MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2009 – 88/56 – CAPE TOWN TO ARUSHA, TANZANIA
A 6:30AM flight calls for getting up at 3:45AM to make it and even with that early start, the airport is crowded with people. There are no less than five flights from Cape Town to Johannesburg leaving between 5:30 and 8:00. The only wrinkle is that the agent would not check our one small bag all the way to Arusha. He tells us we will have to recheck it in Nairobi. Our flight is away on time as are the rest of the day’s flights.
When we get to the transfer desk in Nairobi, the agent tells we should have checked our bag all the way through! Fortunately, the two very nice young men who help Carolyn out of the plane, assist us with our transfer. One retrieves our checked bag and helps us recheck it to Arusha while the other pushes Carolyn in a wheelchair. It makes the transfer much easier than it would have been without their assistance.
We arrive in Arusha on time, 7:00PM, buy our $200US worth of visas and meet our pickup driver from Kiliwarriors, Gilbert. The drive from the Kilimanjaro airport to Arusha takes a hair raising hour and it is probably the most dangerous part of the trip yet. It is a narrow, two-lane, blacktop road with slow trucks and fast cars passing through many residential areas. The road has speed bumps that will remove an axel if hit going more than 5 miles per hour and it is pitch dark. None of the homes along the way seem to have electricity and the residents are all sitting outside around one or more oil lamps doing whatever they do. Some businesses show some electric light but we do not see any to speak of until we get into Arusha, the second largest town in Tanzania.
The Arusha All Suites Hotel is new and quite comfortable, if Spartan, though they do have free internet so we check email and send a note or two. We order two pizzas from room service and crashed with our most difficult travel day of the trip behind us; WE HOPE.
A 6:30AM flight calls for getting up at 3:45AM to make it and even with that early start, the airport is crowded with people. There are no less than five flights from Cape Town to Johannesburg leaving between 5:30 and 8:00. The only wrinkle is that the agent would not check our one small bag all the way to Arusha. He tells us we will have to recheck it in Nairobi. Our flight is away on time as are the rest of the day’s flights.
When we get to the transfer desk in Nairobi, the agent tells we should have checked our bag all the way through! Fortunately, the two very nice young men who help Carolyn out of the plane, assist us with our transfer. One retrieves our checked bag and helps us recheck it to Arusha while the other pushes Carolyn in a wheelchair. It makes the transfer much easier than it would have been without their assistance.
We arrive in Arusha on time, 7:00PM, buy our $200US worth of visas and meet our pickup driver from Kiliwarriors, Gilbert. The drive from the Kilimanjaro airport to Arusha takes a hair raising hour and it is probably the most dangerous part of the trip yet. It is a narrow, two-lane, blacktop road with slow trucks and fast cars passing through many residential areas. The road has speed bumps that will remove an axel if hit going more than 5 miles per hour and it is pitch dark. None of the homes along the way seem to have electricity and the residents are all sitting outside around one or more oil lamps doing whatever they do. Some businesses show some electric light but we do not see any to speak of until we get into Arusha, the second largest town in Tanzania.
The Arusha All Suites Hotel is new and quite comfortable, if Spartan, though they do have free internet so we check email and send a note or two. We order two pizzas from room service and crashed with our most difficult travel day of the trip behind us; WE HOPE.
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