, as I think I said before, wearing a mask in public and obviously the topic of C-19 came up and he said, "Oh! You're one of those!" when I said that I rarely wear a mask - never asking or listening to the 'why'. Knee-jerk reaction, very 'tribal' which is another discussion.

A lost 'sole'

View back up to the hotel

Gates, fences, and walls - seems to be a
human condition since the beginning of time.

Lots of little open air markets if you need a
chicken to go

Guys on the bikes wait at corners, etc. as a
quick and cheap taxi (they also haul loads)

Local 'guard' dog - some are not so friendly

The hotel really is on a paved road

Open air bar/restaurant as part of a
convention center area

From the other direction

Watch Cat watches

bed turned down, sweet

Traffic circle with a little model of the volcano

Walked through Moshi, nice little city for the most part.

Got up about 6:30, went down to the lobby for breakfast - could have ordered eggs if I had known they cook them to order - still it was good. Met with the TrekkingHero contact (Abraham) and guide (Oswald). Signed forms saying we could 'die' doing this. Oswald checked my gear and I guess I passed - fit it all in a duffle. Met my hiking partner (Gordon) who seemed glad that he wasn't hiking with a youngster (he was a month shy of 71.) He lives in Utah so he could commiserate with me about the lack of beer in KSA. He got in late the previous night and had severe jetlag. 

Got some of the story of his life & wife (2nd marriage for both). He's a retired neurology research PhD, not a doctor but more of a clinician(?). His wife was born in Czechoslovakia and is about 10 years younger so not retired yet. He said she remembers when the Russians rolled in and took over. She got out when she was 19 and was convicted of something in absentia so was hesitant to go back. Apparently she does not like communism at all.

Across the street from the hotel, boys
walking home from school.

Oswald took me on a 'hike' through the city to pick up some diamox (helps prevent altitude sickness) and a phone chip for me. I like to have a local number if I'm going to be in a place for a while. (It really proved useful this time around.) However, I apparently 'failed' the test - not pole-pole enough. (Pole pronounced 'poly' as in roly-poly, means slowly-slowly.) 

Back to the hotel for a late lunch and a brief nap. The weather is beautiful if cloudy almost all day. Cleared up by sunset to get some nice pictures of the mountain from the rooftop restaurant. (shown below)

Did I mention that after I arrived on the 5th that I got an email from Ethiopian Airlines (motto: Worst. Airline. Ever.) that they had canceled my return flight - no explanation. I had to contact a couple guys I work with to discover that KSA added Ethiopia to their 'banned' list. Now I have to figure out how to get back, but there is no time before the trek so it'll have to wait. "Tomorrow is another day." Guess the movie, 1975 is the best version.

 

The run-up

 5 July - Very cloudy, Kili is socked in, no view, only the plane landing. Had a beer and a burger in BOL (Addis Ababa airport) then a little nap before the flight. Had a 1 hour and 45 minute layover on Zanzibar so I got to finish my movie since we weren't allowed off the plane. More people got off than got back on so it was a very empty 787-8. I ate too much this day, carbo-loading for the hike, lol.

The landing at JRO (Kilimanjaro Airport) was mostly clear and mild temperatures. Glad I filled out all my Visa & C-19 test stuff online - and the health form - just a little faster through the lines. I'm still negative on C-19. A guy from San Diego behind me in line was suprised that I was going to climb the mountain, he asked me how far up I was going. I replied, "No further than the top." I crack me up. 

Got 'blind-sided' for a 'tip' - guy quickly put my bags on a cart, walked less than 25', put them through the x-ray and then back on the cart. He wanted $3 US (6900 TZSH) I had no ones so I gave him 20 SAR - way over the line. Live and learn.

Driver was 'right' outside the door with my name spelled correctly (Ali). He had me go around the car to the left-hand side then I realized that was why he was to the right of the exit as I came out. In TZ they drive on the left side of the road so when you cross you look right THEN left, I was just instinct for me to look to the left, not see my name, then look to the right.

