We left the hotel early and headed for the airport. I could hardly believe we were headed to Africa today! As our plane crossed over Europe, the landscape changed so dramatically. We left behind the spiderweb canals and waterways of Holland and headed south...past the coast of Greece, over the Mediterranean Sea, directly over Egypt, Sedan, Kenya and finally landed in Kilimajaro at 7:30pm. The sun had already set so there wasn't much to see as we were landing. As we stepped off the plane though, we knew we were most definitely in Africa! The smell is...well.. Awesome! I can't describe it, maybe it's the trees or flowers or the ground but it just smells like Africa!
After a very short customs process in an airport the size of a Safeway, Kim and I made our way outside and were quickly greeted by about 50 men holding signs with various names on them. It was a bit overwhelming considering Kim and I were the only people exiting the building at the time. Nevertheless we found our names and were led to an old van with no markings on it.
In the black of night, our van traveled down a narrow dirt road with the biggest potholes we'd ever seen (Kim said they're bigger than the potholes in China and India combined)! The road was lined on each side with 8' tall barbed wire fence (I dared not ask why, maybe I'll ask tomorrow). We turned sharply and a man who looked like he just turned up out of the bushes met us at a padlocked iron gate, opened it, them immediately closed & locked it behind us...creepy! As we drove through I was wondering if it was his job to wait there in the dark all night... Soon our lodge came into sight.
The Kia Lodge is made up of individual huts. This would be our home for the night. Our room had a few mosquitos to be killed INSIDE the mosquito netting (Kim is working on that).
And as I sat in the open air lounge I could hear unique sounds and rustling in the trees.. I can't wait for daylight to see what's making the noises! And Kim can't wait for daylight so she can see the view of Kilimanjaro that is promised from the lounge.
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