Week 9 of BZ Adventure

Saturday, February 22
Awoke at the Stella Maris lodge in Moshi for breakfast, packed our stuff and caught a shuttle to our hotel in Arusha for our safari kick off. The hotel is wonderful, and called the Outpost Lodge. It has a pool, wifi and a wonderful lounge. Steve, Lennie, me, Alex, and Adam all from the Kili trip are on the safari together so that helps that we know half the people already.


Steve, Alex, Adam, Len, and I enjoyed a pizza and coffee in Cafe Mambo and boy was it delicious. We then walked to town to check out the sites, did our laundry in the sink and waited for the 6:00pm meeting. Our new CEO (chief experience officer) is named Michael and we have more Canadians from Calgary and New Brunswick and Australians with us for the safari for a group of 11.
Michael had us complete the forms, gave us an agenda and we went for dinner together to get to know each other. We also played cards, drank some beers, and laughed a lot. I think the safari is going to rock.


Sunday, February 23
We got up, ate breakfast, loaded the trucks and were on our way to a village for a tour. It was in the town of Mto Wa Mbu, Tanzania. It was a banana plantation, sculpting studio, and painters. They also gave us a wonderful traditional African lunch. It was so yummy. The roads are terrible and so bumpy this will take some getting used to.
We then got back into the trucks and went to our camp site where we unpacked, got water and got ready to head to Lake Manyara for our first safari. When we arrive at the camp site everything is set up for you. The tent, mattresses, water for washing and a food tent all appear. You just have to bring your bag from the jeeps.

We left for the park and the drivers opened the roof in the trucks so you can stand up and we looked like real safari people. Right away we saw a million kinds of monkeys, birds, and animals. We saw so many kinds of deer, then wart hogs, and my favourite, zebras. We then headed further into the park and all of a sudden there were giraffes. 6 giraffes, 2 moms and 4 babies. It was getting darker so we headed to the gate when the driver got a call to come see something awesome. 5 elephants crossed the road and went up the hill beside us. I got some wonderful photos today and am so happy I bought the new camera at Christmas.

We arrived back at camp and the chef had prepared a wonderful pumpkin soup, beef stew, lentils, and avocado salad. He brought us fresh fruit while Michael the CEO debriefed us for tomorrow.
Our tent is huge. Much bigger than the ones on Kili plus it is warm weather so we don't need to be in the sleeping bags. You can even stand up in the tent so it's easier to pack and get dressed.
So exciting already.

Monday, February 24
Got up after a great sleep in a wonderful camp and had a shower. The bathrooms are so much better on safari - there are toilet seats and that is a luxury. Ate a delicious breakfast of eggs, crepes, and toast. Someone bought baileys so I had a cup - delicious. We got into the jeeps and headed to a Maasai village where the boys did the jump test and we did the women dance. We also got a tour of the homes and met the chief's sons. So many wonderful thoughts about their lifestyle but also so different.


We got back into the jeeps and headed to the Ngorongoro crater. We stopped at the gate, took some photos, got the park pass and headed through the crater to the Serengeti. On our way we saw so many zebras, giraffes, wildabeasts, then the ultimate...a lion waiting in the grass to attack. A couple of hours later we reached the Serengeti and saw more lions, elephants, hyenas, and then a pride of lions on a rock. 3 moms with 4 cubs so cool. We reached the camp and moved in for 2 nights. We enjoyed a dinner of potato soup, moussaka, cucumber salad, and mango. So good. It started to rain so we went to bed because we have another busy day tomorrow seeing the animals. We are pooped from the long drive, being so dry and dusty plus the bumpy roads.

Tuesday, February 25
Woke to a wonderful breakfast of eggs, baileys, and toast. We left at 8:00 for our first of 2 game drives today. Our goal was a leopard. We saw so many wonderful sites again including elephants right beside the jeep and then a beautiful leopard sleeping in a tree. We also were taken to the hippo pool where 100s of hippos were bathing. We got awesome photos of hippos yawning. We had a terrific lunch of BBQ burgers, a short nap and then back out to see another leopard in a tree. Our driver said that is pretty lucky to see 2 in 1 day.

We returned to the camp for wine and popcorn. We got wonderful sunset photos, a dinner of carrot soup, delicious bread, BBQ chicken and pizza, then off to bed to prepare for 2 more drives tomorrow and back to the Ngorongoro crater for the night. What a great day.


