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.
