Driving to Moshi and Kilimanjaro Prep

Sunday February 6th. Went to bed late and woke up early. The bed in the room was actually more uncomfortable than the tent! Woke up alone in my room for the first time in a long time. Felt quite strange. No more John.

Got organized and ready for the Riverside Shuttle pickup today which would take me to Moshi, Tanzania. I went down early for the included breakfast and ran into Laurel. She said that her, Matthew, Don and Pat had a good dinner last night at Carnivores. Shortly after that the GAP truck pulled up with the group I had just left. They were coming to pick up the new 10 people who will be traveling south towards Cape Town. Saw Bronx John again and Vernon! Really good to see him!

John is disappointed that there are no new older men joining, just a group of very young people. So he feels like the grandfather of the group. Vernon apologized for not being able to meet us last night at the restaurant, because he was at the doctor because he has picked up a case of malaria! So he is not feeling 100% and has to do the 40 trip to Cape Town as the cook and guide.

Talked with all of them for awhile until my shuttle appeared at 7:30. It took me and another young Canadian, Frank, to a shuttle meeting area, where we were loaded onto a different shuttle. It's basically a maxi van and they cram it with 29 people! More crowded than our overland truck.

The drive to the Tanzanian border was long, dusty, warm, bumpy and very crowded. I kept falling asleep, which helped pass the time. We stopped at a curio shop just before the border and those are the only pictures I took today.

At the actual border I was pleased that I didn't have to pay to get into Tanzania again. I paid coming north, but forgot to ask for a multiple entry visa, and then when we went to Rwanda, we were told all of our East Africa visas (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) would be void. Fortunately that didn't happen, only Uganda charged me again. So the trip to Rwanda wasn't as expensive as it could have been.

Then we continued driving until we got to Arusha, where we had to change shuttles again for the two hour ride to Moshi. Finally arrived at the Springland Hotel at 5:00, just in time for the briefing about tomorrow's climb. Frank is doing a different, shorter, route than me. He is doing the Marengue route, which is shorter (and supposedly easier) with cabins. I am doing the Machame route in tents. I think I am in a group of three, but I did not meet the others. So, if they are a couple I will get a tent to myself.

Then I went to the rental shop and rented a duffle bag and plastic bag for it, for the porter to carry. I also rented a warm hat. Apparently it is minus 10 to 15 at the summit! Hopefully I will be warm enough. So, organized my stuff into three bags, one for the porter to carry, one is my day pack that I carry and the third is stuff that I will leave here at the hotel.

Relaxed for a bit, then had a buffet dinner and went to bed early in anticipation of tomorrow.