Wednesday, February 26
Woke up early because the hyenas were very close and making their weird noises. I quickly ran to the washroom and took a long needed shower. Breakfast was eggs, toast, crepes and fruit and we packed up the camp site and were off. We told Richard our jeep driver we needed more lions and a cheetah. I laughed because I couldn't imagine seeing more things than we had already seen. All of a sudden Richard said "cheetah walking" and there he was...a beautiful male cheetah walking along. We stopped for our photos then moved on. Then Richard said "lions" and a male and female lion were mating beside the road. Wow! We moved along and saw 2 more brother lions in the tall grass, a group sleeping in the meadow, and another male/female on some rocks and a male drinking from a pond 30 feet away. So many lions!
We ate a hot lunch of rice and beef stew at the park gates and drove to our last camping night. We are sleeping at the Ngorongoro crater. It's nice and cool here and should be a good sleep. We are up at 6:00am for the crater drive. We hope to see a rhino to complete the "big 5"; lion, buffalo, leopard, elephant, and rhino. I just wanted to see a zebra so my expectations are totally blown away.


While we are driving around we snack on cliff bars, mars bars, and trail mix that everyone brought. We also each bought a case of water and drink that so everyone is feeling good.
The roads are terrible and exceptionally bumpy! They call it an "African massage".

Thursday, February 27
What a night, barely slept because buffalo and elephants were in the camp site eating and knocking the tents. Scared the crap out of you the first time you heard them. Up at 6:00am for breakfast and off to find the rhino in the crater by 6:30am. Our driver said it will be slim finding one today. The drive down to the crater was nuts, so scary, straight down on a curvy road.
We immediately saw the elephants, lions, zebras, and even a mama and baby jackal. But then....4 rhinos walking in the middle of the field. It was unbelievable. We all freaked out. Not 1, 2, 3, but 4. 2 grey and 2 black. We drove more and saw wildebeests fighting, a mom and 2 lion cubs right beside the jeep, and elephants eating. Then Richard our driver spotted another rhino. That's 5! We raced to the other side of the crater floor and caught him crossing the road in front of us. It was the best way to end our crater visit. We drove to the edge of the crater and met our other jeep friends, stopped for lunch, and had a bumpy car ride for several hours.

After lunch we drove back to the Outpost lodge in Arusha. Showers, dinner, drinks and laughs topped off an unbelievable week.

We counted over 40+ animals seen plus the "big 5" now that we saw a rhino plus over 25 lions. I think the zebras and giraffes were my favourite to photograph but seeing elephants within 10 feet plus lion cubs was amazing.

Friday, February 28
Flying to Singapore and Bali today - long day but excited to go to another continent.

Week 8 - day 7 of BZ adventure

Friday, February 20

Hiking time: 3.5 hours
Total distance: 12km
Starting attitude: 3100m
Final altitude: 1980m
Habitat: montane - rain forest

We awoke after having a good sleep. Bed by 11:00pm and took some more Advil, used more bath wipes and wore the ear plugs/eye patch, plus it wasn't too cold.
Breakfast was at 7:00am of porridge, sweet crispy bread and eggs. We packed our bags and day packs for the last time and we were off down the mountain after giving our tips to the porters and guides. They sang us an awesome song that I had seen on YouTube that other Trekkers had posted, but I cried seeing it in real life.

No one could walk. Everyone was so tired, stiff, dirty, and just plain exhausted. But it was 12kms of stairs down. My knees, ankles, blistered hands from the poles all killed but I stuck with the group to enjoy our final day.

We arrived at the gates after 3.5 hours and what a joy. So many people there celebrating and they had a lunch prepared for us. It was delicious, and egg frittata thingie and we loved it. Everyone lined up to get their completion certificates and we got into the van to get taken back to the hotel. Yucky, so many people stinky and gross the van smelled but we all smelled so their was no now to blame.


The ride was a wonderful 35 minutes down the road and through the town of Moshi. School was getting out, people preparing for the weekend, and all the wonderful sites and sounds from a week ago but different now. I realize they are such happy and humble people. I felt safe and not scared. They are so proud of their mountain, families, and their culture.

We arrived at the Stella Maris hotel to a welcoming party, cold beers, and lots of stories. Everyone received their certificates (I was so jealous).


