February 14, Tuesday

February 14, Tuesday        Happy Valentine's Day !

Rose early this morning, 6:30,  so that I could get a look at Mount Kilimanjaro.   Just had to walk outside of the Lodge Compound and a short way up the dirt road to get a clear view.   Quite an impressive sight. 

  Mount Kilimanjaro's Kibo peak (5,895 m)

   zoom of mount Kibo and it's retreating ice
   Mount Kilimanjaro and its two peaks

The mountain actually has 3 peaks/craters, although the photos normally only show the main crater portion.   I could only see two of them from Moshi (actually 8 km outside the town) at the Honey Badger Lodge.  Highest point is 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) above sea level for Kibo peak,  Mawenzi is 5,149 m and Shira at 3,962m.   There are fumaroles in the main crater however and scientist figure that molten magma lies only about 400 meters below the crater surface.  As you can see from the pictures, there is snow and ice on both peaks.      Pictures on the internet show the disappearing snow and ice cover from 1993 to 2000.  Between 2000 and 2007, 26 % of the ice cap melted !     Global warming is evident here. 

It was never my plan to attempt the climb; it would be too much for me.  Even seasoned trekkers have to turn back because of altitude sickness.

I spent the rest of the morning (after a nice breakfast) lounging around the pool until my 1 pm pick-up for the drive to Kilimanjaro Airport.   

  Hadn't seen any monkeys on the compound during the previous days, when I spotted this one outside the ladies room:   If it's a female maybe she's shy about going in.   If it's a male he's a little pervert !

  Really cute isn't it ! 
 and check out the stones the wall is made of;  same porous stones in the bathroom and shower stalls.
  And up on the roof were two mamas with their tiny babies !   They never came near the bar, dining area, or pool area.

One hour later I was waiting for my flight.  I was one of the lucky ones, my Precision Air flight wasn’t cancelled.  Others were !

While I was waiting to pass through immigration at Kili airport I noticed that the young lady in front of me was crying, so I asked her if she was OK.  She was from Great Britain and had done a safari with her boyfriend, then he went home and she climbed Kilimanjaro with a group.   It was the first time she was travelling alone, and something had gone wrong with her flight connections.  She was exhausted from not sleeping and just wanted to get home.   I asked her if it was OK for me to give her a hug and she just fell into my arms.  So I comforted her, told her that everything was going to be OK since she was now headed for Nairobi (same flight as mine) and she had plenty of time there to make her connecting flight to England.  I promised her I would help her with her connection at the Nairobi airport and that’s exactly what I did.   It was like helping one of my nieces, so it came very naturally.   When I left her at the Nairobi Airport transfer area, she finally gave me a big smile and a hug, with her new boarding pass in hand.

The flight into Nairobi was on time, but it took forever to get the entrance visa and obtain the necessary funds to pay them.  You must pay with either Euro, USA $ or GB Pounds; they won’t even take payment in their own currency !   The good news was that I had booked a hotel in advance and someone was meeting my flight to drive me into the city centre to my hotel,  and he was still there waiting for me when I FINALLY came through.  

The bad news was that the hotel I had booked via BOOKING.COM was “under renovation” and I was driven to a different hotel which was supposed to be “equivalent”.   It was NOT.   After looking at the sheets & pillow cases I went back down to the lobby and was lucky to find my driver and guide still there.   I told my guide O’sesmus that the room was not acceptable and that I needed better accommodation.   I won’t bore you with the details, but it took two hours and 2 other tries at different hotels before they found me something “acceptable”.   And I’m really stretching the acceptable part; I’ve stayed in better 2 star lodges !   And at $120/night it is a rip-off.   

Have not been impressed with what I’ve seen so far.  Where was the modern Nairobi you see on tourist brochures?   The Canadian Govt warned against coming to Nairobi since there have been kidnappings and recent terrorist activity (bomb blasts).  O’sesmus  tells me that the hotel where I was supposed to stay was one of the ones where Canadians were kidnapped last year !  I’ve checked the internet and have not found any information that would confirm this.   Will have to walk by the Parkside Hotel to check it out and see what it looks like.   

Won’t be spending any more time in Nairobi than I absolutely have to.