I think we both managed a couple of hours sleep, we were hoping for more and whilst we had lay flat beds the realism hit that you are still on a plane and we had a lot of turbulence at times!
Michael took a picture mainly because it’s the closest to a straight jacket I have come to!! Nothing beats trying to chase the sunset through the clouds though!
We landed around 5:45am local time in Kenya. Getting through the airport was a task in itself but we managed to find ourselves another lounge to relax in ahead of our final flight to Kilimanjaro! 🗻
Despite feeling exhausted, we were ready to board our final plane to start our safari… and then we heard it… a 5 hour delay 😫
Deflated, we headed back to the lounge for a comfier seat with the hope of being able to close our eyes for an hour and have breakfast when we felt more up to it. Frustratingly, the board at the airport never updated to say delayed so we’ve had to keep refreshing sky scanner and Kenya Airlines to try and stay up to date. The delay was finally confirmed and we sat around for over 5 hours 😴
After some tea and toast, an attempt to nap and many chapters of my book, our gate was finally called. We waited patiently, watched them change a plane wheel (not concerning in the slightest) and then boarded holding our breathes until we were up in the air 🙊
And it was very short lived, 5 hours delayed and the flight was 30 minutes! No we didn’t turn back around(!) I think the pilot was trying to give us some of our day back!
The thought crossed my mind as to whether it was worth it, a 5 hour delay for a 30 minute flight – but it absolutely was 🗻
Little did we know this would be all of Kilimanjaro that we would see, thanks to the clouds that surround it, but it was incredible!
It was just the pick me up we needed after a long 30 hours of travelling, with only a couple of hours sleep somewhere within that. A reminder of what we were travelling for.
The original plan was to hopefully go to the foothills of Kilimanjaro, but both time and the weather was against us. Instead we started our journey to Arusha, with the first place being the Masai Market.
The market was breathtaking in terms of things that locals had made/sourced, you name it they had it and were trying to sell it. With over 300 stores and everyone wanting a sale it was also incredibly overwhelming! Every single shop we passed we were being invited in, a couple were pushier than others but thankfully we had a guide showing us around and explaining the culture.
Think Milton Keynes, on steroids, where every stall holder sells identical items, all equally as desperate for a sale!
Given the day we had had, the exhaustion we were feeling and the fact it was only our first day, this almost broke us – I would recommend doing it, but on a day you are feeling fresher and knowing what you are walking into!
Our guide was brilliant and we bought a couple of things from him – no spoilers 😉
We got back in the car and we’re headed to another must see spot, which was similar in vein but not in execution! Arusha’s Cultural Heritage and African Art Gallery – a must go visit from us!
Sculptures upon sculptures of beautifully crafted animals outside (we both said that YiaYia would have bought as many as she could have!), an art gallery displaying some beautiful paintings with someone even in the process of doing an oil painting.
Then the cultural heritage shop where there was a Masai tribe playing music outside and more items for sale inside.
It was a nicer shopping experience as no one was expecting you to buy anything and it meant you could look round at everything. We spent around 20 minutes looking around before we headed back in the car, this time to our first safari lodge.
We had, in Tanzanian terms, been treated with the roads we had experienced up until this point, with this 20 minutes being the first off road experience but not in an off road car!
We pulled up to our first lodge of the trip African Safari Arusha! It was mad how we had turned out of the city, and pulled into a hidden paradise!
By the time we had gotten settled in and went for an explore it had started to get dark, we were both absolutely exhausted so we had an early dinner (first in line for the buffet)! We were treated to butternut squash soup, I had braised lamb and rice and Michael had garlic chicken and then a mango mousse to finish – again the food was brilliant and we ate like kings – and we then went back to our room for the night for a shower for the first time in god knows how many hours and hoping for a good nights sleep!