We showered, relaxed and met for dinner at 7:00. More laughs, stories, and exchanging of emails. Steve, Alex, Lennie and I went upstairs to played cards and got excited for our safari tomorrow.

Totals 62km up and 30km down

So many lessons learned, don't tell my mom but I am coming back to do the Marangu Route as the CEOs said I could do that no problem.

Week 8 - day 6 of BZ adventure "agony of defeat"

Thursday, February 20

Hiking time: 10 hours
Total distance: 17km
Starting attitude: 4550m
Got to 5000m
Final altitude: 3100m
Habitat: stone scree, ice cap, alpine desert

I was awoken by Dennis at 11:30pm, told to get to get some tea and be ready to leave with Baraka for my summit attempt. He gave me all my clothes that I sent to the kitchen tent to be dried. I put on tights, track pants, my Columbia over pants, t shirt, under armour dry fit, my running vest, Columbia jacket, 2 pairs of gloves, and a toque.

Since I was the slow poke, Lennie and the 11 others were leaving later since I needed a head start.
We we left the tent you could see up the mountain. So many wonderful lights going up path. Reminded me of the car lights coming to the farm in the movie, Field of Dreams except these were on a very steep slope.
From the moment I got on the path I knew I didn't have it in me. I walked and walked with Baraka but we had several steep climbs up the rocks too. I was so hoping that this whole thing was just paths and walking up but alas, more climbing.

We walked until 2:30am at 5000m when all of a sudden I couldn't breathe and Baraka got upset. I was warm enough, practicing the polee polee with Baraka holding my hand but my stomach had other plans too. I then realized that the further I went up the more I would have to walk down. It was 7kms to the top and that is 7kms down then you get a little rest and are expected to walk another 15km to our camp tonight. Unacceptable!!!!

I had to make a tough decision. If I continue up I would continue to become ill and then not be able to come down safely knowing the terrain we just passed. Plus, how do you expect me to have a little lunch then walk 15 more km to another camp?

Baraka and I had a talk and I told him that it was not be safe for me to continue since I am ill, my heart is still racing since Monday, my temperature is too high, I had the cold sweats, and really was wobbly. I can't hurt myself and I haven't been 100% since we started on Monday. I told Baraka that I needed to touch the snow and be at 5000m so he pretty dragged me forward for 10 more minutes, stuck my pole in the snow and he said we must go down now. I saw other climbers turning around at this point too be come down.
I knew Lennie and the rest of the team would be behind us and we would pass them on the way down and that would be upsetting but we turned around anyways. We met up with the team coming up at about 3:00am and I shared that I could not continue. By this time, I couldn't get a clear breath and my stomach needed a bathroom stat. I knew I had made the right decision. Hugged and high-five everyone and wished them well to the top.

I was so upset to put that pressure on Lennie now to get to the top for us but he was upset knowing this was my dream. We shared a cry and a hug and I sent him on his way. Their head lights bouncing in the dark like the other trekers.
Baraka proceeded to hold me up as we made our way back to camp, about and hour and I laid down immediately and fell asleep. He woke me up at 6:45am and said to come eat breakfast to begin the trek down to the next camp. NO WAY I must rest.
He came back at 7:45am and said pack my bag we must go. I looked at the mountain and could see many trekkers up and down the path. I wondered if they made it to the top yet.
I had an egg and some tea and left with Baraka for the 15km down hill.
I was so tired, my knees were killing me and my toes were squished. We got to some place called High camp where I had a nap on a bench while Baraka fixed my shoes and gaiters. So much better. We then spent 3 more hours hiking down to our camp through rain and a exceptionally dangerous river bed. How are the others going to be able to hike that after summiting?
I got to the camp and was put in a temporary tent to wait till the site could be set up. You can't set it up till the others have come back down from summit, eaten, and left to come here. Finally Penny another hiker appeared. She could not summit as she too got very sick, we sat and chatted, and tried to stay warm waiting. 3 hours later I got into our tent, organized my bag, changed into dry clothes and waited for the others to come back.

