After a day of torrential downpour yesterday (oh, that's why they call it the rainy season), I woke to partially cloudy skies. An hour later, the clouds are gone, just leaving some high cirrus clouds to remind me of the season.
It's a good day to start climbing Kilimanjaro.
Since it seems like many countries have only one airport, or several airports that only operate every few days, just about every airport is International. It lends prestige and procedure to what would at best be a small regional airport in the United States.
The security check was a disinterested semi-search through my jam-packed backpack after a brief puzzlement over how to open it (solved when she ordered me, "open."), followed by a casual pat-down that didn't touch anything other than my sense of personal space.
And done, I'm at my gate.
I have to take a holiday at some point during my mission. I'm in Africa. Kili is on my life list.
Those three facts combined to lead me here, about to depart on a flight to Addis Ababa then onward to Kilimanjaro International Airport. I'm climbing the seven-day Lemosho route. It's the rainy season, so I'll probably be going alone, but I chose the "lite" series, so I'll only have 3 staff with me. Three staff to support one single person... This will be very different from my lone forays into the wilderness, completely independent and self-sufficient.
But it's ok, I'm not looking at this like a backpacking trip. I'm looking at this like a vacation.
A tough vacation to the top of a continent, but a vacation.
Bring it.
