Day 1- Excitement day (27 June 09)

We landed in Nairobi at around 6am local time. The flight time was approximately 8.5 hours and Kenya/Tanzania is 3 hours ahead of GMT.
Nairobi is quite hectic so after gone through passport control and dealing with our transit visa etc, we had a minibus ready for our transfer to Arusha. It was supposed to be a 6 hours trip which then turned into almost 9...but it was soooo worth it; we experienced something unique just 1 hour away from Nairobi...a group of Maasais blocking the road as a protest for the Government not paying them for their work on the road.

It was sooooooo amazing!!!!

































The rest of the trip...well, I don't remember a lot...as I spent most of it sleeping, right Nick? Joe?? do you remember anything?????of course you don't...you were sleeping on my lap...

Well, that is not totally true...I managed to make some pictures on the way...here is the proof:



on the road










stalls


locals


















































We stopped for lunch at Namanga, a town in Kenya, lying on the border with Tanzania. It is in Kaijado District, Rift Valley Province and it is around 130 kilometers from Arusha, Tanzania. Nairobi is 200 kilometers from Namanga and Mount Kilimanjaro can be seen from Namanga town.

Then we made it to the Tanzanian border










and we were in Tanzania and the Kili was getting closer...

From there we drove to Arusha where I took more pictures cause this time I was awake ... We met some of the guides at the petrol station:






We arrived at the hotel by 8pm and had dinne. We then met our 10 guides with peter as the leader and we had a briefing for the day after.
After that straight to bed as we had to get up at 6am.

Our departure from London, 26th June 2009

We all met at London Heathrow. Most of us have never met before and that was also part of the excitement. We all just shared the excitement for the challenge ahead...the TREK TO THE KILIMANJARO.
Finally the time was upon us to board the plane and head off to Africa for this once in a life time challenge.
The flight was not the most comfortable one but who cared...I was going to Africa, a dream I have had for so many years and finally there I was, on a plane to Nairobi with 17 strangers who would lately become 17 very dear people. It was hardly to believe it but it was a reality now.
Trekking up Kilimanjaro is all about personal achievement and doing the best we can.


This is all of us on Day 3 still looking clean!