Believe it or not at 8:30pm the team arrived. I don't know how they did that final hike to this camp after summiting. Lennie arrived at the tent and completely collapsed. He said I would have died if I have just been through what they did. After they passed me at 3:00am it took them till 9:00 am to summit then everyone needed extra porters to come tot the top to help everyone down. They arrived back at base camp and were told to have some tea and pack their bags. No rest what so ever but Lennie and the boys refused to go right away as they were so dehydrated. Alex even passed out. Lennie said they were told they had a 3 hour hike to this camp (big fat lie as it was 5 hours) and more in the rain, cold, and eventually dark got here with extra porters carrying most people. His knees were ruined and got him some meds right away. Got his clothes changed and used some of our camping showered wipes to try to get clean. He then showed me all his photos and I balled like a baby. He also showed me a video he made for me from the top - most romantic thing ever.


So 10 of the 12 people in our group made it to the summit and only Penny and I didn't, people were being very nice not to celebrate too much in front of us, I felt bad because it was a huge accomplishment and they were being very sensitive to me and Penny.

We were called for dinner and I didn't want to go as I was so tired and disappointed but this was the last one together so we went. It was a delicious potato stew and for the first time in a week I ate something. The team described their horrible long journey and day and we all went to bed as we had to leave tomorrow morning for our final 12km hike back to the gates to get our van back to the hotel. Everyone can not wait to take a shower, get dry clothes, and be clean.

Week 8 - day 5 of BZ adventure

Wednesday, February, 17

Hiking time: 10 hours
Total distance: 13 km
Starting attitude: 3950m
Final altitude: 4550m
Habitat: alpine desert

Well I finally had a good sleep. Took an Advil, wore ear plugs, and my eye patch. Think I got 4-5 hours thank goodness as today was huge. We all tackled the Baranga wall which was a 1000m high sheer tower. Terrifying but felt great to accomplish. After the wall we hiked up to a beautiful spot for lunch, I was last and was accompanied again by Baraka and Dennis the doctor but I did ok until I sat down to eat. They had made chicken and fries but I felt yucky and my legs were seizing up. We were at 4000m and the nausea was still there so I didn't eat much lunch.

We were off again for the afternoon to get to base camp. A lot of ups and downs and even a flat area followed by sheer wall again. At the top was the camp that you could see, what a tease as they are much farther away then you think. I made it to the top by 5:00pm but it took me 30 minutes to get to our tent as it was far across the camp. This camp was gross, busy, dirty, lawful bathrooms, and dangerous as there were shale rocks everywhere. I was done!!!!!! I didn't even go to dinner. They brought me some soup and a bun and I knew I needed to eat it so I did. The mountain was just behind us but I was so tired, wet, and mad, I just stayed in the tent.

So then the worse happened, they shared that in 4 hours I will be woken up to attempt a summit hike. WHAT!!! I haven't recovered from Monday!!!! I have no dry clothes. Dennis said that the cooks could dry my stuff over the stoves so I gave him all my stuf and said I need dry stuff or I couldn't go. Lennie helped me get my back packed, water organized, and clothes layered. I tried to sleep till 11:30pm.

Week 8 - day 4 of BZ adventure

Tuesday, February 18

Hiking time: 9 hours
Total distance: 15 km
Starting attitude: 3840m
Final altitude: 3950m via 4630m
Habitat: montane semi desert

Awoke to the most beautiful site of Mount Kilimanjaro out our front door. Everyone who got out of their tents shouted comments of disbelief and amazement.

We proceeded to breakfast of maize porridge, avocado, eggs, toast, and delicious ginger tea to help with all the nausea.

We packed and headed out for a huge day 8-9 hours of climbing up to 4600m to something called the lava tower. I was given Baraka and Prosper as my guides and they were wonderful. I had a terrific climb and even bit the bullet when Baraka asked to carry my day pack, what an easier way to climb. I even was with the whole group the whole time and got to eat lunch with everyone.

We took off for lava tower and it was beautiful except it started raining, snowing, sleeting and eventually hailing - not fun. We rested at the top to acclimatize and then were told its a 5km downhill to camp - nope. Started with a sheer rock face decent which you could of died doing because it was wet and slippery, then another uphill then 3 hours of rock, water, hail, and crap to the camp. I was so upset, in pain, and soaked when I got there that I needed to hide in my tent for a few minutes because I was so pissed off. It's so hard.

I made it to dinner of potato soup, pasta, beef sauce, and pineapple. I was so tired I left, got changed, put in ear plugs, wore my eye mask, toque, and took some Advil.

Tomorrow is going to be brutal too. 12km up to 4800m camp for 8 hours of climbing then we will get to rest till 11:00pm where we begin our 7km ascent to the top.

