Day 2: Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro

Free continental breakfast of bread, jam, egg and sugar banana from the hotel. Hung around for a bit before heading to the airport.

Yesterday's comments about light traffic can be disregarded, as I'd forgotten it was Sunday! Today (Monday) is very different! Lots more cars, bikes, buses, bicycles, rickshaws, pedestrians etc. A lot more people hanging around, they don't seem unemployed but sometimes it's hard to tell!

The people here aren't that friendly but they aren't unfriendly either. We've been stared at a few times, but nobody is overtly hostile. Everyone is surprisingly well-dressed, most men over 30 wear ironed business shirts while the younger men wear t-shirts or replica English football shirts. Even saw one guy wearing a Sydney Olympics volunteer shirt! Lots of children in their school uniforms early in the morning. A couple of beggars here and there but employment seems reasonably high. At least in the capital anyway there's a bit of money around, but no doubt it will be different in Moshi. Most people are pretty laid-back lackadaisical, and patient. As long as you're not in a hurry it's fine.

Currently at the airport for our flight to Kili. Not sad to see the back of Dar but it seems like an OK place. Wouldn't want to spend more than a day or two here though.

The flight to Kili airport was very uneventful. Plane was only half full with mostly tourists. Bags arrived pretty promptly and our transfer man was there to greet us. All fears were unsubstantiated! The drive to Springlands Hotel took an hour - very confronting with lots of locals living in poverty on the sides of the road.

Thankfully Springlands was pretty nice, though they gave us a triple room, not a double room. And there's blackouts every few days. Used the net briefly and had a short swim before the briefing at 5pm.

Our guides are Hasani and Mika. Their English isn't great and we didn't get a great first impression. After the briefing and dinner we finalised our packing and got an early night. Very restless sleep though - some nerves and jetlag woke me up at 2am and not much sleep after that.Read more