I am going to Africa!!!!!!!!

 Last year I had planned on hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. COVID was the dream wrecker for that. It was unfortunate because I had plane tickets and a tour selected. I also felt like I was in pretty good shape. It was disappointing when it became a reality that it was not going to happen. Luckily I was able to make it happen this year. And it was lucky. There were some extra expenses because of COVID. Tanzania has a red do not travel alert form the US government, so that made me a little nervous. But everything fell into place and I got to go to Africa.

Packing is a long and careful process for trips like this. You just have to have very specific gear and you can't forget anything.  It took me around three days to pack completely. I am also a total over-packer, which causes some stress because there isn't room on trips like this for anything extra. I had a pile of all my gear in the guest bedroom and I would add to it each day. Finally I brought it all downstairs and started to organize it.

It started to look a little better. The stuff on the left is for the hike. All of that goes in one bag. The stuff on the right is for the safari. All of that is in a different bag.

It all fit into my bags. I had two checked bags and two carry on bags. So much stuff!

Dan and my mom took me and Cyndee to the airport. Our bags filled the entire back of the CRV. That's a lot of stuff!

We flew from Salt Lake to Amsterdam. That was a 9 hour flight and we survived! We had a couple of hours in Amsterdam. We did a bunch of walking and then relaxed before boarding the plan for another 9 hour flight to Kilimanjaro airport.

The flight from Amsterdam was awful for me. My legs were so tight, I was in a middle seat and I was done sitting. My body is not made for sitting. It was terrible and it felt extra long because I was miserable. We finally made it Africa . . . . . and then it took forever to get out of the airport. The plane was huge and so about 450 people got off. We then had to wait in a bunch of lines for different things. One line to sign a health waiver, then a line to pay for a covid test, then a line to print out your receipt for COVID test, then a line to get the COVID test, a line to get your results, and finally the line to get through immigration. There were two-three workers in every line. It took us three hours to get through all the lines and finally have our bags. Then we had an hour car ride to the hotel. Our plane landed a little before 9pm and I wasn't getting to bed until close to 2am. It had been a very long day.

But we were in Africa and we had a day to rest before we started our trek!