Have had so many doubts these past days, wanted to stop, turn around, and just go home. We are over half way now so no going back.

I am actually afraid of the going down part because today killed my knees coming down from lava tower.
We'll see.

Week 8 - day 3 of BZ adventure

Monday, February 17

Hiking time: 8 hours
Total distance: 9 km
Starting attitude: 2980m
Final altitude: 3840m
Habitat: moorland

We didn't sleep well at all. Porters talking, our tent was on a hill and we kept sliding down, I felt sick, and Lennie was exhausted.

We woke and prepped for the day; pack bag to be carried, ate a breakfast of toast, porridge and eggs which was delicious, got water topped up and purified (I added NUUN to my water today for electrolytes lost yesterday) and used the toilet - disgusting.

We were off for a difficult rocky 9km - suppose to take 4-5 hours. I arrived in camp at 3:15pm but amazingly felt good. I was accompanied by 2 porters today; Dennis the doctor and Mateo the guy in charge of the kitchen. I drank my water today, ate some of the packed lunch, went slowly the whole time, and didn't care what anyone thought. The climb was straight up hill the whole way on huge rocks, across passes, traversing (so happy for my Utah experiences to prep me for this).

Arrived and Lennie had been there for an hour - he is doing so well but said today it is the hardest thing he has ever done so I feel better knowing that. Camp is beautiful, flat (thank god) and really spread out so we won't be awoken by others tonight. I changed into dry clothes and went to bed for a couple of hours till dinner. Dinner was amazing, pumpkin soup, rice, green beans, and a delicious chicken and sauce dish.

One cool thing they do each night is check your oxygen levels and heart rate. Everyone is doing well so far but we are all a bit nauseous, I keep taking my Gravel and that helps a lot.

Tomorrow is going to be tough - we go up 4800 metres and descend a bit to sleep. The trail is not rocky like today but long 8-9 hours of hiking. It's getting real now. They say we should really feel the altitude tomorrow but headaches, tiredness, and nausea will be normal.

Got some beautiful photos today of the trail, porters, camp, and fauna. After dinner we all saw the amazing stars in the sky and have a beautiful view of Kili. It is totally overwhelming.

Week 8 - day 2 of BZ adventure

Sunday, February 16

Hiking time: 8 hours
Total distance: 18 km
Starting attitude: 1490m
Final altitude: 2980m
Habitat: montane (rain forest) very rainy forest


We had to be up at 6:30am to be down for breakfast at 7:30 with our 3 bags. We ate a ton of the buffet stuff as we didn't know how the food would be on the mountain. Trucks were packed and we were all in the van at 9:30, quick stop at the grocery store for chocolate (porters recommended it so it must have been ok).

We drove up Arusha road to the Machame road and then 18km to the Machame gates. The drive was beautiful through rural Moshi with so many people coming home from church. We stop for meat at a local butcher who chopped it in front of us - bit overwhelming to see actually.

When we arrived at the gates we had to register our names and passports, got a wonderful box lunch of chicken, cupcake, juice, crepe, and a banana.

We waited and waited while the CEO (chief experience officers) hired porters (our Sherpas) and get all the food, equipment and bags ready. Took till noon and everyone was getting pretty twitchy to get going as about 100 climbers were there coming and going before us.
Once we got the ok, we we're off up the trail.

I'm not going to lie, the next 7 hours and 18km, yes, 18km were the hardest hours of my life. Pure up hill, rocky, pouring rain, busy with porters in flip flops passing you and I of course got overheated and needed to rest constantly. A guide; Joseph walked with me and taught me the pole pole (pronounced polee polee) meaning slowly slowly in Swahili and with my upset stomach, profuse sweating and multi stops, I was last and we arrived in camp almost in the dark.

Our tent was set up and we were introduced to our personal porter for our living quarters; Renodo, he was wonderful and got me a chair and water for washing.  I needed to lie down, changed out of soaking clothes, and took some Advil stat. After 20 minuted or so I had to get to the mess tent where they had hot chocolate, tea, and popcorn, I only drank the hot chocolate as I was so nauseous.

Dinner was served and it was hot cucumber soup, spaghetti with both meat and vegetable sauces to chose from. They had bananas for dessert. I only ate a bit of soup and just noodles.