On to the hotel (4 star Moshi style) from the airport is about a 3/4 hour drive. Wow, lots of lush farmland with crops growing everywhere. I didn't take as many pics as I should have. The traffic, while wild, is not quite as scary as KSA. Tuk-tuks, 125-250 cc motorcycles (with three, driver, one on the back part of the saddle and the third on the luggage rack), assorted trucks, vans, cars, etc. Hotel is just off a dirt road, still pretty nice.

Had Kilimanjaro pointed out to me a couple times, once on the road and again at the rooftop restaurant. It looked a smallish cloud within the clouds but you still could make it out. All checked in at KWH, "2nd" floor room, very nice. Had steak and a couple beers for dinner. Met a couple (Peter & Annette) from Frankfort, Germany. He was familiar with Michigan (MSU) and Vermont. He had learned about making maple syrup and milking cows in the Waterbury/Stowe area.

Early to bed, had some really weird dreams.

Cloud in the clouds

Close-up a little easier to see

Outside my window

Shy mountain finally showed herself...

 ...just at sunset today.

Champing at the bit

 

Well then, I should have some good weather for a hike and it shouldn't even be that windy on 'summit' day (starts midnight July 12 and should be at the peak by sunrise or so.) But it will be a little nippy compared to temps I have become (somewhat) accustomed to in Jeddah. Today it is over 35°C in KSA compared to 26°C in Moshi TZ. Looks like I'll hit 32°F at around 4500m or ~14,750 feet up. Mid to low teens Fahrenheit at the top with wind chill down to the single digits. New moon will be on the 10th so it will be a starry night sky for the last climb. I should have printed out a star map for that evenings climb.

I got my PCR test done just now, pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Check in for my flights tomorrow morning. Get my last online form filled in. Then stay up late since Meet & Assist will be picking me up to go to the airport at about 1:30 a.m. for a 4:30 a.m. flight.

I'll get into Moshi around 5 p.m. so I'll get a little look around before sundown. It's all uphill from here.

Just over a week to go now...

Nothing goes smoothly and they say that battle plans go out the window with the first contact but come on, man! My original plan was to fly out on the 4th of July which would give me a couple days to acclimate to the 'higher' elevation of Moshi and a bit of R&R before the trek. Not even a week and a half before my flight I get a notice from the airline that my flight has been changed from the 4th to the 5th. Cue the mad scramble to get my initial hotel reservation changed. (Note: even though I booked through Expedia and contacted them immediately, they were no help at all. I guess they tried once to get through to the hotel but as it was the middle of the night in TZ they gave up and tossed it back in my lap. On the positive side, I had been informed that normally it would take 7-10 days for them to do anything I at least knew within 24 hours that they would be no help.) On the plus side, I've got my KSA exit/re-entry visa, & my Tanzania visa already printed out. Got my geocaches all printed out as well. I must be missing something.

So, at work, everyone that had C-flu is back to work, none seem the worse for wear. I know at least six that have had it, only one went in the hospital and he is obese. The other one that had it kind of bad had been fully vaccinated for over two months. Here I've been not wearing a mask, not taking any precautions but I couldn't catch it if I tried. Go figure. Although the government is pushing their app denoting whether one has recovered, had one shot or both (they haven't figured out that the J&J is one shot). Some places even want you to scan the QR code in the store for a little more accurate tracking of the people. Funny thing if you tell them you don't have internet on your phone you don't have to 'check in'. BTW, I don't have data on my phone b/c the company was too cheap to pay for a data plan on my number. My office buddy didn't want to get the jab mostly because he's young and wants to have more children, didn't like the idea of any sort of genetic modification. Can't say as I blame him much but it would have been his job if he hadn't. I wonder how much longer we'll be in this mess. They don't seem to be checking our app at the gate anymore, just temperature and most times the guards don't even look at the reading. Ah well. Do we feel safe yet?

So, a little over a week before I will fly...