I awoke at 5:30am
in a warm hotel room as the day slowly started to brighten. My legs were a bit tired, but I felt good
overall and was looking forward to spending a relaxing day in Moshi before
going to the airport late in the day to start the journey back home. I saw several trekkers off to the airport at
7am, including my tent mate, as they were flying to the exotic island of
Zanzibar on the east coast of Tanzania for a relaxing post-trek week on the
beach. I checked email and drank some
water before meeting the remainder of the trekking group at 9am for a late
breakfast. My appetite had returned and
the meal was good.
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| Morning at the Sal Salinero Hotel in Moshi, Tanzania |
I bid farewell to four more of our group as
they loaded up on a bus and headed out for a week-long safari starting in one
of Tanzania’s beautiful national parks.
With only three of us left, we took a taxi into town and walked around a
bit.
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| Walking around Moshi on a warm October morning |
I wanted to mail my summit
certificate home, but the post office was closed, so I settled for getting a
thick piece of paper tubing to protect it in my luggage. After buying some souvenirs and eating a
nice, long lunch outside in the shade, we dropped off one trekker at a hostel
(she was taking a bus the next day to the coast, where she could catch a ferry
to Zanzibar).
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| Tanzania version of the Blues Brothers-mobile |
The last two of us shared
a taxi to the Kilimanjaro International Airport about an hour west of Moshi and
I bid farewell to her, as she was headed to Morocco for another adventure.
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| Departing the hotel and headed for the airport |
With several
hours to kill before I could check in for my 8pm flight to Amsterdam, I found a
chair, put my legs up on my luggage and proceeded to pass the afternoon by
reading my book (a very interesting history of the German and British WWI
campaigns in the Kilimanjaro area) and sweating (the airport was open to the
90+ degree F afternoon temps). Finally,
the counter opened and I was able to check in.
KLM provided me with a lounge pass (not sure why, but I was thankful – maybe
it was the roundtrip I took with them to Delhi, India last year on my way to
Nepal), so I spent some time sitting around a large air conditioned room munching
on free, crispy samosas and drinking sweet, refreshing Krest tonic water out of
a cold glass bottle.
Nearing flight
time, I went through security and walked across the tarmac and boarded the
plane. There was a bit of excitement
when a young gentleman on the other end of my row took off his jacket and
revealed a large scorpion on his shoulder.
After some yelling, swiping and skilled stomping by one of the nearby
passengers, the co-pilot came back to verify the scorpion was dead and we took
off shortly before 9pm. It was a quick one-hour
flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city and de facto capital. Many passengers got off, a cleaning crew did
a quick job in the cabin, many new passengers got on and we departed for the
9-hour flight to Amsterdam.
I got in a couple
of movies, a couple of meals and a couple hours of sleep before landing in
Amsterdam. I enjoy that airport and had
a nice breakfast, including my first ‘real’ coffee in a week (it was all instant
coffee in Tanzania, although I had picked up some coffee beans grown at one of
the many coffee plantations on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro). I picked up some tulip bulbs for my wife, walked
around the terminals for a while, cleaned up a bit and changed into a clean
shirt and socks before catching the 8-hour flight west to Minneapolis. I didn’t get much sleep, but three movies and
a couple of meals later, we landed and I was greeted by my family after going
through customs. It was great to see
them, and I while was a bit sad that my adventure was over, I was happy to be
home.
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| Blossoming flowers on the streets of Moshi near our lunch spot |
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