I had not peed all day (totally dehydrated and didn't want to "leave a message in the jungle" so I hit the outhouse here at camp - the most disgusting thing I have ever seen so I will not discuss any further.
We had a brief meeting about tomorrow's agenda with the CEOs and literally all went to bed at 8:00 after purifying our water. We have a short day tomorrow only 9km but steeper than today. I had many many serious doubts today and used all my mental strategies today for the very difficult 18km. I will try harder tomorrow.

So far no one in the group has any altitude sickness symptoms here at almost 3000m.

Week 8 - day 1 of BZ adventure

Saturday, February 15


We awoke in Moshi, Tanzania (pronounced Tan/zania) not Tan/zah/knee/ah like we have been saying. We are stay an extra night at the Stella Maris lodge because we knew jet lag would kill us. We have breakfast in their restaurant which was included and it was a buffet of fruit, bread, coffe, tea, and a crepe like pancake or eggs if you wished.

We then introduced ourselves to as many people as possible to find who was on our tour - we found none but a lot going on the extended climb tour including a Dr. from Switzerland and 4 Canadians.

We then took a tour of the lodge and walked to the gate to see an 8 year old and his 2 year old brother with their 23 goats. It was sad as one was missing shoes and the other wanted to use the school yard slide inside the compound.

We then met some more people and enjoyed a lunch of chicken fried rice and a couple of Serengeti beers.


We went to the room for a nap until our team meeting at 6:00pm where we met our 12 people climbing team. Steve from Melbourne, Penny and Alicia from Queensland, Adam from Toronto, Alex from NYC/Hong Kong and 5 teachers from Coventry England; Daniel, Rachel, Sinead, Claire, and Alice. What a wonderful group.


We were also given all the paperwork to complete and route instructions. We ate dinner, went to bed after packing all our belongings into 3 bags; day sac to carry, suitcase to leave at the lodge, and the bag for the porters to carry up the mountain, tons of planning as your bag must be below 20kg and that is not much with climbing gear and all our 4 seasons of clothes.
We didn't sleep much as I think we were excited.

Week 8 of BZ adventure

February 7 - 14

We made it home safely from Florida and spent the week resting, packing, getting our shots, hitting the dentist, bank, lunch with friends, and getting organized. I even tried my new sleep bag to make sure it fits. Will take a bit of getting use to but I will be warm.


Thursday we had our friend Rich drove us to Toronto to catch our flight to Africa. We landed in Ethiopia and then transferred to Kilimanjaro.

We have a hotel for Friday night and then start the first leg of our tour on Saturday.


The vacation is over and now it's time to travel.

Bring it on.

Week 7 BZ adventure

January 31 - February 7

 What a week, another Norwegian cruise, this time from Tampa to the Western Caribbean.  Here is a photo of us with the 2 ships we sailed this trip.  Both were parked in Mexico for the day and we were able to snap a quick shot.  Both ships were amazing, similar entities but different experiences.  One was huge and all Europeans and the other smaller with many North Americans.  We will cruise again for sure as we loved the service, food, people, shows, casino, and island hopping.



Sunday - Superbowl on the ship with 2500 of our crazy new friends.  Lennie's team got killed but we had a great time.  It is so nice to have cruised before so we knew what to do and where to go.  Unfortunately, the ship was late arriving and the check it was a nightmare but we didn't care.



Monday - on the water for the day heading south to Central America so hit the pool and casino.  We went to the shows again this cruise; comedy by Second City, Tim Kaminski, Newlywed game, etc. etc.

Tuesday - landed in Roatan, Honduras for a day in the sun and para sailing. The beach was beautiful and there were fish everywhere! We got a great deal for $25 for a tour and day at the beach.  They had security, showers, and a bar.


Wednesday - landed in Belize City, Belize where we had to tender (take a boat from the ship to the shore) where we just sat in the sun and drank beer at a Canadian owned bar called the Thirsty Pirate


Thursday - landed in Costa Maya, Mexico for a day on the beach and a lot of snorkeling - we need to practice for our trip to Australia. We caught a cab and for $25 bucks got a day at the beach, open bar, snorkel equipment and lunch - good deal.


Friday - landed in Cozumel, Mexico for a day at Paradise Bay beach resort and we went banana boating. We had met some wonderful ladies from New York earlier in the week who had been to Paradise Bay before so we just caught a cab with them and had a riot.


Saturday - back on the ship for a day of fun and pool side.

Sunday - back to Tampa for the long drive home to London and wait for Thursday the 13th for our flight to Africa.