My Fellow Climbers: Louise, Jonathan, Sean, Brad & Jeet, I am in the black shirt on the right.

 

Precautionary Sign at the Gate of Rongai (Nalemaru) Route


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Starting our Trek

  Jeet, Brad and I traveled by plane to Amsterdam where we met up at the airport.  From there we flew nine hours to Kilimanjaro Airport and arrived in the darkness.  We were able to get a taxi and traveled to Moshi where we found our hotel and met Erastus with Zara Tours, who was very helpful.  Jeet & I went downstairs to the lounge/restaurant where we invited Erastus to sit with us as he ate our dinner and we both drank a soft drink.  It had been a long day, however we were very excited to learn as much as we could about the culture, other people and were too filled with anticipation to just fall asleep.  For my fellow compariates and I, it was our first trip to Africa and we wanted to learn as much as possible.