Day 4: Into Africa

Well... we boarded our little plane that took off at 3:30am for the first leg of the trip to Tanzania and it was the beginning of another long day of travel.  But, the destination was Africa (that's what we were all saying...sounds corny but although Egypt and Tanzania are part of the same continent, we kind of felt differently.  More on that later...).

Ethiopian Airways felt a little like Air Canada circa 1990... I'm sure the Boeing planes used were of that era, and probably purchased used from some Western airline years ago.  Everyone in the group seemed to crash immediately, but I was right next to the washroom doors and had a nervous nelly stranger sitting next to me so I did not sleep at all.

We landed in Addis Ababa about 4 hours after leaving Cairo, and with a clock change it was close to 8:30 when we got into the airport.  I'd read that the airport was a work in progress, and parts of it were a disaster, but for some reason, we felt more at home there.   We realized later that the sense of comfort may have been because it was so multicultural - there appeared to be people from every country in Africa, as well as Asians, Europeans, Westerners and people from the Middle East.  It was more like Toronto there, and it felt great.

The "London Cafe" was really great?  Hummm...no!

After a few tense moments trying to get to our gate (Kim's golden ticket to lounges and great "priority" boarding and security clearance held no water here - they were quite insistent that they knew the Aeroplan regulations better than Kim), we scrambled onto a gigantic Airbus plane.  Ethiopian Airways it seems, had a modern side to their fleet. This plane was headed to Zanzibar, touching down at Kilimanjaro International where all the tourists including us would probably get off.

Having not slept on the first flight, I was looking forward to a little sleep.  As soon as we go on board, the kids were trying to elongate the flight: "this is awesome!" I could hear - each seat had a huge screen and big selection of movies.  They now wanted longer flights?  I guess the in-trip tech ban was making their minds crave data.

I was now in the throws of full on insomnia, so I turned on Inception and watched it until we landed a couple of hours later...such a good movie.

We landed at about 1pm, and as we got out, we had to show our passports and yellow fever clearance cards (thx Dr. Wise!).  Luckily, we all acted as a team for the next part... we had to fill out immigration cards, line up for visas, then line up for customs before the hoard of travellers coming off the plane.  We got through in about 30 mins, and as I looked back after getting out, there were hundreds of people in line - wow, team-work!

As promised, we were met outside by a driver from our Safari Company.  We chucked our bags on top of the vehicle and got in while getting to know our affable driver Ema(nnuel).  We would later learn that he worked for African Scenic Safaris - our tour company - he wasn't just a driver.  

The hour drive from the airport to the town of Moshi was very cool.  We were definitely in a different world now.  The kids remarked that it felt a little like The countryside in Barbados.  What I noticed right away were the colours - while Egypt tended to have a sandy palette - buildings, streets, air, clothing - the people and buildings dotting the "highway" were bursting with a thousand different colours here.  There was a lot to take in, and it was filling us with a shit of adrenaline.

Our hotel was called Ameg, just outside of the town of Moshi, which was a medium sized town sitting on the foothills of the tallest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro.  While the now inactive volcano was quite shy (it was mainly covered by clouds during our stay), we had glimpsed it from the windows of the airplane just before landing.  However, you didn't have to wait too long to see references to the mountain on signs, tee shirts and logos around Moshi - it was clear what was the economic driver for this relatively well off area of Tanzania.

We checked in to the hotel in the late afternoon and headed to the local restaurant which was - sweeeeeeet - mostly Indian.  We later met Raj, a third generation Indian Tanzanian who owned the place, which was lucky for us.  The food was amazing.   The whole set up of the place reminded us of the open concept lodging of Mulu National Park in Borneo where we had had a famously good time.  

Amanda, the Aussie co-owner of African Scenic Safaris, came up and introduced herself while the kids were goofing off in the pool.  She was just as great in person as she was leading up to this adventure.  It turns out she had moved to Tanzania ten years ago with a charitable organization, met and married a local and started this successful little business.  We had found them through a cool coincidental cross section of friend referrals and Trip Advisor reviews, which was nice, but planning a very expensive adventure and wiring money to a remote part of Tanzania was still off putting - however Amanda's professional and quick responses sure had made the process reassuring.  It was great that she'd stopped by, and we decided to arrange a day trip with Ema for the following day to explore Moshi.  

My riding mate, RTD (Rob The Dentist) would have loved how tonight unfolded.... more food, beer (well, one for me), wine, laughter then settling in at a bonfire that the staff had prepared for us.  Kim had hit the sack early, but I was somehow getting my on fumes... I think other than a little dozing on the second flight, I'd been up for 40 hours in a row, but I was in my happy place. This part of our trip was going to be great.

When we heard references in the museum in Egypt to the political factions and how Egypt had formed, they often referred to "defending themselves from Africa".  When we'd told our guides or other people our itinerary, they'd remark that it was cool that we were going to Africa.  I guess I realize now more fully why they use the term Middle East to describe a set of countries that sit on the shoulders of Africa and Asia.  While Egypt sits on Africa with a bunch of other Arabic countries, the Africa that we Westerners have as an image burned into our brain from movies, books and stories is the Africa we were now in.