katikaa I slept well. Really well although it was a bit hot and humid. Temperature was around +31 degrees Celsius so about 30 more than back home. It felt like back in Australia so cozy but still it was HOT so started the morning with a few laps in the pool hoping it would wake me up and get the blood flowing. The water was too hot to wake up and pool too short to even get going … Well better than nothing!
After breakfast we enjoyed the sunshine and I tried to work on my tan. Being a fair skinned Finn who hasn’t been in this hot climate for a while (we had a bad summer last year) sunscreen was a must. Still I managed to miss a few spots and looked like a piglet here and there by the evening.
After lunch I took a short nap because we all felt really tired after travelling for a day and all the excitement of whether we will make it to the connecting flight and so on. During my nap they had received information on the whereabouts of the three missing luggage and to our relief they were all on their way to Kilimanjaro International Airport and should arrive by evening!
Then before dinner we met our guides and got some last minute tips and info on our journey up and down. Nobody really knew what to ask or what to expect and was eager to just get going. I enjoyed the day since clearly the climate is different and with all the bags and hassle of travelling it was a good choice to have a day on the ground before leaving.
After dinner we all went to pack our things to three different bags; one bag to stay at the hotel reception, one to carry as day bag which contained everything you might need during the day and last bag is the duffel bag which has all other stuff you need on the mountain, but don’t necessarily need during the day.
I tried to read a book for a while before going to bed, but was pretty tired again and knowing we has a tough week of little sleep probably ahead of us went to bed early. I slept OK especially when I took the duvet cover off the blanket and used it as my blanket. In Australia I remember there were three stages in sleeping. With the blanket (and possibly extra blanket), with just duvet cover and without anything… last one being mid summer and first one mid winter.
Anyways I didn’t really expect anything or hope anything from the journey up so I wasn’t really scared or concerned about anything going up, but a bit worried that how can family contact me in case something happens back home with kids for example. We had a satellite phone with which we had agreed to give a call around 4 pm each day so our family could pass messages and we could pass messages to them if needed so that eased my mind a bit.
I was happy to get going as it has been such a long time we have been preparing for this. Fell asleep in those thoughts. Did not dream anything (strange, I usually have more vivid night time than daytime!) and woke up well rested the next morning ready to head out to the mountain peaking in the distance.
