Went up to the roof top view point and
was rewarded with a clear view of the entire mountain for the first time! Snapped some pics and then had breakfast
joined by Steve, Emma and Sophia. More
hugs and good byes and off to the airport for the flight to Zanzibar.
On the plane, I met Sabrina. She is French/Algerian but lives in Hong
Kong. She also just did Kili and is
heading to Zanzibar to relax. She did a
solo climb (with porters but no other clients).
Not sure that’d be very fun.
She’s planning to quit her job opening new stores for Dolce &
Gabbana in Asia and become a full time healer – so there’s that…
The flight was delayed and thus my plan
to hit Stone Town on the way in didn’t work out as the driver didn’t have
time. Lots of confusion with the
transportation guy talking to the driver, then calling the hotel, then the
driver talking to the hotel, then back to the transportation guy, all the time
saying, “no problem, no problem” until of course, yes, there was a
problem.
So, straight to the Kendwa
Rocks resort. An hour and a half drive to
the hotel but one section was possibly the worst road I have ever
travelled! Pot holes the size of VW
bugs, cars swerving back and forth from both directions to avoid the seemingly
bottomless voids. The paved road before
and after that 5km stretch was fine so not sure what the deal was here. The last 200 meters or so from the main road
to the resort was just as bad if not worse.
Seems these high-end resorts should just all chip in and get that part fixed
as least - ah, Africa.
Still early, I changed and ran down to
the beach and jumped into the warm, clear Indian Ocean. The beach is insanely soft with baby powder
white sand line with palapas. Just what
I hoped for! After, I had the requisite
foofy drink in the pool bar, an Island Snow – vodka passion fruit, coconut and lime
blended with ice (yes, ice, I rolled the dice, but it turned out nice!). Faustin was my bartender and we quickly
become friends and I tipped him well for his services over the next three
days. Next I had a couple Kilimanjaro
beers and dinner then headed to bed as I have to be at the beach at 8:00am – I
signed up for the SCUBA discover dive and need my pre-dive training!
2025-02-08