The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful. It was also uncomfortable. KLM had the least legroom of any large plane I’d ever been on. But no matter. Traveling with a backpack as carryon luggage is wonderful. Wearing hiking boots and safari pants is even better. Much better than wearing a suit and taking a briefcase.
Arriving way early in the morning (6 something) and having 5 hours to kill, I walked through every terminal and concourse in the airport. I had some espresso. I walked some more. An hour or so before flight time I went to our next terminal and found Trish and George waiting there. Getting to know them through this blog was really worthwhile when I got a big hug from Trish and a warm handshake from George. It’s like we’d know each other forever and the trip was just starting.
We talked for awhile and met some other people heading to Kilimanjaro with other outfitters. I was sitting next to a lady who was part of a Mountain Madness trip and she talked my ear off. I got up and walked around the airport some more for a break.
Our flight to Arusha was called and as we were assembling in line a guy asked me if I was part of the Kiliwarriors trip. It was Greg. He’d recognized me from the blog. I met his two friends Tony and Sean who were also on the trip.
We landed about 8pm in Arusha, made our way through customs, met Gideon from Kiliwarriors, and were driven 30 minutes to the Arusha Hotel. Great hotel! We met back downstairs about 9pm for dinner and ate outdoors on the balcony. During dinner Stefano came over and introduced himself. He and his friend Giuseppe were the the 7th and 8th members of our party. They had arrived a week or so before, intending to climb Oldonyo L’engai (another nearby mountain that is also an active volcano) to get acclimated, but it had erupted and made climbing it impossible. They had been hanging around the area ever since.
Everyone was now accounted for.
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