D00 Arrival in Africa

21 August 2011,


The long haul Egypt Air flight departed from Schiphol at 16:00 heading for Cairo. The flight to Cairo felt short and we were in good spirits. Once acquainted with the African airport we promptly sped to the transfers gate, made it past the man with the stamp, and made it to the international terminal of Cairo international airport in record time… aka The Burger King. This is where we had our second dinner and killed the few hours of waiting by thinking about what we were about to do. Seven guys, reasonably fit guys, had all consented to take on the challenge to climb to the highest free standing mountain in Africa. Uhuru peak, vowed to touch the signboard located 5895 meters above sea level. A feat that would take us 6 days to reach, a peak that would make for an epic experience, untold adventure and an unbelievable test of character. We had all heard stories, all knew someone who had attempted the mountain, all had a distant acquaintance who made it to the top, but we had all heard the “almost made it” or “stopped just below the summit” stories… We had our expectations, all had our goals and we would all soon see what was to come.

The next security check went swiftly and soon we were in a bus being carted off to our second flight of the day. Had our third dinner onboard, tried to get some sleep and before we knew it, we were in Dar es Salaam. The capital of Tanzania. There was a mad rush for the visa, once this was over and we had all safely collected our bags, we made our way outside. It was early, the sun had just risen and there we were... in Africa! The adventure had begun. We had many many hours before our domestic flight would take off to Kilimanjaro international. What to do... well what else but take a taxi into town for a quick impromptu sightseeing tour? It being Ramadan didn’t help much with the first impressions, as all the city streets were just about deserted, shops were closed and even finding a cup of coffee proved a true challenge. Only the odd Mzungu place was open. No matter… we had a good walk around and proceeded back to the airport. There we could check in and make our way to the gate, Precision Air PW522 was waiting. We were amped to get to Moshi.

Before getting aboard - Wout, Joris, Peter, me, Maarten and Floris. (Jeroen was already in Moshi).

First glimpse of the peak

The flight went as scheduled, everything was timely. At Kilimanjaro international we would meet team member number 7, Jeroen. Jeroen was brought to the airport together with the legendary Francis [Francis Makala owner of Jipe Trekking and Safaris]. The crew was complete! Francis drove us back and checked us into our hotel. The plan was to settle in and meet him in his office at 13:30 to finalise the details, make the payment, answer our questions and arrange for any additional equipment hire.

While looking for the ideal trekking company to do the Kili I spent quite some time browsing Google, and screening the Lonelyplanet and Rough guide forums. Francis seemed to come up often and after I sent him an enquiry I knew that this was our guy. He was reliable from the start, delivered on everything that he had promised and proved to be a truly genuine honest guy. Highly recommend him.

Francis took us to a small equipment hire shop where we could all get ourselves ski pants and jackets for the summit day. Also a place to arrange a sleeping bag and any other trekking stuff we would need but didnt bring. This is also where we met John, our leader and guide. Basically... you could come to Moshi completely unprepared but armed with some US Dollars you can rent just about everything you need. No problem. We were ready! One more night. In the moring we would be collected and brought to the Machame gate.

The evening was spent at a great local joint called Tai Mahal. Excellent food. (Our trekking guide) John joined us for a while during dinner. The day was ended with one pre adventure beer (Kilimanjaro off course) with both Martin (second guide) and John in a small local pub. We would be picked up from the entrance of Buffalo hotel at 9:30 sharp. When the lights went out it was 20:30… We each slept 12 hours without a problem! We needed it!