Amsterdam, Netherlands to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania to Arusha, Tanzania
It is 04:00 Friday morning. I am wake, Mary is sort of wake. Just ready to rock and roll. Excited about heading out later this morning. Our flight isn’t until 10:00. We have an appointment to go through security at 07:30. The airport is just out the window of the hotel, about a 5 minute walk. Breakfast here at the hotel is at 06:00. We will probably go down top breakfast at 06:00, the come back up and get our bags before heading to the airport about 06:45.
We are all checked-in with the airline. We are on KLM in business class, so once we get on board one can assume they will feed us again. It is a eight hour and forty minute flight and we “lose” two hours on the way. This means we arrive at the Kilimanjaro Airport at 20:40, Kilimanjaro Airport serves Arusha and Moshi. It handles over a million passengers a year and serves manly regional flights, and a few long-distance flights.
The airport was remodeled about seven years ago in a partnership with the government of the Netherlands (KLM). It has a long runway (12,000 feet) and can serve aircraft as large as a 747. Our plane is a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, so it should be a nice plane.
Once we land we will be met by a driver and driven to the Arusha Coffee Lodge by Elewana. The coffee lodge is just a little more than a hour from the airport on the outskirts of Arusha. It lays in the gently rolling foothills that cascade down from the ever-present Mount Meru. It is hidden amongst one of Tanzania’s largest coffee plantations. It is billed as the prefect place to start or end your East African safari.
We will stay here three nights. Relaxing and enjoying. We have a coffee plantation tour scheduled for one of the days. On the 11th we will fly on to the next camp. It is now just gone 05:00. I’ll go take my shower and get ready. Mary is still tossing and turning so I am guessing we will both go down to breakfast at 06:00. More as the day progresses.
It is with great happiness that we were at the breakfast room when it opened at 06:00. The Sheraton has a fairly good breakfast which includes a omelet making station. The cappuccino is machine made and not the best. We were finished by 06:30, checked out and on our way to the airport. We checked in and headed for security just before 07:00.
We have an appointment for security at 07:30 but there wasn’t much of a line, so we decided to just go through the regular line. As we approached immigration we were directed to a priority lane, probably due to the cane. No line here, right straight through. Then on to security not much of a line, but slow. Mary’s bags sailed through, both of mine got stopped.
Apparently nail clippers cause them a problem. I thought it would have been the Humira Pens and Ozempic needles, but that wasn’t the issue – it as my nail clipper. They are somewhat larger than normal so that I can use them with my arthritis. This double checking took much longer than anything and they checked nearly every other bag.
We were through it all before 07:30. We went to the KLM lounge as we still had two hours before boarding begins. We played a game of Canasta, Mary won again! By 08:30 or so the lounge really began to fill up. Boarding begins at 09:19. By the time we get there and get on board it will be time to nap. Knowing the airline they are going to want to feed us breakfast or lunch right after take off. Not really ready for either.
Ok, time to pack it all back up and get ready to head to the gate. Again, more as the day progresses.
This airport in really large! From the lounge to the gate was quite a distance. Now that it is later in the day there are a lot of people here milling about. There were a number of people at the gate when we got there about 08:50. They began loading right on time at 09:06.
It is a beautiful Aircraft. We settled in for our eight hour and forty minute flight. Of course the first thing they wanted to do was feed us. We neither wanted more food or needed it. However, I did have some tomato soup and a cheese plate.
The next six plus hours were spent watching three different movies and taking a short nap. My seat controls weren’t entirely cooperative, but it was still very comfortable. The flight stops in Kilimanjaro before going on to the Capital Dar es Salaam. It is about a two hour flight from Kilimanjaro, then a hour stop over, then back to Amsterdam. But the 787-10 is a comfortable aircraft so it shouldn’t be a problem, although it is a night flight.
We landed pretty much on time, 20:40. Just before deplaning the said that plastic bags were unlawful in Tanzania. Really? All of our medications are in plastic bags. We decided to risk it and work on the assumption they were talking about the plastic bags you get at the supermarket, not the bags we have used for medications and things.
We deplaned by walking down a set of stairs – the airport isn’t modern or large enough to have ramps. As we entered the terminal they asked for our boarding cards. It was a bit of confusion until we remembered they were on my phone. Apparently they didn’t want one continuing on to Dar es Salaam to get off accidentally and potentially get left behind.
We had purchased on VISAs online in advance, so we were ready to go. There were two lines, obviously, for those purchasing VISAs on arrival or those like us who were aware enough to purchase them in advance. Both were good sized lines. However, being SkyPriority we deplaned first so the line was short when we got to it. The process was somewhat slow, especially given the advanced purchase of the VISA.
By 21:00 we were treated by Lilia our Asilia driver to the hotel. Nearly everyone was being met any a drive so there were maybe a 100 or more outside the exit. Lilia was holding a piece of paper with our name so she was very easy to find. She said it was an hour and a half drive to the lodge.
The drive did indeed take about an hour and a half. Difficult to see much of anything as it is night. I can’t see much as night anyway, and the on coming cars and trucks headlights didn’t make it any easier. I am positive though that if I was driving I would have taken out several pedestrians, motorcycles and probably collided with one of the poorly light heavy trucks.
The road itself was a two lane job. Fairly well maintained. We did take one detour around bridge construction over a wadi or arroyo. It is just the end of the summer season here and the beginning of the rainy season.Lilia said they had not had much rain yet, but they were working around the clock to replace the bridge before the season starts. This was the first of probably many “African massages” we will experience on this trip. Thankfully I did have to try and drive.
Like I said we couldn’t see much on the ride to the lodge. Upon our arrival we were kindly greeted by the staff and checked into our bungalow, Number 15. The nice young man went over the thins here in the bungalow – coffee maker (it is a coffee plantation), fans, bathroom (both a bathtub and a shower) and told us about breakfast. We were given a nice coffee drink upon arrival which was really very good.
Honestly we were too tired to do much besides go to bed. The bed is a huge super king bed, comfortable but really large. In “traditional African” décor the bed is a four poster bed with netting around the bed. There is a ceiling fan and another one by the bed. Understandable as it is about 23:00 when we get to the room and it is 23 (73) degrees. Cold is isn’t going to be, although the young man seemed to think it would be cold in the morning. Breakfast is from 06:30 until 10:00.
We changed into our PJs and headed to bed. It was a quick trip to dream land.
Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria
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